Anya Hindmarch has paired up with US retail giant Target to launch a handbag collection, and prices start from an incredible £11.50. Available in the UK via her website from 8-14 October, these will be as popular as her £5 I Am Not A Plastic Bag eco-line, which sold out in an hour in Sainsburys last year. The cotton totes, produced by Hindmarch as an alternative to plastic bags, became must-have items due to their exclusivity. Shoppers queued from 5.30am. On eBay they changed hands for up to £160.
The Anya Hindmarch for Target range is set to go the same way. The seven-strong range looks expensive due to linear design and subtle hardware, but cost is kept to a minimum by using faux patent leather. Clever thinking as you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between PVC and patent leather unless you pressed your nose to it and gave it a feel.
All the bags are under £30, and the timing couldn’t have been better. Designer diffusion lines are the future of budget shopping for the style-savvy, and Hindmarch knows that by keeping availability limited and affordable, she’ll have mass market appeal yet remain exclusive.
Image Credit: anyahindmarch.com.
Anya Hindmarch for Target (Look 3)
posted by The Style Critic at 11:57 pm
Image Credit: style.com
Christopher Kane’s showed that inspiration knows no bounds, not least because the designer saw Planet of the Apes, The Flintstones and One Million Years B.C. and felt the bones – or should that be scales – of his next collection, which was surely one of the most yabadabadooo of London Fashion Week. The distillate was the stegosaurus-style ‘scales’ in leather or organza, the gorilla print, marabou trims and the stone-age animal print. How such elements can produce both wearable and desirable womenswear is anyone’s guess, but Kane makes it work. Although he has a strong creative partnership with his sister Tammy, even she said “When he started saying ‘prehistoric’, I said ‘What? I don’t know what you’re talking about.’” But this evolved into a collection which conveyed exactly what he meant. Business – both in the commercial sense of pleasing his customers, and in the artistic pursuit of an idea to fruition. If the collection’s reception is anything to go by, Kane is carving out a very bankable name for himself.
Image Credit: style.com
posted by The Style Critic at 1:16 pm
Some men have a thing for over the knee boots.
Why?
Well either I’ve been brainwashed by the costume department of Pretty Woman or the allure is that the wearer may date by the hour, or at least prowl the streets in a heightened state of arousal. Perhaps she even wears stockings underneath, the temptress. Or cracks the odd whip down the fetish club.
Well boys, for your information, in fashion no really does mean no. No to comfort, no to practicality, no to stereotypes, so let the full-on thrust of a 6 inch stiletto thigh boot propel a girl into a new category. The well-heeled libertine.
Still not convinced?
Once again I blame Pretty Woman, though she did go all Cerruti in the end, so there’s plenty of hope for the boots. Especially now that the trend has hit the stores, both designer and high street. I should clarify that I am talking about a boot with a considerable heel, not the black suede pirate jobbies that Sienna Miller boho’ed around in a few years ago.
We were all agreed on those; these – not so much.
For what it’s worth, my advice is to be prepared. The man in the street will eye you up and wonder, for a moment, whether you have a working knowledge of hotel lobbies in W1, whereas a woman will either applaud you in a post-feminist ironic sort of way, or – depending on whether you have better legs than her – think the same. This might all change. If enough of us buy into the trend, collective determination will de-slut thigh boots for good.
And to check I was on the right track with the whole thing, I asked my husband to tell me what he associated thigh boots with.
He looked at me blankly and said ‘horse-riding’.
posted by The Style Critic at 11:09 am
As I was eating my scrambled eggs and leafing through 15/09 issue of Grazia, I nearly choked on the price of a pair of shoes in Oliva Richardson’s Lust List. The Head of Fashion at Liberty picked a pair of made-to-order Nicolas Kirkwood shoes (pictured here) but in a velvet rich purple.
If you’re out of touch with your inner dominatrix, now’s your chance to do some damage, but at £4,700 - yes four thousand and seven hundred pounds – these babies will ruin your finances more than your parquet floor; even worse, you will be incapable of going back to ‘vanilla’ shoes again.*
These are not shoes, they are statements of intent. These shoes will eat your ballerina pumps for breakfast. Kirkwood studied fine art at Central Saint Martins and shoemaking at the Cordwainersbefore starting his own shoe collection from his home. “I’ve always been interested in structure, in very linear shapes,” he said. “Whether it’s furniture or accessories or whatever, I love things that have a practicality to them.”
I hope he doesn’t mean practical in the popping-to-the-shops-for-a-pint-of milk sense but I get that these are purposeful and solid rather than whimsical and flouncy. No embellishments, no diamante. You know where you are with these, which at £4,700 is just as well ‘cos I wouldn’t be going anywhere but round the house. Ah ha! Now I get what he means by practical…
* ‘Vanilla’ means normal as opposed to kinky in S&M speak. Keep up people.
Image Credit: nicholaskirkwood.com
posted by The Style Critic at 10:19 am
Topshop Unique at London Fashion week gave rise to lots of 80s fingerpointing and too much talk of Bananarama for my liking, although you can see why. The inimitable Sarah Mower on Style.com scared the stonewash jumpsuit out of me with her frankness about the Bananarama references being lost on the front-row scensters (Geldof sisters, Daisy Lowe etc), and discernable to their mothers instead. Their mothers. Gulp. As a child of the 80s (but not a baby) I’ve been aged faster than matte foundation in daylight. I’m no mother of a nubile teenager but I do remember – quite clearly in fact – Bananarama and what they wore. OK OK and their music. The fact that it was on NOW 13 wasn’t at my request. (So was Kim Wilde but no one’s doing frosted hair and fringed batwing leather).
Oh, enough already just pass me this T-shirt dress, some Sass & Bide ratties, some Nicholas Kirkwood shoes and a headscarf and let me find my youth again. And if you want to hurt feelings there’s only one thing to say to me. “Aren’t you too old for Topshop?”
Let’s hope Topshop Unique keeps us on our toes, because fashion this fast and affordable waits for no one, not even if you wore it all the first time round. Especially not even.
posted by The Style Critic at 9:57 am
They say that only when times are a-changing do women have a drastic haircut to mark the occasion, unless you follow Hair & Beauty in Vogue and you measure time in seasons. ‘Ooh autumn, Guido’s feeling cool brown with heavy layers’ and off you go to the salon to adjust your barnet accordingly. I speak as one who has never succumbed to fashions when it comes to hairstyle, having spent most of my life growing out various DIY colour mishaps. As many a fashion maven has found out, when you get it wrong with your hair it’s a slow slog back to normality. Not nearly as easy as flinging that tartan mini to the back of the cupboard.
Unfortunately ‘hair’ and ‘fashion’ run on opposite timelines. We talk of the perennial appeal of ’slow fashion’, but as human scalp hair grows at a rate of around 0.4mm per day, there is hardly a choice between ‘fast’ or ’slow’ hair. ‘Investment’ hair is another story, with many women maintaining the same £100+ cut-and-blow-dry as their signature style for decades. Anna Wintour’s trademark fringed bob is a prime example of investment hair – the perfect accompaniment to one of the best invested wardrobes in the industry.
We all have a certain face shape and features that the right cut can flatter, and it’s a case of finding the hair that suits you and not deviating too far from the template. How strong a jawline you have and the size of your forehead dictates, I think, how short you can go and whether you can wear a fringe; and unless black hair is your natural colour it’s draining as hell on the complexion.
Victoria Beckham, no stranger to the scissors, debuted a shiny mocha pixie crop to coincide with her new collection. Heavy eye make up and a tan means she looks gamine, but first thing in the morning? Like KD Lang. Meanwhile her nemesis Kate Moss has grown out that fringe and word has it that she cut her own hair into the tousled, choppy ‘do it is now. Blugh. When Kate’s scrimps on the hairdresser you know we’re In The Red….but is that copper or auburn I wonder?
Image Source: Unknown
posted by The Style Critic at 9:41 am
Image Credit: style.com
Every industry needs its Gareth Pughs to mainline some unadulterated creativity into its veins. To challenge our expectations of clothes, to assault our assumptions of what’s wearable. As a sort of protest against that homogenised skinny jeaned, ballerina pump-wearing ‘everygirl’ that trots down the high street and thinks Lauren Conrad from The Hills is a style icon. Fashion insiders love a rebel, and Pugh is the ultimate – you couldn’t even buy the clothes before Spring 2007 – they existed as pieces of performance art for the catwalk alone. Fashion devoid of commerce or consumption….isn’t there something wonderfully anti-Marc Jacobs about that?
That Pugh worked in a theatrical costume department before his training will come as no surprise. Neither will the squat in Peckham which Pugh shared with other creatives, part gallery part club. But that he’d one day ”…like to buy a house and be the Calvin Klein of catsuits” might. Enter Rick Owens and his business partner wife who have secured him manufacture. Now there is a retail collection, Topshop as a fashion week sponsor, installations, and a good deal of editorial support.
Let’s be honest, who doesn’t like to have their head bent occasionally, to think Bladerunner, the Marquis De Sade, Dune, cyberpunks and androids, rave culture, fetish, acid house, robots, Predator, gay 80s subculture and Star Wars rather than clothes. But ultimately women want to wear the damn things, not ruminate on them. They want a decent winter coat for under a grand. Clothes have to fit our lives and our bodies, and as yet this is anarchic fashion with a finger up at the uninitiated.
posted by The Style Critic at 2:19 pm
Image Credit: osoblog.tv
There comes a time in every A-list ingénue’s life that she has to make a decision about what to wear on the red carpet. How to look grown up but not middle aged. How to be sexy but not inappropriately so. Boy am I glad I was never a teenage film star. I would’ve just copied Angelina Jolie and had fourteen tattoos and six kids by now. There’s no way to get it right unless you have a) a very good stylist or b) a doting mother who was a model in the 60s. Too many young actresses try and be glamorous for these occasions. Urgh. To be glamorous and young is to have aged before your time, and to have a sense of occasion, to be detached enough from your image to gauge its impact on others takes years of being yourself – not playing a part.
Even so, when your detractors are razor-tongued critics and not your mates in the common room, the pressure’s kind of on. It does help to be the face of Chanel; Karl on speed-dial must be reassuring if the Alexander McQueen empire line goddess dress falls through at the last minute.
Which luckily it didn’t because here it is in its perfectly bejewelled glory. It reminds me of a dripping candle from which the flame of youth burns bright…
The face of Chanel at 18. I don’t think I’d bother with my 20s if I was Emma…
posted by The Style Critic at 12:08 pm
Image Credit: style.com
No one’s exactly channelling Richard Smith or Siouxie Sioux here, but the gothic overtones of A/W ’08 are unmistakable and unavoidable, and to keep you in the dark about this trend would make for an irresponsible style critic. So err on the side of darkness and explore the look for what it is: part-romantic, punk inspired, rock inspired, yes – goth is a veritable cauldron of inspiration this season, with the fashion magazines even breaking it down into sub-trends.
They say you can’t go wrong with black, and this time they’re right. Treat it as you would your foundation and layer on the extras according to mood. Riccardo Tisci at Givenchy weighed his opening outfit with crucifix-laden chains, while Luella’s pagan minxes were as delicate as dolls. And speaking of foundation, models’ faces were kept winter pale for Luella and Alexander McQueen, with darkest matt lips (Luella) and backcombed hair like a broom (McQueen), so unless you’re going for the goth-in-Barbados look stay off the bronzer. The perfect goth mini-dress has volume so bulk out with crinoline and bring in the waist. Gauzy fabrics make for good layering, but be strict with yourself and keep it quite prim. The modern goth doesn’t give it away, you know, or in Luella’s own words “cute but always a little sick – that’s my girl.”
Image Credit: style.com
Interpret Luella on the cheap with this Vintage 80s bitter chocolate & and black lace dress. A wickedly tempting £80 from rokit.co.uk
Image Credit: rokit.co.uk
posted by The Style Critic at 11:54 am
Image Credit: Dan Lecca
How can this blog not comment on the fashion ‘moment’ of the week – the first collection by ‘fashion designer’ Victoria Beckham who had a brief digression as a pop star and is now a fully fledged designer with an atelier of four in London. And like her former bandmates, they’re doing all the work.
This may only be a ten piece collection in various colours but it has been well-received. Lisa Armstrong of The Times deemed it an “impressive, accomplished collection, with not a single dud.” Unless – and forgive me if I’m being a tad harsh – you view the dud as Victoria herself for re-hashing Roland Mouret and Herve Leger in a troop of ‘signature’ vaccum-packed designs.
OK I am being harsh. As you can see they’re not all, as Victoria puts it, “sucky, sucky” dresses, there is room to breathe here and there, and they even go up to a size 14 for her fat friends. But I’m still at a loss to see this woman’s talent. How can a gargantuan shopping budget make you a fashion expert? How does having the means to produce a collection make you a designer? Here is a woman who desperately wants to be respected, but who doesn’t truly respect her own intuition with clothes, not enough to show some real flair at putting a look together in a way that Jackie Onassis or Audrey Hepburn or Grace Kelly hasn’t done a hundred times better before her.
So yes I suppose Victoria has achieved something here, she’s dressed herself ten times over, and she can even dress you for £650 – £1900, and when you’ve got the bunions to prove your loyalty (imagine these dresses without stilettos) you can go back to supporting real designers who are grafting away in their Dalson studios and definitely not hoping to become pop stars.
Image Credit: Dan Lecca
posted by The Style Critic at 11:45 am
