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.

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.

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.

Interview: Antony Beevor Fever!

Few historians can say they served as an officer with the 11th Hussars no matter how many long-dead army officials they have vicariously fulfilled their military fantasies through. But Antony Beevor is no ordinary historian. Educated at Sandhurst, he boldly left the army to pursue a career in writing without any academic training. He speaks to us about the release of his latest battlefield bestseller D-Day: The Battle for Normandy.

Beevor recently caused stir in the press by claiming that D-Day, the celebrated turning point of WWI was ‘close to a war crime’ but he does not stop there. He tells us a shocking statistic that he was “shaken to find” during his research. “More French civilians actually died from British and American bombing and shells than British suffered from the Luftwaffe (German airforce) and V-bombs.”

It is controversial comments like these that popular history is associated with and for this reason journalists love Beevor. He reveals that upon the outbreak of the Iraq War his phone was constantly ringing: “Journalists and politicians were desperately looking for grand comparisons to the past from me,” claims Beevor, “Tony Blair desperately wanted to be the next Churchill. Every politician wants to be the next Churchill, particularly Americans, they love him.”

It seems for the public, Beevor’s writing has been equally compelling. Indeed, he has succeeded where many a grandparent has failed, keeping his audience not only conscious but interested when it comes to the Second World War. Sales of D-Day within its first month have confirmed that this preoccupation with the wartime experience is not on the wane but it wasn’t always like this.

The success of his most famous offering, Stalingrad, was far from obvious. In fact it happened to everyone’s astonishment when history books were failing to sell and historians like David Starkey could kiss their Tudor television dreams goodbye. “We are living in a post-military health-and-safety environment," says Beevor, explaining his surprise success, "People have become intrigued by questions like 'What would I have done? Would I have survived?' It's almost like vicarious suffering I suppose!”

See the full in Seven Magazine

MK