head over heels

studded.hearts

photo by zoey grossman

happy sunday

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hope you all had a great weekend!
for those of you on twitter...don't forget to say hi!
you can find me HERE.
♥

CANT WAIT TO WEAR...CAN'T WAIT NOT TO WEAR....

Posted by the Fashion Editor at Large

CAN'T WAIT NOT TO WEAR: in my Woolrich parka, GAP khaki's and motorbike ankle boots

CAN'T WAIT TO WEAR: my new pair of what I am calling my rose-tinted spectacles from the 70's. 

A quick post on the END OF THE WINTER SEASON. When you are a fashion journalist on daily or weekly print meda, January is a long month.  This is because in fashion-land, winter ends with the cessation of winter sales and the arrival of new season spring stock into stores. Today was that day, and the longest month of the fashion year is now over. I will celebrate with one YAY! 

This is good news for me as a fashion journalist on the simple level that I can now write stories that have follow through (imaginary or otherwise) at retail level for readers. All the information gleaned and absorbed at the SS10 shows in London/Milan and Paris now has relevance to the fashion-loving public and the fashion journalist can unleash all those thoughts, ideas and fashion facts. After all, there is not much use writing about the trend for wearing pink with khaki if there are rails of sale coats in the shops.

For me personally, the first day of fashion spring is a one for me to hit the shops to see how retailers have bought into the collections. What is in a shop - high end fashion, or high street - is almost NEVER exactly the same as what was in the lookbook you saw, or the catwalk show you viewed for that season. Strange, but true and the reason why a shopping recce is essential.  

ANYWAY. I shopped in a carefully planned and perfectly executed manoeuvre on the Marylebone High Street today, and the experience served to remind me 1. that there is a whole new fashion uniform to get to grips with this season and 2. that my wardrobe is in desperate need of an overhaul. There are things that I love, such as my Woolrich parka - the fashion parka of the winter hands-down - and my Gap khakis (three seasons old) and the motrocycle boots by Gap (even older) that I have come to rely on heavily in this lull of darkest winter. Wearing these items yesterday on a jaunt to Brick Lane Market, (which I see through new eyes since being shown around by my old friend Tamsin O Hanlon just before Christmas) I realised they needed retiring.

This brings me neatly onto the phenomenon I have only just cottoned onto in my own life which I am calling the "I can't wait to wear" frisson. The items listed above (and what I'm wearing in the picture at the top) are things I now CANNOT WAIT NOT TO WEAR, because I want winter to end, and to start wearing my new clothes. (More about them later this week - for I bought two items of CELINE!!!! And a pair of Phillip Lim 3.1 carrot leg khaki's.)  

ALSO, I found the rose-tinted spectacles I'm wearing in the picture at Brick Lane yesterday for £25. These glasses are my new Spring facewear, items I CANNOT WAIT TO WEAR a whole lot more!

Now, I'd better go. A glass of Cotes-du-Rhone calls....

THE COUTURE MENTOR: WORTH

Posted by the Fashion Editor at Large

A corset creation from the new Worth Haute Couture collection by Giovanni Bedin

I would like to introduce you all to a very dear friend and mentor of mine, Tony Glenville. When I first became a fashion journalist back in the mid-nineties I was terribly geeky about learning as much as possible about the history of fashion, the origins of the fashion system as we know it today and in particular how to recognise the fabrics and technniques used by designers on sight. My mentor for all of this in those days was Tony Glenville a trend forecaster by trade who was a regular journalistic contributor to The Independent, where I worked from 1995-1998. Tony is a wonderful guy with a distinctive Salvador Dali moustache, and he has been attending the Haute Couture in Paris since the 1960's when he was a fashion design student. 

He recalled to me this afternoon that when he first attended the Haute Couture shows in Paris they went on for weeks, with each design house having a daily afternoon show in order to accomodate the numbers of clients. A house model for, say, Dior, would be employed for three months at a time by the fashion house. Today a model gets employed for just half a day. The system of admittance to a show was equally archaic in the 1960's; "The Chambre Syndicale gave us letters allowing us to attend the shows, but not before asking us to present ourselves to them so they could approve what we were wearing."

In short, what Tony - who is now a creative director at London College of Fashion and resident Haute Couture expert at Luxure magazine - doesn't know about couture, can fit onto the tip of a pin. So I was deeply honoured when after teasing me with his visit to the Worth collection in Paris mid-week (I didn't have the time to see it) he sent me the below report. Charles Frederick Worth is the Englishman who is considered the forefather to the French Haute Couture, and who, by creating The House of Worth in 1871, created the first modern fashion house. Worth's son Gaston went on to found the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture. It's nice to know that something as French as the Couture was started by the English.

This is Empress Elisabeth of Austria wearing Worth in 1865; the similarity in the mood of the 2010 pieces above and below is, to my eyes, astounding. 

Today The House of Worth is in the hands of a 36 year old technique-obsessed Italian called Giovanni Bedin. I like the way he has created these gowns with a skirt that can be any length,  I would like to see these pieces on a body soon. But more than that I LOVE how Tony put this together and popped it into my in-box, just like that!

 THE GLENVILLE REPORT:  HAIL THE CONDENSED COUTURE GOWNS.

"Suspended in space and time each piece floats as a work of art. Lighter than air and with workmanship which encapsulates hundreds of years of fashion, this is a distillation of Haute Couture. Made to measure for each individual, although shown here with 60 cm skirts which encompass all the detailing of the famous crinolines of Monsieur Worth. Should you order a gown, of course you choose the length of the skirt. 

Giovanni Bedin, the designer of this collection, shows both an understanding of silhouette and exquisite detail in these pieces which include feather and decorative embellishment by legendary French atelier Lemarie and also Rigon in Italy and the craftsmanship of the Ninfa team, also in Italy.

To me, these are truly dream creations which look like works of art and yet also seem destined to dance their way across the world. This may be because they reminded me of something to do with Pavlova, the legendary ballerina, and yet they are even lighter and more ethereal than a ballet tutu."

Tony Glenville  is the Creative Director: School of Media & Communications, London College of Fashion

THANKYOU Mr G xxxxxx

Miss France 2009 - After JP Gaultier Défilé

Je préfère Chloé Mortaud en mannequin pour JP Gaultier qu'en Miss France pour
Mme de Fontenay. Pas vous ?
(merci Naylaah !)

Blow Wave Boy - Trocadéro - Paris

Sofia Fisher at Chanel Show - Paris FW

good god frida...

fashiongonerogue

love this girl! can't wait to see her in the upcoming fashion weeks ♥

valentine

tfs

Rouge

I have seen le "Moulin Rouge" hundreds and hundreds times and I cannot
grow tired of it. Every time I pass near Pigalle (Place Blanche), I cannot stop myself from having
a look at it just to check if its red is always so ... rouge, like a giant lipstick.

lighter

tobacco+leather

Skye Stracke - Paris Fashion Week

Giovanna Battaglia - Rue St-Martin - Paris

Tina - Rue de Turenne - Paris

I a am Stylist
I wear a vintage Jacket with artic Wolf from Canada
Black leggings and boots from DINSKO (Sweden)
My top is designed and made by me
My bag is from BURBERRY
Fashion is expressing myself and feeling creativ.
My look is vintage, black and classic at the same time.
I love politness and generosity of people.
I don't like people who are too superficial.
If I had 1 000 € I would go to CHANEL Boutik and go crazy !

GIVENCHY HAUTE COUTURE SS10 *FIERCE*

Posted by the Fashion Editor at Large

I thought I would share my petit photo gallery of the Givenchy Haute Couture show this week. I am a fan of the work of Riccardo Tisci, who is a man after my own heart. He studied at St Martins and last year I did an interview with him for Grazia, where we intantly clicked and talked comfortably about everything from Madonna, and London nightlcubs to reinventing the idea of the codes of Givenchy. I will dig these quotes up, as they are very relevant now that Riccardo is in full-flow with his work at Givenchy. Seven or so years ago, after Alexander McQueen and Julian Macdonald had both "had a go" at making Givenchy a brand for the 21st century, we all worried it would never find its feet again. Thankfully it has.

Photographs by the Fashion Editor at Large

Black & Blond Gang - Rue Cambon - Paris

sand

letmein

in the clear

-SHOPCUFFS-

i've been obsessing over clear frames lately and these are perfect!

find them HERE


♥

tangerine

fashiongonerogue

i can't wait for the HQ shot. she looks fabulous!

CHANEL HAUTE COUTURE *SIGH*

Gratuitous shot of Kanye West's girlfriend Amber Rose wearing a hooded dress, and better still a close up of Derek Blasberg's festive knit.

Is he looking a me?

When fashion is this beautiful, when technique is raised to an art form by a designer who is keeping the old ways alive, need I say more? Well, apart from thankyou, obviously.

Photographs by the Fashion Editor at Large