Trends

AW 09-10 trend report: cashmere and cupcakes and geniuses at work



The first week of press days is nearly over – yippee! Prevailing trends so far have been the shaggy fur outsize gilet (one in pretty much every collection I’ve seen), thigh-high fetishy boots, Obama yellow (a kind of mustard-meets-chartreuse) and shit-loads of cashmere.

Funnest venue
Did I say I don’t like press days in showrooms? I take that back. French Connection’s showroom was bedecked in hundreds of giant blue balloons like a Tim Walker/Shona Heath shoot set. Bloody brilliant!

Best catering
Agent Provocateur’s cupcakes and fruit tarts

Best goody bag
Phone charms from Swarovski and Tatty Devine appealed to my inner twelve-year-old but were pipped to the post by the Jo Malone gift box at B2B Media.

OMG moment
Stumbling upon Tatty Devine and Charlie le Mindu’s actual work in progress. (They’re working on a collab together, what fun!)

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AW 09-10 trend report: Helmets, fancy boots and going for gold



Wow, what a marathon day of press days. All the big agencies decided to show on the same day (thanks guys) and even worse, three of them were on the same block so I hit the ground running at 10am and just kept going, and going and going.

Best venues
There was an arty theme running through today with Relative PR showing at the Elms Lester painting rooms where the walls are daubed with creative sploshes and Halpern PR relocating from their usual home in SW3 to the Royal Academy Schools. It was novel looking at sunglasses and knickers surrounded by easels and artists’ statues but there’s no doubt that an interesting environment helps make the press day more memorable than riffling through endless rails in a showroom.

Best discovery
Halpern came up with the goods twice. I got chatting to the charming Lisa Tstang whose luxury label LisaT is on a mission to use cashmere for every area of living and keep it (relatively) affordable. I loved the understatement of her tunic dress with all-enveloping detachable scarf.

Meanwhile, I’m finding myself fascinated by eyewear at the moment and opticians Auerbach & Steele were a new discovery for me, even though they have been in the King’s Road for 15 years. Barton Perreira is a new sunglasses name to know from two Oliver Peoples veterans, while an unusual pair of Alain Mikli visor-esque shades are evidence of their avant-garde taste. Auerbach & Steele only sell the limited edition Miklis so it’s worth a look if you’re ever in the area and fancy something different from the usual Raybans and Guccis.

Finally, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven when I clapped eyes on the WANT, Les Essentiels de la Vie travel range at the Harvey Nichols press day. I have some sort of weird fascination for masculine, minimalist man-baggage and these bags, ipod cases and laptop cases have all the necessary elements – slender proportions, neat compartments and classic colours – to pique my interest.

Best micro trend
What the hell is going on? In two days I’ve seen a bunch of these retro helmets in three different places – at Diesel, G Star and Bally. If that’s not a mirco trend I don’t know what is…


Best fancy boots
Now there’s no way I could just pick one so I’ve picked my top 4:
1) Raf Simons’ metallic Dr Martens are a stroke of sheer genius

2) These Willow boots are just so ugly, I love them! And I know they’d look killer on (if you could get them on, that is)…

3) These See by Chloe boots are apparently only £100. Go figure…

4) “I can’t believe I’m photographing a pair of Versus boots and liking them!” I exclaimed to my friend A, until she pointed out these jodhpur boots are the ones Christopher Kane designed for Versus. Oh.

Best Jim’ll Fix It jacket
Gotta love this Wrangler bomber – isn’t it camp?!

[Pics: Top to bottom
Elms Lester Painting Rooms
Royal Academy Schools
LisaT
WANT
WANT
Diesel
G Star
Bally
Raf Simons for Dr Martens
Willow
Chloe
Versus

Wrangler]

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Cool to be kind



Had enough of killer heels that you can’t walk (let alone dance) in and handbags so heavy that even She-ra would have trouble lifting them? Me too. But hang in there because the totes they are a-changing. After the giant bag trend came the absurdity of the superclutch and then the even more ridiculous micro-clutch. But now designers have finally decided to give us something that we actually want: lightweight, roomy and practical bags that do a job and look good.

Mulberry’s creative director Emma Hill is at the forefront of the movement, telling Vogue, “When I pick up a bag that’s heavy when empty, I don’t want it,” and creating a line of lightweight bags for spring-summer devoid of weighty hardware. Alexander Wang’s soft-n-slouchy suede Dorothy sac (below) marries his signature laidback luxe look with a utilitarian twist – my litmus test is whether it will take a copy of Vogue as well as my umbrella, diary, sunglasses and purse without slopping out of shape like an unwieldy sack of potatoes. It passes with flying colours.

The luxury leathergoods-makers Valextra are keen to join the party. Valextra have softened the lines of their trademark bags and introduced the half-moon Namasté which weighs in at a featherweight 600g and can carry up to 15kg without putting your back out of whack. “We worked on it for months to balance it so the weight falls on your hip,” chairman Emanuele Carmiati Molina told the FT, “We threw away over 25 prototypes”. (The price is also less painful at under €1000, that’s cheap for Valextra.)

Not to be outdone, everyone’s favourite Marc Jacobs muse, Sofia Coppola has unveiled her capsule collection for Louis Vuitton consisting of predictably fuss-free day bags and classy clutches. She also rejected the first prototype for being too heavy, finally signing off a collection that is classic, chic and ultimately useful.
Now to swap those plat-heels for something a little more manageable, perhaps these Sofia-for-L-V wedges for starters…

Pics:
Alexander Wang, Dazed Digital, The Fashion Spot

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