This week at London Fashion Week, I’ve been on the hunt for colour as part of an editorial collaboration with LFW partner Swatch. If you follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or Snapchat, you’ll have seen the mentions popping up alongside a trio of new season Swatch watches and the #Ialwayswantmore hashtag.
Personally, my default colours are navy, grey and camel, plus denim of course (hey, blue is a colour). Red and pink get the occasional look in (more…)
In these days of Insta-journalism, a fanciful theme is a gift to the time poor and attention-deficit. It helps tell the story of a collection which is what selling clothes is all about. And our young female designers are particularly adept at it.
On the first day of London Fashion Week AW15, we saw evocative tableaux styled as an art class and a gossipy teen gathering courtesy of Molly Goddard and Le Kilt respectively. Meanwhile, Shrimps gave us beautifully vacant aliens landed on a glittery planet surrounded by stalagmites. (more…)
Should you ever arrive in London for a short staycation, you’d be advised to disembark at Victoria mainline station then follow the blue line, helpfully taped to the floor. It leads to the rather unglamorous passport office on Belgrave Road at which point you veer off course for another five minutes, along Eccleston Square towards Cambridge Street. And there you’ll arrive at a secret little nook of delight – AKA the Artist Residence Hotel.
This is the route our model Maddy took, arriving in a typical London torrential downpour to the comfort of the Grand Suite, where we had commandeered the bed, chairs and bathroom for my latest Disneyrollergirl fashion shoot. The hotel is the third in the Artist Residence chain of boutique stay-overs and its period rooms are a masterclass in eccentric but luxurious London charm. They’re furnished with reclaimed gems from some of London’s best secret sources, juxtaposed with contemporary artworks from art fairs and independent galleries. To make you feel really at home there’s the downstairs cocktail lounge, all velvet sofas, rustic logs and table football, and the 64 Degrees restaurant (think proper cooked breakfasts and inventive tapas-style sharing plates).
And although it’s not immediately obvious, the location is in fact, the height of fashion, a stone’s thrown from the London HQs of Burberry, Tom Ford and Jimmy Choo. Position yourself just so by Ebury Bridge, and you’re afforded an unexpected vista of Battersea Power Station.
Allow us to take you on a little tour – just follow the blue line…
CREDITS
Photography: Vanessa Jackman
Words: Navaz Batliwalla
Styling: Navaz Batliwalla/Disneyrollergirl.net
Hair: Patrick Forini using Bed head by TIGI
Make-up: Emma Broom
Model: Maddy Elmer at Storm
With thanks to the team at Artist Residence London, 52 Cambridge Street, SW1V 4QQ
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According to Editd.com, luxury stores have bought into more winter warmers, earlier in the season this year. Net-a-Porter alone has grown its autumn offer of outerwear by 117% compared to last year. Maybe it knows something we don’t? Colourful fake furs are key, as are oversized, slouchy shapes. I’ve noticed a lot of sophisticated-looking fake furs (as opposed to those Big Bird types from a few seasons ago) – I guess that’s the Shrimps effect. The all-enveloping poncho too is a big player, thanks to Issa’s cheery patterns and Burberry’s genius blanket wraps…
I’m still a fan of classics, so I’ve included a cape (from Saint Laurent) and a duffle (Burberry Brit) in my latest Net-a-Porter edit. And I’m trying to wean myself off the navy jumpers so I’m gravitating more towards Jonathan Saunders’ stripes and Bella Freud’s typography. While we’re on the subject, don’t forget that clocks go forward this weekend…
WORDS: NAVAZ BATLIWALLA/DISNEYROLLERGIRL
MAIN IMAGE: SAINT LAURENT AW14
