TRENDS THURSDAY: ATTENTION! IT'S SS10 MILITARY...

Posted by the Fashion Junior at Large

Welcome one and all to the second Trends Thursday.  My pick from the SS10 catwalks is military and utility wear. This trend was one of the most prominent for the entire season of shows, and just you wait for the high street collections to hit the stores. It will be military a go-go. I've already got my key piece; I can't stop wearing my studded F2 army jacket from Urban Outfitters. Just call me Private Benjamin!

Marc Jacobs - This dressed-up take shows a softer side to military. Loving the ruffled tiers as a contrast to the no-nonsense unfussy jacket.

Jean Paul Gaultier - Tough and sexy. The croc corset is a nice little nod to the lingerie trend as well.

Balmain - I love this shredded khaki tee, it's exactly the type of thing my parent's generation just wouldn't understand. Rebellion!

Chloe -The clean modern approach to uniform dressing. The buttons are fastened all the way to the neck - I'm loving that look more and more.

Alexander Wang - He really nailed it for me this season. Love the sporty cropped-top layering effect and flash of flesh.

Balmain (another for good measure, because they own this trend) - Distressed jeans, shredded t-shirt, bullet belt, sequined tailcoat. Christophe Decarnin, you are a genius.

 

Celine - Be still my beating heart! Ms Philo creates the slickest of the bunch. The epaulettes are a beautiful touch.

Rag & Bone - This outfit is styled to perfection in my eyes. Loving all the layers peeping out and folding over one another. The shirts look as light as air as well.

Louis Vuitton: The use of combat-style deep pockets on this skirt is pretty cool (and note the shirt buttoned all the way to the top again), but comically vile clog boots with a moustache? Really?

Picture credits:

Chris Moore/Catwalking.com

UPDATE!: GET THEE TO SAVE THE CHILDREN IN CLAPHAM!

Posted by the Fashion Junior at Large
Wondering what you can do to help the people of Haiti today? Here’s the answer: Get your butts down to Save The Children’s Clapham branch this afternoon where Brix Smith-Start is generously donating a van full of designer goodies from her boutique as well as items donated by her customer's including these summery little numbers:

See by Chloe flower dress with pleat detail: WAS £385, NOW £120!!!

 

Lungta de Fancy grey dress: WAS £329.50, NOW £100!!!

  See by Chloe flower skirt with pleat:  WAS £229.50, NOW £70!!!

"I wanted to do something with the clothes we had left over from the season, and turn them straight into cash that went directly to help the people of Haiti," says Brix. "I started a Twitter campiagn last Friday and yesterday we realised we had collected hundreds of items and were running out of space, so we called Save The Children!"

There are hundreds of items, not just high fashion womenswear from Charles Anastase and Phillip Lim, but menswear tailoring and shirts, and clothes from the hip east London skate shop, Wholesome.

Save The Children, who have already spent £400,000 on water, sanitation and hygiene and £300,000 on emergency protection, education and getting the kids back to some semblance of normal life in the wake of the earthquake, are using all the proceeds to continue their good work in Haiti. All you have to do is go shopping. The clothes will be priced at around a third of their original cost and we have it on good authority that the drop will include a SS09 3.1 Philip Lim dress which was originally £650 and is now £200! On your marks, get set…GO GO GO and tell your friends toooooo...

Save the Children

36 High Street
Clapham
London SW4 7UR
Telephone: 020 7978 2542

CLOTHES ARE BEING PRICED UP AS WE SPEAK AND WILL BE AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE FROM 6PM THIS EVENING!

UPDATE!!!! ANOUCK LEPERE, PETER PILOTTO AND THE ZWAAN...

Posted by the Fashion Editor at Large

Anouck and her choux masterpiece

Last night, I attended the most wonderful dinner hosted by Peter Pilotto and Anouck Lepere in the secret room at Liberty of Regent Street. The wood panelled chamber was Arthur Lasenby Liberty's office from 1875 through to the late 1890's, and felt suitably atmospheric.

The soiree was to celebrate Peter Pilotto and his partner Christopher de Vos's much deserved win of best young designers at the British Fashion Awards last December, and several of us were encased in Pilotto dresses and feeling fabulous. The joy of a Pilotto dress is it is comfortable to wear despite looking like you may have to squeeze into a full-length body-stocking first. Peter and Christopher had spent hours preparing the room - the linen was starched to perfection, the floral clusters pretty reminders of summer and the food well chosen.

Guests included Yasmin and Amber le Bon, Mike Figgis, Sarah Mower, Jefferson Hack and the classical pianist Rosey Chan.

So, by now you must be wondering about this business with the zwaan. Well, the cream filled choux pastry shaped swan we enjoyed for desert was created especially for the evening by Anouck Lepere, who declared "I feel like Martha Stewart" when I snapped her for the above shot with my Blackberry. "I spent hours perfecting on the shape at home," she said miming the use of a pastry piping bag.

The Belgian supermodel is clearly a woman of many talents. She declared it was her patriotic duty to create the choux zwaan, (swan in Flemish), to keep her connection to the old country strong. In addition she revealed over desert - yes, we eventually did demolish the zwaan - that she studied architecture at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, the same school Christopher and Peter studied fashion, and then told me that the interior panelling of the entire Liberty store came from two ships. "This is a recycled shop! Very modern, no?"

Jefferson Hack, Mike Figgis, Rosey Chan, Anouck Lepere hanging out at Liberty before the Pilotto dinner.

Me, Geoffrey De La Bourdonnaye , (Chief Executive, Liberty) with Peter Pilotto and Christopher de Vos

 

Amber le Bon

Me and Monsieur Pilotto

Emma Elwick (Vogue), Karen Langley (Dazed) and Anouck of the Zwaan's (Maartha Stewart wannabe) 

All the photos bar the grainy top image were by an amazing girl andShiniqua. One of my favourite names, ever. They are great images. Thanks, Shiniqua!

BLIPPY AND THE LUXURY SOCIETY - THE FUTURE OF FASHION NETWORKING?

Posted by the Fashion Junior at Large

Fashion went crazy for online media last year. We had bloggers sitting shoulder to shoulder with Anna Wintour on the front row, labels striving to build their online reputation (as exemplified by Burberry’s Sartorialist-style Art of the Trench website), and designers ‘tweeting’ to legions of the devoted. So what’s next?

Well, in 2010 a new breed of social networking site has emerged. One that, unlike say Facebook, provides a format that seems specifically tailored to the fashion industry. 

One example is Blippy – the Twitter style website that automatically updates your status every time you use your registered bank card, or ‘social card’ as it’s known. For example: ‘Esme Benjamin spent £1550 at Chanel’ (Now that would be a purchase worth blipping about. As things stand it’s more likely to read ‘Esme Benjamin spent £4.50 at Tesco Express’). It’s basically an ode to that very naughties philosophy ‘you are what you buy’;  a textbook example of conspicuous consumption if ever there was one.

 

Positioning itself as Blippy’s polar opposite is The Luxury Society. A social networking site co-created and edited by businessoffashion.com’s Imran Amed where, as the name denotes, those who work in luxury industries can hobnob and trade ideas in an exclusive virtual environment. The website is closed to non-members (when you count top execs from the world’s most desirable brands among your members it’s important to keep the riffraff out). Click through and you’ll be greeted by a sleek grey log-in page with a small golden key symbol. It’s the virtual equivalent of passing a fashion week after-show party that you are not invited to.

Both sites are in the beta (invite only) stage at the moment, but they are certainly interesting ideas, no? On one side you’ve got a social-networking website encouraging you to share your spending habits, on the other you’ve got one promoting secrecy and exclusivity. If Blippy and The Luxury Society are indicative of the future for fashion and social networking we’re in for a fascinating and innovative 2010.

Picture credits:
"I Shop Therefore I Am' courtesy of Barbara Kruger
Blippy courtesy of paulstamatiou.com 
Luxury Society courtesy of blog.halogennetwork.com

IF YOU ARE VISITING AFTER READING TODAY'S TELEGRAPH....

Click here for my fur story.
And to read more about Sarah Mower, click here!

A BIG DAY FOR FASHION EDITOR AT LARGE TODAY...

Posted by the Fashion Editor at Large


We have moved into our office! We have email addresses and telephone numbers!

Unfortunately, this is not our office. Think two tables facing each other and enough room to swing a kitten.

The Fashion Editor at Large is at melanie@fashioneditoratlarge.com 
+44 207 291 0330
I am, of course, still fully contactable at Grazia where I am Fashion Editor-at-Large via my email and mobile number, but I will be using both emails from today. The Fashion Editor at Large blog will be hosted by Graziadaily.co.uk from mid February.

The Fashion Junior at Large is at
Esme@fashioneditoratlarge.com
+44 207 291 0333

BARBIE SHOWS US HOW TO DO SS10!

Posted by the Fashion Editor at Large

My former assistant Hannah Almassi, now the fabulous Style Hunter and the fashion features assistant to the superchic Kay Barron at Grazia, has a blog (yes, her too!) called fashionfoibles.blogspot.com and today she showed me what she had been up to this weekend. Namely, the below....

Yes, Hannah has been re-making clothes for her Barbies all weekend in the spirit of the SS10 collections. The results, showcased on her blog are, I think, pure genius. The Stella and Kane ones were my favourites, and Hannah forwarded me the JPegs so I could share.

There is a very good reason for this weekend project. Hannah's parents are about to move house and she was taking a trip down memory lane (as you do when you are going through boxes of childhood stuff from the attic) and found 30 Barbie dolls, two Ken dolls, a Barbie and Ken caravan and lots and lots of clothes from the late 80's and early 90's and got carried away. As you do.

According to her mother, Hannah was found sat on the floor in the same position she used to sit when she was five playing with her dolly's. Cute, cute cute. Apart from gaining a bit more insight into Hannah's childhood than I expected for a Monday, I nevertheless instantly understood why Hannah came to study for a B.A in fashion design, and how she came to work at Grazia and become the success she is.

When I questioned her inspiration for the Barbie project Hannah responded with her characteristic half smile and a toss of her mane of hair and said, "The reasons are so deep I think it will take some time to answer the question." 

We don't need the answer just yet, but in the meantime see if you can recreate the last Chanel show using your Barbies, Kens and perhaps the caravan in place of the barn? You just need a bit of hay and some mini-clogs and can turn one of the Ken's into a mini Karl, then Barbie and Ken can start rolling around in the hay.....

You're the best Hannah Wannah!
xxxx

PRADA UPDATE!!!! GOLDEN GLOBE GEEKS BRING ME GLEE AT MILAN MENS AW10

Posted by The Fashion Editor at Large

Thankyou to FOX TV, E4, and Golden Globe award winning GLEE who have provided the highlight of my weekend, a meditation on the triumph of Geeks in contemporary society and this hilariously brilliant cover of Kanye West's Gold Digger by the cast of Glee.

A small aside, but an important one. In today's popular culture being an outsider is celebrated. Not like when I was a teenager in the late eighties when being an outsider was a pretty lonely place. (No Internet just yet to connect with like-minded weirdo's and feel relatively normal). We have come a long way since then, and that makes me pretty glad for todays teenagers. Today Geeks rule the world (and they deserve the capital letter!). Look at Bill Gates (Microsoft), Larry Page or Sergey Brin  (cofounders, Google) then look at every cool boy around. Does he wear geeky specs and dress a "bit nerdy"? Yes? Of course he does - this is the most stylish look for men now because Geeks rule the world. Even the male lead of Avatar is an outsider because he is disabled. Not your average hero. A quick glance at the menswear shows taking place now in Milan and the fashion editors attending, demonstrate Geek power.

Yesterday I tuned in to watch my two Sky plussed episodes of Glee (which last night - Sunday 17th January - won a Golden Globe for best TV comedy/musical), the new American import about the geeks, outsiders, physcially impaired and outside-the-box thinkers at a high school who join what seems to be a US stalwart - the Glee Club. I think a Glee Club is a singing and dancing group that enters competitions to beat all the other local High Schools (excuse my ignorance on the matter, and correct me if I am wrong.)

I haven't had so much fun and laughed so much watching a TV show for a long time. I have now watched the first two episodes twice over, reserving particular unbridled pleasure in the Kanye Gold Digger cover above, which has had up to five viewings as of right now. I can't wait for tomorrow night (Monday 18th January) for the next episode.

PS. Watched episode THREE last night (18th Jan) and it was sooo good all three of us watching shouted "NO!" when it finished.

girls in prada aw10 pre-collection...has Mrs Prada been watching Glee too?

Rachel from Glee would look amazing in each of these ensembles. I'm in love with the pink sweater and the patterned trousers.

guys in super geeky gear saunter AW10 runway

Bottega Veneta, AW10

Burberry Prorsum, AW10

C.P Company, AW10

Roberto Cavalli, AW10

Dolce Gabbana, AW10

Prada mens had a 90's moment. They played Shakespeare's Sister as a runway sound-track.

 

Prada, AW10

Prada, AW10

Picture credits: Christopher Moore/Catwalking.com