Interesting news that Hedi Slimane has left Dior Homme. The genius designer has been making too many demands on LVMH and so they’ve passed the baton to Kris van Assche from Belgium. Like the demise of Helmut Lang and Jil Sander, this marks the end of an era. Even if Slimane decides to launch his own label I doubt it will be remembered in the same way as Hedi Slimane For Dior Homme. During his time at Dior, Slimane pioneered a whole new lean and youthful silhouette for men, much like Giorgio Armani did with his unstructured menswear in the eighties. Collectors, best start snapping up those remaining bits of Dior Homme, they will be like gold dust from now on.
Newsflash: Primark’s arrival in Marble Arch is imminent, as the store frontage is up and the battle looks set to commence between Primark and New Look. I’ll be interested to see how they battle it out. Pros and cons…
NEW LOOK
Good points – they have Giles and Lily Allen doing exclusives with them and their new Shoe Heaven range is a massive hit
– they are soon to start selling online
Bad points – merchandising leaves a lot to be desired and those weird trolley things – what the hell are they about?
PRIMARK
Good points – they are so stupidly cheap you can’t not buy something
Bad points – the stupidly cheap bubble is sure to burst as clearly, if it’s cheap it can’t be ethical
– queuing is traumatic to say the least and the mess…can it really be worth it?
-everyone and her granny will be shopping there
Hmm, New Look are winning so far, let’s see how it all pans out…
My first foray to LFW this week. No show tickets today so I went to have a nose at the exhibition tent. What a palaver! No bags allowed in the cloakroom due to ‘lack of space’. They should make more space next time or at least warn us poor suckers in advance. What’s the point in foisting the outsized bag trend on us if we can’t park the buggers in the cloakroom!
The big trend was lots of chunky knits in neutral colours (Madeleine Press, J & M Davidson, Diab’less) and I spotted some fab jewellery –especially French designer Elia Stone and old favourites Tatty Devine (Perspex grand piano brooches and bow tie necklaces –fun!) who are having their shop relaunch soiree tomorrow (236 Brick Lane, E2) and have ordered in hundreds of umbrellas for the event.
Accessories label Lowie (www.ilovelowie.com) has branched out into clothing with a capsule knitwear collection – think leg-o-mutton puff sleeves in bright felt-tip pen colours.
Shoe-wise Lulu Guinness is championing a darling mini-heel next season, especially on a sexy beatnik-y ankle boot which I’m told is in store end of July. I’m so there!
New labels I liked included Nocollection (www.nocollection.com) which has been around in France for 5 years – very Vanessa Bruno – and Modernist (www.modernistonline.com) which was all black and interesting and wearable. I also liked Zoe Tees– a collection of mostly T-shirty type pieces in washed cotton and lots of stripes. I know it’s all been done before but it just looked so cool and easy to wear.
After LFW I headed to TopShop and Urban Outfitters for some teen spotting as it was half term. Everywhere has gone nu rave crazy which I guess should be expected as it’s the biggest street style trend we’ve had for a while.
Today’s news: Banana Republic is coming to London – to the old Dickins & Jones store. I can’t say it appeals to me (a more spendy version of Gap? No ta) and it seems other people think the same. I wonder how it will do?
In the meantime, I hear Phoebe Philo has been quietly designing for Gap. Of course, she has been paid thousands to do this and her influence can already be seen in the spring and high summer collections. The evidence? Lots of preppie-ish cottons, dresses and fine knits in a muted palette and some fabulous (but rather expensive) bags.
