Take a dip—and leave your hair wet afterwards. Swimmer’s hair is in. Basso & Brooke channelled model Stephanie Seymour surfacing from the pool in that Herb Ritts photo, keeping it wet with L’Oréal Paris Studio Line Design Wet Gel. Guido Palau went for damp and slightly 1990s grunge at Jonathan Saunders [see above] and hair stylist Malcolm Edwards did a twisted-hair look at Amanda Wakeley that recalled a 1970s Marie Helvin. Whatever the inspiration, it makes summer a whole lot easier.
Bracelets that look like a string of Smarties, keepsakes hanging from necklaces and handmade tulle confections dripping from fingers [see Betty Jackson, above] – jewellery will be about wearing things that make you smile. Get thee to a haberdashery and go DIY!
Most peeps think that fashion folk slavishly wear what’s on the runway. Not so. However, what does emerge around showtime is what’s best described as a fashion week uniform. A great indicator of how to work the clothes for the current season [that’s Autumn/Winter 2009], London Fashion Week’s fashion pack were working Breton tops [see above], bare legs and er, ankle socks – obviously not both together.
Are flats the new heels? The message from the London catwalks was blurry. Shoes were mostly preposterously high, particularly at Peter Pilotto, Mark Fast and Bernard Chandran. However, when flats did put in an appearance – like the androgynous, shiny black brogues at Meadham Kirchhoff, and the Christian Louboutin rollerball loafers and ruffed-up Doc Martens at young talent showcase Fashion East – they floored it.
For those of you who have been swanning around the Georgian landscape of the new, improved, LFW, I’d like to take this opportunity to raise a cheer for our team of intrepid reporters, subs, editors, runners, designers, bloggers, photographers, illustrators and distributors, who have spent the past week doing the following to bring you, the reader, the news from fashion’s front line: Dashing from our pop-up office (2nd floor West Wing) to file copy in our press-gang common room (in the roof, scarily close to HM Revenue & Customs); scoffing our bodyweight in Wotsits (sushi for slackers); making microwave suppers; fetching more KitKats at 2am; working so late we bring slippers and pyjamas; checking endlessly complicated designer names (Kirchhoff/Katrantzou/Aggugini…); bombing around town in an electric car to ensure the papers are delivered to all the venues and stores; getting up so early we don’t see our kids… While it has been exhausting, rest assured that the sheer volume of news created every day is nothing but testament to fashion’s most inspiring capital. Three cheers for London; three cheers for the fashion week family.
Indoor Garden Design (IGD) is quite literally the bee’s knees of interior landscape designers and has worked on some of the city’s most eye catching projects to date. To name but a couple there’s the vertical walled garden at the Joel Robuchon restaurant, situated in London’s Covent Garden, and a silver medal winning collaboration with James Wong at the Chelsea Flower Show. They have also recently been commissioned by the Sir Elton John Aids Foundation to produce live plant sculpture in the style of Jeff Koons at the famed annual White Tie and Tiara Ball. So, when we found out that IGD were decorating the Daily distribution hut located in the Somerset House courtyard we felt a little tingle of Secret Garden magic. A match made in floral heaven!
Keep an eye out this Christmas for their live and magical jungle which they are creating for the forthcoming film Where the Wild Things Are, which is set to be the number one Christmas movie.
A great new venue, a landmark anniversary and the attention of the world’s press and buyers focused squarely back on London Fashion Week: there are a lot of reasons to feel good about the past few days. But more than that, more than the fact that Spring/Summer is by default lighter, brighter and that little bit sunnier, there is a new shared feeling of optimism among designers that is hard to shake. Read more
“Of course I’m here for the shows, but actually I have an equally busy cultural agenda, too,” explains make-up artist and Visionaire co-founder James Kaliardos. Read more
It’s amazing what you can find off-catwalk, lurking in the labyrinths of Somerset House during London Fashion Week. A bra by Yes Master, fashioned out of black feathers and inspired by the Edgar Allan Poe poem The Raven, for instance. Or the jewellery collection by Mawi [above], inspired by dynamite.
So will it be flats or heels next summer? Beatrix Ong has all the options covered. “Really high, really flat and ‘flared’ are doing equally well,” the designer told me, “along with the concealed platform.”
Shoe designer Sonya Parenti [see top right], who worked for Prada, Burberry and Dolce & Gabbana before launching her first range here this season, agrees. “You just can’t work the mid-heel with leggings, and they still seem to be strong for next summer.”
In the world of fashion photography we have the Steven Meisels, the Craig McDeans, the Tim Walkers and then, on quite the other end of the spectrum, the Scott Schumans, Garance Dors and Tommy Tons – a growing group of style lovers with well made cameras stalking the fashion flock across the globe to capture their brilliant Fashion Month outfits.
Craig Arend’s done it for Teen Vogue, Style.com and his own blog AltamiraNYC. Now he sticks to a steady diet of off-duty models, “They get the best reaction,” he explained, “Ali Michael and Judith Bedard are my favorites, though Judith’s less active now. She’s a great redhead.”
He’ll throw in an editor or buyer for good measure, “I prefer buyers. My favorite’s Holli Rodgers, she’s the head buyer for Net-a-Porter. Amazing style, super friendly girl; she’s classic, wears a lot of pants.”
As for London versus New York street style, “New York’s style’s much more commercial; London’s more individual, which is definitely more fun to watch.”
You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who disagrees.
Britt Aboutaleb
Grans and grandads, lock up your husky jackets, outerwear is having a moment. Our old friend the coat does, of course, make up the flavour of winter but this season London designers have played the cover up centre stage.
“Designers are especially concerned with jackets and coats this season,” Harrods’ Fashion and Beauty Director Marigay Mckee told The LFW Daily. “Bombers are the particular favourite along with the military style jackets,” she said.
Burberry based an entire collection around aviator jackets while Charles Anastase layered knitwear on top of overcoats. Daks took the husky and gave it an up to date, eccentric spin via leggings, capes and bonnets from the traditional fabric. Design duo Basso & Brooke weaved Trompe-l’œil goretex anoraks into their ensemble and at Aquascutum Michael Herz transformed tailored jackets into full-length dresses. Meanwhile, at Mens day today [Wed], E Tautz featured the ultimate in deluxe outerwear courtesy a cashmere fit for a prince. Luckily one [HRH Prince Michael] was sitting front row and was seemingly rather taken by it.
The make-up inspiration for Ashish was Eastern European girls from an imaginary country called Ashishistan.
The models had to look very natural, with bare skin, just using M.A.C Face and Body Foundation.
The only feature of the face that was enhanced was the eyebrows, using M.A.C Impeccable Brow Pencil in a mix of Taupe and Dirty Blonde, to make them look dramatically unkept.
Lashed were just curled. And on the lips Prep + Prime Lip was applied to condition them without any glossy finish.
The final look was innocent raw beauty with a tough look in the eyes.
Christopher Kane has become masterful at delivering a clear, concise message, season in, season out. This time around, it was all about tailoring. In wool, or black matte or patent leather – much of it decorated with vibrant embroidery – it was contrasted with lace blouses or lace panels that were spliced across skirts and dresses. There was a folkloric feel to the colourfully embroidered pansies and wild flowers that started out gently running up the sleeve of a chiffon blouse or a black cashmere cardigan with artfully slashed sleeves, or across the hemline of a skirt, and ended up dancing all over short leather dresses. Later in the show, Kane traded the flowers for crystals with glittering starbursts appearing on matte leather mini-dresses or shell tops, or circling a deep black patent cummerbund that cinched a black wool jacket with crisp patent collar. There was a nod to his homeland in the neat (and super-short) black wool kilts and a gorgeous black patent biker jacket with lambskin collar that was embroidered with a cluster of Scottish thistles.
If his first season at Halston was a distraction for Marios Schwab, he definitely didn’t show it in the strong, polished collection he sent out yesterday. He kicked off with a flesh-toned dress that was cut away at the bodice and edged with a waffly trimming. A series of pinafore dresses followed, all of which had a strict schoolgirl feeling (a nod, Schwab said, to being “the only boy at fashion school”), but were cut with curvilinear collars that dipped away to reveal crisp white shirting. Other jersey dresses were topped with beautifully cut, sculptural little jackets or pulled in at the waist with decorative corsetry. Schwab reinterpreted the dirndl, but there was nothing school-marmish about his full, short skirts and dresses that came out in loden wool, duchesse satin or richly coloured brocades. Later, he continued with the week’s yearning for embellishment, as crystals outlined the bodices of dresses, while textural coats in smoke grey or forest green, neatly belted at the waist, added to the plush, tactile feeling of this collection.
From the voluminous crimped hair and glossy Seventies make up to the upbeat disco tunes, Roksanda Ilincic was in a New York state of mind for autumn, giving us a super-polished collection that was, she said, “all about the beauty of winter fabrics, their textures and the way they can be sculpted around the body.” There was plenty of Ilincic’s signature cocktailwear, including a parade of killer charmeuse dresses in deep olive green, raspberry and smoke blue. A highlight was a pale pink charmeuse tunic that fanned into an air-filled cape at the back to a stunning strapless oyster silk column with a sculptural asymmetric peplum. But she developed her day wear, too, showing a beautiful charcoal jersey dress draped elegantly across the body, and a series of clean-cut shift dresses in black bouclé and charcoal wool. Some tailoring came heavily embellished with crystals and beading. On a lighter note were the sheer flesh-toned voile blouses and fluid pants, all of which were topped off with sumptuous fur stoles and gilets – perfect for a well-heeled New York city girl.
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