HOUSE OF HACKNEY X ASOS: GRUNGE JUST GOT REFRESHED

Posted by Bethan Holt, Junior Fashion Editor at Large

By this point in the fashion season, trends can start to feel a little tired. Everything which seemed so cosy, fresh and inviting back in September feels "done" by now but let's not kid ourselves that any of the SS14 stock which will land in the coming weeks is really going to be wearable for a while yet- unless we get a freak February heatwave. Nope, what is really required at this time of year is a new wave of inspiration to get us through the last dregs of Winter.

ASOS and House of Hackney have come to the rescue with a gorgeous new collab which suddenly makes grunge- one of the biggest Autumn catwalk moods to transfer across the retail spectrum- feel exciting again. All tartan-ed out? House of Hackney's giant tasseled scarf might make you think again. Or perhaps it's the new take on dungarees- cropped, printed and in velvet- which will pep up your fashion outlook for the dark, cold months ahead. I also love the silky checked slip dress which will do just as well for NYE as for Glasto.

Frieda Gormley, the House of Hackney founder whom I had the pleasure of interviewing last year, says that it's the girls of Dalston they're surrounded by every day who really inspired them, so much so in fact that they've called the collection "Dalston Tart". Cheeky. If you're a Dalston tart yourself, or perhaps find yourself over that way one day then be sure to pop into the House of Hackney shop on Shoreditch High Street where the brand's maximal, witty, Victorian dandy vision comes to life beautifully.

Happy AW13, take 2.

ALL THE SMALL THINGS

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

This time of year can start to make one feel really quite weighed down. First of all, there's the eating- even before Christmas day itself, there seem to be interminable cupcakes and tins of Quality Street and Miniature Heroes knocking about, not to mention the carb fest that is "party food". Then there's all the shopping, present upon present to buy, rolls of wrapping paper and festive cards. The loading up which began several weeks ago is now beginning to feel like an enormous weight which it would be rather nice to fly away from, cast off all the possessions and unnecessary stodge and just lighten up.

Mini Miu Miu heels worn by Elle China's Leaf Greener, photographed by Tommy Ton (jakandjil.com)

If we cannot grow wings then the next best thing might be downsizing which, rather luckily, is right in line with where fashion is going. Gone are the mega Towie heels of yesteryear, replaced with a stocky, ladylike block heel which the Queen would be proud of. As opposed to the giant, Mary Poppins bags of mere seasons ago, it now seems so much fresher to be carting around little more than a teeny cross-body bag just big enough for a phone, a card and a lipstick. After all, how often do you actually use the entire contents of your make-up bag which we usually insist on hauling around "just in case". I think it's a state of mind more than anything else, cutting the ties and losing the fear. Our backs will thank us.

A very small bag, photographed by Tommy Ton (jakandjil.com)

The ultimate lightweight inspiration comes courtesy of Louis Vuitton who have recruited three street style stars- Mira Duma, Hanneli Mustaparta and Elin Kling- to prance the streets of Paris, hands free with just their sweet and small cross-body bags to carry their worldly goods. The message is that life is just  trillion times more fun without baggage which is quite a statement for a brand whose core offer is enormous trunks and sizeable handbags. 2013 is set to be the year when fashion is kind to us- we can wear heels which aren't absurd and bags which don't break our backs. To celebrate, here are some late additions for your Christmas list... small but perfectly formed.

Jimmy Choo rebel bag £550 at My Theresa

Marc by Marc Jacobs spot bag £350 at My Theresa

ASOS chunky gold heels £40

J Crew Janey silver gold chunk pumps £243.75

Topshop snake bag £28

Zara jewelled ballerinas £59.99

Miu Miu crystal small heels £460

STYLING IT UP: WHITE SHIRTS

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

Peter Lindberh's supermodels in white shirts (image from thefashionbloggers.blogspot.com)

Pretty much every "grown-up" lady I know has a perfect white shirt. It's a staple element of the wardrobe of most modern women. Until now, the white shirt has either been buttoned up with a suit for business meetings or worn loose and mannish as in Peter Lindbergh's supermodels portrait above. However of late, it's started to inch into actual fashion territory too.  By that I mean that it's been used as key styling tool on the catwalks and, most importantly, is Alexa Chung's new favourite thing to wear to big events.

Alexa in Christopher Kane at the Scottish Fashion Awards

In our day-to-day work, the FashEd and I are constantly hearing about how consumers are trying to save their pennies and are reluctant to invest in whole new looks. This makes the white shirt's new lease of life even more exciting for those of you out there who want to look of the moment with out breaking the bank. Step forward our new formula-

1. Take a blingy party dress from your wardrobe.
2. Wear with white shirt.

Ta da! Ok, so it's pretty simple but the basic principle is that you can revive old skirts and dresses just by wearing them a new and now way, namely by priming them up with a crisp shirt rather than baring flesh or using a cardigan  to cover up. Take it a step further by adding gems to the cuff or a ribbon round the collar. It is imperative that the shirt is taken far, far away from corporate connotations to achieve the right level of nowness- Kristen Stewart wore a Stella white shirt get-up recently which would have been rather fab had it not been for the overly staid jacket that got plonked on top.

Kristen Stewart in Stella (image from mydaily.co.uk)

Alexa in Marc Jacobs plus shirt at the Met Gala (image from mydaily.co.uk)

It wasn't actually Alexa who started this trend- though she's it earliest real life adopter. On the AW12 catwalks, there were white shirts sprinkled into many of the major shows. Giles' show notes even thanked Gap for the provision of white shirts throughout. Roksanda Ilincic kept the shirt within its menswear roots but added fur and sporty cuffs. Simone Rocha put huge knitted panels on hers while Stella's were embroidered in cobalt blue rococo patterns. 

Giles AW12 (image from catwalking.com)

Roksanda Ilincic AW12 (image from catwalking.com)

Here are our favourite white shirt picks, just keep it well away from a suit jacket, unless you work in a law firm...

ASOS £25

Reiss £79

Topshop £32

JUBILEE FASHION FUN

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

The Queen at her coronation by Cecil Beaton (image from the V&A)

If by any chance you hadn't noticed, this weekend Britain will be in party mood to celebrate the Queen's sixty years on the throne. The streets are already bedecked with union jack flags and shops crammed with cupcake cases and celebratory tablecloths. We're loving the ways our fashion friends are getting in on the action with limited edition t-shirts and special exhibitions. So today we thought we'd bring you news of our three favourite royal related projects to get you even more excited about the weekend's festivities...

ASOS DIY CROWNS

Feeling a bit jealous about the major lack of precious jewels and tiaras in your possession?  ASOS are coming to the rescue with some very fun crowns designed by House of Holland, Preen, Julie Verhoeven and Danielle Scutt. The perfect headgear for street parties, fetes or river pageant watching over the Jubilee weekend. And ASOS want us all to get involved. You can download your preferred style here and then email the most imaginative portrait of yourself possible to irule@asos.com or tweet it with the hashtag #irule. ASOS will show the world the best pictures they get. Eat your heart out, your Majesty...

Me (looking a little sun drowsy) in my Preen crown

HARRODS DO JUBILEE BIG TIME

If anyone was going to go Jubilee mad, it had to be Harrods didn't it?  There's hardly a department left untouched by the occasion. True to form, everything has been done in a very tasteful yet properly patriotic way. The store kicked off their festivities by gathering the entire staff- thousands of them- to sing the national anthem and wave flags as they were showered in confetti as the store opened one morning back in the middle of May.



As well as the constant national anthem playing which will dominate this weekend, Harrods have a very special ball gowns display which is running in conjunction with the V&A's Ballgowns: British Glamour Since 1950 exhibition. A huge window is taken up with the gowns by designers including Erdem, Alessandra Rich and Valentino- all very stunning. Looking into the display conjures visions of debutante balls and state banquets.

In similarly regal fashion, Harrods have also commissioned a collection of 32 crowns from a huge variety of brands such as Jo Malone, Prada and Faberge- definitely one for every taste. The crowns and ball gowns are available to buy in very limited quantities I hear. Should you be interested, Harrods' personal shopping people are the ones to contact.

Lanvin's jubilee crown

And Valentino's... This is almost nicer than the Imperial crown itself, dare I say it. 

The fashion projects have linked up with the patisserie where William Curley has made special 'couture cakes' to complement gowns from the V&A's exhibition. They look far too good to eat, don't they?

And if you were wondering about the party bit of the occasion, then Harrods asked their Pinterest followers to make pin boards depicting the perfect Jubilee tea party. The winner, Fay Martin, now has her own window bringing the pin board she compiled to life... I think what I'm trying to say is that if you're not feeling the Jubilee happy vibes then you need to get yourself to Harrods pronto.

THE QUEEN'S JEWELS

The Sovereign's sceptre and the Imperial Stae Crown which have the largest cuts from the Cullinan diamond (image from dailymail.co.uk)

If you thought it couldn't get much grander than ball gowns and designers crowns then you obviously haven't heard about the mega diamond display which Buckingham Palace is putting on this Summer. I love that any jubilee comedowns can be cured come 30th June when a lots of the Queen's personal collection of jewels will go on show. One of the highlights is set to be seven pieces all cut from the same diamond- the Cullinan. It's the biggest ever found and was so huge that at first it was cast aside as nobody believed it could possibly be a real gem- we're talking major rock age here people. There are 9 pieces in the world made from the the Cullinan and the 7 on show will mean the biggest reunion to date. I still can't get Elizabeth Taylor's collection out of my mind but I have a funny feeling the palace's diamond exhibition could become my next obsession.

The Queen wearing the Imperial State crown early in her reign (image from dailymail.co.uk)

THE WEEK IN FASHION: MARCH 26th-30th

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

It's been a beautiful, sunny week here in London. Before we hop off for hopefully more of the same (perhaps optimistically), here's our round-up of what's been happening in the world of fashion.

Stefano Pilati is mostly going on holiday in the near future, he said earlier this week (image from www.silverliningopticians.com)

A month after his swift departure from YSL, Stefano Pilati has spoken out about his future plans and career to date. He appeared at La Musee de la Mode et du Textile this week as part of their "Fashion Talks" series. Pilati spoke about his 'dramatic, tragical' start at YSL under Tom Ford. The end of Pilati's tenure was announced just days before the AW12 show. As had earlier been predicted, Hedi Slimane has come back to YSL as his replacement. With no apparent job lined up, it would be understandable if Pilati were reticent about discussing the future, but he had this to say: “I am really happy, which is something very unusual for me in a sense that I never believed that it could have been possible to feel happy, at least under these kinds of circumstances". 

Jospeh Altuzarra has collaborated on  collection with J.Crew- cannot wait (image from www.forbes.com)

I could barely contain my excitement earlier this week when I spied on Twitter that CFDA/ Vogue Fashion Fund winner Jospeh Altuzarra had collaborated with J.Crew. It seemed like one of those fashion rumours which maybe a little too good to be true. But then I went to the press day of Altuzarra's UK PR who confirmed that it was indeed true. Altuzarra apparently said "So we worked on collaboration which I think will be coming out in a few weeks". Now I just need to find a way to magic myself to the US or pray hard that the pieces will be available to ship to the UK. 

A look from Altuzarra AW12 which was inspired by Italian comic Corto Maltese

Claudia Schiffer's Guess ads in the late 80s are some of the most iconic from the time. They sum up the look of the moment pretty accurately. To celebrate the Guess's 30th anniversary, Schiffer has returned to become the face of the brand, recreating the images with a slightly rockier vibe. The campaign has been shot by one of Guess's original ad photographers Elle von Unwerth. Schiffer models looks from the capsule collection which has been produced to celebrate the milestone. Somehow, Claudia hasn't changed too much at all in the 23 years since the original ads.

Claudia Schiffer in a Guess ad from 1989 (image from www.fashionologie.com)

And 23 years later, celebrating 30 years of Guess jeans (www.fashionologie.com)

Another of the 80s SUPERmodels is back on our radar this week. Christy Turlington is on the cover of Tatler's May issue and wears an excellent straw boater and painted on moustache, working a kind of 30s riviera photographer look. We love.

Christy on the Tatler cover (image from www.dailymail.co.uk)

What with her constant work outs and healthy eating regimes, Gwyneth Paltrow is probably one of the last people you might think of to take up the role of Dora Maar- the woman Pablo Picasso famously painted in a particularly unflattering, if abstract, way...

Dora Maar by Pablo Picasso, 1939 (from www.coloradomagazine.blogspot.com)

However, it was announced this week that Gwyneth will be playing Dora in  a new film about one of Picasso's most famous paintings Guernica. And when you see how Dora looked in real life, the Gwyneth choice makes more sense.

The real Dora Maar (image from www.croatia.org)

Rihanna was the subject of much consternation last week when she explained that she gets more body confident, the more naked she gets. "What do you know?" was the general response. Victoria Beckham has taken RiRi's "What body image planet are you on?" crown by claiming that when she tests out her designs, she says "I’m going to put it on. I stand for the general public here". As if to rub salt into the wound further, the feature in Harper's Bazaar is accompanied by a series of shots of VB in 50s style swimwear. We sort of love that she still thinks she can pull herself off as  a member of the general public. See you in Sainsburys Victoria!

VB just hanging out, being a member of the general public (images from www.dailymail.co.uk)

Who knows how she did it, but Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman has written her first novel entitled Can We Still Be Friends? It will be released on April 12th and was launched this week with a party at Sothebys. The Vogue website published Shulman's great account of how she found time to write and what the book is about. I can't wait to read it.

Alex Shulman with Samantha Cameron at the book launch on Wednesday night (image from www.vogue.com)

A slightly mysterious announcement this week from H&M who say they will be launching 'a completely new store chain' next year. The new chain will apparently will modelled on Cos which is also owned by the Hennes group. Karl-Johan Persson, H&M's CEO told WWD 'Like COS, which today is very successful with good profitability, the new chain of stores will be independent and complement the other offerings from the group'. We look forward to seeing what they come up with.

Finally, video of the week goes to ASOS who have created this short film as part of their collaboration with designer of super chic sportswear, Ebru Ercon on the SS12 REVIVE collection. The video sums up perfectly the 90s rave with a modern sportswear twist  which is the ethos of the collection. Given that Ercon used to be Head Designer on Stella McCartney for Adidas, it's not surprising that she's nailed the Summer's sportswear trend. The video was styled by the very cool stylist and blogger, Madeleine Ostile and used the music videos of dance acts like Yazz and Inner City as starting points. The collection isn't available to buy until 23rd April, but you can have a sneek peek here

In the mean time, happy weekend!