Category: fashion comment
Blooming Marvellous x
We may be in the midst of a global crisis, but nobody has told my window boxes. They’ve had more love and care than ever before and are responding with abundant height, growth, width and blooms.
There is one cuckoo in the nest; I fear I’ve been cultivating a weed – I thought this plant was a white geranium as it’s first leaves were the same shape and I knew I’d planted some in the area.
But now there’s a clear distinction. I’ve left it a while to see if a flower would bloom – surely a weed is a flower by any other name? I had hopes it might be a foxglove, the seed dropped by a bird, said my romantic heart. But I know it’s a triffid and must go.
On the good news front, the combover tree is proudly displaying the first signs of bum fluff.
But whilst some things, like my garden are benefitting, other areas of the world are facing peril: ‘If the Coronavirus doesn’t kill my workers, then starvation will’ says a factory owner in Bangladesh. A quote that greets you on the first page of Lost Stock. 
Lost Stock was set up by Cally Russell, the founder of fashion shopping too Mallzee. It allows shoppers to buy a mystery box of clothing directly from the manufacturers, with almost 40% of the proceeds of each box donated to Bangladesh through a non-profit organisation based in the country. This is enough to feed a Bangladeshi family for a week.
A Lost Stock Box costs £35 plus £3.99 postage and will contain at least three tops with a recommended retail price of £70. It will take time to arrive – between 6-8 weeks, but I think that’s a small price to pay.
In total, an estimated £10bn of clothing has piled up in warehouses during lockdown, much of it destined for landfill, layering crisis upon crisis. This seems a simple solution to help where help is most needed.
Where do I sign?
Laters, Kate x
Trend 3
The fickle winds of fashion never stop blowing raspberries; Not long ago I was reading about the terminal death of the short-sleeved jacket and I remember thinking the very act of writing those words was probably like a summoning of the phoenix from the ashes, because the thing about hates is that they have a tendency to come around again….and just a little change can make a radical shift in emphasis.
(All pics Pinterest)
Never say never.
Laters, Kate x
Trend 2
Easy, gentle, coloured with summer, the satin skirt is an easy addition to any wardrobe. Dress up or dress down. T-shirt or baggy jumper, it’s the transitional bridge that shouts lazy lux and joyful delight.
(All pics Pinterest)
Time to lose the plot and find the fun.
Laters, Kate x
Trend 1 x
We spent a few days in the brilliant city of Bristol over Easter, enjoying the street food and vintage shops. I was truly surprised by what caught my wandering eye – an electric/purple blue Hawaiian shirt for fifteen squids. It stopped me in my tracks with visions of pairing it with a loose navy suit with sleeves rolled up eighties style and a loose but narrow pair of 3/4 length trousers. It was vivid and powerful and sadly not shared by my two children who dragged me away.
(All pics Pinterest)
But I think it has legs.
Laters, Kate x
The Oscars 2019
There were the good dresses – Emma Stone in Versace
Lady Gaga in Alexander McQueen.
And an ‘Oh no!’ for the lovely Olivia Coleman, perfect from the neck up.
But most of al, this year marked a cheer for the men that were prepared to break boundaries, like Spike Lee.
And Stephan James in Etro.
The blushing pink of the masculine Jason Momosa.
Pharrell Williams showing men have legs too.
Mark Ronson putting on a Mark Ronson twist.
And Chadwick Boseman looking fabulous. Because here’s the irony: This ceremony celebrating the peak of visual creativity is actually all about conforming. Apart from the few braves souls who don’t.
Of which the prize goes to the stylish, the bravura, the impeccable, Billy Porter in Christian Siriano. Not a breath of kitsch, no sign of a send up, just a sonic statement in understated class.
The shirt. I want.
Billy Porter says when he debuted his dress-wearing persona at the Golden Globe parties, he was astounded by the amount of attention it caused with crowds ‘parting like the red sea’. He says ‘It’s infuriating that a man in a dress still garners this much attention. Women wear pants every day and nobody bats an eye. But you put a man in a dress and it’s like the sky is falling.’ Porter asks ‘Are you saying that women in pants equals masculinity and that’s good? But a man in a dress equals feminine and that’s bad? Well, I’m done with that.
(All pics Hollywood Reporter and Pinterest)
And so am I.
Laters, Kate x
Phluid x
Clothes are so ubiquitous it’s easy to take them for granted: fripperies, feathers and function. Except they unconsciously say so much – they are our inner identities reflected back to the world. Those moments when you have nothing to wear? It’s really because there’s nothing to express who you want to be that day.
But what if the freedom we believe in is really a myth? What if society has conditioned our thinking so much we no longer notice the rules, the divisions and the assumptions they lead to?
And there are many of them: Blue for a boy, pink for a girl, pretty dresses for girls that look sweet but don’t take into consideration climbing trees and protection against skinned knees, trousers for boys that metaphorically take on another meaning, T-bars for primary school girls, running shoes for boys, Pedestal high heels for women: the literal presentation of an object of desire: Look sexy, feel sexy they shout. Taxi shoes! We laugh, the truth covered by humour, falling for the fantasy rather than admit they’re restrictive, tortuous and totally lacking function.
What about sizing? It’s another hidden form of segregation: There’s the designer labels who don’t make anything above a size 14 – what’s the message they’re giving? That only the rich are perfect? Or that designers only want to hang their clothes on hangers, not real bodies, real people? But we still let them, maybe one day hoping that person will be us, another part of our insidious cultural brainwashing. What about the clothes store that allegedly offer larger sizes except they never have any in stock? Is it because they can’t understand why someone with that body would want to wear it? Is that really their choice to make? When what’s available for one body isn’t available for another it’s limitation, restriction, and control.
Gender is another straitjacket demanding clothing conformity, every store with racks of clothes marked out for one type of person only, the changing rooms following suit. Who has decided these divisions?
Certainly not Phluid. Phluid is the first gender neutral store that’s just opened in New York as a place without judgement or fear where it’s the clothes that do the talking, not our mental labels. Phluid says we have the ability to imagine a world without ‘because we do’ traditions and outdated rituals that don’t work. They say it’s up to us to open our eyes and fix it: Acceptance, balance, integrity, intention are so much more appealing.
(All pics Phluid)
Personally, it’s such a relief to see a store that celebrates what makes us different whilst cherishing what makes us the same: We think choice is freedom, but it only is if that choice is available to everyone.
Laters, Kate x
Gold Rush x
We saw Cinderella last week..
There’s an undeniable whiff of cheese..but Cate Blanchett’s costumes were honest-to-God-totes-amaze..
vibrant colours…wicked jewellery
All thought up by three time Oscar winning costume designer Sandy Powell..
A south of the River London lass who still lives in Brixton.
Who says fairytales can’t come true?
Laters, Kate x
By degrees x
By degrees, dungarees – a trend prediction for the summer.
Brought to life by Meryl Streep in Mama Mia, Meryl proved all the barriers to style are in the mind.
Which doesn’t stop them being a marmite garment. Would you?
Laters, Kate x
That dress x
‘Wow. I don’t really know where to get started on this “Jennifer Lawrence wearing a revealing dress in the cold” controversy. This is not only utterly ridiculous, I am extremely offended. That Versace dress was fabulous, you think I’m going to cover that gorgeous dress up with a coat and a scarf? I was outside for 5 minutes. I would have stood in the snow for that dress because I love fashion and that was my choice.
This is sexist, this is ridiculous, this is not feminism. Over- reacting about everything someone says or does, creating controversy over silly innocuous things such as what I choose to wear or not wear, is not moving us forward. It’s creating silly distractions from real issues. Get a grip people. Everything you see me wear is my choice. And if I want to be cold THATS MY CHOICE TOO!’
To Jennifer I say, many of us don’t realise the level of sexism we have internalised. We are conditioned by it, educated in it and live out our lives in it. You wore this dress because of an insidious undercurrent of rules that dictates female Hollywood stars should wear such dresses, full stop, regardless of the expense, the quality, the label, the fashion statement, the weather, or even what the men are wearing. You were expected to dress like this, you knew this and unquestioningly fulfilled that obligation. Where the ongoing problem lies is that you don’t see your behaviour as influenced and that’s where the sadness lies, because every time our daughters see a women, particularly a women proud to hold herself up as a female icon, refuse to acknowledge such an event or puts her well being second, or does something that reinforces the idea that being object of desire/cleaning/childcare is a woman’s primary role, we let them down. In the words of Charles Boudelaire:
The loveliest trick of the devil is to persuade you he doesn’t exist.
Open your eyes. The truth is, there should have been five human beings standing there, not four men and a beautifully packaged piece of tempting meat.
Laters, Kate x
High Times x
January to easily represents the bleak recognition of the aftermath: The twinkly lights are gone, the weather is foul and last months credit card bills are circling like starving carrion.
But the first signs of spring are out there – the first glimpse of snowdrops, the first hint of cotton clothing appearing on the high street.
H&M have some impressive staples to offer – on trend blouses, softly hanging silk shirts, high waisted tie trousers and easy wear long sleeved dresses…
(Pics from Pinterest)
It’s temptation – but it’s sensible temptation.
Laters, Kate x
Maison Bentley Style 