London Fashion Week Autumn Winter 2012

DAY ONE

Antoni & Alison

Simple loosely fitted shift dresses became blank canvases for the designers to display their trompe l’oeil works of art. Using digital printing of an eclectic range of objects from biscuits, cellophane, and staples to feathers, buttons and tweed.

Corrie Nielsen

Nielsen blends the medieval Scottish styles with her own signature sculptural forms.

Dramatically sweeping the floor was the deep purple Duchess satin voluminous floor length cape.

Small leather clutch bags in matching tartan fabrics by Sophia Beckford and striking tartan design face laces by Phyllis Cohen

Bora Aksu

Necklines were high with button up collars and pussy bows; chiffon layering brought a hazy fairytale look to the pieces. Colours were soft shades of dusty pinks, greys and creams.

The style became more structured with tailored waistcoats, jackets and capes, and the colour darkened to greys, blacks and silver metallics with splashes of fuchsia, burnt orange and ruby red. Aksu used a Baroque style print throughout the collection, both on tailored and chiffon garments plus the soon to be ‘must have’ tights.

DAY TWO

Spijkers en Spijkers

40s style tea dresses were updated with colour block panelling and luxurious fabrics of silk and silk wool blends. Ostrich and bird feathers trimmings brought Hollywood glamour as detachable cape like collars and adorned the front of shoes. Colourful embroidered birds embellished jackets, dresses and shirts.

Bernard Chandran

Instead of his detachable peplums he has been creating for the past two seasons he concentrates on detachable collars. Some heavily embellished, others brightly coloured but most of intricate multi folds akin to Japanese origami.

Fluid fabrics of silk satin, wet look leather and gleaming metallic prints all gave the illusion of flowing water. Tailoring was given a sharper edge with the use of clear plastic over opened shoulder seams. This was gown up glamour with just the fun faux fur jacket adding a touch of quirkiness.

Ashley Isham

Here clean lines and tailoring in the form of black leather cigarette pants and capes with matching shorts. Evening wear saw short dresses glittering with sequins and beads, one of jet beads forming daisy patterns. But his signature draped fluid jersey dresses were never far behind with their Grecian asymmetric style long and short in deep teal, frosted grey and a prints of python and floral.

DAY THREE

Prophetik

‘Courtly Love’. Strapless long evening gowns worn with chunky ornate necklaces from Adorn especially designed for Prophetik.

Short day time dresses with full skirts and spaghetti straps that wrap around the arms to leave the back bare.

Hemp wool plaid was new to his collection and gave an equestrian countryside style to jackets.

The finale dress, a white strapless bodice adorned with a vintage pocket watch floated with its trail of black naturally shed ostrich feathers.

Louise Gray

A glorious array of textures, colours and patterns. This collection breaks down into luxurious fabrics of cashmere knits and leather, simple cuts of shift dresses, a-line skirts and sleek trousers given depth through graphic prints and colours. Teamed with printed boots by Nicholas Kirkwood at Pollini and Aztec sun ray hair pieces by Nasir Mazir.

Pam Hogg

Starting quite innocently with a modern take of the crinoline bow peep style dress and bonnet, the risqué catsuits soon came out to play. Firstly in head to toe geometric patterns, then adding patches of stretch chiffon until ending with just the chiffon embellished with cute bows strategically placed. Actress Jaime Winstone contrasted among the sleek catsuits as she modelled a knitted polo neck jumper and matching crinoline skirt.

DAY FOUR

Prose

Designer Mitiam Lehle took her inspiration from a blue curtain and woven shoe leather.

Black oblong leather patches edged with brown leather stitching adorned black trousers and skirts in neat rows giving a beatnik appearance. Leather transformed in to black and brown speckled pheasant-like feather fringing in both short and long lengths. The shorter fringing brought a raw edge to shift dresses and pencil skirts, whilst the longer fringing brought a Wild West boho feel.

The blue curtain became a delicate overlay of skeletal wispy threads kept together by panels for dresses and tops.

Lako Bukia

Titled ‘Broken Mirrors ‘for strong women who are not afraid to face their fears and challenge the bad luck broken mirror myth.

Silver leather was either in geometric patches separated by chiffon or jersey; or on trousers and pencil skirts as a tactile broken mirror pattern design. The finale dress summed up the whole inspiration with its billowing ethereal long skirt and its delicate chiffon top covered in twinkling mirrored shards – showing an Amazonian feminine strength ready to conquer all fears.

Her signature chunky triangular heels were replaced this season for heel made of a stack of broken clear ‘glass’ which glimmered in the light.

DAY FIVE

Holly Fulton

Inspiration: Lady Chatterley in the Estate’s hothouses. Colour palette was a sizzling affair of hot pinks and bright turquoise. Adding to her graphic signature prints were exotic palm prints and butterflies. Layering and the teaming of the pieces with polo necks brought this steamy collection back in to the autumn/winter vein.

Ashish

A collection of grunge meets glamour meets Hare Krishna. Ashish gives the sequin street cred as he uses on hoodies and sleeveless biker jackets. An eclectic array of motifs from hallucinogenic paisleys and smileys; the spiritual ying and yang and Buddhas; to the sporty football stripes. Multi layering of the colours and patterns created a spectacular glorious grunge effect.

Aminaka Wilmont

A minimalist and structured collection. A combination of hard and soft: sharp tailoring with soft draping; digital prints of hard gems and crystals and the softer water lilies and molten glass. Leather and fur for outerwear providing a tougher but luxurious look, whilst iridescent thread brought shimmer to knitwear. Overall look was dark and sultry with flashes of colour in the prints.

Jasper Garvida

Think World War II era and Marlene Dietrich. Daywear consisted of shirt dresses in a muted colour palette of khaki, beige and blues. Evening wear was more dramatic in black and embellished with gold buttons, embroidery and exaggerated long fringed epaulette beading.

DAY SIX – MENS DAY

Topman Design

This collection concentrates on texture and keeps its colour palette black creating a dark sensual and cultural look of the young Robert Mapplethorpe and in keeping with his black and white Polaroid images. The rich textured fabrics include mohair, soft boucle, hi shine PVC, lurex and thick wool. Leather pants taper at the bottom and are rolled up slightly to reveal the leather ankle boots. Mapplethorpe’s photo of the Lily is used as a repeated and distorted print on the silk shirts.

Knotted leather pendants and rosaries by Husam El Odeh adorn wrists and necks and complete the look and mood of the collection.

Oliver Spencer

Inspired by a young Lucian Freud, the collection has an art-house and Beatnik feel as suits of textured rugged fabrics are teamed and layered with the more casual knits. The young 50s baseball jacket is giving a more grown up tailored makeover in wool, but keeping the fun element with contrasting coloured and textured sleeves.

Colour palette: muted khakis, browns, greys with a dash of navy and a pop of burnt orange.

Spencer used models of various ages to show his collection brings sartorial styles to all ages.

By Karen Grace
Personal Shopper & Image Consultant for Frumpy to Funky http://www.frumpytofunky.com 

London College of Fashion MA Catwalk Show 2012

It was a bitter cold night outside, but in the grand Raphael Gallery at the V&A things were hotting up as we watched the London College of Fashion’s annual MA Catwalk Show 2012.


23 students from MA Fashion Design Technology showcased their work. The collections varied from the minimalist to the opulent, from the heritage look to the futuristic, from the neutral palette to an explosion of colour, and from the need a few changes before hitting the high street to the wearable right now.

After the show, TV and radio personality Lauren Laverne and young British designer Christopher Raeburn announced the winners of the Womenswear and Menswear: Collection of the Year.


Menswear Collection of the Year went to Tina Elisabeth Reiter.


Titled ‘The Sound of Homeless (ness)’, Reiter was inspired by the feeling of homelessness, the meaning of belonging and the seeking of our roots in an unpredictable globalised world.
For this she turned to her own Austrian roots for the wish of an ideal world thinking of the Alps, kitschy homeland movies of the Austrian post-war years and the feel good film ‘The Sound of Music’.


Her collection takes the heritage of the Austrian folk costume and fuses it with modern menswear.


With no Lederhosen in sight, this collection goes for softer look with loose fitting trousers, full pleated culottes and skirts. Artist smock style shirts with full blouson sleeves are grounded with the more tailored waistcoat and jacket.

Patterns: gingham, polka dots and tweed
Colour palette: Muted browns, black and grey with a pop of peach


Womenswear Collection of the Year went to Hana Cha


Titled ‘Diffusion between Proletariats and Bourgeois’ the collection was aimed to observe the difference in attire in different social classes.


To represent proletariat she chooses thick and stiff fabrics, deconstruction and a mannish style.


For the bourgeois there’s the softer silk, fluid metallics and fluffy wool to capture a more feminine feel. Hana juxtaposes the conflicting styles of both to create something new.
One of her pieces, the minimalist but luxurious gold jumpsuit becomes the canvas of what appears to be a harsh sweeping brushstroke still dripping with black paint, but on closer inspection the dripping paint is a collection of fine tassels.


Colour palette: Rich metallic gold, sombre matt black, deep purple and vibrant deep blue.


The show attracted a host of celebrities and VIPs including: Rt Hon Home Secretary Theresa May MP; Turner prize winning artist Grayson Perry; Chairman of the British Fashion Council Harold Tillman CBE; band members from Niki & The Dove, The Saturdays Mollie King, DH Jodie Harsh and Made in Chelsea star Francis Boulle to name a few.


For details on all of the collections go to www.fashion.arts.ac.uk/ma/

By Karen Grace
Personal Shopper & Image Consultant for Frumpy to Funky http://www.frumpytofunky.com

NET-A-PORTER celebrates the launch of KARL

Jenny Cossons talks about the new KARL brand at NET-A-PORTER 


On Wednesday 25 January at 13:30 in Covent Garden Market, London saw the unveiling of Karl Lagerfeld’s new line KARL. Simultaneously KARL was also launched in New York, Paris and Berlin. Sydney alas had to wait a few hours more due to the time difference. 


At the London launch, people started queuing from 12:00 to make sure they were one of the first 50 visitors and so receive a pair of iconic KARL leather gloves or a collar from the collection.


Jenny Cossons, Group Head of Brand Relations at NET-A-PORTER was available for interviews. Here is mine: 


NET-A-PORTER has four weeks exclusivity on the KARL brand – How did you achieve this?
We pride ourselves on having a fantastic relationship with all of our 400 plus brands that we work with. And I think the feeling was that we should be the exclusive partner because we’re the only global luxury online retailer featured in 170 countries and with 4.5 million visitors. So it made sense for us to be the exclusive partner for this amazing launch.


Who approached who for the collaboration?
It was the meeting of minds to be honest. When you think about of all the fashion brands we collaborate with, why not collaborate with the King of Fashion himself? It was the coming together of both parties.


How long many months did it take to co-ordinate and organise a global launch simultaneously?
It’s been a long time. Officially we started launching the brand about six months ago and then we started revealing the brand and pieces of the collection about a month and a half ago. It’s been a long process but super exciting and obviously leading up to today we are thrilled with it.


What is it like to meet Karl in person?
It has been an extraordinary experience and inspirational. He’s amazing, there’s an incredible aura when he’s in the room. He’s a legend. If you work in fashion meeting Karl Lagerfeld is the ultimate, it’s like a dream.


Who is the KARL Woman?
I think the Karl Woman is modern but with a rock and roll edge, you’ll see that in all the pieces of the collection. You’ve got everything from leather miniskirts to sequin jackets to different collars to T-Shirts, so you really do have something for everyone in the collection. Karl Woman is elegant but modern and edgy.


Are there any key pieces in the collection?
There are 70 pieces to choose from and there is also going to be five limited edition dresses which we will have exclusivity for a day. So there’s everything from £20 to £1,500 which are the limited edition dresses.


Do you have a favourite piece?
I do have a favourite piece. There’s a beautiful jersey wrap dress in a merlot wine colour with a print of Karl silhouettes. Also the beautiful sequin collars which add a bit more of an edge.


Jenny asked if I had seen the NET-A-PORTER KARL app and said: 
You’ll be able to shop and win with the app. You can take a sneak peek of the collection.
You can take a photograph of yourself and make yourself into Karl Lagerfeld which is quite good fun. If you scan the logo, different things pop up.  There’s a Find Karl maze game, and cash prizes to win and spend on the KARL collection. What’s so exciting about KARL is not only is it an amazing beautiful and luxurious product, but it is also taking technology to the next level, this is the first time a  launch that has been done in this way.  


Do you see this as the way forward for future brands?
It remains to be seen but whatever we do it will be the first of its kind just like today.


The pieces in the KARL collection mix and match easily with each other. Colour palette is predominantly black and white but with pops of bubble gum pink, silver and merlot. It is now available online at www.NET-A-PORTER.com and don’t forget to watch the tongue in cheek Face to Face interview where Karl interviews himself.


www.NET-A-PORTER.com


Photo Credit: NET-A-PORTER celebrates the launch of KARL





By Karen Grace
Personal Shopper & Image Consultant for Frumpy to Funky 
www.frumpytofunky.com

South African fashion designer Alexis Barrell makes UK debut

South African born fashion designer Alexis Barrell has lived and worked in many cities around the world and her next stop is London. And to be more precise – the ultra chic Bluebird Emporium in Chelsea on the Kings Road.


Alexis love of travel shows in her collections with SS11 sailing around the Cycladic islands and AW11/12 taking in the culture of Parisian theatres.


For her SS12 collection she is talking Italian and takes inspiration from the romantic city of Naples – a love story set in the messy, chaotic town of Naples.

The colour palette is ice cream sorbet colours of mint, peach, vanilla, coffee and a touch of chocolate.


The style has a 1950’s feel with high waist full skirts and heart shaped necklines


For her print inspiration she travels north to the Venetian island of Murano and looks at the intricate designs of Murano glass especially in the 1950s era.


The sculptural forms of her hats are inspired by Italian mid-century lightening design with its simple geometric lines, cone shapes and fun space age atomic styles embellishments.

Alexis’ speciality is the construction of very light floaty and delicate fabrics which she sometimes likes to combine with the harder tougher fabric of leather.


Prices range from £120 to £600 and her collection will be available from mid February.


More images of the collection at www.alexisbarrell.com.

Alexis studied architecture in Cape Town, achieved a distinction in fashion design at the Istituto Marangoni in Paris and then perfected the art of draping with bias-cut silks and seamless forms under the guidance of couturier Marc Bouwer in New York. In 2010 she founded her own label in Greece.


Future designs will include menswear pieces and a capsule African luxury collection.

m.kenics UK debut

New to the UK, eyewear brand m.kenics would like to show off their glasses against the iconic London landmarks with you dear readers modelling them. All they ask is that you don’t mind having your photos taken and the said photos will be used as future promo material around the world!

Plus you get to keep the actual glasses you model!

m.kenics frames are not welded and have no screws, they are all designed and engineered to slot and fit together. High end materials of titanium and acetate are sourced in Japan where the frames are hand finished. The acetate frames come in a variety of colours with different finishes including glossy, translucent and frosted.

The frames are flexible and super light with the lightest weighing in at just 5g, this makes them really comfortable to wear. But it’s the clever swivel nose pad that is m.kenics USP – self adjusting so the frames fit any nose shape easily with minimal adjustment.

RRP is from £165 and they are now exclusively available from Orb Opticians London 
www.m-kenics.co.uk

So if you fancy a free pair of glasses and having your photo taken then just email Siu at siu@eyeternity.co.uk with your mobile or email address and a recent photo.

Keep your photo look quite natural as they are looking for an everyday style to represent the face of m.kenics.

Once they have chosen the people with the right everyday look, they will contact you directly.

The photo shoots will take place within the next two weeks.

By Karen Grace
Personal Shopper & Image Consultant for Frumpy to Funky 

http://www.frumpytofunky.com/

Brian Clarke launches new flagship boutique

This month saw the opening of luxury menswear designer Brain Clarke’s new flagship boutique just off Marylebone High Street. Here you will see high quality tailoring using cloth produced by the mills in Scotland and Italy. Clarke takes the classic heritage look and adds his own contemporary touch.


For his SS12 collection he takes his inspiration from the nineteenth century young academics:


A softer modern bib front on Clarke’s shirts emulates the traditional starched shirt fronts, and the high standing rounded collars the look that was so popular in mid 1800 Eton College. Tan leather brogues are given a twist with off centre lacing and the Regatta blazer is available in double as well as the traditional single breasted.

For the present colder winter months he updates two traditional coat styles:


The classic rugged pea coat shows its softer side with faux fur.


The sheepskin coat‘s cheeky ‘Delboy’ reputation is replaced with an edgy and trendier look by Clarke’s design of a slimmer fit, unfinished edges, double breasted and detachable hood.


As a teenager Brian loved to interpret street fashion and create his own style. The next obvious step was to take this creativity and learn how to make his own designs. So he registered at the London College of Fashion to study how to design light clothing and pattern cutting. After completing his studies, Brian worked at Berman’s & Nathan’s theatrical costumiers. Here he worked on costumes for Colditz, Superman and all the BBC series, but promises his own collections will not include wearing underpants over tights! However, it was when he worked as assistant designer/pattern cutter for Katherine Hamnett that he really became hooked on fashion.

After a few years Brian eventually decided to go it alone and started styling and designing clothes for pop videos of numerous bands: Jackie Graham, David Grant, Imagination and Spandau ballet to name a few. He also set up a pattern cutting, sample making and small production service for emerging designer labels which included Stephen Linard, Duffer of St. George, Joe Casely Hayford and Nigel Hall. An opportunity to work for one of the leading young fashion companies in Japan became available, providing Clarke with more hands on experience in fashion design.


Clarke’s new boutique also provides in-store bespoke tailoring.


26 Paddington Street
Marylebone
W1U 5QY


http://www.brianclarkemenswear.com/

By Karen Grace
Personal Shopper & Image Consultant for Frumpy to Funky 

http://www.frumpytofunky.com/

Pringle pre-fall 2012

Whilst we’re busy hunting down the perfect outfit for this winter, something to keep us warm but also looking cool, those designers have moved on to their pre-fall 2012 collections and some are ready to tease us with their new designs. I say tease because no matter how good we’ve been Santa won’t be bringing them to us this Christmas. But all is not lost as they say good things come to those who wait. Here’s a great collection that hopefully will come our way soon:

Alistair Carr, Design Director for Pringle of Scotland, brings out his first Pre-Fall 2012 collection for the brand.

Carr has turned to Pringle’s own rich brand heritage for inspiration, looking at knitwear as outerwear, their iconic intarsia design and the classic twinset. But then adds his own twist.

He takes the twinset concept a step further by not only matching the sweater and cardigan, but the whole outfit.  Trousers and skirts are in matching geometric patterned knits with jackets whilst knitted dresses are double layered in contrasting colours of wine with peony; and bottle green with burnt orange

Pringle’s intarsia designs have a makeover with a bold woven jacquard print on a satin trimmed smoking suit, cocktail dress and skirt.

And the token classic twinsets in the collection feature a textured star embroidered design, rather than the smooth signature argyle pattern.

The colour palette is deep and rich wine, bottle green and navy with accents of acid brights. These brights are more dominant in the graffiti print used on stretch twill utility pieces.

For the outerwear, the casual parka is made in luxurious pony skin with fox and mink fur trimmed hoods.

Shoes are in collaboration with Chrissie Morris.  

By Karen Grace
Personal Shopper & Image Consultant for Frumpy to Funky 

http://www.frumpytofunky.com