The Style Critic

According to models.com founder Wayne Sterling, Australian born photographer Emma Summerton is “the fastest rising photographer on the scene.” Three i:D covers over the last year, plus covers for British and Italian Vogue including November’s cover girls Jourdan Dunn, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Eden Clark. On graduating from the National Art School in Sydney, Summerton started out as a photographic assistant, bagging Australian Vogue as her first major client. Moving to London in 1998, Emma assisted Turner Prize-nominated artist Fiona Banner before going on to build her own portfolio. Alongside collaborations with fashion clients such as Yves Saint Laurent, Agent Provocateur and Selfridges, Emma is currently busy working on her own book containing five years’ worth of unpublished self-portraits. Check out  this interview on The Ones To Watch.

Image Credit: Emma Summerton

Image Credit: Emma Summerton

 ❝in this series you’ll get the inside track on the style-savvy ❞ 

The Style Critic loves a new fashion find, so when I met Rosario Morabito on my travels it followed that I had to blog about my discovery. Not only has he got a great name, a name that I want to see stitched into a boutique label or scrawled on the bottom of an exhibited painting, but he’s my first interview for www.thestylecritic.com. I mean, how famous can you get?  

Tell me your name and what you’re doing right now.  Rosario Morabito. I’m Editorial Assistant at Conde Nast’s The Official Ferrari Magazine and I am a contributor for Italian titles Made05 and The End  What is inspiring you about London at the moment? I guess London has lost that rebellion thing that made of it the place to be in order to be creative and push the boundaries. But I love the fact that literally everything on the cultural scene is available. Who do you think has the edge on style, English or Italians, and why? Londoners and Italians have two different perception of what is stylish, and different ways of showing it. The Italians, for instance, are more glamourous, conservative (boring if you want). Their notion of style is more related to a seasonal trend to be followed. I found Londoners more quirky and adventurous when it comes on putting an outfit together. The Italian fashion house is Armani, the English one is Vivienne Westwood. Which designers do you love? I love Neil Barrett for men, it has premium materials and a great fit, and Erdem for women: gorgeous digital prints and a great shape! On a more casual and cheap level, Acne Jeans for him and Luella or Vanessa Bruno for her. A film everyone should see? Bob Fosse’s Cabaret: pure perfection and LIza Minneli at her best. But also The Torch Song Trilogy, to have a laugh, and a tear. Grazie tanto Rosario. x  

Illustration by Rosario Morabito

Illustration by Rosario Morabito

The Comme des Garcons for H&M frenzy on Oxford Street showed no sign of abating when I got there at around 4pm on Thursday. As much as I realise that in fashion terms this was like arriving 3hrs after the dessert course, I confess I had my own reservations to begin with. I don’t deny that it’s a canny commercial move for this most niche of designers, but still I couldn’t get my head around the legion of polka-dotted blouses that may moderate the inherent individuality of the label. Will this democratization have an impact on their loyal customers – many of whom will be diametrically opposed to the high street anyway? To be different means to set oneself apart from any aesthetic absolutism. Which is exactly what Comme des Garcons has done, in every quirk and mismatch and asymmetrical line. But everyone likes a bargain, and what timing too…

The boiled wool jacket and the coat dress had sold out, in fact most of the size 8s of everything were gone, but it was the navy trench coat that got me. Nicely cut, contrasting black buttons – very classic – and I waded through about forty – none in my size – when it occurred to me I wanted it badly. I barged my way to Regent Street and stormed into H&M ready to raze the rails, again picking through more of the same dilemma, when an angel of a shop assistant produced the size I’d been looking for. Clutching it like a gift from Rei herself, I was on a roll. I took whatever I could find in my size to the changing room, seized as I was by the moment. 

But as I came to my senses, I was unhappy about the hem on the trench. The gaberdine felt insubstantial, all too flimsy for winter. The polka dots blurred into ubiquity. The moment had passed, and I left empty handed. When I got home and checked the eBay bids and there were surprisingly few, which goes to show that out of context this designer – even in high street form – may still be a gamble. Which can only be a good thing.

Comme des Garcons Trench Coat

Are you lost, little girl? Step through the looking glass and into the world of Charles Anastase, abstract childhood cut into cloth for the nostalgic woman. I remember flesh pink tights and criss-cross cardis for ballet; the slightly stiff double-breast woolen coat with the velvet peter pan collar; thick tights and shiny patent buckle shoes; Oilily dresses over polo necks or frilly blouses; Osh Kosh by Gosh dungarees. His is an almost psychoanalytical exploration of what it means to become woman – and I’m not being pretentious, this is the designer’s conceit. Perhaps my attachment to him stems from an almost visceral connection to the childhood belongings which I no longer have, clothes of old, toys, play that I miss. I find something anew with Charles Anastase, details that I’ve forgotten I love, proportions and layering that I feel comforted by. His S/S ‘09 collection sees an emerging sexuality in all that coquettishness – stockings under structured crinoline, shrunken jackets, towering clompy shoes – a collaboration with Natacha Marro. The effect is suggestive of youth from the perspective of both woman and girl, and his exploration of what that means shows a real sensitivity to his customer.

Image Credit: wireimage

Straddling the autumn/winter divide in transitional clothing like cardi-coats is one thing, but the night-time/bedtime divide surely demands no such hybrid.  As much as a silk nightie could double up as a slip dress, most would go for Prada over La Perla to be on the safe side.  Coco Sumner at the Zadig & Voltaire launch party shows us there’s no such thing as safe – that to have one foot in party mode and the other in the land of nod is much more 2008. Hers is a sartorial expression of many a party girl’s innermost wishes: for sleep rather than schlep, cocoa rather than champers, and pyjamas rather than a blinged-up dress. But before we embrace this look as a kind of ‘we’re tired already’ Christmas protest, Coco ensures that nothing nearly as jaded was going through her head.

“It’s my best friend’s sister’s!” she told Grazia. “It’s not a fashion statement. I just saw it as I was leaving and thought it looked really comfy. And it is – plus I can put my Blackberry in the pocket!”

And if that is a squillion pound Balmain dress peeking out from under that pyjama set, so much the better. Mix n’ match is as much about metaphors as it is about designer n’ high street, so if hot chocolate is more appealing than umpteen vodka shots, you may as well take ‘after-party’ to heart and wear the teddies on your sleeve.