MANOLO BLAHNIK AT LARGE IN LIBERTY!

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

I wanted a shot of Manolo and his niece Kristina, but the great man insisted I join the photo. Who was I to say no?

Photograph by Jenny Dyson

A fun morning for a Friday. After a visit to Spanish designer Emilio de la Morena to learn more about him and his work, (will post later) I popped along to Liberty to see Manolo Blahnik who was presiding over The Heritage Suite of the building with his Autumn/Winter range. Normally we would view his new collections at his store on Old Church Street. Today we were invited to Liberty.

What was going on?

"There is a reason we are here", confided a wonderfully chic, aristocratically tall young woman who turned out to be Kristina Blahnik, the daughter of Manolo's sister Evangeline. Another Blahnik! Who knew? This can only be a fabulous thing, as anyone who knows Manolo can testify.

Turns out Geoffroy de la Bourdonnaye the charming CEO of Liberty came up to Manolo at Claridges last October to pay homage to the great shoe designer and they ended up talking shop. After a pot of English tea, it was decided - Manolo Blahnik was to open a pop-up shop in Liberty during London Fashion Week this coming September. Next thing Ed Burstell, the fashion director of Liberty got involved, and before anyone knew it Manolo Blahnik's pop-up shop was staying not a week as initially planned, but for a three and a half month run until Christmas!

Cue an explosion of creativity from Mr Blahnik who is only just recovering from a fall in snow and ice outside his Chelsea store in December. Manolo has (so far) designed three new Liberty prints. He has, he tells me, long been a fan of the Liberty print, they have been used in many a shoe interior. Manolo is also creating special products for the store, and his new collection includes several exclusive colourways, styles and fabrications that will be available only at Liberty. I have never seen Ed Burstell so excited about a collaboration. He was hopping from foot to foot with excitement when he came to view the range.

Ed Burstell with one of his favourite Manolo exclusives. "This is a shoe with two looks," said Kristina Blahnik "it's an elegant high heel and a fashion high heel." The extra piece is a Blahnik version of the shin protection worn by Polo players.

"There will be scarves, cushions, hats, notebooks, Christmas cards, shoes..." says Ed.

"I'm in trauma!" said Manolo to that, waving his hand (the one with the broken middle-finger) around in a mock one-fingered salute. "I am such an obsessive perfectionist. I will be sick with neuroses by September!"

Clearly, Manolo is loving EVERY minute of this. It shows in the collection too, which I was shown through by Kristina Blahnik, who is an architect; "I still have my own practise," she says, "however my focus is now to work with my Uncle. Structure and proportion is my thing.  Liberty is amazing again too, no?" I agree.

At this point Manolo spots a smidge of fluff on the Afghani rug and instructs someone/anyone to "get rid of it!" Luckily, the offending fluff is swiftly removed and everyone present finds this funny. So now onto my high-points of the new collection.

Most important to note is the new last. Manolo has crated a new shoe/heel shape. It is beautiful.

 

Sorry for the quality! The new curvy last is shown in  full angular explosion in Manolo's illustration in the background, but these are the real life shoes created using pleated suede in place of elastic.

The "Yeti" group. First created by Manolo for Marni a decade ago, and back by popular demand. On the right is the "Isidora" with a 5cm kitten heel. In the centre the "Tasava" 10cm high heel. In black on the left is the flat "Turisa" boot. Put them with what Karl did for Chanel, and we've nearly got a trend.  

Manolo can do elegant fashiony kitten heels better than anyone. 

 Must learn my camera settings more thoroughly. The building across the road is in focus, not the shoe. *mortified*

 

The Manolo take on Timberlands above this shot. This shot, the "Carrie" flats worn by SJP's Carrie when she married Big in SATC. I love them; they would make any girl feel like a princess.  Also the high heel versions behind. Check out the illustration of the pinks! Also the 1940s model Dovima (see the postcard photograph of her mid-shot) is the inspiration for this group of shoes.  

"I designed all this with fantasy in my mind," said Manolo. "You've got to keep the poetry alive. I don't want to lose the poetry."

Bad photography by FEAL.

UPDATE!!!! ANOUCK LEPERE, PETER PILOTTO AND THE ZWAAN...

Posted by the Fashion Editor at Large

Anouck and her choux masterpiece

Last night, I attended the most wonderful dinner hosted by Peter Pilotto and Anouck Lepere in the secret room at Liberty of Regent Street. The wood panelled chamber was Arthur Lasenby Liberty's office from 1875 through to the late 1890's, and felt suitably atmospheric.

The soiree was to celebrate Peter Pilotto and his partner Christopher de Vos's much deserved win of best young designers at the British Fashion Awards last December, and several of us were encased in Pilotto dresses and feeling fabulous. The joy of a Pilotto dress is it is comfortable to wear despite looking like you may have to squeeze into a full-length body-stocking first. Peter and Christopher had spent hours preparing the room - the linen was starched to perfection, the floral clusters pretty reminders of summer and the food well chosen.

Guests included Yasmin and Amber le Bon, Mike Figgis, Sarah Mower, Jefferson Hack and the classical pianist Rosey Chan.

So, by now you must be wondering about this business with the zwaan. Well, the cream filled choux pastry shaped swan we enjoyed for desert was created especially for the evening by Anouck Lepere, who declared "I feel like Martha Stewart" when I snapped her for the above shot with my Blackberry. "I spent hours perfecting on the shape at home," she said miming the use of a pastry piping bag.

The Belgian supermodel is clearly a woman of many talents. She declared it was her patriotic duty to create the choux zwaan, (swan in Flemish), to keep her connection to the old country strong. In addition she revealed over desert - yes, we eventually did demolish the zwaan - that she studied architecture at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, the same school Christopher and Peter studied fashion, and then told me that the interior panelling of the entire Liberty store came from two ships. "This is a recycled shop! Very modern, no?"

Jefferson Hack, Mike Figgis, Rosey Chan, Anouck Lepere hanging out at Liberty before the Pilotto dinner.

Me, Geoffrey De La Bourdonnaye , (Chief Executive, Liberty) with Peter Pilotto and Christopher de Vos

 

Amber le Bon

Me and Monsieur Pilotto

Emma Elwick (Vogue), Karen Langley (Dazed) and Anouck of the Zwaan's (Maartha Stewart wannabe) 

All the photos bar the grainy top image were by an amazing girl andShiniqua. One of my favourite names, ever. They are great images. Thanks, Shiniqua!

ALL ABOUT THE FABBEST GIRL IN FASHION

FASHION INSIDER  #2  YASMIN SEWELL

Posted by the Fashion Editor at Large

Following on from last month's Fashion Insider interview with Sarah Mower, this month I bring you one of the best buyers in fashion, Yasmin Sewell.

Yasmin is one of the best respected and well-known fashion buyers in Britain, and is something of a celebrity in her homeland Australia. One Aussie summer I happened to be down in Sydney visiting Yasmin for her 30th when I spotted her in a celebrity magazine labelled as “the other woman” in the break-up of a famous Australian actor!!! Far from being the other woman, she has known said actor since childhood, and they were having fun on Bondi when the photograph was taken. Though, that is not to say she hasn’t had her fair share of actors. She was married to the delectable Rufus Sewell for most of her 20’s. Lucky lucky... But ANYWAY. That is not what I am here to tell you. Yasmin Sewell is a great friend of mine, and her story is an interesting one and not what you would expect. Her talent for picking fashion winners is rather prodigious: she was all over Christopher Kane the second he graduated, and was the first to champion ACNE in the UK. Her latest discoveries are numerous. I also admire that she gives her time for free to young designers such as the wonderful J.W Anderson, a talent of the future to be sure. Yasmin has exquisite taste, and her eye for what women want is up there with the greats. She is the creative consultant for Liberty, and at the Liberty press day last week, I could see her influence as clear as if it were her fingerprint. For the cost of a mere glass of white wine (she doesn’t drink much) and a few nibbles, Yasmin agreed to let me interrogate her about her life and career, how she came to develop her famously good taste and end up exercising her buying prowess in the fabulous fashion stores of London.

AND THEN YASMIN TOLD US EVERYTHING!

I left school at 15. I wanted to be free. I was rebellious. The teachers said “She has SO much potential.” I thought “What the fuck do they know?” The truth is I didn’t know what motivation was.

My teacher Mrs Nichols changed my life. She put me forward for a job with McGrath Partners estate agents. John, the guy who owned it, was a 26 year old self-made millionaire and motivational speaker. I got the job as an office assistant. Within three days everything I thought about life turned around. The job became my higher education. I don’t know where I’d be without it. I learned everything about business and running a company. By the time I left when I was 18 I was helping John run the company. Today he is a billionaire.

I call those days my Gloria Estefan period. I was a Lebanese girl in Sydney. I had waist length curly hair and my figure was more curvaceous than it is today. I wore conservative suits to work.

I shaved all my hair off when I was 19 and became the door bitch of a nightclub. After that only the kind of guys I liked would whistle at me in the street.

The single biggest event of my teens was the moment I fell in love with Rufus (Sewell).

Three days after I shaved my hair off I was sat in the Pacific Blue Room, a hot restaurant on Oxford Street in Sydney when Kiefer Sutherland walked in with this weird looking guy. He had these big big eyes. He was staring at me, and I was like “who is this weird guy?” Then a few minutes later I looked back at him, and that was it. It was love. The man was Rufus Sewell. A week later I had moved into his hotel. He was making a movie called Dark City. We became inseparable. Three months later I moved to London. That was it. I was 20.

London was all about building a career. Interning. I liked fashion, but I didn’t know what aspect.

I worked on the shop floor at Browns. I was just discovering my personal style. Then Rufus and I went to New York. I interned at Harpers Bazaar with Tonne Goodman. Then back in London I worked with Alison Edmond at Harpers and Queen as bookings editor.

Browns inspired me at retail, but I felt they had a snobbish attitude to service that was a bit old-school. Well it was 1995. I thought to myself “something is missing here”. John McGrath trained me in service, he is revolutionary. No pretension. For him good service had to be efficient, co-operative and about making the customer feel fantastic.

My “Eureka” moment came when a Sydney boutique called Museum asked me to buy some clothes for them. So I just made a few calls and did it without thinking.

Buying the clothes was such a buzz. There I was picking a dress someone would want six months later. Someone will buy it and it will make them happy.

That period made me. Within a few months I had found a shop that looked like a fashion design studio. It was upstairs, you had to ring a bell to get in and when you got there you could hang out as long as you wanted. I was 22. It took 18 months to launch. I called it Yasmin Cho. Cho is the name of my best school friend. People called me Yasmin Cho for years. The store was about embracing the avant-garde of the time. We were selling Susan Ciancolo, Imitation of Christ. A.F Vandervorst.

I remember seeing Rick Owens in the back corner of some dodgy showroom in Paris in 1998.

His jackets were just amazing. Now he is one of the best-selling designers in the world.

I was surprised that seeing and spotting and getting these designers seemed so easy to me. Was no one else seeing what I was seeing? After a while I realised I must have a good eye. I had no history as a buyer. How was I supposed to know?

I had no rules, no boss, no one saying “look at the sales of last season.” It was just about love.

With Yasmin Cho I took a lot of risks. Some didn’t pay off. In the end I failed. I had the wrong advisors and lost the business. I was screwed over. I let it happen. Failure was a privilege. Now when it comes to business I don’t let people mess me around.

Experience breeds caution. But it doesn’t mean the cowl neck that didn’t sell in ’99 won’t sell in 2009.

You never really know if something is going to work. But when I was at Browns from 2005-2008, and first saw Christopher Kane, I knew. If something doesn’t look like it will work, you’ve got to push it. Call the top five fashion journalists and the top ten customers and make it happen.

The secret of being a good buyer? Being tuned in. You’ve got to know what is happening. I get inspiration from what I haven’t seen. I can sense when a trend is coming to an end.

I listen to journalists. Big customers are influenced by magazines. Sometimes I buy things I don’t love but that the press love because I know customers will buy them.

My biggest success as a buyer was backing ACNE back in 2005. I had just arrived at Browns and when I walked into my office for the first time there was a pile of about 200 look books. I remember throwing them all away except ACNE. That was a good example of liking it because I hadn’t seen anything else like it. Their aesthetic didn’t exist then, and I knew that as SOON AS I SAW IT that it was going to be huge. And it was.

You’ll never see me in leggings and a tank top. I’m very petite – a size 6 – but I’m pear shaped with not the longest legs in the world, a 23 inch waist and a D-cup. You could say I have hidden curves. So I dress to accentuate my best bits which are my long neck and long, thin arms. Me in a pair of Sass & Bide skinny jeans? Yikes! Me in my long Sophia Kokosalaki dress? Yeah!

At one point in my life I listened ONLY to Marvin Gaye for three years.

Today I’m rocking a “portfolio career”. I work for Liberty, do a TV show for Fashionair, I mentor young designers and consult for designer labels and retail brands. I’m pretty happy.

Thanks Yazzy xxx

Yazzy is wearing a top by TOGA. (Last season, sadly)

http://www.yasminsewell.com/

Photo credit: Chris Brooks

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