Chanel Autumn/Winter 2011 Haute Couture

I’m a terrible person. If this blog was a tamagotchi, it would have starved to death by now. However, final year exams, final year exam results, final year exam result celebrations AND graduation are definitely valid reasons to have neglected one’s blog, right? Wrong, probably but c’est la vie and such is life. On a purely self centred level [perhaps my favourite level], this is one of the better times to have returned to the fashion blogosphere, as of course the Autumn/Winter 2011 couture collections have just finished at Paris Fashion Week. As I step out, blinking the innocent eyes of the newborn graduate, taking my first tentative steps into the ‘real’ world, the sharp tailoring and witty detailing of this year’s shows have been a ready source of inspiration for future office-friendly outfits.

For once, Chanel received a couple of rather lacklustre reviews with some reporters and bloggers variously describing the collection as ‘sad’ ‘gloomy’ and ‘underwhelming’. However, I loved the show. I thought the return to classic, durable pieces such as the tweed suit, full-length dress and the midi skirt teamed with over-the-knee and knee-high boots is exactly what is needed in the current fashion [and indeed financial] climate. ‘It’s androgyny versus femininity,’ said Lagerfeld the night before the show. ‘One is an exaggerated feminine shape. The other is more boyish…..but not at all butch, mind.’ Noted, must keep that in mind, thanks Kaiser.

Whilst the mood was, admittedly, more sombre than Lagerfeld’s usual exuberant shows, the setting in the middle of the Grand Palais was absolutely stunning. Built as a replica of Place Vendome, where Chanel had an apartment, the show started at 10pm [so as to be flooded in moonlight] and was completed with a massive obelisk topped with a chrome statue of Coco herself, in one of her signature suits.

Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman described the collection as ‘very Mary Poppins-like – an extravagant governess, it was strict’, citing the prim hemlines and layered evening wear. The classic Chanel skirt-suit was given a modern twist with nipped in waisted jackets and a distinct stiff peplum, contrasting with a strong, bold shoulder. Colours included black, navy, white, grey and an intense magenta. My favourite detail was the little boater hats each of the models wore at the back of the head, redolent of punting and afternoon tea. Therein, perhaps, lies the problem some fashion reporters had with the collection; it was just so overwhelmingly English, but English in the best sense, old-fashioned English; lawn tennis, strawberries and lazy summer afternoons, as opposed to bulldogs and casual racism. The demure and elegant appearance of long sleeves and hemlines (the midi was firmly ensconced in the collection, so it’s clearly not going anywhere for A/W) continues the lady-like trend of this year’s spring/summer collections, with the fishtail detailing on skirts and dresses adding a playful touch to an otherwise sophisticated collection.

What do you think of Chanel’s Autumn Winter couture for 2011-12?

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'Models are there to look like mannequins, not like real people. Art and illusion are supposed to be fantasy.'

-The indomitable Grace Jones

Die Antwoord - Fashionistas?

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a South African band with a prevalence for tattoos, shaved heads, confusing facial hair and gold lame are unlikely fashion icons. Yet Die Antwoord and their distinctive style are filtering slowly but surely through pop culture into fashion land; see their photo shoot in December's NYLON and absolutely mental performance at fashionable music festival Coachella last year for prime examples.

Their newest video, 'Rich Bitch' is a veritable feast of all that is tacky, distasteful and wrong with the world. Its also absolute genius; expect gold everything; teeth, nails, skimpy boxer shorts [which leave very little to the imagination] and at one memorable point, a gold lame gimp-style catsuit. My girl crush on Yolandi Visser has increased tenfold, plus I now have the serious lusts over her gold RICH/BITCH knuckledusters.

Die Antwoord - putting the freaky back into fashion;

Hussein Chalayan's 'The Floating Dress'

Hectic times between dissertation, finals and interview stress, (am now going to the University of Cardiff's School of Journalism for my MA in September - kerching!) mean that I've been a very bad blogger, and would like to apologise for the lack of posts recently.

I also want to say thank you for all the support, comments and views this blog have received, as its been completely unexpected and quite overwhelming. To show my gratitude, (and as a promise that I will start posting again soon) watch this gorgeous little video, just to keep your fashion synapses a-tingling.

Inspired by Japanese culture, Hussein Chalayan created a floating dress for his A/W 2011/12 collection, using Swarovski crystals as decorative pollen;

"With all our collaborations with Swarovski we've tried to create a new language which combines fashion, performance and design so that we can create something unique every time,” says Chalayan.

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'I spent my 16th birthday high as a kite jumping out of a tree topless in my local park just because it felt amazing hitting the ground.'
                            -Florence Welch in Chanel at Paris Fashion Week.

Zac Posen launches Z Spoke ready-to-wear collection at NY Fashion Week

Posen launched the cheaper Z Spoke line just a few short months ago, declaring it to be the new ‘fashion-tainment’, but the A/W 2011-12 collection debuts a decidedly more serious look. Posen told Style.com, ‘Last season was about launching it to the media, this season, it's about direct to the consumer and retailer.’

And launch it to the customer he certainly does - while the S/S 2010 show was considered too exaggerated by some, the A/W collection is pure, unadulterated chic, with classic pieces in black, inky blue and grey softened with the occasional dash of pink. Grown-up, tailored shifts in wool and hammered silk and liquid jersey dresses contrasted sharply with structured leather accessories and dark eye and lip makeup. The slinky cut-out gowns and structured/flowing contrasts in newly toned-down shades are more universal when compared to the line’s previously over-vibrant incarnation. The new aesthetic for Z Spoke is serious without compromising on style, with the added twist of Posen’s characteristic edgy cool - culminating in a visual smorgasbord of fashion delights.

As for the upcoming show for his signature line in Paris, Posen implies there will be plenty more of this new, grown-up philosophy, ‘I think in general with collection and with Z Spoke, we're moving into a more streamlined identity of my original language.’

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'I don't want to be cool, I want to be fashion.'

 - The fantastical Anna Dello Russo

Bling Bling

You may remember from a post waaaay back in December, my huge love for O.P.I's Special Edition Burlesque Collection, especially in 'Bring on the Bling'. Well, some lovely little elves in the form of my housemates have bought me the liquid [glitter] gold, and I don't think it’s a hyperbole too far to say it Has. Changed. My. Life. Just two coats of the wonderfully gloopy lacquer creates gold glitter encrusted nails worthy of a unicorn on LSD - and here's the picture to prove it.

Transgender Model Lea T Inspirational at Fashion Week

How tardy that this is the first blog post of the year! Between finals, illness and of course, partying in the New Year, this poor blog has been very much neglected - but, as Elton once said, the bitch is back. To start 2011 as we mean to go on -positive action in fashion;

Lea T is brilliant, an absolute beauty and by far my favourite model of the moment. Her bravery, courage and overall tenacity in becoming one of the first successful transgender [soon-to-be super] models is, without meaning to sound trite, truly inspirational. And while everyone keeps going on about that kiss with Kate Moss on the front cover of Love, [Erm, hello? Coronation Street’s Hayley, anyone? Not exactly groundbreaking] I say get over it- instead, revel in her overall loveliness and admire her unique position as both spokesmodel and role model for the transgender community.

The 28-year-old Brazilian model and muse made her debut catwalk appearance at San Paulo Fashion week last week, walking for designer Alexandre Herchcovitch’s A/W 2011 show, leaving many fashion critics excitedly speculating whether she will walk in the Givenchy show in Paris in the upcoming weeks.

It was when working as an assistant to Riccardo Tisci at Givenchy that Lea began experimenting, telling Vogue; ‘One night, he [Riccardo Tisci] encouraged me to wear heels to a party. We went shopping for these drag queen high heels and bleached my eyebrows. It was a revelation.’

She then went on to star in the Givenchy A/W 2010 campaign, has appeared naked in French Vogue and in haute couture for Italian Vanity Fair, speaking candidly to the latter about the physical and emotional challenges of gender transition.

Yet Lea is not without her detractors - some critics have dismissed both Tisci and Carine Roitfeld's use of her in shoots as ‘gimmicks’. But as a positive spokesperson for the transgender community, Lea’s increasing fame and candid interviews can only be seen as having an overwhelmingly positive effect, through encouraging understanding and empathy.

Reactions towards Lea amongst the transgender community have been overwhelmingly positive, with many activists seeing her fame and increasing popularity as a step towards greater tolerance. ‘It's a good, positive example and this is very rare,’ said La Roche, a transsexual who heads a Brazilian government department fighting for transvestite and transsexual rights. ‘It is important to have Lea in a magazine. All positive press shows society that we are capable of things other than prostitution or being hairdressers.’

The prejudices and everyday humiliations incurred when changing sex are all too familiar for Lea. From being laughed at by strangers to the disorientating effects of sex change drugs – ‘I would wander the streets, full of hormones, depressed, with people laughing behind my back’, Lea is proving to be an eloquent and quietly inspirational ambassador for a very much marginalised and maligned community.

‘We transsexuals are born and grow up alone. After the operation we are born again, but once again alone. And we die alone. It is the price we pay.’ Yet the choice, she says, ‘is between being unhappy forever or trying to be happy.’

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'I always had a repulsive need to be something more than human'

- the eternally delicious David Bowie