Simply Classic

As autumn is looming - yes, I’ve tired of all things summer already: candyfloss-colours and whimsical vestments. I’m ready to take on fashion’s sturdier counterparts and embrace autumnal cover-ups. I’m ready to ensconce myself amongst layers, wool and fur in all guises. Bring on the blustery British weather because I'm all for snug-as-a-bug chic (think Missoni A/W 2009).


Missoni A/W 2009

The perfect partner for structure and layering is a leg lengthening trouser and this season you cannot deny the appeal of, what Vogue has declared, "Terrific trousers". Strides are on strict form and they are the perfect fruits of the new restrained trend that has been unearthed by the genius that is Pheobe Philo.

Philo's S/S 2010 collection instigated a seismic shift in fashion. A love for frivolity was upstaged by a procession of basic pieces made from super-luxe fabrics. Crisp white shirts, high-waisted trews and the indespensible tee had been radically transformed into ultra modern seperates that are so very now. What women really want is a huge choice of stylish basics and Philo certainly delivered and satisfied. A sober approach to dressing is, right now, the most coveted and Philo has made this look her own. After her second collection she has already changed the face of fashion. If you want a taste of the trend that will soon besiege our stores then look to Celine who has spawned more of the same simplistic style for A/W 2010.


Celine S/S 2010


Celine S/S 2010


I, for one, am delighted that conservative is cool. My shopping pursuits have always been occupied by a hunt for smart basics. Other designers are also in on the act: Stella McCartney, Emilio Pucci and Chloe were just a few who have embraced one element of the new pared-down image that is the statement trouser.

Leg lengthening, cut to precision and made from the most sumptuous fabrics - these seperates are worth investing in. Demonstrate their full potential by wearing them high on your waist with a skinny belt. Ensure that your pair is puncuated with a killer crease that descends from your navel and hovers the floor. Not only are these trousers flattering but they can accompany any top worn tucked in or out and are the perfect dose of effortless style.


Emilio Pucci A/W 2010


Chloe A/W 2010

"Spot The Blog"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6u5kCfI6SY

We cannot escape the power of the ubiquitous blog so they might as well have written a song about them.

Copy and paste the link above and join in...(it's even better played loud)

"see it, want it, gotta have it hot blogs tell me where to get it..."


Release Date: 23rd August



Susie Bubble, our blogging voice of authority is mentioned in the song

Model Crush: Freja Beha Erichsen

I often wonder what it means when you catch sight of the same damn thing. For me it’s a word, the same pair of shoes in magazines and it’s like when you buy a new car – they vroom past your view almost consecutively.

Whilst interning at British Vogue I met the insanely cool and down to earth Danish model Freja Beha Erichsen. Since our encounter, she’s been the one fashion figure who persists in catching my eye. I’ve watched Freja’s lithe frame sweep through the glossies like a tide and stalk the catwalks of only the leading names in fashion.

Now she’s gone and decorated the cover of August 2010’s Vogue with her bewitching good looks. Dressed in a delectable peach hued wool dress by Miu Miu and exhibiting a deliciously dishevelled hair-do – Freja has been depicted as a real feminine feast for the eyes. She exudes that fascinating femininity where a girly innocence collides with her boyish idiosyncrasy.

The pinnacle of my arduous interning days has to be the experience of assisting on a Vogue photo-shoot. I was fortunate enough to assist Fashion Director, Kate Phelan on a shoot where Freja and her model-chum Lily Donaldson created one of my favourite editorials in Vogue history. It was for the August 2008 issue and cover. When I eventually received my copy I was in awe.

I spent a whole day witnessing the technical expertise that went in to this shoot. The photographer, set designers, hair stylists, the make-up artists, the manicurists and the master styling skills of Kate all amalgamated along with Freja and Lily’s model prowess to create images that captivated and inspired. All of the Alexander Mcqueen, Alberta Ferratti, Balenciaga dresses, YSL, Prada and Gucci shoes etc etc were unrecognisable from their just-out-of-a-box state. I suddenly realised why I loved Vogue and their incomparable translation of trends so much.

Anyway in between camera flashes and set manoeuvres I found myself, the overzealous intern, engrossed in conversation with Freja and mesmerised by how laid back she was. Personally, I was overwhelmed by the whole experience. I’d acquired my own chauffeur for the day to ferry me to and from the studio, I was immersed in a sea of designer shoes and garments that, no doubt, amounted to more than what I would earn in my life time and I had drinks, CHOCOLATE, and first class food on tap.

Freja was, obviously, used to what I wasn’t! and seemed so happy to sit and chat with me about me – oh and tatoos. She has ‘Float’ scrawled across her neck amidst numerous other skin engravings. She informed me that she just floats through life – like I hadn’t noticed. I so nonchalantly asked her what she was up to after the shoot had finished, “I have a Louis Vuitton campaign to shoot”, she replied - without an ounce of pretence I must add.

Prints-ess Olivia

OLIVIA RUBIN, MASTER OF THE MINI DRESS


Even if you’re only minutely in touch with the fashion sphere you wouldn’t have failed to notice the proliferation of the Olivia Rubin brand name. I for one have noticed her acute ascendancy to fashion world domination.
Since her graduation from Central saint Martins in 2006 Rubin’s graphic print dresses have weaved their way through fashion’s finest periodicals, gathering enviable plaudits along the way. Vogue proclaimed her the ‘name to watch’. I particularly love Grazia’s adoration for her unique aesthetic. Her success cannot be tamed.
What I love about Rubin’s design concept is that it is so in accordance with the times. Her dresses are a perfect reflection of today’s women. They are true embodiments of the modern woman: feminine, sassy whilst exuding a covetable contemporary edge. Graphic prints and vibrant hues add a hefty does of pizzazz.
It’s no wonder Rubin’s creations have induced a vanguard of followers. Cheryl Cole (surely the pinnacle of her career so far?), Emma Bunton, Ferne Cotton, Diana Vickers and Jameela Jamil are only a few who have fallen under the Olivia Rubin spell. Celebrity endorsements couldn’t come any cooler. They’re only the most celebrated starlets on the box right now! What a CV.
My personal preference would be the ‘Miro’ dress in blue (ok and black also) from the S/S 2010 collection. It's figure sculpting shape and accents of metallic surges are ticking all the right boxes for me.
With collaborations with My-Wardrobe.com, Asos.com and Oli.co.uk under her belt we can only anticipate what her next venture will be. Apparently her career path is strewn with more five star projects for 2010. We’re all eyes (eh hem Styleyes).


MIRO BLACK


MIRO BLUE


EMMA BUNTON EMBRACING THE MIRO ON DANCING ON ICE

Visit WWW.OLIVIARUBINLONDON.COM

The shoes Of Dreams

My sartorial penchants have always oscillated between both clothes and shoes but, right now, clothes are being upstaged by their lower-level accompaniments. The fashion industry has been besieged by foot candy in myriad guises creating a shoe frenzy. I may already tower above the London skyline but nothing deters me from an ultra-high heel.
I have stumbled across a vast amount of fancy footwear – too many to ignore their insanely irresistible and, sometimes, bemusing appeal.
Here, I have cherry-picked my favourite shoe attractions of the moment.


Shoes that prohibit walking...anywhere. Who needs to walk anyway?
BALENCIAGA

RUPERT SANDERSON
Quite simply Vulgar! Remove the ghastly boys beneath and this could make for a divine gladiator sandal

CARVELA Ava strappy sandals
£79

GIUSSEPPE ZANOTTI
WAS £565 NOW £285

TOPSHOP LAUREL patent buckle clogs
£68


TOPSHOP Prima sling clogs
£80


YVES SAINT LAURENT MYTHERESA.COM
£472.23 (average)

London shares in Victoria's Secret

US Retail giant Limited Brands Inc has unveiled news that it will open a Victoria’s Secret flagship store in London in 2012. The 16,500 sq-ft lingerie mecca will be conveniently located amongst a consortium of luxury brands on the corner of New Bond Street and Brook street.

Victoria’s Secret, purveyors of glamorous and coquettish confections, has provided us with some of the world’s most beautiful supermodels. A procession of perfectly honed frames punctuated with voluptuous curves never fails to attract even the most uncurious eye.

Heidi Klum, Naomi Campbell and Giselle Bundchen have remained stellar representatives whilst more recent angels such as Allesandra Ambrosio and Miranda Kerr have seen their names catapulted to household appellations.

Renowned for its evocative campaigns and naughty but nice fashion shows, Victoria’s secret has manifested an inimitable brand that is favoured by underwear aficionados worldwide.

Limited Brands Inc is also parent of six other enticing brands all within the fashion and beauty domain. These include Victoria's Secret Pink, Bath & Body Works, C.O. Bigelow, La Senza, White Barn Candle Co. and Henri Bendel brands.

Further information on the opening will be revealed in August 2010.



Article also on http://stylebible.com:

http://www.stylebible.com/Establishment/Fashion/FashionNews.aspx?newsid=8f7d1b9d-e5d7-488c-9b4f-5c0d3a42d628

www.stylebible.com

So I've now acquired yet another appellation for my CV: contributor to Stylebible.com

I recently met with Amanda Zuydervelt ("like fuzzyfelt but Zooder at the front", she proclaims) editor and founder of the online luxury fashion concierge Stylebible. We met at Century, one of Soho's best kept secrets. A discreet entrance that ascends 100 stairs (get it...century?) to an impressively stylish zone peppered with creative types/media moguls.

Once greeted by a super lovely front-of-house filly, I was led to the fourth floor (apparently Amanda's preferred meeting spot.) I got the impression she was a regular and I imminently got the impression that Amanda was a woman after my own heart.
With a glass of crisp Pinot poised before me, I waited (for forty-five minutes) upon the most beautiful roof garden - basking in the late afternoon sun. For that moment, I was all for the old adage of being fashionable late.

Amanda was lovely. She greeted with a double air-kiss and a sincere lengthy apology for keeping me waiting. Her accelerated and snappy speech indicated that time really wasn't plentiful amongst her hectic schedule. Her days (or more accurately, her life) is compact with numerous PR appointments, meetings, breakfasts, lunches, dinners, writing, admin, invites, parties and shows. This is all in between managing the successful growth of her business venture stylebible.

For now Amanda has enlisted my help in adding clout to the fashion area of the site, particularly the Fashion Boutique. A task that involves a huge amount of internet shopping (bummer!): hunting down the key products from brands such as Louis Vuitton, Dolce and Gabbana, Stella McCartney and not forgetting high-street stalwarts from next to Topshop. I will be hanging them up on the virtual rails of Stylebible for our audience to purchase, making for a stress free shopping trip. I will also contribute to the Fashion News section and any other area that requires a fashionable voice.

My First Article with Stylebible:

http://stylebible.com/Establishment/Fashion/FashionNews.aspx?newsid=b8235ee8-6130-4d5b-b061-bd2851821ee1

Here's to another stylish adventure...(ching, ching)

Thank you Amanda

Burberry Unveil New Collection Online

Burberry has conceived yet another aim to recognise emerging British talent. Today (Saturday, 19th June) at 3pm Milan time the S/S 2011 menswear collection will be streamed live and the show will introduce Burberry Acoustic.
Past ventures have included integrating emerging British models and music artists for advertising campaigns. Now Christopher Bailey has brought fourth the platform for young aspiring bands to perform acoustic sessions to a wide and attentive fashion audience.

"We have collaborated on so many projects with new and young emerging British bands over the years. We felt that with the great interaction that we have experienced with our social media website artofthetrench that we could collaborate with musicians and artists to put together an incredible group of ongoing acoustic sessions from some of the finest talent coming out of the UK and bring them to the broad global Burberry audience" commented Christopher Bailey, Burberry Chief Creative Officer

Introductory pioneers of Burberry Acoustic are London based foursome, Life In Film. The Independent have hailed the band the lustrous recession musicians taking British pop away from disco tunes and towards dusty barroom dancefloors, circa Tamla Motown. There debut song Alleyway is an upbeat melody pertaining to the "dark pop, Kings of Leon style melodies that are downcast, morose flirts with Nick Cave which invoke the feeling of being in the centre of a glitter war.

With Britain being an incubator for a plethora of talent what better way to propel your success than with the most iconic British fashion brand.

Watch the show live online at http://live.burberry.com

Article for Stylebible.com
http://www.stylebible.com/Establishment/Fashion/FashionNews.aspx?newsid=b8235ee8-6130-4d5b-b061-bd2851821ee1

What:

Going Going Gone

One great nicety about internet shopping is that you conveniently manage to avoid the sale shopping melee. I can't even begin to describe the frustration that prevails. Don't get me wrong, I'm not averse to hunting down a bargain. Just don't come within an arms length of me. Don't pretend you like what I am observing just because I have my hands on it first. Back off, step away from my line of fire.

I will gladly retreat from being amongst crowds of discount desperate hawks who stop at nothing to be in possession of, what probably is, a load of crap anyway. Have it. I'm not that desperate! Thanks. Oh and here's a discreet, but much more firmer, shove back and an accidentally-on-purpose knock of my colossal sized 'don't f**k with me' bag back (poking tongue out).

I cannot comprehend the appeal of sale shopping with the masses. It infuriates me enough to contemplate if fashion really is that crucial to my life. It certainly isn't. That is the fast, disposable, tack and tawdry form of fashion. The one that migrates to the back of your wardrobe within a week.

This Tuesday I will be pulling up a seat and surveying the Balmain flash sale, with up to 85% off, on Outnet.com. Now, this I can predict would be a riot if not on the safe haven that is the internet. I am imagining gauged-out eyeballs for the super-structured shoulders and second skin dresses with thigh skimming hemlines. This fiercely elegant look has spread like wild fire throughout the wardrobes of fashion's finest. It's going to be intense and the clock starts ticking at 10am.
If only outnet.com had the Facebook poking device... Balmain is worthy of war.

I like lady-like

Following my introductory blog rant on the fashion clueless women of Aintree, I have since immersed myself in numerous discussions about appropriate race day attire. I for one am a true sucker for lady-like paraphernalia: elegant head decoration, classic, feminine dress shapes and any ensemble that reflects a well-bred womanly decorum. This has remained an appealing element to the recreational event that is horse racing.

I know of two dear ladies, an elderly mother and her daughter, who have visited Royal Ascot on consecutive years since the mother was in her prime. I have listened to beautiful anecdotes of trends and tales from early-day Ascot - which never fail to ignite my penchant for nostalgia.

My enchantment for these stories was never the less thwarted when the mother made a recent saddening revelation. On her last visit to Ascot she admitted to being reluctant to enter the Grandstand. Greeted with this new wave of sartorially uneducated deportees - most too intoxicated to stand - she couldn't believe her eyes.

The refined crowds that this lady has, for years, been acquainted with and has always delighted in witnessing have been depleted and exchanged for brash, crass intoxicated louts.
How awful that these 'women' have tarnished the rich heritage and history that these races have always been famous for. I feel sad for dear mother and daughter.

Thankfully, if you look hard enough there does still remain a glimmer of hope.
My pick of the day is the beautiful Danielle Lineker who proves that she is no style amateur. Transcending a riot of fashion blunders seen at previous race days, Danielle
is all-woman in an elegant Victoria Beckham shift and matching Rachel Trevor-Morgan hat.




Images @ Mailonline

MY LWD (Little White Dress)

Amongst the fraternity of pretence seething, botox-pumped screen dames Cameron Diaz is nothing but a remarkable beacon of ordinariness. She is by no means mediocre but a woman who exudes an effervescence and an approachable demeanour that many of her affiliates, severely, lack. Let us not forget the eye-achingly torte limbs that protrude from her athletic frame. I'm so positively jealous. What the mind can conceive it can achieve...

Which is why I was thrilled to learn that my latest frock flame (currently on a ship to destination moi and courtesy of the same special soul who gave me Grace) is a dead ringer for the Joseph slip Miss Diaz is sporting in July's Vogue. Ok, so mine is a complete knock-off but it is born from the knock-off hub that is ASOS 'As Seen On Screen'.

Oh Mr Porter!

With much appreciation from style concious men, the 19th century English Dandy cultivated the image-conscious male and solidified that fashion wasn't just a females realm. Men too have remained in pursuit of sartorial perfection. Eighty's icons such as David Bowie and Boy George ushered in a love for flamboyancy which defied the status quo and set the wheels of men's fashion in motion.

Designers such as Giorgio Armani, Jean Paul Gautier and Burberry are a mere few who have since fulfilled a man's desire to embrace fashion in all guises.
Then came Becks/Beckham/Goldenballs/Purveyor of all things metro-sexual and a modern man's fashion messiah. His unique style evolution has been a press perennial and proof that men are no longer the dowdy female counterpart.

Which brings me to the exciting revelation that Net-a-Porter, the online luxury fashion retailer, will be launching its first menswear site in Spring/Summer 2011 called Mr Porter. As an avid Net-a-Porter surfer chick, I am ever so slightly glad that men can now be fashionably informed through such an inspirational site. Natalie Messenet, founder of Net-a-Porter.com predicted a flourishing market for an internet shopping site just for men - a service that only women have had the privilege of enjoying. "We are now ready to create a dedicated men’s shopping destination entirely conceived with the stylish man in mind," she reported to the Telegraph. Great news for the menswear industry.

With its engaging visuals and informative product descriptions Net-a-Porter has remained my definitive source for inspiration. It's weekly magazine never fails to thoroughly educate on the latest trends, must-have items and styling know-how. What a refreshing tonic for all decadent dandies wanting some advice on how to rid themselves of their samey style.

I once struggled to recognise the appeal of men's fashion - or lack of it. A mundane trousers/shirt/shoes ensemble could never elicit the same affect as the myriad apparel options available to us women. But then that was many moons ago.


GIORGIO ARMANI FALL 2010

Today I'm happy to see that the men's fashion arena is one hell of a fashion bonanza. Replete with varied silhouettes, shapes and styles all exuding a vast spectrum of shades and patterns from pastels to pinstripes and neons to nautical stripes. Oh and florals in abundance - such modernity, so little machismo. I am thrilled that men have been granted so much variety, although I do have to bite my lip for sniggering at, wait for it - wedges? skirts? gladiator sandals...?

Never expect conventionality in men's attire again. Come on Mr Porter show us what you're made of...


BURBERRY PRORSUM FALL 2010


JEAN PAUL GAUTIER FALL 2010

And it's not even my birthday...

Lo and behold...

Some wonderful soul recognised (or more so tired) of the inescapable desire I held for the aforementioned Grace bag courtesy of Reiss.

Never did I think that a bag would fuel such immense glee. She's so pretty and so quintessentially...me.

Huge thanks for the perma-smile.

Bag It!

GRACE EYELET SHOPPER £210 REISS

My accessory pursuits have almost always been devoid of bijou. My rings have often been insanely cumbersome, my heels employ vertiginous heights and bags just don't attract unless they have the potential to carry a small child (in my case my entire beauty cabinet, a selection of pharmaceutical pills and potions, books, magazines, sunglasses, water, fruit and innumerable receipts - some of which, conveniently, rid me of my over-chewed gum.)
Then, along came a by-product of my favourite (high-end) high street clothing brand that is Reiss. It is a rarity that I am so bowled over and border line infatuated with a bag. This one has truly swept me off my feet and set my heart racing. From the West End to Richmond, Kingston, Guildford and Brighton I have visited Reiss just to be re-united with Grace. She's a beautiful canvas receptacle with a sleek black leather trim and the perfect size gargantuan! She's Worth every penny of £210.
This love will never die...

When youth is a bygone era...

This influx of foot contorting heels - some verging on altitudinous - has me contemplating a Summer of feet friendly flats. There's also an excuse to indulge in my latest love affair...loafers. There, I said it. Love and loafers and I've unabashedly married the two. This also applies to the similar deck shoe and moccasin, which has seen a recent resurgence. I will shun their grown-up appeal, no more. I am a young woman. I am not ashamed.


SEE by CHLOE £185

Pied a Terre £110

Fred Perry £35

Dune £65

Bertie £65