LFW AW12 Day Two: The highlights

Hi guys,
It could just be me, but I think there are more people than ever at Fashion Week this year! The courtyard at Somerset House is full most of the day, and buzzing with creative fashionable people who want to be seen: some of the outfits are as outrageous as ever!

Also at Somerset House were Topshop, selling the 'New Gen 10' T shirt collection from the back of a van. Topshop are always ahead of the curve when it comes to utilizing the buzz from LFW to market their products: the season the Christopher Kane collaboration launched I missed my first show to get my hands on that gorrilla tee. And the Mary Katrantzou collection which launched on Friday has sold out already. Nevermind showcasing trends and collections for next winter: fashion week is fast becoming the place to go to pick up key pieces right now!

My schedule for the day involved four shows: Spijkers en Spijkers, Bernard Chandran, Shao Yen and Ashley Isham. The day wear at Bernard Chandran didn't leave me particularly inspired, but this was more than made up for by the outstanding eveningwear. The rich blue lace gown (above) was the stand out piece from the collection. The collars on each frock was high; the design feature that held the collection together. Colour-wise, monochromatic black, white and grey was the order of the day The only highlight of colour was the electric blue, and those pieces really popped! Overall the collection had all of the sculptural simplicity I love most about Chandran's work.

My photos from Spjikers en Spjikers just aren't good enough to share, but the collection is definitely worth looking up. The colour palette was rich and bold (perfect for long cold winter days) and the collection was inspired by eccentric society girl Edie Bovier Beale. I especially loved the utilitarian 1920s-style hair.

If I didn't already have a slight obsession with knitwear, the Shao Yen presentation would have made me want to start my love affair all over again! The room was packed for the presentation, but it was definitely worth the pushing and shoving to see the collection up close. It was inspired by a quintessentially British style, and I liked it alot. That white dress is definitely on my "when I win the lottery" list....

Finally, I always love Ashley Isham: the dresses are just begging to be worn on the red carpet, and this year was no exception. The collection was inspired by "the city girl with a passion for clean lines, contemporary statement dresses and tailoring". I loved the colour scheme, which was the perfect mix of cool and rich tones. Think patriot blue, emerald, fig, black iris, smoked pearl and antique gold.

Spotted on the front row were Jameela Jamil, Jodie Harsh, and Michelle Keegan of Coronation Street fame, looking surprisingly fantastic in a graphic printed Andrew Majtenyi frock. I do admit I'm the world's worst celebrity spotter though, so I could have seen lots more celebs and just not noticed....

Love Tor xx

LFW SS12: Bernard Chandran

Hi guys,

I always enjoy the Bernard Chandran show at London Fashion Week, and I thought this year was better than ever.

The inspiration of the show was the 1950s glamour that once inspired the designers mother. But there were no twee full skirts here, and above all the collection felt thoroughly new and modern. The cuts were clean and simple: pencil shapes and straight lines topped with white cotton gloves. But with curved sculptural detailing that I completely adored! The outfits towards the end of the show that featured the white cut-out embroidery were by far my favourites:

The colour palette was at its best when it was muted, but the collection also featured greens and turquoise blues.

Of the collection, Chandran said: "This season I pay tribute to my mother. I discovered myself through her. I am truly inspired by her younger days of the fifties, where they actually took the effort to be fashionable. Given the limited resources at that time, she would take the pain to create and sew her own clothes, and put them together to look stylish. I truly admire her creativity, the passion to create and the effort to look good." Aww, I have such a soft spot for people that love their mums!

Have you been checking out the London Fashion Week coverage this season? What's been your favourite show so far?

Love, Tor xx

PS - Are you following me on facebook and twitter? Please do: I'll be sharing lots of little updates from the shows over the next couple of days!

London Fashion Week: Bernard Chandran and Belle Sauvage on day 2

Hi guys,

Day two of fashion week started with lots of rain, which lead to an outfit dilemma: comfort or style?! I went for comfort in my skinny jeans and brogues, but still ended up with cold wet feet. This probably has something to do with the hours spent queuing outside in the rain: The Bernard Chandran show was especially late. At least my hair didn't get wet: thank God for my Lulu Guiness umbrella from Brand Alley! The queuing was made much more bearable because I bumped into Jenny from the Style PA enroute to my first show, and we kept ourselves occupied with chatting and gossiping.

The Bernard Chandran show

Although it was delayed, the Bernard Chandran show was worth the wait. I was in the worst possible position to take pictures, so I won't bore you with loads of grainy wobbly shots, and you'll have to make do with description instead:

As this grainy shot shows, the colours were bold and bright, and the collection features lots of hood and capes, even on more formal dresses. Coats and jackets were oversized and quilted with cinched in waists, and this theme was taken into the evening wear with my favourite piece of the show: a floor length quilted evening gown.

Around the waist of almost every outfit was an adornment i'm going to describe as a one sided peplum on a thick black belt. These gave each piece a very structural almost architectural feel, and were a key focus point because, aside from several pieces in vibrant red lace, the embellishment was fairly minimal this season.

The Belle Sauvage show

I love Belle Sauvage, and it's always one of the shows I look forward to. The prints are always phenomenal, and the music and attendees are always too cool for school. (Which I am obviously not, because I use phrases like too cool for school!) I loved everything about this show: the dresses, the modern-rebel hair, the styling.

The prints were considerably more toned down and muted than they have been in previous seasons. The dresses were figure hugging with bold shoulders and slash details. Hems were either super short or ankle length, but I saw enough slender thighs to be able to say the midi will be long gone for Belle Sauvage by this time next year.

As always though, the focus was more about the print than the cut. One thing I couldn't stop focusing on was the shoes: they were epic! Seriously high and severe black wedges with endless embellishment: fringing, studding, chains, you name it! They were exactly to my taste, and truly irresistable!

Love, Tor xx

Bernard Chandran SS10: A taste of the orient

I really liked the Bernard Chandran collection last season, so I had great expectations for his efforts for SS10. Although there were none of the coats and heavy sleeve details that I had fallen for last season (I guess this stands to reason given it's a spring/summer show) I wasn't disappointed. This is the perfect grown up collection; every piece could be tweaked into a sophisticated outfit. Except the facemasks and hats of course- not sure what you'd do with those!
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The first dresses to come out were fabulous fluid silk with an amazing bamboo print. The structure of the pieces was emphasised by the direction of the printed grain:

The headwear was beautiful, and at one point received a mid-show ripple of applause from the audience (for the fishes below)
Sadly, moments later this headpiece made a bit for freedom; the model kept her cool and just kept walking, holding it instead. This was the first of 3 blunders; a model stumble (I also saw one of those at Ashley Isham in the morning) and runaway boobies (nipple alert! nipple alert!) The model was a real trooper, and just kept walking!

The collection jumped from being very fluid to being very structural: on the one hand flowing silk and on the other stiff structured lantern skirts.
The colour pallette was very muted with lots of black and dove grey. This was broken up by the bamboo print and the occassional flash of orange.
Overall I really liked this collection; definitely worth the sweaty panting gross run to make it to the show on time!

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I have one more post to write and then it's time to get ready for today's shows: bring it on!!

Love, Tor xxx

London Fashion Week aw09 - Day 3

Firstly apologies for the delay in posting these; who wants to read about what happened at LFW on Sunday on a Tuesday!? But blogger has been hating me and rejecting my photo uploads. And this just isn't any fun without photos! Secondly, apologies for not showing you what I was wearing but a) I got delayed by a phone call and was in a massive rush and b) it was far too dull to even talk about! I kept on the skinny jeans and t shirt I had been wearing to help my boyfriend build flat pack that morning (it seems that lately ikea is my life!) and threw on my grey brogues and my red St Michael coat. Needless to say I felt very unfashionable indeed.

My first stop was the Modernist presentation on Carnaby street. I wasn't really very impressed with either the presentation or the collection. On the london fashion week website when asked what had inspired the collection they replied; “Folk, craftwork and the macabre,” “the concept of an African winter. A lot of dark textures with flashes of metallic leather and shearling.” Whilst I will say that the attention to detail with the stitching and the panelling was impressive, and the sense of the starkness and macabre was overwhelming, to me the whole thing seemed rehashed, including the black birdcages that were the only set.

The item I liked most was a cropped boxy jacket with fringing on the epilets, but it felt to me like something I had seen so many times before.

From there I went on the the Bernard Chandran show in the Science Museum. The show was due to start at 7.30, and learning from yesterdays mistake, I arrived at 7.10....only to sit and wait for over an hour before they even started seating people for the show! What to do!

It was worth the wait though. To the beat of booming pulsating thudding music (which made my head hurt) the show opened to reveal a wealth of amazing dresses. I didn't read the blurb as this time I didn't have a seat, so I don't know what the theme was supposed to be, but it felt very urban space man to me: lots of muted metallics and sharp angles, and of course, oversized Star Wars style hoods!

This structure seemed more important than anything else. Like almost every other show there was also a very 80s overtone; lots of big shoulders and oversized sleeves. I was also a big fan of the elbow length wide topped gloves that I saw here and at Modernist.
I really liked the gathering along the sleeves and bodices, and I can see this being big on the highstreet next winter! Apologies for the blurry movement in all of the pictures - those models were stomping down the catwalk!

So far all of the shows i've been to have flashed by like a blur; do they really only last two minutes or does it just feel like it!?

I read an article in the london paper last week that said there are two types of people who go to London Fashion Week; those who go to see, and those who go to be seen. Well I'm definitely in the "to see category",mostly because i'm not famous or fashionable enough to be seen, but also because the whole thing just makes me feel even more socially awkward than I normally am! New additions to my list of things to work on this year: small talk and making introductions. Even when I can tell people are trying to make an effort (thanks people who did!) I just don't know what to say and feel like i'm making a fool of myself. I hope i'm not!

Straight home after the show (without even stopping for a little drink, I had to be up at 6.30 the following morning for work!) I'm so damn glam aren't I?! But at least I have tonight's Independent Fashion Bloggers party to behave recklessly at to make up for it!

I don't know what i'm looking forward to most....meeting all the amazing bloggers I read every day or putting on my outfit!

Love,

Tor