Posts Tagged london fashion week
London’s breath of fresh air
an insight report from the London Fashion Week
It ended on a high note. There they were, the pair of go-to guys for British urban glamour, Erdem Moralioglu and Duro Olowu, staging their catwalk shows back-to-back at the tail-end of London Fashion Week. Moralioglu was up first. Throughout the procession of breathtaking tiered gowns, body-sculpting day dresses, jaunty trousers and skirts suits fashioned in lace by Sophie Halette and Taroni (both superlative, fabled textile suppliers to Yves Saint Laurent and Cristobal Balenciaga), there were appreciative gasps from the audience, culminating in thunderous applause, whoops and whistles. For a fashion show? Sometimes, magic happens.
“I’ve never seen so many people rush backstage after a London Fashion Week show,” observed Elizabeth Saltzman, Vanity Fair’s international social editor.
And yet it happened again at the Royal Academy of Arts, courtesy of Duro Olowu’s great dresses: short sporty numbers, like shirts and shifts, rendered in his characteristic tribal prints, as well as slithery evening pieces in fabulous silk patchworks. According to Julie Gilhart, fashion director at Barneys New York: “Duro has done as much to reinvent the dress as Diane Von Furstenberg.” Olowu also produced great trouser and coat combos in black-and-white polka dots, strikingly reminiscent of the patterns on Balenciaga’s late 1950 couture. “Killer!” uttered a supercool Notting stylist.
So has Jay-Z or P. Diddy called Olowu yet and offered backing? Both of these music moguls have launched booming sartorial ventures and could catapult into the big league this one-off talent who seamlessly merges influences from Nigeria with the grand old traditions of haute couture. Has LVMH followed-up on an interview they did with Erdem earlier this year?
Perhaps a better question is: would Duro and Erdem be interested?
Time was, exceptional talents such as these would drop it all, jump on the Eurostar and be done with London and the struggles it presents. London may be the most culturally vibrant of the world’s fashion capitals. “It promotes personal self-expression,” Donatella Versace was quoted as saying after she jetted in midweek to bestow the Fashion Fringe prize. “Here young designers are really encouraged and given the possibility to be as creative as they can be, which brings a breath of fresh air to the fashion world.” But it can be a big drag to assemble a polished collection in the city.
Established businesses such as Paul Smith, Nicole Farhi and Aquascutum can produce, respectively, signature parades of tailoring-meets-Orientalist separates, billowing impressionist sundresses and a professional rhapsody in blue suits but, for a young designer, simply finding the right manufacturer can be difficult. Factories that once produced luxury goods for big labels such as Burberry and Barbour have shut down. And experts say there is a “crisis” of manufacturing. Over on the Continent, however, designers have it easier. France and Italy have age-old, yet sophisticated, producers that whip up merchandise with unrivalled superiority.
Add comment September 22, 2008
Real women: the latest fashion
love that!
Muscular athletes in Stella McCartney’s sportswear line for Adidas, Christopher Kane’s blonde bombshells, models well into their thirties at Giles Deacon, a little ethnic diversity across the board … One could be forgiven for thinking that fashion had developed a conscience, if this week’s London collections were anything to go by.
The reasoning behind such a move is as likely to be commercial and aesthetic as it is ethical – fashion is famed for a ludicrously short attention span, after all – but the fact remains that designers are increasingly hiring a wider variety of models and it is likely that this will continue next week in Milan and straight after in Paris.
Not many people working outside the fashion industry will recognise the name Russell Marsh, but as the casting agent behind many of the world’s most high-profile advertising campaigns, glossy magazine editorials and catwalk shows, he is extremely influential.
On Wednesday he told The London Fashion Week Daily, a free news sheet funded by the British Fashion Council: “I like reality, especially in times like these. We need a wake-up call. I think it’s time people saw things for how they are. Grow old gracefully, I say.”
Given that, for years, Marsh has been at the forefront of a mindset decreeing that seeking out the youngest waifs in the world to model is the last word in high style, this seems like quite a radical about-turn. In particular, Marsh works for Prada, whose catwalk famously launches the careers of a fresh crop of models every season. Because of this, the more established names (and established can mean a model who has worked for six months or, if she’s lucky, two or three years) have become almost as disposable as the clothes they wear. But that, may be about to change.
“The models need to be athletic, confident, powerful,” Marsh continued, putting his money where his mouth is by casting Lara Stone – who is positively pneumatic by fashion standards – to open Christopher Kane’s show on Tuesday. “Lara is everything you want,” Marsh said. “She’s slightly bigger than the other girls and on the runway that really makes a statement.”
Marsh made a not entirely dissimilar “statement” when he cast Jourdan Dunn, an 18-year-old British-born model, for Prada’s previous show six months ago: she was the first black model employed by this designer since a young Naomi Campbell. Dunn has appeared in every heavyweight fashion and style magazine and stars in Topshop’s current advertising campaign. “I think the look of the models is definitely changing,” said Sarah Mower, a contributing editor to the American Vogue website style.com, reporting from London this week. “Fashion is always changing and people are just really bored by that characterless, Caucasian look. Neither is it demonstrable that it sells clothes any more.
Add comment September 20, 2008
Fashion capitals agree schedule deal
at least there is some kind of agreement…
AS LONDON Fashion Week draws to a close tomorrow, it was announced that a satisfactory compromise had been reached between the four fashion capitals – London, New York, Milan and Paris – regarding show schedules.
London will shorten its event by one day from September 2009, allowing New York to move its dates forward.
With a couple of exceptions, the week ended with up-and-coming designers showing their work through sponsored catwalk presentations.
Most attendees at these events, however, tend to be London stylists, press and friends rather than buyers. Lars von Bennigsen, chief executive of Alice Temperley, a designer who returned from New York this season to show in London, told the Evening Standard that “if [designers] want their collections seen by the largest number of influential people, London is not the place at the moment”.
Yet one outstanding and bankable star yesterday was Richard Nicoll (31), who graduated six years ago and went out on his own after working with Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton.
Add comment September 18, 2008
Cilla catwalks at Naomi fashion gig
poor Naomi 
Cilla Black closed the Fashion For Relief charity show
Cilla Black stole the show when she took to the catwalk in aid of Naomi Campbell’s Fashion For Relief.
The Blind Date presenter sashayed down the catwalk dressed in an Yves St Laurent top hat, shirt and tails and little else.
She walked down the runway before an audience including the Prime Minister’s wife, Sarah Brown, Mischa Barton and Nancy Dell’Olio, to the sounds of her own hit Anyone Who Had A Heart.
The 60s singer closed the charity fund-raising show at Wednesday’s Natural History Museum, which is now in its third year.
Others modelling included Campbell, Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Cole, model Erin O’Connor, a reluctant Tracey Emin, rock daughters Kimberley Stewart and Lizzie Jagger and girl group the Sugababes.
Sugababe Heidi Range lost one of her heels during her run on the catwalk but quickly recovered her poise.
Olympic gold medallists Rebecca Adlington and Sarah Ayton and also took to the runway, complete with medals.
Add comment September 18, 2008
Fashion for Relief at London Fashion Week
more news from the London Fashion Week…
Naomi Campbell hosted her third Fashion for Relief catwalk show last night in aid of the White Ribbon Alliance with the help of over sixty celebrities…
In pictures: Fashion for Relief at LFW “What am I doing? I’m an old age pensioner,” said Cilla Black as she was handed an Yves Saint Laurent corset.
Star studded: Naomi hosts the Fashion for Relief catwalk show But the smile and gleam in her eyes suggested the 65-year-old queen of telly knew exactly what she was up to; indeed, I don’t think she could wait to flash those famous pins in the outfit she described as “a cross between Sally Bowles and the Artful Dodger.”
Cilla Black virtually stole the show at Naomi’s Fashion for Relief catwalk gala at the Natural History Museum last night in aid of the White Ribbon Alliance, the global organization which helps pregnant women and newborns.
Sarah Brown, the wife of the Prime Minister, who is patron of the charity, joined a starry cast in the front row which included Princess Eugenie, the billionaire tycoon, Richard Caring, Mischa Barton, Trudie Styler, David Tang and Nick Knight.
Backstage before the event – the third Naomi has organized in as many years – there were scenes of organized chaos as more than 60 stars, Olympic medallists, celebrities, singers and television personalities queued for make-up, hairdressing and wardrobe.
“I’ve eaten too much, but I don’t care. I love food,” said Naomi as her long, shining tresses were flattened and straightened into submission.
Naomi, both the brains and the beauty behind the event, had three different designer dresses to wear – by Azzedine Alaia, Yves Saint Laurent and an extraordinary peacock feather creation by Zac Posen – a gown which was subsequently bought in the auction by her Russian boyfriend, Vladimir, who calmly bid £25,000.
Kelly Hoppen’s locks, meanwhile, were being lovingly and lengthily tended by boyfriend, the celebrity hairdresser, Nicky Clarke. Ronnie Wood’s wife Jo had accessorized her vintage gold sequined gown with a cute, brass-buttoned military jacket from her own wardrobe and Alice Dellal was planning to wear her own studded, platform ‘biker’ boots with whatever she was given.
Add comment September 18, 2008
Fashion capitals hammer out schedule compromise
more news from the London Fashion Week 
London Fashion Week staved off a tight squeeze between rival shows in New York and Milan next season in a compromise deal with fashion councils in New York, Milan and Paris, the British Fashion Council said on Tuesday.
BFC Chairman Harold Tillman said in a statement that the four fashion capitals agreed to secure London a five-day slot on the global fashion calendar. That means London loses one day from its current six-day catwalk schedule.
“I am delighted that this meeting has brought our fashion capitals closer together,” Tillman said. “It has highlighted our interdependence, commitment to nurturing talent and our sharing of ideas and goals.”
The agreement means London, which generates some 100 million pounds in business and 50 million pounds in media advertising, will not be squeezed into a four-day sprint.
That would have forced the BFC to consider making decisions about two-tiered schedules or juggling its commitment to cutting-edge youth designers against big-drawing names such as Vivienne Westwood and Paul Smith.
Talk of the squeeze emerged last year after the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) announced it intended to move its dates for the upcoming autumn 2009 season in February.
Add comment September 17, 2008
Buyers ignore credit crunch at London Fashion Week
fashion might save the economy !
Turmoil on the financial markets hasn’t made small buyers timid at London Fashion Week.
A brief tour of the exhibition stands found a number of smaller retailers and at least one big online fashion sales company on the hunt for bags, shoes, jewelry and clothing with money to spend and customers to satisfy.
Although news on Monday that big U.S. investment bank Lehman brothers has filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States and that fellow U.S. financial powerhouse Merrill Lynch may be the focus of a takeover, Samantha Rolfe has not adjusted buying plans for her shop “Concrete Catwalk” in the Essex stockbroker belt near London.
Among the popular bags, jewelry, shoes and hats stands, Rolfe told Reuters she had not adjusted her buying patterns in expectation of a slowing economy, but said she had considered her options for next season in February if sales at her shop began to slow.
“It would have to be for the Autumn/winter season come January/February … that’s when I would have to buy smaller quantities and stick to minimum orders,” Rolfe said.
JEWELLERY AND ACCESORIES
Louise Benisty, who was buying for her Hertfordshire shop Lulu & Fred, said the emphasis for many customers at the moment tended to be on jewelry and accessories, which can perk up an old favorite and reinvigorate a wardrobe.
“Accessories are easier to sell right now, bags, shoes. They (customers) won’t have to change their outfits.”
London Fashion Week has 52 catwalk shows over six days and more than 200 designer labels at its exhibitions. It expects 5,000 visitors, buyers and journalists over six days from Sept 14-19.
Among the bigger buyers, ASOS — which bills itself as an online fashion store and says it plans to become the fashion equivalent of books, DVDs and consumer electricals Internet pioneer Amazon.com — had at least three buyers touring the exhibition on Monday.
Add comment September 17, 2008
London Fashion Week starts with Paris envy, super slender models on catwalk
well i´d love to buy them burgers….;)
Carla Bruni, where are you?
The French first lady’s sophisticated style was sorely missed Monday as London Fashion Week moved into its second day, with festivities capped by a Downing Street reception for fashion designers hosted by Sarah Brown, wife of notoriously rumpled Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Brown and his not-very-GQ cabinet colleagues have been the object of some derision in the fashion world as magazines have used side-by-side photos to point out that French ministers are far more chic than their stolid British counterparts. Sarah Brown, for her part, has shunned the fashion limelight.
“Obviously we have some very glamorous examples of foreign ministers in France and Spain, and obviously the women in our cabinet are not particularly well-dressed or sophisticated, but perhaps they are not aiming for that,” said Nicola Copping, fashion writer for The Times newspaper in London. “They are not the best dressed women on the planet, but they are not trying to be.”
Chic or not, the Browns planned the dinner in an effort to show support for London Fashion Week, a twice yearly event that is in danger of being shortened in coming years because fashion officials in New York plan to lengthen the Big Apple’s shows at London’s expense.
That would leave London with an ever more abbreviated week in which to show its fashion savvy. Milan comes next on the fashion calendar – and no one is suggesting that Milan give way to accommodate London, which is not yet perceived as a heavyweight on the fashion scene, even though an estimated 5,000 journalists, buyers and models usually attend the shows.
“It’s not what we want,” said Erin O’Connor, a leading British model who is vice-chairman of London Fashion Week. “We are already crammed. But if that happens we’ll make the best of what we have.”
Add comment September 16, 2008
Romantic Rocha adds colour to black Monday
so fashion serves as a light in the dark yay
JOHN ROCHA’S lovely show on the second day of London Fashion Week gave a lift to an otherwise black Monday in which the sudden chill in the city air reflected the darkening banking crisis. Known for his monochrome style and offbeat elegance, Rocha’s spring collection was more shapely and structured than usual, more feminine in spirit.
Though the snowy Linton tweeds that opened the show were sweetly embroidered with white ribbon, there was less superfluous decor in the crinoline dresses and standaway jackets that flared airily from the waist. “I was thinking of ballerinas and the play on proportions,” he said backstage. White-faced models, their hair scraped into buns, wearing blocked-toed shoes drove the ballet reference home.
Mixing ideas of masculinity and femininity, “disarray versus control”, his slim and flattering tunics, occasionally backless, added extra elegance to long black lace dresses while severe menswear pieces were enlivened with small but noticeable decorative touches. Even trench coats came in lengths that could be worn swagged or swinging at the back.
The big surprise was the colour – georgette dresses thick with petals in shades of mint, raspberry and royal blue were hung with collars of heavy Jaipur crystal closing a stellar show, arguably his best ever.
Currently a nominee for the Elle Deco award to be announced in London at the end of October, Rocha has just been made an honorary patron of Trinity College’s Philosophical Society and is to address “the Phil” in mid-November.
If Rocha’s collection was romantic, Jasper Conran seemed to throw his customary refinement to the winds with a collection that was raunchy and saucy with frilled knickers, nude silks, corseted tops and barely-there dresses. But he is too much of a sophisticate to go too far and the mood was playful and tongue in cheek with titles like “Miss Demeanour”, “Rough Crossing” and “Dollita”, the latter a confection of ruffles, pleats and frills in sugary georgette.
Add comment September 16, 2008
Fashion Week dumps model health checks
well this approach might have had a chance…
MODELS will not be forced to have health checks at London Fashion Week after other major cities refused to go along with the idea.
The idea was recommended by the British Fashion Council after last year’s size zero debate but it’s already been ruled out in New York, Paris and Milan, BBC Radio reports.
London Fashion Week kicked off yesterday.
Officials in the three cities said forcing models to produce a medical certificate was too invasive.
Eating disorder charities have criticised the decision.
The size zero debate began when two South American models died from eating disorders.
In response, the British Fashion Council came out with 14 proposals last September in a report called the Model Health Inquiry.
One of the main proposals was to introduce health certificates for models on Britain’s catwalks.
Catwalk models make up only 10 per cent of the modelling population.But officials in New York, Paris and Milan did not agree with the proposals.
They said the measures were unworkable and discriminated against other models who didn’t appear on the catwalk.
Add comment September 15, 2008
