Clements Ribeiro A/W 2012

Clements Ribeiro seem to be very clever when it comes to inserting their signature look into a new collection for a new season. With prints and blocked colours as the label's main chemicals in their Fashion romance, the brand this season have of course, used the same mold but changed it to fit with our current climate.
With a few key prints, that are slightly antiquey and Gypsy, a 1950's style has also been incorporated with tall gloves and waisted belts. As there is a big use of leather, a Dominatrix look also features, showing that this new season is a very POWERFUL and FEMININE one. With Knee length skirts, slim knitwear and Cardigans, a smart more sophicated style has been achieved yet there is still a hint of playfulness and among the Lady Chic-ers.

By Lois Waller
Images Lois Waller

Fam Irvoll A/W 2012

 It was fun and laughter for all at Fam Irvoll's show for A/W 2012. With Sweetie pastels, dip-dyed tips and Children(?), this collection was definitely full of surprises and really had a sense of enjoyment that many designers at LFW lack. With a core print of cartoon Monsters, the collection consisted of Bomber Jackets, dresses(with reoccurring dip-dye) Monster rucksacks and even Underground shoes with the same child like print but for us older kids to enjoy.
If you are one of those Fashionista's that loves to embody the power of fun and playful fashion, this collection is totally for you.
Just make sure your Kid Sister don't steal it from you.

By Lois Waller
Photos Lois Waller

Vauxhall Fashion Scout day 2 A/W 2012

Author - Hannah Young
Photography © Asia Werbel 2012

I decide to kick off the day with a wander around Somerset house. I ask a friendly looking man the directions to a particular exhibition and of course I don’t get the directions, instead I get a peep into another avenue of LFW.  The exhibitions. Part Art installation, part Fashion there are extraordinary things to discover around every corner of Somerset house.  Henry, the friendly looking man, is standing in front of a collection of seven-foot tall “Couture Monsters”. Each Monster has a look unlike any of its other monster friends. Made entirely out of second hand clothing the students at Kingston University have breathed new life into landfill items and the effect is staggering. Looming over Henry are four figures who I certainly wouldn’t want to bump into late at night, or for that matter, early in the morning. One has latex covered guts spilling from its stomach, and a hooded visor, his friend however sports a more jaunty tartan look.  Maybe I could hang out with him. Or not. They stand as reminders of the waste our fast paced lifestyle produces. With each new look we discard an old one. With each new toy or gadget we dispose of the last one. And so it goes…  I remember reading an article where the phrase “throwing something away” was shown to be an anathema.  That it doesn’t exist as a real idea as there is no “away”. There it is. Saying the same thing in seven-foot monster shapes. There is no “away”. Thank you Henry, I was glad I bumped into you this morning. It was the tonic needed. I read the literature he gave me as I make my way to the fashion scout building and found that the contributing artist to this work is a brand called Dr Noki, a sustainable and ethical fashion Brand. I hope Dr Noki and I cross paths again.

Dans La Vie promises us a “new way of popism”. Well they get the soundtrack just right, I so wanted to get up and shake my stuff. The models were all wearing those John Lennon-esque round glasses with blue-mirrored shades, of the type we sported in the 90’s. I got mine from Camden market. The silky material draping the models had a design that I was desperate to get a closer look at. A pastiche of images…flamingos, arrows, Japanese willow pattern, orange and black targets, and if you look really, really closely tiny images of the Mona Lisa framed in locket shaped ovals. The detail reminded me of the mysterious waves and curls and images on bank notes. I am thinking about money. Hitting targets. Dancing after too many rum and cokes. Then Kylie’s hood from the iconic video “Can’t get you out of my Head” arrives on stage. Oh goodness me my need to shake my stuff intensifies. You can’t get anymore “Popism” than referencing the Queen of Pop herself.

The next show, by Alice Lee, is held in the room upstairs. A beautiful cathedral space with Iron gates and chandeliers. I peek at the literature in which Alice includes Dante’s poem “Sudden Light” as inspiration for her collection. This is the perfect setting for something gothic and romantic. The girls in front of me are discussing whether it is possible to tie-dye your hair. I love LFW for these snippets. The conclusion is that yes it would be possible if your hair was long enough and you found a suitable dye in a mousse form. I’ve seen a woman with leopard print hair before so I am in agreement; I reckon they are on to a good thing there. However tie-dye hair won’t be the right styling for Alice’s collection. In fact her models have their hair wrapped over their faces like shrouds. They walk unseeing into the space. Like Phantoms or sleepwalkers in a gothic story. The models look so much more fragile without their eyes, they have to trust that there is space in front of them. The clothes are simple and beautiful. Fragile and wearable. I could drift around in Alice’s knitwear no problem. Knitwear can by sensual and elegant and can contain secrets too. Shining leather woven into the knit adds a bite like a zip, a rope detail clings to the shoulders of the simple LBD which turns it into something else. The ropes become snake-like and images of Medusa come to mind. Then the ropes become golden threads that weave their way richly into the fabric and end up twisted around a wrist as an elegant bangle. Little Dragon has been playing all this time, one of my favorite Artists, mysterious and feminine. The final outfit comes complete with a gimp mask made of red white and black latex roses. The unseeing women in Alice’s world; challenging the viewer to look when they can’t see a thing.

 

We go to a speakeasy in New York with the sisters Spijkers en Spijkers. The soundtrack is a glorious amalgamation of the jangly piano one might hear in Fat Sam’s, a crackly voice-over from a middle-aged New Yorker (who I am guessing was hot stuff in her time) and a story of a young woman in search of Love in the big city.  After every experience she is left feeling empty and sings “is that all there is? Then let’s keep dancing, let’s break out the boots and have a ball!”. With that sound track this has become a full-blown theatrical event, well it’s the only show that contains a black out for goodness sake! So so so the fashion .. I’m getting to it I promise… post war America, silk slip dresses with pretty scalloped edges, in mustard, purple and orange. A showy feather collar. A deep V back. Then 70’s patterning arrives in the form of blouses and jackets in the same colour pallet and then those lovely leather belts made out of circles threaded together on a string, that your Mum wore before you were a twinkle in her eye. Then I think Tallulah came on to the catwalk in a crazy coat and long gloves. It’s as if the Dutch duo want to take us back to an aspirational time. Before we had Internet dating sites and facebook and could stalk people from our past as if it was still today. A time when things turned on a sixpence, you won or you lost. When, even if you lost, you put on your lipstick and got back out there! Oh yes we still do that bit don’t we girls!!!!

The man who dresses Lady Gaga and invites the flamboyant latex queen Pandemonia to the front row of his A/W collection is going to be hot stuff. Bernard Chandran does not disappoint. He surprises. I was expecting high drama but Chandran gave us sophistication with just a touch of humour. The collection was beautiful; simple high necked dresses with a touch of glamour. Be it a spray of beading or a hint of flesh beneath the lace paneling. All in deep blues, blacks, greys and metallic silver. I noticed a sliver of flesh peeking through a gap where the shoulder panel meets the sleeve. A deliberate disconnect; a detail that runs through his collection. Just when we had got used to noticing the subtle changes in tone we are arrested by a crystal covered scarlet collar. A shocking addition to the collection, made more shocking by the context of delicate shapes and colours. Chandran is a designer who loves to surprise!

My final show of the day was Carlotta Actis Barone. I had this circled in red in my planner. This was of great interest to me as Carlotta often bases her collections on significant social issues. The “Couture Monsters” had started me thinking earlier this morning and this collection ended the day on a similar thoughtful note. Her inspiration was the Holocaust; where people were striped of their clothes and of their dignity and their lives.  How can fashion address this deepest violation against humanity? Carlotta starts by simply looking what it means to be clothed. To be warm. To have an identity beyond a naked starved body. Her models shudder on to the catwalk through dry ice. The iconic “model walk” looks like the shuffle of exhausted beaten souls. Their thin frames take on a new meaning. There is a flesh coloured body stocking bearing the slogan “Work Liberates” repeated over and over. This was the slogan painted over the camp gates at Auschwitz “Arbeit macht frei” read by every person who entered. I see silk dresses and coats wrapped over the body stockings in an attempt to remember what it was to have clothes, to go to work, to have an identity. This is what I came away from the collection thinking. How clothes help to define us, to set us apart, and to keep us warm and protect us. They have a practical and social meaning. That’s why we come together to watch and be part of LFW. It is part of being a human being. To say, “I’m here”.

55employees Corrie Nielsen

We took a short trip to a modern medieval Scotland for Corrie Nielsen's A/W 12 collection. With tartan dresses with sashes, netting for heighten display and kilt inspirations, Corrie really has used key details and ideas for A/W. 

I love how the designer still has her signature on her collection but has created and molded it into something new and exciting for us to lust over. Of all the pieces, I think the billowing gown in navy is my favourite item and it really has that WOW factor.


Author and images - Lois Waller - www.bunnipunch.com/

Vauxhall Fashion Scout. A/W 12. Day 1

55employees for 55factory

Author Hannah Young

Images Asia Werbel

So I arrive at Vauxhall Fashion Scout building fresh from my travels in India. My head awash with the bright jewel colours of saris drying on lines in the Himalayas and take my seat. It’s the “ones to watch” show. Anticipation of what might be the next thing to flutter in front of my eyes. Heohwan kicks off the show. A series of black silhouettes. Zips and leather and masculine shapes. A hint of the Batwing. A touch of Blade Runner. And just as my eyes are adjusting to this world of monochrome ORANGE bursts on to the catwalk.  A flash of neon passion amongst the black capes. A superhero under wraps. Then the daintiest Resin shapes cut like droplets from a chandelier split over the black felt. A maverick superhero spilling the elements of her magic over her costume.

OOOOhhh who’s up next? Myrza de Mynck’s name is scribbled over the back wall, in gloriously girlish handwriting. And oh it’s like being 8 again. If looks have a smell then this collection looks like the smell of the rubbers everyone collected in the 80’s. Fruity, plastic, pretty and delicious. There is a joyful execution to her collection, scribbles of illustrated frills on a tracksuit top. The squiggles look like the lines of Sasek the 1950’s French illustrator, or even the naive lines in Paddington Bear’s backgrounds.. The hint of a doorframe, a shop window selling sweets, all hinted at by a single unbroken grey line. It’s both nostalgic and new. I am reminded of buying my pink and white shell suit from Long Marston’s market in ‘88. Oh yeah. Layers of texture and appliqué, ruffles and beading, sheer fabric and crochet. A pair of Leopard print legwarmers and I’m in heaven. Maybe I could wear a Myrza leisure suit to my next non-sporting event?

Anne Sofie Madse’s collection reminds me of the natural world scraping at the windowpane. In case we had forgotten it in a candy dream. A bird arrives in the form of a woman. There is mud flecked at the bottom of her hem and on her cuffs. She walked onto the catwalk like a stray from the alleyway. Then a spider’s web spun over a shoulder and down a back. Anne is the first designer today I’ve seen using intricate designs printed on silk, a theme that is repeated again by later designers in the afternoon. Here it is used as the most delicate flesh beneath an exterior of chunky tusk like accessories. The soft underbelly of the crab. Then a woman walks on dressed as if headed to the office, odd, but look a bit closer and the evidence of the creatures we just saw are there dangling from her hand. Her handbag.. It’s as if man in his infinite wisdom saw it, lusted after it’s wildness then caught one and made it into an accessory. Wildcats hold my wallet. Hey don’t we keep doing this?  A skull ends the show emblazed on silk and a stockinged huntress with chaps made of parts of the skeleton of that very first bird who fluttered on to stage.  

Florence and the Machine is the soundscape for Nora Chiu. An International artist for a truly International collection. She took me back to the Himalayas high altitude and then hop skip into Tibet then to Spain to buy some flamenco dolls with neon pink frills. Oh I went to Mexico too and spent sometime with Frida Kahlo looking at the vibrancy of colour on a bright morning. Not satisfied with that she took me to Japan to study the way in which one should wear a kimono, with fur, of course ;) A Star of David, which you would find embroidered onto a skullcap, is placed at the centre of a wide brimmed hat trimmed with florescent pink fur. Every cultural aesthetic is up for grabs then she messes it up and pastes it together as she wishes. A girl with a scrapbook and a prit stick. Oh and then a psychedelic paper doll swans on stage, straight out of the scrapbook. With a fur hat and a parasol with a purple inside. Of course! This is Nora Chiu’s world. Why not?

So then it’s Phoebe English. Up next. Her first solo show. Part way through it I realise why her name rings a bell. I used to babysit for her and her sister. She would perform plays for us. Amazing. I am suitably distracted by this strange and wonderful coincidence of worlds re-colliding, until the somber shapes and wholeness of her collection set there unrelenting gaze on me and I watch. The Lyric (it sounds like Johnny Cash) “I got this feeling I was Dead and there was nothing wrong” repeats and repeats. There is something of the dead in this. Body bags. The black armbands of the grieving. The way black looks different when in different materials, the parade of the funeral party. But the skirts are short and there is a flash of naked back between elasticated leather and felt tabards. A fishing net skirt drags the mermaid ashore to breathe her last. Plastic layers vibrate as if they contain their own life force. Then we turn inside out and we see it all dipped in a world of pink shades.  The sweetest harmony of pinkness. Why pink? I think it’s the most frivolous and lovely lickable colour. A tongue. A flash of what’s on the inside. I want to go to a prom in Phoebe’s pink. The little girl who I babysat draws the world from the dead to the living.

The one piece on Georgina Hardinge’s collection that I soooooo wanted to play with was the mustard felt safari hat. She put it with a jacket of exactly the same material and pair of knitted shorts. I might go Tiger spotting in colonial India in that garb. I however would not shoot the beast. He would see me first anyhow.  I saw Katharine Hepburn being incredibly excited about this collection, everything was ready to wear for Katharine. Chiffon sleeves and elegant lengths, the French Riviera would look so hot in Georgina Hardinge. Que sere sere what will be will be played the collection in, and Romance played the collection out.  A Romance of Iconic film stars dressed in fluid fabrics and hats with huge brims. Like the way a horizon cuts your view in a clean sweep. 

I left the Vauxhall building sated and well traveled. Without leaving my seat. What more tomorrow???

Did someone mention Ladybirds??

One to watch is recent graduate Sorapol Chawaphatnakul. Born in Thailand in 1988, he moved to London to expand his horizons, and explore his childhood fascination of women’s clothes and make up. Gaining a BA degree in fashion design from London College of Fashion, he recently showed his collection for the first time since graduating, in a truly spectacular setting of St George’s church in Mayfair. Partially inspired by his own childhood, he has created sophisticated, elaborate dresses, fit for a princess, or the red carpet.

The collection entitled True Colours, it is inspired by the story of Coccinelle (meaning ladybird) a dramatic woman who lived a life of luxury in Monaco in the 1940’s, but after a tragic plane crash, woke up as the only survivor in the jungle, surrounded by hundreds of insects..

Each piece is elaborately crafted and hand beaded with contrasting colours and organic shapes, edgy and full of drama; Corsets nestle next to antennae headpieces, which are styled along side webbed face masks, and each piece is more intricate than the last.

Having only been in London a few years, Sorapol has already found a niche in the underground scene by collaborating with London visionary Daniel Lismore, who has supported him with creative direction and millinery.

Other notable collaborations included the footwear by Bryan Oknyansky, show stopping jewellery by Skir Lin and eyewear by Linda Farrow, which all complemented the luxury and couture.

Sorapol’s first collection is full of fun, flamboyance and elegance, and no doubt will continue to push the boundaries next season. I look forward with anticipation.

By Sara Darling

no excuse not to scrub up well in jan...

With more than 30 years in the business, Peter Werth is still a recognizable force in the fashion game. Originally a specialist knitwear label, the brand soon expanded and became synonymous with innovative and quality design in the smart causal market, with the latest addition being the super slick tailoring range.

Footwear and accessories soon followed and 2011 saw the launch of the website www.peterwerth.co.uk which provides and interactive platform to see the campaign and buy from the comfort of your own home.

With London roots, the brand stays faithful to the traditional, but you can now wear PW everyday and choose from the Collection, Element, shoes and tailoring collections, which all retain the original unique, urban handwriting. It is the place to go for technically crafted, quality fashion.

So, to welcome in the new year, and the relaunch of the website, simply login to enter a not-to-be sniffed at competition, with prizes including an entire Peter Werth wardrobe, an iPad2, Murdock Grooming luxury treatment, a 2 night stay in a 4* London hotel and a personal consultation session with a top London stylist.

Running for two months across the site it is worth checking in, to check out the clothes and be in with a chance of winning a total lifestyle experience.. What are you waiting for? www.peterwerth.co.uk

By Sara Darling