I’m morbidly fascinated by the new autumn/winter 07 Prada collection. It’s so awkward and ugly and unflattering, yet Miuccia’s influence is so great, the looks will undoubtedly filter down in a less extreme form and change the direction of fashion. Ditto Marc Jacobs. I hated his spring/summer 07 collections for Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton, yet he clearly knows what he’s doing so there’s no question they will have an influence on future fashion. I can but (begrudgingly) put my reservations aside and trust that it will all become clear in time…
To the Laura Lees show yesterday, where I waited for too long with my colleagues in the lobby of Baden Powell House. While we were talking, colleague S was approached by a lady with a camera asking if she could take her photo for Lucky Magazine. S was pleased as punch as she was wearing her special LFW outfit consisting of various London designer pieces artfully arranged to catch the eye. After the impromptu portrait shoot, we carried on talking until colleague B was approached by the same photographer. She too obliged. Needless to say, I was not approached. But of course that was fine; I didn’t want my picture taken! Which made me wonder; why do people dress up for fashion week? I can understand celebs doing it as they’re clearly there to have their photo taken, but if your job is to report on the shows, you don’t need to be all zhuzhed up. That’s the models’ job, no?
What are we thinking about bumbags? Being a virgo I’m all for fashion meets function and bumbags are the epitome of that, with the added bonus of tapping into the eighties rehash. I’m surprised it’s taken American Apparel so long to latch on but I finally saw a nice purple one in the window today.
A delivery from Amazon yesterday brought me Tiffany’s Table Manners For Teenagers by Walter Hoving. Written in the sixties it’s a very witty book about table manners –useful but quirky– I recommend it!
My first foray to LFW this week. No show tickets today so I went to have a nose at the exhibition tent. What a palaver! No bags allowed in the cloakroom due to ‘lack of space’. They should make more space next time or at least warn us poor suckers in advance. What’s the point in foisting the outsized bag trend on us if we can’t park the buggers in the cloakroom!
The big trend was lots of chunky knits in neutral colours (Madeleine Press, J & M Davidson, Diab’less) and I spotted some fab jewellery –especially French designer Elia Stone and old favourites Tatty Devine (Perspex grand piano brooches and bow tie necklaces –fun!) who are having their shop relaunch soiree tomorrow (236 Brick Lane, E2) and have ordered in hundreds of umbrellas for the event.
Accessories label Lowie (www.ilovelowie.com) has branched out into clothing with a capsule knitwear collection – think leg-o-mutton puff sleeves in bright felt-tip pen colours.
Shoe-wise Lulu Guinness is championing a darling mini-heel next season, especially on a sexy beatnik-y ankle boot which I’m told is in store end of July. I’m so there!
New labels I liked included Nocollection (www.nocollection.com) which has been around in France for 5 years – very Vanessa Bruno – and Modernist (www.modernistonline.com) which was all black and interesting and wearable. I also liked Zoe Tees– a collection of mostly T-shirty type pieces in washed cotton and lots of stripes. I know it’s all been done before but it just looked so cool and easy to wear.
After LFW I headed to TopShop and Urban Outfitters for some teen spotting as it was half term. Everywhere has gone nu rave crazy which I guess should be expected as it’s the biggest street style trend we’ve had for a while.
