This week in London there has been a myriad of polished nails, but all seem to fall into two distinct camps: Tonal and Nude vs OTT and Embellished. We have seen beautifully elegant nude nails by Marian Newman at Jonathan Saunders, who worked with Ruby & Millie varnishes, contrasted with gold, spiralled “stripper” nails that were seen earlier in the week at Fashion East’s Nasir by Sharmadean Reid of WAH nails (for the purposes of a visual reference: they looked like curly fries). Backstage, nail technician Sophy Robson catered to both tastes when she buffed nude nails at Westwood, having stuck on “ghetto fabulous” falsies at House of Holland the day before. She sums up the mood rather nicely: “The ‘mannequin manicure’ shows how designers are embracing the array of putty and beige nail-polish colours available, so as not to detract attention away from the clothes. At the other end of the spectrum, nails have become a fashion accessory in their own right, with full-on design.” And therein lies the beauty – there’s something for everyone.
Report by Katie Greengrass
Knitwear label Sibling’s Sid Bryan has collaborated with the cream of British fashion talent from Giles to Jonathan Saunders, Jasper Conran, Gareth Pugh and many more over the years. The label he creates with Jo Bates and Cozette McCreery is one of the hot tickets at the MAN day. The LFW Daily grabbed him for a quick chat outside the Topshop ice cream van.
Who do you most enjoy collaborating with?
It’s hard to choose just one … Definitely Giles and I’ve also loved working with Jasper Conran this season.
What do you wear in bed?
Virgin Airlines Upper Class pyjamas, I have so many pairs.
What has been your greatest fashion disaster?
Aged thirteen I bought a bright pink jacket from my local market for a pound. I was like Doncaster’s version of a Pink Lady.
Snog, marry, avoid?
I’ve snogged Coz, I’d definitely marry Joe and I try and avoid both!
What your favourite tipple?
Well that’s easy, a hot chocolate from the Topshop van in Somerset House.
Twinset or game, set and match?
Sibling’s signature twinset all the way.
Sibling at Fashion East Presents Menswear Installations, Wednesday 24th, 12-4pm, Ground Floor, East Wing, Somerset House
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARCUS DAWES
Report by Chiquita Banana
Report by Julia Robson
The LFW Daily gets baffled by some fashematics
I know it must be hell doing the seating plan for fashion shows. Especially now that bloggers have to be squeezed into the front row. But something strange has been going on this season with ticket allocations. For certain shows I’ve been in row 2, others it’s relegation to 3, even 4. I’ve also been sent some ‘st’ standing tickets – always, funnily enough, in twos.
So what I want to know is, if you get two standing tickets, does that count as a row 2? And if I’ve been sent two (seated) tickets for the same show, both telling me different seats, can I add them up and end up sitting front row next to Carine Roitfeld?
We’re making a tripod and two legs are in place. Showcasing – London Fashion Week now creates huge exposure for British designers.
Sales – in London, Paris and New York – and business support. Now we need to help designers get the stuff made. Thus meetings last night with the shadow culture team and today over breakfast with ministers at 11 Downing Street, followed by the creative industries training organisation, Skillset. The target? A major push to build quality manufacturing in the UK. Gloves off, we’re getting serious. Bring on that third leg or the tripod will topple over.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARCUS DAWES
The LFW Daily diary
Ed Vaizey, the Shadow Arts Minister, last night brought the Creative Industries Network to LFW. We had an opportunity to tell our guests, who included the Whitechapel Gallery, BFI, LCF, RCA, Condé Nast, Samantha Cameron, Jeremy Hunt and Damian Collins, about our Fashion Arts Foundation and how government can support fashion.
It was a good opportunity to invite our fellow creative industries to LFW and to catch up with CFE, Blow, Fashion Scout, LDA and the Mayor’s office on the successes of the week so far. Last night, I found out that Michael Salac and Blow celebrate 10 years of putting together the Off schedule calendar for LFW this year – congratulations Michael and team!
Today, Boudicca showing in digital space, inspiring film, great to have them at the heart of LFW.
Defra sustainability roadmap update in Estethica launches third update on programme, 42 businesses signed up, all sounds promising. Primark named as the one organisation still not signed up. A definite gauntlet laid down!
LADY RARA
LADY HAHA
LADY WHERE ARE YA
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SHANIQWA JARVIS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARCUS DAWES
Ian Denyer, the LFW Daily Dandy, on a sartorial investigative field trip at London Fashion Week
The task of selecting your look for any given day is made easier if you’ve got an idea of the architecture you’ll be part of. Somerset House is pallid Old English white, so the gentleman arriving in chalky linens or a mushroom coloured riding mac will fail to make any impression at all. I compose my costume with this in mind and know I’ve hit the right note when, on springing from my gentleman’s dressing area, its vividity causes Helga the Lithuanian au pair to choke up her breakfast Heineken.
Swathed then in navy pinstripe, scarlet hoodie and two metres of burnt orange silk I take to the Bakerloo Line, musing. How will gentlemen designers working amongst all that Portland stone respond to the need to stand out and blend in, at once a foil and a support to their collections?
The Portico rooms are two floors up, flooded with northern light bouncing off a sort of miniature Anish Kapoor installation of silver balloons held down by sequined teddy bears and gorillas. A vast pair of inflatable lips grin across the western end of the room, the stuff of nightmares for dentists with an hour off between extractions. Squeezed between the two, the FW2010 oeuvre of knitwear hero Markus Lupfer. It’s wispy and yet structured, diaphanous yet solid, feminine yet androgyne, the sort of thing worn by the younger Japanese menswear journalist. More importantly for me, it’s all horizon blues, greys and of course this year, nude tones. So what is the creator wearing to blend in and stand out? He’s in a piano scheme, black cardi, black jeans, black boots and very black hair. Up close, as with all monochrome looks, God is in the detail – his glittering white shirt, from a distance so informal, is grained like an evening garment, though it isn’t one. Delicious.
In the courtyard First Fashionista Colin McDowell looks like the First Mate on a tramp steamer, chiming perfectly with the architecture and the climate in a duffel coat straight from the roaring forties. We discuss his nautical beard (mine is here somewhere, networking) and The Cruel Sea, and I’m almost late for the lovely C, Hussein Chalayan, below decks in the Digital Space.
No point wondering what he’ll be wearing because it’s so very dark. He could be in here, mingling, but if he’s wearing black we’ll never know. We stand about drinking champagne and eating yoghurt out of Kilner jars and wait for something to happen, but after fifteen minutes standing in front of a screen without so much as a slide of HC on holiday, we’re going to be late for Osman, my last chance for insight into what designing men wear at work. Fortunately, the LFW Daily photographer lingers a bit longer and gets a shot.
It’s just as dark in the catwalk show space, and in the twilight I find myself sneaking into the front row beside a spiky-looking woman who, when the lights go up, turns out to be my wife. Osman’s fabulous models totter out on jeweled hooves and sway off into the distance, a little bit Manga and a little bit bob-a-job in Baden-Powell hats. How will Os top this off, what agonies has he endured in his closet? Fashion black in here will render him a mere silhouette. As the last Manga girl exits, we wait for the final bow. And it’s worth it. There is black of course, but what leaves the most impression is the baby pink scarf and socks, not so much an outfit as an item of confectionary.
Who would have thought that it would take an Italian to bring Daks back to its great British roots? Taking on a luxury design house with heritage (115 years of it, to be precise) is no mean feat, but Creative Director Filippo Scuffi sent out a collection that was note perfect. There was everything you might expect – trench coats, grey boiled- wool, Aran-knit sweaters and lots of that Daks signature check; but there was nothing fusty about it. Scuffi was inspired by aviation, so those late-Fifties-style narrow trousers, slightly A-lined camel skirts and wool Bermudas were punctuated with quilted flying suits, sweeping capes and lots of lovely leather. Styled with socks and brogues, flying caps and freshly-washed windswept hair, it was all about clothes that girls like Alexa Chung will interpret and make their own. In fact, this collection should earn the brand a whole new legion of fans – those who admire the likes of, say, Margaret Howell, bits of Aquascutum and that other British great, Barbour. And deservedly so.
PHOTOGRAPH BY shaniqwa jarvis
front row at J Maskrey
The delectable Roksanda Ilincic welcomes The LFW Daily into her world in the count down to her much anticipated On/Off sponsored show.
“These are photos taken directly from the TV with my quad camera … we managed to make this dress for Florence for the Brits just a week before the show. Seeing her winning and looking so stunning put a big smile on design teams faces.”
“I am running out of the space in the studio and even my favourite cats are pushed to the corner with the rolls of gross grain ribbons…but actually they make quite a nice picture, don’t they?”
“The last few weeks before the show can be quite stressful so its always nice to find something that is calming… and what is more calming then a beautiful Dalston skyline from my window.”
“Of course when it gets to the last few days before a show, it becomes super stressful. So I like to surround myself with flowers to keep me happy and sane!”
Pictures by Roksanda Ilincic
Roksanda Ilincic’s runway presentation is at On/Off, Victoria House, Bloomsbury Square, London, WC1B 4DA at 13.30 on Monday 22nd February.
Copy and pictures by Joe Sinclair,
What Katie Wore Sittings Editor:
Katie Greengrass
“I love this photo. From the tag in the jacket, I’m led to believe that special thanks should go to a sheep named Dave. Paired with that aviator headband it could be the ideal uniform, should Wales ever look to start an Air Force?”
Clothing credits
Printed pants in Doodem Silk, Mini Market, Stand 36, Upper Embankment Galleries
Brown fur boot wedge, Mary in Brown Lapin, BStore, Stand 38, Upper Embankment Galleries
Aviating hair band, GOG-HB-10, Tatty Devine, Stand 42, Upper Embankment Galleries
Steam raw wool ivory Dave’s hair jacket, FW112003, Martin Lamothe, Stand 10, Lower Embankment Galleries
To mark London Fashion Week One Aldwych has given itself a make-over by lighting up the façade of its Edwardian exterior with energy efficient LED lighting. A multi-coloured rainbow will circle the building from dusk till 9.30pm everyday, changing to a bold magenta pink from 9.30pm onwards in a colourful celebration of the week. How very on trend.
Report by Celia-Jane Ukwenya
Image: Jena Theo courtesy Catwalking.Com
First the bag, then the shoe. What next for the ultimate statement piece? If the LFW catwalk shows are anything to go by, it’s looking like trousers. Friday’s opening instalments at London Fashion Week saw balloon pants at Jena Theo, tinsel wrapped sheer slacks at BodyAmr, camo bleached denim at Danielle Scutt, cut-out leather and velvet breeches at both Hannah Marshall and Haakan and a whole lot of “sheggings” (shoe joined to leggings) at Bryce Aime. At Daks, meanwhile, the plaid cigarette pants and husky quilted puffer leggings (heggings) had us ooh-ing.
Stay tuned for more updates from the trouser department, reporting from fashion’s front line.
Went to look at Robinson Pfeffer showroom at the LFW exibition space at somerset house. They sell Lucy Hutchings, Stolen Girlfriends Club and Dress up.Was pretty impressed with who they have on their staff!
bianca jagger by marcus dawes
PHOTOGRAPHY MARCUS DAWES
GRANNIES KNITTING ON THE NORTH CIRCULAR STALL
The contrast of Craig Lawrence’s film in the digital space with his mum helping with drinks and cup cakes and Orla Kiely’s home set in the Portico rooms yesterday brought home the breadth of British talent here in London. It’s a reminder that behind every designer is a support team including friends and family that pull out all the stops to make sure a designer’s impact at LFW is the best possible.
Intro by Katie Greengrass
Bespoke jeweller and prop maker extraordinaire Fred Butler has dressed everyone from the bizarre to the Gaga in her inspired creations. Over the next five days she’ll be bringing us her colourful view of LFW.
“So here I am tapping away, having sped home Annika-Rice-style to write up the Swarovski/VOLT/FTAPE event before my blogging carriage turns back into a pumpkin. It’s been a long day but incomparably epic, in comparison to some of my other friends who attended.
Both Hannah Marshall and Gemma Slack had their presentations earlier but still looked suitably spectacular, shimmering under the jewel encrusted lights. Craig Lawrence also pitched up after previewing his new glistening metallic knits at a film screening within the vaults of Somerset House.
Words and Photographs by Joe Sinclair,
What Katie Wore Sittings Editor
Katie Greengrass
We’ve been utterly inundated with emails and tweets after yesterday’s blog post. Thanks so much again to all at The LFW Daily for letting Katie pick out some of her outfits from the amazing talent housed at London Fashion Week.
Today (as always), Katie is wearing the trousers! David Longshaw ones to be precise. The rabbit cap is from Noel Stuart and the t-shirt is from Eternal Child. I absolutely love this one.
Clothing credits:
Blue trousers,
DLEE4, David Longshaw, Stand 2, Lower Embankment Gallery
Necklace,
KW4DL, Kirsty Ward for David Longshaw, Stand 2, Lower Embankment Gallery
Marbled leather and shaved rabbit fur Helmo Cap,
Noel Stuart Millinery, East Wing corridor
Mauve heritage cropped t-shirt,
1135, Eternal Child, Stand 33, Upper Embankment Gallery
Solid oak wooden wedge metallic peep toe shoes with hand painted tiapia skin inserts,
Twillight GD.AW.10.04, Heather Blake, Stand 41, Upper Embankment Gallery
Watch, Katie’s own
www.whatkatiewore.com
Thanks to One Aldwych’s proximity to official London Fashion Week venue Somerset House, the hotel has become the perfect pit stop between shows for flagging fashionistas. And what better pick-me-up than the hotel’s Fashionista Martini – created especially for LFW. Nip down to the Lobby Bar for this delicious cocktail mixed with signature home-made tonic syrup. And… relax.
