Style Bubble

Wearing a Broken Heart

I can now count five people who I know in person who can pull of party wigs and Carlos Santiago is one of them.  He is the final of the three really REALLY young American designers who I got to know through Arts of Fashion and also roomed with at Hyeres (post holiday blues does cause one to mention destination an  irritating amount of times... apologies...).

If Douglas is a master of print/textures and Amy does shape/volume well then Carlos is a superb judge of colour.  In his 'Broken Heart' collection, the soft muted colours that are inbetween being vibrant and pastel reminded me of this editorial for Vogue Korea Oct 2007 by Kim Kyung Soo.  By 'Broken Heart', Carlos has quite literally taken the shape of half a heart in the front to form a one shouldered shape.  The halved, broken quality continues in the back where half a zipper is exposed and tied at the top to make half a bow.  A further contrast is created with a short cocktail dress made out of double faced satin forming the stiff and masculine base with a flowing silk charmeuse fabric draped in different ways over the top representing a softer, feminine side.  Structure and rigidity vs. unpredictability and unbounded emotions.  A relationship incarnated in a dress?  Miss Carrie Bradshaw could surely wear one for one of her many melodramatic farewells to yet another decent boyf. 

I love that the charmeuse was also handprinted with motifs like lace, scissors, chains and buttons by Carlos himself which adds another dimension to the dresses.  I also have the 'shorty short short' sillhouette stuck on my brain for reasons I'll reveal later so these dresses that combine both sexy and romantic elements are quite alluring...

   

Splat in the Park

The sun is glorious but it's apparently not here to stay very long so I have been trying to catch most of it and soak it up as much as possible.  I'll admit that my flat is a poky hovel of a hole where outfits just don't really shine that well but hopefully in a few months time, that will all change... in the meantime, it is FINALLY time to play and so I trickled and splattered dilluted blue fabric paint all over a Vivienne Westwood corset that has the perfect cream calico background for me to mess up (yes, DIY'ing over designer items is a little naughty but this hasn't gotten much wear at all.... and the plainess of it was too difficult to resist...).  With a full flowing fabric train, you can knot it up, tuck it in and twist and fold it any way you like to make different tops or dresses so in amongst the grass, trees and flowers of Hampstead Heath, much sun soaking and eye-squinting took place...

Exotique stuff

And so the 'random books' accumulation is going very nicely as I'm constantly raiding my local Black Gull Books for treasures and this one is no exception.  A Taschen reprint of 'Exotique' magazine, the magazine of 'femmes, fiction and future fashion'...aka a fetish mag that popped up in the years 1955-1959.  Ok, so people in the 50s' were into kinky things as well but the book WELL and TRULY dispelled the myth that fetishistic wear, PVC, impossible shoes and dominatrix looks were born a lot later.  The composition and the structure imposed by the garments in the photographs in Exotique could stand side by side perfectly with the editorials in 10, i-D, Dazed & Confused etc which have used a fetishist slant.  It's so bizarret hat I have to keep flicking back to the front just to check this was in fact published in 1958.

In particular the shoes, or rather the extremity of the shoes are particularly engrossing and seem to play a major focus in the outfits... (yes, the shoes are doing more for me than the boobage...)... cut-out ankle booties with mega platforms, spiky heels, complex add-ons... definitely a far cry from the neat silk pumps of the 1950s'...

 

Shrooming it...

No, this isn't a post about memories of Amsterdam and well...other unsavoury nights... but actually a girl who has a natural high and doesn't need the help from illegal substances.  Amy Sarabi, the 2nd of my fellow American roomies at Hyeres might be a name that some of you recognise if you follow the goings on in Gen Art, where Amy was featured as part of San Francisco's Fresh Faces in Fashion Gen Art event last year.

For a girl who gets the giggles in an instant, who gets easily amused by almost anything, she creates work that is quite frankly stunning and on a technical level that is so high and precise, that it's almost frightening.  I have seen Amy at work as she participated in the Arts of Fashion masterclasses in Texas and in Miami, so I have seen her at a non-giggly state, yet because I knew her as person first, designer second, her work is even more astonishing to me (does anyone else get that surprised feeling when they see a friend they know intimately do something really impressive in their vocation/career?)

Anyhow, inspired by the gills of a mushroom (yes, it really doesn't have to be lofty at all... check out your veggie drawer pronto), she explored pleating techniques, unconventional materials and shapes that literally stand away from the body and encase it in an entirely different way from how we think clothes should do.  Right now, she's stocked at San Francisco boutique MAC (Modern Appealing Clothing... does exactly what it says on the tin, me likes...) and her pieces cost a pretty penny because so much work go into them and Amy works alone, slowly but steadily to ensure she meets demand at her stockists.  The level of detailing and craftsmanship is most definitely evident in her work which I had judged during the Arts of Fashion competition last year where she also won an award.

Giggles to gills, fungi to fashion, I just can't stop alliterating... I'll let the beautiful images speak for themselves (they were a pain to download at 80MB each but worthwhile...)...

Uniformly Fun

Ok, ok, ok, the cat is out of the bag, despite my previous protestations at the way a lot of the fashion blogosphere have gone doolally over Gossip Girl, I am in fact a faithful downloader and viewer of the show and have even been urging friends from foreign lands who have yet to get the show in their country to do a bit of BitTorrenting... it goes without saying that Fashion is Spinach minute by minute commentary on the show is also compulsive reading.  Don't shoot me, there's a lot of Susie time to fill on drab evenings and American teen shows with silly storylines and heightened fashion (though me thinks the strike has done the writing quality some good, non?) can be a neccessity. 

Coming from a country where school uniform is pretty much standard across the country and where little variation/play is permitted, it is quite funny watching the school uniform being played up and costumified the way it is in Gossip Girl.  Everyone somehow comes off looking like they're NOT wearing school uniform as they're gussied up with various trenches, tights, headbands, jackets and accessories, all detracting from what is a white shirt with a ribbon necktie and a tartan skirt.  Yes, they are ALL actually wearing those two items even if they're heavily disguised. 

So with my bog standard navy skater skirt and a Fred Perry white shirt with necktie, I had a bit of school hi-jinx fun and if the rules can indeed be bent away, imagine the number of characters that could pop up...

Heather gets the A grades without even trying.  She might turn up to school, she might not.  Black makes her think clearly and precisely. 

Constance steals Chanel from her mother and messes it up.  She likes pearl necklaces but she might deconstruct them to make a headband.

Laia hardly says a word but she has some secrets hiding in her cigarette box which she always carries with her.

Victoria does her homework duly but struggles ever so much.  Her glasses always falls off her nose as she tries to figure out what sort of florals to wear each day.

Vada doesn't know whether she's coming or going.  Late everyday, hair in disarray and the only thing keeping her in school are her parents' hefty annual donations to the not so discreet 'School Fund'. 

Fenella is the British transfer student and she's slowly yet surely adjusting to her new school.  Once the shell is opened up, she might even show the Upper East Siders a thing or two about what she knows about decadence.   

Background pics from Teen Vogue

Poshie Oxfam...

It was already apparent to me that a real bargainous charity shop where you're fighting with penny pinching biddies is becoming something obselete in London but when Westbourne Grove, where yummy mummies are aplenty and boho trustafarians 'slum' it in their 'poky inherited' little flat in Notting Hill, opened up Oxfam's first new 'boutique' on 10th May (World Fair Trade Day) well, I'm sort of flummoxed and all for it, all at the same time. 

Jane Shepherdson who exited Topshop with a lot of trumpets and fanfare has now decided to lend Oxfam a hand and give them a makeover and we now have a shiny black exteriored store that is as far as away from my local Oxfam as can be and inside, there's more and more shininess.  To up the surreality factor, this is an Oxfam store whose opening was celebrated by an after party at Bungalow 8.  Curious stuff. 

Just to recap, Oxfam is a type of thrift store in the UK and whilst they have dabbled in the high-fashion stakes before by having the Traid off-shoot stores, this chain of boutiques (they hope to have 250 in the UK...) is an entirely different kettle of fish altogether.  Whilst it still sells donated goods, we're talking designer threads that are have been £££ racked up (Miu Miu skirt at £50, Stella McCartney Jacket at £90...).  In addition, you have Fair Trade labels like People Tree and Kazuri, and labels that specialise in fabric recycling like Junky Styling and Kitty Cooper Shoes.  Continuing, the recyling theme, London School of Fashion students and other up and coming designers have been asked to use unsold Oxfam stock to make some unique one-off pieces for sale in the boutique and even the volunteers at Oxfam are getting stuck in and making clothes too for sale.  So all in all, not your average charity shop and naturally those prices reflect that.

Here's where I get flummoxed I guess.  I get it.  It's a chi-chi area where the money is rolling around, and better for an organisation like Oxfam to make a buck or two than someone else.  If these people can easily afford a £260 dress from a charity shop then so be it.  I'm also all for up and coming designers and fashion students getting their hands on unused Oxfam stock and making amazing clothes.  It's like being able to buy the products of a Project Runway/Catwalk challenge.... nothing wrong with that and as modelled by Alexa Chung (Overexposed, much?  Bored by her?  I am...), this Gabrielle Miller patchwork dress is lovely and probably worth the pretty penny they have tacked onto it...

BUT... and I guess it's the old biddy in me emerging as I have just returned from a weekend of South East coast charity shop browsing where the prices are still low low low (no finds for me though...) and therefore, I'm still in the frame of mind whereby I want to walk into an Oxfam and find a pair of Miu Miu shoes for £10 and feel very chuffed with myself coming out of there with my charity shop steal.  Designer names aside, I like my £2 skirts and £3 cashmere cardis.  Perhaps the value of fashion and what it SHOULD be worth is all out in the open now and those sort of bargains just aren't possible anymore in the savvy chi-chi parts of London but I know they still exist elsewhere.  So in a non-conclusive ending, the concept of the store itself is fine by me but the Oxfam name attached to it is somewhat confusing for simple folk like me...

It does make it worse that I do like what some of the designers, who were roped into help launch the boutique by making garms made out of stuff they found at Oxfam (you might have seen it in the Grazia spread last week), have done... it's all up on eBay now save for a crystal-encrusted black flapper dress that Christopher Kane has done.  I'm thinking that's their star piece that will go sky-high in bids...

Giles Deacon took some floral curtains and reworked it into a dress shape taken from his SS08 collection...this is getting a lot of bids at the mo even though I think similar dresses can be found for a lot less..

Henry Holland used an old bridesmaid dress as the base sillhouette for some Spongebob action and some 70's curtains to make this reversible puffball dress... I'll sit out on the Spongebob but I do like the triangular geo print...

Richard Sorger's dotty dress got a 'hand' with a dusting of Swarovski pearls and a hand print from his AW08 collection... love the way it messed up the primness of polka dots....

I'm going to have a go at bidding for this but purely because of the amazing print on the skirto f this dress....not so keen on the dots and ruffle blouse at the top though...

This is so recognisable as Jonathan Saunders that this is actually a pretty good steal for anyone who gets it for under £100...

I want to know how Stephen Jones found a A-Z map pillowcase but in any case, he has made it into a madhatter hat...

 

It's not dirty laundry...

No this isn't somebody hanging up laundry in an odd and arbitrary way but actually the Haider Ackermann exhibition at the Villa Noailles.  Yes, I should be so lucky as to stumble upong a shipwreck on a beach with a ton of Haider Ackerman jerseys, coats, jackets and dresses strung up and intertwined with rope...      

The pleating on thie skirt was particularly mesmerising...

It's no wonder they closed off the exhibition for the closing party at the Villa... to prevent drunken me stumbling in here and grabbing a soft jersey cardi for warmth...

   

Icky icky ick...

To continue the 'Out of Context' theme of today's posts.... and to do a complete schizo 180 from tasteful 40's influenced coats to.... um.... well.... behold this Just Cavalli jacket which I spied in the new issue of Elle UK.  Of course this passed me by when the SS08 shows were going on because I do tend to strike off Roberto Cavalli and Just Cavalli from my 'Catwalking Pics-check out' list.  Sorry, I've just never been a fan of the rather orange faced Cavalli (tangerine or clementine?) and whilst I'm all about being open minded, there's only so much one can be enthusiastic about.

Well I'll just slap myself for that because looking at this jacket, and trust me, it's not because it's being aided by the strange pairing of it with an Avsh Alom Gur dress and plaited hair nor is the background helping it along.... I am purely just looking at the jacket... the strong lines, the block colours, the wicked shapes they're all creating... oh crap, I'm actually....quite liking it?!?

Now I know it's my love of the the ever present 'WTF' factor that is making me like this.  I'm also thinking of cliched phrases such as 'it's so wrong, it's right', only you can cross out the first word and replace it with 'messed-up/tacky/loud' and the second word with 'brilliant/fantastic/hilarious'.  Lots of joyful words there....

I'm just reaaaally thinking and this could be the Friday High Feeling, that this jacket with the right bit of toning down or 'effed-up' messy outfits (whichever way you prefer...), it's actually quite a nifty statement piece...

So conclusion.... there just aren't that many designers for me to pour hate on, and seeing as this blog was never about pouring hate, that makes it a pretty easy job for me.    

Where is my friend called Evie Belle?

The last thing that I'd want for Style Bubble is for it to be categorised and boxed up.  I don't exclusively write about the 'too-cool-for-school-Nylon/Ruush' labels, the 'girly-pretty-chouette-Lula' labels or the 'edgy-avant-garde'.  At the end of the day, I'd like to think there's a context for everything and the next post will be even prove this point even more...

For now though, it's time for a bit of Evie Belle.  First off, I love that the name of the label is derived from the TV show House of Elliot which a reader recommended I watch after my revelation of my love for ALL costume dramas (yes...even the really shit ones...).  The lady behind Evie Belle, Sarah Hicks is focused on getting beautiful tailoring and finishing on her garments.  That 't' word is such a fundamental stalwart in the craft of fashion and so many choose to discard it or ignore it.  Perhaps that's what makes looking at Evie Belle's AW08-9 collection a little uneasy from the perspective of a fashion brat who is constantly exposed to every sort of conceptual fashion under the sun with a lot of 'stuff' going on, that we might not be happy with something as simple (and simultaneously difficult...) as a beautifully well-made coat with fine finishing and little details. 

Having seen the collection in person and proceeding to procuring some Evie Belle for myself, something like a great coat does become a whole lot more important.  Sarah pointed out the materials which she sources mainly from Italy and Scotland and said she's very very picky with fabrics which comes into play when you start touching the stuff.  The variety of collars, the way the sleeves are shaped and the linings...the sort of details that men like the Sart picks up on are all well executed here...

Quite simply, images don't do Evie Belle justice but you can just about make out where she got her inspiration from for the AW08-9 'Lost in the Forest' collection, using textures like mohair and mottled prints, sharp and wispy sillhouettes in blues, greys and blacky greens.  Yes, it is jolly early to be harping on about winter but I'm up for being prepared...

The little coat I picked out from one of her previous collections features a signature pleated collar that can be adjusted with a drawstring.  It's a coat fit enough to be worn on its' own really (Sarah is a fan of the coat-dress...) and like I said before, I've probably taken it out of context a little but hopefully Evie Belle (I really now wish I knew a real live Evie Belle...) doesn't mind...

Another Friday Fantasy

A question that I should have asked myself when I shamelessly went celeb pic hunting after the Met Costume Institute Gala (ONE celeb outfit event a year is not too indulgent me thinks...) and found nothing too awe-inspiring despite the unbounded theme people were given to play with, is what would I have worn?  A reader asked it instead.

Given that it is a Friday and I am being whisked out of London to the coast for the weekend, I feel it's ok to dream a little, think and fantasise.  A cliched interpretation of a comic superhero would never do, even the most cultish superheroes and that said, I'm not remotely comic-savvy.  So I guess it's down to the rickety old imagination then.  She is a combination of a dreamcaster, Grecian muse, celestial being and water nymph with powers that are subtly worked but strongly felt.  The soft hued, rose-tinted way in which Patricia Kitten Braden from Breakfast on Pluto saw things and the way Clarence H White photographed his surroundings is how this 'superbeing' sees things.

It takes a combination that can't be exactified and methodically put together....a composite of....Jan Minitau's SS07 ruffled creations that envelope the body, Jan Minitau's super platform shoes that need to be striped in soft pastels, Natasha Lawes' jewelled half masks (she also made the butterfly mask which adorned my face for the Fashion156 shoot...) with white dust covering the other side of the face, a clash between Karin Schoenberger's lace circular backpieces and Peter Bertsch's moulded shaped plastic wings and delicate Bebaroque 'Mrs Feather' stockings...

Oh, and Goldfrapp's Utopia in mind when donning all of the above...