Think of a winter wonderland, magical, crystal-like snow, pine trees, bright cold sun…
Now imagine this in a studio with audience behind double-mirrored glass with Natalia Vodianova as model, Hair and make-up artists Sam McKnight and Val Garland, British Vogue’s fashion director Lucinda Chambers as stylist, Nick Knight as photographer and the shoot? For the cover of Vogue if we forgot to tell you. The best part of it all? You can attend!
Natalia Vodianova in haute-couture which will be auctioned off for ‘The Naked Heart Foundation’ a charity which builds and runs playgrounds for disadvantaged children.
Location: Somerset House-Live Studio, SHOWstudio: Fashion Revolution
Dates and Time: 5 & 6 November, 10am-9pm
Entrance Fee: £5.00/£4.00 with student ID (includes entrance to Fashion Revolution exhibition)
Value: Absolutely Priceless
A girl can never never ever have too many shoes, wear an LBD with black flats? borrinnnggg, but slip on some Louis Vuiton Spicy Heels and Tadaaa, Paparazzi? Where are you?: strappy sandals, evening sandals, flats, brogues, ankleboots, shoeboots, knee high boots, thigh high boots, kitten heels, creepers, mary janes, high heels, stilletos, lace-up heels, pointed noses, rounded noses, 8mm, 10mm, 14mm, 20mm! Choo’s, Manolos, Gina’s, Zanottis, leather, sequins, cotton, taffeta, pink, gold, swarovski, black, red, socks, opaques, lace tights, fish nets, scruffy, romantic, dangerous, …OMG shoes! Get mugged in New York at gun point, what do they ask for? Your Manolo’s (Sex and The City) OMG shoes! And what were we wearing to Fashion Week this year? OMG shoes!
This year Lina Osterman, Scandinavian designer, she graduated from Central Saint Martins and has worked with designers including Jens Laugesen, presented her label Pudel during London Fashion Week at BLOW PR Presents…Editor-in-chief Noa Leijdesdorff and Photographer Lev Livnev report. The collection was slick, well cut and layered with special attention to detail, tough and dark with a pallete of back, grey, white, dark blue and purple; “I use very dark colours, I dont like colours that much. It’s very Scandinavian not to use crazy colours, it’s very simple and clean. It’s more about the designs and the garment itself: the cut and the detail, it’s the most important.” the designer said.
The collections was, as most of the designers work, unisex. Modelled by alsmost inseperable men and women wearing sharply cut white blonde or brunette wigs and black gauze masks.
The muted color pallet was kept interesting by juxtaposing minimalist sharp taloiring with layered chiffon, jersey and cotton chunky soft knitwear, playing around with solids and trancparancy, stud details and trailing leads. The clothes were pulled together by the occasional cinched waist, chunky boots, body harnesses and (we lovelovelove this!) draped hand chains.
(photography by Lev Livnev)
The collection had a heavy, empowering, deamon-y feel to it and the live performance by Rodeo Maccacre fitted in perfectly. Overall a pretty strong -signature Lina Osterman- collection with some great wearable, but not extremelly commercial pieces with a great mix of simple cuts, different textures and attention to detail and mixing of soft materials with metal hard ware.
For more on Pudel and Linda Osterman or where to buy see www.pudel.co.uk
This year BLOW PR presented a show at London Fashion Week featuring 5 upcoming designers named appropriately. BLOW Presents…and today Brains + Beauty presents to you one of the featured designers: Iris Van Herpen. This originally Dutch designer only recently graduated from ARTEZ School of Arts in Arnhem (in 2006). After interning at various designers including Alexander McQueen she decided to create her own label. Iris Van Herpen designs pieces which are conceptual, extremely creative and open minded, avant garde, new, beautifully crafted and fierce. Her previous collections were Fragile Futurity, Chemical Crows, Refinery Smoke and Mummification. For more information see irisvanherpen.com.
Her latest collections; Radiation Invation, showed during London Fashion Week @ Blow PR. Our Editor-in-chief; Noa Leijdesdorff and Photographer Lev Livnev attended.
The collection was beautifully crafted and each piece that hit the runway was as outrageous as it was jaw-dropping. With textures varying including plexiglass (a texture we saw a lot at LFW, especially used in accesories) and licorice like draped and sculptured rubber-y leather featured in a new take on the exaggerated shoulder trend we’ve seen for a few seasons now.. The color pallet was muted with black, beige, taupe and shots of metallic and studding. Even though the collection might have appeared extremely avant and alternative garde we believe it can easily be converted in RTW and we’d gladly wear the textured blazers, evening jumpsuits and dresses.
Would you wear a Hawaiian floral shirt on holiday? Most would instantly without a doubt firmly answer: NO! But in Ashish’s latest collection the nightmares of all fashionistas are turned into pieces everyone can’t wait to get their hands on. The standard Hawaiian floral shirt is sprayed with dazzling sequins, fanny packs are turned into pineapples covered with studs and visors were fierce. The “King of Sequins” latest collection was inspired by holidays, clothes were postcard home. As Madonna’s ‘Holiday’ played through the speakers, models strutted down the catwalk straight from Paris with its Mona Lisa and Eiffel Tower. Italy was followed with Africa and Hawaii with its floral prints, then New York with its Statue of Liberty and Miami. The sequins were broken with bleached denim, shoulder pads, paint splatters and studs.
(Photography by Lev Livnev)
The collection also featured a collaboration with sportswear label Nike. The classic Just Do It phrase and Nike logo were put on t-shirts covered in thousands of tiny sequins. There were also amazing sequined football shorts and jackets. Maybe not the most practical wear for on the football pitch, but definitely the most jaw-dropping. With the Ashish + Nike football gear skills are unnecessary…just use your outfit to the distract your opponents!
Brains + Beauty got a chance to ask the ever so amazingly nice Ashish Gupta -also known as The King of Sequins- some Questions, here are some of the Answers:
“Every time I open a show I’m absolutely terrified, and it gets worse every season. There’s less room for mistakes each time”
“All the clothes are handmade in India, it is impossible to get this type of sequin patterns with a machine” We think it must take hours…as all Ashish’s sequined garments are dazzled with 1000’s of tiny sequins.
“I don’t really have a favorite piece…mmm…this is a hard one. Well I loved everything…maybe the Mona Lisa, Eiffel tower dresses?” For a designer to love each and every single piece in a collection we think is fabulous. It shows that they haven’t just ‘filled up gaps’ with random fillers but carefully constructed every piece that gets to hit the runway”
“Oo showing in Paris and Milan? But I love London Fashion Week, it has a really nice energy and it very youthful, there’s lots of freedom. There’s really a mix of different people.”
“Sometimes people are scared to wear my designs”
We lovelovelove Ashish and even though “The King of Sequins” has no idea what he’ll do for his A/W collection…we do. Razzle Dazzle us!
This year marked London Fashion Weeks 25th anniversary and with everyone from Alexa Chung, Pixie Geldof, Naomi Campbell and VV Brown to Anna Wintour attending we couldn’t stay behind! Over the next few days we will take you with our Editor-in-chief Noa Leijdesdorff and Photographer Lev Livnev to London Fashion Week at Somerset House and report on various shows including Bora Aksu, Ashish and PPQ.
For this A/W 09′ fashion is undressed but sophisticated. In Milan, Paris, New York and London mannequins were dressed in sheer, lace, plastics, latex, bunny ears, thigh high boots, exposed bras, sky scraping heels, pink, netting, leather, studs, skin tight and barely there hems. We loved the look at Louis Vuitton “Bunny ears, I like the kind of Playboy, French coquette aspect to it.” (Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton), Jean Paul Gaultier, Hussein Chalayan, Miu Miu, Preen, Balmain and Chanel.
Working this catwalk look into your daily school and weekend attire is easy, for subtile hints replace your standard opaques with a fishnet or lace tights, inject splashes of baby pink into your wardrobe (as seen at Chanel), replace your legging + ankle boot for a thigh high boot, wear a no-cup strapless black lace bra underneath an exposing top or dress as seen at Balenciaga, wear fishnet socks with ankle boots, tie a pink ribbon in your standard up-do, incorporate some lacing into a simple top or pencil skirt, sew pieces of black netting onto holes in clothes or wear an oversized dark fur coat over your standard LBD + opaque + Mary Jane combination. To avoid just looking plain sleazy and not sophisticated at all avoid bring colors, cheap fabrics or going over the top, this trend is all about subtile hints.
Tomorrow at 10:00am UK time, NET-A-PORTER.com’s cheap sister TheOutnet.com is poping up a clearance pop-up sale featuring clothes, shoes and accessories by designers including Marc Jacobs, Chloe, Miu Miu, Stella McCartney, Matthew Williamson, Roksanda Illincic and many more. All items will be under £300 pounds with as much as 85% off. And what’s more…the clothes featured are from the last A/W collections a.k.a. just 2 seasons old. With small stocks and little time (until midnight Sunday) get ready to awake the inner mean girl and “cyberfight” for your pieces, what’s more…once the sale ends these pieces will forever disappear and never be for sale again.
Our favorite pieces include a Chloe blouse from A/W 08-09′ from £621 for £186.45 (as seen above) (with coordenating skirt), a Marc Jacobs clutch from £969 to £290.68 and a Stella McCartney knitted sweater dress from £685 for £205.53 (as seen above). To create a TheOutnet.com account click here.
Ready…Set…Go! And don’t forget to send us a picture of your buys or wish-list items at brainsbeauty@live.co.uk or drop us a comment.
Did Markus Lupfer read our last post We Love: Markus Lupfer A/W 10′ and suddenly decide to crack a 2 week project and create 5 gorgeous light weight sweaters covered in dazzling sequins with quirky and fun prints…we think yes. The designer that combines luxurious materials (fine wools, sequins, chiffon…) and interesting new silhouettes, and mixes this up with comfortable yet fresh an young spin has just launched a second collection with high street chain Topshop.
The collection is an extended version to the previous one for Topshop only this time in lightweight coton, the sweaters in black and marl grey all have invidiviual sequined prints that are retro, kitsch and fun while the choice of material and stunning “sprayed on” sequins make the pieces absolutely chic and luxurious.
The combinations are endless as the lightweight cotton makes it possible to wear the sweaters as a dress or tunic paired with denim cut offs, structured short a la Chloe etc. in warm weather and layered over leggings, skinnies or 7/8 clouchy boyfriend jeans when temperatures drop. Pair the sweaters with leather ankle boots (we currently lovelovelove these High-heeled ankle boots by Tabitha Simmons via NET-A-PORTER.com), leather jacket or masculine inspired shoe (Lace-up platforms by Lanvin via NET-A-PORTER.com) for a rebel look or with embellished sandals and pearl hippiebands for a more romantic look.
A designer that has really been growing on us (and on stars such as Madonna, Gwen Stefani and Jade Jagger – fans of the label) is German Markus Lupfer, since he launched his own label in 1998 he has internationally become known for his ‘use of print, experimentationwith colors, exceptional knitwear and the intricate use of leather’. We love him for his mix of materials such as leather, sequins and fine wool to produce pieces which are not just super quirky and rebellious, but also extremely luxurious, feminine and irresistible. Marcus updates fine wool knit sweaters with splashes of sequins, word print, bows and ruffles to turn simple into stunning. His latest autumn winter collection features black, white and grey with pop ups of color (including those red Luella a/w 09′ like tights) and sequins. We love the silhouettes created by soft layering, strong shoulders, extreme harem pants that are actually extremely wearable by balancing out with a bare ankle and heels and carrot pants that start out baggy and end tight at the ankle which are surprisingly flattering and leg lengthening. An extremely strong collection of which all pieces can be dressed down or up to work for day and night. For example pair the Flower Skull Sweater (£205 via NET-a-PORTER.com) with grey spray on skinnies, patent ballet flats and an oversized tote for day. Or with these Black Rats Leggings by Sass and Bide (£93 via NET-A-PORTER.com) or these Nylon Tricot Micro-Mesh Two-Sided Leggings (£37 via American Apparel) a clutch bag and chunky black heels for night.
Next to Markus Lupfer, the main line, the designer has also collaborated with Keep reading →
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