ss13

Styling masterclass: Dries Van Noten SS13



I was so bowled over by the styling in the Dries Van Noten show, I thought I’d break it down in a blog post. Taken separately, each piece of the Dries collection is a beautiful, timeless workhorse. Weightless tea dresses, wrap jackets, sheer plaid shirts and patterned pants. Nothing new there. Put them together just so, with complementary hair, make-up and hands-in-pocket attitude and you have a bucketload of reasons why everyone (including me) will be referencing DVN this season, consciously or not. (more…)



Introducing IDA by Donna Ida



If the blouse-n-trouser-jean is 2013’s new day-to-night uniform (and I reckon it will be), then that’s good news for Donna Ida Thornton. Because this month Ms Thornton launches her eponymous jeans line, IDA, and it pivots around that very look. Having nailed the denim-centric retail sector with her Donna Ida jeans chain, Thornton has gathered her customer feedback and poured it into a tightly focused own brand. Key to which is a ‘true’ high waist – no butt-crack flashing here – a response to many a request from her dedicated customers.

All the jeans in the debut collection are fairly snug on the thighs, with varying widths below the knee from the ankle-gripping, zip-hemmed ‘Audrey’, to the flared ‘Martha’. (I hear a boyfriend jean is in the works too.) My favourite (by sight – I’ve not tried them yet) is ‘Jeanie’, a sophisticated cigarette jean named after Thornton’s most loyal customer, “who’d come in asking for high-waisted jeans. She’s clear about what she wants, and if we didn’t have it, she’d say ‘Well, why not?” says Thornton. “I’ve named the cigarette leg after her because that’s what she wants to wear.”

And about those blouses. They fit in with Thornton’s ‘quintessentially British’ vision for the brand, so for a little elegance, there’s the neat-shouldered ‘Out of Africa’ silk shirt with patch pockets and deep cuffs, or for the full power-bow effect, there are bell-sleeved ‘Mrs Thatcher’ blouses in soft cream, pale pink or a rather apt Tory blue. The collection launches this month and can be pre-ordered now at Donnaida.com.



Club Monaco SS13 campaign by Venetia Scott



Another gorgeous SS13 ad campaign, this time from Club Monaco, shot by Venetia Scott. Nothing ground breaking here, just a set of Scott’s trademark ‘about a girl’ studies set in New York locations. Quietly beautiful with a very slight whiff of Marc by Marc Jacobs about it (maybe in the casting?). I love how Venetia frames the model low down in the photo with lots of space above… (more…)



How good are Kirsten Owen and co in Prada’s SS13 campaign?



When it comes to ad campaigns I’m a bit of a realist. I prefer the classic portrait shot to the bells and whistles fantasy arrangements. So I’m loving Steven Meisel’s Prada ss13 campaign – gold standard models (go Kirsten Owen!), wearable styling (even the fright-shoes look good) and a nice plain background. All my boxes ticked… (more…)