Category: Fall
Retrospective Ahead x
Another wish for Fall 2015? A pair of sturdy Doc boots..
The lace-up ones have a certain something..
How high can they go??
( All boots from here)
Pretty high! (And perfect with an eighties mohair coat..)
Laters, Kate x
Bag of tricks x
Valentino is Maria Callas singing Casta Dive from Norma, at sunset on the cliff tops of Cinque Terre. It’s where the magic happens…(and it rips my heart out that Jean Paul Gaultier got their first…)
How unrepentantly this dazzles and drips with impeccably luxury..it’s exclusive enough to buy a true designer handbag..how very, very to buy a matching skirt as well..and what a stroke of genius to create the art of illusion between them, the designs responding to context with no limits to the possibilities.
Those little touches, like the initials of the models, quietly embossed on..
(All photos Valentino)
It’s that moment when the clouds part and a golden ray of sunlight streams down.
Laters, Kate x
Chloe x
Chloe fall 2015 delves into the deep satisfaction of beautiful tailoring and boho chic. This coat: I lust. The soft retro cut, the wide lapels, the longer arms, the burnished brass buttons, the subtle height on the shoulders..the length (a pain to walk in, but oh-so elegant to see). Simple, exclusive, fashion gold.
It’s 70’s but it’s cultured 70’s – the tiny covered buttons, the thin neck scar..it’s elegant campari drinking on a balcony in Italy rather than bronzed beach babe with a bottle of beer.
There were dresses for the barefoot comtessas.
But my heart was beating for the tailoring: I could’ve easily eaten more and felt disappointed every time the music stopped.
But when you see Chloe and Burberry plundering the same creative vein, you know there’s something in the air: patchwork and ponchos are obviously the mind-candy of the moment.
The boho vibe is strong between them: But I still think it’s the cuts and tailoring where the true riches lie.
Laters, Kate x
Dries Van Wonderful x
Dries Van Noten Fall 2015 is that rare mix of beauty, intellect and empathy.
It’s what happens when fashion, art and history collide. The layering is exceptional – clever pieces, beautiful materials and brilliant lengths that reference the past – from the brocades of the tudors to the frills of the dandies. Combined with innovative textures and a lifeblood of ideas, the collection springs to life.
Long oxblood gloves with short sleeves..
Jumper dresses re-invented with brocade..
gold and decadence..
(I must get a quilted jacket)
High mixed with low..chinos with velvet and…more quilting..
Clothes made with a warmth associated with polar bears and snowy days..
(All photos Style.com)
It’s winner, winner, chicken dinner.
Laters, Kate x
Luscious Libertine x
Designer Johnson Hartig of Libertine is a man who likes to chase the scream..it’s all over his clothes: Surrealism, Dadaism, futurism, exhilarating exuberance, rave, punk, street and fun.
Jazzed up juicy vintage silhouettes with glorious jewel case colours to relish with rapture.
All thrown together with Warhol’s soup can and Pop Art talismans: The joy is in the impact…the devil’s in the detail..
If I could choose any item from NYFW 2015 it would be one of these coats..the splinter is deciding which one..
Laters, Kate x
H-two-Oh! x
Caroline Herrera Fall 2015 will never be an out & out rock chic heroine..but Caroline Herrera is still a heroine.
There’s no slip and slide on an outrageous avantgarde walk of the wild. This is soft, respectful and poetic with a sense of attentive stillness and clever touches.
There’s so much to appreciate with her now seemingly old-fashioned stance of taking a theme like water, and milking all the inspiration from it: transforming, transfiguring, transmogrifying. With the materials chosen taking as much precedence as the silhouettes.
Where she needs it, the tone is strong and textural, adding a mean streak with a flash of red and killer-pointed shoes..
Or paired right back: Reflections on water at sunset..
Or snow on a frozen lake: Simplicity and peaceful fragility…(and a rather stunning wedding dress)..
Cultivated, charming and full of quality – it’s a commanding performance with an impressive range, always offering an underlying sense of knowledge and calm in a world too full of dragonflies..
Laters, Kate x
Food for Thought..
Banana Republic Fall 2015 is the faultless streetstyle collection of NYFW.
It’s the Collection for the realities of life: Meeting friends, the school run, a trip to the shops..a quick snap from the paps…it’s normcorm coolness personified..
And maybe that’s where I have my itch, my first wobble of a potential problem, hard to hold back and impossible to shake off..
I love the stripe. But think too deeply and this collection becomes an unsettling vision..like a serpent eating it’s own tail. We have fashion..we have street style..now we have fashion that is street style and because it’s so perfectly of the moment, there’s no sense of pushing boundaries or striving for the next artistic step.
It’s not that I don’t like it..I really, really do..and look – metallics and tassels again..
(All photos Style.com)
It’s faultless, flawless, impeccable – and feels like it’s been squeezed and prodded into life by a profit driven corporate machine…to produce the opposite of anarchy.
The truth is fashion has to sell, but it fundamentally has to walk hand in hand with creativity: We need a heart..but we need a soul too.
Laters, Kate x
Coach Journey..
NYFW is in full force with a royal gallimaufry (look it up) of offerings, each screaming for attention. But sometimes it’s the unexpected that catches the roving eye. This is Coach..a brand I normally associate with tan and handbags..
But these are tough, potent clothes designed for attitude with a modern, fit-for-combat edge, ready to fight the worst of the winter weather with chutzpah and style whilst keeping enemies at bay.
And there’s a duffel..accessorised with a bandana. What’s not to love?
These shoes nail the bitch sentiment…hard nosed, no-nonsense but with just a subtle sprinkling of fairy dust with their glowing gold and cheeky tassel. Never thought you’d like a kitten heel? Look again..
(All photos from Style.com)
This is functional dressing with eclectic additions, it’s hard and seductive, frank and forthright with an awareness of what’s happening…but a determination to strut their own path.
I’ll have some of that..
Laters, Kate x
The Sales x
Can ideas grow old and desires outdated? Tastes certainly change and a subtle alteration can update the mundane, but how fast does fashion really run? Does a Season-behind-item really matter when the eye-watering price tag is suitably slashed? So whispers the seductive red-lipped temptation that is the January Sales, hip-swaying us in with a promise and a kiss to that shopper’s minefield of potential disaster and paradise..pick it right and get the prize for half the dosh…get it wrong and it’s a turkey turd festering in the darkest corner of your wardrobe forever..
I always thought the January Sales were the perfect opportunity to invest in a classic..the softest cashmere jumper, a timeless camel coat..an iconic silk blouse. But I’ve now seen the light: The Sales are not about anonymity and being conservative, but taking a risk and finding that one standout piece to love and hold forever, something cutting edge, different, unusual with independent thought, something that can mix the refined with everyday. And pieces like that takes time to find..
Thankfully, the fashion posts of the last year have provided a fine quality control to navigate the choppy waters of desire against fads and fly-by-nights, and the Collection that remains an earworm my head is Peter Pilotto AW15..so I took a deep breath and secretly went on a coat hunt – and this is where technology now makes such a difference…with websites such as ‘Search the Sales’ you can pin-point exactly what you’re looking for, they find it for the cheapest price available….and then (thankfully for Christopher Credit) you find it’s already sold out..
Next stop, Ebay…
Laters, Kate x
Maison Bentley Style 