We may have only just passed the mid-point of Joyless January but I am already sure of my aesthetic for summer (a pastel rainbow with holographic highlights) and I'm busy daydreaming of a chilled-out holiday in warmer climes, sipping a cocktail, wearing a swimsuit made out of carpet.
Hold up a moment. A swimsuit made out of carpet?!You'll be thinking you've made some strange fashion choices Dotty, but this one takes the biscuit.. but no, bear with me! I've found a swimwear brand that ticks all the right boxes for summer - Auria boasts a dreamy colour palette and imaginative prints; plus is ethically produced using recycled polyamide, from stuff like discarded fishing nets, and indeed carpet.
I find the collection so pleasing to look at, and the shapes are perfect too: fed up of ruffles to amend and cut-outs to enhance, I'm craving simple one-piece suits, like you wore to do your 100m badge in school lessons. This will be designer Diana Auria's first collection and is a collaboration with illustrator Margot Bowman (you may remember the latter's work with the Topshop blog and the Town Hall Hotel) and I will be keeping a close eye on the website, waiting for the collection to drop.
If the old saying is true - you know: one is a sighting, two is a coincidence, three's a trend - then it is very likely next season you will be raiding your granny's wardrobe for her very best sheepskin-lined slippers.
Or perhaps not. But with three brands erring towards pensioner chic in their spring/summer and resort collections, it's fun to speculate what we'll all be like when we're sixty-four, and counting. Going to collect our pensions in pink tutus and turquoise eye shadow, with faded tattoos and saggy piercing holes... or conforming to the polyester pleat norm?
Fam Irvoll was my first sighting with No Thank You, Mr Botox. Ditching plastic surgery and fillers in favour of growing old disgracefully in flatform slippers, Fam's candy-bright spring/summer 2012 collection is like our good Queen Elizabeth on acid. Grannies are appliquéd onto chests and a knit dress features a glamorous fox-fur wearer.. totally politically incorrect nowadays, but does Granny care? Erm, nope. She's going to wear what she likes, when she likes, and you young oiks can stick it.
The coincidence was Sister by Sibling S/S13. Featuring delicate lace doily facemasks, twinsets, and their signature intarsia knitwear in oversized, psychedelic patterns, the entire collection was inspired by Poly Styrene of the X-Ray Spex - who pioneered granny clothing waaay before Alexa Chung even clapped eyes on a penny loafer.
Finally cementing the trend is Wildfox Resort's 2013 lookbook, Granny's Closet. I am sure you all know by now how I feel about Wildfox, but I really think this time Kim Gordon has surpassed herself. I'm totally drawn in by the rich old lady-wot-lunches, dressed head-to-toe in pastels, knitting furiously whilst fueled by gin. The whole lookbook has a touch of melancholy about it however: echoing the way it feels having lived a full and exciting life, now being somewhat lonely and isolated up in a huge Bel Air mansion, shunned by younger family members who only visit for their Christmas and birthday presents, and the odd Werther's Original.
Still, it's hard to be sad for too long when you're wearing Wildfox, and models Nyasha and Mila look like they're having the time of their lives in the glamorous house.
This collection is a tribute to granny and her perfectly mismatched style, her love of cats, jewels, travels and gardening, her hair that she never cuts, the old mansion she bought in the 90’s with the last of her savings, her big glasses she always wears to brunch, and that grandma spirit we all know and adore.
The big guns of fashion (that's your Chanels, Diors, and the like) may show at Paris Fashion Week, but there is one trés Parisienne designer who has proved time and time again to exercise greater influence than those veritable fashion dinosaurs, on everyone's wardrobe, from the off-duty model to the on-duty mum. Isabel Marant - creator of the wedge sneaker, purveyor of the colourful loose knit, and catalyst for the explosion of the baseball jacket - showed today in Paris, and you better start studying this collection hard - fast - if you want to hit the ground running for spring/summer '13. The formula is the same - one part bohemian to two parts cowgirl, with a whole load of nonchalance - it's just the lustworthy pieces are new and fresh in a way that only Marant can manage.
On my list? It's got to be Aymeline's short sleeved embellished jacket and Kati's cut-out playsuit. Inevitable sell-outs, this will of course forever be only a wish-list..
Don't let my fantastic Ashish photos fool you. I wasn't in the photographer's pit, the front row, or even in the same room... I was simply in the Canon Cinema (or the Cinema of Rejects, coined by Gemma Satire) watching the show live, developing more of an urge to wear sequin socks with Reebok Classics as it went on. I'm not sure how I feel about remembering a retro trend the first time around, but it's probably not a good thing. Mr Gupta hit the mood just right with the sporty white, grey, and denim collection, with his signature sequins covering just one aspect of the garments - one leg, one arm, or one side.
I certainly am très fatigué, as evidenced by my terrible posture and spotty face in these photos, so this post will be kept relatively short and sweet. Check out the pictures of Tata Naka's pool party, Nova Chiu's silk prints, and the last of the week's street style in the fading sunshine.
Last season I queued up in the freezing cold to get into the Pam Hogg show, ultimately to be turned away due to a full-to-bust venue. The show that got away, if you like. This year I was determined to get in, despite knowing it would be even harder work considering Lady Mary Charteris's choice of Hogg wedding dress last month. My heart was in my mouth as I got closer to the entrance this evening but I was one of very few standing ticket holders to be allowed in. Hoorah!
The collection was entitled "Save Our Souls", so I can only assume the flimsily-clad nurses at the beginning of the show were fully qualified in soul first aid. Inventive spandex bodysuits are Pam Hogg's thing - and a thing she does very well indeed, though they're sadly not particularly wearable for us normos (Manchester may be an open-minded city but I would still get a few funny looks, and the rest, walking around Sainsbury's in one of the geometric suits. Might be alright for Canal Street mind) - but wedding attire was clearly at the forefront of her mind when creating this collection, with tulle confections smattering the runway, complete with Elizabeth I-esque headpieces. Granted they'd have to be tweaked before you ever went near a church in them - there's nipples and side-boobs galore - but at least you wouldn't look like a sickly meringue.
Check out Alice Dellal modelling for Pam, plus Jo Wood, Kate Nash, and Jaime Winstone (sat next to Charlotte Gush - that girl is smashing it) on the front row. Most shows at fashion week are full of wearable collections, of which you think "that was nice.. but where's the imagination?" The Pam Hogg show was a real show and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. To phrase it in a rather twattish Grazia way, this show was definitely my fashion moment of the season.
