Designers

Quote of the day: Jean Touitou on Agnès b



Agnes b Snap cardigan

“I was playing my electric guitar in [Agnès b’s] studio above the store one evening. I remember seeing her come back from dinner, put a black round-neck sweatshirt on a desk, grab a pair of scissors and cut the piece right down the middle. Then, she took snap buttons and put them on the front. It became a worldwide hit.”
A.P.C’s Jean Touitou on the birth of the Agnès b snap cardigan in 1979, New York Times (more…)



The culture of fashion: how the catwalk soundtrack got its groove



Michael Clark Bodymap fashion show - photograph by Robert Rosen courtesy BodyMap

Models! Clothes! Music! Fashion show soundtracks are increasingly part of shaping a brand’s identity. And in the digital era they’re about to become even more important…

The year was 2017. Kim Jones was menswear artistic director at Louis Vuitton. At the appointed hour, his first models sloped onto the Paris runway in iterations of slouchy 80s overcoats, baggy flannel trousers and Basquiat-style suits with untucked shirts. Then the kicker – internet-breaking Speedy holdalls emblazoned with red-and-white Supreme logos. And to add the crucial fourth musical dimension: Honey Dijon’s mix of Sound Factory bangers including Chez Damier’s Can You Feel It (MK Dub), completing the downtown New York nostalgia trip.

Since then, other notable catwalk soundtracks have included LaQuan Smith’s AW23 Ballroom fabulosity-fest; Benji B’s eerie David Lynch-like Chromatics mix for Jil Sander SS25 and Saint Laurent’s long-term music collaboration with DJ SebastiAn – so integral to the brand, they packaged it as a box set and sold it in Saint Laurent stores. (more…)



On my radar: sloppy styling at Margaret Howell SS25



Margaret Howell SS25

We’ve had our first burst of spring-like sunshine this week, so it feels good to be looking at the SS25 look books with “yes, I can wear this soon” eyes. As usual, I head straight to Margaret Howell; not only for new-in eye candy, but for simple styling tweaks to utilise on my existing arsenal of tailored trousers, lightweight knits, blazers, and shirts.

Margaret Howell SS25 is giving a ‘refined slop’** edge to her usual boyish separates, so I’m taking inspo from the double shirts, low-slung skinny belts, baggy shorts and wrinkly socks. (more…)



Shop the post: Shape shifting



Zara waxed style jacket

I’m conflicted.

On the one hand I’ve long aspired to the XXL silhouettes of Studio Nicholson, Jil Sander and Phoebe Philo. On the other, I’m a short person. I frequently forget I’m not in fact a 5-foot 10 supermodel and continue to buy men’s sweaters, gargantuan trench coats and jumbo shirts as if I’m David Byrne in Stop Making Sense. Send help! (more…)