So far...

So it's been a fairly bumpy ride so far, but I've loved it. I've loved finding new designers that I really admire. It's half made me want to go shopping and half made me reassess my wardrobe and pull out things I wouldn't normally wear, or haven't worn in ages!

It'll take me a while to trawl through the rest of vogue.co.uk but watch this space...

xx

Alexander McQueen Revisited

To try and determine whether or not this journey of blog posts worked, I decided to take a look at the first designer that I chose to look at – Alexander McQueen. As his work was the most controversial, I thought the best way was to revisit his work and look at it with a fresh mind. Also, his last collection had been unveiled after the post I first made and I love some of the pieces from that collection.

His last collection was fantastic, and I’m not just saying that because he’s now dead. It’s beautiful, intricate, outlandish and very regal. I love the gold stitching and the different shapes. I love the full-length gowns. I think it’s such a shame it’s a half collection, it would have been incredible to see as a full-blown show. He would have had praise indeed for this collection I believe. And I really want one of the dresses.

Looking again at his S/S 2010 Collection I love the harsh print combined with the femininity of the fabric and the cut. It’s so flouncy yet tough. It’s princess meets warrior. Girl meets Alien. I love the shapes, the cut of the dresses showing off every curve of the female form. I love how intricate it all is, just like his last collection. There isn’t one thing I don’t like, and even the hair doesn’t bother me this time…

His A/W 2009 Collection is the same. I love it. I love the Cruella Deville aspect, the femininity of the shapes yet again, and the make up only adds a bit of humour to my day. She’s like a woman who doesn’t care where she’s going; she always wants her lipstick on, and plenty of it.

Looking back to S/S 2009 I didn’t mention this collection before but the prints are again, similar to S/S 10, and I adore it all. My favourite is the strapless silk dress with a brown leather corset. It’s so cute, manly and feminine at the same time. Gorgeous for showing off a woman’s figure. I also love the shoes. I love what Alexander McQueen does with his accessories. He takes something very unusual and makes his clothes that little bit more exciting. The see through plastic shoes moulded to the shape of the model’s foot is great. It’s like a very fancy pop sock. And I don’t know why I like it but I do. Plus Alexander McQueen came out at the end of the S/S 09 show dressed as a rabbit – pure genius.

I’m so pleased this journey has worked, because going back over one designer that I started out with I can see the collection from a fashion writer’s point of view and what the story behind the fashion is.

Sorry I didn’t really appreciate you till now, Rest In Peace x

Commes Des Garçons - Like the Boys, Like the Fashion

The inspiration for looking at this last designer was because of a post made by my tutor regarding my first blog entry. It said that she expects me in head-to-toe Commes Des Garçons by the end of this. Well, we’re almost to the end and I can say, not my favourite of them all, but I like what Rei Kawakubo’s done. The A/W 10 Show was full to bursting (literally) with fabrics taken one step too far and made lumpy. Some showed off the beauty of the female curves, but I enjoyed the crazy nature of the clothes going down the runway. My favourite thing about Commes Des Garçons is that it’s not what it seems at first. The puffed out silver knee-length shorts are actually made from a very soft fabric. Dolly Jones says in her catwalk report for Vogue how wonderful it is that you can never work out what the fabric is at first. You think it’s one thing, and then it turns out to be something new and something different.

The A/W 09 show has some great tailored options. The coats are so far from the norm it’s brilliant. There are all shapes and sizes and cuts and each defies the laws of a natural coat. This is what Rei Kawakubo does; she takes something, puts a new spin on it and gets everyone thinking. It’s very fresh, real and like nothing that anyone else can come up with.

Perhaps the thing I love most about the Commes Des Garçons shows I’ve seen is the candyfloss hair from S/S 09. It’s very Marie Antoinette gone a little crazy but I love it. It really offsets from the black mannish tailoring. Although the hair is quite what you’d call feminine, it adds something crazy to the singular black colour. My other favourite, which you might smack your foreheads for, is, the pink chiffon used in A/W 08. It’s amazing. I love the red too, don’t worry! The romance and lace theme used throughout and the cut out lips and hearts is done not so girly that I’d want to buy it right now, but more like rebel romance. My eye is still drawn to a bit of a pink dress, but at least it’s a Commes Des Garçons one!

So you won’t necessarily find me head to toe in Commes Des Garçons, maybe just waist to knee, or hip to shoulder. I think I’ll always be too much of a girly girl to get away with (or choose to wear) mannish tailoring, I like showing off my curves, but I’m certainly going to be taking a peep at what Rei Kawakubo comes up with in the future.

Vivienne Westwood for Queen

I’ve always been a massive fan of Vivienne Westwood jewellery, and my university friends even bought me a gorgeous orb necklace in red and silver for my 21^st birthday. I love the logo, it’s cute and it looks great around my neck… But it got me thinking as to why I haven’t moved into her clothing collections.

My guess is that all I would be able to afford would be the jewellery at the moment, and to not torture myself with what I’d then want but wouldn’t be able to get.

So I set out on having a look at her collections. I like what I see. I like the Britishness surrounding everything. I love her recent collection. It’s very Suffragette meets French Man, meets the cast of Oliver and My Fair Lady. I probably love it because it’s a new twist on a classic and I am a big fan of earlier than vintage dresses. Anything from when ladies wore gowns everyday is a huge hit in my book and I love the intricacy of women’s clothing.

I love the layers and layers of clothes, now used as a style statement, but previously used for the practical purpose of keeping warm. One of my favourites of the collection is the pink and purple 20’s dress, with slouched stockings, long black velvet gloves with fans for the fingers, a 20’s hairstyle and manly face make-up. It reminds me of a scene pulled straight out of Chicago the Musical, with Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly; particularly when (in the film) Catherine Zeta-Jones bends down to pick up her papers, to show her ripped stocking to Renée Zellweger.

It also reminds me of Miss Hannigan from Annie, with her baggy stockings. I’ve got to say, I don’t quite understand the manly make-up and why exactly it fits in. Maybe it’s to offset any femininity in the clothing. Maybe it’s just for comedy value. I don’t dislike it, it adds a little something, but I just can’t quite pinpoint what.

It’s a mismatch, a hotch potch of colours, fabrics, and prints, and at the end, all the models behind Vivienne Westwood are like an army of regular people, just showing off their wares.

I love it

And I didn’t once think, “I’d never wear that…”

Proud?

The Super Sassy New Me

The first I’d heard of Sass and Bide was an episode of The Hills (or the City, I can’t quite remember) where Whitney tells the designers that she would wear the

leather pants they had brought along to the PR Company. Scared that they may

show a little too much, Whitney assured them that they were fine and they went down the runway and all was happy in the world of Sass and Bide, Whitney Port and Kelly Cutrone.

I don’t think I would have worn those leather pants, just because I don’t think they’d look that great on a girl with a bum my size (never fear, I don’t want compliments right now, I love my bum). If I was Whitney Port’s size and frame then hell yeah I would. I think I’d wear quite a lot of stuff my bum and boobs couldn’t quite get away with.

Which is why I decided to take a peep at Sass and Bide with my new found appreciation for good clothing. Yet again, my go-to site www.vogue.co.uk doesn’t disappoint, and I am so impressed with the A/W 10 Collection. It’s so feminine, sexy and futuristic.

I love the trousers, they look so well made, and perfect for the feminine figure. Sass and Bide (Sarah-Jane Clarke and Heidi Middleton) are clearly two designers who create clothes they’d love to wear themselves.

The S/S 10 and A/W 10 Collections are completely wearable (maybe bar the incredible maxi dress from A/W 2010 with a rope top which slightly exposes the nipples). I love that you can wear it anywhere. It all looks so beautiful, so on trend, so fashionable, yet you could wear it any time, any where. A wedding, a work meeting, a casual lunch, a trip to Sainsbury’s (although you may not want to waste your hard earned pennies on a trip to buy some milk and eggs).

It’s all beautiful, classic, yet very very fashionable. Sass and Bide – possibly my new favourite designers, I’m actually contemplating a trip to Selfridges to try some of it on….

I.Y.F - I'm Your Fan

After having a quick peep at Henry Holland’s House of Holland S/S 2010 RTW Collection I have challenged myself to look at the clothes themselves rather than form my own opinion on how something could (or couldn’t) be worn. Well done me, I say. This blog journey is doing me some good! So when I checked out his new line on www.vogue.co.uk I looked for the things I found endearing to me (kind of like that feeling you have to muster to find the good in someone). That sounds quite harsh, but for someone who has trained herself to think, “wouldn’t wear it, therefore don’t like it” I’m proud. I’m sure Henry Holland is a lovely chap, and I went into his collection with the prefix that it would be all t-shirts with slightly rude slogans about his famous friends. Well, there were a few t-shirts, but not so glaringly rude.

What I do love about this collection (in my focus on the lovely bits rather than my preconceptions aiding my decision) was that there are some fantastic prints, and most of all, I LOVE the colours. I love the cheeky, summery, sugary pastel turquoise implemented in some of the clothes. The lilacs and the pinks, all mixed with the blank canvas of white and black. It gives it a real ‘pop’.

My particular favourite is the House of Holland band bodycon skirt. Made up of “Do Not Cross” style tape. It’s a quick little advert that can only be seen for those admiring the skirt for what it is – very cute. It’s only up close that you see the writing and the famous name. I also love the suspenders made out of the same material. I can’t quite explain why I love those suspenders so much. Maybe it’s the mix of the cute lilac with the sexiness of a stocking and suspender. Maybe I just have a penchant for naughty lingerie… (I’m just kidding!).

Actually, I love everything about her look. She’s very eighties, which of course, I wouldn’t know much about having only spent the first one and a half years of my life in the eighties. I love her hairpiece; very cleaner chic meets Sarah Jessica Parker. I love the t-shirt, although I’m not all too sure what I.Y.F means (In Your Face? I’m Your Friend? Or something much ruder…) It’s slight bagginess mixed with the bodycon skirt really shows off her figure. And as for the booties, I love them. Any skyscraper heel in some form of shoe-boot is a massive hit on my list. That’s one thing I do adore and have no problem appreciating: shoes. (Although let’s not talk about the recent clog trend, that’s one I get, but don’t really fancy investing in).

Anyway, back to Mr Holland and his House. I love his creative mind, I love his inspirational era and how it’s implemented in each model, and to be honest, I want a pair of those tights. What I’d wear them with I just don’t know, I’ll have to go and reconvene with you later after a rummage through my wardrobe…

Alexander the Great

As I’m getting into this whole fashion malarkey, my next designer is a breeze to love. Looking at the clothes on the Vogue website, the images are small and I think to myself, well, it looks a bit strange from far away. But a nice little zoom in from a once inch sized picture to a good view, and I’m in love. As each of the models makes her way down the catwalk, I really see the story. Whether Alexander Wang meant it to be this way or not, this is my interpretation.

I loved the little Gangsters and Molls theme; I could see flashbacks to the twenties, the speakeasy era, and my fond love of the film Bugsy Malone. Everything in the outfit had been moved down a notch and it was very, very clever.

The first model comes out in a simple suit, with each of the clothes getting progressively lower or higher. The waistcoats are dropped to around the hips, and the trousers are dropped so they start at the thigh. Take the current trend for thigh-high boots and socks and turn the bottom of those into trousers and you have Alexander Wang’s A/W 2010 Collection. The trousers start mid-thigh, bootlegging out to the foot almost like a dancers leg warmer with a bit extra at the ends. As everything moves downwards, the waist becomes exposed. I also love the tails of one of the model’s jackets, starting from the hips rather than the usual place.

Her braces are also on the outside, with her jacket tucked into the waistcoat. It’s all very back-to-front, mismatched and too damn clever.

The exciting thing for me about this collection is that I almost definitely wouldn’t wear any this kind of outfit, but I still love it, I appreciate it and I would maybe even go as far to say that I’d take one aspect of it and use it in my own clothing. For example the dropped waistcoat, it’s so clever and looks amazing. I probably can’t convey the excitement that I’m having, for loving a collection and not really thinking outright “I don’t like this, I wouldn’t wear this”. I am thinking it’s clever, and then I think, “well maybe I wouldn’t wear this, but I would wear this”. It’s taken my thought process from amateur to lover of a collection for what it is.

Just to revert back to my old self for a second, I would like to let you know that a few things I would wear from this collection and that I absolutely love is all of the knitwear. My overall favourite is the cable knit grey wraparound crossover jumper. It looks very warm, very cosy, and very stylish. I suppose that’s the practical side in me, always wanting to be stylish and cosy! But back to the job in hand…

I’m so happy that I’ve got a designer that I love and appreciate rather than dismissing his/her work as too out-there. Alexander Wang, I thank you very much!

Cream of the Crop

I had to trawl through a fair few fashion show reports on www.vogue.co.uk before I found something from 3.1 Phillip Lim that I liked. Strange, I thought, but nothing stood out. That’s because it’s all plain.

Which made me twig: I am plain. I wear plain clothes, I hardly ever mix prints, and I love a good pair of jeans with a simple block colour tank top and a nice plain cardigan. Yet for some reason, Phillip Lim’s simple clothing was boring me. Why? This is the kind of stuff I wear. Yes, his clothes look incredibly made, and yes the models wear them elegantly, don’t get me wrong I’m not likening them to a tank top, but it got me to thinking as to why I didn’t get excited about them initially.

I am perfectly happy to buy plain clothes and I get excited about them in Topshop, but why weren’t they exciting me on the runway? If I saw them in Selfridges, I’d probably be swooning. I have been looking at everything else on the catwalk, as, I wouldn’t wear that, so why do I do the same with this?

Maybe it’s because a lot of it is cream. This sounds very daft, but I have only recently been able to buy myself creams and pastel and nude colours, as I just didn’t think they suited me before. I tend to suit bright colours, a bright pink (my favourite – don’t judge me), a bright yellow, or a bright blue. Now I am trying to shy away from those and buy the softer colours, the softer greys, the softer whites, the softer yellows (I would add pink to this list, but I suppose I’ve always bought the softer and the harsher versions of pink clothing…)

He does have some standout pieces, a nice pink ruffle shirt under a beige fur coat for A/W 2009 teamed with a pair of camel trousers, lace socks and gold strapped heels. That, I probably wouldn’t wear all together. But some of the other pieces, the ivory silk jumpsuit from the NY S/S 09 Collection, or the cream ruffle skirt, I would wear (if they suited my figure). So, after a bit of scouring, I can appreciate 3.1 Phillip Lim, I just didn’t know it to begin with!

New Found Love of PPQ

The first I knew of PPQ were some incredible fake eyelashes I spied in a fair few magazines and online a month or two ago. Fantastic Shu Uemura (one of my great loves) eyelashes, they are plain black with a black and white zigzag print on the top. When I saw them, I didn’t think how ridiculous they might look on my little eyes, how ridiculous the print was, or how I wouldn’t really be able to wear them in everyday life, but how amazing they were, how much I wanted them, and where exactly I could get them.

This got me thinking about why I won’t do the same with designers, and so, I set out on my first real mission to find out about a designer. I chose PPQ seen as though I loved their lashes so much. I had heard of them but discarded them as an out-there entity along with the other million and one designers who didn’t have a French name and come with pearls adorned on everything.

The website told me I was right initially. A light and dark blue diamond pattern and a crazy looking cat for a homepage. Where was the swirly writing, the black and cream, the simple beautiful clothing? Then I clicked on Collections and there it was that I fell in love. I mostly adored the S/S collections, their colours cheering up my dreary day. But as I took a closer and closer look, I began to really appreciate the stories behind the runways. The simple changes from one dress to another. The similar colours, there was effectively something for everyone (as long as you wanted it in red or black for A/W 08…).

I am all for a great dress and PPQ has got some beautiful pieces. My most favourite was one of the S/S 2010 dress. Don’t tell me off but I love a good dress, especially from Lipsy. I know the dresses suit my shape and I’m not about to insult the designers of PPQ but one dress in their collection is similar to that Lipsy style (who copied off who I just don’t know…!) and I definitely want one.

I’m presuming the prices just won’t happen on my little student budget… Instead I’ll just have to settle for my own little piece of PPQ in the form of some killer eyelashes….

(£25 at Selfridges by the way…)