It’s coming: Louise Gray for Topshop (p.s. it includes make-up)
Now this is exciting. Topshop just announced its collaboration with Louise Gray, coming in August. I see colour, I see print, I see bonkers fabric mixing and I’m hoping for an explosion of accessories. Although Louise Gray can do toned down too – remember the lush blues and reds of her Brora collab? Continue reading
British Designers Collective Pour Homme
Hello boys! It’s your turn to get zhuzhed up in Britain’s finest fashion offerings as Bicester Village’s British Designers Collective pop-up gets a menswear focus. Boasting rails laden with London Fashion Week’s favourite names, from the energy of James Long and Lou Dalton to the classicism of Richard James and Margaret Howell, some of us got a first look last week. Continue reading
On trunk shows, experiential retail and Hannah Warner’s extreme nail art
The Independent published a story this week about the growth of online trunk shows – Moda Operandi, Net-a-Porter et al giving customers the chance to shop ahead of the season by pre-ordering almost straight from the runway. The analogue version of this is the physical trunk show, more popular in America, but also being used in the UK by smaller retailers and designers to offer their customers a more intimate experience and learn from the feedback. I wrote about this a while ago for Glass magazine and noticed that trunk shows seem to be particularly popular with jewellers. Especially with more expensive pieces, it seems the live shopping experience can add to the emotional value of the piece. This month, contemporary multi-brand jeweller Kabiri is holding weekly trunk shows with a different designer every Thursday where customers can meet the makers and also try out special pieces from their collections.
Owner Nathalie Kabiri says, “although we have a successful online store, you can’t replicate the interaction of meeting the brands personally. We pride ourselves on our close working relationships with designers and decided to hold the series of trunk shows so that our designers can give advice to customers, to help them achieve the perfect jewellery purchase.” One of those designers is Hannah Warner whose darkly gothic aesthetic has earned her commissions from Mugler and Jean-Paul Gauliter. Tomorrow at Kabiri in Marylebone Road, Warner will be launching her gold nail jewellery; thorn-like nail attachments that are applied by a manicurist. These have been much buzzed about since being seen on the Mugler AW12 runway. The following Thursday, British jewellers, Cabinet will hold a trunk show at Kabiri in King’s Road. Although the trunk shows are open to the public, you have to book a place. Find all the details are here.
Jimmy Choo and Look magazine launch social sharing sites
More on the street style/self-style phenomenon that only seems to be growing. Last week saw the launch of Jimmy Choo’s 24:7 Stylemakers which follows on from what Burberry did with Art Of The Trench and Armani did with Frames Of Your Life. Users of the 24:7 Stylemakers site upload pictures of themselves wearing Jimmy Choo either via the site itself or with Facebook/Instagram (using the #choo247 hashtag). Continue reading
Retail concept: introducing Milli Millu handbags
What’s the best thing about Milli Millu‘s new Belgravia handbag shop? Is it that it’s hidden up a flight of stairs off Hyde Park Corner with no chance of passing trade? Is it the expansive windows allowing for floods of afternoon light, all the better to show off the arm candy? Or is it designer Mireia Llusia-Lindh’s pefectly-proportioned handbags themselves? Continue reading
Gary Card designs pop-up Milan store for COS *VIDEO*
Who doesn’t love COS? The Swedish brand may be the high street sister company of H&M but it has all the hallmarks of a higher end designer brand. It has its own aesthetic signature, an arty, design-conscious customer base and an intelligent point of view. It feels kind of secretive though, so here’s a wee peek into the brand as it launches a pop-up shop in Milan (designed by Gary Card).
Yayoi Kusama covers June Wallpaper magazine
You can keep Jessica Alba for Marie Claire and Cameron Diaz for Harper’s Bazaar, I’m more interested in Yayoi Kusama on the cover of Wallpaper (and she designed it too). My problem with actresses and pop stars on the cover of mags is that each celeb has done so many covers with the required !!EXCLUSIVE!! interview that they literally have nothing of interest left to say. Everything of consequence has been said already. Artists on the other hand tend to be less publicity hungry (obviously there are exceptions) so rarely give interviews and they have a more specific outlook on life which means that when they do, they actually have something worth saying.
If you haven’t yet seen the Kusama exhibition at Tate Modern, do hurry. It ends on 5th June when it then moves to New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art on 12th July. And then on the 15th, we’ll finally see the long-awaited Louis-Vuitton-Yayoi-Kusama ready-to-wear collaboration – with windows in all LV’s stores worldwide showing VM displays created by Kusama of course (think red and white polka dotted eels writhing under the sea). It’s in the diary…
The limited-edition cover by Kusama is available to Wallpaper subscribers and on newsstands in Japan.
Merchants In London at The Shop At Bluebird
I’m a big believer in the idea of collaboration, not competition and that’s part of the ethos behind Merchants on Long, Africa’s first concept store where designers work together to promote the best of African luxury design. Continue reading
Shop report: Hermes Paris flagship
Part of my recent trip to Paris with Hermes involved a visit to the new(ish) flagship store. Situated in a former 1930s swimming pool, it felt tres strange to be standing on the floor of the pool surrounded by original tiles! The store is vast and includes a cafe, a florist, a bookshop and lots of home wares. Continue reading
The blue shirt: the great equaliser
Thursday evening saw the launch of Acne’s Snowdon Blue book/shirt/exhibition project. On show until 13th May at the Acne store (13 Dover Street, W1) is an inspiring display of Lord Snowdon’s portrait photography, each subject a vision in blue. A clever, organic concept, it all started six months ago when Snowdon’s daughter (and head of his archive), Frances von Hofmannsthal took her idea for a Snowdon Blue book to Acne’s Jonny Johansson. Continue reading
