London Fashion Week: Street Style

One of our favourite up and coming photographers, who captured the crowds at our event: Fashion for Freedom, has shared with us a delightful set of street style shots from London Fashion Week. Tom Selmon's photographs show us how everyone can get involved with their inner creative flair during London Fashion Week and we love how these images helps us identify new trends on the horizon, or already in your wardrobe!

Prada Catwalk 2013

The Prada sleeve - just featured on the runway - already a street style hit - as captured by Tom this week! Albeit slightly impractical, nevertheless we love it.

Cuffs on the street at London Fashion Week

Armani Catwalk 2013

We love the 1920s! And with Downton taking in their first flapper girl and The Great Gatsby on its way - designers such as Marras and Armani have taken note, from Bloomsbury to cloche flapper hats. We already love turbans and can't wait for more 1920s apparel to come to our stores.

Some are ahead of the game, showcasing 1920s turbans during LFW

Love it or hate it, fur is back on the map, thanks to Fendi's latest catwalk debut. With an Aztec meets punk style rather than an old-school 1950s glamour, fur is given a tribal make-over. Get involved with zebra prints, and straight lined jackets - but keep it simple. The beauty of the Fendi show was it's ability to keep it classy by combining fur with neutral basics.

Zebra print on sloane street during LFW

Mulberry show 2013

The trend of sleeves, alternately coloured to the body of the coat, remains on the catwalks and the streets. Cheering up london's mass of black and grey jackets without being garish or OTT, these sleeves will likely remain for seasons yet to come. Mulberry has taken it to a patterned english heritage level, while Burberry has brought it to the new metallic sweet-wrapper styled mac.

A model outside Tom Ford Catwalk wearing the latest trend

Want to see more exciting Street Style photos? Have a look at Tom Selmon's website full of London Fashion Week's finest.

By Rosalind Kendal

Review: Rihanna for River Island: Celebrity hit or miss?

Victoria Beckham wearing her own fashion line

In a celebrity obsessed climate, fashion will follow celebrity. And after such a celebrity has spent many years as a clothes horse, exploited to promote items and labels beyond their own merit, why shouldn't the horse turn designer? Or at least turn head of their own designer label.

After all, once a celebrity is born they must ruthlessly convert every opportunity for self-promotion if they are to stay within the public's gaze. Their own clothing line is a self-seeking must, from P.Diddy to Victoria Beckham, from the Olsen Twins to Katie Holmes, celebrities who's first talent is to seduce the public eye, now have the opportunity to dress the public body.

This does seem like just another super-human ability of the celebrity to surpass millions of struggling mortals, endlessly learning, interning, and finally entry leveling - all in one go. Do I sound bitter? I am aware that every celebrity has their tear-jerking struggle to contend with, but originally in the music industry, rather than fashion. It seems that conquering the music charts, entitles one to conquer all creative industries (no wonder X Factor has such allure). And while the genuinely talented cross-overs do exist, these are surely jaded by their origins - a whispered famous nepotism always hangs on their head - 'they did not get this on talent alone.' 

I am aware this article is hideously unfashionable in the fashion industry - for how can a magazine that relies on celebrity endorsement itself, criticise their favourite clothes horses? Only designers such as Karl Lagerfeld and Vivenne Westwood can be relied on for a pinch of honesty in these times, designers who's reputation does not rely purely on celebrity.

Meanwhile as the public democratically elects their own leaders, so too do they elect their fashion trends and labels. We all know that Rihanna's label for River Island will boost sales, reputation and sell out almost immediately. Similar to Lily Allen's label for New Look, Kate Moss's label for Topshop, Kardashian's up and coming label for Dorothy Perkins, the personality of the celebrity is converted to clothes then to cash. Celebrities make fashion fashionable. 

Rihanna's River Island debut

Am I a puritan to worry that fashion is ultimately corrupted by these first famous, then style celebrated, designers? Why shouldn't we all dress in clothes that are personally endorsed by models and singers, not to mention firmly affordable, compared to the unaffordable designers celebrities actually wear? They are only taking it one money-making step further, by accepting the responsibility we gave them as our style icons.

Then it is up to each consumer to question whether they would have bought that badly made viscose dress if it wasn't for Kate Moss choosing it, whether they would have truly liked the Rihanna for River Island 'I've got an STI' styling and 90s grunge throwback, if it were not for her famous face. It is up to each of us to question whether fashion innovation is lost, truth is over-shadowed by endorsement and whether designers who aren't famous musicians get the attention they deserve? I personally did like one or two of the cropped tops from the Rihanna for River Island show and I would have worn the red dress five years ago. However in terms of actual fashion, I was certainly not blown away. It was your every-day cheap-looking youthfully-inclined clothes which although has a place on the high-street, can it debut next to high-fashion?

Interested in some innovative designers who actually design their own clothes? Look out for Helen Storey, Ada Zanditon and Cynthia Rowley.

We have Storey and Zanditon dress and corset at affordable prices here! 

By Rosalind Kendal

The controversial Alexander Mcqueen: why do we love him?

Mcqueen's early work

Lee Alexander McQueen killed himself three years ago, leaving a legacy of fashion awards and spine-tingling shows, more comparable to high-art, than high fashion. Ignorant critics have declared that Alexander McQueen hated women, that his catwalks are simply a place for size starving to flaunt their bones. While his catwalks were full of malnutrition-chic, this reductive point is true of all high-fashion houses, while simply stating that ‘he hated women’, it is more true to say that he hated himself.

Alexander McQueen used catwalks as a place to discuss his own emotional turmoil, like a modern-day Munch. He would transform runways with psychological depth, attacking the hemlines of the establishment. My favourite show was the famous Damien Hirst-like fantasy, models in a box, of 2001. 

He raised the caliber of the catwalk with these imaginative performances, breaking the rules, by exploring where fantasy met with obsession. Under his gaze fashion was no longer just a trivial consummation of upper echelon status. It was art.

Sara Burton's latest catwalk

Since his death, most fashionista’s have had the same thought in their heads – how will Sarah Burton, his long-time assistant collaborator and new successor, do? Will she truly live up to the disturbed vision of one of the greatest fashion designers of our time?

The truth is, it is impossible to recreate the vision of someone who is gone, and forgery will be seen for what it truly is under the microscopic lenses of the fashion world. In the last two years she has managed to avoid this and adhered to the integral values of the McQueen brand, whilst creating her own vision.

Her latest catwalk took inspiration from the busy bee woman, making delicious hourglass silhouettes with all the edge and vision you would expect from a McQueen show. There is still meaning in the bejeweled armor, still extraordinary beauty in the chosen metaphor, but there is no longer that sinister longing which historically pervaded the shows. This longing that made the catwalks explode into spectacle, the Kate Moss hologram, the paints that attacked the dress, made us always expect the unexpected with Lee McQueen at the helm.

Paint attacking a dress on a catwalk spectacle

Life cannot stand still however, and the story of the label must change and flourish with a new creative director. I look forward to seeing the Burton narrative unfold, as she directs the label away from the shadow shaped Lee of the past, and into a new future.

Check out our Mcqueen inspired ruffled dress or a Bejewelled collar necklace to get the look.

By Rosalind Kendal

Your Grandfather's jumper entry 7

Your Grandfather's jumper entry 7

Rocking some great vintage booties here!

Your Grandfather's jumper entry 6

Your Grandfather's jumper entry 6

Jodie in an AWESOME Vintage shirt.

Your Grandfather's jumper entry 5

Your Grandfather's jumper entry 5

Check out the lovely Kendall in her lovely vintage with the cutest kitty!!!!!!

 http://designandkindness.blogspot.co.uk/