The biggest Fan

Fan(n.): an instrument for cooling things, also a person who admires someone or thing greatly. C/Fan is Christina Fan’s label, which I admire greatly. Her floaty printed dresses manage to be more Acne than Cavalli, which is no mean feat (trust me as someone who is trying to do it at the moment, start playing with pattern, silks and maxis and it’s VERY murky water).

Her lines are clean and her palette assured. I like that she uses LOADS of silk. I like silk. I can’t wait for the weather to get a bit nicer so I can wear it more. I also like the aesthetic she has for her look book. I think we might be friends if we knew each other.

This is what C/Fan does with her time. I wonder if she secretly wanted to be a rapper, and thought of the name ages ago. And then she discovered that she sucked at it, and became a designer instead. If that’s the case (and I have a feeling I am RIGHT ON THE MONEY here, lol), then she made the right decision.

AW10 collection

AW10 Collection

images via cfan-designs.com

i’v got’s no(w) style

I genuinely thought Karl Lagerfeld was taking the mickey when I saw these last february….

 

It has now been snowing for so long that I am beginning to think the man may have had a point…I suppose I feel like I should do a post and properly address the snow thing. Maybe if we acknowledge it, it will leave….As much as possible I’ve been hiding inside with the heating up as high as it will go (I think I’m part lizard, my blood freezes when I get cold and I can’t move). Otherwise, I found an awesome sheepskin coat that was my nanasin a wardrobe in my house  (actually this is a lie, I’ve know about it all the time, I was just looking for an excuse to wear it) that I have been using since the snow started. It’s ENORMOUS! Both in length, because it’s a coat, not a jacket, or a long jacket or a short coat. It’s a motherfucking coat. It’s also huge, which is weird coz my nana wasn’t fat…maybe she was pimping the oversize look way back when. It’s also about three inches thick of sturrrdy suede and tight shearling lining. Haha, I got roped into the shearling trend after all. Stupid snow making a fashion victim out of me! Ha. Actually I think the coat is from the ’70′s (or at least it looks it, perhaps late ’60′s), so I’m ticking all kinds of fashion boxes. Which is really funny because it is covering a world of sartorial sins – layers & layers of warmest clothes (shape, colour, who cares!). Also, this weather has got me wearing my old horse riding boots. They are Aigle, and they are sturdy as anything, and just as good as wellies, but they are not wellies, which i like enormously. I have been sort of wanting a pair of leather riding-style boots to wear in real life, maybe I should have been careful what I wished for…AAAnnnnyyway. It’s snowing. And that sucks. But I’m warm. And I still don’t like those Chanel Yeti suits. I don’t care how toasty they look or how hot the models are. It’s just wrong. Soz Karl, you know you’re my fav. But seriously like. xx

This is me, after shoveling snow off & out of the way of my mum’s car for an hour this morning in my snow uniform!

London Calling

Things I saw in London last weekend…

Acne. In EVERY deparment store. Everywhere. I guess I never really thought about it, but I suppose they are pretty much on the money – great shapes in interesting fabrics, and lots of black. It’s funny, because I generally like their stuff but never seek it out. And by the looks of it, I’m on my own there.

Acne Resort 2011

 

Acne AW10

Acne AW10

images via style.com & Acnestudios.com

Gruau & Dior in Somerset House. René Gruau is a really famous fashion illustrator, his use of line and composition is unreal. It was amazing to see his original paintings, that have become iconic campaigns for Dior. If you are unfamiliar with his work, I highly recommend you check him out, you will not be disappointed.

Selfridges shoe gallery. For about two hours…. It’s another world. I spent most of the time being quite sad what with the prohibitive price tags and heel heights. I consoled myself with a pair of patent punched leather chelsea boots from Topshop. I originally had my eye out for a pair of black loafers, but I didn’t see any I liked, and boots make more sense for winter. Win.

Brown’s Focus. For some reason I’ve never been in it before, but the place is unreal. I think my favourite piece was the Hussein Chalayan pleat sweatshirt. It was just the right combination of wearability & Chalayan’s forward design. Sadly the price tag wasn’t so wearable so it stayed in the store. Sigh.

Vogue Oct2010

Cos. I’ve mentioned this store before as a favourite place, and now there’s a concession in BT2. However, I wasn’t really impressed with the selection the BT buyers brought over, so I visited the much bigger and far-more-my-style Regent Street store. Got an amazing thick rib oversize cardigan. It’s a great shape, but the knit really makes it special. I can’t even figure out how it’s done, it’s like double knitting or something. I also had to stop myself from buying their collarless long blazer, it was divine, but that would have been a step too far. I wish Cos would sort out their website though – it’s pretty slick to be fair to them, but it’s a pain in the ass to use.

Pizza East. There was a summer-long running joke in our flat about going to Pizza East, and we never did, so I finally got Pizza East pizza on Sunday. It was pretty tasty, although we got take away so it was a bit cold :/ Next time, maybe. It’s in a pretty sweet space in the Tea Buildings. I’m not one to go on about food, but it’s pretty cool.

Columbia Road Market. Again, this is something I meant to do during the Summer, but the Sunday morning early wake up call meant it never happened! I managed to drag myself out of bed this Sunday (surprisingly enough, everyone else told me where to stick my flowers when I suggested they join me in the rain early in the morning) and headed over. It was the only time during the weekend I actually remembered to bring my camera out with me, so here’s what I saw.

Sunday Up Market. I lived around the corner from Brick Lane over the summer so I was so sick of it after the first couple of weeks I avoided it like the plague, but I had time to kill this Sunday so I went for a wander and got a giant Lion ring for a pretty nice price. Bargains are really hard to come by on Brick Lane/Spittalfields these days, so I was happy.

Friends. Nothing beats hanging out with friends and there was lots of that as well as the fashion things, epic win.

I came home very tired and pretty sick (my awesome new Cos cardigan is not waterproof even a little bit, sadface) but pretty satisfied with myself. WIN.

Designers Do it Better

I like to flatter myself by saying that one of the reasons I dress fairly boringly (is that a word? is now…) is that my lack o funds means I don’t have access to the amazing designer clothes. Now, you can argue in favour of the high street, and second hand and making the most of it all you like. Don’t get me wrong, I trawl through charity rails, I shop high street, looking for interesting, well designed clothes. But most of the time my style is quite muted and not that fashioney. Why? Well for one, I usually buy clothes based on the quality of the fabric (ie no polyester, no acrylic wool, no crappy cut garments or badly sewn seams), which rules out a massive amount of high street clothes. And also, and this one kills me when I find something i like, it’s because I HATE buying a really pretty/dramatic/fun/colourful dress and wear it out and see ten other girls in the same thing. I HATE HATE HATE IT.

Does that mean I think I am more original than I am? Possibly. But let’s be honest, the high street rips off designers, and often has their knock off versions in the stores before the designer collections arrive at their sales points. I hate that for many reasons. One of which is that they are essentially making FAR more money than a lot of designers, without having to take any of the design risks or innovative thinking. Which sucks for the designers. Another one is that the quality just isnt there in the high street version. Which sucks for the consumer – us. Aside from branding and exclusivity and all that jazz, part of the reason that designer clothes are so expensive is that they are made to really really high levels of quality. which means that they look better, they feel better and they fit better.

That’s not to say that you have to be loaded to look good, we can all agree that the ubiquity of street style blogs renders that a very moot point. HOWEVER, when it comes to wearing really striking clothes, like proper FASHUN, kick ass, omg-that-dress-is-freaking-awesome clothes, designers do it better. And personally, I would rather just not play the game than be the poor cousin to this lot….

 

Balmain AW10

 

 

Balmain AW10

 

 

Preen AW10

 

 

Proenza Schouler AW10

 

 

Pucci AW10

 

 

Pucci AW10

 

 

Versus AW10

 

 

Versus AW10

 

 

Vivienne Tam

 

Marchesa 4eva

I LOVE Marchesa. Well, it’s love in a really fantasy sort of a way. I know that I do not have too many social functions that require a dress as lovely, and that’s leaving aside the price tag. But still. I mean come on. LOOK AT THEM! They are just the most beautiful constructions. Super feminine, but still sexy. When I win the lotto I’m gonna buy one for all my girls so we can just swan about in them. Maybe we will drink cups of tea, just to keep it real, you know…

AW10

AW10

AW10

AW10

AW10

SS11SS11

SS11

Fur crying out loud

Fur is not everybody’s cup of tea. I know and respect that fact. However, this does not change the fact that it is available for sale, and that many designers choose to use it as part of their collections within fashion. The following post reflects my own personal views that I do not wish to force upon any person. Think what you will, but I wear fur. There, I said it.

Fur has always been a hot topic. Ugh, that’s actually a really terrible pun when you consider the warmth it provides in the cold. I apologise, I think I’m in one of those moods…But ANYWAY. Following on from my previous posts about winter coats, I decided to include a post dedicated to fur, simply because there was so much of it on the runway. So much of it that I felt the need to make some form of comment.

I’m not really sure what the message there is. Perhaps it’s a response to emerging markets and a desire for ostentatious displays of wealth. Nothing says “I’m loaded” like a filthy great fur coat and loads of diamonds. Or perhaps the anti-fur lobby has fallen out of vogue and fur is back in fashion. Or maybe, and I’m probably being far too generous here, but there is a small chance that designers are actually using fur because it is a fabric that brings real heat to the body while creating maximum visual impact. There is no denying that real fur keeps you real warm. And for the price of them, they are an investment, which makes them less expendable and therefore in a really weird way more environmentally friendly. Bizarre, I know. But you are far less likely to throw out your fur coat at the end of a season. Synthetic materials are cheaper, but I have made the mistake of trying to save a few euro on a cheaper winter coat – they just don’t work. And it’s just plain no fun when you’re freezing.

I know that synthetic furs have come on leaps and bounds in terms of quality in recent years, so if you don’t want the real thing, you have the choice. Here are some of the fur coats that I found remarkable from this years Autum Winter collections.

Antonio Berardi

Brian Reyes

Costume National

Dennis Basso

Gianfranco Ferre

Marc Jacobs

Michael Kors

Pucci

Roskanda Ilinic

Valentino

All images via Style.com

Mary Katrantzou, woo woo woo!

Mary Katrantzou’s prints are as mad as a bag of nuts – she is bold, brash, unafraid and effing deadly. In four short seasons (that’s two short years in real time) she has established herself as a totally fresh talent, creating signature trompe l’oeil prints that are nothing short of delectible. She is one of this years recipients of the British Fashion Council’s Newgen award, recognising young design talent. Which is basically a pretty big deal. But then, if you ask me, she’s a pretty big deal, so I guess it figures.

To be honest, I could talk and talk but this one is for looking…

Autumn Winter 09/10

Autumn Winter 09/10

Spring Summer 10

Spring Summer 10

Autumn Winter 10/11

Autumn Winter 10/11

Autumn Winter 10/11

Autumn Winter 10/11

Spring Summer 11

Spring Summer 11

Spring Summer 11

Spring Summer 11

All images via Style.com

Skirting the issue

I have always been a separates kinda gal, what with my long back and general dose of tall. Separates are my friends becasue they don’t enforce a waist/hip line that is on the wrong place on my body, which is never a good look. On top of allowing tall people have proper proportions, the great thing about skirts is that you can dress your top half up or down to suit the mood, giving you more scope to wear them. Indeed, this Autumn Winter there were a bunch of super fun skirts playing with texture and volume that are nothing less than covetable. Observe…

Antonio Berardi

Colette Dinigan

Cynthia Rowley

Diane Von Furstenberg

Giambasti Valli

Giambasti Valli

Giles

Miu Miu

Moschino

Yves Saint Laurent

Ok so technically the Moschino and the DVF are dresses, but the skirt is what makes the dress interesting, so they stay! And the Antonio Berardi…..they’re like little disco balls!!! More skirts should be this fun. Just sayin’.

Toasty

I LOVE coats & jackets. They are my favourite type of garment. I have far too many. Every time I go away I come home with like 2 or 3 more coats. I am aware that this is not normal behaviour. But I can’t help it. So, it is hardly surprising then that I am VERY excited when this time of year rolls around. It’s winter coat time. Well, almost. It’s actually autumn jacket time, which is like the prelude to proper freezing weather. BUT, it is quickly getting cold enough to be thinking of winter coats, which is just fine by me. Here’s what I’ve been thinking of….

3.1 Philip Lim

Aquascutum

Behnaz

Celine

Fendi

Gareth Pugh

Giambasti Valli

Hermes

Malandrino

Roskanda Illinic

All images via Style.com

Let’s Turkey Trot

Fashion Week is on right now. And while I am defo going to trawl through all the collections, I’m not going to do it just yet. Nope, I’m going to take my sweet ass time about it. Why? Well, because it’s not even cold enough to put on my giant winter coat yet. And I’m not a fashion buyer. So I don’t really NEED to worry about it. Anyway, with that in mind, here is a collection of this season/last season’s (is AW10 last season already?) prints that I think are great. Most are pretty subtle, adding the right amount of texture and visual interest to your winter wardrobe. Which, if it’s anything like mine, features black black more black, some grey, a touch of denim, a camel coat and more black.

Clements Ribeiro

Cynthia Rowley

Erdem

Etro

Givenchy

Gucci

Kenzo

Luca Luca

Marni

Mary Katranzou

Peter Pilotto

Prada

Proenza Schouler

Tibi

Wunderkind

All images via Style.com

I love the Cynthia Rowley pants; while I normally balk at printed trousers (evoking images of the worst kind of Eurotrash), these ones are just the right amount of fun, and a really gorgeous cut.  I am so obsessed with Erdem and Mary Katranzou at the moment expect separate posts extolling their awesomeness. I also really really like the Wunderkind & Proenza Schouler stuff. Actually, I like it all, so I don’t want to be picking favourites. What’s your favourite?! Oh yea, and the Turkey Trot thing…I have been listening to a lot of Little Eva the past few days, here she is in action.