THE WEEK IN FASHION: 12th- 16th MARCH

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

The Week in Fashion is back from its fashion month break and ready to bring you, our lovely readers their end of week fashion news round-up. Following the marathon of catwalk shows you'd think people of the fashion world might have spent the week collapsed on the sofa in the recovery position, however I'm pleased to say that there's plenty to tell you about...

Samantha Cameron, in Alessandra Rich, and Michelle Obama, in Marchesa, at Wedesnday's State Dinner (image from dailymail.co.uk)

Just in case you hadn't noticed, Dave and Sam Cam dropped into the White House for a few days this week to visit the Obamas. Instead of your average bunch of flowers or bottle of wine, the Brit contingent came bearing gifts of a ping pong table and a Jonathan Saunders scarf. There was a State Dinner attended by politicians, celebrities and other powerful people like Anna Wintour. The US Vogue editor picked a Chanel couture gown which she had already, shock horror, worn once before back in 2009.

Anna Wintour at the Met Gala in 2009. She wore the same dress to
Wednesday night's state dinner (image from www.nymag.com)

Michelle and Samantha naturally did us all proud on the fashion front. Alessandra Rich dressed the PM's wife in a floor-length, high neck blue lace gown from her Spring/ Summer collection. The style reflects the new covered up fashion mood we're feeling for AW12. It has been said that the dress was Sam Cam's own way of bringing a bit of real-life Downton Abbey to Americans who are going crazy for the series. Meanwhile, Mrs Obama went for her tried and tested State Dinner look- knockout dress and chunky necklace. Her outfit was by Marchesa; luckily Georgina Chapman, the woman behind the label, was at the dinner to see her good work in action. During the visit, Sam Cam also wore a few of her favourite London designers including Emilia Wickstead, Burberry and the gorgeous Roksanda Ilincic.

SamCam in Roksanda Ilincic with Michelle O in Zac Posen (image from in style.co.uk)

Huge congratulations to Lucy Yeomans, currently Editor-in-Chief at Harper's Bazaar, who will be moving to Net-a-Porter to head up their editorial offering from September. The move is another indicator of the way retail and editorial are becoming ever more intertwined. DisneyRoller Girl has written about what this means for the fashion industry. Jenny Dickinson, currently at Elle, will become Acting Editor at Harper's Bazaar. We look forward to seeing Net-a-Porter with the Lucy Yeomans touch.

In more moving-about news, Barney's Ney York Vice President and Fashion Director, Amanda Brooks, resigned this week and announced plans to move to the UK. We wonder if we'll be seeing her take up a big job in London sometime soon?

Nicholas Sarkozy awards Franca Sozzani with France's highest honour (image from fashionologie.com)

Congratulations are also in order for Vogue Italia editor, Franca Sozzani who was awarded France's highest honour, the Knight of the Legion of Honour, in Paris this week. Many of the great and good from Italian and French fashion were there, including Raf Simons, Karl Lagerfeld, Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce, indeed Franca was wearing straight-off-the-catwalk Dolce and Gabbana for the occasion. Franca is the world's most accessible Vogue editor, with over 80,000 Twitter followers and a daily blog on the Vogue Italia site. She posted Conde Nast's Chairman Jonathan Newhouse's speech the day after the ceremony, it's a great read.

Sparks flying: Arizona and Freja for Chloe (image from telegraph.co.uk)

My own personal number one model, Arizona Muse, has this week been announced as the new face of Estee Lauder. The beauty giant's Creative Director, Richard Ferretti, told WWD that "Arizona is warm, engaging and smart. She has an innate graciousness that we believe will translate to whatever advertising we choose to do with her." Apparently, Muse's first Lauder ads will be out "within a year". We can already enjoy Arizona in ads for Fendi, Massimo Dutti and Chloe, in which she appears with Freja Erichsen, her sometime girlfriend. Arizona has said that she is a big fan of Estee Lauder's Re-Nutriv- we're adding that to our shopping list this weekend then.

House of Holland SS12 (from catwalking.com)

If you're planning a spot of shopping this weekend then may we suggest that you head to Harrods where the new House of Holland collection drops today? We've had a sneak peek and love the Miami pastel shades and over blown animal prints. Our favourite piece might just be the pastel panel shirt (above). Harrods have also made the lovely Mr Holland their designer of the month. They've given FEAL this little video in which Henry talks about how he started off working on magazines before moving into design- his big break came when Gareth Pugh and Giles Deacon wore his tees to take their bows in 2006. Check out the full interview below and on the Harrods site

Else Schiaparelli, the Surrealist designers whose label Galliano was said to be in talks to
reinvent this week. 

There is still plenty of designer musical chairs action going on. And it's only increased this week with news that Derek Lam is leaving Tod's after six years designing for the classic Italian label. There have also been rumours that John Galliano is set to make a return. Vogue and WWD reported this week that he may have been set to reinvent Schiaparelli, which is now owned by the Tod's group. However, Galliano's spokesman claimed they were 'rumours and nothing more'.

Alexa Chung in Holly Fulton, one of the designers who'll be up for grabs at the British Designers Collective (image from Vogue via catwalkqueen.tv)

If you're a regular reader, then you'll know that we're getting prepped to visit the British Designers Collective at Bicester Village which launches next Wednesday. So, we were very happy to hear this week that one of Britain's best fashion ambassadors, Alexa Chung, is the spokesperson for the initiative. She'll be there on Wednesday and so will FEAL so look out for updates on what Miss Chung loves about the fact we get to buy pieces from the hottest Brit designers at Bicester Village's reduced prices.

Avenue 32 is a new web shopping site which gives each designer their own space- the aim is to make it a personalised experience, more like popping into a designer's own boutique than scrolling through web pages which group many brands together. Just a few of the designers who have areas on the site include Giles, 3.1 Phillip Lim, Preen and Emilio de la Morena. We like!

Now Avenue 32 have created a film 'What are you gonna wear?' which showcases the new designers landing for SS12. To celebrate, they are also offering anyone savvy enough to enter the chance to win a £4,000 Spring/Summer wardrobe. You can find out more details and enter here- what are you waiting for?

Mary and the team in their knicker factory (image from dailymirror.co.uk)

Finally, we hope you were all enjoyed Mary's new show 'Mary's Bottom Line' on Channel 4 last night. It's a three-part series in which Mary dusts off the sewing machines at an old textile factory in Middleton and employs eight young people from the area to launch her Made in Britain "Kinky Knickers". It's pretty emotional but also a really interesting exploration of how the decline in manufacturing has affected whole towns in the UK. And the knickers, I can personally vouch, are lovely. Get them now at Liberty, in-store and online. Our favourites are the pink and peach.

MARKUS LUPFER- A FASHION MAVERICK

Posted by Melanie Rickey, Fashion Editor at Large

A case full of Lupfer loveliness 

Contrary to popular belief, London Fashion Week, or any other fashion week for that matter,  isn't all about the shows. One example of an off-schedule event this time around was Relative MO's gorgeous event at Two Temple Place. Within the ornately decorated venue which, oddly, used to be the HQ of The Bulldog Trust, (though I reckon it looks like a Freemason Lodge) jewellers and fashion designers exhibited their Autumn/fall offerings and pepping up weary press who'd been sprinting around the catwalk circuit. Dominic Jones was there as was Bolzoni & Walsh, but by far the busiest room was Markus Lupfer's.

Two Temple Place 

You know Markus, right? He is an utterly charming boyishly handsome designer in his late 30s, a German who has lived in London for most of his adult life. Every fashionable woman in the world's major cities probably owns, or wants to own, one of Lupfer's superfashion novelty knits. You might recognise the lips below, this is his all-time bestselling motif. I've got one!  Markus doesn't just create cult status jumpers, but he accepts that this is what he is famous for. In fact he embraces it.  Markus is also doing fashion business in his own very successful way. I had an fascinating chat with him at the event, and he told me how he's tailored his brand to suit what he's learnt his customers want from him. Something of a theme this week, as it is almost the same discussion I had with Richard Nicoll too. In the fashion business, there are many ways to be successful. 

Sequin embroidery on an iconic Lupfer jumper

"Four and a half years ago, everything changed" he told me. How so? "I just thought, I need to prioritise being good to my customers, giving them good service. It is not only about the catwalk show".

To put this in context, you should know that Lupfer began his career in the same way as many London based designers, through sponsorship from NEWGEN. So he began with catwalk shows, as is often seen to be the 'done thing' in fashion. The big change came when Lupfer realised that he didn't actually NEED to do shows to be a successful designer.  He decided it was time for "a totally different approach" to showing his work and so abandoned the catwalk concept. At the presentation at Two Temple Place, there was a room dotted with Lupfer's new season sequin embroidered jumpers, precisely cut glittery tailoring.  A vintage trunk, lined with glitter, was stacked with neat piles of cartoon animal designs while close by a few models hung out by the fireplace in big armchairs wearing his jumpers and cute skater skirts, doing fun poses while much needed refreshments were served.

Cute animal tees with sequin masks

Hanging out in Markus Lupfer AW12, no wonder they look like they're having fun

One of the main reasons that Lupfer has changed his approach is his passionate belief in fun, which obviously comes through in his designs. "I've let that showbiz design ego go and am just doing what feels natural - having fun, being light and bright!" he said. It just so happens that being fun works well for Lupfer's balance sheet too. Having fun AND making good business sense? Sounds pretty perfect to me! If you are a fan of the Lupfer aesthetic, and who wouldn't be, you should get yourself  down to Bicester Village's British Designers Collective which opens next Wednesday.  I'm going to the launch which is hosted by Alexa Chung to do some shopping, and I will definitely be on the look out for a bit of Lupfer. The full list of British designers present is impressive

The full list of womenswear designers at the Bicester Village British Designer Collective is here- 

Nicholas Kirkwood

Preen

Osman

Marios Schwab

Jonathan Saunders

Markus Lupfer

Peter Pilotto

Holly Fulton

Bella Freud

James Long

Goat

Emma Cook

Hermione de Paula 

Jean Pierre Braganza 

plus accessories from Pauric Sweeney

Lily and Lionel

Mawi 

Erikson Beamon.

Find out more about the British Designers Collective here. And maybe see you there next Wednesday. 

Friday Fun jumper from Markus Lupfer

OUR NEW GIRL CRUSH: NEW MODEL LARA MULLEN

 Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

Lara in Vogue (by Josh Olins)

Lara Mullen has the kind of story which will have teenage supermodel wannabes everywhere turning green with envy. She has the fairytale 'normal school girl to fashion favourite' which so many now seem to wish will be their reality. For Lara, it is. A year ago she was just another Northampton girl and now she is FEAL's latest model crush- as well as a top pick for the previous two seasons of catwalk shows as well in in demand for shoots. She captures the spirit of now with her strong but still wistful, girlish and very English look.

Lara, with her mussed up hair and startled ice blue eyes, stars in April Vogue's "The White Album" shoot, styled by Lucinda Chambers,  confirming her hot new model status. Vogue clearly share our Lara love because they also tip her "soulful look" to be a key face of the future.

And it's not just  Vogue who are fuelling Laramania. This weekend, the Telegraph charted her last crazy six months flipping between fashion weeks, major shoots and hanging out in her school common room.  She also  blogged during Paris Fashion Week for Style.com about what it's like being a new model. Basically, we're all enraptured with the way she presents fashion to us as well as the tale behind the face.

Herein lies a kind of tumblr of images which sum up why we are we are majorly crushing on Miss Mullen right now...

Lara in Vogue (by Josh Olins)

Lara in Vogue (by Josh Olins)

Lara in Vogue (by Josh Olins)

Lara in Vogue (by Josh Olins)

Lara Mullen in SS12 POP

Backstage at Nina Ricci AW12

Lara walking for Jil Sander AW12 (Image from catwalking.com)

Walking for Prada AW12 (image from catwalking.com)

Walking for Alexander Wang SS12 (image from catwalking.com)

Lara Mullen for Jonathan Saunders Pre-Fall SS12 (style.com)

RICHARD NICOLL'S VERY MODERN TIMES

Posted by Melanie Rickey, Fashion Editor at Large

Ask a fashion editor at the end of a busy day of attending catwalk shows what he or she enjoyed today, and you will be met with something a bit like this. "I...er...em.. Oh God, wasn't it Balenciaga this morning? Or was that yesterday? Er, sorry today is just a blur." It happens to everyone, but occasionally great or surprising fashion experiences stand out from a day of shows. Louis Vuitton's awesome steam train with the Marc Jacobs clad models and luggage laden uniformed porters trotting alongside them will stay in my mind for a long time. In London, Richard Nicoll's presentation for AW12 stood out for being totally unexpected and clever.

Nicoll, a feted member of London Fashion Week's young establishment normally presents a conceptual fashion show experience in a modern architectural space. For his Autumn/Winter presentation Richard threw out the so-called fashion show rule-book and set up a space he called "The Factory"at the Institute of Contemporary Art on Pall Mall, to show his collection monikered "Modern Times," in a tongue in cheek reference to the 1936 Charlie Chaplin film.  Before you carry on, why not open another window and click this link so you can listen to the music that was playing on the day, created by Daniel Lea at Golden Hum.

Nicoll created a fashion factory, where make-up artists, dressers, photographers, technicians
 and himself were workers producing the models

To help you decipher what is going on here, observe the rectangular runway. Models walked
 it before stopping to have their photo taken for Richard's lookbook by Jermaine Francis. 
Within the runway is the hair and make-up area and two Mac terminals to record all the
 pictures. Around the runway hangs all 24 outfits from Richard's collection, and behind 
the plywood backboard models changed before walking out again.  

A model, with earphones in, stops on the conveyor belt catwalk to have her picture taken.

Unlike at a fashion show, when generally the designer is backstage stressing out, Richard was 
out front, relaxed and chatting away. First he told me what the idea was conceptually inspired
 by,"I thought about modern work habits and looked to constructivism, Jacques Tati’s 1967 
film ‘Play Time’ and industrial factory wear for form and colour references,” he explained. 
Hence the workman orange, cobalt blue, and neon yellow coloured clothes. 


To frame the why of this happening Richard was honest, "I didn't want to do a show. 
For me, personally I have a block when it comes to the show. I think of the concept, then
 the clothes. I'm just a kid from Perth, it doesn't fit my personality to do conceptual shows.
 I want the clothes to come first. I wanted to create authentic, simple and sensible clothes 
women can wear in their daily life."

Looks from Richard Nicoll's Modern Times collection (shot by Jermaine Francis) 

"Really what this is all about is, I suppose, me making peace with my commercial side," said

 Richard. "I feel creatively fulfilled. What I am all about now is serving my customer." Then

 he gave me a quick whoosh around his Factory space, stopping at the Mac terminals for a

 gaze at the lookbook shoot...

The photography studio area which was located inside the catwalk loop

Acid colours in Nicoll's AW12 collection 

All the looks from Richard Nicoll AW12

Cards setting out the look for each model.

Nicoll collaborated with Tusting on bags.

...before coming to a standstill in front of these two bags. The one below is the bag that based a wave of hysterical fashion Tweeting because it recharges mobile phones, something I wish my handbag could do, especially during the shows.  Richard created the bag with his sponsors Vodafone, whom he has partnered with for the second time for AW12 "we wanted to create a collaborative product that fused technology and fashion," he said. "So we came up with the idea of doing a charging bag that charges your mobile device on the go, which is especially relevant because this collection is about the notion of work and all its facets in modern times."

To use the bag it must be charged from the mains power using a cable that magnetically attaches to the outside of the bag. Once the bag battery is full, it will charge handsets for at least two days.

If you are thinking Where Can I Get One?? Join the club. To find out I called Richard who is out in L.A with the British Fashion Council presenting at the London Showrooms and he told me the bag is coming in white, orange, blue and black leather and Net-A-Porter have the exclusive on it. Will update further when I get retail price and in-stock date.

Nicoll, Tusting and Vodafone created the bag (above, and below) which charges your phone for you.

PRADA'S REAL FANTASIES SS12: ARE YOU A HOT-RODDER OR A GOLFER?

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

It's not too often that a look book comes our way which takes the collection it's showing us into fantastical, nostalgic realms beyond fashion. So, when images from Prada's Spring/Summer look book, a continuation of the Real Fantasies series, pinged into our inbox this afternoon we had to share.

There's a video to accompany the look book which Prada have made available exclusively to their 1.6 million Facebook fans- check it out here (and below). Given that Prada's social media presence was virtually non-existent a couple of years ago, a Facebook fan base that massive is really rather impressive, if unsurprising. Also, this is the savviest time for reminding us all that Spring/Summer is only just beginning. Fresh from the AW12 shows, we'd almost forgotten that there's plenty of Summer fun to come before A/W descends.

We all know by now that Prada SS12 was all excessively pretty, jewel encrusted coats, skirts and dresses mixed up with flaming car motifs and prints. AMO-OMA, the architectural partnership which has collaborated closely with the Prada brand for a few seasons now, have devised a series of handmade collages which integrate the SS12 collection with kooky references to golfing, hot-rodding, playing board games- basically anything which recalls the idealised mid-century era which the fashion references but with a fun twist. We like!

All images courtesy of Prada

Credits:

PRODUCTION / ART DIRECTION: AMO / Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, Fausto Fantinuoli

ARTWORK: Jeroen Koolhaas, Lok Jansen

PHOTOGRAPHY: Phil Meech

VIDEO DIRECTION: James Lima

MUSIC: Frédéric Sanchez

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Max Brun – Hi ! Production

EDITING: Brian Vincent Durkin