hilkat

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.

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.

Somehow, I missed the arrival of the Emma Cook footwear at Topshop, but as I like to say, it’s better to blog late than not to blog at all.

There appear to be two pairs of shoes and three pairs of boots (I didn’t include a picture of the third pair, but they’re a rather lovely zebra print if anyone’s interested), and frankly, I’m not sure how I’m supposed to choose. They all have the most fantastic wedge heel; absolutely useless for work but fine for tottering around the shops / visiting the library / doing the ironing in. As delightful as the shoes are, (beige or black? BEIGE OR BLACK?) I’m going to go for the boots, thus making them a sensible winter purchase and not yet another piece of frippery which needs to fight for it’s space in my wardrobe. As much as I love the leopard print, I have fallen ever so much in love with the burgundy pair (they match my Gap tights exactly - is this a good thing or a bad thing?) and am pleased to note they’re still available in my size. Hurrah.

Christopher Kane returns for yet another season of Topshop collaboration this winter, giving those of us who missed out on (read: couldn’t afford) the monkey t-shirts of his mainline collection a chance to grab some of the animal action with dresses and t-shirts emblazoned with the gigantic open jaws of a crocodile. (I swear, I won’t make any jokes about ’snapping up’ the pieces before they sell out… honest…) There doesn’t seem to be an awful lot to say about the pieces, really, except for how amazing they are - aside from the snap-happy croc garments, everything seems to be eyelet-ed or studded to within an inch of it’s life, tough-girl chic at it’s best. Kane has taken delicate lace and net detailed dresses, and made them spectacularly grungey, perfect when teamed with the matching eyelet leggings, or sky-high heels. The price point is, typically, not cheap but then Kane is renowned for refusing to skimp on detail or quality, even for his collaboration works.

Although Helmut Lang are my out and out favourites so far (and bare in mind we haven’t seen any of the big guns yet, but by heck, HL are going to take some beating), Preen have definitely come in a close second. According to Vogue online, the collection was inspired by early 1990s fashion, all slip-dresses, underwear as outerwear and grunge (think Kate Moss shot by Corinne Day), but was transformed and brought up-to-date with architectural detailing and blocked prints. There were some rather iffy silver trousers which Vogue harped on about, but you won’t find a picture of them here, since when I saw them, my brain went, “urrghh”, and they were automatically filed in the ‘reject’ part of my mind. Interestingly, as with BCBG Max Azria, there were several appearances of the currently omnipresent sharp shoulder - it would seem this is a trend set to run and run, which means stocking up on sculptured pieces now could be considered a definite investment for the future.
Mostly made up of garments in muted tones, blacks, whites and greys, there was an injection of colour with the pink pieces towards the end of the collection, and also the yellow shoes (a new venture for Preen), but my favourites could definitely be found amongst the blander shades and fabulous printed pieces.

I finally got round to wearing my red Doc Martens this weekend, to visit the Other Half’s relatives and to pop into town to look for a particular pair of purple boots. I didn’t find the boots, but I did manage to break in the Docs ever so slightly - I think it’s going to be a slow process, however, as I was left with pins and needles in one foot and complete loss of feeling in three toes on the other foot. But hey, at least I can walk in them now.

I also recently discovered an online image editor called Picnik, which is nothing short of marvelous. I have a free downloaded image editor called GIMP (guffaw, guffaw) which is not bad, but tends to shut itself down at the most inopportune moments. Picnik does none of this. It does, however, have a million different effects (two million if you upgrade to the pro version), which caused me to spend an hour uploading and clicking, pausing every now and then to shout, “look! I can make everything black and white except my shoes!” and, “come and see! I’m a poster!” There are also options to ‘zombify’, add blood, add a snowstorm effect and various other quirky gimmicks. Watch out for them in the future….