Distilled: New York Fashion Week A/W '11

Here's a handy-dandy pocket guide to New York Fashion Week - Favourite runway looks, trend predictions and the stuff that didn't go over so well.  I'll be doing one for London, Milan and Paris every week so if you like this, make sure to check back next Friday for more catwalk overanalysis.


All photos from Fashion Gone Rogue, except photo 3, from Getty Images



From left to right, per row

Tartan galore: 1 - Y3, 2 - Rag& Bone, 3 - Libertine

Slick monochromatic tailoring:  4 - Jason Wu, 5 - Michael Kors, 6 - DKNY

Print clash:  7 - Proenza Schouler, 8 - Rodarte, 9 - Preen

Left-field details:  10 - Jeremy Scott, 11 - Marc Jacobs, 12 - Prabal Gurung

70's trend:  13 - Diane Von Furstenberg, 14 - Marc by Marc Jacobs, 15 - Rodarte

Trends from New York for Autumn/Winter 2010/11

YAY TRENDS

• Red - and LOTS of it.
• Pattern clashes - intricate patterns based on maths/science (as seen on Preen with their uniform polyhedra prints)
• Polka dots - as at Marc Jacobs.
• Texture tastic - not only will we be mixing patterns, we'll be mixing textures as well.  As seen at Marc Jacobs, Proenza Schouler,
• Thigh-high split skirts - my legs say no, but my brain says YES!

NAY TRENDS

• Sheer tights - Is it just me or are they a bit, erm, Maggie Thatcher?
• Fur - on everything - on cuffs, on hats, skirts, everything.  I guarantee that someone will manufacture fur underpants and make a profit.  My personal stance on fur is pretty non-committal but the sheer amount of fur on the catwalks in NY seemed incredibly self-indulgent.  Some of the most original collections didn't use fur at all. 

NOTES

Pic 10 - Where would we be without Jeremy Scott?  The world would be a much duller place (and Katy Perry would have a yawning chasm in her wardrobe).  I think that his collections are best viewed on individual merits.  Example; this bikini/clear mac combo.  Not something I could ever pull off in real life (and the world breathes a sigh of relief) but pair the crystal-encrusted mac with some monochrome tailoring?  WIN.

Pic 11 - Marc Jacobs also works the clear clothing look, but this blouse is much more subtle.

Pic 15 - If you can hold a pair of knitting needles, you could easily knit this Rodarte jumper.  I wonder how much the retail will be?

What were your NYFW highlights and lowlights?

Hurrah for Winter (Ssh...)

Our second blog post comes from Jennie of What Will I wear Today.  Her post totally echoes how I feel about Winter, so much so that I read it and immediately kicked myself for not writing about it before.  It was sore, but without discipline, I'll never learn.  'Hem. 
You can also contact WWIWT via their twitter or facebook page.

Wintry looks from D&G, Christian Dior and Anna Sui

Ok, controversial statement, I know. Hear me out though. Some people wait all year round for summer to arrive. I don’t. I find summer oppressive. It is a relentless tyranny of waxing, exfoliating and tanning. We are poked and prodded all summer long under an inscrutable mandate from the magazines to be ‘bikini ready in 2 weeks’. We pander to the media expectation of a fawn-like cherub emerging from the ashes of our wintry old self.

Well here’s a newsflash – I don’t possess a cherubic version of myself. I emerge from the bowels of winter pretty much the same as when I entered: pale, pasty and probably still suffering from a cold. I don’t ‘do’ summer – I get hayfever, I get sunburn, I get frizzy, wispy stress-curls. Winter is like a warm, loving embrace after the tyranny of summer preparation.

Hide those pasty shoulders in a delicious Alpine knit. Celebrate your anaemic legs in a selection of tights and ankle socks. Embrace your gnarled toes and hard-soled feet in any of the splendid boots that are going to be stomping around all Winter. The 2010 Autumn/ Winter wardrobe is a feast of knits, layers, textures and ladylike restraint. Who needs a tan when you’ve got a camel coat? Who needs a toned midriff when you can ooze sexiness in a corseted bustier and a preppy cardigan? Who needs surf-chick hair when your shearing collar will do all the talking? Fierce, heeled military boots absolve your from any pedicure duties and a pair of tailored, peg-leg trousers will keep the lumpy bumpy at bay.

Jennie's A/W picks from Topshop

 So yes, Goodbye Summer (it was alright while it lasted) and Hello Winter (my knight in Alpine armour).

Wanted: Simpsons Vintage

If you've read this blog before you'll know that I have a deep uncompromising love for The Simpsons, namely the first handful of seasons.  So deep is this love that I'm going to do a post on Simpsons and clothing, so switch off now if you find this boring...

I was just about old enough to remember the 'Ban The Bart' campaigns in 1990.  I also remember my granny was scandalised when she found out that my parents had bought both myself and my sister Simpsons t-shirts.  Mine was blue and had a picture of Bart saying "Don't have a cow, man".  Sigh.  Where did it all go wrong?

Right now I'd give my boyfriend's left nut for an old-school Simpsons sweater or tee (sorry Al) but they must have all been burned on an elementary school principal pyre because finding one of these, in a good condition and in a condition to fit a woman without looking like a tent is as rare as hens teeth (a comparison I never really got.  Do hens have teeth?).

These items are mostly from the early 90's and so are teetering on the edge of vintage.  I think that once the 20 year mark has passed for these items, they'll magically become ironic, then cool, then passé again in the hipster fashion wheel of fortune.

Here are some of my picks.

Available here , here and here .

EVE, AD 2000!

Does anyone else think that this is oddly prophetic? Marc Jacobs, Alexander Wang, Lady Gaga... you've got a LOT to answer for.



Personally I'd love to have a man of the future who looks like a man off a deck of cards.