"In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different" -Coco Chanel





Monday 26 September 2011

My London Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2012 Favourites

Well it was a long adrenalin-fuelled few days at LFW, from Ashish's sea of squins to Meadham Krichoff's candy coloured lifesize rag dolls, Spring/Summer 2012 proves to be an exciting one ahead of us.
Many a trend emerged from the Somerset 'fashionista-laden' House and beyond including copius amounts of crochet knit - be it metallics at Craig Lawrence or in bright block colours at Mark Fast, luxe print layering at Micheal Van Der Ham & Burberry, cool blues at Erdem and Christopher Kane and pastel, ice-cream colours all ready to wake you up into Spring!
Below is a few of my favourites along the way:

Vivienne Westwood Red Label 
Celebrity central, you got the feeling that this was going to be quite rock n roll,  all held together by the Charity the Show was supporting - Cool Earth. In her infamous Westwood style, her show was a platform for "the important of social injustice and the urgent need to fight climate change". This idea was weaved into each look with bird's nest bouffant hair or leaf embellishes hair caps and tropical bursts of make-up yet the clothing remained typical Westwood of plaid and preppy. The atmosphere was electric, which the rock music helped maintain and with a brilliant charity campaign to support behind the idea this was ethical high fashion at its best.






For more info on Cool Earth visit http://www.coolearth.org/. Look out for the star studded event in November that will highlight this important cause.

Craig Lawrence
In the brand's sixth year as a recipient of the British Fashion Council's NewGen awards, S/S for Craig Lawrence interwove luxurious fabrics with influences from the British seaside. In a collaboration with Swarovski, the looks contained Swarovski crystal yarn and/or crystal embellishment on the garments themselves.
The collection's 'seaside' influence can be seen through the muted palette of beige, peach and creams, (think sand and seashells) that coincide with the shell-like dimensions of the way the garments were created. Whilst I thought the headcaps looked a touch on the 'Snow Queen' side, looking back I can understand this as a translation of swimcaps often worn swimming in the sea; even these were interwoven very carefully into the models' hair to emphasize the woven effect from the knitwear. To accompany each look were a selection of tights, socks and cycling shorts from print design duo 'Patternity' (regular readers would have recognised this name from a previous post "The Road to Patternity") in complimentary shimmering tones of rose gold.
Complex and cleverly designed, I am very fond of contruction techniques so this collection kept me fascinated throughout. Craig Lawrence remains the go-to person for innovatively designed knitwear.





 




Fred Butler
Fred Butler has been one of my favourite accessory designers for a while  "Sonic Sinuate Supertemporal Sequestador" - a mouthful right? Well it is the name of her S/S 2012 collection that takes inspiration from aquatic creatures -another trend amongst S/S collections- that shed their shell to reveal their fluorescent bodies. Hosted by superstar blogger Suzie Lau, this collection was brought to life by a technicolour rainbow palette in Fred Butler's infamous cleverly constructed shapes. Everything co-incided perfectly together, from the Patrick Wolf soundtrack, to the Sodastream rainbow drinks, it was a multi-sensory installation perfectly matched in mood, colour and sound.
I loved the hand painted silk, twisted and swirled around to create a dramatic 'shell' texture upon the body that could simply be taken off the neopreen playsuits and used again on other garments. Bright, brilliant and beautifully modern construction is exactly what I love about Fred Butler's pieces and this collection reiterated that into a new life for next year.
A real ignition into Summer, this was a fun collection.






For previous Fred Butler blogposts check out "A Women's Work is nver done" and "Beautiful Fashion Short Films".

Mark Fast
Wow! From the scramble of people darting to be seated, to the look of wonderment across people's faces who looked toward the glamourous effect the lightbulbs made at the entrance to the catwalk, this Show was destined to please. Great, modern soundtrack of dubstep and electro music took us through the motions: Cream knit floor-length gowns, every woman's favourite LBD made from sensual chiffons and the fabulous star-bright yellow knitwear and orange and pink two pieces, Mark Fast is your designer of the Summer! The 'tangy' fruit palette has got me already looking forward to S/S 2012.









Christopher Kane
Celebrity guests a plenty (that being Kanye & Sienne Miller to name just two), this show was ready to make its mark.
Seated front row I could smell the quality of the garments. First came the blue floral mosiac outfits, shimmering along - again metallics playing a key part to S/S 2012- to the most beautiful soundtrack, soft and almost dreamlike. Next came my favourite, the grey organza shift dresses and jackets whose sheer-ness gave a very feminine edge to these tailored garments. Appliqued between the layers of fabric were what can only be described as flower 'stickers' that made the garment more aesthetically pleasing and Spring-like. Embellishment was rife in his collection with beads and sequins playing a key part but in subtle pastel tones so to encompass Spring. This collection had an item for every fashionista, it was elegant and smart but ventured out of the ordinary with bold patterns ("Flower Power" appliqued stickers) and modern colours (metallics, yet subtle not gawdy).
A summary of  trends of S/S 2012 for me has to be this: subtle, not garish metallics, pastels, colour block brights, chinse luxe-layering, homage to the British coast; so get hunting for remnants of these trends now before they become too popular to find in six months.

Come February Fashion Week, I'll be donned in my huge fur coat, hat and fashionista sunnies to keep out the glare of the Spring sun on those icy mornings;  I'm not a poser of course! ;)

Monday 5 September 2011

Lady Gaga releases fashion films for "You and I"

If you are a regular reader of my blog you will have noticed a short piece I wrote recently on a favourite photography duo of mine - Ines Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin (see 'Loving your work). Within the piece there is an example of the shoot they did for V Magazine's Asian issue in May this year with Lady Gaga, and now following on from that  they have collaborated with her to product five short fashion films for Gaga's new single "You and I".
Gaga has teamed-up with her stylist Nicola Formichetti to produce a minimalistic performance of plain and simple dresses and neutral make-up (a far cry from Gaga's usual dressing-up box and notably the music video "You and I"). In the series of black and white clips shot by the photography duo, Gaga is seen prancing, pirouetting and posing in a dream-like state to the "You and I" song.
Whilst I look forward to seeing the next 4 videos and wonder whether they will be fantastical, outrageous or carry on the simplistic theme,  see below for the first video; what do you think?



Lady Gaga's "You and I" music video for your reference...

Sunday 4 September 2011

Latest Exhibitions: Corinne Day - The Face & The Apart London Summer Show

Corinne Day The Face Exhibiton
Based in the Gimpel Fils Gallery in Davies Street, the exhibition revisits some of Corinne Day's earliest photographs created for The Face Magazine. A magazine that was infamous for challenging mainstream magazines by setting "out a new editorial task of expressing the underground movements of the 90s" and actively giving focus to youth style, music and culture.
The exhibition displays images of the young Kate Moss that helped spark Moss' pathway to Supermodel status. Day redefined the pre-concieved notions of the beauty ideal at the time and was the photographer whose work with Moss went onto coin the term 'Heroin Chic' that then became popular and was used ubiquituously on catwalks and in magazines.
Freedom was a key aspect of her work and a stong belief that she could find beauty wherever she chose to look.
In collaboration with the Natioanl Portrait Gallery the exhibition also displays Day's 2007 portrait commission of Kate Moss (but you'll have to visit the gallery to see that one!).
Here are a few on show, it's truely worth a visit to see a piece of fashion and photography history.

'Heaven is Real'

                                       
Borneo 

The Red Hot Chilli Peppers

Only known as Rosemary and photgraphed for The Face numerously whilst the magazine ran, she also fell into the Heroin Chic category,  and was a very successful model in her own right at the time.

One of my favourite photograph, England's Dreaming,  in the exhibition.

This week I managed to catch the last of the Summer Show exhibition on Great Marlborough Street showcasing what I'd like to call 'collage' painitings as well as photography, sculpture, and installation from street artists around the world.
Unfortunately I wasn't able to get many photos due to restrictions but here's a couple.



Wolf & Badger Graduate Design Awards

Thursday 1st September saw independent fashion and design store Wolf and Badger showcase the Graduate Design awards and New Brands for the new season.
Amongst the summer cocktails, live jazz band and fishbowls full of sweets (!) were the unique collections from many talented young clothing and jewelery designers. Congratulations to designers Makiko Nakamura (product design), Gemma Land (fashion) and Birgit Marie Schmidt (jewellery) who won on the night!
My favourite jewellery collections were the 'Blingdini' Collection, Claire English, Bosco and Aamaya by Priyanka and from clothing - Christopher Waller.

 The Blingdini Collection                                                               

Aamaya by Priyanka

Bosco by Amber Torchon

Claire English

Aradia Nista
And a few other fabulous pieces:



Visit the store in Notting Hill : 46 Ledbury Road W11 2AB or shop online at http://www.wolfandbadger.com/