This year’s Vogue Fashion’s Night Out in London looks set to be the broadest yet, with activity stretching from beyond Bond Street, Regent Street and Oxford Street to Covent Garden and Westfield London. I’m going to try to see as much as I can but I’ll mostly be hosting my own little soiree at the Lacoste store in Regent Street (so you’d better come and say hi or I’ll feel like a right ninny.) (more…)
In the post-Olympics afterglow I’m sure there will be thousands of people catapulted off the sofa into a life-affirming fitness regime. If you’re one of them (I’m not…yet), this might help get the pulses pumping. Newly launched WORKOUTLIFE.com hopes to be a bit of a game changer in the fashion-sportswear space, simply because it doesn’t want to be slotted into one neat box. Founded by Rebecca Quade and with design headed up by Ebru Ercon (formerly of Hussein Chalayan for Puma and Stella McCartney for Adidas), WORK OUT LIFE is all about multi-tasking for the overlapping areas of life, so think working out, workwear and everything else.
With her background in high end sportswear (as well as working on New Power Studio, her own line, and a collab with Asos), Ercon has brought a knowledge of cut and quality tech fabrics together to produce a collection of handsome pieces that tick multiple boxes. My favourite pieces from the website are the tailored ‘Gigabyte’ cropped trousers, the ‘Sidelined’ gathered mesh skirt and ‘Get Sophisticated‘, the poshest cropped sweatshirt you’ll see this side of the catwalk. Quade, a former marketing pro, is keen for the website to be more than just a clothes shop, her vision is for a global portal to promote a healthy body image in the fashion space. For starters then, here’s a video of Bambi Northwood-Blythe looking divine while getting her yogi on…
In a world where everything can be discovered via blogs, Twitter and social curation sites, it’s a wonder that some stores still manage to consistently carry exciting, unheard-of brands. One of those is the excellent Couverture, a judiciously edited fashion and lifestyle store in Kensington Park Road. (more…)
Further to yesterday’s Chanel post on the subject of the ‘Disneyfication’ of luxury retail; I hear that Harrods will be Disney-themed this Christmas. Swarovski was the brand partner last year and this year promises another fantasy-filled extravaganza beyond our wildest dreams. Think windows displaying one-off gowns for Disney princesses by the likes of Valentino and Versace, a fourth-floor Disney pop-up boutique, plus a special focus on Disney’s Cinderella to tie in with the global high-def launch of the animated Cinderella on Blueray.
In our modern cross-pollinating world, this is the perfect way for film, fashion and retail to collide to benefit all parties. (And somewhere in the mix there must be a magazine media partner ready and waiting with an Aurasma app to tie it all together. Harper’s Bazaar perhaps?) Disney has upped its fashion collabs considerably recently. I loved the Mawi jewellery, and the Cinderella Louboutins sound promising. Of course, I’m still holding out for a Louis Vuitton Disney collab. It’s got to happen soon, hasn’t it?
[Image: Valentino for Disney]
