Fashion galleries

Les Mis fashion

Brigit Grant — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:25:24 +0000

How to look lovely for longer - the products

Brigit Grant — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 12:00:00 +0000

The products that will take you from day to night.

Israeli shoe designer wows fashionistas

Thu, 01 Nov 2012 16:33:37 +0000

Move over Jimmy Choo and Christian Louboutin. Israeli shoe designer, Kobi Levi is putting the fun and fabulous back into footwear at Selfridges this month with his collection of themed stilettoes resembling everything from a shark baring its teeth to a half-peeled banana and a cup of coffee spilling on to the floor.

For the full story, see the link below

Stay radiant - the products

Brigit Grant — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 14:50:41 +0100

All the products to keep you radiant all winter long.

Enter the bronze age

Jan Shure — Thu, 31 May 2012 16:23:36 +0100

The art and sole of spring trends

Jan Shure — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 11:54:58 +0000

If you thought the sheer range of trends in clothing this season was dazzling/baffling, you will find no comfort in footwear - literally, of course, as well as metaphorically, since mega high heels and teetering platforms again stalk the land for spring/summer 2012.

What is making life tougher for all our inner Carrie Bradshaws, is that so many of them are so alluring, we run the risk of buying more pairs than intended.

Colour is among the key options, with riotous mixes of sizzling brights such as fuchsia, cobalt, turquoise and orange, used singly or in deliciously clashing combinations. If you are wary of going the colour block route in clothes, shoes are a good way to dip into this trend.

The same goes for those pretty fondant pastels - peppermint, lilac, acqua, pink and lemon - which can look a bit tooth-achingly saccharine in clothing, but brilliantly directional when used to accessorise pale neutrals such as nude, cream and silver grey.

Sports luxe is a trend which, in clothing, will be mainly ignored by all women aged over, ooh, 17. However, when it comes to shoes, it is one trend everyone is already loving. Possibly because of the summer's London Olympics, or possibly because of a desire to participate in mundane activities like walking, doing the school run and using the underground, or perhaps because Isabel Marant made them so achingly covetable with her £450-a-pop wedge trainers last year, statement hi-tops and trainers, the footwear in which sports luxe manifests itself, are already huge.

Cleverly, Marant's trainers had the advantage of giving the wearer a bit of height - an attribute annoyingly absent from most trainers - as well as imbuing her with some serious fashion cred. While Marant has reprised them this season at similar prices, there are less pricey but equally covetable hi-tops, with and without a wedge.

Other key trends to look out for are Metallics, with gold, silver and pewter twinkling across everything from dressy courts and sandals to daytime brogues, and Print of every kind, notably animal and floral, lavished on every type of footwear, from sky-high courts to plimsolls, at every price range.

Great Danes and hot Swedes

Jan Shure — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 12:05:11 +0000

The Scandinavians are definitely having a moment, And not just on TV where, watching the superb Danish imports, The Killing, Borgen and Those Who Kill, which started on ITV3 last week, has become a paradigm of middle-class, cultural attitudes, or in pop-lit where Stieg Larsson, Jens Lapidus and Liza Markland regularly top UK bestseller lists.

The Scandinavians, as it turns out, are good at fashion, too, and not just for understated wardrobe staples for which they were once a byword.

Swedish chain H&M, which became part of the British high street landscape after launching in 1977 in Jewish North London's favourite mall, Brent Cross, is about to wow us with a guest collection from Marni, which arrives in UK stores on March 8.

Following in the footsteps of Stella McCartney, Lanvin, Versace, et al, Consuelo Castiglioni, creative director and founder of the quirky Italian label, has created a beautiful, very grown-up guest collection, full of her wild, punchy prints and muted colours. There are insouciantly droopy silk dresses and statement silk tops, print knee-length skirts, sleek leather bags, chunky platform sandals and her colourful, amusing jewellery.

H&M sister brand, Cos offers a grown-up, understated, polished vibe which stylish Brits have been quietly loving since the first branch opened in Regent Street in 2007. During last month's London Fashion Week no less a fashion authority than British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman, wore the brand's ankle-skimming print trousers.

Less ubiquitous than its sibling, Cos has just 11 UK branches, including Covent Garden, both London Westfields, Manchester and Brighton. For Spring, it offers its trademark, small palette of understated neutrals - navy, pale grey, putty and white - augmented by baby blue, peppermint and emerald green for ankle-skimming trousers, pencil skirts, cocoon tops, drop-dead simple shift dresses and tailoring, all done with a simplicity and cut that belies the (mainly under £100) price tags.

The Scandinavians are no slouches in the designer stakes, either. By Malene Birger; Acne, Day, Birger et Mikkelsen; Designers Remix; Rabens Saloner; Lollys Laundry; Rutzou and House of Dagmar along with footwear by Holy Moly, Camilla Skovgard and Billi Bi, have gained a serious foothold well beyond their home cities. The directional, beautiful and, it has to be said, unfortunately named, Swedish label, Acne, sold by Browns, My-Wardrobe and Net-a-Porter, demonstrates in its clever cutting, edginess and use of colour that you can hint at an Italianate sensibility while staying true to your cooler, north European roots. For spring, Acne offers fondant colours like lilac and rose, used for draped, racer-back dresses, simple shirts and T-shirts, alongside mouthwateringly pretty, pastel suede biker jackets, shapely knits and laid-back, stripey maxi dresses.

Day, Birger et Mikkelsen, sold at Matches, My-Wardrobe and Net-a-Porter, conforms more closely to the moody Scandinavian stereotype. Their S/S12 palette used for silk dresses, draped cardis, pretty blouses, playful tees and unstructured tailoring, rarely strays far from pale neutrals leavened by the odd flash of mustard yellow, bronze or pale rose.

The Danish brand with razzle-dazzle is By Malene Birger, stocked by Fenwicks W1, Net-a-Porter and My-Wardrobe. Birger is a Dane who loves colour and her Spring collection is infused with it: sizzling fuchsia, eye-popping emerald and peach, used for day and after-six dresses, sweet silk tops, simple shirts and razor-cut tailoring.

Pamela Shiffer in Primrose Hill regularly features Scandinavian collections among a cleverly edited range of international brands. These include Gustav, which combines silk and jersey for edgy draped tops and dresses; Sandwich, for easy, undemanding casuals, and Margit Brandt, who took her own 1960s back catalogue as inspiration for spring, for beautifully updated maxi dresses, jumpsuits, sheer blouses and paisley print dresses.

Nicole shows her metal

Jan Shure — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 11:22:22 +0000

It sounds like an irreconcilable paradox, but Nicole Farhi's Autumn/Winter 2012 was both intensely glamorous and supremely understated. Shorn of gimmicks designed to provoke popping flashbulbs, her collection at London Fashion Week was of such polished perfection that reader, if I had a diary stuffed with international business meetings, drinks parties and chi-chi dinners (and a bank account to match), I would buy virtually every garment.

Sensibly, Farhi has kept the off-duty pieces like chunky knits, jeans, and casual jackets for her diffusion label, Farhi by Nicole Farhi, concentrating, instead, in her 30th anniversary collection, shown amid the Gothic splendour of the Royal Courts of Justice, on clothes to lust after.

It was glamorous in a way that Hollywood stars of the 30s were glamorous, without vulgarity or glitz, offering a slightly New York vibe in its laid-back simplicity. Each piece was immaculately cut, using beautifully luxe fabrics, like chintzed or bonded wool, laminated jacquards, technical jersey and many, many sequins, crafted into fluid, contemporary, shapes that would suit real bodies as well as etiolated, model-thin ones. A colour palette of hazy greys, chartreuse, copper, moss, deep yellow, pumice and winter white, was not only in line with all the other A/W12 palettes, but also reflected her awareness that a typically high-spending Farhi client will find all of these colours more appealing than black.

From the first garments, a simple, long-sleeve shift dress in grey, embellished with a curve of metallic jacquard, a ladylike, belted, double-face wool coat in pumice and a grey fabric and fur trench coat, Farhi demonstrated she understands the DNA of her client. She followed with silk or wool tulip skirts topped with narrow sweaters with funnel neck tops - some sleeveless - or neat little blouses. She used pumice colour wool for a short jacket with softly draping funnel neck, worn over a black tulip skirt, and used ivory wool for another ravishingly cut funnel-neck coat. There were sleeveless, 60s-inspired sleeveless dresses with zips and funnel necks, and collarless, metallic jacquard coats which wrapped across the body fastening at one shoulder. She used the same jacquard for a broad panel on the front of a simple, long-sleeve shift, and for a gently A-line skirt worn with a high-buttoning white shirt. Her beautiful, formal day-wear included a long-sleeve belted dress in white with origami folded skirt, and a dark grey, sharply waisted coat dress with narrow collar and rever, and origami folds that stood in for a peplum.

By fusing her heavily ornamented skirts - either sequin-lavished or with shards of flying metal strips - with austere, high-neck sweaters, simple silky knitted sweaters or dead plain, long-sleeve silk tops, she made them wearable for everyone. She transformed a simple grey overcoat into a statement piece by bonding the wool with gold foil splashed across the front. She used her yellowychartreuse shade for a fitted, elongated jacket with long collar that gave it a slightly Puritan feel, and teamed it with an on-the-knee, tulip-shape skirt for a laid-back, pared-down aesthetic, which continued with long-sleeve, slash-neck silk tops which she mixed with easy, peg-top trousers in wool, in grey suede or, for evenings, in bronze or pewter metallics.

Trenches with a twist

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 11:28:18 +0000

On Planet Fashion, or La La land as I prefer to call it, a UK Spring of chilly temps, blustery winds, lots of rain and occasional snow flurries, doesn't exist. In LLL, seasons shift in a blink from deep mid-winter (January, February, early March) into a balmy fantasy Spring in which we are expected to switch instantly from cashmere and fur to floral frocks and bare legs.

But, in Real Life, we do actually require transitional garments, so here, we bring you the best of the cover-ups so you can snap them up before Spring.

For the past decade, the most popular has been the Trench and the Parka. The Trench has been so consistently popular that any prescient fashionista who, 10 years ago, invested in one by Burberry or Aquascutum (or even Gap, where mine is from) should mentally give herself a high five each Spring.

The potential downside of such practicality is boredom, but there are several ways to give your Trench a twist: roll up the sleeves (easy peasy); depending on its length, have it shortened, though long can be good over longer pencil skirts or midis; or add a touch of the new season's metallics with a gold- or silver-threaded scarf looped round your neck.

Banana Republic has well-cut classic neutrals and navy at under £150; Mint Velvet has classic-ish ones, plus a divine semi sheer one in a peach sorbet (£99, John Lewis, Brent Cross).

In colour, Fenwick W1 has red by Gerard Darel (£319); Zara has pastel pink (£69); and there are mini trenches in cobalt or red at John Lewis (£79) in yellow at Jaeger (£299) and fuchsia at Banana Republic, £120. For non-trench style macs, try Zara and Mint Velvet.

Parkas have been in and out more times than kids in a Hokey-Cokey circle. Next season they are back, playing into the sports-luxe trend, voluminous, longer and in interesting fabrics. Among the best are a rubber-coated one from Hobbs, £179; bold animal print by Sonia at Sonia Rykiel (£269, Fenwick W1) and a silky, slouchy drop-shoulder one in coral and peach at M&S (£65).

Less utilitarian cover-ups are around, too, many playing into the retro trend which stays strong. There are 60s-style babies by Max&Co at Fenwick, W1, including a black, collarless coat (£299); and Jackie O coats, including cream by Nina Ricci (£1,110 at Browns) and with neat collar in navy or lemon, Boden, £127.

Here's the high street hot list

Jan Shure — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 12:59:42 +0000

It was sometime around 2008, just before the first credit crunch began to bite, that the UK high street began to seriously rock. Chains like River Island, Warehouse, Oasis, H&M with their guest collections, and Debenhams with their "Designers For..." collections, all began to up their game in response, some would argue, to the challenge of Primark. The high street was transformed from "meh" to must-go.

The Irish-owned budget chain, which crept quietly on to the high street to become a seemingly overnight phenomenon, pulled off the genius trick of catching trends and churning out copies - sometimes astonishingly good and sometimes truly horrid - that left breathless even those who had honed the rip-off concept. The UK's love affair with Primark has definitely cooled, but its legacy - a high street that produces brilliant, directional pieces that are often indistinguishable from a designer original - remains.

This is especially true of Spanish chain Zara, which can be relied on to work the season's strongest trends in good fabrics and great colours at good prices. For spring, that includes their hallmark pared-down, deliciously grown-up pieces like tuxedo jackets with contrast collars, cocoon skirts in bright hues worn with clashing, slash-neck tops, silky slouch tops in vertical colour blocks and understated linen coats.

Home-grown chain Oasis - founded by Bennett brothers Michael and Maurice, now owned by Aurora Fashions - has an especially covetable collection for spring 2012, featuring the season's favourite pastels and sorbet colours, plain or blended in exclusive prints designed by an in-house fabric designer. There are lace pencil skirts, sweetly retro sundresses, brilliantly wearable shift dresses, some with peplums, textured linen cocoon skirts, sheer mid-calf midi skirts and ankle-skimming pastel jeans.

Sister brand Warehouse also offers directional and wearable pieces for spring, like scarf-print tops, mixed print shift dresses and shirts, flower-print trousers, lace pencil skirts with toning cotton knit jumpers, and little dresses with Prada-esque appliqué lace.

Reiss is another high street brand punching well above its price tag for spring 2012. They, too, have an in-house print designer who has created sweet, original florals and abstracts which have been crafted into infinitely wearable little tops, midi and cocoon skirts, placement print shirts, shapely, bracelet sleeve shifts and collarless shirt dresses. Alongside prints, are lace pencil skirts, dip-dyed maxi skirts, ankle-skimming trousers and an infinite number of beautifully tailored blazers and tuxedo jackets.

Debenhams "Designers For..." and "Editions" collections are very strong for spring. Naturally, print features strongly, with J by Jasper Conran's fluid, silky pencil skirt in lime, navy and white, Rocha - John Rocha's placement print shift - and a purple-and-lime print frock from Betty Jackson Black, all brilliantly wearable. A Preen Edition floral and polka dot print used for ankle-skimming trousers, contrast-trim shirt, and a scoop-neck shift, looks seriously pricey and on-trend, while a belted, colour-block crepe dress in red and purple is a stand-out piece from Roksanda Ilincic's Roksanda Edition collection.

River Island, now headed by Ben Lewis, son of late Isrotel boss David, is dazzlingly on-trend for spring. Unlike most of the high street, which is wooing a slightly older demographic for its greater spending power, River Island's collections are frankly aimed at under 30s. This policy puts designer lookalike pieces like mixed-print, '70s trouser-suits, disco-inspired gold-trimmed bra-top-and-skirt ensembles, and sports luxe pieces, within the range of junior style hunters on lower budgets. If you are outside the demographic, River Island is still brilliant for sleek tops, great knits, and stunning shoes and bags.

Which brings us to M&S. Now almost two years into the tenure of Marc Bolland, little has changed in its fashion offering, some of which still resembles C&A's Clockhouse in its dying days. But then not much will change until someone in their glossy Paddington Basin HQ realises that the former fashion queen of Asda, with questionable taste and a take-it-or-leave-it policy of producing key styles in a single colour, may not be the style saviour for M&S. For spring, amid a sea of nasty colours and fabrics, are a few gems worth truffling out, including placement print shifts and pencil skirts, print dresses and a sweet, cat-print blouse.