hilkat

There comes a time in every womans life, when she doesn’t work in high fashion or the fashion industry in general, that she sort of drifts away from wanting to be massively trendy, and instead just wants to wear well-made, well designed clothes and look… well…. good. I’m currently treading the fine line between not wanting to be the oldest woman in Topshop, or to wear clothes that have massive shoulders or huge holes in them, but not wanting to sacrifice my own sense of personal style either. I might be heading rapidly towards thirty, but I am not ready for the Boden catalogue just yet. (Note: Mini Boden is fine, however.)

So when I discovered the wonderful Toast catalogue and online shop, I practically broke out a fanfare. Full of gorgeous, sumptuous clothes in an array of bright colours and quality fabrics, it was just what I was looking for update my frankly confusing wardrobe. The catalogue is full of photographs of women roughly the same age as me, standing in old country houses or wandering across fields, dressed in fashionable yet comfortable clothes - which most important of all, don’t seem to have any holes…

Another ASOS wonder-find, The Mountain is a New England based label, which has more to it than meets the eye. At first, they appear to produce a rather fantastic array of printed t-shirts, with quite innovative yet retro-esque designs. When I scanned my eye over the stock for the first time, I was transported to rural America, circa the early nineties (no surprise since they have been around for roughly twenty years now).

However, they don’t only produce well made, colourfully printed garments, they also produce them ethically. Most companies that are known for their ethical properties are famous mostly for precisely that, but unless you happened to click onto the ‘About Us’ section, you probably would never have known - certainly not from a quick ASOS purchase.
From the word go, before “eco” became the buzzword of the moment, The Mountain used water based inks, organic cotton and advocated land and eco-system conservation both nationally and internationally. They use full spectrum lighting to conserve energy, and all t-shirts are dyed and printed right there in New England.

It’s quite rare that I find a label that has an ethos which appeals to the fairy-tale-loving-day-dreaming-wood-exploring side of me (as I am now twenty-six and surely beyond all such fripperies), but Numph is certainly one of them. The Denmark based label offers up quirky images and colourful prints which adorn sweatshirts, t-shirts and dresses, which I initially discovered on ASOS.

Obviously, being someone who’s never satisfied with a just a taster of anything, I went off to explore the website, which is a wondrous experience. Artistically minimal, but still with the essence of fun, I took a few screen shots of the AW09 collection which don’t appear on ASOS.

Ok Marc, I get that you’re bored with studs and rivets, and that the thought of designing a punk influenced collection practically drove you back to drink, but really, is that any excuse for raiding Aunt Maud’s wardrobe and sending those poor models down the catwalk in her Sunday best?

No, Marc, the answer is no. It is not an excuse. I loved your AW09 collection, I really did. I did a lovely little post about it and everything - all those colours and sharp lines were a truly memorable moment in fashion history. So what happened between designing that and presenting us with something that looks like The Great Gatsby had a fight with Laura Ashley, before having a little pop at the eighties?

Don’t get me wrong, there are elements of this that I love. The fringing is wonderful, i’m completely in awe of the navy frill front blouse, and i’m not adverse to the silk panelled high-waisted pencil skirt. But cycling shorts with a ‘fanny pack’? See, I even had to put that between apostrophes because the absolute ridiculousness of it made it impossible for me to write otherwise. See through jogging pants? Underwear as outerwear? Oh dear.

As much as I love writing this blog, having a part-time job, full-time son and Other Half, parents, relatives, friends and far too many hobbies for one person, means that I’m going to have to (gasp) do less posts. At 26, living in rural Hampshire and being more of the playground-and-reading set rather than the parties-and-raving group I used to be, means I now have too much to do and not enough time. Sadly, the only thing I can justify spending less time on is Hilkat. So rather than a post a day, it’s going to be more like a few posts a week, on varying subjects rather than just fashion. Expect more crafty-experiments, more photography, more art and a little less outfits, and far less catwalk photos (get thee over to style.com instead!). Look out for different categories in the sidebar, and blog links to things other than fashion. More fun writing, and generally an all-round more entertaining blog. When you put it like that, everyone’s a winner, surely?

I’ve decided that it would probably be a good idea to make some of my images smaller, so they actually fit on the screen. I love having big photographs for detail purpose, but I can only imagine how annoying it must be to have to scroll up and down in order to be able to see everything.

As you know, since having my son, time is never on my side when it comes to getting dressed, which is why i’m such a fan of the grunge/rock look. It doesn’t matter if nothing matches, slouchy is key and above all, flat shoes are the way to go. So imagine my joy when I discovered last years biker boots in the back of the cupboard. I paired them up with my fringed Zara dress and draped stripey cardigan, and they worked just as well as I remembered.

In 1999, rock and roll wonderlabel Buddhistpunk was launched, and subsequently spent years collaborating with artists such as The Rolling Stones, Blondie and the Prodigy, before expanding with House of the Gods in 2006. If you like your rock t-shirts deconstructed to perfection with an extra shot of attitude, this label is for you. Available on ASOS, I felt I just had to select my favourites - a sort of online window shopping experience.

The cage version of the famous Rolling Stones t-shirt is probably the most impressive piece of craftwork I’ve seen on ASOS in a while (although I’m biased since I’m in love with all rock and grunge clothes), while the Motley Crue number is wonderfully voluminous and would look just perfect teamed up with some slashed leggings or skinny jeans. The Pink Floyd oversized t-shirt dress hides a very sneaky secret - it’s actually backless, and while most would pair it with spike heels, I think some serious studded wedge boots would be in order. Frankly, you don’t get much more rock and roll than the Rolling Stones, which is why as well as the classic Lips design, I put both the Mick Jagger and the ‘Mick-and-Keith’ t-shirts into my selection, and as for the shredded Blondie t-shirt? I really don’t think I even need to explain why that one’s here. Really want to know? Then call me, on the line baby, call me, call me anytime….

As you will have noticed from my previous, “ooohh, look at these, aren’t they AMAZING?” posts, I’m a pretty big fan of Urban Outfitters. And even more so since one my ever-so-helpful Best Friend sent me an e-mail saying, “thought you might like this for your blog!” We won’t enter the area of How-I-Managed-To-Miss-It-Myself (darn those newsletters, really must start reading them…)

Created by the designers who are responsible for The Reformation Boutiques in New York and LA, the pieces are not only beautiful, but also enviro-friendly. Each garment is constructed from vintage fabric, or handcrafted from existing vintage clothing - less waste, more recycling. My favourite has to be the cream waistcoat, brought to life by the sad death of a tuxedo jacket.

Every now and then, whilst going through the images of fashion shows for style.com, I stumble across a designer I’ve somehow never looked at before that makes me do one of those big-gaspy breaths because they’re so darned fabulous. Bibhu Mohapatra, showing for his second season after seven years at J. Mendel, was my most recent cause of breathiness after he created a collection based around the x-rays he had to undergo in order to qualify for a green card. The clothes are designed to explore the subject of visibility, which goes some way to explaining the disordered layering with colours and fabrics - my personal favourite, the orange dress shown below, is probably the best example of this, panels of pleated tangerine jostle for space and visibility with a printed fabric, turning what would otherwise be a simple well-cut dress into a design masterpiece. I loved almost everything in this collection, and whittling the images down to a few was a massive undertaking, but I eventually settled on the ones that I thought gave the best overall feel of Mohapatra’s intentions. My favourite element was the way he had kept the lines and cuts simple, but created extraordinary pieces through use of fabric and detail - an asymmetric hem here, a boxy jacket there, it all adds up to a wonderfully wearable yet covetable collection.

I finally, FINALLY found some skinny jeans that aren’t too tight and fit properly in all the crucial areas, in H&M. I bought them in grey, and am going back this weekend to buy several hundred more pairs. OK, maybe just two. I teamed them up with my flat black boots and Ms. Jones again for a nice tough looking outfit.

Also, there’s a slight danger I’ve become a little obsessed with fiddling around with my pictures after stumbling across the online image editor - I promise after this post I’ll leave the contrast and colour well alone. Probably.