Author Archives: Disneyrollergirl
Alice Knackfuss at Other Shop
Nice one Other Shop! Continuing its mission to nurture emerging designers, Matt and Kirk have brought a. Knackfuss to London. Alice Knackfuss’s menswear-fused womenswear mixes tailoring and classic staples with exciting prints and clever, playful details.
My standout pieces are the sheer silk windbreaker, the layered shirt and the sheer-backed baseball jacket (alas, now sold out). Here’s some eye candy to feast on…
Best buy: The Hanro vest
Trending for spring: boyfriend shorts, sheer-panelled skirts, barely-there bandeau tops… Um, not in my world they’re not. On rotation in my wardrobe right now is the same thing I’ve been wearing since last September – an endless cycle of jumbo cardigans and polo necks, underpinned by a lifetime’s supply of Hanro vests. Where would I be without my Hanros?
My go-to Hanro is the ‘1601‘ in black or white, made famous by Nicole Kidman in Eyes Wide Shut, but otherwise worn by thousands as a pretty spaghetti-strapped vest that works under any weight or sheerness of top. I wear mine under T-shirts, jumpers, silk shirts and sheer blouses. And if it does get properly balmy, you can wear one on its own too.
The adjustable-strapped V-neck vests (and short sleeve tops, my other Hanro addiction – seen on Kate Moss, above) are made in Switzerland from mercerised cotton, wool and silk. Some are trimmed with filigree embroidery still produced in Swiss factories. They’re not cheap – the 1601 costs £29 for the cotton version – but they’re beautifully made and absolutely last. Cost-per-wear wise, they’re a very good investment.
[Images: Kate Moss by Corrine Day for Vogue]
Live crafting: Hermes Festival Des Metiers exhibition
What’s all this talk about craft fatigue? What a load of nonsense, I’ve only just got started! Some might say that the thrill of seeing the skills at the heart of the world’s most luxurious handbags, scarves and watches is starting to tire but I hope that’s not the case. I love getting the inside secrets to age-old processes and that’s exactly what you’ll get when you visit the Hermes Festival Des Metiers exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery.
Here you’ll find the skilled workers transposed from the studio floor to a makeshift workshop space in front of a translator and inquisitive visitors. From the gem setter preparing a miniscule stone for one of those fabulous pyramid cuffs, to the porcelain painter, to the bag-makers, this is as close as you could wish to get.
What’s lovely is that as you quiz the artisans, other visitors chip in too, so you learn something from their questions and can engage in some friendly chit-chat with fellow craft geeks. Don’t miss the main attraction, the scarf printing table where you can see a whole scarf being born (read in detail here if you’re intrigued), the techniques explained with great flair by Hermes’ Kamel Hamadou. If ‘craft theatre’ is indeed on the wane, you’d better lap it up now, because it’s rare that you’ll get this close to seeing how these products are made…
A ToyWatch for the festival season
Here’s something different from ToyWatch and I like it a lot. It’s a watch-friendship bracelet hybrid and all I can think is, why hasn’t this been done before?
The watch face is clean and classic, a nice contrast to the busy South American-inspired patterns of the woven friendship bracelet. These are pitched ‘for the festival season’ but I can’t imagine them going anywhere near a muddy field, can you? Much more suited for lazy days in the park with a Pimms, or a clubby long weekend in Ibiza.
Anyway, they sell for £125 and are stocked at Selfridges, Harrods, Harvey Nichols and ToyWatch… Continue reading
Last chance for Lichtenstein
Yikes, where is the time going? This week is the last chance to see Lichtenstein – A Retrospective at Tate Modern and I managed to get my eye in fashionably late last week. If you love his classic dot artworks, this is a chance to see them in huge scale which is really not to be missed. Most people are familiar with the War and Romance era, the comic-book style ‘WHAMM!’s and melodramatic close-ups of women in distress. Continue reading
Beauty snippets: The Bling Ring, Jean-Louis Sebagh, Lisa Eldridge, Pinterest, YSL Baby Doll, Cosmetics A La Carte, Charlotte Tilbury, Into The Gloss, Bourjois
COSMETICS A LA CARTE COLOUR AND CULTURE EXHIBITION
This is turning out to be an exciting month for beauty. I would love to make it to the Chanel no5 exhibition in Paris but frankly, that ain’t gonna happen. More achievable is the Cosmetics A La Carte ‘Colour And Culture’ exhibition next week at 50 Redchurch Street E2. Celebrating forty years of the specialist cosmetics company (I’ve always wanted one of their custom-made foundations), the exhibition is only on for five days (22-26 May, 10-6pm) so rearrange that diary and schedule it in! Continue reading
Pinterest for the UK
Last week saw the launch of Pinterest in the UK. Which you might think weird because, um, haven’t we in the UK all been using it for yonks? Well yes, but it seems the site is keen to have some more localised content too, which is why it has decided to flag up a few Brit bloggers and pinners to encourage some more UK-centric pinning.
Not that my pins are necessarily UK-centric (Ok, they’re categorically not), but there might be an underlying Brit style coming through… maybe. Anyway, if you’re a pinner, you can follow all or some of my Pinterest boards here. I’ve just created a new one called ‘gentlewoman style‘ which is my tribute to sophisticated, cultured women with a bit of a boy-girl twist. Continue reading
Club Monaco creates all-blogger look book (and launches it on Tumblr)
Club Monaco was an early adopter in curating inspiring content on its ‘Culture Club’ Tumblr. From fabulous architecture to offbeat coffee shops, since 2010 it has nailed the art of curating relevant content without ramming product down our throats. Plus its Tumblr is one of the few branded Tumblrs that I follow. (BTW, my beauty Tumblr is here…) Now it has achieved another first – the first blogger-cast Tumblr lookbook and a Club Monaco-branded Tumblr theme. Continue reading
Workshop visit: The Hermes silk scarf workshops in Lyon
“It takes two years to make and two minutes to buy!” So says Kamel Hamadou, the affable communications manager of Hermès silk, hosting a rare tour of the company’s silk printing facilities in Lyon. Two weeks ago I was invited on a whirlwind trip to learn the many meticulous stages of making one of those familiar silk ‘carrés’ of which I’m the proud owner of a few, neatly folded and stored in their equally familiar flat orange boxes.
My most astonishing discovery? The utter complexity of printing involved in a silk scarf of many colours. The average scarf has around 30 colours, of which each shade has its own precise mixing process. The printing itself has to be seen to be believed, but next week, you’ll have the chance to see it all when Hermès’ Festival Des Metiers lands on the London leg of its world tour. Continue reading
Buy it now: luxe comfort shoes
It’s not just the catwalk getting in on the comfort shoe act (hello Celine Fur-Kenstock), die-hard comfort shoe brands have been drastically upping their game in design. While I’ve never understood the appeal of Ugg boots, I can’t fault the designs of some of Ugg Australia’s recent offers (like its men’s sheepskin-lined trainers) and aspirational advertising imagery. Continue reading
