THE WEEK IN FASHION: JULY 23rd-27th

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

As I write this, Olympic fever is catching fast. It's difficult to recall that there are other things happening in the world besides a two-week long sports day. But there are, lots of them very serious and important but also happenings from the wonderful world of fashion. So before you go off to dress head to toe in gold and wave union jack flags while drinking Pimms all night (or is that just me?), here's the latest...

Happy Birthday to Christopher Kane, who celebrated his 30th yesterday!

Mr Kane in 2007 when he was 24, cute! (from list.co.uk)

A look I love from Christopher Kane Resort '13 (from style.com)

You don't get much more British than Downton Abbey, the period drama which has been a huge hit over its last two series both here and in the US. So much so in fact, that Ralph Lauren's AW12 show was entirely inspired by the 1920s aristo fashion of the show and it was the talk of US press and buyers we met in Paris. Let's face it though, cutting edge fashion endorsements don't come more major than LOVE magazine which is a kind of seasonal indicator of what's really key. The latest issue- entitled 'A Costume Drama'- stars Lady Mary, Lady Sybil and Lady Edith in a high fashion meets decaying Edwardian shoot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott.  The girls are styled by LOVE Editor-at-Large Katie Grand who also works with Marc Jacobs and Giles Deacon among others- remember Giles' burnt out medieval AW12 show? Or Marc's floppy hats, 18th century coats and steam engine at Vuitton? We sense an obsession! The new issue, the with editorial input from Alex Fury and Lulu Kennedy, is out on Monday. And I can't wait so much that I tried to buy one yesterday.

Lady Mary a.k.a Michelle Dockery bursts out of her corset in the name
 of fashion, what would Matthew say? 

Laura Carmichael plays Lady Edith who never usually gets the chance to strip
off on TV, given that she's the super straitlaced sister

We've highlighted before the frankly awful practise of copying in the fashion industry- and we don't mean 'inspired' but full-on trying-to-be-identical. Now Mother/ Daughter copycat duo Linda and Courtney Allen from New York have been ordered to pay a mahoosive $44 million in damages to Coach after they set up two websites selling counterfeit versions of bags from the much sought after American label. The judge Coleen MacMahon told the court that "This award may be crippling, but it is plainly needed to prevent Allen from going back once again into the business of counterfeiting.". It was not the first time Linda Allen had been prosecuted- in 2007, she was sued by Chanel over 'the same exact illegal conduct'. Copycats, you have been warned!


London has so many great schemes to support designers at every stage on the road to establishing viable businesses. Two of these were in the spotlight this week. First of all, Fashion Forward which is a kind of follow on from NEWGEN announced that eBay would become its new sponsor. This means that Fashion Forward recipients, Mary Katrantzou, Louise Gray, Henry Holland and James Long will all receive grants and advice to help with their SS13 shows and beyond. Not only is this great news for the designers but it's also an interesting move for the auction site which is a favourite of fashion lovers looking for bargains. eBay has become an even more credible high fashion destination of late as celebrities chose it to auction their clothes for charity- Carey Mulligan sold her Prada dress from the Met ball and Princess Beatrice got £80,000 for Children in Crisis and UNICEF by flogging her infamous Royal Wedding hat. 

Louise Gray AW12- her next collection will be sponsored
 by eBay (image from catwalking.com)

The winners of the latest prizes from Vauxhall Fashion Scout, which is a first rung on the ladder for designers, were also announced this week. The Merit Award goes to Heohwan Simulation while the Ones to Watch winners are Hellen van Rees, Ming Pin Tien and Hana Cha. The Merit Award is worth £25,00 over 3 seasons and all the winners get unprecedented exposure at both London and Paris fashion weeks. Judging by this cohort of prizewinners, it's quite clear that minimalism, architecture and menswear are still big influences on emerging designers.

HEOHWAN SIMULATION

CHARLOTTE SIMPSON

HANA CHA

HELLEN VAN REES

MING PIN TIEN

If you need something else to get excited about aside from sport then perhaps we can interest you in the forthcoming release of Carine Roitfeld's CR Fashion Book on September 13th. A new website emerged this week- crfashionbook- where readers can pre-order. If the mere thought of a new publication from the former Editor of Vogue Paris weren't enough then there is a taster image to tantalise further. This involves Juliet Ingleby strolling virtually naked through a cemetery save for a swathe of purple fabric and flanked by three leather clad, veiled fellow models. The scene is captured by Sebastian Faena and is prone to being mistaken for a shot from a war and death themed porn film.

A taster image from Carine Roitfeld's new book (image from fashionologie.com)

Two of the most enigmatic (sort of) figures in fashion got together this week when Karl Lagerfeld shot Victoria Beckham for a forthcoming front cover of French Vogue. Mrs B kept her Twitter followers updated on the backstage details via several twitpics, including one of her in a bath robe sitting on the famous staircase from which  Mademoiselle would observe her shows. And if you're a Chanel fan with a predisposition to jealousy, then don't even look at the photo of rows of Chanel gowns and jewels.

Backstage at the Lagerfeld/ Beckham shoot- looks like Chanel galore!

King Karl hotfooted it from his VB shoot to London to give us all a pre-Olympic fashion treat. He was here to open his Selfridges pop-up which will be selling his latest eponymous which is full of reference to the the Games, including plenty of gold, silver and bronze as well as medal motif. Lagerfeld turned up fashionably late for the event- two hours in fact. Nevertheless, this did little to dampen the excitement of many a tweeter who was feverishly awaiting his arrival. Daphne Guinness, Tallulah Harlech and Edie Campbell were among those on hand to welcome the designer when he eventually showed up at the reception. The Guardian's Jess Cartner-Morley wrote a fascinating piece about the might of the King Karl show which is a great read.

Karl and Daphne at Selfridges on Tuesday evening (image from dailymail.co.uk)

As promised in last week's news round-up, we're on celeb beach fashion watch. here are our top 3 from this week:

Gisele 'confirmed' her pregnancy via allowing herself to be photographed with a slightly protruding stomach on the beach. Good job about the bump really which deflects from the wet patch/ print on her crotch which the tabloids might otherwise have had a field day over...

Image from dailymail.co.uk

I'm going to be glued to The Telegraph's already brilliant Olympic fashion live feed. They've unearthed this gem which shows Italian swimmer Federica Pellegrini in a loud, very Italian, Versace/ Pucci-esque swimming costume. 

Image from telegraph.co.uk

Finally, Lady Gaga has eschewed the concept of swimwear/ underwear and posted a picture of herself apparently naked on Twitter. The fact she's in an armchair in a darkened probably disqualifies her from  any 'Best Beach or Summer Look' competitions.

Finally, Sample Sale alert! Print the pic below and you'll get £5 off.

GIRL CRUSH: NEW MUSIC STAR LUCY ROSE

A note from Fashion Junior: I've had my eye on Lucy Rose for a while now, ever since my friend Rose introduced me to her gentle tunes way back last year. Lucy Rose's star has been on the rise ever since so we asked Rose to go and find out about the girl who even has her own brand of tea and report back for FEAL.

Guest post by Rose Stokes

Every so often an artist emerges that creates a palpable buzz in the music world, sending shivers down the spines of music aficionados and racking up millions of views on Youtube; an artist brimming with talent who manages to win the hearts of even the most critical of critics. New-age acoustic folk songstress Lucy Rose is one such artist. Her new single ‘Lines’ is currently dominating the radio waves and she counts Zane Lowe, Fearne Cotton and Lauren Laverne amongst her loyal fans. With one of the most unique and hauntingly beautiful voices on the scene right now, and more than her fair share of the ‘what makes a good song’ know-how, Lucy has been penning tracks since her tender teens when she began her career, recording songs in her bedroom in Rowington, Warwickshire and uploading them to Myspace. Since then, she has based herself in London where she has spent the last four years relentlessly playing gigs, busking, touring and singing vocals for London based band Bombay Bicycle Club, gradually amassing an arsenal of dedicated followers.

So who is Lucy Rose? In order to find out, I caught up with her at her recent show at the Portland Arms in Cambridge and had a quick chat with her before she went on stage. Sitting in the pub adjacent to the venue, Lucy sits scribbling fiercely into a notebook wearing a massive pair of headphones; seemingly totally disconnected from the world around her. Fans waiting for the show exchange disbelieving glances and excited whispers of ‘is that really her?’ fill the room. One fan walks tentatively over to her, taps her on the shoulder and asks for an autograph. ‘Of course!’ she says, smiling softly before handing the CD back to the starstruck fan who looks like she might faint. Lucy appears surprised at the ambush. This moment crystallises something which becomes increasingly obvious during our chat; in spite of her recent successes, Lucy remains incredibly grounded, humble and gracious, possessing a charm with which she is able to draw her audience, no matter the size, into a state of awe. 

This understated style and endearing modesty also finds itself mirrored in her fashion sense. During our conversation I ask Lucy about her tastes when it comes to high street shops and fashion icons. True to self, her responses were unpretentious and honest. She named M&S as her favourite shop, owing to their ‘quality knit wear’ and admitted that although she loves clothes, she finds shopping stressful and therefore wears her jeans until they’re falling to pieces, and borrows or acquires clothes as hand-me-downs. And where does she look for for inspiration, ‘my style guru?’ she asks. ‘My Mum,’ and I believe her. We talk about the things she couldn’t live without. Her beloved tea scores pretty high on this list and indeed is one of her best known passions. Contrary to her contemporaries who cash in by selling overpriced merchandise at their gigs, Lucy sells reasonably priced tins of her own blend ‘Builder’s Grey’ tea; a unique combination of English Breakfast and Earl Grey. Alongside this, she sells little pots of ginger jam and t-shirts which she received as a Christmas present from her incredibly supportive family. As for places, she says she is never happier than when she is at home in Rowington; the location which was used to film the video for her single ‘Scar’ as well where she recorded her forthcoming album ‘Like I used to..’ which is set for release in September. ‘I feel really happy there,’ she says, ‘and now my music is rooted there, I feel more connected to it than ever before’.

Happiest, she says, when she is creating something, you can tell that though she enjoys her success, it is not the reason why she does what she does. It is her fierce love of music and unrelenting passion for songwriting and performing which gives her most pleasure; traits reminiscent of the lady she names as her greatest musical inspiration: Joni Mitchell. ‘She persisted with something,’ Lucy says, ‘her music was 100% her’. Like Mitchell, Lucy lays herself bare in her music, combining heartfelt and sincere lyrics with her goosebump-inducing-vocals; her songs are enough to move even the stoniest of hearts.



Finally, I ask her what her favourite track of all time is. ‘Easy Lover by Phil Collins,’ she declares, attributing her affection for the song to all the childhood memories which she attaches to it. If you hadn’t been convinced before, then surely this is evidence enough of her disinterest in the creation of any sort of fake ‘cool persona’ contrived to attract fans. Not that she needs to; her talent and understated charisma speak for themselves. This is an artist whose love for what she does is infectious, spilling from the stage into the audience, winning her hundreds of thousands of enamoured fans who travel miles to catch her in action.

And with that, our chat concludes, leaving Lucy to rush off into the ladies toilets to do her make-up before the gig kicks off.

Lucy’s single ‘Lines’ is out now and her forthcoming album ‘Like I used to...’ is currently available to pre-order on iTunes.

ALEXANDER MCQUEEN SEES THE FUTURE

Posted by Melanie Rickey, Fashion Editor at Large

What with the tastes of China and Russia's newly minted fashion lovers dictating a lot of what international designers create for their runway collections, fashion is having a funny time of it at the moment. It certainly seems the majority of catwalk fashion is not talking to European women as much as it used to. In the U.K, quite possibly because of this disconnect, half the young female population has lost touch with any form of style currency whatsoever, opting in favour of their own take on "fashion", namely fake tan, fake tits, fake nails and bandage dresses.  They are clearly watching way too much TOWIE/Geordie Shores and/or porn.

Real fashionistas, and I count myself one despite the fact I fit precisely six TopShop and ASOS maternity items in my wardrobe at present, are always looking for where fashion is going, judged from where it has been. And we hunt it down at the junction where luxury meets innovation, namely on the the runway where the cleverest fashion designers do their most experimental and boundary breaking work. Nine times out of ten this sweet spot is where the popular fashion trends 18 months hence will germinate, even if they are harder to find amongst all the new money bling on the runway.

I was reminded of this sweet spot yesterday when Alexander McQueen sent me an email heralding the release of their latest short fashion film created by fashion photographer David Sims in tandem with the brands' gorgeous advertising campaign for Autumn/Fall Winter 2012. Once I had gotten over the psychedelia, I thought "yeah, whatever" for a couple of minutes, until I flicked back to the press release and realised the film was not just some poncy bit of stuff, but in fact created to promote the sci-fi visors worn by all the models at Sarah Burton's utterly divine Autumn/Winter catwalk show. The visors cost £270 and are the very first - and currently only - item available in the section of the McQueen website entitled "Shop The Show".

McQueen Visors, £270

Alexander McQueen Autumn/Fall Winter 2012 by Sarah Burton (photos: catwalking.com)

I have to say, I was pretty surprised. Looking at the romantic puffballs of exquisite demi-couture fluff and frou that made up the McQueen catwalk clothing for AW12 - both at the time of the show and while perusing the photos and samples afterwards - it would never have occurred to me the most commercialise-able product being shown was the sci-fi visors. I thought sci-fi visors = catwalk prop that works great in pictures. And yes, they were a great catwalk prop, reducing the fantastically sugary overload with a kick of opaque-eyed fierceness, but hey ho if McQueen are boldly giving us the opportunity to go all Star Trek with our Autumn/Fall look.

Dr Spock always starting a trend... (images: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Visor) 

Smart of them really, because the super-modern oddness of the futuristic/sci-fi look is about the most exciting new trend out there right now. Two of my personal favourite for-me-to-wear Autumn/Fall collections were Alexander Wang and Balenciaga, both resolutely futuristic looking in their approach. To me this is what modern fashion should looks like. And god knows, the future really is here. We speak into "walkie-talkies" and use computers for everything, so why not wear the clothes to go with? Maybe in seasons to come McQueen visors will have inside-the-lens screens so we can beam TV shows, films or music videos onto them... Sarah, get your team on it!

Alexander Wang Autumn/Fall 2012 (photo: catwalking.com)

Balenciaga Autumn/Fall 2012 (photo: catwalking.com)

Now for the David Sims film... BBC news would probably give this a health warning, but at FEAL this is almost as good as a double voddy

PORT ELIOT: A FASHION DOLL'S TEA PARTY HOSTED BY SARAH MOWER

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

Rare is the festival where there is a corner so civilised that it is worthy to play host to the treasured childhood dolls of fashion's great and good. Port Eliot house is nestled at the bottom of the valley where the festival takes place and is open throughout to offer festival goers an antedote to tent and field based activities.  Thus, its Dining Room was the ideal setting for an auspicious gathering of Barbies, Sindys, Kens and traditional dolls owned and much loved by the likes of Viktor&Rolf, Simone Rocha and Lady Amanda Harlech. There are few with the cachet to persuade designers and fashion luminaries to allow their treasured possessions to go on a little trip to the country but luckily Sarah Mower, who came up with the whole idea and is the festival's fashion curator, and LOVE magazine editor Alex Fury were on hand to prise the dolls from their owners' hands for a few days of tea partying. 

It seems almost obvious that a fashion designer might begin their career making clothes for dolls. After all, our childhood toys are what we use to act out our fantasies of adulthood, giving them the lives and looks which we on some level aspire to- I remember that I would ensure all my dolls had nicely plaited hair and pretty party dresses before lining them up in neat rows in my bed to be taught by me in the role of teacher or to go on imaginary trips to the zoo (my brother's farmyard animal collection) and model in fashion shows. For an aspiring designer, the doll is an ideal canvas to begin on- take Erdem Moralioglu who was "violently jealous" of his twin Sara's Skipper Barbie, which had "a flatter chest and bigger shoulders" than the Barbie Bride Sara previously had. Erdem kidnapped Skipper Barbie whilst his sister was at Brownies and "got hold of this cheap-y blue polyester , and fashioned a circle skirt from it and put it over her head", he then got his Mum to help him make a strapless bustier- "very Spring/Summer". Whether that has anything to do with the fact that he's now a very successful fashion designer is anyone's guess.

The" cheap polyester" dress which Erdem made when he was five, and a dress
 from his AW12 collection in Barbie size.  

Many of the stories which Sarah, Alex and their team of curators (Jess Dubeck and Ben Evans) unearthed as they collected designers' dolls were far more extraordinary than them simply being childhood toys. In fact, this tea party was such an insight that I reckon the V&A would be mad not to hound Sarah and Alex until they agreed to host the same tea party, or even an expanded version, as an exhibition in the capital so that even more people could realise that the power of the doll is far more than a mere plaything. These are some of my favourite stories....

CHRISTOPHER KANE

The line-up of Chris Kane Barbies is a mini retrospective of his work to date. That's because a member of Chris's team recreates a look from each season in Barbie form as a record of the collection. They do it rather speedily too because Resort '13 already has its own outfit (far left). 

ALBER ELBAZ

It was Alber Elbaz's story which sparked Sarah's idea to host a Fashion Doll's Tea party. And it doesn't even involve dolls but a distinct lack thereof. Elbaz's family were too poor to afford toys for him and so he took the ingenious approach of dressing the figures on the family's chess board. Elbaz describes how he would "use my Father's silver cigarette paper, and use flowers and sequins, and stick hair on their heads with a piece of chewing gum". Decades later, Elbaz has an endless supply of real-life dolls in the form of Lanvin customers and models but has also created the Miss Lanvin dolls which perhaps go some way to making up for his doll-free childhood. The chess set which appeared at the tea party is one he recreated especially for Port Eliot. The process made Elbaz reflect on his chess piece dressing and he remarks in the tea party notes "It made me think: maybe the best creativity comes out of lacking resources". I think it also shows that when something is innate- like his desire to dress and design- there will always be a way around it.

JASON WU

Jason Wu's doll connection is probably the strongest of them all and he probably wouldn't be where he is today if it weren't for his love of doll dressing. He describes how "at the age of sixteen, while at boarding school in Connecticut, I decided to call the president of Integrity toys offering them my sketches, astonishingly they offered me a job designing for their fashion dolls. A year later, I was named Creative Director, then partner. Both positions I still hold today and am extremely proud of". In fact, Wu has financed his label through the money he makes designing for Integrity, meaning that without dolly fashion, he may not be doing real lady fashion now. 

SARAH BURTON AT ALEXANDER MCQUEEN

A doll version of a piece from Lee McQueen's final, posthumous collection

The dolls sent by McQueen's Sarah Burton do not have so much of a childhood resonance but represent a key stage in house's design process which began with the Plato's Atlantis collection of SS10. Each season, McQueen's famously tailored and complex shapes are engineered in doll form before being scaled up when perfect to human size. This reminded of the way that Vionnet would do all her groundwork on mini mannequins. It's not a practise unique to Burton and her team, but the dolls looked like works of art in their own right, especially as the paper dresses they have were printed with the patterns which would eventually make up the final dress. 

Lulu Kennedy's rabbits, Paul and Amanda, would be entertained by Lulu and her little brother dressed as pirates or gypsies for hours on end.

Giles Deacon sent dolls he made, dressed in miniature versions of dresses from his AW12 collection...

Simone Rocha's doll attends the tea party, complete with scars from being thrown down banisters by her loving owner.

Tallulah Harlech's Barbie with her Mother Lady Amanda's dolls

Sarah Mower at one of the first doll's parties she curated 

With such a prestigious group of dollies in attendance, this had to be a truly spectacular party. So set designer Michael Howells, who also curated the flower show at the festival and has decorated the house's chandeliers with feathers and dried flowers, scattered sweeties amid sets of doll's china to create the perfect backdrop for proceedings. The pièce de résistance was the doll's house which Sarah Mower spotted in the window of the Trinity Hospice charity shop in Kensington.

Sarah sent us this photo of (left to right) Hannah Lambert (her assistant),
Jingle-Jangle James, Meggie and designer Louise Gray beside the main table at the tea party

And Sarah couldn't get away with not inviting her very own doll. She sits, dressed in a paisley dress and knitted knickers made by Sarah's fashion loving grandmother, Maisie- the doll is named after her.  Maisie sits centre stage with Tammy Kane's (sister and business partner of Christopher) doll who is called Toni Bonnie Bella- Tammy has recently had a baby called Bonnie, perhaps named after the doll?

PORT ELIOT: A FESTIVAL LIKE NO OTHER

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

You might have heard about Port Eliot, the festival which takes place in a nook of Cornwall valley round the grounds of Port Eliot house, just beside the village of St Germans. The one which creates an exodus of London's creative and media community. The one which is really inspiring and beautiful. But until you've actually experienced Port Eliot- like I did this weekend- it's hard to understand exactly what is so special about it. It is a festival like no other but definitely the absolute definition of festival. Not only are there familiar faces around every corner, from Christopher Biggins riding about on a flower bedecked golf buggy to Dominic West chilling by the river but there is also something going on at almost every moment of the day from the early morning wild swimming and yoga sessions to 3am guilty pleasures DJ sets. The frustrating thing is, you can't do it all. 

My weekend included, but was not limited to,  dancing to a ceilidh band, a trip to the circus, cabaret Britney Spears, bhangra, gypsy jazz performers dressed as Elvis, dresses inspired by interiors, flower arranging, a folk band who gave their audience pop corn and crisps and encouraged us to make paper planes, history lessons and existential thinking thanks to a 20s jazz, Gypsy brass, English Folk and Trinidadian Calypso inspired fivesome. There was so much more it COULD have included had we got up earlier and been in more of a military mindset. There were so many workshops going on which I'd have loved to have done, such as Anthropologie's silk printing and ceramics, but most of them involved arriving at 9am to register which is a difficult feat to accomplish after a night of gin drinking and dancing.

It's not just the schedule which makes Port Eliot. The house- a proper example of decaying but beautiful aristocratic living- was open to view for parts of the day during the festival. Little touches like the Macbook left open atop an antique desk and pictures of the St Germans' much loved whippet Roo made it a million times more real than your usual stately home visit. If you needed a quieter moment, or a nice spot to sit with a drink then there were the vast and oh-so English river banks and rolling fields. A final West Country tip, we popped into the Thermae Bath Spa en route to Port Eliot for some pre-festival pampering and it was brilliant- a great way to get a spa experience at a rather reasonable £25 for two hours of steaming in variously aroma-ed rooms and bathing in the thermal rooftop pool. Bliss. Sadly, the festival is taking a break next year but ink it into your 2013 diary right now. 

Here's a tumble of my Port Eliot scrapbook....

The view from our tent- no luxury yurts or winnebagos for this Fash Junior

A grandly dressed tent

Murals inside Port Eliot house

 In the Wardrobe Department where the likes of Louise Gray, Fred Butler and Piers Atkinson were on hand all weekend to provide dressing up inspiration.

Milliner Stephen Jones sketches hair designs...

And Bumble and Bumble bring them to life.

Mary Katrantzou was there to speak with Love magazine's Alex Fury about her career to date, her unique aesthetic and the triptych of dresses which she created after a visit to Port Eliot house with Sarah Mower.

Sarah Mower (in Katrantzou jacket), Alex Fury (in Katrantzou trousers), Mary Katrantzou and Port Eliot's organiser, Cathy St Germans. They are posing with three of the four Warren sisters (Octavia, Aggy, Imogen and Bea) who modelled some of Mary's dresses during the talk.

Mary's triptych of dresses hanging inside Port Eliot house

The estate has a beautiful orangery which ousted the festival's Michael Howells curated flower show. Entrants were asked to celebrate the Jubilee and/or the Olympics...

 The main Park Stage where plenty of evening action took place...

Mobile tea dancing- a man with a car and a boom box travelling around the site hosting mini tea dances. The One Minute Disco was also hugely popular and by Sunday people were running towards it as they saw the van coming to blast out a tune for 60 seconds at a time all around the festival site.

 

 Silk printing and plate decorating in the Anthropolgie tent...

A word of warning, there are children everywhere at Port Eliot. If you're adverse to their presence at festivals, this one's not for you. Many of them were to be found rolling in the mud baths which appeared at low tide...