Style Bubble

Beach Reminder

It's highly amusing that the day this Urban Collection Summer '09 cover comes up on their homepage is the day that storms are brewing and showers are aplenty here in London and pretty much back to normal dodgy up-and-down summer weather.  Nope, gone are the days when the heatwave managed to convince me that 'frollocking' on a REAL beach was doable...

I therefore look back at these particular pics with great fondness.  I might even shed a tear.  A commentor got a little confused by the cover thinking I had designed something for The Urban Collection.  Indicative of the sort of weird, surreal times we're living in when certain bloggers are doing kerazy things like designing ranges for high street stores.  Nope, I can't be going down that odd route seeing as I have no design bone in my body.  Instead, like Karla and Queen Michelle, I'm just featured on the homepage of Dree's wonderful vintage emporium... along with Westgate on Sea.

A snapshot look at the current offerings of The Urban Collection site already yields a few more goodies and *gasp* ANOTHER interesting bit of denim (the ruffled shirt), and there's a big apparel drop to come next week...

You Can Wear it Everywhere

You're gonna be seeing a lot from this book 'Cheap Chic' by Caterine Milinaire and Carol Troy  that I picked up for a pretty penny last week....  I'm milking it for all it's worth because it IS such a joyous book on all levels; there's kitsch factor, home truths, sagely advice and hilarious prose.  It's unintentionally funny but also freakishly useful even if it was originally published in 1975.  So if anyone else has this tome, bear with me.  It didn't come cheap though so I get the feeling there aren't a huge number of copies about so hopefully it won't all be wasted posting.  Grey marl keeps coming at me in unexpected ways; through an old issue of Fantastic Man where writer James Anderson waxes lyrical about grey marl in a far more eloquent way than i ever did and through these images in Cheap Chic.  Terry Melville (whoever she is...) here makes a plain grey sweatshirt and sweatpants (tracksuit for Brits) work in the office, on the weekends and for a night out on the town.

Click on the first image to read the text...

"Terry turns up the collar of her shirt and ties and old bowtie, just so."
"The cowboy belt comes from Uncle Wally, who works for the railroad in Ohio."
"Disco sweatsuit?" 

Flatte Wot?

>> A post in the Beauty School Dropout category!?!  On a Friday no less.  Well, actually i cheated and grabbed this pic that just went up on the Dazed fashion team Blog.  Nails extraordinaire Teresa Smith is doing someone's nails for a shoot in the office and beauty numpty that I am, I asked about the matt, chalky looking, nail polish shown here.  I'll 'fess up now and say I'm SHIT when it comes to product names etc and I guess this is common knowledge to most but these are by Knockout Cosmetics, from their Flatte range of nail polishes, the famous one being the black that Karen O is a fan of.  Errr.... just puked up knowledge that I don't really know anything about... I just want Love Hearts-textured/coloured nails....

Don't Have a Feud With Me

I've not written about a mid-level (not quite high street, not quite designer) shoe brand in a while and I guess I've been a bit slow on the uptake considering this brand isn't exactly new.  Still though, I was delighted to discover Feud London shoes just in time before their A/W 09 collection drops because whilst I love that chunky heel they have going on, their S/S 09 styles are a little too girly for my liking. It's a different kettle of fish however for A/W 09 as they've combined different textures and colours for a heeled brogue that I can see getting much wear out of. Ditto goes for the flat brogues...

Feud is all over Amazon and ASOS as well as Office I think but I should hope that the natural step is a Feud online store so we can bombard their customer service department with emails subject lined  "Purple/Red/Grey Amazingness - Drop Date?!?!?!" (?! x 4 gets people's attention, right?)

Heliocentric Goodness

This week has been parcel/package-filled to the point where I'm beaming and yelping in excitement in the office in a way that is deemed most silly and uncool.  You might have seen a Fred Butler trademark pyramid package in the  set of Swide images that I posted yesterday.  Quick as a flash the busy-bee, crafty Ms. Butler delivers another pyramid to the office and whilst I could devote a paragraph or two to the awesomeness of the packaging... what matters of course is what's inside...

A layer of silver foil and a click of the metal clasp fastening reveals a grin-inducing headband that features that S/S 09 heliocentric motif that graces Fred Butler's creations on a larger scale.

A quick snap in the office doesn't do it justice and if the sun decides to come out to play this weekend, so should this headband...

Swide This

>>I will come back and add further words to my thoughts on Dolce & Gabbana-produced and branded website Swide.com because it's an interesting development in that luxury brands are now tentatively branching out into content production that isn't banal and chokingly cheesy. 

For now though because I'm about to shoot off, I'll just bung this up and say that Swide have done a very cute interview with me where they asked me to take 'backstage' shots of my blogging environment... aka my messy apartment... I took the opportunity to give the feather headdress, which I randomly bought at Casa Mexico in Hackney, a visual mention.

You've Got Even Bigger Mail

>> I was going to wait until the weekend to post about the joyous package I received from Daydream Nation that not only has those uplifting HK stamps and postmarks on the package (I get a bit pathetic and teary when I receive parcels from Hong Kong) but more importantly, inside contains this dress that I'm wearing today which plays tribute to the humble postmark.  Look closely at the woven fabric and ye shall find markings that could make a philatelic nut go mental.  I'm almost semi-tempted to purchase a catalogue just to see whether these postmarks are the genuine dealio. 

From the small bit of mail which I received a while back containing their lookbook, I'm of course happy that it has given way to this even bigger bit of mail that carries through that Par Avion theme Daydream Nation have got going on in their A/W 09 collection.  I'll be delving into the other parts of this postmarked mail this weekend.  For now though, the dress has given me a way of wearing these old Zucca open net trews that have been languishing away in a useless manner...

The Need to be Belle

I did pass up the chance to head out to Berlin for fashion week and a) spend some time cycling around with Kat and Jennine at Bread and Butter or hanging out with the lovely Les Mads girls so that they can point me in the right general direction seeing as I'm Berlin-clueless.

However, I wasn't going to be bitter about it and pretend Berlin Fashion Week never existed.  I was quite excited to see that despite the people that doth protest and tell me the schedule is a bit of a bore, that there are some interesting new additions.  Namely Je Suis Belle, a Hungarian label who got onto the schedule this season at Berlin and showed its print-laden collection. Yes, I do bang on about prints a little too much but it's not my fault I'm getting print-pie all over my face constantly...

Furthermore, Je Suis Belle's prints aren't the sort to be deciphered straight away at a first glance.  Is it a blurred painting/photo?  Is there paint involved?  Tie dye?  Excessive Photoshopping?  A combination of all of that - most likely.  It's taken the term 'wishy washy' quite literally and smeared it all over the S/S 10 collection that definitely needs to be worn whilst wandering around the Heath barefoot.... you might event want to sickeningly throw in some daisy chain headbands to go over those sweet visors and headscarves...

Girls, Girls, Girls, Girls I do adore...

>>The focus of these pictures aren't supposed to be the pretty girls in vintage nightwear but in fact the two blokes who form the band Girls.  Presumably the girls in the picture are a literal reference to the band's name.  Glad to see press shots of bands are venturing outside of the 'I'm staring at you with my best angle' model.  Still, my attention can't help but be completely distracted by the AMOUNT of vintage nightwear concentrated in these images.  Any longtime Style Bubble reader will know my penchant for vintage slip dresses and skirts yet lately my accumulation has come to a gradual halt - namely because I think I've bought a fair bulk already and also because those pesky vintage prices are creeping up (£30 for a vintage slip dress?  Are you robbing me?).  These pictures however are perhaps making the nylon sheers and pastel colour bug inside me resurface...       

Here comes the science...

... The one and only time you'll see a sole post dedicated to a hoodie on this blog I can assure you and it's really ONLY because it has special magical powers.  This Nike hoodie from their new collection, that I nabbed via work is ostensibly a grey and white cotton sweatshirt-material hoodie.... 100% cotton, and for the most part, looks and feels like the rest of my grey jersey sweatshirt type things...

But then look what happens...cue video... please press play!  I do have a bloody point here...

I've been trying to demonstrate this to as many people as possible just because I'm a clueless doofus, who knows nothing about performance sportswear and thinks this is the coolest thing I've seen a hoodie do since...errr.... well....I guess hoodies don't really do much except be very hood-like. 
I've now been fantasising about making a Best TV-type infomercials involving coloured water, test tubes and a cheesy companion that just claps and says "Wow!" a lot.  In reality, I just kept on squealing "It's like Alex Mack!" (Did you watch it avidly?  I did...) and the boyf kept on rebutting me with "Terminator".  On and on it went... Alex Mack, Terminator, Alex Mack, Terminator...

It's most definitely Alex Mack...

Missy Miss Miniature

When you have jewellery this wee and a little bit twee, such is the case with Miss Bibi's jewellery as illustrated by this white belt ring and make lookbooks the size of postage stamps...

... you'd of course want to house the pieces in a doll house set-up like this one that I snapped at a PR's office... look closely and spot the mudane objects made miniature, gold and silver... scissors, pliers, lamps, kirby grips, matches, belts...farfalle?!?

I feel like this deserves a spot on CuteOverload or another objet equivalent website...

Leather Trending

>>I don't buy or read Vogue Pelle but discovered these images through photographer Lucia Giacani's website that doesn't any feature any clothes per se but rather is a snapshot of leather's latest trends... with an emphasis on the less conventional colours and softer, more pliable textures.... aka the exact kind of leather I need more of in my life.  Nudes, caramel, butterscotch, peaches (colours that sound like you want to take a bite of) in the softest hides possible... and to take it that step further, used on garments not just in shoes, bags or jackets but as draped Grecian-style dresses/skirts or as giant floopy bows and soft collars as illustrated here.   

Project 1 Discovered

If you're one of those people that scroll straight to the pics,I might as well just state very clearly from the start, that these beauties that are Julia Finsk's A/W 09 Project 1 shoe is NOT in my permanent possession.  They are simply gracing my feet for a little while before they have to go back home.  I asked what Project 1 was two weeks ago when discovering Finsk's A/W 09 collection and so I'm errrrrrrrrrr........ trying on these shoes to discover the full meaning of Project 1.

No, that line doesn't wash.  A blatant lie.  I was in fact just desperate to be in its mere presence, even if it is temporarily.  This shoe is in fact going to feature as part of Finsk's short film that will do clever 3-d things like the films she has done for her past collections.  As such, they're not going to be on sale but it does allow Julia to explore the very experimental and ultra sculptural side to her work and seeing as she's not continuing her line for Faith anymore, perhaps that is the direction she wishes to take.  Very simply, this equates to more shoe porn for the likes of us who are satisfied by a decent lookbook.  The Project 1 shoe in purple and white was out but I discovered this alternative colourway which was even better... mushroom-grey highlighted by orange and green.  Those colour combinations that Finsk is known for strikes again...

(Worn in a very messy way with Forever 21 feather trim dress, vintage short sleeved brown leather and suede jacket from The Good Shop SF)

Project 1 debriefing over.

Me Hearts It

>>By posting this new A/W 09 collection by Vanessa da Silva, I'm completely contradicting an excerpt I read by Fran Lebowitz in this vintage book I picked up over the weekend called 'Cheap Chic' where she condemns slogan tees or gimmicks of any sort in Interview magazine twenty plus years ago...

"While clothes with pictures and/or writing on them are not entirely an invention of the modern age, they are an unpleasant indication of the general state of things, which encourages people to express themselves through their clothing... I mean, be realistic.  If people don't want to listen to you, what makes you think they want to hear from your sweater?"

Sadly, I don't have a voice as powerful as Ms. Lebowitz's so I'm happy to resort to more literal if banal statements such as these tees from Vanessa's I Heart London collection which I saw at a press day a few months back.  I'm also willing to declare my love for the Big Smoke even more strongly today having returned from a family meal where the parents have pleaded me to have a back-up city to work in after London and Hong Kong.... to which I replied... "I have no other place to go though...". 

 

Lulululuella...

I don't feel so guilty in overindulging in what can only be described as Lula-isms(rumours abound that the mag is gone for good?) seeing as I'm probably quite unlikely to pack so much Luella into one singular outfit and it really is for the purpose of photographing my picks from the mega sample sale that was so overflowing with stock, it got extended until Friday.  Thank you to the peeps who reported back with their tales of glee... tis' good when the sample sale fun can be had by many... though hopefully nobody wilted in the queue (saw a woman pass out the other day on the bus...was trying to telepathically send out thoughts of the ice bath over to her to cool her down...).

Like I said in my mini-post, the bag sale was pretty bargainous with bags going for mostly in the £75 region and only the big giant ostrich/croc fests going for £250 max.  I think I chose the oddest bag of the lot just because I'm personally not really into the Giselles or the err...other famous Luella bags that were on offer (you can tell I'm completely out of my comfort zone when I start talking about those errr....bag things...).  Mainly, it was the suede saddle and horse head tag that swayed me... and it's also lined with sheepskin which will make a cosy home for my shivering hand in colder months. 

It sits rather well with two pints...

Clothing wise, I didn't go too crazy with spending unlike other people, who were laden with about twenty items in their arms, excited by the £15 to £100 price range.  I went for a double breasted tail coat with net sleeves that also came in gunmetal grey.  Not exactly sure what season they are but it could well be a piece that never made it into the shows.  Have finally hit the tailcoat mark as the last time I was tempted, at the Veronique Branquinho stock sale in Antwerp, it was slightly too big. 

Oh, and I had to wear the things today in a very LITERAL and matchy matchy way with an old Zara dress and the Luella shoes I got in the sale... promise there won't be so much compacted Luella into one outfit ever again. 

Walking with my Head

>> I know I've been slacking off but like I said on my Twitter, all I could think about is dunking myself in an ice bath... or alternatively, running through a fountain like the one at Southbank... I have nothing remotely sartorial to write about when I'm wearing what are essentially shoes that appeal to the inner child... yup, the type of floral Docs that inspire hate threads on The Fashion Spot and are considered trite and 'try hard' (when did a verb and an adjective come together to become a properly established adjective?).  I'm only going to say this much... they're incredibly useful for making me feel five again propelling me to run through fountains...

Anyhow, onto weightier matters... since the mind is most occupied with ice baths and fountains, an easy exhibition at the Hayward, that's heavy with largescale and literal installations made sense... 'Walking in my Mind' is on at the moment and for the occasion, Yayoi Kusama has tacked her polka dots on the trees alongside the Thames , in an astro-turfed garden and inside the gallery.  Illustrator Yoshitomo Nara has reconstructed the coolest hut that mirrors his working studio.  The work that astounded me the most was the room that Chiharu Shiota had constructed which was an expanse of black thread cat's cradle...each line held taut to intertwine in a super complex web that protects a circle of white wedding-like dresses in the centre.  I don't have images of the actual room at the Hayward but with her past work at other galleries here... you get the picture... the cat's cradle technique is a repeated motif that crops up to different degrees...

I wonder what the dress trapped inside this entanglement of thread is supposed to represent... I'll attempt to think about it in my ice bath...

**EDIT** Ooops...gender bender mistake... I knew Yayoi was a woman but wrote 'his' but wasn't sure about Chiharu... apols...

Sturdy We Go

>> After hearing of Queen Michelle's woeful Tristan Blair shoe troubles, I thought I'd bring us down a peg (or inches) and post shoes on a Friday that are unlikely to fall apart, trip you up and are the sturdy shoe friend that we're meant to shun because we're supposed to be elevated by bad ass shoes that give us vertigo.  I made an eensy weensy point yesterday about the semi-skewed but ever alluring world that the likes of Jak & Jil presents (no diss to him of course as he's a friend and of course his work is fantastic even if his commentors are a little disturbing...) and what it does to wishful onlookers.  Shoes figure into that a lot and I'm sure somewhere out there people have been duped into thinking they're inadequate for not wearing 4inch plus footwear.  I for one was quickly brought down to earth with my errr ... my ankle injury and rediscovery of my love of certain trainers and now, a lovely shoe store in Seattle called Lambs's Ear.  Their brands are the kind that whilst have some height to them also have a great deal of stability and in fact it's these completely flat grey oxfords by Zeha Berlin that caught my attention first and foremost.  Their sturdy shoe roster also includes the affordable F-Troupe, LD Tuttle's 'height-without-pain' and Loeffler Randall's 'mid-heels-that-don't-look-awkward'.  

They've also wisely chosen one singular jewellery designer and it's none other than the lovely Arielle de Pinto who I met very briefly last season in Paris...trust me to lust after the two items that are out of stock...

I've had an inexplicable urge to visit both Portland and Seattle in one isolated trip... and once I've built up enough concrete reasons to go forth, that should be a surefire upcoming trip.  Lamb's Ear is of course one of them... oh and This is Naive's Lo-Fi Portland guide is another...

The Countdown

>>**EDIT** Have added prices and names...

>>I got my dates bungled up and this post was really supposed to go earlier as a preview to what will be available on the ASOS Ltd 100 project site - quick recap, 100 pieces by London College of Fashion students go on sale on ASOS TODAY at 1pm with all sales going back to the students... the last project sold out in two minutes hence why I was trying to be smart and all that by posting preview pics...

So bungled is this post that I have no prices and I only remember a handful of the students' name off by heart so again, that information will have to come later... a rough guideline me thinks is that pieces will range from £50-£300.  There's a rather scary clock thing counting down and there's less than four hours left...

I've already posted about overall winner Tian Wang whose jacket and trousers will be on sale...

Tian Wang, Digital Print Jacket £250, Digital Print Trousers £160

The brass accessories on these pieces are the perfect accompaniments...

Cecilia Ku Wun Ting, Oversized Blazer with Brass Belt £180, Zip Back Coat Dress with Arm Bands and Brass Trim £200

Prism prints...

 Para Manko, Digital Print Shift Dress £200, Placement Digital Print Shift Dress £200

This jacket felt really good on and the fringe is suitably heavy too...

Kate Underwood, Fringe Detail Leather Jacket £300, Fringe Detail Leather & Wool Dress £250

Ah...the Pepto Bismol coloured leather trews...

Joanne Jones, Zip Back Leather Trousers with Detachable Ankle Straps £200

Kiran Kumar Gobi, Pleat Detail Giraffe Print Zip Dress £150

Seung Woo Lee, Padded Sleeveless Dress £150

I loved the colours in this whole collection... the softness constrasted with the lazer cut squares...

 Alicija Aputyte, Laser Cut Detail Kimono Style Dress £150

Natsumi Zama, Shoulder Bow Detail Dress, £200

The shoulders on this dress are a bit like a rubix cube...

Yunwei Jiang, Shoulder Detail Long Sleeved Print Dress £100, Origami Pleat Detail Print Skirt £120

Lon Yin Paris Chan, Digital Print Pocket Detail Blazer £100

Fannie Sciavoni, Chain Detail Print Dress £120

Miriam Ridha, Printed Sheer Shift Dress £100

Anna Rachel Hobbs, Button Through Layered Tie Front Dress £100

Menswear was dominated by Kwung-Hwa Kim, designer of the two jackets below, who won the menswear prize...

Kyung Hwa Kim, Sleeveless Drop Shoulder Jacket £300, Drop Shoulder Long Sleeve Coat £280

 Vinita Ram Nagpal, Ruched Back Grandad Shirt £50 - apparently a little too reminiscent of a Henrik Vibskov shirt according to one commentor...

Rachel Esswood's scarf weighed an absolute ton but it supremely well crafted...

 Rachel Esswood, Oversized Hand Knitted Scarf £150

All Hail Marit

Prepare to have your pretty little minds blown away (ok my brain is small and petite, yours are humongous and filled with intelligence)... I was just about to shut up shop on the blogging front and couch out in front of Today at Wimbledon with an anchovy pizza and a beer...then I got this email from Marit Fujiwara and so the post must go on...

It couldn't wait a day, an hour or in fact, a mere minute.  I hassled her to unlock her Flickr and allow me to share her graduate collection 'Wound' with you ENLARGED in all its detailed glory.  Marit Fujiwara is a BA Textile Design grad from Chelsea College of Art and Design.  That's about all the info I have but this is a case where pictures can do an IMMENSE amount of talking...

Look, look closer, rub your eyes a bit if you have sleep/sweat and look again.  I took literally blinked at those detailed shots and then started bemoaning and wailing into the sky shouting "Why god?  Why am I such a talentless melting potato?"  This is mind bogglingly detailed work to a crazy level that is probably above and beyond the call of a graduate trying to get their work noticed.  This is a collection that I imagine being done by a minute perfectionist where one strand can't be out of place and the colours of the threads have to go in a specific order so as to not upset the balance.  This is where shapes of garments can be chucked out of the window because the kind of textile work going on is so intricate, with a supreme level of depth and innovation (not that Marit's shapes are poor anyway...).  She labels some of her images as 'cake' and the reference is not lost when you think of the devastating anal precision that goes into a patissier's work... these are in fact probably the clothing equivalent of Antonin Carême's creations (just re-read his bio...too good). 

I've already rambled far too long...  couldn't help myself with the superlatives... 

Further samples of her textile work...

Hot and Bound

>> In all honesty, all I've been thinking of for the past hour or so (I start to wilt and melt after 3pm in a pool of my own sweat and languid thoughts...) is I need to be submerged into an ice bath right now.  I'll do it naked if I have to but perhaps wearing one of Luiza Bondadiman's cut-out and tightly bound swimsuits from her latest S/S 10 collection might be a better option, lest I leap out of said ice bath yelping and screaming, lady lumps all over the joint and frankly resulting in a not so pretty sight. 

Fashion Rio was a few weeks ago and I must confess, JC Report's succint round-ups help me out a lot rather than trawling through sites that for some reason keeps coming up with a message that I've been hacked by someone Turkish... 

It was this multi-coloured, brightly pastel toned tied and bound swimsuit that caught my eye immediately and thus formed the basis for my dunking in ice bath get-up.  Or just on its own over a white sheer mesh top and some big clunky shoes.  I can just guess the comparisons to a certain leotard-loving, thigh-baring chica that will ensue...