Category: Fashion

January 19, 2015

Tinker, Tailor..

A piece of denim with a kick and a wink..

By Sibling and currently reduced from £270 to £108..

The irony is in the puffed sleeves: Incredible how short sleeved jackets, once such a fashion faux-pas are worming their way back into the subconscious..

The heady joy is in the detail..

Laters, Kate x

January 16, 2015

AG for Alexa..

Alexa Chung has made her first foray into serious fashion by designing a 20 piece collection for the Californian label AG. It’s a career she’s always dressed for – but is being famous enough?

My expectations were high..I wanted frank and forthright with a street awareness…and a determination to do her own thing, all delivered with a kick and a wink..

Well..I like the buttons. But if this really is a throw back collection honouring the late sixties and seventies, I’d have preferred them in brass..

You could say it’s nice and polite..which would be polite..

Or you could say this looks like something you could stumble into on a rack in the deepest, darkest depths of Marks and Sparks..not even Per Una label..

And if you said this was from Gap, I would believe you.

Tame and lacking flair..the collection is like going to taste a beautiful rich merlot..and finding it’s slightly warm water from a plastic cup instead. There’s going to be a lot of seriously good denim this year – Sonya Rykiel and Gucci being just two casing points. In comparison, this collection falls way off the mark. It will sell out..but that says more about our society than good design…

Laters, Kate x

January 15, 2015

Ice Queen x

Bella with her best-bud…on Sunday we took them to Streatham ice rink (where both girls have lessons) to see my lovely, multi-talented friend Kaori Okumura from the Blog, Twist and Turn play in an ice hockey match with her team, Storm..

Spotting Kaori on the ice..

It’s a fast and furious game relying on skill and courage..and lots of padding..

In contrast, Kaori is tiny, delicate and an artisan knitter by trade, producing the most beautiful garments..with her fingers! No needles! An oxymoron in living flesh..

Bella was equally surprised and impressed! Wow!

Laters, Kate x

January 14, 2015

Dancing Queen x

There’s a theme emerging: Timelessness is now, meaning pick something from the seventies..and it will immediately look cool and new..

Saddle bags (referring to handbags..), flares, midi denim skirts, large sunnies, colour and wacky print..it’s a heady combination..

And Gucci – a stalwart of the fashion world, but not a label that hits the hip headlines – has captured the look to perfection..

Beautiful, strange and compelling..

But already feels familiar..

With a little touch of acid..

(All photos Gucci)

Makes we want to hit the nearest vintage shop. Pronto.

Laters, Kate x

January 13, 2015

Savvy Sonya..

Julie de Libran, the relatively new Designer at Sonya Rykiel has come up with some glorious and gutsy vocals for her 2015 Pre-fall Collection, including a masterclass in how to wear flares..

The proportions are magnificent, with classic details on sleeve lengths, cuffs and pockets.

She imbues the most mundane textures with emotion.

This clash of cobalt and animal mixed with the perfect updated boot and a flash of patterned tight..

(All photos Style.com)

A classy act from a Designer one step ahead of perceptions and preconceptions.

You can hear it glow.

Laters, Kate x

January 12, 2015

Dog Days x

Dog days…or perhaps the title should be: Cycle of Fat..the story of a mother’s waistline?..

Y’see every term starts with good intentions…healthy eating, increase of exercise and determination. And every time it all slips then slides away…why??

1. Because the start of every term requires unblocking the dam of jobs that have been stored up throughout the holidays..to the term time..when of course you’ll have time..hoho

2. It takes a while to crack the routine again: Early mornings, new after school clubs, hockey sticks, gum guards, out-grown shoes, lost PE kits.. but you do and it gets there..so you take the plunge and add in the exercise..adapt to the new routine and wait in hope for the endorphins to kick in (exercise equals endorphins equals happy mum equals not shooting the kids..or so they say) it takes it’s time – no pain, no gain..but you get there.

3. You take pride in the transforming you. Almost back to pre-second baby weight. Yay!

4. Then disaster strikes: School holidays..back to cooking through the day, no walking to and from school, cupboards now over-flowing with kids ‘stuff’ and temptation, meals out, no time to go to pilates or a run – no babysitters, everything is slower now you’re working as a pack, and generally there’s a festival of sorts: Christmas, Easter, Summer Holiday which means much ~~much~~ more alcohol and calories are ~~tripled~~ doubled..

5. So in the time it takes for the holiday to end…you’re back to where you started..

I was talking about this, trying to pin the butterfly down with a friend who’s a personal trainer: She’s got all the stuff in her house to do 15 mins a day to keep the dogs at bay (we’re talking fat cells..)..but she can’t make that mental/physical jump either. On these child-centric weeks it’s incredibly hard to focus the mind and do exercise ‘properly’ so the brain says, why bother, we just want to enjoy this time? We decided it made a difference when you could do activities with your kids, like tennis..but that means waiting till they’re of an age when it becomes worth while. Mine are a bit young and without the stamina, and you really don’t want to book a court just to adjudicate a fight. But we agreed that the problem is, if you don’t even try, the middle-age waist-line just builds up..and so does your age..I can confirm, the older you get, the harder it is to shift..

The truth is, heart on sleeve and tits on a platter: Exercise at this stage of life isn’t for improvement and a parade of rude health, it’s just to standstill..otherwise when the time comes to finally be able to play a genuine game of tennis with the kids…I’ll be the one oozing gently on my mobility scooter..

Food for thought..

Laters, Kate x

January 10, 2015

Mih – Damn Fine x

There’s a great sale on at MiH with some damn fine denim…I went for a pair of Marrakesh flares reduced from £174 to £52.20, they arrived true to size, beautiful fit with suede soft denim with just enough elastic for a good cling – what’s more, even though they were a sale item, they arrived with a gift of a midnight blue canvas tote bag with silver..I’d show you a picture ‘cept Bella’s already run away with it. Top Marks.

Laters, Kate x

January 9, 2015

Poppies..

These arrived in the post yesterday….a final Christmas present from The Husband…somehow perfectly poignant..

Laters, Kate x

January 8, 2015

Stella Zoe x

The UK series of Strictly has been over for nearly a month, but I’m still missing girl-crush, Zoe Ball. An absolute natural on the TV, who wears her heart on her heart – it’s surprisingly hard to find a decent photo that does her sartorial and character justice, but squish your eyes and you could believe she’s rolled in from a rollicking night on the tiles with lipstick on more than her collar..but always the supreme professional.

Believe me, Zoe’s got the glam rockster chic look down to a fine art. In the final she wore this witty little number by Stella McCartney – but threw out the rule book on clumsy flats and went sky-high..

(All photos Google.com)

That’s ma girl..

Laters, Kate x

January 7, 2015

Shining Light..

Lindsey Adelman light-creations are an empathy grab to the heart, snaring you between brutal, industrial chic and fragile organic forms..

Strangely enough, the girl-with-the-design eye-started her life wearing another coat – that of reader and dreamer. The magic happened in 1992 whilst Lindsey was working as an editorial assistant at the Smithsonian Institution, she walked into the Exhibition Fabrication Department and saw an industrial designer sculpting French fries out of foam for a show on American work…”I think they were for a McDonald’s drive-thru set or something,” she says. But somewhere a connection was made: dreams could be made into reality…and she immediately enrolled at RISD to study design…

Her first lights evolved from playing with off-the-shelf parts: ‘The structures I’ve made come out of an interest in function’ She explains, ‘You have this idea of spreading out points of light in a space, then developing a system of materials and energy..till it ends up looking like a tree because a tree already has it figured out!’

Her Company, Lindsey Adelman, based in Mannhatten, New York, now supports a staff of 20 and deals in commissions from around the world worth tens of thousands of dollars per light…but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t lost her roots..