TWO days without posting in ONE week....! The thought is appalling me beyond belief. I promise though there's been extreme circumstances, the results of which I will be posting later on. Stolmen is the one word diamond clue though...
I thought I would continue on from the holidays that designers at Stockholm Fashion Week have been taking with their collections. I thought I had clued myself into the vibe of Carin Wester's S/S 11 collection but as it turns out, I was a little off the mark. In actual fact,Wester was inspired by the changing, heady times of the 70s with men borrowing from women and vice versa - liberation abound in a collection entitled 'The Transformer' and supported by these lyrics here:
"Survival is the name of the game
So sad her eyes she cannot see
Oh, you’re a slick little girl
You dance with your lizard leather boots on
Hey, you hit me with a flower
Hey, why don’t you swallow razor blades
My kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder
Your beauty disgusts me
I step on your hands and I mangle your feet
I do what I want and I want what I see
I’m a queen without a throne
You can’t stand me now
I’ll arrive late tonight"
70s love soliloquies aside, perhaps I wasn't too far off seeing as the 70s was incidentally a period where people were in the full swing of flying all over the world, discovering far flung places - hence why I was trying to pin point Wester's point of geographical references... feather jewellery from 'Native American' sellers, floral prints from Hawaii, wooden beading from the Masai tribe and batik tie dye from Java... all of these world-travel, 'enlightening' details embedded into the 70s easy lovin', easy wearin' clothes that interchange between menswear and womenswear.
As with many Swedish designers, Wester's clothes break down easily into digestible chunks which is evident despite the amped up styling that saw guys free in tie dye dress and feather necklaces. This might not be so much of the obvious holidaying-sun-drenched collection that I thought it was after reading about its origins, but long lace dresses with suspended backs that dip low, bustiers with matching open-v dress, sheer long tops, silky trousers that split up the side and the cropped sweater that Wester favours definitely should be chucked into a summer hols suitcase...
I love that Carin Wester has also done a 'Henrik Vibskov' by allowing the public to see the show. Like Vibskov respectively in Denmark, Wester is also fast becoming a Swedish fashion darling as more-established brands like Acne move on up and step up globally (I detected a few people sad to see Acne move its show properly to London... ). With burgeoning collections in both womenswear and menswear, Wester has a proper 'brand' on her hands that still retains heaps of personality and soul... evident actually in her website which I might be making my second web home over the next few months. This is to make up for the fact that I didn't get to visit the physical store and also because the A/W 10-11 collection is dropping in thick and fast....
The archive store also provides some VERY reasonably priced treats. Everyman mid-range pricing is what Swedish fashion does best but when there's design packed into it, the deal seems even sweeter... the bustier and skater skirt print ensemble that I so admired is still up there...
