Hello Peter Jensen, simultaneously launching new Menswear and Resort collections. There’s an image after the click that reminds me of going to see the Happy Mondays at Manchester Central Convention Complex (its old name, G-Mex, is way better) in June last year. The gig was packed with guys in football casual gear, which is the Best Look Ever. Hence I’m instantly drawn to the image (you’ll have to click!). That said, the Resort collection is actually influenced by the wardrobe of actress and husband collector Paulette Goddard in the 1939 film The Women, and her subsequent friendship with Andy Warhol. Love that graphic pea coat, above.
Hello colour, hello Max Mara Resort ’14. I thought Resort collections were for rich ladies going on cruises, while the rest of us slog out winter having to go to work. But look, coats and hats! More of the same after the click.
Images via style.com.
This is my favourite type of going out outfit right now, good news it’s going to see me through to 2014, as in the Proenza Schouler Resort collection. As well as this chic bit of early 90sness, I loved the label’s black-and-white looks…
Summer finally arrived in London at the weekend. Get it while it lasts folks! I am readying for the no-doubt imminent return of bad weather with this beautiful shoot, Sonia by Sonia Rykiel autumn/winter ’13 (via Trendland). More brilliant uses of paper after the click through…
Old copies of Vogue make you realise how many fashion brands must be saying, ‘Hang on, we’ve done this before, 20 years ago. Shall we just have a poke around in the cupboards, find the designs and do the same thing again? No one will mind!’ I certainly don’t mind, my mum wouldn’t let me wear any of it last time round. But now I am free! I loved the bold reds, pastels, prints and over-the-top tailoring then and I love them now…
The spring/summer collection from Swedish label Mes Dames. In designer Lisa Wikander’s words… ’The collection is inspired by Palma Bucarelli, the beautiful and bright heroine who played a significant role in the 20th century Italian art scene. She was assigned the role of inspector for the renowned Roman Borghese Gallery at the age of 23 and the first woman art museum director in Italy. Her impact on artists and contemporary cultural change makers throughout her carrier testifies her vital personality and charisma. Her appearance was always sophisticated and elegant.’ Photography: Anna Malmberg
Very beautiful (just like her autumn/winter collection). More chic, refined, elegant, general sexiness after the click-through…
I always think Patternity is like having another set of eyes that help you see the world in a different way. Both mathematical and poetic, these eyes pick up on the shadows, splashes, ripples, edges, corners and mixtures that might normally go unnoticed, or at least not be celebrated for their pattern. And it’s an addictive fella. Pattern Power / Superstripe is the team’s first annual festival of pattern exploration, which will be about ‘celebrating pattern everywhere – from the mundane to the magnificent.’ Lovely dreamy soundtrack from Death In Vegas on the website, too. The festival opens on Saturday 6 April, but expect pics to be Tweeted at tonight’s launch!
There are lots of events, talks and workshops (I love the sound of Patterns in Space and Beyond), as well as collaborations. One of which is with designer Richard Brendon in two striking bone china tea sets – Reason (top) and Warp (bottom). You can enter a draw to win a set at the exhibition. I’ll be buying many, many tickets.
Thanks Kate Spade for your new brand Saturday. It’s brilliant. Thanks for making lots of amazing clothes, accessories and interiors bits in my favourite colours (which is mostly no colours, with one added colour). Thanks especially for the op-art print. Well done on launching in Japan and online in the US. Now, how about a store in the UK? More monochrome fabulousness after the click…
One of Damien Hirst‘s rugs is called Beautiful Oasis in a Deserted Expanse, Drink up the Beauty Before it’s Too Late Rug. Others are Beautiful Primal Urges Rug, Beautiful Saucy Spit Roast It’ll All End in Tears Rug and Beautiful Abstract Landscape Pretentious Art Nonsense Rug. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a giant painting under-foot, in wool form? I think so. Especially with wallpaper like there is after the click through…
All available at Other Criteria.
If I could dress head-to-toe in Issey Miyake I would. I love the idea of stopping being a person and becoming a walking sculpture. Yes please to Pleats Please. I first heard about Miyake Design Studio’s collaboration with Italian lighting brand Artemide a year ago when I was at Livingetc. It wasn’t out, but there was a prototype – just enough to get very excited about. But the IN-EI collection – Japanese for ‘shadow, shadiness, nuance’ – is here now. I saw it last night at the Issey Miyake store on Conduit Street, in fact.
The idea began back in 2010, when Issey Miyake and his research and development team Reality Lab presented 132 5.ISSEY MIYAKE. This new process was developed using a mathematical programme with 3D geometric principals, and is a rather ingenious way of making clothing. In a nutshell, the programme results in clothes that can be folded flat and become 3D shapes, starting from a single piece of cloth. Reality Lab saw lighting as a natural extension of the programme, and the collaboration with Artemide was born.
It’s a collection of freestanding, table and pendant lights. The structure of the recycled material used, together with an additional surface treatment allows the shades to keep their shape perfectly without the need for an internal frame and to be re-shaped when needed. They can be easily stored flat when not in use.
Click through to see the beautiful collection…
Three cheers for the happy Issey Miyake model! Perhaps she could share the joke with her colleague in Maison Rabih Kayrouz. How is it possible to look so moody in electric blue? Who knows. I know I can’t. Especially in electric blue that’s also a textured jumper. After the click, there is a lovely bit of futuristic silverness. Good to see Paco Rabanne getting back to its chain-mail roots. What I wouldn’t do for one of the original 60s versions. And coats – in contrast to Milan’s, they are very big and boxy, all cocoons and collars.
Images via style.com
Shiny, shiny… shiny dresses of leather (and satin), as the Velvet Underground almost once said. Very glamorous, especially when mixed with soft wool. Click through for good news about being warm – Milan says coats are in for autumn/winter ’13. More specifically, coats that look quite like prim 50s coats. Tights, I presume, are optional. All hail the use of tartan on the Italian catwalks. Personally, the Glengarry hat is a step too far, Moschino, but maybe that’s just a bit of fashion show daftness.
Images via style.com
I went to the Lichtenstein Retrospective exhibition that’s now on at Tate Modern when I was in Chicago last year and I can’t recommend it enough. Those dots just explode off the canvas. Speaking of explosive, Tom Ford a/w 13.
Autumn/winter 13′s must-have accessory could potentially be talcum powder (if you’re intending on investing in anything Felder Felder related, that is). I like that mix of PVC and nice, sensible jumpers, coats and A-line skirts. Elsewhere Joseph has a brighter, more colourful take on Westwood’s Bondage gear. Good on the model for managing to look moody while wearing an orange kilt.
A statement which requires infinitely less struggle to get into is pattern (after the click through), and god bless House of Holland for making clothes out of 70s curtains. They’ve even nailed the decade-correct open-weave fabric. Absolutely fab. After Art Deco architecture, next on Holly Fulton’s inspiration list is encaustic tiles, which is, obviously, a very good thing. I love Art Deco architecture and encaustic tiles, if she does black and white next year, I probably won’t bother looking at any other designers – done!
But, that’s next year (hopefully) – this winter is all about berries. From the sort of lipstick shade Ricki Lake used to wear every day on her show in the 90s (I can’t be the only one who noticed. Even when they did make-overs it was ‘berry lips this’ and ‘berry lips that’. Obsessed.) to strawberries and raspberries. In other words, I could eat Paul Smith.
ps. Why do some of these models look like they’re on death’s door? I don’t mean generally too thin, but the consumption-esque make-up? Don’t know why I’m mentioning it, I’ll probably be trying to recreate it in six months.
Images via style.com.
