Sunday 27 September 2009

Fashion Fairy-tale: Vivienne Westwood launches Red Label collection in style and Coco Rocha kisses a frog.

Countless celebrities were in attendance for the launch of Vivienne Westwood's Red Label collection last week. Boy George, Nicola Roberts and Sarah Harding from Girls Aloud, Bonnie Wright, of Harry Potter fame, artist Tracy Emin, Geri Halliwell, Alexa Chung, Peaches Geldolf and PPQ Designer Amy Molyneaux all turned up to see what the ambassador of British fashion would do next.

As the guests found their seats, the music evoked a sense of wandering through the forest with Snow White; a faux wooden arch stood at the place where the models would appear and begin to strut. The lights were red.

Then the beat dropped.

Hard, pumped emo-punk set the pace for the quick-moving fantastical show. The girls, including pictured models Daisy Lowe, Eliza Cummings, Coco Rocha and Pixie Geldolf, appeared dressed in a vast array of fairy-tale inspired costumes.

Characters as diverse as Little Bo Peep, Dorothy (complete with Toto), a dinner lady, a school girl, pajama-wearing Wendy from Peter Pan, a cowgirl, swashbuckling pirates and romantic damsels who like hanging out in meadows stomped down the catwalk.

Headgear came in many forms: ribbons, straw hats, scarfs, hats with frogs on, etc. The most interesting however, was the gold horned hairband which suggested that the girls had been cuckolded.

These tales come from many lands and eras but found a happy coexistence in this show, just like in the imagination of a child.Besides, a central theme did run throughout the show: that of the modern Alice in Wonderland. Whimsical dresses were paired with plaited pigs tails; a checkerboard pattern adorned almost every look. A sense of the surreal was created. Scarfs were worn at once with straw hats and pajamas as with chic 50s style dresses. A model carried not just a plaid handbag but also a Costcutter carrier bag, as if she’d just come from the shops.

Further, the catwalk became a theatre. Eliza Cummings smoked as she walked; the models posed at the end of the catwalk – Coco Rocha kissed the frog which she carried. A match made in fairytale heaven.

This is a collection created with Sundays and the British countryside in mind. The British fabrics (tartan and plaid) complete this aesthetic. Nonetheless this collection wasn’t meant for lazy Sundays, but for the fantastical, the exciting. These tongue-in-cheek clothes are for those who miss the days when they could dress up. These clothes were designed for the girl inside the woman.

Katie Rose, German fashion magazine intern

Follow the fluffy white rabbit/ yellow-brick road/ticking clock to Vivienne Westwood's Conduit Street show room to see the collection for yourself. What? It is next to Sketch after all.

Saturday 26 September 2009

A Fashion Victim's Guide to London Fashion Weekend

The weekend is when the real action happens and collections from the past season go on sale. When we say sale, we mean SALE.ON/OFF at 180 Somerset House has been running independent catwalks, exhibitions and pop-up shops in conjunction with official LFW all week but it didn’t stop there. London Fashion Weekend has seen ON/OFF put on a designer fashion sale that could bankrupt even the most restrained of shoppers (75% off retail prices people). Check out our finds… Halifax Harold will never forgive you.


STEVE J & YONI P JACKETS, £150







KAVIAR GAUCHE FALL COLLECTION We found some light blue silk shorts with gold details at £99. We didn’t fit into them. We just thought we’d get that out there.



TATTY DEVINE ICONIC NECKLACES'S The glasses seen around every Shoreditch neck at some point or another were priced at just a tenner.



ELIZABETH LAU CARDYS, £75



PETER JENSEN JACQUARD BUSTIER DRESS,£90



The last day takes place tomorrow (27th Sept)and is said to be the best time to go as desperate designers drop the prices even lower than usual in a bid to get rid of their last items. Tickets are also cheaper on the Sunday at £12.50. Advance tickets have now sold out but if you get there bright and early there will be some available on the door. We have nothing more to add on the matter, we are too busy shopping.

Bernard Chandran, the fish hat man.



Bernard Chandran presented an eclectic show which referenced the Orient and his roots in Kuala Lumpur. The collection is all the more personal due to the unique printing techniques which he employed, such as spraying and painting directly onto the fabrics. The artistry and workmanship which went into this collection is plain to see.

His palette of gold, amber and brown, stone, charcoal and silver seem to derive from the natural elements of woody earth, cooling wind, still and intoxicating waters and warming fire. For the most part Chandran draws on earth and wind and then accents the collection with a couple of boldly coloured pieces which represent water or fire.

The fabrics of the ‘earth’ dresses represent the varying degree of softness to hardness which is present in earthy materials: from grass to bark to rock. The structured tailoring and the central print of bamboo cane are strong and modern. The draped, softer silhouette of some of the charcoal and grey dresses, ambiguously symbolic of earth or wind or water, straddle the boundaries between a hardened aesthetic and romantic dressing.

The accessories are more than unusual: bamboo cane print facemasks and sculptural fish hats provide a quirky undertone. Footwear was reminiscent of Geisha shoes in that the shoe soles were wooden and elevated. Other shoes were feathered or patent leather.

Ultimately Chandran mixes structured silhouettes and fluid fabrics to experiment with the limits of the human body. The textures, prints and fabrics used in this collection frame and extend the human form into something at once guarded and free. The accessories a defiant leap into exotic waters.

Katie Rose
Lesson in Cool: You know when you think you've lost your glasses and then you find them on your head. Trend-setters are just like that but instead of finding their glasses, they find Nemo.

Thursday 24 September 2009

Good Palmer Karma: Alice Palmer at Vauxhall Fashion Scout. The beautiful Katie Rose reports...



At Vauxhall Fashion Scout during London Fashion Week, Alice Palmer presented us with a simple but majestic collection. Highlighting the softness of the fabrics Palmer adorned the dresses with chainmail jewellery by Fanni Shciavoni. Such juxtaposition plays a central role in this collection.


Palmer’s inspiration comes from the fantastical and flamboyant hotels of Las Vegas. Structurally the dresses are, on the one hand, as strong and sharply-tailored as the American skyscrapers and casinos. The model’s high-piled hair further mirrored this stature.

On the other hand, in this collection there are also free-flowing loose pieces which look as if they’ve been haphazardly draped and hacked at. Enormous slits and layered materials give a romantic impression, which is just as modern as it is futuristic.

It also seems that the palette draws on and juxtaposes the glaring colours of the Vegas lights and the gloomy charcoal hues of Vegas buildings. Light sumptuous blues stand out from the muted greys. The block colours are simple but elegant.

This collection is more about unique tailoring and opulent colours than pattern or accessories. The minimalistic collection treats us to a highly modern portayal of subtle but sophisticated dressing. As such, the clothes are extremely wearable, precisely because these dresses speak for themselves.

Katie Rose

IN SHORT: The Empire State Building is fit.

Sunday 20 September 2009

Fash.ON: London Fashion Week Report

While plebs anticipate the winter weather, fashionistas are in a time zone of their own. On Friday we switched our clocks to 'fashion time' and looked a season ahead. Here is what's in store(s) for Spring/Summer 2010.

Fin-friendly fashion:
The London Fashion Week exhibition has MAJORLY focused on ethical style. As with everything, fashion types like to get creative with the way they help the environment. Our personal favourite was exhibitor Minimarket. Sisters Sofie, Pernilla and Jenifer Elvestedt first hit the fashion scene by storm when Swedish Elle and H&M crowned them ‘Best Designer of the Year’ in 2007. 2010 will see the Minimarket label grow with the launch of their diffusion brand, Mini. It will also see them , erm, saving the sharks . Their more expensive Mini for Many line, inspired by an aquarium (!?) features a printed tee with the image of a shark. The shark shirt, illustrated by Annelie Carlstrom, was designed especially to raise awareness and funds. Mini for Many aims to continue their good work by helping a new cause each season.

And on the eighth day, God made jeans...
Ethical British jeans company Made in Heaven have always been masters of effortless chic. This Spring/Summer, expect some lightweight boyfriend shirts, slimming stripes and rolled-up jeans...on Jessica Alba, Claudia Schiffer and Liv Tyler.


OUR PICKS:
Missoma Coma? No? Okay...
And so the animal theme continues with jewellers Missoma and their ‘Serpent’ collection. Golden snakes curl around colourful gemstones this Spring/Summer…

Indie Cindy-One to Watch
The ethical designer Ada Zanditon is the creative genius behind Patrick Wolf’s tour wardrobe. Last year the former intern of Alexander McQueen, launched her own luxury ethical label. This year, her strange sculptural creations rocked the Vauxhall Fashion Scout catwalk.

Erickson Beamon
Retrospectively, resurrecting the choker in the '90s was a bad idea on the part of New York ‘Studio 54’ socialites Karen Erickson and Vicki Beamon. Luckily, fashion disasters of the last decade well and truly buried, the brand has created some truly TIMELESS pieces for next season.

ROUND UP:
Be fashionable next year by saving some sharks, loving on animals and avoiding chokers.