Category: Style
Oui! x
Isabel Marant is not the only fruit for delicious street style.
More modest, but with quirky touches Oui is a label that’s now on my radar.
Not French, but German! But with a re-fined sophistication that offers a ready to wear alterntive that’s lighter on the purse.
Effortlessly lethal.
Like sipping a rose petal martini over crushed ice.
With model off-duty looks.
There’s clever tailoring and an emotional potential you just want.
Combined with a tender presentation of the classics.
But with added edge..like the studs on these red trousers.
I likey.
Laters, Kate x
For Kicks x
Electric, exuberant, eclectic and charismatic.
I think I have a new style crush…
Laters, Kate x
Maison Bentley Style x
Are we all here? hope so! I think I’ve done it…but I suspect time and the dreaded stats will be the only way to truly know. I do plan a visual face lift FOR THE BLOG (sigh) at some point, but I think it might be wise to let all these technical bits bed down first. Feel free to look around and play ‘spot the difference’..it’s going to take a while to settle but hey, there’s a Blog Party to think about and Vintage Attitude is already buffing her baby cham! I’m rapidly writing invitations as I type and full details will follow in the next post..
But onto matters close to my heart..on my many wanderings round the web I stumbled across Mr Gugu & Miss Go. and was particularly enamoured of their sweatshirts (I’m thinking pencil leather midi with dramatic statement necklace combo?), not only do they offer their own ingenious designs from a whole cornucopia of ideas that would put an Oscar winning bobby dazzler on Mary Katranzou’s face, but you can also upload your own photos or artwork (Holzfeder?(who is running a fantastic charity campaign on her blog – well worth checking out by the way) and The Crazy Bag Lady? up for it?!) it would create a properly personally dramatic and unique piece..and all for 55 euros (about £47) including European delivery…bargain!
Based on a carpet! J’adore!
There’s something about this one..
Would you? Could you?!
The Christmas party?
There’s a fine line between bling and sing, but these are just sirening how terribly hashtag buy.me.now…..
Laters, Kate x
So Good x
THE MANIFESTO AS WRITTEN BY TOOGOOD
WHEREAS for too long we have witnessed the honest clothing of working people being stolen and arrogated in the name of so-called utility wear and industrial chic;
WHEREAS in an age of digital reproduction the individual is beset on all sides by the bastions of mercantilism and commerce, those false profiteers who prescribe with one hand and proscribe with the other, while forcing allcomers into constrictive sartorial templates;
WHEREAS the entrenched power bases of couture houses and multinationals mete and dole grotesque sumptuary laws to a compliant populace in the form of biannual ‘seasons’, weaving obsolescence into the very fabric of their garments;
WE HEREBY reject and reprehend the cruel diktats of the discredited fashionista treadmill: the voracious cycle in which spring/summer is devoured by autumn/winter, and autumn/winter is in turn devoured by spring/summer. Let them be rendered obsolete by the very inconstancy they thrive upon — we want it to happen! We will create only when we choose to create. Never again shall free thinkers be in thrall to the caprices of chainstore buyers or of marketing consultants!
OUR AIMS are simple, our methods straightforward. We shall sweep aside the crumbling detritus of plutocrat designers and clear the way for a new aesthetic rooted in individuality and honesty, a liberating mode that is available to all, male and female, old and young. We celebrate the craft and the toil of the workers — not faceless serfs running up disposable fads in farflung sweatshops, but named artisans with pride in their labour.
WE SHALL harness the techniques and forms of this mechanised age and return them to the people. The inherent worth of any object lies not in the pronouncements of the self-appointed arbiters of collective taste, but in provenance and the craftsmanship of manufacture.
The Beekeeper
The Road sweeper
The Oilrigger.
The Courier
The Chemist
The Mechanic
Each coat is groundly based in the the workwear of a specific trade – authentic and pactical. There is no gender bias instead they are available in 6 sizes to enhance or disguise individual frames.
Unique labels inside each garment celebrate the workmanship and craft of each process and layer of creativity: The buyer, the seller, the manufacturer right back to the designer and pattern cutter. A simple, clear badge of pride.
Integrity, style, class and…excitement.
Laters, Kate x
The Cut x
It’s that time again when a visit to the hairdresser can be put off no longer. Not quite the same as a trip to the dentist on drill noise alone – or the of humiliation of an eye test: ‘Read what?’ – Thank God for lazering is all I can say hashtag BEST money EVER spent, hashtag why did it take me so long? (even if you do smell your eyeballs burn..)
But the hairdressers?..it’s meant to rank as a pampering treat, except every time I go the mirror clouds up with a thick layer of emotion. The first thing they do is release my hair from whatever grips and slides are currently holding it in place slash up. Then they brush, talk, wash, cut, snip, roll and bouffant. And by the end, I do my best to grin it up..but I’m always waiting for those elusive, unicorn words..
‘Would you like me to – or would you like to put your hair grips back in/hair up again?’
Any combination of the above would be great..but in all my years of trips to salons, large and small..not one person has said it..instead I scrabble around to find the shrapnel of my previous existence and wait till I’m out the door..is it weird to want just a trim and leave as me rather than a full blown transformation each visit?
Laters, Kate x
Blue Day x
This is where vintage shines..finding the different, the now-unique, knowing it can be yours forever and best of all, no-one else will have it..which is why I am heading to the South Bank today for their Vintage Classic Car Boot Fair..and hopefully a cream cake with a large latte by the Thames. Fingers crossed I’ll meet a friend or two (Vintage Attitude!).
Autumn had hit with a vengeance yesterday – lashing rain, driving winds to blow off hats and turn umbrellas inside-out. Today? Cobalt skies and the odd friendly fluffy cloud..the Gods are truly smiling..but it’s no wonder we Brits are obsessed with the weather..
Laters, Kate x
Be my Valentino x
The dinner gong has sounded with Valentino’s succulent SS14 Collection.
It’s captivating thoughts turned into visual chocolate.
The details are like the feathers of a humming bird.
But…
And there is a but…
Would you wear this on a hot summers day?…Or even a spring one?
Do the colours sing beach, sunshine and easy living?
No? So who is the Emperor in his new clothes?
The punters? The magazines?..or the out of date fashion industry?
Laters, Kate x
That video! x
A big thank you to the hugely professional Alex Willis-Bray – enjoy!
Laters, Kate x
Every little bit..
A photo taken by Man Repeller’s Leandra Medine to demonstrate the chaos that is Fashion Week. But what catches your eye? The shoes? The placky bags? Or that Isabel Marant invitation dripping in fairy dust?
Sometimes it’s the little things that maketh the magic..the bits we mortals don’t ever see like the Fashion Week invitations we’d love to prop up on our heaving mantlepieces…so I tracked a few down..
Check out the name in lights..
Just waiting to see WHAT will arrive seems to be half the joy. And do you think people keep them?…One day Rodders, one day..
Laters, Kate x
Come to me Celine
Intuition and imagination: Celine SS14: Inventively combining shape, texture and colour.
With aesthetic control.
I’m getting refrences back to the eighties: Graffiti, large shoulders and baggy jumpers.
But in a clever move, that was then. This is now.
It’s all in the balance.
Vibrant and mischievous.
The details are absorbingly laid out. Where to look?
Peeling back the details. Adding the eyebrows.
And a clutch to die for.
It couldn’t go wrong.
Laters, Kate x
Maison Bentley Style 
