I flew over to New York yesterday to meet with a couple of customers and have some meetings over the pond. I love New York, it is so different to London, yet feels so familiar.

I travelled to Milano last week with my designers Stacey and Ruth to attend one of the biggest international fabric fairs - Milano Unica. All the fabric mills from across the globe come together for 3 days of showing their new collections to the designers and buyers from every company you can think of – everyone from M&S to Paul Smith is there, so it's great to see some familiar faces. We were looking for fabrics for our Spring/Summer 2011 Collection for the Korean brand Cambridge Members that we consult to. We design a collection of formal and casualwear every season for them, right from choosing a silhouette and shape for the new season, to colours and fabrics and accessories too. 

Stacey and Ruth stayed for the entire three days but my plane was delayed for 5 hours at Heathrow on the way to the show! Very annoying, as it meant I only had one day to look around. We saw some beautiful blue and peach searsucker stripped cottons, lots of 'basketweave' silk or cotton blend fabrics for jackets, and washed shirting fabric were common. There was a lot of linen and linen blends for both suits and shirts, and some lovely bright pastel plain wools for suits. On the whole, Spring/Summer 2011 looks set to be a really sophisticated season, with daring pastel shades mixed with mid-grey colours and light browns. French navy and forest green are good colours to pick up for jackets, and in check patterns for suits...patterns are made a lot more interesting with subtle colours running through the checks, or really bold base colours. I get really inspired and my mind starts racing with ideas!! What a great feeling.

After a long and tiring day we had a quick change in the hotel before we went out to meet one of Stacey's friends from college. We went to a Moroccan restaurant called El Yalcout (http://www.yacout.it/index_eng.html) which had really authentic décor and food, and bellydancer who was dancing with a sword! I would really recommend it, if only for the brilliant cocktails (I had the apple Martini). 

The next day I had a meeting in the south of the city with a large internet company about a possible collaboration. I can't tell you details quite yet, but it was very positive... I'll keep you posted! 

Email Tim: timsblog@timothyeverest.co.uk

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