Hands down, one of the biggest menswear trends for AW13 is all things traditional, homespun and British. So think Harris tweeds, Scottish cashmeres and Savile Row-style tailoring using textiles from our oldest mills. Nicely timed then, is Made In Great Britain from Marks & Spencer, its heritage line that will be launching in selected stores in the autumn. (more…)
Today, the second day of London Collections: Men, saw the release of Mrporter.com’s commercial collaboration to support independent British designers. Katie Eary, Sibling, Richard Nicoll and Matthew Miller each created three exclusive pieces for Mr Porter and every one of them is a thing of beauty. (more…)
If the blouse-n-trouser-jean is 2013’s new day-to-night uniform (and I reckon it will be), then that’s good news for Donna Ida Thornton. Because this month Ms Thornton launches her eponymous jeans line, IDA, and it pivots around that very look. Having nailed the denim-centric retail sector with her Donna Ida jeans chain, Thornton has gathered her customer feedback and poured it into a tightly focused own brand. Key to which is a ‘true’ high waist – no butt-crack flashing here – a response to many a request from her dedicated customers.
All the jeans in the debut collection are fairly snug on the thighs, with varying widths below the knee from the ankle-gripping, zip-hemmed ‘Audrey’, to the flared ‘Martha’. (I hear a boyfriend jean is in the works too.) My favourite (by sight – I’ve not tried them yet) is ‘Jeanie’, a sophisticated cigarette jean named after Thornton’s most loyal customer, “who’d come in asking for high-waisted jeans. She’s clear about what she wants, and if we didn’t have it, she’d say ‘Well, why not?” says Thornton. “I’ve named the cigarette leg after her because that’s what she wants to wear.”
And about those blouses. They fit in with Thornton’s ‘quintessentially British’ vision for the brand, so for a little elegance, there’s the neat-shouldered ‘Out of Africa’ silk shirt with patch pockets and deep cuffs, or for the full power-bow effect, there are bell-sleeved ‘Mrs Thatcher’ blouses in soft cream, pale pink or a rather apt Tory blue. The collection launches this month and can be pre-ordered now at Donnaida.com.
Done – all my thank you notes are written and posted! I may be tech-addicted but I still like to put pen to paper. Lately I’ve been using Kate Spade’s initial note cards and my psychedelic Peter Max ‘fold and mail’ notepaper, but I’d love to get my hands on the just-launched Louis Vuitton ‘World Of Writing’ papers and inks. (more…)
