LFW 'ONES TO WATCH'

Posted by Fashion Junior at Large

The Ones To Watch show held by the Vauxhall fashion Scout supports and nurtures young talent, and helps get them ready for the official schedule. Designers who have passed through to success include
Dean Quinn, Hermione de Paula and Eudon Choi. I headed down to check out the possible next big things and to chat to them backstage...

CHARLOTTE TAYLOR

 

The cute playful shapes of Charlotte's first ever catwalk show were complimented by the muted primary colour scheme and 'vintage robot' print motif, which she says was inspired by a robot pencil sharpener she bought for her boyfriend! Strips of applique velvet and denim were a recurring theme, as were the industrial T necklaces with large eyelet holes, based on the sails of boats in her Isle of Wight hometown. As a designer she is unconcerned with trends and prefers to design simply with a 'young, sporty, girl' in mind.

 

  Charlotte Taylor walks with her final designs

GEORGIA HARDINGE

Or should I say, 'Queen of the Ruffles'. Georgia's angelic, raw-edged, ruffle creations were inspired by Jean Cocteau, La Belle et La Bete, and French Baroque craftmanship. Others featured collaged photo prints based on sculptural stone forms, and there were some statement caged pieces reminiscent of bustles. The ultra feminine collection is very wearable and it doesn't suprise me that she is meeting with Harrods later this week (as well as working with Charlotte Stockdale to create four bespoke pieces for Victoria's Secret!)

 

 Georgia Hardinge amd her models

LILEE

Lilee's work was extremely elegant, a pure white collection with touches of deepest navy blue. Many of the pieces were hand-pleated, and all featured her signature clean lines. She is obsessed with 'luxurious, high energy, energetic women' who play ladylike sports and walk their dogs while wearing immaculately pressed clothes. I had spotted an interesting print on two items from the collection, which upon closer inspection, turned out to be Lilee's geometric interpretation of a dog! Very sweet indeed - it's no wonder ASOS have snapped her up for a collaboration based on her MA collection, available from October.

 

Lilee showing off her handiwork backstage!

 Photos: Fashion Junior at Large

SWAROVSKI LFW PREVIEW: FFS, its HENRY HOLLAND!!

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

Henry

Henry is a busy man. Fresh from a trip to New York last weekend where he hosted a Fashion's Night Out party with ASOS.com (for whom he designed a special maxi dress) and Teen Vogue, he bounded into his studio to meet with us having just been at the gym. "I saw Erdem and I often see Richard Nicoll, now all we need is Chris and Tammy Kane to make it a fashion happening," he quipped before skipping off to spruce his famous quiff back into place with some Elnett. 

He seems weirdly calm, I tell him, for a man with a catwalk show in four days. "I am weirdly calm. We're organised. There's ten people working here, at this stage we're taking delivery of something new every day from our various suppliers. It's like Christmas every day," he says and as if to prove his point his gorgeous production manager Anna signs for a large box and flourishes it in our direction. It turns out to be T-shirts in various cuts (cropped tops, Y back vests, trad T-shirts) featuring the banana print shown below in various colours. The cerulean blue is my favourite.

Then he tells me and the fashion junior about his latest two discount cards; we all love a discount card in the fashion biz. Henry Holland has a Woolworths.co.uk pick n mix card, (oh lawdy how I would love one of those) "the sweets come within three hours!!" he marvelled while chugging down a cola bottle. He is also the proud recipient of a Nandos card. Nandos feed him and five interns once a week or so. Here's a thing: Nandos is every fashionistas secret favourite fast food restaurant.

                                                 Banana leaf print Henry has developed for his SS11 HOH collection

SS11 INSPIRATION

"It started with the 70s, Studio 54, and the (1980) film Xanadu, and progressively got more and more Joan Collins and Joan Rivers. It's glitzy...but I hate the word glitzy...sophisticated is better The collection is bright, fun and young with it, but not as young as before. We're getting a bit more grown up; there's a bit of Jackie O in there. The main print is the banana leaf, which we have Swarovski'd. The banana leaf print is part inspired by the wallpaper of the restaurant Indochine in New York and part inspired by the episode of Friends when Monica is in the Bahamas and has to get her hair braided because of humidity."

He then shows me some great bustier dresses hung with fringing - take it from me, London designers are TOTALLY OBSESSED with fringing this season - and says "I'm getting my hairdresser to do some looks with the fringing." We approve.

The House of Holland studio on Charlotte Road

As you can see from the board below, Henry's shapes are cute and girlie and verging on terribly chic, but the fun in them makes them young and cool. There is copious use of gold chainmail - another Xanadu connection - and a lot of Swarovski encrusted stars, as well as darling dresses and jackets.  "I have definitely used up my Swarovski allowance this season," he says. 

The look-boards for the SS11 collection. Love how their "girl" is a mini Anna Wintour

FASHION SHOW GOSSIP?

"I'm working with BlackBerry again. Look," he says whipping out his new BlackBerry Torch, "I've got a BlackBerry Torch." Henry is such a show off.  While I seethe with jealousy (sort of) he reveals the fruits of his latest collaboration with them. "I've created a BlackBerry Torch cover that has an ear on the back of it, so when the phone is to your ear, you've got an ear on show!! We've made a hole in the ear for an earring, and we have made small versions of the House of Holland earrings for SS11 which are a Swarovski stud leading to a chain hung with a giant fluffy hoop. Next year we are hoping to create a rubber ear that is 3D." He has also collaborated for the first time with Charlotte Olympia, and the shoes look divine. To see his novelty ear thing for BlackBerry go to his sponsored blog, or rather look at this hilar photo of Sienna Miller from the blog....  

...and this one - with a better view of the ear/earring - modelled by accessories designer Katie Hillier

Now on with the show, which takes place tomorrow at 4.15pm.

IT WAS A TRIUMPH! NO IT WAS A SENSATION!

Posted by Fashion Junior at Large

27 models, representing 27 finalists, line up to be judged by Rankin, Matthew Williamson and Helena Christensen at the Triumph Inspiration Awards

The night before Fashion Week starts is always awash with parties. Last night Lily Allen launched her shop Lucy in Disguise at 10 King Street, Covent Garden and Fashion Editor at Large had nothing but good to say about it. Kate Moss also had a party to celebrate the launch of KM3D-1, a 3D film of Kate by Baillie Walsh. Selfridges launched their Shoe Galleries in spectacular style and Fendi had a private dinner with the east London gallery Fumi. However, my choice was to attend the grand finale of the Triumph Inspiration Award at the Old Sorting Office on New Oxford Street.

MW and HC posing up a storm

Now in it's third year, the Triumph Inspiration Award is an international competition with a top prize of  E15,000, and the winning design is produced and sold in Triumph stores across the world. Everyone was fizzing with excitement (and not just because there were beautiful lingerie models to ogle, though Rankin did look particularly happy) over the amazing young designers. The competition brief was 'Shape Sensation' and the objective? Well to create some of the world's most innovative lingerie pieces, of course! It was judged by, among other Matthew Williamson and Helena Christensen (above).

Obviously, this model is backstage

The fashion crowd took their seats for the high octane catwalk show, where each finalist had interpreted 'Shape Sensation' in their own unique way. We saw everything from carved wood, to wire hoops, to exploding balloons filled with rainbow coloured dust! The innovation was incredible, and it was intriguing to see how each person had taken a totally different approach to the design brief. The entire spectrum of styles were covered, including extreme, exaggerated femininity with embellished flowers, to sleek, sculptural designs including a body suit made of jointed, polished wood.

My favourites (as modelled by Helena Christensen, and shot by Rankin):

Ayumi Kawase (Japan) 'A Brassiere Imaging a Forest'

 Justin Singh (Canada) 'Sands of Time'

 Peet Dullart (Netherlands) 'Sensimotion'

 The judging panel included Rankin, Matthew Williamson and Helena Christensen, who all watched intently before disappearing off, Masterchef-style, to make their final decision.

The talented winners were:

1st - Nikolay Bojilov (Bulgaria) 'Morphology'

2nd - Amaya Carcamo (Spain) 'Wood Sensation'

3rd - Lodovico Loffreda (Italy)

All three looked overwhelmed as they picked up their trophies from Adam Garcia and Helena, none more so than the winner Nikolay Bojilov who did a victory walk with his winning design and the supermodel herself.

 The winners pick up their prizes!

A victory walk for the worthy winner

It was a super glamorous evening, with a few celeb faces in amongst the crowd (we spotted Donna Air, Alexandra Burke and the face of Triumph, Louise Redknapp). But the focus was firmly on the incredible designs - some of these young students clearly have a lot to offer the world of lingerie. I look forward to seeing what Nicolay does next.

The personal blog of Fashion Junior at Large can be found here

For more about Triumph http://www.triumph-inspiration-award.com/

SWAROVSKI LFW PREVIEW: DOMINIC JONES

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

Me and Dominic Jones

I was lucky enough to be the first journalist on a high circulation magazine to cover the talent that is Dominic Jones. I'll never forget meeting him at Dover Street Market on the night Stephen Jones launched his perfume in collaboration with Comme des Gardons. Dominic told me his plan for a jewellery collection that "has the look of fine jewellery, but is in fact gold-plated to a deeper degree than usual gold plating, thus giving it a more luxurious look."

He said he wanted his peers to be able to afford high-end jewellery. It was a blindingly good idea from the start and with Dominic's charm, talent for sculpture, eye for what cool kids want from their jewellery, and backing from his close friend Alice Dellal he was always going to do alright. And he has. We are now two years down the line, and selling through Net-a-Porter means he can relax on  the cash-flow front and get on with working.

Dominic's incredibly strong SS11 collection

SS11 INSPIRATIONS

"My last two collections were quite literal. The first was inspired by fangs, then the second was based on skulls and beetles. This time I developed the collection from two sculptures I created in miniature. I played with their proportions to recreate different parts of them as jewellery. At the NEWGEN area at LFW I will be displaying two meter high versions of the sculptures made from jesmonite and polystyrene."

"My reference points were the sculpture of Barbara Hepworth, Art Deco and the rest came from me. I love working and through the process the shapes came out. Making is what I love doing most.  I used Swarovskis even though they don't officially sponsor me. Though there is talk of me working on the Atelier range, which would be very exciting as working with crystals is second nature. This is my most instinctive collection, and I am so proud of it."

SWAROVSKI LFW PREVIEW: MARK FAST

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

Mark Fast (above) is to show his first solo catwalk show at London Fashion Week this coming Monday. Previously he showed back-to-back with Mary Katrantzou. Fast, who specialises in highly worked, super-tight knitwear dresses became notorious a year ago at London Fashion Week when he poured "plus size" models (i.e size 12-14) into his dresses and had a disagreement with his stylist who felt the models he chose were not the gold standard in their category. The pair mutually decided to end their working arrangement, but that was not the end of it. The press got hold of the story and the outcome was a media furore which Fast milked for all it was worth, thus fast-tracking his brand name from zero recognition to sought-after in a matter of days.  So here we are at his veeery east London studio, in an old Evangelist church hall, and he is prepping up to 35 looks.

MARK FAST SS11 INSPIRATION

"Its getting busy in here," says Mark gesturing to his three main assistants and five interns. "They've been in here everyday for a month working the machines," he says pointing at the ancient looking knitting machines that dot the studio, (they go for a fortune on eBay apparently) before leading us to the back wall and his mood board, above.

"I've been feeling a darkness in the air all summer, what with the oil slick and volcano.." he says and nods at the board. "Its a feeling of wetness and danger than I'm trying to translate into the clothes. But this collection is actually less dark than usual; it has injections of colour and then fades to white. The idea is to mix the danger of an alligator with the fragility of the butterfly. The Swarovski people even found me a stud crystal that has the look of reptilian scales when it is applied densely." To untutored ear, the previous quote may look like it belongs in Pseuds Corner (Private Eye) but when you see what he is doing with his collection of webby knits it makes a kind of sense. He shows me a go-go dress in Barbie pink hung with fringing and the arms heavy with Swarovskis densely positioned like scales. The workmanship and inspiration may be intense, but the the result, as always, is an amazing party dress. 

The young design graduate above has been working on this fringed cape for days.

These Louboutin platforms are beyond fabulous. Bring on the 70s glamous trend!

A close up view of the reptilian Swarovski studs

Photos by Fashion Editor at Large

Assisted by Fashion Junior at Large



SWAROVSKI LFW PREVIEW: J.W. ANDERSON

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

Fashion week previews are a privilege afforded to very few fashion journalists. However, it is something I have been doing unofficially for years. It helps me understand the season if I understand where the designer is coming from, and the designers themselves like a sounding board who offers both constructive criticism and positive encouragement as well as downright admiration.
This season for the SS11 shows in London Swarovski wanted to know if I would like to blog about the young designers they work with, and since I was doing some of them anyway, I agreed.
Tonight I start the previews by sharing my visit to see J.W Anderson at his studio/apartment. J.W shows his womenswear on Saturday at 5pm, and his mens next Wednesday.

Jonathan with his hunk of Swarovski off-cut that he used to make his LFW film look psychedelic

"I'm not here to change fashion - I just want to give it a narrative."

I first met Jonathan W Anderson (above) a few years ago when he was still doing jewellery and was fresh out of a relationship from Rufus Wainwright, for whom he designed stage costumes. Back them he was finding his path as a menswear designer. Now he has a growing menswear business, a new womens label,  and has recently signed two successful straight from the runway sales deals with Liberty for his womens clothes and Oki-Ni for his mens.

He is unlike any designer I have met in many ways - number one among them is that he completely embraces digital culture and social media. His blog gets 1500 hits a day from people around the world, (when I was there he was answering an email from a fan in Chile). I've just been watching on his blog the nattily edited film from yesterday showing how to bleach Liberty Print, set to Miles Davis.  

In addition Jonathan is trained in drama, and this, combined with having an English teacher for a mother means he name-drops Joyce and Dostoevsky more readily that Prada and Comme.

This is Jonathan's mood board of William Gedney images from the photographers Nantucket series

S/S 11 INSPIRATIONS:
"My new collection is about a girl and a boy running away from a privileged upbringing to take a road-trip across America, experimenting with LSD (which I have never tried, but would have liked to!). Unsung photographer William Gedney's images of a Nantucket family have also been a huge inspiration. Gedney was photographing during the 50's and 70's, and was taught by Diane Arbus but his work is not widely known. Both collections have been based on a smorgasbord of youth culture, as seen in Karlheinz Weinberger's book of photographs of German teenagers recreating American teen stereotypes, and Patrick Frey's collection of Swiss punk and new wave images in the book Hot Love (both below). The colours of the collection were inspired by 70's sugar crystal trees and the way light refracts and diffuses through crystals. I asked them for off-cuts and asked for the giant lumps of crystal from which they carve crystals...they thought it was an eccentric request, but we used this lump (the one he is holding above)to make our video look trippy. We also asked them for crystal leftovers, and so got a lot of random bits and bobs which we upcycled."

   Page view of Karlheinz Weinberger: Photos 1954-1995

JWA PHILOSOPHY:
"There is always a storytelling element to my collections. As well as that, the fact that we design for a London audience means we have to consider two extremes: the work has to be avant garde and exciting, but also a viable prospect for buyers. We like to keep our buyers informed during every step of the design process.

I don't want to keep my work private, I want to let people in - and it seems that people want to know more about us. Canon have sponsored us and the amazing cameras they have given us mean we can make videos of the creative process (how to bleach out Liberty print fabrics, how to add the Swarovski crystals to our shoe designs and the casting videos). We have also created a fashion film as our womenswear presentation, which was shot by shining light through giant crystal off cuts into a dark room filled with powder, which achieved the magical LSD effect."

"The film we've dome for LFW was shot by Sherif Hamzar, Steven Klein's old assistant. Robbie Spencer styled it."

"I wanted to revive the lost art of doilie making, so I've sent my team out to find old ones. They take days to make. I'm using them to create T-shirts." (below)

"This dress is inspired by my friend Yasmin Sewell."

"A bra top from the womens range covered with the leftover Swarovski crystals"

  "I found this kid on the street in Copenhagen, his name is Ben and he will be opening my menswear show on Wednesday."

"My team"

From Karlheinz Weinberger book

All photos: Fashion Editor at Large

BEING A DICKHEAD IS COOL?

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

This guy has a blog called Kate Loves Me

The hipsters (but don't call them that) of east London are all up in arms/finding hilarious/burning with shameful recognition (delete as appropriate) at the video at the bottom of this post (yet another one) parodying their social habits and belief-system. It is hilarious.

Oh and if you thought the term hipster (don't call them that!!!) was something that went out with 1970s, think again. If you don't know what a hipster is, read the short "send-up" below of what they stand for (taken from the Hipster Handbook), and know that every cool kid you know who wears nerdy glasses and a funny moustache secretly, or sort of secretly identifies as one. For the record, if I were 24 again I would probably be part of this social group who have become extremely influential during the recession. In fact, I would be so bold as to say that the talented among this generation are this decades next creative, fashion and maybe even intelligentsia A-list.

The hipster kids are also top of the inspiration agenda for the most fashiony and forward of fashion designers. Tom Ford's eyewear campaign owes everything to Hipsters.  Marc Jacobs might have given up the look for himself when he went into rehab, but his brand DNA follows the Hipster Fashion Cycle, below, exactly.

Definition of a Hipster
Hipster - one who possesses tastes, social attitudes and opinions that are deemed cool by the cool. The Hipster walks among the masses in daily life but is not part of them, and shuns or reduces to kitsch anything that is held dear by the mainstream.

T

Now watch this funny video, taking the total piss out of them. On Friday when I first saw it only 300,000 people had seen it, now the figure is approaching 1.4 million. Proving to me that this hipster phenomenon, is a lot bigger than the hipsters (shaddap calling them that) themselves realise.





IMAGES: West of Wabsania and Prince Pelayo of Kate Loves Me