CANT WAIT TO WEAR...CAN'T WAIT NOT TO WEAR....

Posted by the Fashion Editor at Large

CAN'T WAIT NOT TO WEAR: in my Woolrich parka, GAP khaki's and motorbike ankle boots

CAN'T WAIT TO WEAR: my new pair of what I am calling my rose-tinted spectacles from the 70's. 

A quick post on the END OF THE WINTER SEASON. When you are a fashion journalist on daily or weekly print meda, January is a long month.  This is because in fashion-land, winter ends with the cessation of winter sales and the arrival of new season spring stock into stores. Today was that day, and the longest month of the fashion year is now over. I will celebrate with one YAY! 

This is good news for me as a fashion journalist on the simple level that I can now write stories that have follow through (imaginary or otherwise) at retail level for readers. All the information gleaned and absorbed at the SS10 shows in London/Milan and Paris now has relevance to the fashion-loving public and the fashion journalist can unleash all those thoughts, ideas and fashion facts. After all, there is not much use writing about the trend for wearing pink with khaki if there are rails of sale coats in the shops.

For me personally, the first day of fashion spring is a one for me to hit the shops to see how retailers have bought into the collections. What is in a shop - high end fashion, or high street - is almost NEVER exactly the same as what was in the lookbook you saw, or the catwalk show you viewed for that season. Strange, but true and the reason why a shopping recce is essential.  

ANYWAY. I shopped in a carefully planned and perfectly executed manoeuvre on the Marylebone High Street today, and the experience served to remind me 1. that there is a whole new fashion uniform to get to grips with this season and 2. that my wardrobe is in desperate need of an overhaul. There are things that I love, such as my Woolrich parka - the fashion parka of the winter hands-down - and my Gap khakis (three seasons old) and the motrocycle boots by Gap (even older) that I have come to rely on heavily in this lull of darkest winter. Wearing these items yesterday on a jaunt to Brick Lane Market, (which I see through new eyes since being shown around by my old friend Tamsin O Hanlon just before Christmas) I realised they needed retiring.

This brings me neatly onto the phenomenon I have only just cottoned onto in my own life which I am calling the "I can't wait to wear" frisson. The items listed above (and what I'm wearing in the picture at the top) are things I now CANNOT WAIT NOT TO WEAR, because I want winter to end, and to start wearing my new clothes. (More about them later this week - for I bought two items of CELINE!!!! And a pair of Phillip Lim 3.1 carrot leg khaki's.)  

ALSO, I found the rose-tinted spectacles I'm wearing in the picture at Brick Lane yesterday for £25. These glasses are my new Spring facewear, items I CANNOT WAIT TO WEAR a whole lot more!

Now, I'd better go. A glass of Cotes-du-Rhone calls....

WHAT WAS IT LIKE AT THE 90'S SHOPPE?

Posted by the Fashion Editor at Large

So did the Nineties shop at Selfridges live up to yesterday's stroll down memory lane? Well it gave me a lot of food for thought.

Today I met with the lovely Lucy Willis and Linda Hewson, the two curators of the shop for tea and we chatted about how the idea came about.

"We wanted to kick off the new decade with something provocative and nostalgic," says Linda Hewson. "A lot of people who lived through the decade as adults actually remember very little about the Nineties. Maybe they were having too good a time."

"There was a lot of laughter when we first got the product list through, " says Lucy Willis. "We had opened the criteria right up, so each buying department had their bit."

It's true that what you get in the store is a bit of everything. Classic books of the decade - for me the ultimate was Trainspotting - old magazines, CDs. Spice Girls AND Nirvana? I noted. "They were as important as each other in their own way" says Linda. For me it was Massive Attack and Nirvana all the way.

Also on sale are CD Walkmans, a bit of Damien Hirst YBA merch, limited edition T-Shirts from 90's club night WORK IT (which I hear is the best party in London right now), make up, perfume, sunglasses and clothes. Cue CK One, Thierry Mugler 'Angel' and Mac cosmetics.

My favourite aspect from a fashion point of view was seeing a cardigan from a 1994 collection by Marc Jacobs (Official Grunge if you please) supplied by Rellik on one side of the room, and then the kind of beige Acrylic Grandad cardian with "woven" leather buttons for £15 from Beyond Retro on the other side of the room. The very kind of piece that inspired Marc to do Grunge in the first place.  There is also some great Alaia tailoring, some Pam Hogg, a precisely tailored black Comme jacket with a split through the ribcage, and a Perspex Chanel link belt - but be quick. Everything supplied by Rellik is one off. Sadly NO Helmut Lang there today.

I got magazine collection envy when I saw the below. I collect magazines but lost HALF of my 90's collection - precious copies of The Face and Blitz - when a flat-share I had in Stoke Newington went wrong and I was locked out by my Bi-Polar flat-mate. As a die-hard fan of the youthful beauty of Kate Moss I might be back for the below set of covers. But will I ever regain the June 1990 cover of The Face featuring Kate that I used to treasure?

I will sign off tonight by showing you the products I am most likely to buy from this shop; namely the limited edition T-Shirts from the girls behind WORK IT. And here they are!

Oh and a big thankyou to Linda and Lucy who gave this blogger a good time. What fun they had creating this shop!

That's Lil Kim on the left; a crop top that says Work IT in the middle (not for me) and Biggie Smalls on the right. May he RIP.

The 90's are Vintage shop at Selfridges is open until 31 January with new stock arriving every week until its over.

WHY DO I FEEL SO WILD?

Posted by the Fashion Junior at Large

So, as you may have guessed from previous posts, much of our time recently has been occupied with attending press days. There has been a great deal of cooing, and LOTS to absorb, mentally compartmentalise and digest.

One trend we noted is tropical birds – camp flamingo pendants and parrot motifs etc (Liberty went all out and had an actual parrot at their press day. How can you not love that?). It’s all very flamboyant – quite the opposite to the current preoccupation with the fiercer side of wildlife. I don’t know if it’s the increasingly cold weather or the fact that I’m broke perhaps, but I’m loving all the stags, tigers, wolfs, foxes, panthers, and anything else fighty and bitey swarming retail at the mo. I am Fashion Junior at Large, hear me ROARRRRR!

 Stella McCartney, £185

 Christopher Kane, £210

John Hardy, £300

ASOS, £30