THE WEEK IN FASHION: 23rd- 27th JANUARY

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

The world of fashion is racing ahead at full throttle right now; menswear and couture are just done and February is just around the corner which means we're on countdown to the big four fashion weeks. And that all means there's plenty of fashion news to let you know about...

E.Tautz- one to watch at the menswear shows (image from sharpened lead.com)

News from the British Fashion Council: London is to have its very own mini menswear fashion week. The June dates precede the established shows in Milan and Paris. The change also makes commercial sense because it ties into the calendar for buyers. We're glad to see menswear getting its own moment in the spotlight rather than seeming like an afterthought to womenswear (until now, London Fashion Week had a men's day tagged on the end). It makes perfect sense too; London being the home of Savile Row- the ultimate menswear shopping destination.

Michelle Obama at this week's State of the Union address (image from guardian.co,uk)

At this week's State of the Union address, Michelle Obama continued her rather impressive track record on occasion appropriate dressing with a Barbara Tfank sapphire blue dress. However, one blogger on the French Elle website took the opportunity to write an article which argued that the Obamas have enabled black style to move from 'street wear' to 'chic'. Naturally, a row ensued which quite understandably accused the publication of racist leanings. Apparently, the article, which has now been taken down, was 'misinterpreted'. We would just like to point out that Michelle Obama is not the world's first chic black woman. See below, The Supremes, as a starting point.

image from www.sweetlyrics.com

LVMH announced this week that the Celine AW12 show will be scaled back due to Phoebe Philo's pregnancy- she'll be eight months gone by the time of the show on March 4th. Instead, there will probably be a presentation at the same time which is deemed a more manageable task than the full-blown runway affair. Vanessa Friedman at the FT sees this decision as emblematic of a new attitude to designers; 'the Celine move marks a conscious decision to choose the designer over possible marketing returns from the runway pictures'. In a post-Galliano age, designers might finally be recognised as human beings, as well as talented makers of profit earning collections.

Philo's Mum and Dad were at her SS12 show (image from catwalking.com)

Sienna and Savannah Miller have called it a day on their roles as Creative Directors at twenty8twelve, the label they started six years ago and which is named after Sienna's birthday. It looks like the sisters probably haven't had too much to do with the design process for some time, even though Savannah is highly qualified, having studied at Central St. Martins. Nish Soneji, the Pepe Managing Director which owns the label, told Drapers 'We never intended to be a celebrity brand and we remain confident of our DNA'. Don't expect much change at the London show in a few weeks then.

Sienna and Savannah (www.dirklinder.com)

OUTFIT OF THE WEEK: Miss Piggy in Giles at last night's premiere of the new Muppets film. Giles commented 'She's the biggest diva we've ever worked with'.

Fab! (image from graziadaily.co.uk)

LANA DEL REY for JOHNNY BLUEEYES

Posted by Melanie Rickey, Fashion Editor at Large

I've been getting Tweets from people thanking me for turning them onto Lana Del Ray, and she is a love at first listen kinda artist. That's certainly how I felt when I heard Video Games for the first time at Christopher Kane's Spring 2012 show, and then even more when I watched her on Jools Holland in October.

The buzz and hype around Lana has been non-stop since around the time of a post I did back in October 2011. Oddly enough the post I refer to above actually caused one of her publicists to call a colleague of mine and meanly shout at her down the phone. Now the story of Lana Del Ray and how she changed her image is part of why she is famous, and her story is not complete without some mention of it. Some journalists exercise their intellectual muscle on the not-so-modern construct of the performer as alter-ego; others "smell a rat" and question authenticity.  To my mind the only fact that matters is that Lana is a great artist, and extremely beautiful with it.

As weeks go by, and more images of her appear across media, I'm finding I love her look and styling, when at first it jarred.  But, you know, that's the trick of great styling and great fashion collections; if it looks a bit odd at first, or feels jarring to the eye then give it a few months and it will become fabulous.

This is the case with me.  I love the way Lana looks like a triple cross between a sultry Hollywood starlet, an angsty gangsta teenager, and a fetish nurse. After deciding I loved her style, I had to find out who was styling her, reasoning I probably knew of or knew the person. I was right! Step forward Johnny Blueeyes! A few years ago I wrote about Johnny in Grazia. He was my NBF for a few weeks, we chatted too much on the phone, and he came into the office especially to give me a T-Shirt he had created for the fashion show of his label House of Blueeyes which Kate Moss had spontaneously jumped up from her seat and modelled in...

Johnny Blueeyes work with Lana Del Ray

Johnny is a true creative and total free spirit. He's as un-corporate as it is possible to be, extremely flamboyant, but also kind and warm and all about the underdog and the marginalised in society. Lady Gaga (who he has worked with - as well as Ana Matronic and Beth Ditto) could have borrowed her marketing spin from him. It makes me happy that he is working with Lana Del Ray; I adore that she chose him.  Knowing they work together makes me like her even more as Johnny only works with properly edgy talent. 

I wanted to chat with Johnny for this post, but he is on tour with Lana and cannot be contacted. Need to know facts are that he has one of the best vintage collections in London and that Johnny is also the Creative Director of fashion, art and music collective the House of Blueeyes, where he works alongside his fellow designers creating exquisite one-off pieces by special commission. 

Hopefully I'll be able to share some of his latest projects with you soon. Meanwhile, I leave you with a couple of Johnny Blueeyes youtube's. One of him and Beth Ditto, the other of him talking to a journalist about his work and ethos.

Heeerrrre's Johnny!

In this film Johnny talks about his creative ethos, and dispenses advise on how to get on in the fashion industry. "Make your own world". 

SH*T FASHION GIRLS SAY

Posted by Melanie Rickey, Fashion Editor at Large


Do you recognise yourself in this?



Or maybe this one is more #totesamaze?

SHOW & TELL: NEOPRENE + SCUBA FOR SS12

Posted by Melanie Rickey, Fashion Editor at Large

For Spring even distinctly non-sporty clothes are looking very sporty. The main reason for this - apart from this so-called "Olympics Fever" which I'm not buying into - is designers' increasing use of neoprene, the foamed synthetic rubber initially developed by DuPont in 1930, doubled with the general scuba/surf wear aesthetic adopted by high fashion designers. Last week, a Preen scuba styled tropical floral yellow shift dress dived in and swam straight out of stock from My-Wardrobe.com, and its PR Lauren Stevenson told me today that "scuba" and "neoprene" were within their top five searches on the site this week. This came after my great friend Nadia Jones, herself a fashion designer and the sister of Louis Vuitton's Kim Jones, made me jealous with her black neoprene coat from the No:21 collection by Alessandro Dell'Acqua. Then, I recalled seeing neoprene topped riding boots from Hermes in Paris, a pair of neoprene sandals from Jimmy Choo, the Pierre Hardy colleciton is neoprene heavy and the whole of the McQ Spring collection is scuba inspired...

Jimmy Choo neoprene sandals, £495 Net-a-Porter.com

McQ scuba top £150  Net-a-porter.com 

Pierre Hardy neoprene and leather rucksack £1,135 Brownsfashion.com

This all made me think of one of my favourite Spring/Summer 2012 shows by Peter Pilotto and Christopher de Vos for their Peter Pilotto label at London Fashion Week. After the show I was straight backstage to say congratulations and to mug the designers for a quote or two. Neoprene came up then too, in connection with the designers' special collaboration with former stylist turned swimwear designer and now luxury neoprene expert, Lisa Marie Fernandez. But it wasn't until attending the Starworks London press day a couple of months later that I had a chance to speak to Peter and Lisa Marie in depth about the collection, and their collaboration.

Peter Pilotto with his collection (photo: fashion editor at large) 

First, Peter talked me through a holiday he and Christopher had taken in Indonesia that ran the gamut from hiking through jungle for days, and ended up in a fairly swank hotel for the weekend. Upon their return, inspiration was translated into truly exquisite and intricate tropical prints that feel like close-ups of palm leaves and magnified jungle details. At a certain point in the collection the florals of the collection go from artistic to cartoon... "we wanted something added to the collection, a surf or scuba element, that toughened up the silhouette and gave it a point of difference. I remembered meeting Lisa Marie, and we took it from there."

The Lisa Marie Fernandez/Peter Pilotto neoprene pieces at London Fashion Week (photo: Jason Lloyd Evans)   

When I chatted to New Yorker Lisa-Marie Fernandez, a divine creature with a body that hasn't seen a carbohydrate in years, she was showing her own swimwear collection and as well as sharing her experiences of working on the Peter Pilotto project. First up though, was a discussion on neoprene, a fabric traditionally used in wetsuits, bottle coolers, laptop bags and treasured for its waterproof, creaseproof and protective qualities. Fernandez explained she is working with a new kind of more luxurious fashion-friendly neoprene, and has been teaching the factory workers who normally make wetsuits for surf brands, how to create her swimwear. "It is a huuuuge learning curve for them,"she said half smiling and half grimacing. The designer is definitely onto something, and I think we will seeing a lot more of her in the coming months. None of the individual pieces were available to be photographed, due to them being on an exclusive to one of the Vogues. 

The Pilotto/Fernandez collaboration is due to arrive at Matches any day now.. I for one can't wait for the "Farrah" one of Lisa Marie's signature swimsuits in a Pilotto print. 

A Lisa Marie Fernandez neoprene bikini (photo: fashion editor at large) 

The Farrah swimsuit £315 by Lisa Marie Fernandez on net-a-porter (more stock on its way)

FLY AWAY TO... CHANEL COUTURE

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

It's a miserable, showery January day here in London. I'm about to face the rain to get home. Oh! How I wish a Chanel jet plane were waiting to whisk me away. Today, lucky fashion editors not only got to be in Paris but were also admitted aboard Karl Lagerfeld's couture flight of fancy; the Grand Palais had been transformed into a very chic aeroplane. It was a leap of the imagination from the sumptuous Maharajah banquet setting of the Pre-Fall collection back in December, to futuristic jet set which only King Karl could have executed. Luckily, some of the attendees were kind enough to share the setting and dresses via Twitter. Here are some of our favourite shots....

The model's exit, from @grazia_live

Before the show, from @telefashion

The Finale from @10and10men

Saskia de Brauw by @grazia_live

Poppy Delevingne's pic of the catwalk

The first look, from @grazia_live

Sam McKnight's backstage shot of Anja Rubik

 Karl walks the aisle, from @jessc_m

Cameron Diaz enjoys the show from @jessc_m

From @Grazia_Live

I WANT TO BE A LAURA ASHLEY GIRL...REALLY!

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

What makes a good brand? For me, it is knowing what I am buying into. Often, that means I feel like this brand knows me and wants to dress a girl like me. But it also means that I want to be their girl. It's a two way thing.

In the 70s and 80s, a great swathe of young women wanted to be the Laura Ashley Girl. She was pretty, feminine and spent her days romping through fields with ruddy farm lads. Well, that was the fantasy. My Mum was a Laura Ashley girl; she would buy the fabrics and make dresses herself, mixing and matching the ditsy and overblown florals which everyone recognised a mile off. But she was no country bumpkin; she worked in an office in a big city so Laura Ashley was a 'dreamy escape'. In the same way that fashion now emulates the Mod styles of the 60s every other season, Laura Ashley revived the Edwardian styles, 60 or so years after they had first been popular. The fashion dream built by Laura Ashley coincided with Fleetwood Mac and their seminal Rumours album and a general love of all things sweet, laid back and romantic.

This could be from the 1910s, but it's 1980, by Jane Ashley

With this strong history in mind, it's odd to think that Laura Ashley isn't really on the fashion radar any more, it's where Middle England goes for its curtains. However, The Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey is currently exploring the brand's heyday with a display of Jane Ashley's (eldest daughter of Laura and Bernard Ashley) photographs as part of the museum's Catwalk to Cover exhibition. The small display also coincides with Uniqlo's collaboration with Laura Ashley on a collection of t-shirts printed with designs from the brand's rich archive.

Uniqlo x Laura Ashley tees. Prices start at £8.50, from 6th Feb

Uniqlo have taken prints from the Laura Ashley archive and revived them on tees

All Jane's pictures featured her friends and family, and personified the brand- no mean feat

Jane's photography is beautiful; all soft, overexposed greys. The titles are charming- 'Lucy and Tim in Wales' or 'Dorothy and Robina'. She was enlisted by her parents to experiment with creating photos which they could use in their shops. The results were iconic images which became just as significant, in terms of creating a brand, as the clothes and fabrics sold in the shops. They create a link between what you see on the hanger, on the roll and what you can make of it, what it will do for you. These are not images posed by models who pretend to represent what it means to be a Laura Ashley girl either. They are the Ashleys' friends and family so they really are living the life which inspired everything the store stood for. I went to a reception which was attended by  some of those involved in the photos- I loved that they were chatting away in Welsh, laughing and recalling those times. They really lived that life. It made me want to be a Laura Ashley girl.

Pretty florals on a sweet tee are where it's at for Spring, as showcased at Erdem (image from catwalking.com)

This is Lucy and Tim in Wales, by Jane Ashley

For those of us that are curious, this is the right time to rediscover what Laura Ashley is really all
 about.  The exhibition is a good starter. Uniqlo's t-shirts show the prints off in a great, modern 
way. It's a starting point which could see the prints exploited as amazingly as Liberty's archive
 is. They should be resurrected. SS12 couldn't be a more perfect moment with tees and florals
 being two of the season's most pervasive trends.As usual with Uniqlo's tees, a percentage of
 the sales is going to charity (the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) which
 is a huge bonus. I'll be wearing mine with a broderie anglaise skirt for a country 
walk this Summer... Now I just need to learn Welsh. 

Jane Ashley's photos are on display until 25th February at the Fashion and Textile Museum

The tees will be available at Uniqlo from 6th February

All images, apart from tees, are by Jane Ashley and by kind courtesy of the family archives.

FASHION STAPLES: MY-WARDROBE SS12

Posted by Melanie Rickey, Fashion Editor at Large

Myself and the Fashion Junior at Large moved all of our operational data from PC to Mac on Friday afternoon. By lunchtime today most of my data had been repatriated with me via the Cloud onto this very lovely, but still mysterious Macbook Pro. Using this will be a revelation, but I may be some time.

I've been feeling somewhat fragile today following a bacchanalian feast last night at Britain's most famous three Michelin starred restaurant, The Fat Duck of Bray, owned and run by the food genius Heston Blumenthal. I'm not sure whether we had a choice or not, but we had the 18 course taster menu, to which Heston kindly added a few extra courses as treats because he and my other half have crossed paths through work. By the time the 21st course was in front of us, I had begun to empathise with how a fattened duck might feel.

I've been planning on introducing FEAL's Fashion Staples for a while. Successful shopping is about knowing what to buy and when/where to buy it. It is January 22nd, and elsewhere in fashion the menswear shows in Paris are showcasing clothes for next winter, while the Haute Couture is displaying artistry we can only gawp at in wonder and never buy unless we have £30,000 + to spare.  Far more pressing now is what us fashion-loving women should be buying now that feels fashion-right. If you are nowhere near getting a grip on the new Spring trends - and why would you, it is still the depths of winter - then let me show you the way.

I flicked through quite a few New-In pages online before I settled on My-Wardrobe's being the best starting point for FEALS's Fashion Staples SS12. The ethos of My-Wardrobe.com is everyday luxury, and thats what a decent style staple need to be at its core.

FEAL STYLE STAPLES: MY-WARDROBE.COM 22/1/12

1. Acne shoes, £368 
These shoes will lift an outfit from average to high fashion in the length of time it takes to put them on. The colour is perfectly fitting for spring and the shoes are not so bonkers that they can't be passed off as a jazzy pump.

2. M Missoni Fit and Flare dress £315

Fit and flare dresses are where the pendulum of everyday fashion is swinging. if you haven't got one yet, you will soon. They are so about-to-be fashionable, I reckon they'll usurp the body-con dress by the end of the year. If you have an arse and thighs, the flared skirt is legend for the obfuscation of said area.

Enjoy as a chic fashion look while you can. 

3. Marc by Marc Jacobs paisley slim-leg trousers £295

This shape trouser rocks. They look modern and cool and work with whatever shoe you throw at them. I'd wear them with heels for an evening look or ankle boots and a jumper for day. A true staple, and they're paisley. Right now paisley = cool. 

4. Joseph navy V-neck cashmere jumper, £260

Every woman needs one of these. I recommend navy. All shades of blue are in the colourful spring 2012 spectrum.  

5. Carven evening top £180

I am a HUUUGE fan of Carven and adore the work its designer Guillaume Henry. Guy - as he suggest we Brits call him - has taken the Carven business from 0-500 global stockists in only three years. There hasn't been a brand with such a quick rise to prominence since Acne burst onto the scene in 2005. This top is a twist on the T-shirt that is edgy, chic and easy. All the ingredients for a FEAL Fashion Staple. 

Which one is your favourite?