12 red roses: March 2008

12.3.08

Hot Stuff

New York has much in common with London’s vibe and Aesthetic. They both innovate and challenge convention, but more so than London, New York designers love to keep close to their roots. Sportswear is an all-American legacy that never wonders far from the minds of designers such as Zac Posen, Derek Lam, Carolina Herrera and Mary Ping's work.
Posen claims that his key values are glamour and comfort, but is emphatic that comfort comes first. Nevertheless, he certainly showed his fellow designers a thing or two about tactics and perception with his shameless social meanderings early in his career, that showed his designs off to the max. His combination of Practical yet daring is a sure-fire winner for women around the globe, emitting a strong womanly vibe that leaves men (and most photographers) weak at the knees.
The two sides of American life have long been interchangeable, but while in its fashion past sportswear was a staple, New York’s modern terrain now demands the sophisticated touch from it's inhabitants. Proenza Schouler's evolution mirrors that of the duo's home city; starting out with simplistic, practical designs but maturing into a thoroughly grown-up label, producing more feminine and glamorous apparel with each collection. It seems New York is a city which pushes its Designers to keep re-invention alive, ideas strong and calls upon maturity at all times.
This is the crunch with New York: designers have to be acutely aware of just how easy it is to be over-hyped and then just sink without trace amid financial and media disapproval or disinterest, Dream Over. But, once you’re made, you’re in with the pack for life. Americans' love to be loyal, it just would be bad sportsmanship to be anything less. But although the rise is often rapid for The Next Big Thing, staying on that hard-earned pedestal becomes as perilous as falling off it. Something that rules New York fashion is its constant fuel. Its designers have to have a trick or two up their sleeves to keep the fire burning bright because everyone knows that this city is one of the harshest fashion environments to survive in. Beneath the casual, comfy veneer lies a cut-troat street-wise hard edge. Ultimately, it's the need to keep turning out red-hot collections that keeps New York super-cool.

10.3.08

London Keeps Calling

London. Epicentre of revolution since the beginning of time. And revolution is what keeps ideas fresh and new. As young, opinionated designers keep pondering ‘why not?’ ‘If,’ ‘How...’ and perhaps the most important of statements that London designers are known is the very egocentric but genius, ‘I think it should be like this, so it will be’. Fearlessness and creativity fused is what permeates from the London Collections and London designers to the world, even if they show in a different country. Of the clothes that run away down the catwalks in the most famous capital in the world, none have more furore, wit or passion than the collections of Westwood, Kane, McCartney, Williamson, Miss Bartley or Master Pugh.
Design genius such as Marc Jacobs, Prada and Sonia Rykiel all have the famous English eclecticism in their work, but the difference is they have access to all the money they require to make ends meet. They would each blend in perfectly well alongside are current London design sensations. One of them even has conquered the French market as Creative Director of Louis Vuitton and last season chose to migrate for a season, to, you guessed it, London. This just goes to show while the rich make even bigger empires, we burn bigger holes in our pockets to keep up.
London is continually let down by the lack of funding it receives, so much so it had become infamous for creativity on a budget with designers living on a shoe string to maintain their ideas. Designers don’t even have a permanent area dedicated to the Catwalks each season. A building site emerges every season near to the natural History Museum in South Kensington to accommodate the catwalk. Milan, Paris and New York are taken more seriously because of their financial success and this in turn has allowed their brightest creative sparks to flourish into international superstars and caused the best British designers to flee their homeland with no other choice but to find richer pastures to flourish in.
As a creative spirit, London really comes into its own when it tenatious designers invent a new scene with outfits to represent how a whole generation feels. Look at the Swinging 60s with Mary Quant inventing carefree Mini skirts and psychedelic tights, the arrival of the seemingly anarchist Punk movement instigated by Vivienne Westwood in the 1970s, with head-to-toe leather and metal studs that screamed ‘keep off’. 2008 welcomes the development of our current innovators with third collections from Gareth Pugh and Christopher Kane. Other new comers are delighting by bringing British staples back to the fore, like Louise Goldin’s diverse knits and Danielle Scutt’s wild prints. That's the thing about us Brits, we certainly know how to cheer ourselves up.

3.3.08

Whos That Girl?

Sugar and spice and all things stylish are mostly what this girl is made of. Of course she’d be covered in the delicious designs from the likes of Moschino and Yves Saint Laurent if she was lucky enough to be made the owner of a more generous bank balance than her modest one, which only just covers the essentials and is mostly poured into gathering the non-essential essentials, such as ebay bargains, charity shop and vintage shop finds and of course, Topshop gems.
She knows that her true love lies in everything new and interesting in the world, born under the star sign of Virgo the virgin, she is ruled by the communication planet, Mercury and so finds herself compelled to seek out the best and finding a way of getting the message across to the rest is of utmost importance to her. Unknowingly, this is what led her to enrol on her current Fashion Journalism course and get her paws stuck firmly into various assignments such as fashion features including trend and catwalk reports, profiles, interviews, investigative features and fashion shoots.
Her traditionalist ways means she adores the classic styles of film stars Marilyn Monroe and Katherine Hepburn, two pioneers of grace and feminine freedom in dressing, and two of her favourite style icons of all time. She also admires the quirky and slightly eccentric designs seen on the catwalks of Gaultier and Galliano, and has a keen eye for anything imaginatively flamboyant and boundary bursting.Her ambition is to be at the forefront of the fashion press, with a seat reserved for her twice a year on the front rows of the New York, Paris, London and Milan shows. She wants to be helping to share the cream of the new season’s ideas and emerging trends with the fashion-savvy and fashion-curious reader.
And so, this aspiring Fashion Journalist finds herself on her way to New York to seek out the hottest designers at Parsons School of Design. Once there she WLTM an inspiring person with a GSOS (good sense of style) who can design with an open mind and spirit, for finding out more about and reporting back to Segue magazine, which once completed will ensure a London fashion pack audience and fantastic exposure.
She also wants to take a big bite of that shiny apple and see if it tastes just as good as it looks.

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