SHOW AND TELL: MARY SS12

Posted by Melanie Rickey, Fashion Editor at Large

I’ve been pretty involved with the Mary Portas brand at House of Fraser since its inception in February 2011. After all, I am married to the woman and when it comes to all things fashion, I admit, I like to be the one in charge. I’ve cooked up fashion cocktails, imagined fantasy advertising campaigns with Steven Meisel, Susie Bick and Christy Turlington, sat through dozens of meetings with the grown-up women the collection is aimed at, and its designer and buyers, listening to their needs and desires, and experienced a fast-track learning curve on how to get products from idea to reality to shop-floor in a matter of months.

Neon tee £80 and metallic skirt £199

There have been times when the sheer logistics of getting Product A shipped to destination B and on the shop floor by Time X at Price Y has boggled my mind, and blank faced confusion when the retail lingo used has gone over my head. Now though, I get it, and in gaining this understanding I’ve realised I don’t actually need to get it – not intimately. I’m not doing an A-Level in logistics and options. My thing is the ideas, the fashion, the very important fashion pieces, the style essentials and the seasonal trends they are representing. Basically, the fun stuff.

PJ trousers £99  and dress coat £150

Every week, Bethan and I sit down with the super stylish and knowledgable House of Fraser team- Jakki, the designer and Alex and Jennifer, the buyers. We all discuss what we're thinking and look at colours, sketches and samples. There's always plenty of debate and I love that we all come at it from a different angle but eventually we get to what you see in these lookbook images- all with Mary's golden seal of approval of course!

Pink skinnies £80 and Tatty Devine Melon necklace

What I’ve learned is that seasonal fashion trends can be spun to any age group; the same trend a 20 something will love, will also be adored by the 40 something woman, she’ll just wear it in another way, and don’t fricking well tell her otherwise.

Mary’s collection is shamelessly about clothes most women can wear for her daily and social life. It combines boldness, drama, sexiness, fun, and no-nonsense chic, but more than anything the range is figure flattering. We want a woman to be able to go to the shop and be dressed by a stylist and walk out dressed head to toe in a new outfit feeling a million bucks for less that £300 quid. We don’t want her to feel crappy – then we would have failed. That’s all really. 

Hyperfloral print dress £160

Animal blouse £95, 

For Spring, which you are seeing unfurl in some of our lush lookbook images and which is really happening outside both weather-wise and in the shops, we built on the success of the last collection, taking the things that really worked and improving them by offering more ways to play with it. OK, so Steven Meisel and Christy were busy that day, but still. 

Floral jersey top £65

I’ve made sure most of the key trends are incorporated, but not in an in-your-face way. We have neon, florals, digital prints, rich colour, pastels, tapered leg jeans, high waist jeans, silky pyjama style trousers, amazing print dresses and trousers and nipped and cropped jackets. Not forgetting the perfect leather jacket and cool sporty tanks. You know the stuff most of us wear day in and day out. 

Leather biker £300

What do you think of it? I’ll sign off now as I’ve written this on the train to Manchester where Mary’s largest store to date is opening at House of Fraser tonight with a fancy schmancy party. I’m looking forward to meeting people I’ve been communing with on Twitter for ages.

We've linked to most of the products currently available- look out for the rest in the coming weeks and months at the Mary/ House of Fraser website

The floral borders are from a print by Peter Bailey, available in scarf form here
Photography by Jonny Storey
Model- Anna Marie Cseh

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.

JONNY WOO AS MARY PORTAS - GENIUS!

Posted by Melanie Rickey, Fashion Editor at Large

The legendary performance artiste Jonny Woo has decided that my nearest and dearest is well worthy of parody, and I couldn't agree more!

SHOW AND TELL: SHOE BUSINESS

Posted by Melanie Rickey, Fashion Editor at Large

As most of you know, I have two fashion lives; one as a journalist and blogger, the other as a consultant. In my consultant life one of my clients is my other half. Just writing that makes me think arrrgggh! Collaborating with ones own spouse has the potential to be fraught and stressful, but happily this job isn't tough at all. When the project is as enjoyable as conjuring up perfect everyday fashion shoes for summer with Clarks, work becomes pleasure. The Mary Portas & Clarks shoe collection was conceived last year to be one offering beautifully made, gorgeously on-trend fashion shoes with the high quality and glorious hidden comfort Clarks is famous for.  The idea with each shoe is to create a fashion cocktail with chic + edge, then decorate as ingredients. The range is aimed those grown up women who have given up  taking a few Nurofen so they can go out in heels for the night.

The first Mary Portas + Clarks collection for AW11 was a hit, (massive phew) so I'm excited to show you a sneak preview of the new collection for Spring/Summer 2012 which arrives at Clarks online, selected Clarks stores and at House of Fraser Oxford Street on February 13th 2012.  My favourites are the lilac suede La Amelie (below, left) and the black studded La Provence, (the white ones are far below, right.)

La Amelie in lilac suede, natural snake leather and lime suede. £99.99  

La Gigi in coral combi leather and snake combi leather £79.99 + La Provence in white leather £89.99

A few of the styles from the first collection have been updated and given a twist for spring.

La Wesley in tan snake leather, £89.99 La Peep in lime suede, (see below), La Marianne in black £79.99 

We made a peep toe out of last season's platform court shoe... love the colour

La Peep £99.99 (also in black leather, lilac suede, natural snake) 

We also gave our black suede wedge boots the peep toe treatment and warmed up the colour

La Minx £110 (also available in black suede)

The bestselling easy court shoe from last season  has been refined to be more pointy 

La Marianne £79.99 (also in coral snake leather, natural snake leather and black snake leather) 

WHAT I WORE TO THE BAFTAS

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

Here are a couple of outfits you will NOT be seeing in the BAFTA fashion round-ups in the red-tops this week. Not enough fake tan and flesh for the tabloids. Which is exactly as it should be.  For my first stumble up a red carpet with Mary the objective was to work a high fashion look while remaining very firmly within my style comfort zone. There was always going to be a trouser-y skew to my look.

I was thinking of a cool skinny Balenciaga trouser suit, but my friend Sarah Mower suggested thinking about a coloured trouser with a white jacket, "to break up the suity-ness of it". I seized on her thought and visited net-a-porter for ideas. White jackets were not a problem. In central London I tried on a brilliant Maison Martin Margiela white tuxedo jacket, and ooh-ed and aaahed over the cut of Balmain's white tuxedo jacket, but at £1650 it was a fantasy too far. In Selfridges I found the perfect white jacket by Dries Van Noten.

Coloured trousers were less easy to source. Jeans were not an option for a black tie event, but when I saw that Maje the classy French label making a splash in London, had red crepe high-waist cigarette leg trousers, I went hunting. It seemed every Maje I called had just sold the last pair in my size. In the South Molten Street store I saw a girl buying them as I walked in. Grrrr. Eventually I tracked down what seemed to be the last size 10 pair in London. Success!

To pull the jacket and trousers together I wore a body with a double deep-v and long sleeves. To garnish, my pieces de resistance  -  totally fabulous and amazing wooden platform sandals with gold peep-toe tips - were put into play. The shoes are the result of a collaboration between Roland Mouret and Christian Louboutin and created for Roland's SS11 show in Paris where they were used to accessorise every single catwalk look. My reasoning for buying the shoes from Matches was that if they could work for every single outfit in a fashion show - from day time trouser looks through to red carpet gowns - they could work for me. I was right. I'm proper delighted with my outfit, and unlike a one-wear dress all of the elements have an afterlife.  And of course I love Mary's outfit too. Her jumpsuit (from by Malene Birger at my-wardrobe.com) is as fashionable as it gets right now. Trust me when I say jumpsuits are set to be the biggest fashion sensation of the latter half of 2011. 

The shoes.....buy them here

Photo: REX FEATURES

WHEN JONATHAN ROSS MET MARY PORTAS...

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

Oh jeezus. For those fashion blog readers of a nervous disposition you might want to look away now. And not for the shoddy photography and creased clothes demonstrated in these here pictures. No. It is the clothing items featured. Namely the hilariously bad jeans (and more) donated by dear Jonathan Ross to my betrothed Mary Portas last night when she recorded the show which is to air on BBC1 in a few hours time. OK so here is the pair of totally hideous flared Jean-Paul Gaultier jeans Wossy gave to Mary so she could put them up for sale in the Grazia suppported Save The Children "Mary's Living & Giving" charity shop which opens in the morning on Westbourne Grove. Are you ready?

 

Ohhhhhhh myyyyy goodnesss!

"I got it wrong" Jonathan said to Mary of these repulsive flared jeans. What possessed him? Also in the photo is pair of England shorts sized for a toddler donated by Gary Lineker.  

 

Gary Lineker did a bit better than Wossy. He donated these two suits (plus a Gucci one that I didn't spot in another bag). The one on the left is Neil Barrett. The one on the right is by Etro. The size inside says "50". They will be £150 each.

Jonathan also donated the rather nice T-Shirt below to Mary's Living & Giving Shop which opens at 10am. Mary will be there!

Wossy's T-Shirt.

Mary’s Living and Giving Shop, 177 Westbourne Grove, W11 2SB (020 7727 6166 or savethechildren.org.uk).

MEET MY PT

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

The Fashion Editor at Large (in Falke) with The Wedding Trimmer Suzanne Mallaghan (in Sweaty Betty) 

Being naturally tall and slim is akin to winning a genetic lottery. You can happily stuff your face with food, live an inert existence and nothing visibly bad or ugly happens to your body. The downside is running out of breath when dashing for a bus. Then you pass the 35 years on earth mark and everything changes. For me the upper arm wobbles came first. Years of naturally taut and tiny upper arms (a large wrist bracelet was a snug fit up there) collapsed when, over the long winter, a loose hammock of flesh took residence there. Then my 28waist skinny J Brand jeans wouldn't go further than my hips. I did not recognise my own thighs or rear. These physical events wiped out half of my wardrobe, and with it my identity. In a flash I could understand all those women who favour dresses over trousers and wear long tops with leggings. Which makes me sound like a stupid skinny bitch with no idea about what it is like to have a real woman's body; and I was.  

All this forced me to find a personal trainer. With a personal trainer there is no option but to turn up, especially when said PT is pressing your doorbell and saying "come on!" three mornings a week and if you cancel you pay anyway.

Suzanne demonstrates how to build triceps using a Kettle Bell.

My search for the perfect PT ended when I found Suzanne Mallaghan. Suzanne runs two programs - one is straight personal training, the other targets brides-to-be and is more deadline driven. When I began working with her four months ago I was not planning a Civil Partnership this summer. I was thinking of a December event, but when Mary surprised me by setting the date for next Sunday (heyulp!!!) The Wedding Trimmer side of her business kicked into play. Suzanne is a qualified personal trainer and Pilates instructor as well as a nutrition consultant. Being the daughter of a poet plus a brainy ex-city girl and an ex-national league Basketball player I reasoned she would be perfect for me. And she is! The sessions are varied, and fun, and hard. Mary also gatecrashes a session at least once a week.

The Fashion Editor at Large using theTRX resistance contraption

My training has been difficult. I was weak as a kitten at the beginning, Suzanne had to build me up slowly. It took ages to get the feeling I was fit, but at the beginning of April when she announced "You now have a basic level of fitness, next step is to pump out workouts three times a week until D-Day" I nearly cried with happiness. 

The biggest change is in how I hold myself; my posture is improved, I feel more together and confident, and I can get my arms out again. They don't look like SJP's, but rather appear just like how they used to. I can run for 30 minutes no problem, and also be able to conduct a conversation while running after 30 minutes and sound normal, not remotely out of breath. My strength is now considerable, and I can booty dance and bogle to Beyonce and Dizzy like the best 22 years olds, but obviously only do this home alone. 

The Pilates work is the most difficult, and where I need to focus my energies. My stomach is not wash-board by any stretch, but come next Sunday, I'm ready for my close up.  

 

WHAT I DO WITH SUZANNE:

We do three sessions a week incorporating cardiovascular, resistance,  flexibility components and she splits sessions according to muscle groups

Day 1: Cardio = boxing, Resistance training = chest, triceps, shoulders

Day 2: Cardio = interval training (walk, jog, run), Resistance. Training = back, biceps

Day 3: Cardio = hardcore kettlebell training mixed with ladderwork, stepwork etc. Resistance training = legs, core, abs

What I like about the sessions is that while they are working set muscle groups, the work itself is extremely varied. She says it is to keep me distracted while I work hard. So we might be using TRX suspension training, weights, kettlebells and resistance bands one day, and medicine balls, dumbells, a bench press, skipping rope or ladder the next time. Suzanne loves to go shopping for new equipment; she gets as excited about a new contraption - eg. TRX I am using above - as I do about a new Celine handbag. So it is all good.

The Wedding Trimmer

So there you have it. The best kept secret PT in London is no longer a secret.

http://www.suzannemallaghanpt.com/

http://weddingtrimmer.co.uk/

Photographed on location in Paddington Recreation Ground by Fashion Editor at Large

WHAT WE ARE NOT WEARING FOR OUR WEDDING DAY

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

This image is the copyright of Melanie Rickey and The Fashion Editor at Large blog. Not to be used without permission.

From a purely fashion/clothing/style based perspective, it is a most fascinating thing to be getting married to another woman in a Civil Partnership Ceremony, as the proper jargon dictates we call it. As two women with long-standing fashion-related careers it is a given that we are expected to pull something totes fabulous out of the bag. But what?

From the off I knew the consideration for how our two looks would work together had to be paramount. None of that "keeping it secret" from your partner business. What we wear has to work together. The outfits have to complement without being too similar, bring out the best in each individual, and pull us together visually as a couple too. And they MUST BE UTTERLY FABULOUS. Must must must...

Another thing that we keep being asked is "which one of you will wear the trouser suit."  I'm not stupid, I do know there is an element of humour to this question. However, I think the hint of mirth added to the timbre of the voice of the questioner is there because they want it to SOUND like they are joking, but meanwhile they are serious. They think that in girl-girl couples there is always one who wears the trousers. Well FYI: we are both partial to a jazzy new-look Balenciaga bootcut, but not on our wedding day, thanks.

The precedence of Ellen Degeneres in a white trouser suit and Portia di Rossi in a beautiful meringue wedding dress on their big day has been set, more's the pity. I'm convinced the union of Ellen and Portia gave rise to the above snapshot of us which was taken by the wonderful Caroline Burstein of Browns Bride on our first day of "what are we going to wear to get married" shopping.

Full of naive hope that the whole process would be easy, I booked us an appointment for an hour long trying on session at Browns Bride, thinking we would find roomfuls of cocktail wedding dresses that would look amazing on us. What planet was I on? Wedding dresses are SOOO not us. When we got there and saw the wonderful weddingy drama of the exquisite but very trad frocks the reality that we needed a whole other approach to to this thing clunked on our heads like a barrier in a car-park.

Don't get me wrong. If I was a bride in the traditional sense and marrying a man, I would have fallen at the feet of Caroline B and let her guide me to the nearest Oscar de la Renta, Marchesa, Akira or Galliano for Christian Dior masterpiece. However, we are about as untrad as it is possible to be on the wedding front. So it was with unbridled camp glee that we slung on the beautiful bias cut bridal sheaths suggested by Caroline, "just so you have a memory of the visit". I am eternally grateful for that. Everytime I see the snapshot, I laugh at how wrongheaded we were on the start of our wedding dress journey.

Things are looking much better now. I STILL have not totally got my dress sorted, but lets say I have a world class designer on the case and Yasmin Sewell on hand to keep me sane.

Now that I've broken the ice on discussing my CPC with you, I feel so much better. Might as well let you in on a few other secrets as I go along.

I will introduce you to my personal trainer this week. She is hardcore.  

With thanks to Browns Bride. http://www.brownsbride.com/ 

The Browns Bride dresses are by Elizabeth Fillmore.

Thanks to http://www.tengossip.com/ for the Ellen and Portia shot.