Distilled: London Fashion Week A/W '11

Here's another extra super-duper, handy-dandy guide to Fashion week. Last one was New York, Milan will be posted in a few days. Here's some of my favourite looks, with a bit of trend prediction thrown in under the guise of journalistic integrity.

from l-r

Row 1 - Deep Red - Betty Jackson, John Rocha, Saloni

Row 2 - 70's Granny Patterns - Christopher Kane, Henry Holland, JW Anderson Woman

Row 3 - Twisted Brit Heritage - Burberry, Paul Smith, Pringle

Row 4 - Bright Pattern Clash - Jonathan Saunders, Lousie Gray, Mary Katrantzou

Row 5 - Grown-up Prints - David Koma, Erdem, Jonathan Saunders

Row 6 - Bonkers Tailoring - Jaeger, Jean Pierre Braganza, Krystof Strozyna

All pics from catwalking.com

YAY TRENDS

• Asymmetrical lapels - lapels as dresses, lapels as scarves, lapels as trousers.  We'll be wearing lapels as bikinis next - this can only be a good thing.
• Blue and green - the ultimate optical aquamarine colourpop.
• Heavy materials - I there's something I love, it's going out with he reassuring weight of a blanket around my shoulders (actually, that might be something I need to see a psychotherapist about).
• Sherlock Holmes coats - full length or cropped, as seen at Pringle.  All I need now is a tweed hat and a pipe.  I already have a sidekick called Dr. Watson.

NAY TRENDS

• No... Can't think of anything.

NOTES

Pics 4 and 5 - Who knew that Granny's blankets would be back in fashion - and I don't hate it...

Pic 6 - Paisley has finally been given it's due in JW Anderson's first womenswear collection.

Pic 8 - Paul Smith's collection was probably my favourite catwalk show thus far - there was not one thing that I didn't want to wear.  And the models!  Like tall, willowy versions of Daria .

Pic 18 - Off-kilter draping deserves to be all over the place come this Autumn

Jones Moans

Despite the title, I don't think you'd be hearing moans but rather yelps of delight if I got my hands on one on Dominic Jones' super-spiky, super-shiny rings. Inspired by Art Deco shapes, yet still retaining the 'incredibly rich punk' image (Alice Dellal is his business partner, after all) the collection is so covetable it should be made illegal.







I actually did have one moan - I tried on the ring above at the NEWGEN area at LFW and said, "Ooh, it's very heavy" only to be told, "Well, that ring is mostly for editorial purposes".  Does that mean that it's not going into production?  Say it ain't so Mr Jones.

I wish I was in London: Part eleventy million

Photo by Gavin Watson

If you happen to be in London on the 29th of October, you could do much worse than to pop along to a party held by Vice in a super-secret venue to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Dr. Martens.  Cheapy-cheap booze and free tickets, which sounds a damn sight better than my dad's fiftieth. Click here to register for tickets.

On a side note, does anyone know why we call them Doc Martens and not 'Doctor' Martens?  This is the kind of unnecessary stuff that floats around my head on a Friday afternoon.

LFW: I heart Jordan Askill

Have you ever been blog-scooped?  You know, you sit down to write something, only to discover that one of your favourite blogs has written about it already (and, in fairness, much better)?  That happened to me last week, when I sat down to scrape some London Fashion Week photos out of my camera, only to discover that Style Bubble had done a frankly, epic post on Jordan Askill.

Askill is a Sydney native, exhibited as part of Newgen and specialises in intricately wrought jewellery that is hand-carved but drawn with the aid of computer programmes.  It's this synthesis between past and present, traditional and technology, that has become the main point of focus in his work and, it has to be said, is nothing short of a breath of fresh air in a stuffy room of bling and intimidating knuckledusters.

The above is from Askill's current collection.  This cherub head pendant is roughly the size of your thumbnail, at most about the length of this line _______ (probably a little bit more if you have a high-res monitor.




I was lucky enough to meet Askill in the Newgen tent and get some very nice compliments on the rings I was wearing.  Mercifully, I was too nervous to gush all over him (metaphorically, that is), but unfortunately not too nervous to mentally high five myself and impart on him a very long, boring story about the history of the rings and where I got each one and, and, and... I'm boring even myself now.  If you see this Jordan (and your lovely friend too), I am truly sorry.

Here are some slightly blurry close-ups of his S/S '11 collection.  They do no justice to the craftsmanship and time taken to conceive such pieces.  It's rare to see jewellery that displays and obvious concern with both concept and execution.  The term 'high-concept' really gets bandied about too often but in this case it's true - the amount of care that goes into this is beyond the norm.  Once you hold of one these pieces in your hand you know you're holding something precious and rare.  You'll know that no-one is doing anything quite like Askill.

While this season is angelic, Askill has turned back to more primal influences for Spring/Summer with studies of tigers, bears and horses.  These are all derivations and meditations on a sculpture Askill did of 65 horses galloping in unison, which you can see in full on his website.  The sculpture is also fully incorporated into a series of harnesses (click on the Style Bubble post to see; I haven't seen then anywhere else online).  The details is Amazing with a capital A, I can't express it enough, and I come away from this post a tad uneasy as I feel like a haven't done his work justice.  For once I can't find the words.  Usually it's too many words, which is also a problem.

You should probably go to his website and step into a new world (and do a bit of healthy coveting).

You could look at his JORDY diffusion line, which is a line of more accessible, but equally adorable rings and bangles.  Dibs on the hidden sapphire heart ring.

Mostly though, he just seems like a lovely person with an intelligent, artistic mind and a passion for innovation and craftsmanship.  If that doesn't deserve to be supported, I don't know what does.

Holly Fulton S/S '11 at London Fashion Week

Something I forgot to add to the litany of woes detailed in the previous post - I somehow managed to lose ALL of my LFW notes in a pub in Dublin while meeting some fellow bloggers.  D'oh *smacks head*.

Luckily, the lovely Lorna had my notebook, so I received it today.  Here it is in my slightly greasy, oily palm (I accidentally put my hand in some wood varnish today... don't ask), complete with my list of LFW notes and all my careless scribblings, ready to be shaped and moulded into something coherent, which might not happen, because I am still whacked out on painkillers.

But perhaps being slightly stoned is no bad thing, especially when considering Holly Fulton's collection.  Don't get me wrong.  Hallucinogens are used in some religious ceremonies to commune with a higher power and her collection is operating on a higher plane. Or, to quote my favourite stoner Jeff Spicoli (Lebowski doesn't even get a look in), "Awesome, totally awesome! All right, Hamilton!"

I was lucky enough to have a good sift through Fulton's current season in The Topshop NEWGEN area and her stuff is amazing, appealing on a sensory level of colour and tactility that made me want to rip everything off the rails and sleep in a big ol' pile of Swarovski-studded fur clutches, acetate collars and snakeskin shift dresses.  Spring/Summer is no different.

Fulton has stayed true to her Art Deco leanings and has firmly established an identity that would make anyone worth their fashion chops know one of her pieces from a hundred paces.  Yet her clothing doesn't just look good in teeny catwalk pictures, it looks even better close up.



Last season, she introduced fur trimmings and this season she has progressed yet again on the trimming front.  This looks like raffia or maybe hair (or more fur, even.  If you know what it is, please let me know) and it's placed in a flirty way, horizontally across the hips, thighs and hem.  The lines of the clothing are very sixties resort, and remind me a bit of the film oldie Gidget, in which a oh-so-sassy teen goes to the beach with her family and learns to surf.



Oh, perforated leather.  Has it ever been done so well?  I ended up spending minutes poring over the patterns of perfectly popped out circles on several Fulton garments, so much so that I thought that I was going into a trance.  The best thing about looking at these dresses close up is realising that the patterns that Fulton uses aren't abstract at all but are very concrete things.  Last season it was the telephone that kept popping up in garments (a serious instrument of the technology and status obsessed 30's Deco elite).  This season it's the martini glass, as seen in the pic of the dress above, on the right.



That's not to say that there's no progression in terms of design, because it's evident that Fulton is thinking of what her next sartorial move might be - to stick or stray away from the Art Deco influence?  These dresses are beautiful, but remind me of the cartoonish motifs of JC de Castelbajac or the sparkly-sequinned goodness of Ashish, which is ironic when you consider that those two labels have pretty much stuck fast to the same design vision and ethos since Day 1.

What do you think of Ms Fulton?

Licentiate Column 23/09/10

It’s commonly thought that the world of fashion is a closed shop. Or at least it was up until 2007 or so, when blogging started to gain a foothold in the hearts and minds of fashion PRs. Fashion houses started to realise that they could get reams of free publicity and add to their cachet of cool by sending off new items to bloggers, who would style, shoot and publicise their wares, totally gratis and with a minimum of effort for said fashion house.

Blogging has been a phenomenon that has shaped and democratised the world of fashion beyond all expectations. Now, fashion shows can be streamed online, literally bringing New York to your home (and you don’t even have to change out of your PJs, let alone try to figure out the complicated subway system).

One of the happier effects of the trickle-down effect of blog influence is the willingness to offer bloggers a coveted media pass to various events, the Big Daddy being a Fashion Week. There are four main fashion weeks, which take place consecutively, twice a year, in New York, London, Milan and Paris. Yours truly was lucky enough to snag a pass to London Fashion Week.

Five years ago, you would have had to wait until next March to see pictures taken the year before. Now it’s instant. The media is saturated. And yet, fashion is still a closed shop. By that I don’t mean that it’s elitist, or populated by superficial and shallow people (even though it is, to an extent). I mean that Fashion Week is literally like wandering around a shop where the tills are closed. You can touch, but you can’t buy.

A bit more explaining is necessary. London Fashion Week is a double-edged blade. The first blow is dealt by an endless litany of fashion shows that drug the mind with images of so many beautiful girls wearing beautiful clothes, all strutting through the mind’s eye (or conversely, if they fall over in eleven-inch heels, on the cover of The Sun).

The second blade, the fatal blow is the Exhibition. Stalls, manned in some cases by the designers themselves, are weighed down with luxury goods, which you are encouraged to poke, prod and take pictures of. Everything is beautiful and there are no distasteful things such as price tags to distract you from your aesthetic overload.  And yet, I felt as if I was window shopping. Every time a PR came over and asked if they could help, I would nervously trill, “Just looking!”, as if they were trying to foist a massive, unwise, financially crippling sale upon me and then scuttle away like a crab with a bad credit rating.

This would inevitably result in odd looks. After hearing too many of my protestations, one woman said to me, “We know you’re just looking. We’re all looking”.

It was humiliating at the time, but on reflection it makes sense. The Exhibition is a great leveller. From Vogue editor to blogger alike; in the closed shop of fashion, at least all of us are window shopping.

Get The London Look

Our third and final guest post comes from Fiona from Save Our Shoes, who's been living in the capital for a year, so she knows her schtuff about London Looks...

Excuse my quoting of the Rimmel advertising campaign, but after a year of living between Shoreditch and Hackney, I can safely say there is DEFINITELY a "London Look".  To fool people into thinking you are a real Londoner this S/S London Fashion Week do some of the following things...

Invest in shorts; leather hotpants or denim cutoffs (the more holes, the better).



Be permanently attached to your iphone/blackberry/smart phone. A true London member of the fash pack can twitpic a picture from the back of the Bora Aksu show while maintaining a nonchalant air and bbming their friend standing next to them.

Wear some sort of platform shoe at all times. Some sort of black leather wedge boots. A la Acne (but more than likely from Primark). Another option are clogs. Equally clunky and noisy.



Master the penguin shuffle, a common problem associated with wearing long clinging maxi skirts.

Have a constantly grumpy demeanour.

Develop some sort of slash talent. Actress/model, musician/dancer. I like to go by the slash talent of Beyonce Impersonator/Blagger.

When possible, grow a moustache.



There you have it, if you follow these easy steps, you too can act like a you are the bees knees and the cats pyjamas for a week. 'Cause once fashion week is over, it's back to working behind a cash point in Topshop.

London Calling; fashion-wise tourism

As you may know, I'm heading to London for a few days and, through the miraculous majesty of scheduled posts, I'll be putting up the column as usual on Thursday, as well as a couple of posts from some special guests.

Here's a few things on the itinerary.

1) The Enchanted Palace exhibition in Kensington Palace.  This combines my love of dresses and snooping around stately homes (and by extension, other people's lives) perfectly.  Several designers, including Boudicca, Vivienne Westwood and Stephen Jones have taken over a part of the palace and transformed it according to their vision and a tale of one of the seven princess who lived in Kensington Palace at one stage or another.



2)  The Fashion market on Portobello Road - If you're shopping for clothing, then your best bet is to hit the Market on a Saturday morning and focus a heavy sartorial assault on the Westway, which is where all the young designers and vintage dealers hang out on their weekends.  You'll know that you're there if you see a massive concrete motorway flyover.  Mmm, scenic.  This would also be the best time to bellow the song 'Portobello Road' from Bedknobs and Broomsticks at the top of your lungs.  Which I plan on doing.



Ah, sweet memories.  Although Portobello Market has over 2,000 stalls, I'm fairly sure that they don't have an occult bookseller (though that would be pretty great.  An impromptu multicultural dance-off would also be sweet).

3)  RD Franks



Five minutes walk from Oxford Circus lies possibly the best and most comprehensive fashion newsagent I've ever been in.  That doesn't say much, but if you're looking for anything hard to get, from Jalouse  (must get a subscription one of these days...) to obscure trend forecasting mags, then this is the place for you.

4)  London Fashion Week (cue a massive and incredibly uncool and unprofessional 'SQUEEEE!').  My press application came through today (massive thanks to Fiona for recommending that I apply), so I'll be spending the best part of Friday wandering around the exhibitions at Somerset House and doing some Licentiate reportage for The Cork Independent and this blog.  Any London bloggers reading this who fancy meeting up for a coffee drop me a line.  I do love meeting new peoples, so's I do.

I'll be in London as you're reading this, but if you have any secret hidey-holes or must-go places food (especially food), shopping or bar-wise, let me know!

A taste of London

It amazing what pops up when you google 'Swinging London', isn't it?  I was looking for something suitably Carnaby Street-esque and when I stumbled upon this gem.  Below are stills from the film Smashing Time, which I've never seen but will probably now make it my life's work to get a copy based just on captions of these pictures alone.

The film stars Lynn Redgrave and Rita Tushingham (now regrettably forgotten star of totally amazing Brit film, A Taste of Honey - add it to your download list and weep) as two Northern Lasses who move to London Town as get into all sorts of now iconic comical mishaps.  Captions are taken from the Tushington webpage so *spoiler alert* ahoy!

Brenda and Yvonne, two naive lasses from the north of England, arrive in Swinging London.

"If you're bold, you'll spend your gold, As I do ... On new ... CLOTHES!"
Brenda makes the scene, looking grand in her fashionably trendy new clothes – secondhand, of course!

Still wearing their nightclub-hostess clothes, Yvonne and Brenda drag themselves home at dawn...

Brenda inspects the mod merchandise at her new job at the Too Much boutique.

With Tom's help, Brenda becomes a successful model.

But anyway, I'm getting over what was supposed to be the original point of my post.  I'll be going to London for a few days in September with the boyfriend for some art, some shopping and lots and lots of eating.  So, if anyone has any suggestions of places to go, people to see and things to eat that might be slightly off the beaten track, please leave a comment and let me know!  All Londoninium-related feedback is incredibly welcome.