Friday, August 23, 2013

THE WEEK IN FASHION: AUGUST 19th-23rd

Posted by Bethan Holt, Junior Fashion Editor at Large

Almost time for a three-day weekend, perhaps summer's last hurrah. Before we all escape to beaches/ carnivals/ pubs etc. let's get up to speed on this week's fashion happenings.

Anna Wintour's first Instagram portrait 
Anna Wintour made her Instagram debut with a pretty clever #voguestagram campaign initiator photo by Taylor Jewell. The famous shades and shoulder-draped Chanel jacket were perfectly in place as Wintour peeked over the top of the 900-page September issue, fronted by Jennifer Lawrence. Cue a flurry of imitators including Oscar de la Renta, Jenna Lyons and Caroline Sieber.

In many ways, Wintour's #voguestagram moment is a sign that clever digital ideas are being embraced at the highest levels of publishing. In fact, the past few months have been a landmark time for digital being taken seriously. Eva Chen, who recently took over as editor of Lucky magazine, has been hailed as the first digital native to edit a major title. She spoke to Business of Fashion about her vision for Lucky this week which is a really interesting read.  Also this week, Hearst (in the US) laid off the online editors at Elle.com and Cosmo.com before immediately announcing the appointment of Leah Chernikoff (formerly at Fashionista.com) and Amy Odell (formerly at The Cut and Buzzfeed) respectively in their place, just in time for fashion month. It's a brutal tale of the way publishing companies are seeing the value of digitally at home editors in an ever more competitive environment.

Eva Chen's Instagram is basically a blue print for a successful fashion social media account 

Opinion has been divided about Marks and Spencer's flashy new ad campaign. On the one hand, how could you not love a set of pictures which feature such a stellar selection of women? The likes of Helen Mirren, Tracey Emin, Jasmine Whitbread and Katie Piper were all wooed to take part in Annie Leibovitz's "fantasy dinner party"portraits which M&S says represent a new "Womanist" era for the retailer. But, would Grace Coddington or Karen Elson really ever wear M&S? Does the M&S customer really feel an affiliation with Emin, or does she just want a nice cashmere jumper? Mary Beard observed the lack of grey haired ladies in the ad, surely a key demographic for M&S?


Don't quite see why jan moir says I "moaned" about no grey in M&S ad. I sharply observed in a single tweet. No room for moaning!

Women in new M&S ad are a great & feisty bunch. But unless I have mistaken H Mirren's blonde, don't spot a whiff of grey. Women go grey M&S!

The new AW13 collection, overseen by Belinda Earl, has received a pretty positive response. Plus, as has been pointed out many times before, many of the department store's problems are to do with distribution, sizing and store layouts. Problems which no amount of glossy womanist campaigns will solve.


The M&S AW13 line-up of fabulous women (via thesundaytimes.co.uk)
In other news this week...

After a shortlived tenure at ASOS, Kate Bostock is heading to Coast. Our advice? More of these ultra-chic, little bit Dior type outfits PLEASE.


Gisele Bundchen is the world's highest paid supermodel for the seventh year in a row. Lucky Gisele.

Lindsay Lohan has launched her own fashion website which seems to include a mix of straight fashion news stories, posts related to Lohan's eclectic (ahem) style evolution and her musings on stuff she likes to do e.g spinning at Soul Cycle.

Cher is planning a mega farewell retirement tour and has enlisted her old friend Bob Mackie to make a sequintastic array of costumes. Speaking to WWD, Mackie declared that It’s not like dressing a regular person — it’s like dressing a crazy goddess”. Bring on the glitz!

Cher with Bob Mackie (via whatgoesaroundnyc.com)

TO DO...

Tomorrow (Saturday 24th) Hush House Super Market is coming to the Bussey Building in Peckham. There will be great workshops on topics including "Starting a creative business" plus stores from young creatives doing all manner of exciting things from tailoring to screen printing and jewellery printing. Sure to be inspiring. 

NEWGEN protégés Marques'Almeida are opening a pop-up shop next week in The Hackney Shop, a great initiative which gives retail space to young designers. Head over from Wednesday 28th to Sunday 1st to get your hands on the duo's signature, sure to be collectible, frayed denim. 


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