WHAT THE WORLD'S TOP MODEL TOLD ME OVER BREAKFAST THIS MORNING..

Posted by The Fashion Editor at Large

Oops. I forgot to say the world's top HAND and body part model. But, you know, I really feel it is my duty to bring you stories that illustrate the other side of the fashion bubble. There is a lot more to being "in fashion" than being a designer, catwalk model, photographer, stylist or fashion editor.

Gemma does Avon nail colours

One of the many careers available is as a body-part model. A fact that was highlighted to me when I came across a party invitation in my email in-box from Body London sent by a certain Gemma Howorth. Upon rsvp-ing, and then cancelling due to snow, I eventually met the 25 year old for breakfast this morning and I had a most entertaining start to the day with a charming girl who is so obsessed with the upkeep of her perfect hands she wears white cotton gloves (99p from the Boots the chemist) while on holiday (see below). "That is on top of wearing factor 60 on my hands," she confides, before adding "People nudge each other and point when I lie on the beach. They think I've got leprosy or something. I also moisturize my hands 30 times a day. They get thirsty...In fact they are thirsty now." Then from behind me Gemma spots Pat McGrath (the world's top make-up artist) pop into the cafe for her coffee (she lives around the corner from me) and practically fizzes in excitement.

Gemma sunbathing in her white gloves on Ibiza

I'm laughing, she's laughing, but she's deadly serious too. Hand modelling is big business, lucrative enough that her hands are insured at Lloyds of London for seven figures. Her hands are so precious to her that famously at her wedding 18 months ago, she asked her husband not to squeeze her hand too tightly for a wedding photo, saying it loudly it enough for all her wedding guests to hear. They laughed.

Gemma modelling for British Vogue

Gemma Howorth started her agency Body London a year ago with three models, herself being the "top hands" of the agency, oh and she models her feet and legs too. Now she has 70 models on her books, and in the last six months her men Renato and Ashley have become the top earners thanks to demand for gorgeous man-hands for Blackberry and i-Phone commercials.

In the last year Gemma has been the hands of Kate Moss, Lily Cole for Rimmel, (see below), Lizzie Jagger, Natalie Imbruglia, Kylie Minogue and has worked for Vogue and YSL. "I slip my arms around them from behind and become their hands," she says. "I think its important for girls to know that you don't have to be stick thin to be a successful model." The earning power is good too - a top body part model can earn between £200 and £2000 a day depending on the client. It's not all fashion and beauty: Gemma has been the hands of Sainsbury's and Felix cat food too. She recently spent several hours breaking a chocolate bar for a TV commercial. "What I didn't get was that the model before me said she couldn't do it. How can you NOT be able to break a chocolate bar??!!". It seems there may well be sme diva's in hand-modellling... Not Gemma though.

Gemma's hands masquerading as Lily Cole's hands

"One of the funniest shoots I had to do recently involved my lying on top of the actress Rose Byrne and placing my little finger in her mouth for Max Factor," she says, "Rose was so much fun to work with."

Gemma's hand on Rose Byrne's mouth for Max Factor

A less funny incident was when a naked gold-painted model who was sitting on a high stool with her back to the camera, while Gemma had her arms wrapped around her from front to back, fell asleep on her. "I was basically sitting between her legs, and her breath stank of alcohol."

Gemma at work on a shoot for Intelligent Life

"I did a YSL campaign shot by Solve Sundsbo and they has this absolutely stunning supermodel and I was the hand model... I have to get my hands and arms to look like they belonged on her body. Not as easy as one would think! So I have to crouch down behind her and get my arms underneath her armpits and make them look like they should belong on her body; this is a very common position for a hand model. It is extremely hard as the model is constantly moving and I cannot see what my hands are doing. But as I have been doing it for so long, I know exactly which poses to do and what works."

So how did she get started in the business? "A family friend told me a I had beautiful hands when I was 15, and took me to an agency. I started doing hand modelling and thought it would be a job to finance me through my studies, but I became quite good at it. After doing a marketing degree at LCF I came back to my beginnings and set up the agency."

Essential hand model skills are, according to Gemma, steadiness, patience, great-looking hands and nails, being able to hit your mark under immense pressure and a good, easy-going personality.

Out of curiousity - oh OK, because my nails are crap and her are amazing - I ask Gemma for her hand-care tips and here they are:

1. My wonder product is almond oil. SO good for hands. I also advise my models to eat a handful of almonds a day.
2. For my cuticles I religiously use Phenomen Oil by Jessica
3. L'Occitanne Hand Creme
4. Chanel nail colours. I love them!
5. Drink a lot of milk
6. Avoid doing housework.

Gemma is one of the most energised, positive and together 25 year olds I have ever met, and I wish her all the success with her business.

http://www.bodylondon.com/

SS10 CATWALK: INTRODUCING TRENDS THURSDAY!

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

Christopher Kane incorporate lingerie detailing into his good-girl-gone-bad collection for SS10

At the end of each month of catwalk shows in February/March and September/October I come home and immediately closet myself in the study to create an enormous and comprehensive trend report. It helps focus the mind on what I've been doing for the previous few weeks. And when intensely using Chris Moore's brilliant catwalking.com you see what you missed in the flash and rush of a runway show. I love Chris.

Yesterday afternoon, while scrolling through my opus to SS10 it occurred to me that I could now serialise my trend report on FEAL. So I welcome you to the very first Trends Thursday!

I'm kicking-off with the mega-trend for lingerie, corsetry, and visible underwear. So many designers picked up on this visible/invisble, body-contouring, uber-feminine trend; each in their own unique way.  Likewise we can also adopt it in our own unique way.

So here is my personal edit. Let the pictures talk to you.

   high fashion super gorge lingerie fashion inspirations for ss10

Sophia Kokosalaki - love the way she has created the corset top with bra detail underneath. SO beautiful.

Loewe - Stuart Vevers mixed orange lace with khaki, a colour blend to take note of, methinks

Just Cavalli - who knew putting a satin bra over a tank could look so sexy.

YSL - this is demure, yet sensible and you don't need to share your midriff with the world

Ferretti - how pretty is this? The lingerie trend can be as sexy or innocent as you want it to be

Dolce Gabbana - I have seen Stefano and Domenico's corsetry up-close, and the workmanship is flawless

Justin and Thea of Preen are superb designers - I love their dresses, and this blends the corsetry theme with a light touch

Jean-Paul Gaultier - hmm. Love this shot. If I was 22 again I would wear this clubbing

The brilliant Giles Deacon corset dress - his SS10 show was my favourite EVER Giles collection. Can't wait to wear it!

Louis Vuitton - just drink in this outfit for a while....The tassled shoes, the duffel, the denim corset. It's brilliant!

 

I was lucky enough to have Antonio Berardi talk me through the making of this corset on Grazia Daily. It was created by hand and then built into the the dress. His work is exquisite and totally contemporary

Bottega Veneta - this is how I will be wearing the lingerie trend. So chic! To me it looks like a new beginning.

Christian Dior - for me John Galliano was on total form for SS10. When I saw this in the showroom, it was actually an all-in-one.

Christian Dior - another one from John. This is a dress, and when I got up-close to it, it looked like a silken treasure from the trousseau of a forties Hollywood starlet that had been re-shaped for the 21st century

Fendi - a modern way of showing the underwear trend.

Dolce Gabbana - love the way they did this play of sheer/opaque goodgirl/badgirl. Modest sexiness is where it's at

After viewing this you should be an expert, and when you see the trend highlighted in print media you can nod sagely and say "Oh yes, I know all about the lingerie trend for SS10!".

Blogging is all about comments, so don't be shy, tell Fashion Editor at Large what you think about all this....



THANKYOU TO CHRIS MOORE & CATWALKING.COM FOR USAGE OF ALL THE LOVELY CATWALK IMAGES

CAN VEGETARIAN'S WEAR FUR WITH A CLEAR CONSCIENCE?

Posted by the Fashion Junior at Large

Just before Christmas, when the first blanket of snow fell across London, I fell in love with a vintage coat. It was knee length, duck egg blue, with four big antique buttons down the front. Beautiful. But the element that made it really special was paradoxically also the thing that stopped me from buying said coat. It had a real fur collar. As the Fashion Editor at Large pointed out in her rather controversial previous post I am a vegetarian, so it goes without saying that I am against wearing fur. No matter how lovely the coat is I simply can’t help but see that fur collar for what it once was.

Other trendy gals about London town hold no such reservations. I’ve seen women of all ages wearing real fur again as if it were the most natural thing in the world (which, if we hark back to the practices of primitive humans, one might argue it is). And with paparazzi shots of Kate Moss and Victoria Beckham draped in fox appearing regularly in the media (see below), it seems the last taboo has broken down and fur is making a brazen return to mainstream fashion.

What happened to the days when fur was a dirty word, and women harboured their grandmother’s antique fur coats at the back of their closets as if they were guilty of some unspeakable crime? How are these women reconciling their morals with their thirst for fur? Well, my theory is, the women wearing it believe they’ve found a fashion loophole – vintage.

A shop assistant from Beyond Retro (home of the fabulous fur collar coat) told me that they had seen a huge resurgence of people buying vintage stoles, coats, bomber jackets and hats this winter. ‘Younger, more fashion conscious women are accessorising with vintage fur. It’s a real trend item at the moment’, she said.

A friend of mine, who purchased a rabbit fur coat uncomfortably close to her purchase of a pet rabbit, is one such woman. ‘I just love the way it feels’ she explained to me, ‘Fur is very tactile and I think people are inexplicably drawn to it’. Fur is undeniably luxuriant, sexy and ultra-soft, and although my friend admits she’s not 100% comfortable wearing it out in public, she generally falls into the Georgina Langford camp of thought.

Well, animal rights protestors are quick to insinuate that the wearing of vintage fur promotes the consumption of new fur, forming a loop rather than a loophole. PETA spokeswomen Sam Glover is keen to disperse the rationale that old fur is fair game; ‘Whether they were killed yesterday or 50 years ago, animals are not ours to wear. It doesn’t make their suffering any more forgivable or the cruelty any less hardhearted’.

On the catwalk I see more designers using fur – Fendi, Gaultier, Macdonald – than not – step forward lone star Stella McCartney.

Back to my dilemma. The fabulous fur collar coat had no labels inside. I have no idea how it was produced, but I assume it wasn’t a pleasant process for the animal. How could it be? And whilst many of us may be making a conscious effort to consume food, coffee and clothing that is ethically produced, how can we be sure that the fur industry is being monitored appropriately?

In the case of new fur items the Origin Assured label supposedly indicates the garment’s country of origin. Only furs produced in countries with strict regulations in favour of animal welfare are allowed to carry the label, thus ensuring atrocities like those made explicit by PETA (whose undercover video footage of fur farms in China shows foxes being skinned alive. F-ing HORENDOUS!) are minimised. Of course none of this can be said for vintage, much of which is produced long before these regulations were introduced, so don't go thinking it's ok!

Andy Lenhart, the chairman of International Fur Trade Federation, who introduced the labelling programme believes it will help the fur debate to mature; ‘For years there has been a misperception of our industry, but the fur industry is a responsible industry. IFTF and its members deplore cruelty to animals and promote strict codes of practice that meet or exceed established and accepted standards for animal welfare’. Hmmm.

Fifty quid is all I would have had to fork out for a duck egg blue coat with antique buttons and a fine mink fur collar. But at what cost to my moral conscience I ask!? Despite loving the coat, I could not put fashion before my morals. I eventually left Beyond Retro empty handed, and walked out onto Cheshire Street, bracing myself against the chill. Across the road running towards me was an urban fox. He had a healthy coat of auburn fur and a handsome fluffy tail (Shhh. Don’t tell Victoria Beckham).
I’m taking it as a sign...

FASHION 1.........................ANIMAL RIGHTS PROTESTERS - NIL

Posted by the Fashion Editor at Large

Kate Moss

I hate to say it, but the battle betwee the anti-fur camp and the fur-wearing brigade has been won by the fur-wearers. That means Anna Wintour has won. The foxes cowering in a cage somewhere in Norway have lost. The International Fur Trade Federation (IFTF) have triumphed and People for the Ethical treatment of Animals (PETA) have failed.

I came to this conclusion yesterday while reading the Evening Standard letters page when a certain Georgina Langford, the VEGETARIAN events manager for a magazine named Glass, wrote in to say:

"I am both a vegetarian and a vintage fur wearer. Although I do not condone the continued killing of animals for food and fashion, and would never buy a new fur, the pelts for most vintage coats were produced more than 30 years ago. It is surely better to wear these beautiful garments than leave them to moulder in attics, which is akin to throwing away half-eaten steak. Vintage fur coats epitomise winter glamour; fake fur leaves the wearer wanting the real deal. Last year I treated myself to an Arctic fox jacket and during this cold snap it has been worth every penny. To save on heating bills and reduce my carbon footprint, I often wear it indoors."

I have never read such a load of ill-informed, wrong-headedness in my life. How can someone wear fur and be a vegetarian at the same time? I just do not understand it. Stella McCartney needs to have a word with this girl. And because the animal died before she was born, that makes it OK does it? I fear this girl has been bitten by the "fashion dunce" bug, in which a normally bright girl becomes an airhead in the name of being fashionable. Even the caption written by an Evening Standard sub-editor suggesting Ms Langford "epitomise[s] winter glamour" caused my hackles to rise.

Obviously, the reason I am on the subject of fur wearing is due to how this cold snap (another three inches of snow in West London over-night) has revealed the true face of the fur-wearing public in London. It is so much bigger than I EVER imagined. Walking the dog I see old ladies in fur coats. Not rich ladies; locals. In and around town I see young cute fashiony girls in rabbit fur bomber jackets, fox stoles; Arctic fox belted coats, you name it. I can't help thinking the battle is lost.

The British Fur Trade Association estimate that worldwide sales of fur totalled more than $15 billion towards the end of the naughties – marking a decade of continued growth.

It seems the public perception of wearing fur is that it is not just OK to wear fur, it is fashionable to wear fur. Meaning that more and more animals will have to be farmed just for their pelts, with no usable by-products for human consumption.

I know a lot about the fur industry. I have been to a fur farm, and heavily researched the area. This was done in my own attempt to ethically decide for myself whether wearing fur was right or wrong. I then wrote about my quest in the Saturday Telegraph Magazine.

After a great deal of work and thought I came to the conclusion that, as a meat-eater, I would wear the by-products of the animals I do eat. So leather for shoes and bags, feathers for pillows and padded winter coats, wool for sweaters, and sheepskin for boots, hats, gloves.  

That works for me, and I can stand up for my reasons for wearing animals. Georgina Langford's "reasons" for wearing fur are pathetic. The Fashion Junior at Large is also a vegetarian, and would NEVER wear fur. We've just had a long chat about why she DIDN'T/COULDN'T buy a coat with a fur collar at the weekend, and I have asked to to write all about it for us. So look out for that in the next few hours. In the meantime let's ponder those shots of Victoria Beckham and Kate Moss wearing fox.

Victoria Beckham

Photo credits: REX FEATURES

MEET THE FASHION JUNIOR AT LARGE!

Posted by the Fashion Junior at Large

me

As the proper media launch date of the Fashion Editor at Large blog grows tantalisingly imminent I thought perhaps it was time that the Fashion Junior at Large was unveiled and introduced. My name is Esme Benjamin, and I am a compulsive writer and lifelong fashion fan. A typically broke mid-twenties graduate, I live in east London with a shoe designer, a graphic designer, a film editor, and two advertising creative’s. All of my housemates are boys, one of them is my boyfriend Sid, and as a group they have styled themselves as The Lorden Art Factory – a collective who, when they aren’t doing artsy stuff for their respective occupations, are doing more artsy stuff as a hobby and tongue-in-cheek money spinning project. I will keep you up to date with their deeds as and when. If you’re wondering how I ended up here, let me assure you it hasn’t been a fast or simple route.

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS HAVE INCLUDED
1. A hard earned distinction in Fashion Journalism from University of the Arts.
2. An internship at NYLON magazine (AKA a reason to go to New York which was more acceptable to my parents than shopping, eating and getting drunk in Williamsburg).
3. Eating waffles drowning in molten chocolate on an all expenses paid press trip to Brussels.
4. Being photographed for the final of Grazia’s street style competition
5. Working with the Fashion Editor at Large after much determined harassment on my part.
6. Managing to blag a front row seat at my very first London Fashion Week show (don’t ask me how!).

CAREER LOWS HAVE INCLUDED
1. Picking up the poop of NYLON’s office Shar Peis
2. Fetching Diet Coke for an editor at In Style who insisted on calling me ‘Elsie’ no matter how many times I tried to tell her it was ESME!
3. Not getting paid for my first freelance writing job in London (interviews with V V Brown and Fred Butler) because the magazine went bust.
4. Assisting on a shoot with a size 8 model who was considered by the stylist to have ‘chunky legs’
5. Being downgraded to a standing ticket at my second ever London Fashion Week (oh the shame!)

So that’s me - the Robin to Fashion Editor at Large’s Batman. Her right hand girl. I hope my perspective as a 24 year old who is undergoing a baptism of fire into the fashion world will offer readers a contrast whilst complimenting Fashion Editor at Large as a respected and established name. Let the journey commence!

WHAT WAS IT LIKE AT THE 90'S SHOPPE?

Posted by the Fashion Editor at Large

So did the Nineties shop at Selfridges live up to yesterday's stroll down memory lane? Well it gave me a lot of food for thought.

Today I met with the lovely Lucy Willis and Linda Hewson, the two curators of the shop for tea and we chatted about how the idea came about.

"We wanted to kick off the new decade with something provocative and nostalgic," says Linda Hewson. "A lot of people who lived through the decade as adults actually remember very little about the Nineties. Maybe they were having too good a time."

"There was a lot of laughter when we first got the product list through, " says Lucy Willis. "We had opened the criteria right up, so each buying department had their bit."

It's true that what you get in the store is a bit of everything. Classic books of the decade - for me the ultimate was Trainspotting - old magazines, CDs. Spice Girls AND Nirvana? I noted. "They were as important as each other in their own way" says Linda. For me it was Massive Attack and Nirvana all the way.

Also on sale are CD Walkmans, a bit of Damien Hirst YBA merch, limited edition T-Shirts from 90's club night WORK IT (which I hear is the best party in London right now), make up, perfume, sunglasses and clothes. Cue CK One, Thierry Mugler 'Angel' and Mac cosmetics.

My favourite aspect from a fashion point of view was seeing a cardigan from a 1994 collection by Marc Jacobs (Official Grunge if you please) supplied by Rellik on one side of the room, and then the kind of beige Acrylic Grandad cardian with "woven" leather buttons for £15 from Beyond Retro on the other side of the room. The very kind of piece that inspired Marc to do Grunge in the first place.  There is also some great Alaia tailoring, some Pam Hogg, a precisely tailored black Comme jacket with a split through the ribcage, and a Perspex Chanel link belt - but be quick. Everything supplied by Rellik is one off. Sadly NO Helmut Lang there today.

I got magazine collection envy when I saw the below. I collect magazines but lost HALF of my 90's collection - precious copies of The Face and Blitz - when a flat-share I had in Stoke Newington went wrong and I was locked out by my Bi-Polar flat-mate. As a die-hard fan of the youthful beauty of Kate Moss I might be back for the below set of covers. But will I ever regain the June 1990 cover of The Face featuring Kate that I used to treasure?

I will sign off tonight by showing you the products I am most likely to buy from this shop; namely the limited edition T-Shirts from the girls behind WORK IT. And here they are!

Oh and a big thankyou to Linda and Lucy who gave this blogger a good time. What fun they had creating this shop!

That's Lil Kim on the left; a crop top that says Work IT in the middle (not for me) and Biggie Smalls on the right. May he RIP.

The 90's are Vintage shop at Selfridges is open until 31 January with new stock arriving every week until its over.

THE TUMBLE OF MY MIND AS WE ENTER A NEW DECADE

                                       May I suggest you read this post while listening to the above.

I went to Africa to see in the new decade. I love Africa. It's a good place to clear the brain. I was very VERY glad to say goodbye to the noughties, and this new decade feels so full of promise. I've been back from my Africa jaunt for a few days now, and still my brain is scrambled. It's churning like a washing machine with visuals from films, fashion references, music, books, sights, sounds, smells, thoughts each appearing at intervals as they would if you were staring into a little round door.....

Today is the first day for the rest of my blog. A day will now not go by without at least one post. So I've been wondering what to start with. This is my best offer: a glimpse inside the washing machine.

LISTENING
I'm obsessed with The XX, and the track above especially. This number is a bit old hat now if you are on the edge of the edge of new music (I listen to NME Radio when I'm not tuned into Radio 4 so I'm doing OK). If I were 22 now I would look like the singer in The XX. In fact when I was 22 I DID look like the singer from the band. I love this track; I listen to it on repeat. Also can't stop playing Exlovers cover of Wicked Game by Chris Isaak.

THINKING ABOUT THE 90'S
Selfridges opens a concept store dedicated to the 90's tomorrow morning. The 90's were my formative years, I did it ALLLLL in the 90's, and I'm going to Selfridges tomorrow for a walk-through of the space with the creative director and can't wait. Reading about the store and its products - original 90's fashion supplied by Rellik, bumbags, CK One, Nevermind by Nirvana etc - has given me all sorts of flashbacks, so I went down memory lane for a walk............

As you can see this was me in 1991, just after I left home. (I'm NOT the girl puffing on a large reefer). All we wore was puffa jackets and novelty jumpers with coloured jeans in the winter (even indoors as you can see, no heating), and in the summer Stussy T-shirts, high-top trainers, and cut -off jeans. Not so different from what I've been wearing today in the sub-zero temps.

Not long after the previous picture I cut my hair off and wore tiny cotton vests and boyish jeans for quite a while loving Helmut Lang (and wearing Muji copies) while listening to Massive Attack, Kruder & Dorfmeister, Portishead,  oh and worshipping Kate Moss (just a year younger than me) and generally working the androgynous look that the 90's was all about. The other girl in the picture (on the right) is my gorgeous sister Jennifer.

 

Yeah, I know I look hilarious. But things got better for me as the decade wore on. By the end of the 90's I was working for the Sunday Times Style as Fashion Features Editor, was dating a fashion designer (Sonja Nuttall), and wearing labels like Helmut Lang, Yohji Yamamoto, Hussein Chalayan, McQueen and of course copious amounts of Ms Nuttall's gear. I also unfortunately streaked my hair blonde (see below), lived in an east london loft on De Beauvoir road, right around the corner from where Giles Deacon now lives (I will never live in a loft again - so 90's, so loud, so cold) and listened to a CD walkman on my way to work at Wapping. I also wore CK One and my favourite film was The Matrix.

   

Here I'm wearing minimalist Sonja Nuttall and some denim wedges I think they were from Russell & Bromley.

Other things on my mind: (I will be exploring all of these more this week)

1. What will this 90's shop look like?

2. New dressing for a new decade - our wardrobe staples have changed - I think I've pinned down the new essentials

2. African prints - aside from the pastel mania that has been reflected prettily on the February covers from British Elle and Vogue, I am seeing Africa everywhere, and NOT just cos I got back from there.

3. I'm getting bored of Lady Gaga - I thought her hat hair this weekend was just stoopid. Not clever or funny, or a statement - just bla.

4. My Tax Return

5. Why am I re-reading The Fashion System by Roland Barthes?