LFW ss10: What I liked from the menswear day



Menswear isn’t usually my forte but I love to look at it to see what elements I can steal for myself. From Katy Eary I would take the furry jackets, from Martine Rose these colour-block patchwork shirts with panels of pinks, greys and black-and-white polka dots.

Casely-Hayford’s Kings of the Kingsland collection was meticulously styled and cast. His different take on tailoring with elastic hem trousers, neckscarves, Crombies, trenchcoats and lounge slippers all caught my eye.

Marc Hare from Mr Hare has one of my favourite menswear blogs and his shoe collection brought a steady stream of eager onlookers. All his shoes were original and brilliant but especially this flat slipper-like slip-on.

As I’ve said before, menswear design always seems so much more functional than womenswear. If only we could have a womenswear take on H by Harris’s quilted leather jacket with its zip-on-zip-off backpack.

[Shoe pic by Mr Hare]



London fashion week ss10: Rediscovering the twinset



Quite often at the shows, you look for the trends you want to wear. I was desperate to see the return of the twinset after I spied a little homage to the twinset in the window of Pringle (above). After a couple of days of no-shows, the twinset finally emerged at the Clements Ribiero presentation. Success! Strictly speaking they weren’t twinsets in the trad sense as they were decidely mismatched but there were cardigans and there were sweaters and they were worn together so why split hairs? They were lovely. Cat-prints and eyes were the standout motifs, all offset with inky wingy and smoky eye make-up and scary black lips (what do we call this? Spring goth?).






The twinset also appeared at menswear label Sibling’s presentation (below). As designer Joe Bates admitted, “it’s me needing a twinset that started the whole thing off”. Actually, it’s the idea of a twinset as menswear that I really love. I’d wear one with mannish cigarette pants and my Maxmara-from-Bicester-Village brothel creepers to give it a non-prim twist.



London Fashion Week: Kitsuné pop-up shop at The Shop at Bluebird




On Monday evening I was invited to the Kitsuné pop-up shop party at The Shop at Bluebird. While the Kitsuné shop was indeed lovely and I do have my eye on their perfect-cut shirts, I was super-excited to be able to take photos of the rest of the shop. It sells furniture, books, clothes and music but for me the excitement comes from the merchandising. An always-interesting retail space, it’s a bit far down the King’s Road but worth the trip.