Style Bubble

Pick a Colour, Any Colour

Ever played that "Let's cram as many colours into one outfit just using solid block pieces and no prints and patterns" game?  I admit, it's a bit of an overly specific and pointless game unless your wardrobe is sorted like a solid colour coded rainbow.  But still, a fun challenge, with success granted only if you avoid looking like you're wearing your entire wardrobe and manage to get at least TEN colours in.  Actually, lightening bolt just struck me as I was typing... let's make that an actual task for the weekend with bloggers/readers submitting pics playing that game.  Because Friday is FUN isn't it and of course we all need a pointless outfit challenge from a bored blogger on Guy Fawke's weekend...  no seriously though, the mind is cogitating very fast and yes, I would like to see this challenge play out in reality so please send your "Let's cram as many colours into one outfit just using solid block pieces and no prints and patterns" submissions to twinkle260@hotmail.com or leave a link here on comments.  

I only used the game though as an opening gambit to LF Markey's S/S 10 collection and her range for ASOS which is online now.  I didn't manage to cram ten but with a bit more time and energy, surely it wouldn't be such a hard task to achieve given Markey's penchant for cramming colour blocks into her pieces.  For ASOS, in less shiny fabrics than her main collection Louise has painted quite a rainbow that are all dying to be worn with an array of solid super opaque tights and bright bright shoes.  For her main S/S 10 collection, she mixed prom and gym all into one and has made basketball attire a rather more exciting affair than numbered jerseys.  If I had a floor length poofy pink gown to wear to netball, perhaps my glasses would not have been broken TWICE by the ball (I played... wing defence... the crappest position of them all...).     

So, my intro has sort of overtaken the main point but hopefully LF Markey's crayola lovin' will give some sort of impetus to take up my errr.... very half-baked, spur-of-the-moment challenge...

Colour Koma

>> Now I don't normally pander to the "Look-that's-a-celeb-wearing-xxx!" train but really Cheryl Cole wearing David Koma on X-Factor was a moment I couldn't resist commenting on.  Not least because a) I'm a die-hard X-Factor fan (please don't stone me for it, just accept it and quietly move on) and b) grudgingly I have to admit that the sort of exposure Cole brings is pretty astounding.  Just Google David Koma and Cole and about a bazillion things pop up.   That said, whilst I'm very happy that Cole picked a Koma classic to wear - i.e. a piece from is first graduate collection that first got him noticed, I thought this would be a perfect time to shed light on his second S/S 10 collection, that was shown as part of Vauxhall Fashion Scout (part of the off-schedule in London Fashion Week).  I happened to be on the panel for selecting the designers to show as part of VFS and when Koma's name came up at initial panel sessions, of course it was a quadruple thumbs and big foes up for me.  Like so many emerging designers that catch people's attention, Koma took a motif and ran away with it in the best way possible.  With his first collection, it was the metal tubing.  With his second though, it's a pre-occuptation with colour blocking, inspired by the sculptures of Niki de Saint Phalle and Sole le Witt, that resulted in dresses colour blocked with precision and accented with stones and pieces of moulded glass jewellery.  I think I draw a perfect S on some of those curves and if it was any less precise, some of the dresses would have come off looking a bit shonky.  So whilst I loved his initial fascination with metal tubing, I'm looking forward to what else Koma can bring to the table and though we do have a tendency in London to blow a lot of hot air on designers that are up and coming but I do think Koma deserves all that hot fuss...Cole or no Cole.

(Photography by Kate Rodgers for Dazed Digital)

Little Fruits

I'll admit it.  I threw a minor grumpy strop after browsing in Opening Ceremony in New York.  I think the strop started sometime after trying the Carol Flare coat from the Whre the Wild Things Collab (yes, I love it, and yes, it's completely impractical).    I only did it because the friends I was with were the only ones who'd understand my minor strop.  The utterly shallow and superficial "Why-don't-I-have-an-unlimited-budget?" strop.  It's a ridiculous strop because I'm not poor either...just not rich.  So really, it's just wanton and excessive greed.

I was resigned to not buying anything post-strop in New York.  Afterall, I have great food, friends to enjoy it with and my health (at least part of it).  That's a saccharine statement if ever I heard one.  Though of course, when a YSL sample sale beckons, who bloody cares about a friendly and healthy brunch.  Thanks to Refinery 29's sales notice we headed up to the sale to check it out and whilst it wasn't bargainous bargainous (YSL's S/S08 plastic star studded bubble coat reduced from $40,000 to $8,000... *fists in air* BAR-GAIN) it was perfect for rifling through.  I came out with just the pair of trews, adding to the continuing series of 'Susie's Strange Trews' though these are fairly classicly shaped with a slight twist in its sheer chiffon fabrication.  They need summer light really to diffuse through...

My other wee fruit was this Kelly Kapowski-style floral lace body from Fox and Fawn vintage (still my fave vintage haunt in NYC...)... again needs some summer light really for sheer joyful fun.  Like the sad consumer sucker that I am, of course mini-strop is a distant memory and I can only hang my head in shame, wince my eyes and rack my head in my hands thinking "Urgh... why am I such a SHOPPER?"

Denim Feet

>> Keepin' it short and shrifty today, short and SHRIFTY.  I have a deluge of photos to post, video footage to edit and that hasn't even got anything to do with the mass of press days that most of London's fashion peeps are ploughing through.  It's funny how when you're walking around Central London, you see girls with familiar looking goodie bags traversing the streets and you can mentally tick off in your head where they've just been. 

Anyway, I'll try and be selective... Repetto and their head-over-heels S/S 10 affair with true blue blue blue... actually, I'm not sure how TRUE this blue is but it's definitely a shade of proper denim that would work well in mixed denim outfits... ballets, loafers, jazz, mocs, heeled loafers and slingbacks...take your S/S 10 true blue pick...

... or if the true true blue shade isn't your thing, you can go lighter with these chambray styles...

... or lighter yet into ballet shades.  I'm already picturing the nude suede loafer worn with the palest of green silk trousers and a pale pale blue slouchy jacket... too much pastel perhaps?  Not for me... I'd also like to add a lavender and pistachio icecream cone too to the mix. 

The Tropical Triangle

>> I'm on a bit of an accesories romp this morning and keeping things swift and short because the press days are in full swing in London at the moment.  Things are either tribal or tropical in music and in fashion and I'm not sure what either of those 'tr' geographic/ethnically vague words ACTUALLY mean but I know that both have been combined with another 'tr', the triangle to form Brokenfab's jewellery range.  Brokenfab is designed by Swiss textiles designer Fabienne Morel whose prints you may recognise from Ashish's collection as she has been working with him since 2006.  With her particular kind of 'disco beading' she has taken to making triangular, tropical and tribal bracelets, necklaces and earrings that look like they definitely need to be worn in multiple numbers and as well as with some equally clashing colours underneath. 

 

Heaven is a Person on Earth

>> How can you not love a guy who's called Heaven, who also happens to be an expert jewellery designer as well.  The Antwerp-based Heaven Tanudiredja continually fascinates me and whilst I didn't manage to make it to his showroom, seeing his S/S10 lookbook images are quite sufficient.  I'm really excited by the fact that he has decided to forge ahead and concentrate on his jewellery work given that he now has a pretty impressive list of stockists though if Heaven does develop his line to include womens and menswear, I wouldn't be all that surprised either. 

Heaven always seems to arrange his gems and stones in a way that seems natural and not at all forced and in the same way that Lanvin jewellery always seems instantly wearable with the addition of some grosgrain ribbon or some other soft fixtures, Heaven's jewellery also has that instant "I want to laden my neck with a piece" appeal.  For S/S 10 he delves into crysanthemums and bird cages that form these discs of pure prettiness that are then arranged into larger statement pieces with a shell-like motif forming bulbous structures in the necklaces.

 

(Photography by Michael James O'Brien and Zoltan Gerliczki)

Poppers Delight

>> The return of the "body" or "bodysuit" is not exactly news and as predicted, along with my love for the S/S 10 throng of "tap shorts", I too have fallen hard for the return of the bod.  I know the comments coming up here will make reference to a certain popstar who goes by an aristocratic title, but I might remind everyone that the bodysuit is nothing new and wearing leotards/onesies/catsuits/bodies without bottoms/tights isn't some new revolution either.  (Actually it's vaguely annoying that anything considered 'avant-garde' or 'edgy' is automatically attached to this popstar's name but that's another convo to be had...)  That said, I will say that my preferred modus operandi with these silhouette-smoothing garments are to wear them with sheer skirts/dresses or looser trousers. 

And the all important facilitator to the modus operandi are the POPPERS!  I'm not such a brown-noser (no pun intended...) of fashion trends that I'm forgetting about the all-important act of toilet going.  Hey, after my bowel/bladder hospital scares, I'm ALL about going to the loo.  The popper in the body is the deal maker.  So I'm pleased to know that Anthony Vaccarello's range of 'poseur' S/S 10 swimsuits are now officially going to be 'bodysuits' with poppers put in place, for ease of wear, which means a private order is most definitely imminent.  The intricate cut-outs and geometric lines in them make them all basically perfect for wearing with a white sheer tee underneath.   Now to find the sheer bit of something something to go over it...  

Got it Covered

Depending on how you look at it, I was fortunate/unfortunate enough to interview four designers on stage as part of the Arts of Fashion Tandem Series in Philadelphia. The point was to expose the various facets of being a young independent designer and so the talk was divided into two parts; the first, I interviewed Anthony Vaccarello and Aurore Thibout who are in the primary stages of their designer careers.  In the second part, I interviewed Christian Wijnants and Matthew Ames who are in a latter stage, having established their own business.

So it was FORTUNATE that I got to speak to them and to hear their insight on what are the difficulties facing a young designer but probably UNFORTUNATE for them that I was stuttering the whole time.  I think at one point, Joe's R'n'B classic 'Stutter' kept popping up in my head. 

In my research, I got to take a good look at Matthew Ames' website.  I've written about his early work on a few occasions so it was good to catch up on his more recent work where his concerns with shape and volume have taken a more free-flowing direction.  Where in the beginning his shapes were somewhat very literal and graphic, they have now become more classic whilst still retaining the minimalist dramatics that first caught my eye.  These are various images of his A/W 09 collection which champion a covered-up silhouette and that isn't about screaming in itty-bitty details but rather concentrates on the overall effect of layers and shapes cocooning the body.

Delving into Ames' website further, I discovered he's been keeping an online journal that sheds further insight into the inspiration images that inform his work.  It's definitely something I'm all for designers doing even if it's a minimal text, max on images type journal just because I find it so interesting peering into people's moodboards.  Matthew Ames' images include these Irving Penn images of Issey Miyake's looks from the early 80s...

 

...these images from Wiener Werkstätte-Mode archives, the Vienna Workshops's fashion work...
Max Snischek, Photo by Madame d’Ora, 1919 // Pyjama (designer unkown), Photo by Madame d’Ora, 1921

In particular, I loved these images of Valentina Nicholaevna Sanina Schlee aka Valentina, the Russian émigrée fashion designer who had a New York-based couture/costume house from the 20s to the 50s. I these images especially resonate strongly in Ames' A/W 09 collection where Valentina's famous phrase "Fit the century, forget the year."  Truly gutted I missed the exhibition dedicated to Valentina's work in the Museum of the City of New York.   

Stung

I really hope that I'm not just typing this in jet-lag stupor and that I am in fact making some inkling of a valid point because god forbid that I wake up tomorrow and realise that this is blurry blot on the blog that needs to be deleted (I've never EVER deleted a post...).

Here goes though... in a blurry sun drenched drive from Heathrow airport straight to work this morning, I caught sight of the longstanding ex-Virgin Megastore building on the corner of Regent Street on Piccadilly that was then turned into Zavvi and post Zavvi-meltdown was lying empty for aaages.  For anybody who hasn't been to London, the space is huuge (33,875 sq ft to be exact).  This is old news to some but it was news to me when I saw these posters up in the window declaring that "The Sting", a "network of brands" of "international fashion" is set to open in Spring 2010. 

Without even researching what the heck The Sting is, I already sat in the back of the cab fuming to myself like the middle-aged busy body that I am.  Everything about the poster from the font to the graphics to the wording was odious. With two swift phrases of 'international fashion' and 'network of brands' I already had visions of sad racks of polo shirts and stacks of tired jeans.  As it turns out, The Sting is a Dutch chain of stores that is looking to advance into the UK market with brands like erm...Costes, Cotton Club, Hallinger New Zealand, Miss America, and Stangata.  I'm trying to bite my tongue here and yes, this will come off sounding sadly snobby but there you go.

Whilst I'm in full comprehension of my stubborn battiness, I am reasonable though.  Of COURSE I'm not expecting Dover Street Market Nr. 2 to drop down on the space and OF COURSE I'm aware of the fact that casual wear flies off shelves like nobody's business.  Just look at the droves of people that go to Abercrombie and Fitch near Savile Row (if i had a penny for every tourist asking me for directions to a store that I have never even set my foot inside...grrr).  The Sting may have added bile to another ex-Zavvi store on the butt-end of Oxford Street currently being inhabited by a shop called Hyper Hyper which of course bears no resemblance to the Hyper Hyper Londoners will know from the Kensington High Street market days...

In my dusty brain there were hopes that the Crown Estate who are responsible for the conservation and development of Regent Street would have more pride in 1 Piccadilly Building.  I very naively dreamt of a reinstatement of a department store; Barkers or Derry & Toms perhaps.  Or perhaps the physical version of what CultureLabel.com sells on their site combined with an expansive place for tea and cakes (tourists escaping to Starbuck's in the heart of London is also a bit of sad affair...).  Something a bit fee and twee in its quintessential Englishness but it's ok, because the location commands a bit of tweeness.  Yes, this is STILL Batty British Lady speaking and I'm sticking to it because I'm allowed to be mad in my jet-lag stupor. 

I'm pre-judging of course.  I've yet to see what The Sting is ACTUALLY all about but I definitely knew I was a bit STUNG when I got back to London.

(Pics of offending windows from The London Insider)

Hallow's Eve

>> I could have assumed a blase/cynical attitude towards Halloween and brandish it with a "Pah!  It's just a consumerist holiday to stimulate the economy..." brush-off.  I'm not gonna lie.  I was super excited to be in New York for Halloween for the very first time and despite being completely unfamiliar with New York Halloween etiquette, being given the opp to host a party at Tribeca Grand. >

Sadly though, my excitement did not extend towards the costuming.  I kept thinking about that truly salient point brought up in Mean Girls where it was observed that Halloween is simply a good excuse to dress like a slut.  I definitely didn't want to go down the slut route, which the costume dept at Ricky's was pointing towards.  My dream costume really would have been a lush and super soft adult version of something like this... (major sadness occurred at Opening Ceremony where I fell hard for faux fur...)...

Unfortunately with a distinct lack of budget, I had to look to what I brought with me as well as Ricky's for make-up/hair support... in the end, I wore something that was not so much a costume but an outfit that I would easily wear out and about in London.  It was a surfer/tribal hybrid that the Proenza Schouler boys and Balenciaga have instilled in me ... and then physically inspired by the neoprene shorts I got at Oak for $40 and then supported by the New Look prototype body and some Michael Angel leggings that were in my suitcase.  I added some Ziggy Stardust-esque shoes (brought at Beacon's Closet for $20) for a bit of genre randomising and just ended up confusing the issue further.  Definitely a Halloween costume rookie here.  Will get onto planning the animal suit for next year to prevent further Halloween mishaps.

(Still in love with the bathroom wallpaper at Soho Grand...)

Not Just For One Day

>> I really wanted to avoid posting Tour de Force's new S/S 10 collection on the day of Halloween when many will say "Hehehe... that's great... for A COSTUME...".  As I've found out walking around shopping and being attracted to the pieces that err towards the showy side of things (I'm fast gaining myself the nickname of "Showpiece"), my costume-tolerance level is pretty high.  Actually, TDF's press release threw out a fairly spot-on description of her garments (Camille of Tour de Force is moving into apparel) and hats.  That they are supposed to be "VISUAL CATALYSTS".  So with a collection inspired by the lines and architectural innovations of Buckminister Fuller as well as other elements like English maypole and gladiator helmets, rather than being reminded of last minute costume options (I'm on EST where people are queueing up around the block at costume places...), when incorporated with simpler things, as with most of the 'Showpieces' that I tend to veer towards, all of TDF's pieces can be toned down and are merely visual catalysts to ramp up an outfit.  

 

Overlooking the Overlook

>> It's all very last minute me but I'm once again hosting a party at the Tribeca Grand, except this time it's for Halloween and the hotel will be Kubrick-ified The Shining stylee into the Overlook.  I'm petrified and excited all at the same time.   Some of you may have gathered that I'm in New York at the moment hanging out, eating and NOT spending a lot of time posting (*shame shame shame*).  I've given myself tomorrow to find my costume without knowing what exactly it is I want to be but I will make sure it's not half arsed...for people wanting to go to this shindig, please RSVP to the email address on the invite or on this Facebook page.

The Hyena and the Other Skirts

>> I've always been in two minds about the use of "ethnic" costume in fashion.  I'm all for being inspired by the world but where does 'ethnic' costume literal re-hashing start and end.  Or even worse, countries, ethnic groups and cultures that form the inspiration end up becoming lumped into one and become one mass genre where a piece of clothing with something a bit unfamiliar looking about it ends up being coined as 'ethnic-looking' (*major eye wincing here...*)

In Paris, I discovered the work of Marani and surprisingly I was very taken with what he had done with his collection, a mainline re-launch (I gather Marani is a casual knitwear brand...).  He's pretty specific about where his ideas come from.  Actually, it is just the one idea... from Pieter Hugo's photography undertaken in Nigeria, specifically the series "The Hyena and Other Men", Alberto Marani took the dusty tasselled skirts of the hyena tamers and transferred them to a contemporary setting where I could well imagine an ornate layered tasselled skirt worn with a casual silk t-shirt.  It's the very specific and singular motif and the way Marani has refined an item of attire that has this very raw kind of beauty that makes complete sense to me.

The Unattainable Body

HAH!  Think I'm going to start talking about body image issues?  Think again.  No, I'm quite literally talking about an Unattainable Body - an item of clothing... those things that make a neat and taut silhouette.  And it's unattainable pourquoi?

I think most people are aware of the process of labels and brands making pieces that are only meant for press purposes - i.e. there will be certain items that are made purely for editorial purposes, that will never go into production and will never be sold.  It's no secret that high street stores also do this.  I might get excited about something at a Topshop press day and start clapping my hands in glee but then months later, I'll manically search for that item only to find it never went into production. 

I therefore present you with the Unattainable Body... from New Look to be precise.  I saw this piece used in the initial A/W 09 lookbook images in my bid to find out whether I could start buying more things from this store that has somehow always stumped me.  Anyhow the body was stuck in my head... and then stuck even further when I saw it used in a Sunday style supplement shoot.  I loved the body's similarity to a scuba suit, the leopard print that is a crossed over with camo and the leather panelling... oh and the obvious fact that it's a body onesie and so has that ability to smooth over everything.  

As it happens, New Look were glad to obligingly send me this prototype of the body but kindly explained that the body did not go into production as it did not get pass the 'customer focus group' stage and will therefore not be on sale.  Now, I could be completely isolated in my body-scuba-suit-loving rut but I'm just wondering who are the 'customers' that are saying 'Nay' to things, that end up preventing designs from making it to the shop floor for the wider public.  What's the 'focus' process...?  How does one get in on the customer focus game to have this all-powerful ability to inform what will be going into the stores?  Do they provide the focus groups with sufficient sandwiches and beverages to make sure they can Yay/Nay clothes more efficiently?  Are there placards with points from 0-10...?  Is there someone in the group who is specificlaly ANTI-onesie?  Important questions I believe...

Like I said, I'm bo no means an 'average' (mean, meadian AND mode) customer and probably given the choice, I would YAY everything seeing as I'm a firm believer in choice... thus you'd get stores looking completely overstuffed and unedited.  This Unattainable Body on my back (sounds strange to keep referring to the 'bod'...) isn't here to say but it's pretty much a dead loss now seeing as the stores are moving onto spring summer samples ... perhaps next time, I will make it my mission to join this supposed 'customer forcus group..." as Yays are always better than Nays.

**EDIT** Bloody hell... just re-read this and realised it made no sense whatsoever... I wrote this late at night and promptly fell asleep... on the keyboard... hello keyboard marks on face... great look for shopping in New York, no?

Flat Textures

>>Here's hoping you can make these out properly from my blurry pictures but at one of the Masterclasses here at the Arts of Fashion event in Philly, conducted by designer Aurore Thibout and Laurence Teillet (co-founded of Elemental, a vintage furniture store in London, I snapped these prints on tracing paper that were meant to be inspiration images for their students who are doing a screenprinting project.

It was Laurence who had produced them and now I semi/sort of/vaguely/ know how Inside Out, trompe l'oeil garment masters superimpose prints of garments onto clothes so precisely. There's something about the aesthetic of photocopied garments and seeing these entirely flat monochromatic images with the illusion of depth that make just these prototype tracing paper prints very impressive.

Pay Half Trimmings

I do realise that the title of this post sounds like a subject line in a spam email but bear with me.  Actually come to think of it, thanks for bearing with the irregular posting times (thanks to the GMT for closing the gap on the time difference...woohoo!) and the *hangs head in shame* dusty emptiness of the DIY category. 

I realise 'lack of time' is a ropey excuse but I'm still hoping free time will come into my possession.  That said, having spent four days observing fashion professionals who work for companies like Lanvin, Raf Simons, Hermes etc  conducting Masterclasses at the Arts of Fashion event here in Philadelphia, I definitely come away with the conclusion that my own hands are limited in their ability because someone up there did not gift me with nifty and nimble fingers.  It's not even really about fashion school training (which I also lack of course...) but these people, who in their working hours and hours outside that, are constantly generating ideas and experimenting in fabrications, shapes and techniques and happen to be naturally gifted with having fashion eureka moments pretty often.  When they're working with the students who are taking their classes, I often hear sentences that start with "Maybe we could try this...?" and the results are more often than not, spot on.  I'm most definitely happy to be the observer of this idea generation rather than the idea generator...

Take these black pumps from Payhalf.  I went on a bit of a long winded excursion to buy them for the Arts of Fashion show tonight as they are being used to accessorize the Bag Pocket Masterclass conducted by Anthony Vaccarello and Arnaud Michaux.  They just took one look at them and with the trimmings lying around on the table knew what to do with them...

On goes the black fringe running along both sides of the pumps...

...and a feather boa trim is cut up to stick onto the back of the shoes...

Left to my own devices and I might have gone about these two dead simple tricks in a really long and roundabout way... I'll stick to typing and making really good banana and walnut cake...

Summer Swagga

>> I seem to have fallen into a bit of a pattern of posting about "Things that sit well in the harsh reality of life...".  Eight London is one example and so the new S/S 10 collection of Swagga and Soul is another one.  The first time I wrote about them, I had M.I.A. punching around in my head, and I also said that they provided all the kind of leather basics that one would need with some extra pizazz on top; like the soft distressed quality of the leathers they use that pushes you into thinking that you NEED rather than WANT that leather jacket. 

They haven't let go of the leather for S/S 10 and rightly so when it's as soft as Swagga and Soul get it.  They have lightened things up with the pale pale pink and grey colours as well as making things looser in general.  Nicole, the designer has kept elements like the fringing and some of the hardware but transferred to the sort of 'essentials' that she considers well...essential.  I'm glad she's kept the loose-trews in her summer repertoire for me to potentially wear them like lux trackie bottoms.  She's also redressed the leather shorts omission by putting some here.  And, is that a length of skirt I spy that ISN'T skimming the bum?  It's not quite floor length but I can already feel the lengths creeping down towards the knees/calves and I'm fully onboard for that...

Here's to a floor length leather skirt for next season? 

Don't Forget the Forget Me Not

>> Ack, double negative hell there but I meant it, when I say that if I ever did get a scarf by label Forget Me Not, I would have to have some kind of permanent post-it note attached to my sleeve, like a watch, to remind me NOT to forget it somewhere; on the bus, at a restaurant, in a park...err... at the meat counter in Morrison's.  I'm fiddly with jewellery but even more so with scarves.  It's just tough luck that I've recently developed a re-crush on scarves (re-crush meaning I crushed them a while back and now the scarf lovin' is back with a vengeance).  I could be walking down a street and suddenly feel the urge to take off the scarf, flick it around a bit, wave it about and before I know it, I've left it somewhere and it's floated off into the bin. 

Nevertheless, I'll get onto developing permanent post-it notes especially for these digital print scarves by Forget Me Not.  Coco is a French, London-based illustrator whose work you might have seen in Vogue, Elle, Nylon and Muse.... where she combines hand-drawing and watercolours with digital techniques.  Now she's put her work to scarf and that has worked out well as the large 120cm x 120cm silk canvas provides her with a space to explore her particular fields of interest... enchanting woodland creatures mixed with space and geometry. 

They have an online shop but Forget Me Not has also recently done a collaboration with ASOS which I think is less of a diffusion line but more like an extension of her main scarf FMN collection...

I'll be wary though of flitting around in Morrison's with one lest they end up nestled in between the jars of different mustards (I have a fascination with condiments...)...

Slummin' It Nat Style

>> To call this Natascha Stolle dress my 'slummin' it' dress could be a bit of an insult to Natascha but I did remember a distinctly embarrassing moment when at the New York IFB Dress-Up Soiree when I was gesticulating to my Fannie Schiavoni chain dress, saying that it was 'casual' for me and Mr Newton (loving his new site...) said "Only someone like Susie would consider a chain dress 'casual'" or something to that effect...

So what I'm really trying to say is that my version of 'slummin' it' is by no means a slide down the road towards trackie bottoms and Uggs.  That said, this dress from Natascha Stolle's A/W 09 collection has the sort of makings of something incredibly 'cas'...the loose shape, the oversized proportions, the GREY JERSEY (needs capitals of course...).  I ordered the dress aaaages ago and promptly forgot I had bought it until I went to pick it up at the BFC showroom in Paris during London Fashion Week and it was only when I put it on for the first time that I noticed all the things that pulls it back from being a giant sweater for sitting in and watching repeats of My Sweet 16 (thank you MTV marathon...) and eating pickled quail's eggs. 

The silk 'boob' draping at the front that wafts about in front of the sweater dress, the grey gauzey lining that is revealed when you roll up the sleeves and the best part I think; the simple knot at the back that makes the collar dip lower, in a similar fashion to a kimono to reveal the neck (considered to be slightly erotic and beautiful...).  So with all those things combined, whilst the dress will be a winter comfort especially when I layer it over Uniqlo heat tech tees, it also dances between demure and dressy, in the way that Natascha Stolle has tried to establish with the rest of her collection...

... and her S/S 10 collection which I peeked at in Paris... she's finally figured out a way to make the stone pebbling 'effect' production friendly by using patent leather... 

Dresses You Would Want to Wear and Wear Some More Afterwards Too

>> Why the oh-so-long title?  Because this post does exactly what it says on the tin and in like our reaally reaally goooood-looking friend Derek Zoolander who created his "Center for Kids Who Can't Read Good and Wanna Learn to Do Other Stuff Good Too" these dresses by new label Eight London are basically err....what the post title says and not a lot else.  That's not to belittle Eight London and what they're doing but going purely by the website, it's pretty simple stuff... 10 ensembles for their first collection, mostly dresses with one jacket and a skirt and top in wool and silk. Sexy-but-not-slutty cuts, slightly louche, slightly dishevelled and subtly lux.  I might be throwing around buzzy, snappy words but there's really nothing more to say.  No big label statement, no 'concept' text and not even a designer's bio. 

They just want to give you "Dresses You Would Want to Wear and Wear Some More Afterwards Too" with *shock shock horror horror* PRICES (£100-£300 mark...) on the site for you to make order enquiries should you want to buy some of these "Dresses You Would Want to Wear and Wear Some More Afterwards Too".... and I'll stop right there...