Friday, 4 January 2013

Suit Up!

The transition from winter to spring is always a tricky one; how do you capture the SS13 trends early enough to remain ahead of the curve whilst remaining appropriately covered up in the wintry conditions of January and February?

This post identifies one possible solution. The pant suit.

The colours vary from bright shades of red to subtle hues of grey but the arrangement remains the same, it's the season of the alpha female.

On the catwalk:

Balmain SS13
Calvin Klein Collection SS13
Cedric Charlier SS13
Christian Dior SS13
Jonathan Saunders SS13
Mary Katrantzou SS13
Mulberry SS13
Pedro Lourenco SS13
Saint Laurent SS13
Stella McCartney SS13
Theyskens Theory SS13
Trussardi SS13
Victoria Beckham SS13

On the celebs:


Amanda Seyfried during Paris Fashion Week in October wears a 3-button suit from the Prada Resort collection teamed with purple Mary Jane platform shoes.



Christy Turlington shows off a slime silhouette in a black and white combo at The Tracy Anderson Method Pregnancy Project in New York City, October.



Actress Emma Roberts wears a Nanette Lepore outfit in a subtle black and grey geometric pattern teamed with a Claire Vivier clutch and Christian Louboutin shoes in New York last October.



In a grey suit and patterned shirt, Gabriella Wilde goes for a preppy look at Burberry's SS14 Womenswear Show in Kensington.



Kate Hudson wears a striped blazer and trousers by Alexander McQueen to the September premiere of Glee in Los Angeles



Mandy Moore wears a slim-fitting suit at the Centre Studios, New York, in September.



Similarly to Emma Roberts above, Nicola Roberts incorporates subtle print into her trouser suit, wearing a soft animal print at the Stand Up To Cancer fundraiser in October.



Swedish actress Noomi Rapace wears smart green and mustard separates at a London premiere of Great Expectations in October.



Rachel Zoe during Paris Fashion Week in October wears a 70s-style Hutton suit from her own collection.


On the high street:

By investing in a statement trouser suit (by statement this could mean: print / colour / amazing tailoring) you can swap and change the accessories and layering to keep the outfit season friendly, this also helps with the transition of A/W > S/S!

Here I have chosen a very bold floral trouser suit from Topshop to prove the above, in the first outfit picking out the black in the collar and the stripes running down the sleeves and leg makes the floral seem autumnal and wintry, if you add black tights you have an outfit that is also practical for those bitter mornings.


1. TOPSHOP floral blazer, £68
2. TOPSHOP floral cropped trousers, £40
3. NEXT perfect shirt in black, £35
4. LK BENNETT ava leather envelope clutch, £350
5. HOBBS invitation adria shoe, £169

I the second outfit option we see a composition and is reminiscent of springs ever-recurring trend of pastel and floral. By using layering and accessories in paler colours, this highlights the pale flowers in the suit creating a fresh look that is great for the start of Spring, which let's face it, in England, is still bitterly cold..


1. TOPSHOP floral blazer, £68
2. TOPSHOP floral cropped trousers, £40
3. REISS silk front t-shirt in cream, £59
4. LK BENNETT ava leather envelope clutch, £350
5. LK BENNETT abigail patent leather strappy sandal, £295

Saturday, 15 December 2012

Wintry Wilderness

Fantastical forest themes explored in Harrods' Christmas windows of last year have re-emerged in AW12 but with an organic, almost folkey, take on the luxurious wintry scenes such as that seen below:

Harrods, 2011, my own photo

More often than not the 2012 trend has looked on forest-residing animals for inspiration; replicating colours & textures and using woodland creatures as motifs on jewellery, knitwear, hardware etc.




TOPSHOP:





ACCESSORIZE:



ASOS:




FASHION156:



FUSSED MAGAZINE:



PHOTOGRAPHER : KARRAH KOBUS






Saturday, 1 December 2012

A trend of ASTROnomic proportions

The word Galactic has been widely used to describe one of AW12's most coveted trends;


GA-LAC-TIC [guh-lak-tik] - adjective
1. Astronomy.
a) of or pertaining to a galaxy
b) of or pertaining to the Milky Way
2. immense; huge; vast

As the second definition suggests, this is a vast trend and encompasses more than just stars and space, it incorporates futurism and the wilderness, merging the contrasting elements of organic life and futuristic geometric forms.



The below music video for Ke$ha's "Die Young", is a perfect example of this season's hottest imagery:


...and Ellie Goulding's "Anything Could Happen" video also seems to call upon this trend but with a slightly more discrete approach:



The most featured forms include:

  • Space imagery
  • Geometric shapes (often triangles)
  • Wild animals
  • Gem embellishment


SPACE IMAGERY:
www.nasa.gov
GEOMETRIC SHAPES:

WILD ANIMALS:

GEM EMBELLISHED:

Below are just a few places that you can find this trend and buy into it yourself:

TOPSHOP
www.topshop.com
www.topshop.com


FOREVER 21
www.forever21.com/UK

ASOS

www.asos.com

Influences
Influences for this trend can be traced from a myriad of sources:
Photograph: David Sims, Styled by McKenna
The new edition of Philip Utz's menswear biannual Man About Town is The Space Issue. For the new issue, Utz and creative directors Mathias Augustyniak and Michael Amzalag of M/M (Paris) pitted the homemade against the futuristic.

"The space theme was chosen because I wanted to break with the retro aesthetic that Man About Town had been championing prior to the Hedi Slimane issue, but also because I felt that it would take the writers, photographers and stylists out of their comfort zone to produce something less self-referential and more thought provoking that what most other men's books have to offer" Utz

The issue has combines unlikely bedfellows such as astrobiologists and stylists, computer programmers and fashion photographers. Further contributors include fashion world heavies Alasdair McLellan, Joe McKenna, Olivier Rizzo, David Sims and Willy Vanderperre.

Icons
Galactic fashion icons:

+
Barbarella

David Bowie, Space Oddity

Ellen Ripley, Alien

Princess Leia, Star Wars

Wonder Woman, DC comics

Saturday, 3 November 2012

Leather Lux


Leather trend board by JUST, incorporating images from: www.topshop.com, www.vogue.co.uk and www.asos.com

Aside from the catwalks, celebrities and musicians have played their part in bringing this trend to the 
high streets. The Kills launched their retrospective in London's Hoxton Gallery with images taken from their recently published book, 'Dream and Drive'. The Kills' Alison Mosshart once compared the rock 'n' roll lifestyle to... 

"waking up in the morning, putting on your boots and shooting yourself out of a canon"

...now 10 years later, the band have decided to mark the decade of musical history with a trip down memory lane, of which guests to the launch displayed their inner rocker through leather. 

Topshop Inside-Out, www.insideout.topshop.com

Topshop Inside-Out, www.insideout.topshop.com
This season leather doesn't have to mean moto jackets and rocker trousers, battered and worn. This trend is evokes gothic glamour and is rich with suggestions of rebel, vixen and dominatrix; glossy black leather offers a sleek take on autumn's new decadent air.

From a Eurostar tourist booklet, 2012

The presence of leather is not limited to the typical jackets and separates, but extends to visions of sleek gowns in full black leather, in the cleanest silhouettes, as seen in Valentino and Calvin Klein collections.

Knee-length leather coats were created by Loewe, Fendi, Diane von Furstenberg and Givenchy, the cover-up to covet this season - just opt for classic shapes with little to no detailing, save for a neat belt.

Loewe AW12, www.style.com

Diane von Furstenberg AW12, www.style.com

Fendi AW12, www.style.com

Givenchy, AW12, www.style.com

To tame the trend for a day-to-day look, take inspiration from Alexa Chung and team a leather skirt with a chunky knit:


Here are a few of my favourite skirts this season:

Oasis, http://www.oasis-stores.com

Whistles, www.whistles.co.uk

Oasis, www.oasis-stores.com

Warehouse, www.warehouse.co.uk