London fashion week ss10: Rediscovering the twinset



Quite often at the shows, you look for the trends you want to wear. I was desperate to see the return of the twinset after I spied a little homage to the twinset in the window of Pringle (above). After a couple of days of no-shows, the twinset finally emerged at the Clements Ribiero presentation. Success! Strictly speaking they weren’t twinsets in the trad sense as they were decidely mismatched but there were cardigans and there were sweaters and they were worn together so why split hairs? They were lovely. Cat-prints and eyes were the standout motifs, all offset with inky wingy and smoky eye make-up and scary black lips (what do we call this? Spring goth?).






The twinset also appeared at menswear label Sibling’s presentation (below). As designer Joe Bates admitted, “it’s me needing a twinset that started the whole thing off”. Actually, it’s the idea of a twinset as menswear that I really love. I’d wear one with mannish cigarette pants and my Maxmara-from-Bicester-Village brothel creepers to give it a non-prim twist.

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London Fashion Week: Kitsuné pop-up shop at The Shop at Bluebird




On Monday evening I was invited to the Kitsuné pop-up shop party at The Shop at Bluebird. While the Kitsuné shop was indeed lovely and I do have my eye on their perfect-cut shirts, I was super-excited to be able to take photos of the rest of the shop. It sells furniture, books, clothes and music but for me the excitement comes from the merchandising. An always-interesting retail space, it’s a bit far down the King’s Road but worth the trip.




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LFW ss10: Burberry Prorsum




What is there left to say about the Burberry Prorsum show? Quite a lot actually. For me it was a weird one as I was caught between the professional ‘journalist’ me and the bloggy fan-girl me. After entering what felt like a movie premiere rather than a fashion show, it was funny to find myself in the back row with fellow bloggers and the publishers of Glamour and Another Magazine – like, shouldn’t they be at the front? On one side of me I had Discotheque Confusion so we played spot the idol; “OMG there’s Carine!”, “Ooh, is that Joe McKenna?”, “Do you think Bruce Weber will let me have my photo taken with him?” while on the other side I had a big name menswear stylist so felt I’d better put my professional head on and tone down my excitement.

Anyway, to the show. Even Burberry has channeled the sculptural shoulder with practically all its trenchcoats boasting huge knotty or ruchy shoulders. The ruching and draping continued throughout the collection with swaggy folds adding interest to pastel-hued skinny trousers, tulle dresses and even bags. The Times had tweeted earlier that Victoria Beckham would be in attendance and might this be a clue that she was being courted as the face of Burberry. Please God, no, I thought but looking at the models in their silver Spandex leggings I had to concede that that might be a possibility. Yikes. I was actually more taken with the menswear than the womenswear – so many lovely quilted jackets and three-quarter length coats – although a pair of loose lemon silk pants got my vote.

Post-show we could see that it would take some time to exit the building so what did we do? Pick over the seat cards of course! Discotheque Confusion pocketed Carine Roitfeld and Coco’s Tea Party nabbed Mary-Kate Olsen while I was happy with Michael Roberts and er, Lorraine Kelly.


Onto the party! After a short walk to Burberry’s HQ and a five minute queue on the carpeted pavement, we headed to the online room where computers had been set up for live social networking. I did manage a sly tweet or two but was far too interested in the bar and canapes to spend an hour on Blogger. But I did manage to grab the PR to get the lowdown on the live-streaming initiative. As it turns out, there wasn’t a social media expert behind the curtain pulling the strings, this was simply the idea of Christopher Bailey and CEO Angela Ahrendts. Impressive. Designer whizz, interiors pro, art director extraordinaire, online embracer, the nicest man in fashion… is there anything Christopher Bailey can’t do?

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London Fashion Week ss10: Lethal weapons




If you thought jewellery was big now, you’d better wait til next season. Jewellery is bigger, heavier and more fantastical than ever. At the LFW stands, I was scared to pick up Mary Katrantzou’s glass bracelets for fear of dropping them, so chunky and unwieldy they were. Fred Butler’s rainbow creations (above) were part jewellery-part art pieces with her trademark rainbow palette making them seem larger than life. Maria Francesca Pepe also showed gigantic 3-D sculptural jewels as did House of Flora with colossal hunks of clear perspex while Burberry Prorsum gave its approval with oversized perspex bangles. Why the big jewels now? House of Flora designer Flora McLean explained the theory to me, “it’s quite simple really, it’s all to do with the recession. People wear bigger jewellery when they’re feeling insecure. It’s a proven fact.”

[Fred Butler pic by Fashion156]

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