HENRY HOLLAND VS THE 90S

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

In the run up to my getting the hell out of London, I missed quite possibly the best pre-collction lookbook of the Resort 12 season, by Henry Holland. Ok, so its not quite a look-on-look display, and you don't feel you get the measure or feel of the collection but damn if its not the most perfect expression of the House of Holland brand possible. Fashion Film viewed via the Internet is shaping up to be the best way forward for young brands to express themselves. As evidenced by the beyond sexy British model Eliza Cummins (who really can dance)working it to Neneh Cherry's Buffalo Stance (I like, know every word)in the style of the Groove Is In the Heart video by Dee-lite, this House of Holland lookbook is my favourite bit of fashion fluff right now.

PRE COLLECTION SS12 from House of Holland on Vimeo.

LFW TREND SPOT #2: TWEED

Posted by Fashion Junior at Large

The general consensus flying around Somerset House is that next season is all about English heritage style, and if there is one fabric that captures the essence of English-ness, it's good old-fashioned tweed.

Yes, tweed. The fabric of grandad caps, riding jackets and skirts worn by geography teachers everywhere has been embraced by London designers across the board, and been made to look fresh, exciting and desirable. Blame the Royal wedding, blame the Olympics, even blame the Kings Speech, if you like, because for a while now, there has been a feeling that now is the right time to celebrate our culture and style heritage. Tweed is the perfect fabric to showcase this feeling, and just as silk has overtaken jersey as the reigning summer fabric, tweed has replaced leather as the outerwear fabric of choice for Autumn/Winter 11. These tweedy collections show just how brilliant the Englishwoman can look, if she puts her mind to it. 

Jaeger London

 

AW11 for Jaeger was strong, powerful and elegant. Large lapels on knee skimming jackets with military pockets, and high waisted, wide leg trousers gave traditional tweed a contemporary feeling, whilst referencing its' classic style.

House of Holland

Trust Henry to take something traditional and give it a cheeky twist. The tweed skirt suit was updated with a flippy mini length and black velvet lapels, while the hot pink colour swiftly vamoosed any granny-chic connotations. The classic sweater and slacks combo was also created in a yellowy orange tweed, lending the entire collection a very tongue-in-cheek feeling of retro, ladylike dressing with added naughtiness.

Margaret Howell

 Margaret Howell's extremely elegant collection made me want to throw out my garish wardrobe and start again with a neutral palette, refined, classic pieces and some incredible, belted, tweed outerwear. So simple, yet so completely beautiful.

JW Anderson

 

Both myself and the Fash Ed are MASSIVE JW Anderson  fans, and were so excited to see his debut collection just for gals. His womenswear contained all the elements that make us go crazy for his menswear, and in the AW11 presentation he mixed traditional tweed for outerwear with Liberty silks, for a double dose of English heritage.

Mulberry

Mulberry's brilliant English countryside-inspired collection is the perfect vehicle for the tweed trend. Again, updated with a modern colour palette of deep pinks and forest greens, their tweed jackets are the perfect item to get the urban fox running around in some fields, while still looking stylish.

 Holly Fulton got playful with tweed, oversizing it and using yellow and black threads to make the fabric come alive!

And last but not least, we have just returned from the typically awe-inspiring Erdem show, where, shock horror, a little bit of tweed crept in amongst his trademark prints. Pictures to follow later!

Basically, if you are wearing anything this Autumn, better make it tweed. London has spoken.

All images: Chris Moore Catwalking (except for Holly Fulton, from Style.com)

LONDON FASHION WEEK AW11: THE HIGHLIGHTS SO FAR #1

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

We're into day three of LFW. It gets majorly busy from here on in, but we've found an hour to share what is inspiring us.

   JONATHAN SAUNDERS DIVINE MODERN ELEGANCE

This collection puts Jonathan in the big leagues for me

The designer totally reinvented his print technique, the mix of print and graphic is brilliant

 J.W ANDERSON SHOW

Fierce faced model Hannah Noble at J.W Anderson. This  outfit is so fresh, young and accomplished looking. More surprising still that this is the designer's second womenswear collection.  

  

DANIELLE SCUTT COMEBACK

Danielle Scutt back on the runway off-schedule Saturday morning after self-imposed exile. It was a tightly edited very Danielle-at-her-best kind of show. Sexy and fierce all at once with great gold jewellery piled on. We really like the fake-hair tassel earrings. Tassel earring being most popular also in New York. Danielle is a talent who finds the limelight hard, but she worked it and produced a collection to be proud of.

HOUSE OF HOLLAND NAUGHTY & NICE JUMPERS

Henry's friends tittered on the front row when this jumper, modelled by this butter-wouldn't-melt demure young lady, appeared on the catwalk. At the end of his show Henry took his bow wearing one. In slang sign-language it apparently means "shall we fuck?". Though we would like confirmation of this. Any sign language experts out there?

Henry also did some more tasteful looks, such as this. Jumpers/sweaters whatever you call them, are going to be major for AW11. Love the pearl detailing on this jumper. Also the orange/yellow flecked herringbone tweed trousers are special. Its a young royal, gone cool. I feel strongly that Henry is stepping smack-bang into the fashion territory vacated by Luella Bartley whern her business closed down. Smart boy.

CHARLES ANASTASE FRENCH DOLLY GIRLS

Double-breasted coats, jackets and car-coats are popping up all over the runway. A huge trend in the making too, is that for looping a seemingly endless woollen scarf multiple times around the nek to create a scarf larger than an in-flight-pillow. Oh and wide-leg trousers are here to stay.

WILL UPDATE MORE LATER!

MALIBU BARBIE: THE NEW STYLE ICON FOR SS11?!

Posted by Fashion Editor and Junior at Large

I'm in Paris. I love my little hotel on Rue St Honore, and how its just a block from Colette. In the cafe downstairs the manager even remembers my favourite red wine. The first 24 hours have been hectic. I interviewed Heidi Klum at the Ritz for Grazia, not before practically walking into Mario Testino in the lobby, and then being caught up in the flurry of Naomi Campbell leaving the building. Then there was Cavalli's amaaaazing party (read about in Grazia next week). After delivering the copy my first show was Balmain. Read the review over on Grazia Daily.

In the meantime, we have been thinking about the most important looks from London, and have realised that there is a new style icon in town.

Meet the muse for SS11: the one and only Malibu Barbie.

 

 The original Malibu Barbie, circa 1971

Having been released in 1971, Malibu Barbie is an icon from the era that nearly every designer referenced in their SS11 collections. Originally, she was sold wearing a fetching aqua swimsuit, with an eveningwear ensemble called 'Lemon Kick' - a yellow confection of pleated chiffon, with on-trend angel sleeves and flared trousers. 

As bizarre as it may sound, it does seem that Malibu Barbie's pastel-perfect colour scheme, love of a pleat and a way with floaty chiffon has indeed influenced what we will all be wearing next summer. The catwalks were awash with a palette of aqua, vibrant pinks, and flashes of yellow. Sleeves, capes, trousers and dresses were billowing silk-chiffon affairs in very Seventies styles, and denim was always in the palest of Charlie Girl washes. There were large helpings of crystal glitter (a Barbie essential), A-line shapes were enhanced with pleating and the abundance of fringing added to the Malibu beach feel. 

Still don't believe us? Let the pictures speak for themselves...

 House of Holland SS11

 

  House of Holland SS11

Richard Nicholl SS11

 

Giles SS11

 Unique SS11

 Matthew Williamson SS11

Mark Fast SS11

 Richard Nicholl SS11

It's not just the clothes, either. California golden blonde flicky hair, rainbow eye makeup, neon pink highlights and glittery lipgloss were the key runway beauty looks. Remind you of anybody?

Julian J Smith SS11

So there you have it: Malibu Barbie, inspiring girls since 1971, and the style icon for the new season. 

Images: Mattel, Style.com

SWAROVSKI LFW PREVIEW: FFS, its HENRY HOLLAND!!

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

Henry

Henry is a busy man. Fresh from a trip to New York last weekend where he hosted a Fashion's Night Out party with ASOS.com (for whom he designed a special maxi dress) and Teen Vogue, he bounded into his studio to meet with us having just been at the gym. "I saw Erdem and I often see Richard Nicoll, now all we need is Chris and Tammy Kane to make it a fashion happening," he quipped before skipping off to spruce his famous quiff back into place with some Elnett. 

He seems weirdly calm, I tell him, for a man with a catwalk show in four days. "I am weirdly calm. We're organised. There's ten people working here, at this stage we're taking delivery of something new every day from our various suppliers. It's like Christmas every day," he says and as if to prove his point his gorgeous production manager Anna signs for a large box and flourishes it in our direction. It turns out to be T-shirts in various cuts (cropped tops, Y back vests, trad T-shirts) featuring the banana print shown below in various colours. The cerulean blue is my favourite.

Then he tells me and the fashion junior about his latest two discount cards; we all love a discount card in the fashion biz. Henry Holland has a Woolworths.co.uk pick n mix card, (oh lawdy how I would love one of those) "the sweets come within three hours!!" he marvelled while chugging down a cola bottle. He is also the proud recipient of a Nandos card. Nandos feed him and five interns once a week or so. Here's a thing: Nandos is every fashionistas secret favourite fast food restaurant.

                                                 Banana leaf print Henry has developed for his SS11 HOH collection

SS11 INSPIRATION

"It started with the 70s, Studio 54, and the (1980) film Xanadu, and progressively got more and more Joan Collins and Joan Rivers. It's glitzy...but I hate the word glitzy...sophisticated is better The collection is bright, fun and young with it, but not as young as before. We're getting a bit more grown up; there's a bit of Jackie O in there. The main print is the banana leaf, which we have Swarovski'd. The banana leaf print is part inspired by the wallpaper of the restaurant Indochine in New York and part inspired by the episode of Friends when Monica is in the Bahamas and has to get her hair braided because of humidity."

He then shows me some great bustier dresses hung with fringing - take it from me, London designers are TOTALLY OBSESSED with fringing this season - and says "I'm getting my hairdresser to do some looks with the fringing." We approve.

The House of Holland studio on Charlotte Road

As you can see from the board below, Henry's shapes are cute and girlie and verging on terribly chic, but the fun in them makes them young and cool. There is copious use of gold chainmail - another Xanadu connection - and a lot of Swarovski encrusted stars, as well as darling dresses and jackets.  "I have definitely used up my Swarovski allowance this season," he says. 

The look-boards for the SS11 collection. Love how their "girl" is a mini Anna Wintour

FASHION SHOW GOSSIP?

"I'm working with BlackBerry again. Look," he says whipping out his new BlackBerry Torch, "I've got a BlackBerry Torch." Henry is such a show off.  While I seethe with jealousy (sort of) he reveals the fruits of his latest collaboration with them. "I've created a BlackBerry Torch cover that has an ear on the back of it, so when the phone is to your ear, you've got an ear on show!! We've made a hole in the ear for an earring, and we have made small versions of the House of Holland earrings for SS11 which are a Swarovski stud leading to a chain hung with a giant fluffy hoop. Next year we are hoping to create a rubber ear that is 3D." He has also collaborated for the first time with Charlotte Olympia, and the shoes look divine. To see his novelty ear thing for BlackBerry go to his sponsored blog, or rather look at this hilar photo of Sienna Miller from the blog....  

...and this one - with a better view of the ear/earring - modelled by accessories designer Katie Hillier

Now on with the show, which takes place tomorrow at 4.15pm.