F a s h i o n
Daily
www.londonfashionweek.co.uk
Thin End Girls Just Want of the Wedge to Have Fun Word s b y Ni c ol a Cop p i ng
P h o to g r a phy by A nna Ba ue r
Always a brand loved by the hippest girls in the public eye, this season was no exception at PPQ. A collection titled ‘Le Style Anglais’ featured block pastels, ruffles, buttons, supersized earrings and trousers suits – as well as this season’s first catwalk appearance by a wonderfully curvy Daisy Lowe (above). She drew whoops from the front row’s party crowd – which included Jodie Harsh, Pixie and Peaches Geldof, New York It Girl Cory Kennedy and Alexa Chung (as well as, more surprisingly, Def Jam’s Russell Simmons). Backstage, the party continued – with Daisy changed into a rather splendid red-lace dress and Peaches, Cory and Alexa all on hand to congratulate the team. “I liked the hats that were
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L O N DO N , M O N Day 15 t h S eptem b e r 2 0 0 8
Daisy Lowe leads a fashion celebration
Wo rd s b y La uren Co c hra ne
W e e k
like wedding-meets-funeral,” said Alexa, who is at London Fashion Week filming for an upcoming TV series also starring Henry Holland. “I want the dress with the buttons down the front.” Geldof, meanwhile, doesn’t need to pick pieces. “I love the white catsuit, but half my wardrobe is PPQ,” she said. “I don’t have to order it – they’re like my family.” Designers Amy Molyneux and Percy Parker, after hunting down a drink, were happy to talk about the clothes – designed almost bespoke for their gang and others like them. “We wanted to make a pastels collection,” said Molyneux, “but it’s tricky with Brit girls – hence the black. That way, you can get dirty and no-one notices.” These two now have the combination of rock ’n’ roll cool and pretty pieces down to a fine art – just look, once again, at the icons that wear their clothes.
As models took to the catwalk under immense scrutiny yesterday at London Fashion Week, efforts to tackle the issue of model health could not detract from one fact: thin models were still noticed on the catwalk. So what is the latest from the British Fashion Council? Model Health Certificates will not be introduced at London Fashion Week. Hilary Riva, its Chief Executive, published an open letter in August on the Model Health Inquiry’s recommendations, of which three out of 14 (the only ones under their remit) have been implemented: under 16s are banned from London’s catwalks, healthy food and drink backstage is ensured, and an ongoing model health panel to see through the recommendations will be established. Erin O’Connor, vice chair
Maude & Doris A Fashionable children’s tale for grown-ups. Created by David Longshaw, with Jenny Dyson. Photography by George Bamford Maude has just poked Agyness in the eye with the pointy Luella witches hat she’s got on. Doris, Maude’s long suffering friend has had enough of Maude’s showing off. “What are you wearing eyeliner for? You’re a fabric mouse,” Doris says.“The same reason you’re wearing Marios Schwab,” sniffs Maude.
Issue • 2
Is the Model Health Inquiry in danger of turning those it seeks to help into victims?
of London Fashion Week, set up, for the third season a Model Sanctuary to enable models to have access to nutritionists, counsellors and information on Equity and B-eat, the leading charity for eating disorders. It was the Model Health Certificate plan that posed the most problems. Despite the Model Health Inquiry suggesting the certificate should be developed with other leading fashion capitals, New York, Milan and Paris did not accept the proposal. They were dealing with the issue appropriately, acknowledging the needs of their city and country. How would the certificates work on home turf? Cue a BFC-commissioned feasibility study, the results of which were conclusive: the certificates were universally rejected by both models and their agents on the basis of practicality and principle. A model arriving the
Drawing Room Word s b y L a uren C o ch r a n e
Pencils are due to become the accessory of s/s ‘09 – with illustration enjoying something of a revival. Charles Anastase – originally an illustrator who created pieces for a Calvin Klein campaign and Dazed & Confused – debuted his line in the UK yesterday. It included a T-shirt with a sketch of style-tastic LA
morning of a show would not have time to see a consultant, nor have time to spend up to three hours taking the tests. The questions asked by psychologists were considered overly intrusive. Indeed, the certificates obliged models to prove they were not suffering from an eating disorder. The models faced being traumatised by the tests – an entirely counterproductive result to the aims of the BFC. Despite facing criticism, Hilary Riva believes this form of certification would be detrimental to models. “We remain focused on promoting model health,” she says. “The BFC has investigated the healthier model programme as a starting point for a long-term, useful and effective approach, one that can be accessible to all models working in the UK, not just catwalk models.” Report continues on page 2
girl band, The Like. Topshop Unique’s cartoon Americana upped the cute factor – a vestdress featuring a kiss-o-meter (pictured right) scoring high. Peter Jensen, always a master of the cute, has collaborated with Julie Verhoeven – feeding her his inspiration of Jodie Foster films for prints centering around the pinball machine in The Accused and Jensen’s rabbit motif. “I’ve always liked her style,” says Jensen of Verhoeven’s colouringin skills. For scribbly fun later in the week, look to Bora Aksu’s show. Judging by the invite alone, it’s an art attack.
To view The London Fashion Week Daily online go to www.londonfashionweek.co.uk
Column McDowell Wo rd s b y C o l i n McD o w e l l
The world’s most exciting city just got more so: London Fashion Week is here. And, in contrast to other fashion capitals, it really is here – on the streets and up your nose. You can almost hear the buzz, and it comes as much from the kids as it does the designers. I love the liggers and liars who bluff their way into any show or party, totally ignoring the fact that they weren’t invited. I love the fact that those of us who imagine we are rather grand (and there are a lot of us) mean nothing at all to them. For many with the legit means of entry – shepherded solicitously by PRs (“Look after Colin, he can be tricky...”) – they are a pain in the bum. But not for me. For me these kids are the ones who make this city’s fashion scene the most vivid and challenging in the world. So, my little darlings, don’t listen to the builder’s yell “Get a job, tosser!” You have one, and it is to keep us on our toes and stop us becoming too pompously in love with ourselves. You are doing it well. And you make LFW unique.
Photography by Catwalking.com
L o n d o n
What many forget is that the British Fashion Council is not a regulatory body. It does acknowledge its considerable influence and reach within the industry, however, and is working with the Association of Model Agencies and Equity to set the best practice for UK agencies, and then share this internationally. Even the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, acknowledged the difficulties, “funding for London Fashion Week is not conditional on model health certificates... The more industry voices that
speak out, the more likely there will be genuine culture change.” And so, to the industry. Where does it stand, and who is really accountable for model health? Jessica Hallett, a model casting director who works with the likes of Alexander McQueen and Topshop, says her industry role has too little contact with models to make a significant difference, “I see these girls just twice a year. I think you should reduce the number of hours 16-year-old models work; they should be under strict guidance. In Paris they’re not allowed to work on Sundays.” Erin O’Connor has been
heavily consulted in the Health Certificate feasibility study. “There is confusion amongst the modelling community. Are the certificate tests asking us to invest in our health or establish how many eating disorders there are in the industry? Models need to know they won’t be persecuted for undertaking them.” Caryn Franklin, fashion critic and patron of B-eat (formally the Eating Disorders Association), also sees the need for model protection, “When models need to lodge a malpractice complaint, who will help them? And who will make sure poor practice
is changed and standards are monitored without the individual model being labelled ‘unemployable’ if she speaks out?” she says. “In fact, Equity established a model division as a result of the inquiry to represent models,” says Riva. Many would argue the buck stops with the model agents – the first port of call for the model. “No model agent ever wishes to be in a situation when they are promoting unhealthy models, because that’s not right for their clients,” responds Simon Chambers, director of Storm modelling agency.
“If a model is too thin, we would talk to her and establish if medical attention is required. Clearly someone who is ill will not go on the catwalk. What most agents would love is for there to be a GP available at LFW. We need something like the Model Sanctuary on site.” All those affected converge on one thing: the protection and wellbeing of the model is paramount; the model should not become the victim. It is the responsibility of the industry as a whole to prevent any model who is unhealthy from taking to the catwalk.
www.londonfashionweek.co.uk
Live Barometer Food Nicola Copping is a fashion writer at The Times.
Bread-and-butter pudding with raspberries at Topshop Unique
Tangerine Lips and frilly dresses at Spijkers en Spijkers, pin-cushion bun covers at PPQ and the suntan shade of Girls Aloud’s Nicola Roberts at PPQ
Linda Farrow’s supersized glasses for Charles Anastase
Grumpy taxi drivers and yesterday’s traffic
Gok Wan -alikes They were everywhere. Beware!
Love Hangover Wo rd s By L a u re n C o ch r a n e
New season, new clothes – or so you might just think. But in these frugal fashion times, it doesn’t necessarily always pay to throw out a trend with a new season. The ones that work hang over and evolve to become a part of the next one, too. See lace – a Prada fave for a/w, rearing its holey head onto the s/s ’09 catwalk at Spijkers en Spijkers and Charles Anastase, and with cut-out pieces at Paul Costelloe and PPQ. Meanwhile, jumpsuits were out and proud at Ossie Clark and Topshop. And statement heels prove popular again – Topshop Unique’s nodding to Miu Miu’s glamrock A/W numbers, while PPQ and Charles Anastase supersized platforms were a rethink of a recently established shoe. “We asked the assistants to look for delicate footwear,” laughs PPQ’s Amy Molyneux, as she explains the brick-like soles. “That’s what they came back with.” Assistants, it very much seems that your time is here and now.
CATWALK HIGHLIGHTS by Stella Magazine’s style editor Kate Finnigan Graeme Black Charles Anastase After 15 years at Italian powerhouses, Graeme Black’s aesthetic is pure Milan. But this season his heart was firmly in the Hebrides with a sea-inspired theme – not crassly nautical, but rather a collection as organic and delicate as rare sea shells. The setting of the Hamiltons Gallery promised a suitably calm passage. A white, draped, sail-like dress anchored around the neck by silk rope set us off. But the journey took us to a very uptown destination. This was polished dressing, demi-couture; an alien concept sometimes at LFW, and particularly striking when you’ve just come from a Topshop show. “For me it was a romantic take on active sportswear,” Black said afterwards. Quite how active one can be in the most gossamerfine fabrics and the highest of Brian Atwood heels is debatable. However, Black’s fusion of stretch jersey athletic vests overlaid with tulle and crystal embellishment is what made this refined look pleasingly modern. Whether you spotted the designer’s references or not, his workmanship made this a lesson for London in thoroughly grown-up fashion.
“It’s about an exciting moment in a girl’s life,” said Charles Anastase backstage at this, his first, London show. The designer may have decamped from Paris, but his latest collection stayed on familiar ground. His often whimsical pieces, influenced by 19thcentury imagery, riff on the idea of young women on the verge of something. Or as Valentine FillolCordier, model, Anastase muse and show stylist, put it: “She might be a virgin, or she might not...” Anastase’s innocent found her dark side. Starting in white Communion-like dresses, worn alone, under a bed jacket or over silk pyjama-like jumpsuits, she ended in a black see-through tutu and cropped leather biker jacket – Degas ballerina turned Lolita. In between she had an experimental denim phase. One surprising pair of jeans had “Charles” emblazoned across their bottom. You might assume these clothes are only for young sweethearts, but Anastase pointed out that 30-something Roisin Murphy, in a pre-collection white naval coat, was also front row.
Unique
Ossie Clark
Karen Bonser, head of design for Unique, said that in these economically challenged times her team wanted “an optimistic and playful collection”. So the bouffant-haired girls bounced onto the catwalk in Banaramastyle headscarves and a sherbetcoloured heart-and-arrow print story and made it happen. Consciously deciding to move away from an aesthetic that had become “too conceptual”, Unique got back to teeny-bop basics with a celebration of British youth culture. In 53 fast-moving looks those references came thick and fast: New Romantics, Teddy Boys, Mods and even Pearly Kings and Queens. The print team had spent a day in Southend and amusement arcade influences abounded. A pinball machine with the legend “Pot Luck” inspired a ream of lucky motifs. A Kiss-o-meter print T-shirt dress squealed Topshop. For some of the audience, the Eighties references, such as snowwashed denim, might have been a painful adolescent flashback. But for those who don’t remember it all the first time – and let’s face it, that’s Topshop’s target audience – then these looks are pure fun.
There was a mixed reaction to last season’s daring revival of Ossie Clark. Yet buyers were quick to snap up much of the collection and it sold well. So with debut wobbles now behind him, designer Avsh Alom Gur was on a surer foot for s/s. He has certainly found his silhouette: long, lean and floaty. “A Seventies Emmanuelle feel,” said the designer, which was more subtle than it sounds: slim maxi dresses, elongated shirt-dresses, pyjamastyle jumpsuits and palazzo pants, all in vibrant silks. Rich fabrics were chosen for their draping qualities, a Clark signature. Last season, the lack of print, so key to the original house, seemed odd. This time one sashayed down the runway almost immediately; a black-and-green abstract leaf print on a white shirt-dress. Backstage, Alom Gur explained that craft had been a key influence, and the French embroidery and trinket-box embellishments on the final pieces were, indeed, special. “I want these clothes to be treasured for generations,” he said. When you are namechecking Mr Clark the aim should be no less.
“I told them to use low-watt bulbs but they didn’t listen, so never mind,” says Gareth Pugh, on his way into the scorching-hot Moët room he designed for this season’s BFC tent at London Fashion Week. “It is a bit busy tonight. It is actually designed for only 20 to 30 people.” The space is square with
a huge lift-shaft-shaped strobe lighting device in the middle: “I thought it would be funny if we used ultra-violet lights so we could all get a tan at the same time. Henry [Holland] would never leave,” giggles Pugh, whose guest list last night was mostly made up of friends, including stylist Kate Shillingford and Pugh’s charming boyfriend Carson. As for Pugh’s Paris defection, the avant garde designer is “excited and anxious. Nothing in the showroom is finished. But then again I start everything all at once and still have two weeks to go.” We’re sure it will be a triumph.
Scent of a man Word s b y G e org i a De h n
Any perfume that comes out of the Comme des Garçons stable is destined to be cult. And so it is for milliner Stephen Jones’s eponymous debut scent, which launches at Dover Street Market tonight. “I drove everybody nuts deciding on the final smell,” says Jones, who is best known for his incredible chapeaux.
Beauty Spot Today’s schedule has been created exclusively by illustrator ROB RYAN
For further information and important facts, please refer to the key below: * BFC Fashion Forward supported by LDA The BFC Tent: Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, SW7
TS: TOPSHOP venue, P3 University of Westminster, Luxborough St, NW1 On Schedule shows: www.londonfashionweek.co.uk Off Schedule shows: www.blow.co.uk
On/Off: Royal Academy of Arts, 6 Burlington Gardens, W1: www.thedoll.org/onoff Vauxhall Fashion Scout: Cnr Cromwell Road and Queen’s Gate, SW7
Brought to you by Weleda
The LFW Daily Credits
Design Nick Steel and Sofia Leverbeck
Created by Jenny and the Cat Club
at HarrimanSteel and George Wu
Editor Jenny Dyson
Chief-sub/copy editor Vicky Willan
Consultant Editor Cat Callender
Printed on recycled paper
Advertising/managing editor
by Guardian Print Centre , Rick Roberts
Jana Dowling
Way, Stratford, London, E15 2GN
Distributions manager Briony Hoare
Published for the BFC by RUBBISH
Editorial assistant Jessica Hannan
020 8965 7469
Production assistant Aislinn Dowling
Schedule correct at time of printing - for updates contact the Timeline - 020 7942 3900
Reporters Jo Craven, Becky Davies, Lauren Cochrane, Faran Krentcil,
With thanks to Ocado
Antonia Whyatt, Georgia Dehn
for feeding The LFW
Skin Food
The best kept beauty secret since 1926.
Wo rd s b y A n t o n i a W h y a t t
It’s 9am and your intrepid Beauty Spotter is backstage at Paul Costelloe. Taiwanese model Wei – who now, naturally, lives in Shoreditch, and is on her fourth LFW season, trusty iPod at her
• 03
LONDON, MONday 15 t h Se pte mbe r 2008
side – is already on her second Red Bull. “I love this smoky eye,” she says fluttering her falsies seductively (pictured right). The iridescent blue oblong shape has just been applied by
His aim? To produce a fragrance that smells out of this world – literally. “I wanted it to smell like a violet that’s been hit by a meteorite. I took all the test pots to the desert in America and the jungle in Cambodia, as I also wanted to see how it smells in different environments.” Having worked together over the years – Jones producing the hats for many a Comme des Garçons show – the collaboration was a natural fit. “Stephen is a true original, who not only has a vision, but knows how to realise it,” says Rei Kawakubo, Comme des Garçons’ founder, of Jones.
Blended by the highly respected perfumer Antoine Maisondieu, the arresting scent – with top notes of violet leaf, a hint of clove, rose, amber and heliotrope – has a subtle peppery aroma that’s very much a trademark of Comme des Garçons’ perfumes. The scent is fittingly packaged in a miniature hatbox – complete with surrounding milliner’s netting – and is the olfactory equivalent of one of Jones’s hattish flights of fancy: in other words, heavenly. Stephen Jones will be attending the launch at Dover Street Market from 6.30pm this evening.
Shu Uemura’s Attracta Courtney to echo the military epaulette on Costelloe’s clothes. “The antique bronze underneath it gives it that Out of Africa summery twist,” says Attracta. We know models love sneaking the latest lip-gloss home from backstage, but it’s rare to have a makeup artist pocketing the products. The obscenely healthy cheeks at Caroline Charles are the result of Bobbi Brown makeup artist Paul Herrington’s light fingers. Paul cleverly snatched the gel blush from New York to give models that fabulous Fifties Hawaiian look.
At Graeme Black, Sam McKnight slicks hair into a chignon, roughed up with his hands and completed with a flesh-toned elastic hairband. “Whatever you do, don’t think or say ballerina. It’s ‘sporty chignons’,” he says with a laugh. Meanwhile, supreme makeup artist Kay Montano hollows out cheeks with taupe blush to give the models a more grown-up, sophisticated look. “I want the girls’ lips to look like they have been snogging antique roses,” she says. How very dare she.
Pugh, it’s hot Word s b y B e cky Davi e s
Www.weleda.com
Daily team
To view The London Fashion Week Daily online go to www.londonfashionweek.co.uk
To view The London Fashion Week Daily online go to www.londonfashionweek.co.uk
Photography by Anna Bauer
Ctd from page 1
www.londonfashionweek.co.uk
L O N DO N , M O N d ay 15 t h S eptem b e r 2 0 0 8
Photography by Catwalking.com
02 •
What many forget is that the British Fashion Council is not a regulatory body. It does acknowledge its considerable influence and reach within the industry, however, and is working with the Association of Model Agencies and Equity to set the best practice for UK agencies, and then share this internationally. Even the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, acknowledged the difficulties, “funding for London Fashion Week is not conditional on model health certificates... The more industry voices that
speak out, the more likely there will be genuine culture change.” And so, to the industry. Where does it stand, and who is really accountable for model health? Jessica Hallett, a model casting director who works with the likes of Alexander McQueen and Topshop, says her industry role has too little contact with models to make a significant difference, “I see these girls just twice a year. I think you should reduce the number of hours 16-year-old models work; they should be under strict guidance. In Paris they’re not allowed to work on Sundays.” Erin O’Connor has been
heavily consulted in the Health Certificate feasibility study. “There is confusion amongst the modelling community. Are the certificate tests asking us to invest in our health or establish how many eating disorders there are in the industry? Models need to know they won’t be persecuted for undertaking them.” Caryn Franklin, fashion critic and patron of B-eat (formally the Eating Disorders Association), also sees the need for model protection, “When models need to lodge a malpractice complaint, who will help them? And who will make sure poor practice
is changed and standards are monitored without the individual model being labelled ‘unemployable’ if she speaks out?” she says. “In fact, Equity established a model division as a result of the inquiry to represent models,” says Riva. Many would argue the buck stops with the model agents – the first port of call for the model. “No model agent ever wishes to be in a situation when they are promoting unhealthy models, because that’s not right for their clients,” responds Simon Chambers, director of Storm modelling agency.
“If a model is too thin, we would talk to her and establish if medical attention is required. Clearly someone who is ill will not go on the catwalk. What most agents would love is for there to be a GP available at LFW. We need something like the Model Sanctuary on site.” All those affected converge on one thing: the protection and wellbeing of the model is paramount; the model should not become the victim. It is the responsibility of the industry as a whole to prevent any model who is unhealthy from taking to the catwalk.
www.londonfashionweek.co.uk
Live Barometer Food Nicola Copping is a fashion writer at The Times.
Bread-and-butter pudding with raspberries at Topshop Unique
Tangerine Lips and frilly dresses at Spijkers en Spijkers, pin-cushion bun covers at PPQ and the suntan shade of Girls Aloud’s Nicola Roberts at PPQ
Linda Farrow’s supersized glasses for Charles Anastase
Grumpy taxi drivers and yesterday’s traffic
Gok Wan -alikes They were everywhere. Beware!
Love Hangover Wo rd s By L a u re n C o ch r a n e
New season, new clothes – or so you might just think. But in these frugal fashion times, it doesn’t necessarily always pay to throw out a trend with a new season. The ones that work hang over and evolve to become a part of the next one, too. See lace – a Prada fave for a/w, rearing its holey head onto the s/s ’09 catwalk at Spijkers en Spijkers and Charles Anastase, and with cut-out pieces at Paul Costelloe and PPQ. Meanwhile, jumpsuits were out and proud at Ossie Clark and Topshop. And statement heels prove popular again – Topshop Unique’s nodding to Miu Miu’s glamrock A/W numbers, while PPQ and Charles Anastase supersized platforms were a rethink of a recently established shoe. “We asked the assistants to look for delicate footwear,” laughs PPQ’s Amy Molyneux, as she explains the brick-like soles. “That’s what they came back with.” Assistants, it very much seems that your time is here and now.
CATWALK HIGHLIGHTS by Stella Magazine’s style editor Kate Finnigan Graeme Black Charles Anastase After 15 years at Italian powerhouses, Graeme Black’s aesthetic is pure Milan. But this season his heart was firmly in the Hebrides with a sea-inspired theme – not crassly nautical, but rather a collection as organic and delicate as rare sea shells. The setting of the Hamiltons Gallery promised a suitably calm passage. A white, draped, sail-like dress anchored around the neck by silk rope set us off. But the journey took us to a very uptown destination. This was polished dressing, demi-couture; an alien concept sometimes at LFW, and particularly striking when you’ve just come from a Topshop show. “For me it was a romantic take on active sportswear,” Black said afterwards. Quite how active one can be in the most gossamerfine fabrics and the highest of Brian Atwood heels is debatable. However, Black’s fusion of stretch jersey athletic vests overlaid with tulle and crystal embellishment is what made this refined look pleasingly modern. Whether you spotted the designer’s references or not, his workmanship made this a lesson for London in thoroughly grown-up fashion.
“It’s about an exciting moment in a girl’s life,” said Charles Anastase backstage at this, his first, London show. The designer may have decamped from Paris, but his latest collection stayed on familiar ground. His often whimsical pieces, influenced by 19thcentury imagery, riff on the idea of young women on the verge of something. Or as Valentine FillolCordier, model, Anastase muse and show stylist, put it: “She might be a virgin, or she might not...” Anastase’s innocent found her dark side. Starting in white Communion-like dresses, worn alone, under a bed jacket or over silk pyjama-like jumpsuits, she ended in a black see-through tutu and cropped leather biker jacket – Degas ballerina turned Lolita. In between she had an experimental denim phase. One surprising pair of jeans had “Charles” emblazoned across their bottom. You might assume these clothes are only for young sweethearts, but Anastase pointed out that 30-something Roisin Murphy, in a pre-collection white naval coat, was also front row.
Unique
Ossie Clark
Karen Bonser, head of design for Unique, said that in these economically challenged times her team wanted “an optimistic and playful collection”. So the bouffant-haired girls bounced onto the catwalk in Banaramastyle headscarves and a sherbetcoloured heart-and-arrow print story and made it happen. Consciously deciding to move away from an aesthetic that had become “too conceptual”, Unique got back to teeny-bop basics with a celebration of British youth culture. In 53 fast-moving looks those references came thick and fast: New Romantics, Teddy Boys, Mods and even Pearly Kings and Queens. The print team had spent a day in Southend and amusement arcade influences abounded. A pinball machine with the legend “Pot Luck” inspired a ream of lucky motifs. A Kiss-o-meter print T-shirt dress squealed Topshop. For some of the audience, the Eighties references, such as snowwashed denim, might have been a painful adolescent flashback. But for those who don’t remember it all the first time – and let’s face it, that’s Topshop’s target audience – then these looks are pure fun.
There was a mixed reaction to last season’s daring revival of Ossie Clark. Yet buyers were quick to snap up much of the collection and it sold well. So with debut wobbles now behind him, designer Avsh Alom Gur was on a surer foot for s/s. He has certainly found his silhouette: long, lean and floaty. “A Seventies Emmanuelle feel,” said the designer, which was more subtle than it sounds: slim maxi dresses, elongated shirt-dresses, pyjamastyle jumpsuits and palazzo pants, all in vibrant silks. Rich fabrics were chosen for their draping qualities, a Clark signature. Last season, the lack of print, so key to the original house, seemed odd. This time one sashayed down the runway almost immediately; a black-and-green abstract leaf print on a white shirt-dress. Backstage, Alom Gur explained that craft had been a key influence, and the French embroidery and trinket-box embellishments on the final pieces were, indeed, special. “I want these clothes to be treasured for generations,” he said. When you are namechecking Mr Clark the aim should be no less.
“I told them to use low-watt bulbs but they didn’t listen, so never mind,” says Gareth Pugh, on his way into the scorching-hot Moët room he designed for this season’s BFC tent at London Fashion Week. “It is a bit busy tonight. It is actually designed for only 20 to 30 people.” The space is square with
a huge lift-shaft-shaped strobe lighting device in the middle: “I thought it would be funny if we used ultra-violet lights so we could all get a tan at the same time. Henry [Holland] would never leave,” giggles Pugh, whose guest list last night was mostly made up of friends, including stylist Kate Shillingford and Pugh’s charming boyfriend Carson. As for Pugh’s Paris defection, the avant garde designer is “excited and anxious. Nothing in the showroom is finished. But then again I start everything all at once and still have two weeks to go.” We’re sure it will be a triumph.
Scent of a man Word s b y G e org i a De h n
Any perfume that comes out of the Comme des Garçons stable is destined to be cult. And so it is for milliner Stephen Jones’s eponymous debut scent, which launches at Dover Street Market tonight. “I drove everybody nuts deciding on the final smell,” says Jones, who is best known for his incredible chapeaux.
Beauty Spot Today’s schedule has been created exclusively by illustrator ROB RYAN
For further information and important facts, please refer to the key below: * BFC Fashion Forward supported by LDA The BFC Tent: Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, SW7
TS: TOPSHOP venue, P3 University of Westminster, Luxborough St, NW1 On Schedule shows: www.londonfashionweek.co.uk Off Schedule shows: www.blow.co.uk
On/Off: Royal Academy of Arts, 6 Burlington Gardens, W1: www.thedoll.org/onoff Vauxhall Fashion Scout: Cnr Cromwell Road and Queen’s Gate, SW7
Brought to you by Weleda
The LFW Daily Credits
Design Nick Steel and Sofia Leverbeck
Created by Jenny and the Cat Club
at HarrimanSteel and George Wu
Editor Jenny Dyson
Chief-sub/copy editor Vicky Willan
Consultant Editor Cat Callender
Printed on recycled paper
Advertising/managing editor
by Guardian Print Centre , Rick Roberts
Jana Dowling
Way, Stratford, London, E15 2GN
Distributions manager Briony Hoare
Published for the BFC by RUBBISH
Editorial assistant Jessica Hannan
020 8965 7469
Production assistant Aislinn Dowling
Schedule correct at time of printing - for updates contact the Timeline - 020 7942 3900
Reporters Jo Craven, Becky Davies, Lauren Cochrane, Faran Krentcil,
With thanks to Ocado
Antonia Whyatt, Georgia Dehn
for feeding The LFW
Skin Food
The best kept beauty secret since 1926.
Wo rd s b y A n t o n i a W h y a t t
It’s 9am and your intrepid Beauty Spotter is backstage at Paul Costelloe. Taiwanese model Wei – who now, naturally, lives in Shoreditch, and is on her fourth LFW season, trusty iPod at her
• 03
LONDON, MONday 15 t h Se pte mbe r 2008
side – is already on her second Red Bull. “I love this smoky eye,” she says fluttering her falsies seductively (pictured right). The iridescent blue oblong shape has just been applied by
His aim? To produce a fragrance that smells out of this world – literally. “I wanted it to smell like a violet that’s been hit by a meteorite. I took all the test pots to the desert in America and the jungle in Cambodia, as I also wanted to see how it smells in different environments.” Having worked together over the years – Jones producing the hats for many a Comme des Garçons show – the collaboration was a natural fit. “Stephen is a true original, who not only has a vision, but knows how to realise it,” says Rei Kawakubo, Comme des Garçons’ founder, of Jones.
Blended by the highly respected perfumer Antoine Maisondieu, the arresting scent – with top notes of violet leaf, a hint of clove, rose, amber and heliotrope – has a subtle peppery aroma that’s very much a trademark of Comme des Garçons’ perfumes. The scent is fittingly packaged in a miniature hatbox – complete with surrounding milliner’s netting – and is the olfactory equivalent of one of Jones’s hattish flights of fancy: in other words, heavenly. Stephen Jones will be attending the launch at Dover Street Market from 6.30pm this evening.
Shu Uemura’s Attracta Courtney to echo the military epaulette on Costelloe’s clothes. “The antique bronze underneath it gives it that Out of Africa summery twist,” says Attracta. We know models love sneaking the latest lip-gloss home from backstage, but it’s rare to have a makeup artist pocketing the products. The obscenely healthy cheeks at Caroline Charles are the result of Bobbi Brown makeup artist Paul Herrington’s light fingers. Paul cleverly snatched the gel blush from New York to give models that fabulous Fifties Hawaiian look.
At Graeme Black, Sam McKnight slicks hair into a chignon, roughed up with his hands and completed with a flesh-toned elastic hairband. “Whatever you do, don’t think or say ballerina. It’s ‘sporty chignons’,” he says with a laugh. Meanwhile, supreme makeup artist Kay Montano hollows out cheeks with taupe blush to give the models a more grown-up, sophisticated look. “I want the girls’ lips to look like they have been snogging antique roses,” she says. How very dare she.
Pugh, it’s hot Word s b y B e cky Davi e s
Www.weleda.com
Daily team
To view The London Fashion Week Daily online go to www.londonfashionweek.co.uk
To view The London Fashion Week Daily online go to www.londonfashionweek.co.uk
Photography by Anna Bauer
Ctd from page 1
www.londonfashionweek.co.uk
L O N DO N , M O N d ay 15 t h S eptem b e r 2 0 0 8
Photography by Catwalking.com
02 •
Thomas Giddings, ‘Man of the moment.’
www.londonfashionweek.co.uk
Hilary Alexander – Hip hip hooray!
Miss Oui
Oooh la la! Let Fashion Week begin...
www.londonfashionweek.co.uk
American at Large Wo rd s By F a r a n K re n t ci l
I skinned my knee this morning, but it was for a good cause: a pair of Marc by Marc Jacobs heels that absolutely nobody else has. They take up too much room in my suitcase and I really can’t run in them – hence the skid, the fall, the blood, the shredded Betsey Johnson tights. But it’s totally worth it because you can’t
• 05
LONDON, MONday 15 t h Se pte mbe r 2008
buy them – ever. They were snuck from a fashion show pour moi, by an MJ employee who owed me a big favour. They are the soul of my sole, and also my armour. No matter how intimidating the quiff of Suzy Menkes; no matter how blinding the wedding diamond of Peaches Geldof; no matter how far back my seat; and no matter how much longer Jourdan Dunn’s legs, it’s all okay because I have the shoes. Click them together three times and boom, I can suddenly stand tall in a room full of people with better accents, a steady supply of Grazia, an electric stream
of Kate Moss sightings and Arctic Monkeys singles, and delicious Cadbury chocolate. So just think of these crazy shoes as a tribute to you, UK readers. Your original, outrageous, expensively awesome style demanded I bring at least one accessory that upped the anti. And now, OMG, I think I see Alexa Chung across the catwalk. I am totally freaking out! Back later!
Drusilla’s Fashion Academy
Faran Krentcil, Nylon Magazine
If Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman is the glorious headmistress of the school of fashion journalism, her mother, Drusilla Beyfus, is surely the governess. Vogue’s associate editor in the early Eighties and a fashion journalism tutor at Saint
Martins, Beyfus has a stellar alumni under her leather belt. Among her pupils: Luella Bartley, Esquire’s Jeremy Langmead, Elle’s Rebecca Lowthorpe, Hywel Davis (whose book launch is later this week) and Tamsin Blanchard to name but a few. Taking a break from her current desk job as an editor for the Telegraph Magazine, Beyfus dropped briefly into The LFW Daily HQ yesterday afternoon to share her fail-safe tips on becoming a top style-scribe. 1. Look: develop a good visual sense, even though it might seem Suzy Menkes and other great
the Mitzy, a slouchy pouchy bag bristling with rivet hardware – Hill has also reworked some of the brand’s existing bestsellers first introduced by Nicholas Knightly and Stuart Vevers. In her hands, the Bayswater has been transformed into a must-have clutch, carrying all the hallmarks of an It Bag in the making. “I like the idea of bags spawning other family members,” she says. Hill’s signature is all about perspective. Her designs, be they bags, shoes or clothes, zoom in on the details and make them the hero of the piece. “I love to play with proportion, making
things either tiny or giant,” says Hill, referring to the jeans rivets that are supersized and decorate bags, and the exaggerated popperfastenings and bag hardware that appear on jackets. With Hill at the helm, Mulberry is once more celebrating its very British roots. “I’ve fallen in love with our quirky side and the irony of Britain,” says Hill, who recently returned to Blighty after 13 years in the US. She believes the brand is a “national treasure” and her exposure to NYC’s uptown aesthetic only serves to polish Mulberry’s heritage for the global market. “The Mulberry
girl is still English, but now she’s got a passport. She’s a bit more worldly wise and put together. Hence the gold buttons on the leather jackets,” says Hill, who hopes that one day soon Mulberry will become synonymous with something other than just giving good bags. “What signifies Mulberry, to me, is the outerwear and the leather. In the same way that you go to Burberry if you want a trench, I want people to think of us if they want a leather jacket.” If her debut range is anything to go by, expect queues around the Mulberry stores come the New Year.
Prada to find out. So tell us, the private jet rumours that you’re whisking a bunch of girls to the Giles show in your own personal plane, is it happening? “Totally not true; oh gosh, absolutely not. Can you imagine getting all those girls to show up on time? And go through security? No, it’s not happening.” Ah well, can you say what will happen at Giles? “Sure, yeah. Well, we didn’t fly in models but we did fly in handbags, we’re showing them on the runway for the second time. And then we’ve got sunglasses
for the first time. And everyone’s used to Giles presenting dresses, but, this season, it’s going to be a lot of separates; it’s very comprehensive. I think people are going to be really surprised.” Oooh, please tell us more! “I can’t tell you more, or else you won’t be really surprised!” Fair enough. Did Giles collaborate with anyone else besides you? Like, are we going to see Agyness Deyn for Giles anytime soon? “Ha! Well we did work with Christian Louboutin on the shoes; how’s that? These great big gorgeous shoes.”
xoxo Faran
Word s B y G e org i a De h n
fashion writers just gaze into a crystal ball. 2. Think: the fashion industry has become much more serious – sustainability, conservation and waste are all just as important considerations now. 3. Read: the first-class fashion writer should educate themselves on a wider range of issues beyond the aesthetic of what’s shown on the catwalk. The gals of The LFW Daily have taken note, and are now busy earning journalistic housepoints. Georgia Dehn is junior style editor at the Telegraph Magazine
Wo rd s b y J e s s i ca H a n n a n
Bonsoir! The Daily’s resident party girl is typing to you from the back of le taxi après LFW’s first fabulous night of fashion! After getting in the party mood at PPQ, where I tried to poach Kimberly Stewart’s wonderful stylist Darren Knight (he goes everywhere with her and answers for her!), I shimmied up to the Moët VIP room to bid au revoir to monsieur Pugh in the très cosy room designed by the man himself. Like true troopers the i-D and Dazed crowds took a corner each, brandishing fur despite Saharalevel heat from Gareth’s lightbulb installation. Miss Oui was perfectly stacked in last season’s GP Swarovski platforms, but was slightly outdone by reigning party veteran Hilary Alexander, who was sporting a perfectly on-trend purple and crystallised pedicure. “‘Hips are the new accessories,” she enthused. After wiping the lippy from my Moët funnel, I left the east set west and headed east myself to Thomas Giddings Before The Runway exhibition. There to support him was his other half Henry Holland and chums. One thing Miss Oui must note is that she just cannot keep up with the arty lot, as they apparently quaff straight vodka from champagne flutes. Une autre ’angover? Mais non! Photography by Robert Fairer and Chris Moore
Katie Shillingford, ‘The Dazed corner’.
Inky and Henry Cary-Williams
Gareth Pugh, Carson McColl
Pipa Dee, Carson McColl, Tatsuo Hino, otherwise known as ‘Team Gareth’
L O N DO N , M O N d ay 15 t h S eptem b e r 2 0 0 8
Henry Holland
04 •
Leather Bound Wo rd s By L a u re n C o ch r a n e
Emma Hill on handbags, heritage and the rise of the Mulberry shoe
Paul Smith moodboard - the Paul Smith show is at 7pm this evening. To view The London Fashion Week Daily online go to www.londonfashionweek.co.uk
“For a long time, wearable was a dirty word,” says Mulberry’s new creative director Emma Hill, who has made it her mission to change all that. Displaying a lightness of touch, Hill’s debut collection for s/s ’09 is almost shockingly wearable: from the sweet floral dresses and simple parkas to the covetable leather jackets, which run the gamut of shrunken poacher anoraks to cropped blousons. Some pieces have even been whipped up out of the manmade fibre radzmire, so they can be scrunched up in a bag and come out for the evening, wrinkle-free. Even Mulberry’s shoes – this season created with Jonathan Kelsey under the Mulberry umbrella – are an exercise in looking great while retaining the feeling in your toes. “They’re comfy and high,” says Hill, pointing to a
stack-heeled Bayswater loafer. As the mother of two-yearold Hudson (named after her New York street address) she knows this counts. “Maybe in my twenties I would have tortured myself for fashion, but now I have different priorities,” she says. Although Mulberry’s reputation will always be bound up with its bags, Hill wants the brand’s footwear and ready-towear pieces to become equally iconic. “In the same way we have updated the Bayswater bag every season, I’d really like to update this shoe so it becomes a classic piece of the collection.” So, what of the bags? Hill is no newby when it comes to accessories – Marc Jacobs, GAP, Burberry, Chloé and Temperley London are all on her CV. Alongside the new designs she’s created for s/s ’09 – notably
Grand Illusions Word s B y F aran K re n tci l
A private jet to Giles? Hold on chaps, not so fast... Doubtless you’ve heard the rumours that Katie Grand, the uber-stylist and original Popette, has chartered a private jet for 20 supers to walk in the Giles Deacon show. But what’s really going on? We tracked down the special helper of Marc Jacobs, Giorgio Armani and Miuccia
To view The London Fashion Week Daily online go to www.londonfashionweek.co.uk
Nifty. You’ve also styled the Topshop show. “Topshop Unique. It’s very influenced by runway trends, but also what’s happening on the streets, like, what do girls want to wear? How can we make those ideas in fashionable people’s heads into something they can buy?” So what percentage of your closet is Topshop? “Not as much as Marc Jacobs and not as much as Prada. Really, I’d say my entire wardrobe is four per cent Topshop. But it’s a really good four per cent.”
Thomas Giddings, ‘Man of the moment.’
www.londonfashionweek.co.uk
Hilary Alexander – Hip hip hooray!
Miss Oui
Oooh la la! Let Fashion Week begin...
www.londonfashionweek.co.uk
American at Large Wo rd s By F a r a n K re n t ci l
I skinned my knee this morning, but it was for a good cause: a pair of Marc by Marc Jacobs heels that absolutely nobody else has. They take up too much room in my suitcase and I really can’t run in them – hence the skid, the fall, the blood, the shredded Betsey Johnson tights. But it’s totally worth it because you can’t
• 05
LONDON, MONday 15 t h Se pte mbe r 2008
buy them – ever. They were snuck from a fashion show pour moi, by an MJ employee who owed me a big favour. They are the soul of my sole, and also my armour. No matter how intimidating the quiff of Suzy Menkes; no matter how blinding the wedding diamond of Peaches Geldof; no matter how far back my seat; and no matter how much longer Jourdan Dunn’s legs, it’s all okay because I have the shoes. Click them together three times and boom, I can suddenly stand tall in a room full of people with better accents, a steady supply of Grazia, an electric stream
of Kate Moss sightings and Arctic Monkeys singles, and delicious Cadbury chocolate. So just think of these crazy shoes as a tribute to you, UK readers. Your original, outrageous, expensively awesome style demanded I bring at least one accessory that upped the anti. And now, OMG, I think I see Alexa Chung across the catwalk. I am totally freaking out! Back later!
Drusilla’s Fashion Academy
Faran Krentcil, Nylon Magazine
If Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman is the glorious headmistress of the school of fashion journalism, her mother, Drusilla Beyfus, is surely the governess. Vogue’s associate editor in the early Eighties and a fashion journalism tutor at Saint
Martins, Beyfus has a stellar alumni under her leather belt. Among her pupils: Luella Bartley, Esquire’s Jeremy Langmead, Elle’s Rebecca Lowthorpe, Hywel Davis (whose book launch is later this week) and Tamsin Blanchard to name but a few. Taking a break from her current desk job as an editor for the Telegraph Magazine, Beyfus dropped briefly into The LFW Daily HQ yesterday afternoon to share her fail-safe tips on becoming a top style-scribe. 1. Look: develop a good visual sense, even though it might seem Suzy Menkes and other great
the Mitzy, a slouchy pouchy bag bristling with rivet hardware – Hill has also reworked some of the brand’s existing bestsellers first introduced by Nicholas Knightly and Stuart Vevers. In her hands, the Bayswater has been transformed into a must-have clutch, carrying all the hallmarks of an It Bag in the making. “I like the idea of bags spawning other family members,” she says. Hill’s signature is all about perspective. Her designs, be they bags, shoes or clothes, zoom in on the details and make them the hero of the piece. “I love to play with proportion, making
things either tiny or giant,” says Hill, referring to the jeans rivets that are supersized and decorate bags, and the exaggerated popperfastenings and bag hardware that appear on jackets. With Hill at the helm, Mulberry is once more celebrating its very British roots. “I’ve fallen in love with our quirky side and the irony of Britain,” says Hill, who recently returned to Blighty after 13 years in the US. She believes the brand is a “national treasure” and her exposure to NYC’s uptown aesthetic only serves to polish Mulberry’s heritage for the global market. “The Mulberry
girl is still English, but now she’s got a passport. She’s a bit more worldly wise and put together. Hence the gold buttons on the leather jackets,” says Hill, who hopes that one day soon Mulberry will become synonymous with something other than just giving good bags. “What signifies Mulberry, to me, is the outerwear and the leather. In the same way that you go to Burberry if you want a trench, I want people to think of us if they want a leather jacket.” If her debut range is anything to go by, expect queues around the Mulberry stores come the New Year.
Prada to find out. So tell us, the private jet rumours that you’re whisking a bunch of girls to the Giles show in your own personal plane, is it happening? “Totally not true; oh gosh, absolutely not. Can you imagine getting all those girls to show up on time? And go through security? No, it’s not happening.” Ah well, can you say what will happen at Giles? “Sure, yeah. Well, we didn’t fly in models but we did fly in handbags, we’re showing them on the runway for the second time. And then we’ve got sunglasses
for the first time. And everyone’s used to Giles presenting dresses, but, this season, it’s going to be a lot of separates; it’s very comprehensive. I think people are going to be really surprised.” Oooh, please tell us more! “I can’t tell you more, or else you won’t be really surprised!” Fair enough. Did Giles collaborate with anyone else besides you? Like, are we going to see Agyness Deyn for Giles anytime soon? “Ha! Well we did work with Christian Louboutin on the shoes; how’s that? These great big gorgeous shoes.”
xoxo Faran
Word s B y G e org i a De h n
fashion writers just gaze into a crystal ball. 2. Think: the fashion industry has become much more serious – sustainability, conservation and waste are all just as important considerations now. 3. Read: the first-class fashion writer should educate themselves on a wider range of issues beyond the aesthetic of what’s shown on the catwalk. The gals of The LFW Daily have taken note, and are now busy earning journalistic housepoints. Georgia Dehn is junior style editor at the Telegraph Magazine
Wo rd s b y J e s s i ca H a n n a n
Bonsoir! The Daily’s resident party girl is typing to you from the back of le taxi après LFW’s first fabulous night of fashion! After getting in the party mood at PPQ, where I tried to poach Kimberly Stewart’s wonderful stylist Darren Knight (he goes everywhere with her and answers for her!), I shimmied up to the Moët VIP room to bid au revoir to monsieur Pugh in the très cosy room designed by the man himself. Like true troopers the i-D and Dazed crowds took a corner each, brandishing fur despite Saharalevel heat from Gareth’s lightbulb installation. Miss Oui was perfectly stacked in last season’s GP Swarovski platforms, but was slightly outdone by reigning party veteran Hilary Alexander, who was sporting a perfectly on-trend purple and crystallised pedicure. “‘Hips are the new accessories,” she enthused. After wiping the lippy from my Moët funnel, I left the east set west and headed east myself to Thomas Giddings Before The Runway exhibition. There to support him was his other half Henry Holland and chums. One thing Miss Oui must note is that she just cannot keep up with the arty lot, as they apparently quaff straight vodka from champagne flutes. Une autre ’angover? Mais non! Photography by Robert Fairer and Chris Moore
Katie Shillingford, ‘The Dazed corner’.
Inky and Henry Cary-Williams
Gareth Pugh, Carson McColl
Pipa Dee, Carson McColl, Tatsuo Hino, otherwise known as ‘Team Gareth’
L O N DO N , M O N d ay 15 t h S eptem b e r 2 0 0 8
Henry Holland
04 •
Leather Bound Wo rd s By L a u re n C o ch r a n e
Emma Hill on handbags, heritage and the rise of the Mulberry shoe
Paul Smith moodboard - the Paul Smith show is at 7pm this evening. To view The London Fashion Week Daily online go to www.londonfashionweek.co.uk
“For a long time, wearable was a dirty word,” says Mulberry’s new creative director Emma Hill, who has made it her mission to change all that. Displaying a lightness of touch, Hill’s debut collection for s/s ’09 is almost shockingly wearable: from the sweet floral dresses and simple parkas to the covetable leather jackets, which run the gamut of shrunken poacher anoraks to cropped blousons. Some pieces have even been whipped up out of the manmade fibre radzmire, so they can be scrunched up in a bag and come out for the evening, wrinkle-free. Even Mulberry’s shoes – this season created with Jonathan Kelsey under the Mulberry umbrella – are an exercise in looking great while retaining the feeling in your toes. “They’re comfy and high,” says Hill, pointing to a
stack-heeled Bayswater loafer. As the mother of two-yearold Hudson (named after her New York street address) she knows this counts. “Maybe in my twenties I would have tortured myself for fashion, but now I have different priorities,” she says. Although Mulberry’s reputation will always be bound up with its bags, Hill wants the brand’s footwear and ready-towear pieces to become equally iconic. “In the same way we have updated the Bayswater bag every season, I’d really like to update this shoe so it becomes a classic piece of the collection.” So, what of the bags? Hill is no newby when it comes to accessories – Marc Jacobs, GAP, Burberry, Chloé and Temperley London are all on her CV. Alongside the new designs she’s created for s/s ’09 – notably
Grand Illusions Word s B y F aran K re n tci l
A private jet to Giles? Hold on chaps, not so fast... Doubtless you’ve heard the rumours that Katie Grand, the uber-stylist and original Popette, has chartered a private jet for 20 supers to walk in the Giles Deacon show. But what’s really going on? We tracked down the special helper of Marc Jacobs, Giorgio Armani and Miuccia
To view The London Fashion Week Daily online go to www.londonfashionweek.co.uk
Nifty. You’ve also styled the Topshop show. “Topshop Unique. It’s very influenced by runway trends, but also what’s happening on the streets, like, what do girls want to wear? How can we make those ideas in fashionable people’s heads into something they can buy?” So what percentage of your closet is Topshop? “Not as much as Marc Jacobs and not as much as Prada. Really, I’d say my entire wardrobe is four per cent Topshop. But it’s a really good four per cent.”
Take a www.londonfashionweek.co.uk
• 07
LONDON, MONday 15 t h Se pte mbe r 2008 It’s what everybody’s Talking!
Fashionable Fun and games brought to you by pop-up publication RUBBISH Magazine. www.rubbishmag.com
Erdem is lost in flowers! Which is the quickest way to his secret garden? Maze by Emma Lofstrom
k a e r B
Colin Waxman RUBBISH ETIQUETTE Featuring guest agony aunt Colin Waxman, fashion PR/marketing guru whose company, Waxman Communications, rules the roost TODAY’S DILEMMA: Dear Colin, As a LFW player, what is your advice to international fashion celebrities, such as Donatella and Karl, key press and buyers keen to make an impact in London? Dearest Rubbish, Do – have hugely expensive, wonderful parties in central London locations (that everyone would much rather go to than the cheap ones held by young London designers in the middle of nowhere). Don’t – attempt to show you love young designers by being photographed draped around them at every opportunity. They just make you look old. The youth are very ageing. Do – book me early for lunch whilst you are in town. I get very busy. Don’t – take me to The Wolsley. It is so noisy one can’t hear oneself think and the service is appalling. I am still waiting for the hot toast that I ordered a week ago. Do – wear wildly eccentric outfits. Even if you are a nobody, the Japanese press will love to take pictures of you – and you can be a huge star in Asia. Let me know if you are successful with this, as I can probably get you a feature in Ming Pao Weekly – trust me, it’s huge. Don’t – ever, ever, ever use communal transportation. Do people really need to know you are that cheap?
B I NGO WI NGS IN LFW S HO C K ! Report by Jo Craven Who better to keep the size-zero debate moving along than national treasure Christopher Biggins. “I love London Fashion Week! It’s a shame I can’t stay longer, as I’m filming in Manchester, but I want to add my voice to the size-zero debate.” Wearing his best lilac cashmere Ralph Lauren sweater, he arrived at LFW by rickshaw, to the tune of Bingo Wings (which he MCs over), and with several plus-size girls dancing vigorously along with a leotard-wearing dance instructor. The song aims to promote, well, bingo wings. Banners were waved saying “Hello to Big Girls” and the publicity stunt caused, inevitably, a traffic jam.
Kidding Around Report by Jo Craven In fashion land it’s easy to forget it’s actually the weekend. So no wonder Sunday is the day so many children come to shows. Isabella Georgiou, 7, at the BFC Fashion Breakfast, before the Paul Costelloe show, came wearing H&M “to see the models”. While Molly Sharman, also seven, came to Spijkers en Spijkers with her sister Ella, six, wearing John Lewis and Esprit, respectively, because she wants “to be a fashion designer”. Phoebe McCaughley (above right),
Le Geek, tres Chic!
The May Fair Hotel, the Official Hotel of London Fashion Week
Rubbish Advertorial
To view The London Fashion Week Daily online go to www.londonfashionweek.co.uk
12, wearing Topshop with her mother’s Margiela belt, at Charles Anastase has been coming for years – “since before she was born” as her mother, style journalist Sarah Mower (above left), puts it. Looking for some technical help while at London Fashion Week? Call 0800 049 1067 and have your very own Geek Squad Agent on hand for all your WiFi issues, iPhone fixes or BlackBerry tweaks. We also do Home Visits and feng shui consultations – actually, we don’t do feng shui, but we definitely do the Home Visits. GEEKSQUAD.co.uk. Official IT team for LFW.
Take a www.londonfashionweek.co.uk
• 07
LONDON, MONday 15 t h Se pte mbe r 2008 It’s what everybody’s Talking!
Fashionable Fun and games brought to you by pop-up publication RUBBISH Magazine. www.rubbishmag.com
Erdem is lost in flowers! Which is the quickest way to his secret garden? Maze by Emma Lofstrom
k a e r B
Colin Waxman RUBBISH ETIQUETTE Featuring guest agony aunt Colin Waxman, fashion PR/marketing guru whose company, Waxman Communications, rules the roost TODAY’S DILEMMA: Dear Colin, As a LFW player, what is your advice to international fashion celebrities, such as Donatella and Karl, key press and buyers keen to make an impact in London? Dearest Rubbish, Do – have hugely expensive, wonderful parties in central London locations (that everyone would much rather go to than the cheap ones held by young London designers in the middle of nowhere). Don’t – attempt to show you love young designers by being photographed draped around them at every opportunity. They just make you look old. The youth are very ageing. Do – book me early for lunch whilst you are in town. I get very busy. Don’t – take me to The Wolsley. It is so noisy one can’t hear oneself think and the service is appalling. I am still waiting for the hot toast that I ordered a week ago. Do – wear wildly eccentric outfits. Even if you are a nobody, the Japanese press will love to take pictures of you – and you can be a huge star in Asia. Let me know if you are successful with this, as I can probably get you a feature in Ming Pao Weekly – trust me, it’s huge. Don’t – ever, ever, ever use communal transportation. Do people really need to know you are that cheap?
B I NGO WI NGS IN LFW S HO C K ! Report by Jo Craven Who better to keep the size-zero debate moving along than national treasure Christopher Biggins. “I love London Fashion Week! It’s a shame I can’t stay longer, as I’m filming in Manchester, but I want to add my voice to the size-zero debate.” Wearing his best lilac cashmere Ralph Lauren sweater, he arrived at LFW by rickshaw, to the tune of Bingo Wings (which he MCs over), and with several plus-size girls dancing vigorously along with a leotard-wearing dance instructor. The song aims to promote, well, bingo wings. Banners were waved saying “Hello to Big Girls” and the publicity stunt caused, inevitably, a traffic jam.
Kidding Around Report by Jo Craven In fashion land it’s easy to forget it’s actually the weekend. So no wonder Sunday is the day so many children come to shows. Isabella Georgiou, 7, at the BFC Fashion Breakfast, before the Paul Costelloe show, came wearing H&M “to see the models”. While Molly Sharman, also seven, came to Spijkers en Spijkers with her sister Ella, six, wearing John Lewis and Esprit, respectively, because she wants “to be a fashion designer”. Phoebe McCaughley (above right),
Le Geek, tres Chic!
The May Fair Hotel, the Official Hotel of London Fashion Week
Rubbish Advertorial
To view The London Fashion Week Daily online go to www.londonfashionweek.co.uk
12, wearing Topshop with her mother’s Margiela belt, at Charles Anastase has been coming for years – “since before she was born” as her mother, style journalist Sarah Mower (above left), puts it. Looking for some technical help while at London Fashion Week? Call 0800 049 1067 and have your very own Geek Squad Agent on hand for all your WiFi issues, iPhone fixes or BlackBerry tweaks. We also do Home Visits and feng shui consultations – actually, we don’t do feng shui, but we definitely do the Home Visits. GEEKSQUAD.co.uk. Official IT team for LFW.