ANNA WINTOUR FOR AMBASSADOR AND THE REST OF THE WEEK IN FASHION

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

Yesterday, I was asked to go on Sky News to talk about the speculation that Anna Wintour is to be appointed US ambassador to the UK by Barack Obama. This rumour has been kicking around for some time now but only seems to have properly caught on in the past week. I was told that I would be debating whether this would be a good move with The Telegraph's Washington-based blogger Niles Gardiner who had written in great protestation that Wintour would be a "ludicrous pick" for the Obama administration.

Anna Wintour arrives at the White House

I shan't bore you with the details but one wrong turn and mega traffic jam later, I didn't make it to Sky News in time to have my say, so I'm going to do it now. The more I've thought about this, the more it's turned into something far bigger than a question of who will be appointed to succeed Louis Susman, the current ambassador. It's about a world where men, mostly, who are otherwise intelligent and well-educated make the mistake of dismissing fashion as a pithy little thing which must only occupy the airiest of airheads, even if it is a global $200 billion industry and huge provider of employment. Gardiner claims that "it is impossible to see the editor of Vogue successfully handling highly complex issues pertaining to US-British relations". I wonder if he realises that it is Wintour's responsibility to manage the big brand advertisers whose revenues her publication so relies on, ensuring that the finest of balances is struck between maintaining editiorial integrity and keeping the pennies rolling in? With every fashion label in the world vying for space in her magazine, Wintour has one of the most diplomatically challenging jobs there is, and she's done it brilliantly for 24 years.

Just because she has a signature hairdo and some nice clothes, doesn't mean that Wintour cannot be good at politics, diplomacy and business. She has engineered partnerships between big companies and young designers, like Thakoon's collaboration with GAP which was shown in The September Issue, masterfully selling the benefits of such hop-ups with each party . What's more she has driven schemes like the CFDA/ Vogue Fashion Fund which gives serious financial support and business mentorship to the big designers of tomorrow; Alexander Wang, now at Balenciaga and hugely successful with his own label employing 156 people, won the prize in 2008. Wintour is also a formidable fundraiser, raking in over $40 million for Obama's re-election campaign, $50 million for the Metropolitan Museum in New York and $10 million for AIDS charities. She has also transformed London's Theatre Awards. That's before we even get started on what she's  done for Vogue, commissioning features about everything from world affairs to politics to philanthropy because she understands, unlike some others, that women are interested in those things as well as clothes. She messed up big time on the Asma Al-Assad profile, yes but if I remember correctly the Americans were cosy with Saddam Hussein for sometime before they decided he was enemy no.1. It's wrong and horrible but Wintour is no different to many before her. Ultimately, she is a woman who gets things done

Gardiner also thinks "the fact that Wintour is even on the short list for the Ambassador post is a testament to the Obama presidency’s obsession with celebrities". Wintour isn't a celebrity. She's high profile, yes, but she is a professional woman whose role courts interest in exactly the same way that being a senior politician or businessman does. I seriously doubt that whoever gets the job will be a complete unknown who hasn't previously appeared in the press, it's just that Anna might be better known among, shock horror, women than men. Dare I say it, but the very qualities which seem to be so offputting to the likes of Gardiner could be the ones which make Wintour an excellent and truly original ambassador, attracting increased engagement in political affairs from those who might not have seen the relevance before. That's exactly what Anna did with her support for Obama. 

The likes of Gardiner need to get out their stuffy men-in-suits mindset and open their eyes to the fact that there's a whole lot more to Anna Wintour than her ability to throw a good party with SJP and wear Celine. Donald Trump tweeted his support for Wintour's appointment yesterday too, whether that strengthens or weakens my argument, I'll let you decide. 

THE REST OF THE WEEK'S FASHION NEWS...

PPR has confirmed that Alexander Wang will now design for Balenciaga. There is also talk of a couture line. read Hamish Bowles' piece on the move here.

 Kate Upton is the star of British Vogue's fabulously fresh January cover shot by Alasdair McLellan. It's like 2013 fashion Wedgewood on paper. The shoot inside is stunning too.

 The first print run of Carine Roitfeld's CR Fashion Book has sold out, but never fear more are due before Christmas. 

Kate Upton again, this time with chicks (Image via fashioncopious.typepad.com)

Topshop has been valued at £2 billion following Sir Phillip Green's decision to sell a 25% stake in the business to LGP, a move which will strengthen the brand as it moves further into the US market. LGP also has big investments in J Crew and Neiman Marcus. 

Chanel's shindig at Linlithgow Palace looks like it was spectacular, even the snow fell for the celebration of the 2013 Métiers d'art collection. Sam McKnight's inspired plait hairdos have had me craving cornrows all week. I think Jess Cartner-Morley and Sarah Mower summed up the evening's significance and fabulousness brilliantly, do read their pieces.  Meanwhile, here are some plaits, tartans and Elizabeth I lookalikes...

Chanel at Linlithgow (images via vogue.com)

Hair by Sam McKinight, complete with plastic covers to shield from the rain (image via Sam McKnight's Twitter)

JW Anderson says he's still trying to come up with the perfect dress. He wants "to create a new form of architecture, a dress that is tri-functional” I think he did rather well on the design which Elle's Anne-Marie Curtis was kitted out in for the BFAs. 

Elle's Anne- Marie Curtis in JW Anderson (from elleuk.com)

London design duo Antoni and Alison are celebrating 25 years in the business this year, hurrah! They've given their Roseberry Avenue store in EC1 a makeover which includes a gorgeous new tearoom called "Ye Olde Worlde Super Modern". There's no wifi, but pencil and paper are provided and all those tea choosing stresses are taken off your hands because there is quite simply only tea on the menu. A delightful weekend treat! Read more on Style Bubble

Tea with Antoni and Alison (image via stylebubble.co.uk)

Finally, a date for diary...

FABERGE FANTASIES

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

"Like the swan song of a dying civilisation" is the way that jewellers Fabergé describe their quite unique place in history. There are few brands or products which can truthfully claim such a role in the books of human endeavour yet whenever anyone looks up Russia's last Tsar, Nicholas II, the name Peter Carl Fabergé won't be far away. The man who brought the Fabergé egg to the world created, unwittingly perhaps, what has become a universal symbol of wealth, uncompromising craftsmanship and luxury- a Fabergé egg takes a year to make, and an original (of which there are only thought to be 50 odd surviving) can now expect to fetch £10 million at auction. Nearly 100 years after The House of Fabergé was shut down by the Bolsheviks in the midst of the Russian Revolution, the brand is well and truly back in the game. Creative control, which was lost in a 1951 licensing deal, is back with the family. Katharina Flohr, formerly at Russian Vogue, is at the helm. The course of history has also turned back in Fabergé's favour, with the Russian super-rich ready to spend in a comparable way to the ostentatious purchases which funded the rise of the original Fabergé boom. In fact, the house is one of the very few to have an authentic sense of Russian heritage.

A newly finished Fabergé egg. It takes one year to craft one of these as each
 layer of enamel colour must be separately applied and fired, all in a precisely correct order
otherwise it can crack and be ruined.

Under Flohr's leadership, Fabergé is re-imagining their founder's craft for the 21st century. Earlier this year, she told Forbes that “Rather than reproduce pieces, we think about what Fabergé would be making today, what he was inspired by and what he could be inspired by.” When I visited the Fabergé boutique just off Bond Street last week, it was immediately apparent that they're not taking the route of many other big jewellers. Instead, it is almost like stepping back in time to a friendly salon. You are greeted not by some swanky marketing campaign but by a cuddly toy cat on a cushion. The floor is snugly carpeted and the staff are friendly in familiar rather than fake way but also supremely knowledgable. Of course, I was accompanied by Fabergé's lovely PR ladies so maybe that was something to do with the very welcoming feel. Nevertheless, if I was wanting to spend several hundred thousand, this place would would certainly make me feel like I was investing in something unique and almost otherworldly.

The Mauve Room at Alexander Palace (image via alexanderpalace.org)

Trying a Treillage ring for size

Fabergé's latest creation is the Treillage series, a super modern looking collection of quilted rings, pendants and earrings. Belle Epoque style, Romanov Palaces, Empress Alexandra's favourite Mauve Room and button back furniture are all design references for the collection, evoking the nostalgia of  Peter Carl Fabergé's time, with the signature egg shape featuring prominently. However these are not chintzy, fussy jewels but solid, heavy, simple pieces which could be worn every day and needn't hold all those historical reminders if you didn't really want to think about them. Fabergé is still an extremely exclusive brand; the prices in the boutique are quite breathtaking. For example I had the privilege of holding a newly finished egg which was retailing at £280,000. Gulp. By that measure, Treillage is new territory for Fabergé because it is only in the single figures of thousands and is available to buy online, the brand's first foray into internet retail although there are still only a handful of each design. What a story to wear on your finger...

Treillage Treats...

SS13 FASHION FANTASIES: RODARTE'S FRINGE LEATHERS

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

A fantasy shopping list for SS13 would be, quite frankly, inaccurate if it didn't include an oversized, fringed biker jacket worthy of Steve McQueen. The kind which you could throw on over a wrap mini skirt and look like a very fashionable version of a woman sauntering out of a mid-America motel to meet her rough and ready lover. These are not the tight, thin, barely roadworthy leather jackets of yesteryear (think Victoria Beckham circa the birth of Brooklyn), but substantial garments which engulf, protect, only get better with age and would make a Hell's Angel proud.  

Rodarte turn teenage boy fantasies like Warhammer to fashion girl dreams.

In the case of the Mulleavy sisters at Rodarte, it was "fantasy role playing games" rather than weathered biker boys which formed the inspiration for their sublimely embossed, louche big bikers which could easily have been part of Game of Thrones' Ned's costume repertoire. The awesome coats were complimented by gowns worthy of a medieval banquet and sharp skirts and dresses which had a hint of  the Dungeons and Dragons armour to them. Kate and Laura's collection might have referenced that geeky subculture of World of Warcraft and Warhammer, but its appeal is to a whole different kind of geek. The Fashion Collector, or the Super Fan. The girls and women who have money to spend and very specific ideas about how they will be wearing the new season. I, and probably many of you reading this, fall somewhere on that particular spectrum of geekiness. And if you're anything like me, then you have fully digested the SS13 collections and are ready to gobble them up. For the record, when I say gooble up, I mean I know the one or two things that I want to spend serious money on and the other key pieces which I'll be looking for more affordable "interpretations" of.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

M'oda Operandi is here to help us gobble, with their Rodarte trunk show which is going on until Monday. The 'pretailer'- I love that term-has 13 looks from September's show which we can buy from right now, with delivery as early as March. You may want to splash your entire SS13 piggy bank now with 10,531 euros on a spectacular embroidered gown  or 4,361euros on one of those epic fringed bikers. For the slightly more restrained amongst us, there are beautifully printed tops for 957euros. Basically, we can get our guaranteed fashion thrills early. This must be how it feels to get first dibs on a new World of Warcraft extension game.

Catwalk images via Vogue.com

WILLIAM BLANKS-BLANEY AND OXFAM DO CHARITY SHOPPING FOR US

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

A rare Mary Quant

For those among you who have the uncanny talent of being able to stroll into a charity shop in deepest middle England and happen upon a Chanel 2.55 and pay £5 for it, this is not for you. Oxfam have  sensed that there are a fair few of us who would very happily get our fashion from charity shops, if only we didn't have to be so damn savvy, tireless and happy to spend hours sifting. Enter the man Vogue has proclaimed "The Vintage King", William Blanks-Blaney who has spent the past 6 months poring through 40 Oxfam shops as well as the charity's Huddersfield warehouse to pick out the very best pieces for his Oxfam Edit project- a year long collaboration which will involve fresh monthly online selections as well as styling videos from the celebrity and editor's go-to man for a  knock-out gown.

An Officer's jcket from 1895

A William favourite, the pumpkin cape

It's as if William has swept all the gems you might come across once in every ten charity shop trawls and gathered them all together in a great edit which can be shopped online now as part of Vogue's Online Fashion Week. It's part of William's wider mission to integrate charity shops into our shopping routines, "I want women to check out what's at Zara, go to Browns and then go to Oxfam, it can do the same job" he told me at the launch event last week. During his search, William came across some fashion stars amongst Oxfam's stocks including an original Mary Quant dress and a Suffragette's coat. It's hard to imagine the thrill one must feel when you discover a piece of history hidden away at the back of shop or in the corner of a giant warehouse. It's a feeling which William is used to in his work for WilliamVintage, the Marylebone boutique where he kits women out in everything from almost priceless 50s couture to £150 finds. "My clients aren't necessarily vintage devotees, they just want a great dress" William explains. It's that very same philosophy which has informed the Oxfam tie-up where I saw everything from Next and River Island to Gina and YSL.  William sums it up as "bringing Oxfam into a fashion context", where it's not necessarily about the label but how we wear it.

The theme of William's first styling masterclass is separates as party wear, a subject beautifully summed up in a modestly priced but sumptuous velvet jacket from Oasis which ties with a ribbon at the waist and happened to be one of William's favourite finds. Proof that the Oxfam project is not going to be about wildly overpriced designer donations but real clothes which will work in a super-fashion way with a little help and advice from WilliamVintage.

ADVENT: THE FASHION FAIRYTALE OF AW12

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

Each catwalk season, post shows the FashEd and I absorb ourselves in teasing out every trend, theme and nuance from what we've seen. For AW12, it was all about a fairytale. Looks jumped out at us like characters off a picture book page, scary and sweet in equal measures. While it may be the case that the Autumn/ Winter collections are an almost a disappearing memory, with the start of the sales and the arrival of Resort collections in shops, it actually only just feels like the right time to be really getting excited about these looks; the opulent decorations, the sumptuous velvets and ostentatious embellishments are properly about Winter luxury and legend. So for FEAL's Advent contribution, we will be revisiting an AW12 look every few days along with allusions to the myths and folklore which they seem to allude to, before they vanish forever into a fairy dust haze of Spring/ Summer graphics and brights. We hope you enjoy them and have a very merry festive season.

Love,

Bethan and Melanie xx

Gucci's Swashbuckling Musketeer

“My son, be worthy of your noble name, worthily borne by your ancestors for over five hundred years. Remember it’s by courage, and courage alone, that a nobleman makes his way nowadays. Don’t be afraid of opportunities, and seek out adventures. My son, all I have to give you is fifteen ecus, my horse, and the advice you’ve just heard. Make the most of these gifts, and have a long, happy life.” 

From Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers