Saturday 19 February 2011

Sat 21st Feb: Danielle Scutt AW11










The invitation artwork had me intrigued with this illustration of jewellery comprised of lipstick components. As soon as the first girl walked out for Danielle'Scutt's return to fashion week, I was hooked to the 90's chain accessories. The gold decor hung en mass with massive outsize warrior configuration in semi circular disc plates. The chain was woven with peroxide hair and talisman earrings swung with the occasional finishing of a locket of long hair. Colour lacquered lipsticks were linked to gilt teapots which were in turn linked to ivory cream small hands.......dangling off human ear shaped fixtures that fitted into the lobe. It turns out that all of Danielle's intricate, bizarre and desirable decolletage has been designed fro Freedom at Top Shop. This means the show-stopping pieces will be hitting the high-street floor and accessible to her fans. Will you be taking direction from her "Walk Of Shame" dress code too? Maybe leave that till the morning after, the night before enjoying wearing her pieces.......

Special thanks to Rosy Nicholas for these brilliant backstage photos from her casting.

Sat 21st Feb: Craig Lawrence Salon Show - Backstage and Front of house













No time to write this up now because Ive got to compose myself before I gush an inordinate amount of proud praise ........ but for now I can say this, which I tweeted at the time:

"Hand on heart, I can say without bias, Craig Lawrence is from a superior stratosphere sent to earth purely to knit & change the world with it"

Sat 21st Feb: Susie B




Always on the ball is Miss Susie B. As soon as her plane touches the ground from one fashion week to the next, she's straight off the airport runway to the collections on the catwalk runway. Not content with close up perspective from front row position, she's often found backstage on the super sleuth sartorial trail through the rails. Here she is decked out in a soft coral Issey Miyake pleat skirt and twin prints to match her jazzy Orla Keily covered Citroen that's ferrying her around LFW (a subconscious coincidence). Its always a pleasure to have 5 mins of her precious time for a catch up. The industry does have its cluster of rarefied pearls of personable down to earth humble and real creatures. Susie B is one of them. That's why we all love Style Bubble.

Sat 21st Feb: Noel Stewart for Louise Amstrup




Whilst the hats from each designer's mainline take place in the static show at Headonism, each milliner is meanwhile back at their studio steaming special pieces for collaborations. Throughout the week, its always a good guessing game going to shows and working out who has done the headgear. The most prolific contender is Noel Stewart who is conjuring up beautiful hats for 6 (or 7, he's not sure!) collections. It all kicked off this morning with these exquisite felt numbers for Louise Amstrup.........

Backstage snaps from Noel himself. Thanks Noel!

Friday 18 February 2011

Fri 18th Feb: Headonism at LFW






One of my favourite destinations of London Fashion Week .......... the millinery showcase co-curated by Stephen Jones for the BFC featuring stars of the craft Noel Stewart, Piers Atkinson and Soren Bach.

Embankment Galleries, Somerset House, Strand, London, WC2R 1LA

Fri 18th Feb: Mark Ronson Ghostface Killah - "Shimmy Shimmy Ya live at The Roundhouse




An unexpected moment that made me move and smile on Wednesday night. I went to see Boy George guest vocal with Mark Ronson and had a lovely surprise of Ghostface Killah.....

(my photo but video I have lifted from youtube)

Fri 18th Feb: The Rodnik Band at LFW













Yes, that's a Duchamp inspired urinal shaped sequin shift dress and a Dali-esc satin lobster evening gown. The Rodnik Band label shows its new season's line via a presentation as a pop band for its pop art attire with designer Philip Colbert at the helm. AW11 was presented in the context of a gallery space with the existing exhibition featuring as the backdrop for the Warhol-esc fashion film projected as a promo of the collection............ Im particularly keen on the red telephone mini dress with sequin dial detail....... Call Me!

(Both the Lauren Cotton vinyl "Composition" and Rory McCartney's "Psycho Boogie" canvas are in the group show "Fired Up" at Gazelli Art House)

Fri 17th Feb: Eat The Desingers - AnOther Magazine's 10th birthday celebration

















To celebrate AnOther Magazine's 10th anniversary, 10 fashion designers invented their own vision of a fantasy birthday cake for the occasion. These sketches were dispatched to 10 superior bakers to interpret and deliver something out of the ordinary to a regular batch!!!! Here are just a few of the masterpieces and insight into how they were conjured up in kitchens rather than ateliers:

The lavender tasting Calvin Klein edible mobile was made by Brett Redman from Elilliots. It is an interactive floating installation of individual matchbox size suspended silver foil coated pieces perfectly reflected in the mirrored setting.

The Missoni multicolour marzipan tower cake was made by Caroline Hobkinson who layered cherry, pistacho, raspberry, strawberry, apricot, chocolate and cream to assemble the turrets. (Ive lifted a portrait of Caroline from her site because its so colourful and lush!)

Givenchy took an explicit theme with an X-Rated confectionery creation, which could only be viewed through peep holes. The twisting icing tablo was the work of Simon Smith who answered Ricardo Tisci's instructions for "Dark decadence, sensuality, something that recalls pure pleasure"

Gucci's 3 tiered birthday cake was a life-like set of luggae which sat on the shop floor of Selfridges in camouflage as if it were part of the luxury brands concession of bags. On close inspection you could see that the emblem bags were sewn up in sugar not leather! Andrew Stellitano used liquorice strips, strawberry marshmallow, caramel fringes, pink meringue and silver sugar parline topped off with a biscuit logo. Check out his site for previous Louis Vuitton tortilla chips!!!

After a preview of the cake-off in Selfridges Wonder Room, the celebrations continued downstairs to the basement converted into a Sweet Shop by the ridiculously inventive Bompass & Parr boys. The bar dispensing candy cocktails was built like a Victorian shop counter with shelves stacked with glass jars of penny sweets. Candyfloss, lollipops, chocolate cigarettes and fizzing sherbet were the canapes to accompany the alco-pops poured in novelty shots. The cherry on the top of the cake was delivered as a surprise appearance of performance artist Theo Adams exploding out of the giant white Lanvin cake to entertain the crowd buzzing on sucrose! I think Theo was a genius twist on Alber Albaz reference to 1950's musicals with glamour girls popping out of cake props! Perfect!

To see all 10 designer cakes, head over to AnOther for the full lowdown. (Thanks to Mary Thrift for taking these photos for us)