A lesson in scarf tying with Cleo Ferin Mercury

cleo-ferin-mercury-11 One absolute joy of having our blog, is that we meet so many interesting people, including other bloggers, many of whom have turned into friends. Kirsty from Fashion For Lunch is my latest addition, her blog is great and she has tipped me off about some really great new designers, including today’s subject, the scarf designer Cleo Ferin Mercury, above.

Cleo is a young, super-talented print designer who is gaining lots of recognition, not least in Japan, where they love her charismatic print and colour combinations. It’s these personality-rich designs that make me love her scarves, from toucans to picnics, she has a left-of-field approach to design that really appeals. It’s like the scarves have a sense of humour and aim to be good company whenever you wear them.

When you’ve been buying stuff as long as we have, the chances are you’ve got lots of scarves already in your wardrobe because well, scarves never wear out, do they? And they take up so little room, the chances are they’ve mostly survived any clothes-culls you might have done over the years. Mine haven’t aged too badly either, I’m still wearing ones I bought in jumble sales decades ago. So I asked Cleo if she could help us think up some new ways to wear scarves and over a coffee at Duke Street Emporium, she taught me a few fabulous new moves.

cleo-ferin-mercury-07 Firstly, the three knot necklace, suitable for scarves that are around 90 cms square, Cleo used the circus horse print scarf from her AW14 range. Start with folding the scarf into a triangle, roll it up -tucking the end triangles into the roll before you get to the end so you have a neater finish -and hold it in the exact middle, where you tie your first knot – loosely.

cleo-ferin-mercury-04 BTW,in case you’re interested, Cleo’s very wearable denim jersey dress is from Monki and is currently in the sale and her sun glasses are from Tatty Divine, with whom she has collaborated in the past.cleo-fein-mercury-05 Once you’ve tied your centre knot, you move either side of it and tie another two loose ones, making sure you keep even-spaces between the three knots. You then secure it around your neck with a neat tie and hey presto! Scarf knot necklace!cleo-ferin-mercury-06 If your scarf is shorter, you can do a single knot in the centre, as below left, which looks handy for keeping more bouncy-fabric scarves under control, so it’s less  ‘howdy cowboy!’ and more ‘clever French chic’. I also love the headband tie, which I’m wearing as I tap this post out and works well on Cleo’s styles as there’s so much colour to show off on her designs.

cleo-ferin-mercury-08Below is a neat tweak on how you may already wear your scarf, by adding a small knot to each of the scarf’s triangle edges -once folded- adds weight and helps the scarf stay in place better.

cleo-ferin-mercury-02 There are more ideas for new ways to tie on Cleo’s website and if you buy one of her scarves, you get these lovely illustrated postcards -which Cleo draws herself-with hints and directions. The quality of silk Cleo uses is excellent and she hand roles her edges -as any quality scarf brand should do- using 4 stitches to the inch (small, in other words).

cleo-ferin-mercury-03 Non-fur wearers may like Cleo’s take on animal print, The jaguar scarf, which are very beautifully made, come in some fabulous colours (pink jaguar is def my fav) and are hugely popular, so a Tiger has been introduced for AW14. I love how the animals are made from double layers of silk, so the tiger/jaguar has a printed tummy too.

cleo-ferin-mercury-01 For more information, check out Cleo’s website, her AW14 collection will be up soon but you might like to know that a few of her SS14 designs are currently in the sale….very tempting.

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