Streetfashion FW2010 London Day 1
February 21, 2010 by Jetty
Filed under Featured Items, London, Streetwear
What are you wearing during the coming fashionweeks? Your Balenciaga-heels, your latest Marni-dress or that vintage YSL? Maybe we’ll spot you in Paris, Milan, New York or Amsterdam. During the fashionweeks we refresh our streetwear posts regularly. We don’t judge, we’re not the fashion-police, we just enjoy fashion and your own personal style. Next stop: London.
Remembering McQueen #5
February 12, 2010 by Jetty
Filed under Fashion Professionals, Featured Items, London, People
Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel designer: “I found his work very interesting and never banal. There was always some attraction to death, his designs were sometimes dehumanized. Who knows, perhaps after flirting with death too often, death attracts you.” (E!)
One more time Alexander McQueen
February 11, 2010 by Jetty
Filed under Fashion, Fashion Professionals, Featured Items, London, People
No more dark, romantic fairytales.
No more beautiful tailored clothes.
No more amazing runway productions.
No more fighting for invitations.
No more stunning strong women on ultra high heels.
No more imagination without limits.
Alexander McQueen (1969-2010)
groupielove, the end
January 13, 2010 by Jetty
Filed under Backstage, Fashion Professionals, Featured Items, London, models, womenswear
In his time away in New York, Williamson learned something about putting on a show. Honed by exposure to that city’s demand for brevity in design, his show in London was a much more focused, slim-contoured collection consisting of leather-inserted polished-linen sheath dresses, super-skinny pants, and paper-bag-waisted shorts.
Trends ss2010: flower power
Since we feel the overall vibe of femininity for next spring, the floral prints we spotted fit perfectly in with that. The flowers were usually small ones, repeated hundreds of times on the fabric.
At the Jackson and Moschino fashion show it were Oxeye daisies. Yet other designers (Yves Saint Laurent, Luella Bartley, Oscar de la Renta, Dolce & Gabbana) used rose prints. Viktor & Rolf didn’t have floral prints in their clothes but they did use roses to decorate their pink boots.
Overall the flowers had a very classic feeling to it. The way they were painted and the colors that were used really felt like your grandmother’s wallpaper.
The prettiest floral prints were those of Dolce & Gabbana. Their perfect shapes and colors could be seen on r dresses, shorts, tops, jackets and lingerie. In one look a floral printed skirt was even mixed with a leopard printed top. Both with black lace on the edges.
The ss2010 collections lack lots of color, but the florals do add some brightness to next season.
Dutch models: Lara Stone
One of the Dutch Models that is internationally moving towards the top is Lara Stone. The daughter of a Dutch mother and a British father is doing well in the modelling industry. Ever since she signed with modelling agency IMG in 2006 she’s really breaking through.
For spring/summer 2010 we saw her in shows of Givenchy, Chanel, Miu Miu, Hermes and Prada. Yet she’s also doing well in photo shoots. The French Vogue payed a tribute to the Dutch model in their February issue of this year and The British Vogue recently named her Girl Of The Year. Stone appears in big photo shoots in major international fashion magazines, as if she was born for the modelling business.
Every big fashion brand wants her in their show or campaign. And although Lara Stone didn’t walk in the Louis Vuitton fashion show, she will feature in the SS2010 ad campaign of the brand. In this position she will follow up Madonna, who was the LV face for 2009.
It seems Stone will be one of the future super models. Will she be the next Kate Moss or Claudia Schiffer? Anyway, we’re very proud she is Dutch. 😀
Make-up trends ss2010: bright eyes
No smokey eyes next season, but bright colorful ones that really stand out and give you that summer-feeling.
The models’ eyes were painted in every color of the rainbow. At Dior they were purple, blue and green. At Fahri they came in a pastel green and purple combination. Galliano’s girls had pink eyes. Luella Bartley gave her models a thick layer of blue eye shadow, which even crossed their eyebrows.
At Issa the eyes were metallic green and at the Derek Lam fashion show they looked like little rainbows in orange, purple and green. Viktor & Rolf gave their models a mix of pastel-colored eye shadow as well; we saw pink, blue, purple and green. Those colors matched with the outfits from their SS2010 collection.
The combinations of many bright colors looked great on each of the models. So for next summer I think we can spice up our make up and try to create the same pastel-colored eye shadow look for ourselves. If you dare, use green and purple; they seem to be the main colors for 2010.
Christopher Bailey: Designer of the Year at BFA
Christopher Bailey, the creative whirlwind who has helped turn the heritage brand, Burberry, into a global luxury label, was wednesdaynight named ‘Designer of the Year’ 2009, at the British Fashion Awards. It is the second win for Bailey who previously was awarded the title in 2005.
Last night’s fashion “oscar” capped a remarkable year for Bailey, the 38-year-old Yorkshireman, who received the MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours earlier this year, and whose spring/summer 2010 Burberry Prorsum collection was the highlight of London Fashion Week, in September.
In addition, Burberry took home the Designer Brand award. In his acceptance speech, Bailey, who is chief creative officer, announced that Burberry Prorsum would continue to show at London Fashion Week in February.
You want to know why we like Christopher?
Bailey knows how to mix classic and modern and his particular skill is to cleverly update the brand stalwarts, like the trench, with enough fashion flair to make them seem fresh and wantable, season after season. The figures speak for themselves: while other brands languish in the recession, Burberry saw its revenue rise by 21% in the last financial year. That translates into a lot of product sold — and Bailey is in control of it all. Everything you see ath Burberry’s headquarters has been passed by Bailey, not just the building, but the website and the furniture, right down to the bottles of water. He micromanages some areas, such as a new store concept, and macromanages the rest.
So is Bailey a scary control freak, unable to let go of even the smallest detail? “I’m so lucky,” he told Colin McDowell at The Sunday Times. “My role is challenging. It is so multifaceted, but that enables me to absorb many things that really interest me: the music for the shows, the website, the ad campaigns, the fragrances — and the clothes, of course.”
Bailey was brought up in Yorkshire; his father was a carpenter and his mother worked as a window-dresser for Marks & Spencer. Direct, natural and always articulate, he is a true Yorkshireman and no pushover. He trained in a tough school, working with Donna Karan, then as chief womenswear designer for Tom Ford at Gucci, before being chosen by Rose Marie Bravo, the chief executive at the time, to design for Burberry.
Despite all appearances — he is always in jeans and a T-shirt, but rarely without a jacket — Bailey is a fashion businessman as well as a designer. “The power that my job gives me is huge,” he says. “It would be so easy to be overwhelmed by the pressure. The deadlines, the budgets, the fact that my life at Burberry is so scheduled, and my days are full from 8.30am until late, usually well after 8pm. And the meetings. I’m always conscious that Burberry is much bigger than I am. It’s 153 years old. My life here hasn’t even reached 10 years yet, but I have been here long enough to say that Burberry flows in my veins. I love its values. I respond to its strong foundations and, of course, its history is a constant inspiration.”
According to Bailey, there is a knack to being a fashion polymath. “I can compartmentalise different aspects of my life in my head, so that, on one side, I have work and all the different projects we are involved in at any one moment, and on the other, my personal life. Keeping them in separate boxes contains them so they can both be made manageable. At work, I need order: cool, clean spaces that really help me to think clearly. But at home, I want that order to be scrambled.”
He has learnt how to go into performance mode in public, but he likes his private life to be private. “You know, I often think I could easily become a hermit,” he says. “I certainly know I can live by myself, although I would always choose to live in a loving relationship.” He is in one now, having recovered from an earlier relationship that ended in tragedy when his lover died. Maybe that’s why he claims: “The most wonderful thing is being happy with someone. Someone who can give you mental stimulation as well as emotional support.”
And he is very loyal. “My best friend is Rebecca. She was my best friend at school and she is still the person I ring more often than anybody, apart from my family. I go to Yorkshire whenever I can, have Sunday dinner with my parents, talk to Mum in the kitchen while she’s making the gravy. That’s when I feel totally happy and content.” He has a house not far from his parents; it’s an old farm, and he loves driving up there from his flat in Chelsea in what he claims is “a really clapped-out old Mini”.
Once he’s there, he has his way of unwinding. “I put on my wellies — I love my wellies — get the wheelbarrow out of the shed and bring in the logs and the coals. My great luxury is that I have a fire in the bedroom. Then I go to see the cows. I usually have friends to stay. We often end up at the local in the evening, having a few drinks.” It’s the same with holidays. “Nothing glamorous,” he says. “I just don’t need it.”
“It’s not looks, it’s character that counts with me. And really, I suppose, I like people in the same way that I like houses: a bit rambly and slouchy. People I can put my feet up with.”
See, that’s why we like him.
Trends ss2010: braids
Past year braids made a huge comeback. We spotted them in different shapes and sizes on many celebrities. Later on the trend the crowd picked up the trend. Two small braids along each side of the face were popular, but also one large braid (around the head like a headband) and, of course, fishtail braids and French braids were re-introduced.
Judging from what we saw on the runway braids are still hot, like long loose and untidy braids at D Squared, Alexander Wang, Margaret Howell and Giambattista Valli. The models at Oscar de la Renta worked the braided headband. For those braids a piece of fabric was braided together with the model’s hair.
The girls at Paul Smith, Jean Paul Gaultier, Issa, Jaeger Londen and Zac Posen must have had had enormous headaches during the fashion show. Their hair was braided so tight, it hurt just to look at it.
At most fashion shows the models wore their hair down without any fuss. Yet several hair and make-up artists understood that braiding your hair can look very sexy and sophisticated as well. So if you haven’t mastered the French braiding technique yet, keep on practising it in front of your mirror, because you might need it next summer.
Tess van Daelen
Dutch models: Patricia van der Vliet
Dutch models were well-represented at the catwalk this year. One of the ‘new faces’ we saw in many big shows was Patricia van der Vliet. The blond girl popped up in shows from Prada, Balenciaga, Nina Ricci and Yves Saint Laurent. She even had the honor to open the Louis Vuitton show (the only time we saw her with black (afro) hair).
Patricia once participated in the Dutch tv-show Holland’s Next Top Model. Although she did not win, she ultimately made her way into the modelling business.
Her diverse appearances in shows of the largest brands in the world showed us how versatile Patricia is as a model. In some shows she was hardly recognizable.
Style.com already discussed Patricia as one of the ten new faces on the catwalk. Hopefully we will be seing a lot more of this girl. If you ask us, we already consider her as a Top Model.
Tess van Daelen
