WILL YOU WEAR THE NEW UGLY SHOES?

Posted by Fashion Junior at Large

Stella McCartney SS12

I would hazard a guess, correct me if I'm wrong, that you have at least one pair of shoes which you can barely walk in, they rub the skin from your feet and blister with such ferocity that they can easily be filed under the category of 'torture instruments'. But you wear them anyway. Heels have never been the most practical item but in recent years they have reached fetishistic levels thanks to the likes of Christian Louboutin, Alexander McQueen et al.

Christopher Kane SS12

Well ladies, the tide has turned in what seems to be the most extreme way we could have anticipated. There are still enough super high platforms gracing the catwalks this round of fashion weeks but a few highly influential designers including Christopher Kane and Stella McCartney have begun the backlash by showing shoes which look plain ugly to my eye, usually accustomed to some femininity and leg-flattering in a shoe. I am not saying that these shoes ARE ugly because our perceptions are really quite fickle and can quickly change once we become used to a new shape or style. But this one's a tall order, will I really wear a shoe next Summer which resembles the 20 year-old flip flops my Dad has had since the first summer holiday I can remember?

J.W Anderson SS12

Furthermore, these shoes are about much more than just offering a comfortable alternative. My current shoes of choice are slipper style flats- they are a dream for rushing about town but also look elegant and feminine. So, the new uglies are more about the issuing of a blatant, unmistakable challenge to fetish 10inch heels. My slipper flats just get on with their job whereas some clumpy sports sandals scream, 'LOOK AT HOW COMFORTABLE AND UNSEXY I AM'. I, for one, will be fascinated to see whether this a trend which translates or a catwalk gimmick. Surely pigs will fly before we see Anna Dello Russo in a nice sensible trainer?

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!

THE LATEST, GREATEST WEBSITE FOR NEW DESIGN TALENT

Posted by Fashion Junior at Large

 Eudon Choi at YoungBritishDesigners.com

After being inspired by all the amazing new talent on show at London Fashion Week, we were greeted with some great news this morning. Many of the up-and-coming designers who we met at LFW (including Charlotte Taylor, Eudon Choi and JW Anderson) are working with a new online retail project called, appropriately, www.youngbritishdesigners.co.uk.

Having been launched just over two weeks ago, the project aims to 'create the first dedicated retail environment purely focusing upon young talent working in this country' and to celebrate the risks that British designers take in order to create the world's most exciting fashion. Edited selections from the 36 designers' collections are available to purchase from the site, often in limited runs - these are future collectibles, after all.

We spoke to Julian Whitehead, one of the founders of the website, along with his partners Debra Hepburn, Adrianna Wheatley and Stuart Jackson (the latter two hit on the original concept after being inspired at LFW AW10, back in February.) They turned to Debra and Julian for some practical advice on how to get the project started, and the team's combination of experience in advertising, marketing and fashion, along with a healthy dose of youth and enthusiasm has contributed to its success. According to Julian, the YBD staff are committed to "producing something new and exciting, as well as giving something back to the UK fashion industry. We want to set people off on their chosen paths, and hope that the site will help them along the way."

This is a great platform for making contemporary fashion talent accessible to the public, at a much earlier than normal stage in a young designer's career. They  were possibly the first people to spot and stock Felicity Brown, who most recently designed for Lanvin as well as selling her collection through the youngbritishdesigners site.

 Felicity Brown at www.youngbritishdesigners.com

The roster of designers is an evolving process and the buying team hope to add new collections to the site as and they discover them. By next season, there will be a host of new names added to the website's line up. YBD should help these future fashion legends to begin building their own design legacy, and enable savvy shoppers to buy a little piece of creative history.

www.youngbritishdesigners.com

SWAROVSKI LFW PREVIEW: J.W. ANDERSON

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

Fashion week previews are a privilege afforded to very few fashion journalists. However, it is something I have been doing unofficially for years. It helps me understand the season if I understand where the designer is coming from, and the designers themselves like a sounding board who offers both constructive criticism and positive encouragement as well as downright admiration.
This season for the SS11 shows in London Swarovski wanted to know if I would like to blog about the young designers they work with, and since I was doing some of them anyway, I agreed.
Tonight I start the previews by sharing my visit to see J.W Anderson at his studio/apartment. J.W shows his womenswear on Saturday at 5pm, and his mens next Wednesday.

Jonathan with his hunk of Swarovski off-cut that he used to make his LFW film look psychedelic

"I'm not here to change fashion - I just want to give it a narrative."

I first met Jonathan W Anderson (above) a few years ago when he was still doing jewellery and was fresh out of a relationship from Rufus Wainwright, for whom he designed stage costumes. Back them he was finding his path as a menswear designer. Now he has a growing menswear business, a new womens label,  and has recently signed two successful straight from the runway sales deals with Liberty for his womens clothes and Oki-Ni for his mens.

He is unlike any designer I have met in many ways - number one among them is that he completely embraces digital culture and social media. His blog gets 1500 hits a day from people around the world, (when I was there he was answering an email from a fan in Chile). I've just been watching on his blog the nattily edited film from yesterday showing how to bleach Liberty Print, set to Miles Davis.  

In addition Jonathan is trained in drama, and this, combined with having an English teacher for a mother means he name-drops Joyce and Dostoevsky more readily that Prada and Comme.

This is Jonathan's mood board of William Gedney images from the photographers Nantucket series

S/S 11 INSPIRATIONS:
"My new collection is about a girl and a boy running away from a privileged upbringing to take a road-trip across America, experimenting with LSD (which I have never tried, but would have liked to!). Unsung photographer William Gedney's images of a Nantucket family have also been a huge inspiration. Gedney was photographing during the 50's and 70's, and was taught by Diane Arbus but his work is not widely known. Both collections have been based on a smorgasbord of youth culture, as seen in Karlheinz Weinberger's book of photographs of German teenagers recreating American teen stereotypes, and Patrick Frey's collection of Swiss punk and new wave images in the book Hot Love (both below). The colours of the collection were inspired by 70's sugar crystal trees and the way light refracts and diffuses through crystals. I asked them for off-cuts and asked for the giant lumps of crystal from which they carve crystals...they thought it was an eccentric request, but we used this lump (the one he is holding above)to make our video look trippy. We also asked them for crystal leftovers, and so got a lot of random bits and bobs which we upcycled."

   Page view of Karlheinz Weinberger: Photos 1954-1995

JWA PHILOSOPHY:
"There is always a storytelling element to my collections. As well as that, the fact that we design for a London audience means we have to consider two extremes: the work has to be avant garde and exciting, but also a viable prospect for buyers. We like to keep our buyers informed during every step of the design process.

I don't want to keep my work private, I want to let people in - and it seems that people want to know more about us. Canon have sponsored us and the amazing cameras they have given us mean we can make videos of the creative process (how to bleach out Liberty print fabrics, how to add the Swarovski crystals to our shoe designs and the casting videos). We have also created a fashion film as our womenswear presentation, which was shot by shining light through giant crystal off cuts into a dark room filled with powder, which achieved the magical LSD effect."

"The film we've dome for LFW was shot by Sherif Hamzar, Steven Klein's old assistant. Robbie Spencer styled it."

"I wanted to revive the lost art of doilie making, so I've sent my team out to find old ones. They take days to make. I'm using them to create T-shirts." (below)

"This dress is inspired by my friend Yasmin Sewell."

"A bra top from the womens range covered with the leftover Swarovski crystals"

  "I found this kid on the street in Copenhagen, his name is Ben and he will be opening my menswear show on Wednesday."

"My team"

From Karlheinz Weinberger book

All photos: Fashion Editor at Large