WHAT A WEEK FOR BRITISH DESIGN!

Posted by Fashion Junior at Large

Earlier in the week, we noticed two of our London based designers had been making an impact on the red carpets of international celebrity soirées, but little did we know that that was just a precursor to a brilliant week for British designers!
When Mr and Mrs Obama touched down on British soil on Tuesday, they kicked off a celebration of some of the our brightest and best fashion talent. Indeed, from the second Michelle O stepped off Air Force One in this dazzling (next season) Preen number, we knew this was the start of something big. (Have we mentioned how much we love her? Whether shaking her thang in a school hall to get kids dancing, or being the coolest First Lady in the history of time, Michelle Obama officially rocks our world.)

Michelle Obama in Preen AW11, looking sensational.

The original catwalk look Preen AW11

 Next up, SamCam continued to wave the flag for British fashion as she welcomed the Obamas to Number 10 in a beautiful - and borrowed - Peter Pilotto SS11 number (some of you will remember Paula Reed carrying out her royal fashion correspondent duty for the Beeb in this very same style). It's a fabulous dress, managing to be unusual and elegant at the same time.

Samantha Cameron in Peter Pilotto SS11

Peter Pilotto SS11

Of course, it wouldn't be a British fashion parade without the now uber-tanned K-Mid, freshly returned from her royal honeymoon and creating yet another high street mania in the 'Shola' dress from Reiss. No doubt the £175 number has already sold out, it looked great on her, with her waist still waspish post-wedding and the neutral colour set off her tan wonderfully.

K-Mid - Sorry, the Duchess of Cambridge, in the Reiss 'Shola' bandage dress. She's creating her own trend bubble. 

Back at Number 10, SamCam showed that you can accessorise Jonathan Saunders with salad tongs as she served up potato salad at a barbecue for servicemen. The dress was the perfect choice for an almost-summer sunny afternoon.

That's one garden party we would have liked to have been at. Pass the ketchup!

Jonathan Saunders SS11

Finally, it was only a matter of time before one of the First Ladies busted out some McQueen, and Michelle Obama chose the suitably dramatic setting of Oxford University to wear her Sarah Burton-designed outfit. 
















All in all, British designers did us proud this week, and it was fantastic to see their incredible designs being worn by suitably inspiring people.
Images: Daily Mail, Catwalking, Style.com, Getty

UNIQLO’S CHARI-TEES SAVE JAPAN!

Posted by Bethan Holt and Fashion Junior at Large

Charity t-shirts are not always the coolest – harsh but true. However, everybody knows the place to go for cool t-shirts is Japanese wonderbrand Uniqlo. So it makes perfect sense that Uniqlo have teamed up with Vogue Nippon to help Save Japan. Unveiled at the brand’s AW11 press day yesterday, this latest t-shirt project is one we feel is worth investing in, not only for the cause but because they are very good T-shirts. The creatives behind the T-shirts include Queen Gaga and everyone’s favourite Uncle Karl. The 10 tee designs will be available in store from 25th June, and Uniqlo have pledged a donation of 100 million yen (approx £750,000) towards relief efforts in the areas most affected by March’s earthquake and Tsunami.

We were really impressed by the unique designs, the common thread in all the designs is the message of love, solidarity and hope. Some are more fashion-y others are more conservative. Weirdly, one of the coolest is by 80s icon Cyndi Lauper (LOVE her). It’s bright and cheery, embodying her inimitable personal style. It is perhaps a little known fact that Ms. Lauper is a huge fan of all things Japanese and visited Japan in the wake of the recent disaster. 

Karl Lagerfeld’s design is somewhat of a departure from the formal Chanel aesthetic; he has fused the Japanese flag design with a sunny, happy landscape, and written the simple message ‘Love’. Meanwhile, Alber Elbaz has added a little Lanvin fun to proceedings with a his sweet personal message decorated with cute hearts.

UN goodwill ambassador Nicole Kidman’s expressed her inner Picasso with a beautiful design featuring an outreached hand offering love and support to Japan.

Blake Lively, Charlize Theron, and Orlando Bloom also leant their scribbles to the project, along with Victoria Beckham and Gwyneth Paltrow. Nicola Formichetti (who worked with Uniqlo pre-Gaga, and still styles their seasonal lookbook) posted a picture of himself wearing his customised Gaga for Uniqlo design.

The tees will be on sale from 25th June 2011 at £12.99 each.

Images: Uniqlo/Nicola Formichetti

THE KATE BUSH FILES

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

This week I'm having a Kate Bush love-in. She has released a new album "Director's Cut," featuring re mastered and refreshed versions of her greatest hits, and I've broken out my Kate Bush iPod playlist. Grazia were into the idea too, and this week's issue has a Kate Bush fashion story for your reading/shopping pleasure.

I only got into Kate Bush relatively recently, certainly long after she had retired to semi-obscurity. It is more than thirty years since her debut, yet to my mine and many others minds there is still nobody quite like her. Kate Bush began songwriting as a young teenager, and by the age of 18 was performing using her trademark falsetto voice, and balletically flapping her arms about in what became an iconic style. At the age of 19, in 1979, Kate had a worldwide number one hit, Wuthering Heights which I was surprised to discover, was her first and remains the most successful single of her career.

The Kate Bush Look is another matter. With the rush of 1970s trends currently zooming around the fashion landcsape, it is refreshing that her highly individualistic style is coming to the fore in both high fashion and high street. All spring, the Fashion Junior at Large has been sporting a fringed oversize rose embroidered kimono-style jacket that is straight out of the Kate Bush tour wardrobe. She bought it on eBay, but I've seen similar in multi-variations at TopShop. Then there's the unitards, jumpsuits and kitschy/Cirque du Soleil-esque gear that is stock Bush, as well as the uniform du jour for hipster girls all over the world on their Saturday night out.

I saw Karolina Kurkova in a Viktor & Rolf red jumpsuit in Cannes last week which is fairly well in keeping with the one Kate wears in Wuthering Heights.

Karolina Kurkova in Cannes wearing a Viktor & Rolf red jumpsuit

Here are a few of the iconic Kate Bush fashion images that have kept me entertained over the last week.

My favourite! Britney eat your heart out.

Photos: Rex, LFI, Retna

WHAT I WORE TO THE BAFTAS

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

Here are a couple of outfits you will NOT be seeing in the BAFTA fashion round-ups in the red-tops this week. Not enough fake tan and flesh for the tabloids. Which is exactly as it should be.  For my first stumble up a red carpet with Mary the objective was to work a high fashion look while remaining very firmly within my style comfort zone. There was always going to be a trouser-y skew to my look.

I was thinking of a cool skinny Balenciaga trouser suit, but my friend Sarah Mower suggested thinking about a coloured trouser with a white jacket, "to break up the suity-ness of it". I seized on her thought and visited net-a-porter for ideas. White jackets were not a problem. In central London I tried on a brilliant Maison Martin Margiela white tuxedo jacket, and ooh-ed and aaahed over the cut of Balmain's white tuxedo jacket, but at £1650 it was a fantasy too far. In Selfridges I found the perfect white jacket by Dries Van Noten.

Coloured trousers were less easy to source. Jeans were not an option for a black tie event, but when I saw that Maje the classy French label making a splash in London, had red crepe high-waist cigarette leg trousers, I went hunting. It seemed every Maje I called had just sold the last pair in my size. In the South Molten Street store I saw a girl buying them as I walked in. Grrrr. Eventually I tracked down what seemed to be the last size 10 pair in London. Success!

To pull the jacket and trousers together I wore a body with a double deep-v and long sleeves. To garnish, my pieces de resistance  -  totally fabulous and amazing wooden platform sandals with gold peep-toe tips - were put into play. The shoes are the result of a collaboration between Roland Mouret and Christian Louboutin and created for Roland's SS11 show in Paris where they were used to accessorise every single catwalk look. My reasoning for buying the shoes from Matches was that if they could work for every single outfit in a fashion show - from day time trouser looks through to red carpet gowns - they could work for me. I was right. I'm proper delighted with my outfit, and unlike a one-wear dress all of the elements have an afterlife.  And of course I love Mary's outfit too. Her jumpsuit (from by Malene Birger at my-wardrobe.com) is as fashionable as it gets right now. Trust me when I say jumpsuits are set to be the biggest fashion sensation of the latter half of 2011. 

The shoes.....buy them here

Photo: REX FEATURES

BRIT KNITS RED CARPET REVOLUTION

Posted by Fashion Junior at Large

This weekend's spree of award ceremony's led to a plethora of Monday morning celebrity eye-candy from the red carpets. While perusing what the great and the good had worn last night, we couldn't help noticing two of our favourite pin ups had plumped for two innovative London based designers, both famed for their ways with wool.

At the TV Baftas, Daisy Lowe took this Craig Lawrence dress (one of our hot SS11 picks) to new stratospheres of sexualness...

(Seriously, how brilliant does she look? An unusual choice that she has completely made her own)

Craig Lawrence SS11

Meanwhile, over in LA, Nicki Minaj walked the Billboard Awards white carpet (so LA. You'd never get a white carpet in London) wearing SS11 Mark Fast. If anyone could pull off a stretchy pale blue bodysuit with chunks of Swarovski crystals down the leg, it's Ms Minaj. Funnily enough, the Fash Ed and I actually witnessed this jumpsuit being made in Fast's studio, back when we didn't even know Nicki existed. Now it's hard to imagine the music biz without her unique bubblicious style. 

 

Pink hair + pale blue glitter combo = winner!

Both these girls stood out a mile from the usual red carpet choices (TOWIE girls, we're looking at you...) so it is great to see London designers making their mark in award season. More of this please!

Images: Rex, Style, Daily Mail, Style

MUST WATCH: ADR'S FASHION SHOWER!

Posted by Fashion Junior at Large

Just when you thought she couldn't get any wackier (and wacky truly is the best adjective to describe her) Anna Dello Russo goes and releases a fashion music video. A promo tool for her fashion tips segment on Milan's Radio Deejay, it features ADR busting some moves in a Mark Fast dress and DSquared2 ice-skate heels. When we say 'moves', obviously we mean adopting the lotus position in evening wear, doing a lot of pointing to the face and voguing (of course!)



Sorry, did we forget to mention THE RAP?

The fashion rap rules according to ADR: "Fashion should never be comfortable" and to get the look, you need "a fashion shower". We are still awaiting confirmation as to what a fashion shower is, exactly, but in the meantime, we are just grateful to have someone like Anna on hand to steer us straight on the path to style. The world would be a much duller place without her.