24 February 2009
As most women scrimp, fashion is targeting the fortunate few...
"What is the recession?" asked Fatima, a fortysomething power-shopping Kuwaiti as she strolled down New Bond Street with her teenage daughter Leyla last Saturday. Enjoying a week-long trip to London, this black-clad big spender had just left Louis Vuitton, which currently offers a limited-edition collection of accessories and ready-to-wear lines that pay homage to the late-Eighties New York graffiti artist Stephen Sprouse.
Fatima toted two large shopping bags. One contained a £395 pair of "graffiti ballerinas" – demure flats enlivened by Louis Vuitton in Day-Glo appliqué letters atop the venerable French brand's traditional LV logo. Inside the other, from Chanel, was a quilted Chanel 2.55 handbag.
After a few linguistic pointers, Fatima grasped the meaning of "recession", yet was as nonplussed by the notion of economic gloom as by the recent ten per cent increase in Vuitton's prices. "Uh, OK – the economy. But we are on vacation so it is our time to shop!" she said, and made tracks for DKNY.
Economists would group Fatima and Leyla among the horde of visitors taking advantage of the weakened pound. But this duo are also part of the free-spending clique at whom a new brand of luxury is increasingly targeted. Call it niche opulence – that is, high fashion and costly accessories which, produced in small quantities, are tailored for the super-rich elite.
Back in the Nineties, ordinary shoppers would feel they could afford Gucci and Prada – like Becky Bloomwood in the film Confessions of a Shopaholic, they could simply charge up their credit cards. Today, the idea of mass luxury is as anathema as the City's bonus culture.
"Boutiques as well as department stores are buying less from manufacturers which are, in turn, making less," explains Guy Salter, deputy chairman of the Walpole Group, which promotes and develops British luxury. Yet rather than compromise and cut prices, designers are producing "statement" items in small quantities – such as Vuitton's Sprouse collection.
"Women with money will spend but on inimitable, distinct looks," says Paula Reed, Grazia's style director, drawing on comments made by department store buyers she canvassed during New York Fashion Week. "They are not in the market for a pencil skirt or a blazer," she says. "They are going for major, fabulous items."
"Rarefied pieces" is how Graeme Black described the mink shrug, silken jacket atop a snakeskin bustier dress and shift dresses embellished with feathers and crystals in his autumn/winter 2009 collection, shown on Saturday at London Fashion Week. "I'm not compromising because my socialite clients want quality – clothes that will last, clothes they will love and cherish," he says.
At his Savile Row showroom, Kinder Aggugini, a former Versace designer, concurs. His autumn/winter 2009 collection had suit jackets and frock-coats made from silk velvet and corduroy that looked like cotton but was actually crafted from deluxe cashmere. Why? Because he "doesn't do cheap". Quite right, reasons Harrods fashion director Marigay McKee: "If a piece is stunning, it will instantly be perceived as valuable."
So it seemed outside Hermès, where Anna Carlisle, a 28-year-old administrative assistant from York, was clutching an Hermès Birkin, plus two Louis Vuitton shopping bags containing her own pair of graffiti ballerina flats and a £490 Sprouse scarf. Funds, for Anna, are never a problem. Her father is a successful businessman. "I place no price limit on what I buy because of my financial situation and I like expensive things," she said candidly.
Over at Dover Street Market, Jess Wade, a 20-year-old Imperial College physics student, purchased not one, but two pairs of floral limited edition Nike trainers, produced collaboratively with Liberty of London. Her parents' recession-proof profession also means there is no need to curb her shopping. "My mum and dad are both doctors," she says. "We live in Hampstead and there is no talk of a recession up there."
But it takes more than money to acquire the limited-edition items of the moment, such as Roland Mouret's RM capsule collection of pricey demi-couture frocks, £1,000 acid wash jeans by Balmain, or £465 men's jeans by Tom Ford featuring pre-washed Japanese denim and an 18-carat gold-plated fly button.
A connection to a personal shopper is also key. These experts work behind the scenes of upscale department stores and leading boutiques such as Browns and Matches, as well as luxurious online retailers such as Net-a-Porter. They function as both sales staff and stylists, and their clients are the first to receive scarce items. Browns buying director Erin Mullaney says personal shoppers have a straightforward relationship with their VIP clients: "They know what women want, they call them and it's sold."
Scarcity fuels desire. Two weeks ago Net-a-Porter went live with a limited supply of three dress styles by Christopher Kane. Within 24 hours they were "sold" to customers with personal shoppers, says Net-a-Porter's Allison Lohenis.
There was no such luck for Christian Louboutin. At the start of 2009, the famed French shoe designer launched 36 pairs of an ornate evening slipper. Inspired by Marie Antoinette, Louboutin produced them with the French embroidery house Lesage. But their £3,995 price tag proved steep even for Louboutin's customers. "We have 18 pairs left," admits Laboutin. The sales glitch proved educational: he is now building up his online presence instead of planning global shop openings.
"I've been working on a website," he says. "It suddenly seems important for me to display what goes into my shoes – the particulars, like how a copper heel is handmade by a craftsman in Indonesia, not cheaply in a factory. Because no matter what a luxury brand produces, right now, they have to show what they delivers."
(telegraph fashion news)
24 February 2009
Hilary Alexander brings us all the latest gossip from the front row at 2009 London Fashion Week...
• Chris Eubank, resplendent in a long, black, tailored coat and trousers at the Jaeger show, was missing his favourite accessory – his silver-topped cane. “I didn’t want to take attention away from the clothes and the models”, he said modestly.
• Sir Bob Geldof, just back from Rome, where daughter Pixie was being feted for her Italian Vogue cover – “it’s all over town,” he said – was playing proud father again at the Luella show, with daughter Peaches sitting next to him and Pixie on the catwalk. As soon as the show was over he was whisking Pixie off to school.
• Francesca Versace, Donatella’s Central Saint Martins-graduate niece, has been doing the Topshop New Generation rounds at the underground catwalk at the University of Westminster in Marylebone. She is very excited about her new venture, to revamp and relaunch the traditional Italian menswear line, Verdi. The launch is due for the next menswear season in Milan in June.
• Another front row regular has been hip-hop singer Kanye West and his new girlfriend, shaven-headed, Amber Rose. “I love seeing fashion on the runway, seeing what the most creative people can do. It’s not always just about the clothes; often it’s art. Like Giles Deacon, for instance. That’s my favourite so far.”
• Bumped into Vicky Beamon, owner and creative director of the fabulous jewellers, Erickson Beamon. She is very excited about a new project – to go to Afghanistan to work with local crafts people in Kabul and help kick-start a more contemporary approach to jewellery for European and American markets.
• Designer, Neil Barrett, a graduate of both Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art, in London, is now the proud part-owner of his very own factory in Tuscany. Barrett, originally from the Devon fishing village of Noss Mayo, has his own women’s and menswear labels based in Milan, and sells to Harrods and Matches in London, as well as an extensive list abroad.
“We did 57 million Euros at retail last year,” he told me proudly at the British Fashion Council party at The Collection, last night. ”And I’ve built the brand up entirely without any PR or advertising.” That’s all about to change, as Barrett has just signed with Karla Otto public relations.
(telegraph fashion news)
24 February 2009
Stephen Jones launched his exhibition, “Hats: An Anthology”, at the Victoria & Albert Museum yesterday evening with an array of celebrity guests...
Hats right! And Hats on for Stephen Jones, whose gala opening of “Hats: An Anthology” at the Victoria & Albert Museum caused a mega millinery-fest.
Tricorns, trappers and Trilbys; berets and balaclavas; paper party hats and picture hats; flowers, frills and feathers ... every conceivable type of headgear made its way into the V&A for the party.
Judy Blame came with a dagger through his skull – a children’s party trick from the Pound Store. Graham Rebak of Beach Blanket Babylon turned an original Rolling Stones’ ‘Sticky Fingers’ vinyl LP into a hat. Designer Selina Blow wore a fabulous silver brocade turban. “How Issy would have adored this,” she said.
There was a couple in matching Spanish galleons, made from brown cardboard. Jeweller, Hervé van der Straten, popped into Poilane in Elizabeth Street, bought a big round loaf and simply carved out a crown so he could wear it on his head. The flour kept on trickling onto his shoulders, but he didn’t seem to mind – and nobody tried to take a bite either.
One man had grabbed a stag’s head off the wall and festooned it with streamers and dreadlocks. Someone else had glued a plastic lobster onto the grilled covering of a room-fan; DJ ‘Tatsy Tim’, just wore his usual – orange and black Mohican. And the man himself? Mr Jones made a black glitter beret to match his tie. Everyone agreed this was the sort of party that could only happen in London.
Simon Ward of the British Fashion Council, in paper hat, thought we should do it once a year! Now hat’s a fantastic idea...
(telegraph fashion news)
24 February 2009
Sarah Brown calls on Royal family to support London showpiece ...
Sarah Brown visited London Fashion Week yesterday and called for the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, and the Royal family to play a greater part in promoting it as an international event.
Referring to the reception she hosted at No 10 Downing Street during London Fashion Week last September, the Prime Minister's wife said she had promised to support the British Fashion Council in every way she could during fashion week's 25th anniversary year.
But, she said, it was not just the responsibility of the Government.
"The Mayor, the Palace – we should all work together to keep London Fashion Week as big and bright as we can. It's in all our interests."
Mrs Brown toured the stands of some of the 170 ready-to-wear and accessory designers who are exhibiting in the grounds of the Natural History Museum. She was joined by Barbara Follett, the Minister for Culture, Harold Tillman, the chairman of the British Fashion Council, and the model, Erin O'Connor.
Mrs Brown wore a black suit by one of her favourite British designers, Betty Jackson.
She described Vivienne Westwood's Red Label show as "terrific".
(telegraph fashion news)
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23 February 2009
Hilary Alexander reviews Pam Hogg's first show at 2009 London Fashion Week in over a decade...
Former 70s and 80s fashion rebel, and the darling of the club scene, Pam Hogg, put punk and rock ‘n’ roll back on the London catwalk with her first show at London Fashion Week in 10 years.
London ‘It’ girl, Daisy Lowe, opened the show, held at the Science Museum, in a multicoloured, patchwork fur jacket and harlequin leggings, in geometric, slices of Lycra and leather.
Her party playmates, Alice Dellal and Jamie Winstone, followed in similar skintight bodysuits, with exaggerated shoulders, scissored out of triangular slices of sequins, black stretch and fluorescent Lycra, their hair backcombed and hair-sprayed into high quaffs, and walking tall in Terry De Havilland glitter platform.
Watching from the front rows were Gareth Pugh, Peaches Geldof, Bella Freud, Dougie Fields and the singer Roisin Murphy, wearing one of Hogg’s second-skin outfits in black, silver and white stretch.
Hogg varied the diet of electric, space-age suiting with Little Black Dresses in Latex and all-in-ones, which featured mega-flare“trousers in black panne velvet and lace, and highway-woman capes in sheer black tulle and silver lace, decorated with black ribbons, bows and pom-poms, some with matching headdresses.
(telegraph)
23 February 2009
Hilary Alexander reviews the Twenty8Twelve autumn/winter 09/10 collection at 2009 London Fashion Week...
Last night, the actress Sienna Miller should have been on the red carpet at the Oscars in Hollywood.
Instead she was on her knees, on the floor of an old diary in West London, putting the finishing touches to a fashion collection.
This was not her latest film role, but a real-life scenario as co-designer, with her older sister Savannah, of the Twenty8Twelve fashion brand.
The latest collection, for autumn/winter 09/10, made its catwalk debut at London Fashion Week last night before a packed audience of press, buyers and celebrities, including Courtney Love, Alexa Chung, Kanye West, Francesca Versace, Daphne Guinness, Mary McCartney, Jade Jagger, and Twiggy.
The clothes appear, on the surface, a reflection of the two sisters: punk, boho and biker-influenced leather jackets and skin-tight, body-conscious dresses in peek-a-boo stretch for Sienna’s hectic trans-Atlantic, movie-star lifestyle; crystal-embellished cashmere knits, finely-tailored “highwayman coats” and floral-print tunics, perhaps more suited to Savannah’s life as a wife and mother to two children in an eco-friendly, “The Good Life” setting in Gloucestershire.
“But put them together and it says London cool,” said Sienna, backstage before the show. “These clothes are funky, and there’s something for anyone.”
Must-have items included soft, high-waisted, denim leggings, backless tunics with Swarovski crystal-shoulder-pads – “like an American footballer”, said Sienna – a Charlie Chaplinesque trouser suit in grunge-tweed and a long, black and white, jacquard-knit cardigan-coat in what Savannah called “London camouflage”.
The two Miller sisters launched the collection – named for Sienna’s birthday – two years ago.
“Sales have been very good, particularly in England and America, and we felt it was the right time to do a show,” Sienna said. “I'm not giving up acting, I love acting. But I also love working with my sister. We’ve always been two sisters playing dress-up, ever since we were kids and we’re still doing it.”
(telegraph)
23 February 2009
Hilary Alexander reviews the Jaeger London autumn/winter 09/10 collection at 2009 London Fashion Week...
Jaeger London updated its formidable archives for a collection which was strong on 1960s graphics, worked in a colour scheme of beige and black and parchment and black.
These were not pieces for the shrinking violet.
A strapless, black, all-in-one, was paired with a crisply-tailored, black and white military-look bolero. A cream, satin, boat-neck, tunic-dress was striped in strips of black angora. And a curve-cut cape, in taupe wool, was piped in black and cinched at the front with a wide, black patent belt.
The monochrome theme was echoed in specially-knitted hose in black and cream and in three-tone, patent, stack-heel booties.
Jaeger London also repeated the success it has had with its “yeti” coats of last season. A cloud-like, white sheepskin shrug topped a ruffled black, pencil skirt. A black-and-white speed-stripe, polo-neck top teamed with a black sheepskin puffball skirt (only for the brave of heart and long of leg!), and a “Michelin-style” coat, in black sheepskin, was segmented with strips of black patent.
More tailored pieces included black, matelot-style trousers with the traditional; buttoned front and tailored city-shorts, gathered on to a wide waistband.
(telegraph)
23 February 2009
Hilary Alexander reviews Richard Nicoll's autumn/winter 09/10 collection at 2009 London Fashion Week...
Where else, but London Fashion Week, could you sit down to watch a show by a young New Generation talent, like Richard Nicoll, and spot a Stephen Jones-hatted Anna Piaggi of Italian Vogue and the US hip-hop recording star, Kanye West, in the front row on one side, and the alternative performance artist, visual artist and close friend of Morrissey, Linder Sterling, from Manchester, on the other.
Linder, known for her rather explicit collages for the Buzzcocks, was dressed in a silk tunic printed with organic forms, within which the image of a breast could be discerned. “I was allowed one breast,” she said with a laugh.
She was there because she designed the extraordinary, human body-inspired prints which were a feature of Nicoll’s collection.
Her breast reference quickly became apparent, since the foundation of Nicoll’s collection for autumn/winter 09/10, was corsetry and suspenders.
This well-constructed range of clothes started life as a trench-coat with a suspender belt-shaped yoke and ended with laced-up, boned, pretty-in-pink corsets, embellished with ribbons and little pink bows, and worn with skin-tight, sugar-pink jeans. The models even wore masks from which dangled little suspenders.
But before you get this impression this was all a girlie-fest based on the boudoir, consider the materials employed in the making: cashmere, felt, see-through vinyl and PVC, metallic leathers: There was a message of strength here as well.
The trench appeared in transparent form, with taped seams, which looked to be in the manner of Scuba gear. But which were, in fact, “a domestication” of outdoor, weatherproof tailoring and intended to point the way to a migration into the more softer area of lingerie.
Although the trench idea was truncated into little epauletted-yokes, or military-look jackets in gold leather, corsetry, in the sense of defining and delineating the body, was never very far away, translated as stretch bodies, pencil skirts and suspender belt-shaped camisoles.
Linder’s extravagant prints were unveiled in a finale of floating, silk gowns, split to the thigh, with suspender-inspired camisoles, paraded to Morrissey’s vocals on The Smiths “This Charming Man”.
(telegraph)
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20 February 2009
Hilary Alexander reviews Central Saint Martins fashion show at 2009 London Fashion Week
London Fashion Week, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, opened today with an intriguing glimpse into what the next quarter century might hold.
The vision was provided this evening by 18 graduates of the MA course at Central Saint Martins, the London fashion college which has in the past produced a battalion of world-class designers, all of whom have made their catwalk debuts at London Fashion Week, including John Galliano, Hussein Chalayan, Alexander McQueen, Matthew Williamson, Stella McCartney and Gareth Pugh.
The overriding theme of the CSM 2009 collections was a return to bold, cartoon colour, and strong shoulders, emphasised with exaggerated pads and oversized silhouettes.
The designs were created from a variety of fabrics and materials including customised “lollipop” sticks, metal tubing, chain-mail, rubber, stretch-leather and rope.
Professor Louise Wilson, OBE, the outspoken course director for MA fashion at CSM, said she believed the strong-shouldered silhouette was the students’ reaction against what she termed: ”the dreadful bohemian drivel and mish-mash of clothes that has prevailed in mainstream fashion.”
"They’re designing clothes that call for attitude. They’re not clothes that you just throw on.”
Many of the designs on show, she said, “are better than those established designers produce.”
Amongst the MA graduate collections were the winning designs for the new Puma Motorsports Bursary in conjunction with Ducati which carries a top prize of £8,000. This is the third year in succession that the Puma competition has been run.
The LFW opening day produced a surprise when Harold Tillman, chairman of the organising body, the British Fashion Council, announced that the event would move from its current site in the grounds of the Natural History Museum in West Kensington, to a new venue at historic Somerset House, in The Strand, from next season.
Lord Hunt, Minister for both DEFRA and Sustainable Development and Energy, also launched a new Sustainable Clothing Action Plan, in conjunction with Estethica, the eco-friendly and Fair Trade exhibition at LFW which has grown from 13 firms to 37 in three years.
Designers showing on the opening day included Paul Costelloe, Caroline Charles, Noir and Ashish.
London Fashion Week continues tomorrow with shows by major brands including Margaret Howell, John Rocha and Vivienne Westwood.
On Sunday, one of the week’s highlight’s will be the catwalk debut for the label, Twenty8Twelve, which is designed by the actress Sienna Miller and her sister, Savannah, a graduate of central Saint Martins.
London Fashion Week is the flagship for the country’s 8.5 billion clothing and textiles industry. It generates 50 million pounds (sterling) worth of orders each season.
(telegraph)
20 February 2009
Hilary Alexander reviews Eun Jeong's autumn/winter 09/10 collection at 2009 London Fashion Week...
London Fashion Week witnessed the launch of a worthy red carpet designer this afternoon in the shape of Eun Jeong, the winner of the 2008 Fashion Fringe prize.
Korean-born Jeong showed a range of beautifully draped, one-shoulder, bandeau and beaded, single-strap gowns in filmy flesh-pink and black silk chiffon, skillfully and elaborately embellished with embroidery, lace, appliqués and crystals – specifically targeted at bust and hip, the better to enhance the delicate drapery.
Donatella Versace, who chaired last year’s Fashion Fringe event, said at the time:”Her technique and inspiration are unique and she is someone to watch in the future.”
She was absolutely right.
Jeong has an intuitive understanding of fabric and appreciates the way to drape and fold so that it flatters the feminine form with allure and sophistication.
Little Black Dresses, in silk crepe and georgette, were almost magically draped and swathed to one side, and tethered with a dense patchwork of hand-embroidery on one hip or shoulder.
Elsewhere, the embroidery techniques were used on the insides of large hoods on tailored coats and jackets in strawberry pink. Another coat, in a pale taupe, was expertly cut, and featured trailing bands of ribbon and lace on each shoulder.
An alternative to the dresses and gowns were harem-trousers in silk and georgette, which cascaded from a wide basque and were softly pleated to fall in folds around the leg.
Jeong, attended Kent Institute and then Central Saint Martins, where she obtained her MA, has recently returned to Kent where she is working as a part-time tutor, to provide funds to develop her label.
(telegraph)
20 February 2009
Hilary Alexander reviews Caroline Charles latest autumn/winter 09/10 collection at 2009 London Fashion Week...
Caroline Charles evoked England’s “green and pleasant land” in her autumn/winter 09/10 collection on the opening day of London Fashion Week today.
Her “harvest festival”-inspired designs starred contemporary land-girls, in autumnal tweeds, leopard-print fake furs and tan leather jackets, with brown cord and cotton jeans tucked into textured cowboy boots and distressed leather riding boots.
The models carried wicker baskets filled with dried flowers and grasses and had autumn leaves pinned into their artfully-arranged hair.
Orange and beige floral and paisley smocks, together with tweed-check suiting, lent a more town and country air to the collection.
For evening, Charles showed her signature jackets, richly-beaded in Rajasthani-style, and embroidered dresses with a hint of the ‘cheongsam’. Her “lady in red” turned out to be the bride, in scarlet lace and veil, with satin shoes and roses to match.
The only false note in an otherwise classic and elegant collection was the gratuitous flash of black fishnet stockings and suspenders under otherwise unremarkable paisley and floral shirts.
(telegraph)
