Topshop always deliver amazing collaborations. Over the years they've teamed up with everyone from Michael van der Ham to Mary Katrantzou and now the fruits of their partnership with JW Anderson are about to drop.
Today images from the designer's women's collection for the store were released online ahead of the launch on September 14 to coincide with the start of London Fashion Week and the line is everything we hoped for. Rather than being a watered down version of his mainline, Anderson made it clear that he wanted the collection to feel like more of a continuation of what he does best. 'It's for the same girl and is based upon the same idea. I feel collaborations should be a reflection, not something that veers off into another zone,' he revealed. The high street and luxury market are inherently close. Without one the other doesn't exist. I feel like that is modernity now.'
'For me, Topshop is integral to London Fashion Week,' Anderson told Vogue. 'It's everything that sums it up. I have worked on this collection with my sister in mind because I wanted it to be accessible. I feel like we are at a time where we want a fanfare; something fun, accessible and easy,' so expect fun prints and his signature pieces alongside classic shirts, footwear and stationary pieces too.
Despite working with London Fashion Week for the past four seasons, the A/W12 shows in February marked the first season that Vodafone served as the principal sponsor for the event and following that success this morning they confirmed that they have a big fashion project in the works.
Following in the footsteps of their successful partnership with Richard Nicoll last season, today they confirmed that they've just entered into a two season partnership with fashion favourite, Mary Katrantzou, which is set to officially launch in February.
As the partnership is still in it's infant stages, nothing concrete has been confirmed about what the projects will be but what we do know is that the collaboration will allow Vodafone customers access to her show and potentially the chance to meet her backstage.
Elizabeth Banks didn't go down particularly well with the fashion critics after wearing that hard-to-pull-off Mary Katrantzou ensemble at the Met Gala but this dress more than makes up for it.
To attend the premiere of her new movie, 'What To Expect When You're Expecting', she chose another leading British fashion brand, Peter Pilotto. The brand's floral printed dress with sheer cut outs was the style of choice teamed with black peep toe heels and an embellished black clutch.
January Jones is one of the few actresses that is prepared to take a risk on the red carpet and this Mary Katrantzou dress is a case in point. Jones wore it this week to the 'La Revolution Bleue' screening at the Paris Theater in New York.
I loved the dress on the runway but it's not hard to see that it isn't the easiest piece to carry off at an event and as a result, it was met with a mixed response.
Arlenis Sosa Peña has always been one of my favourite models but despite making it big early on in her career (she's a spokesperson for Lancome), she's been noticeably absent from the shows and magazines recently. But it looks like that's all changing because this month she marked her return with this editorial for Harper's Bazaar Mexico.
In the story, Arlenis sports the bright prints that have been making the rounds this season from the likes of Preen and Mary Katrantzou styled by Andrew Holden and shot by Kevin Sinclair.
Mary Katrantzou is one of the designers helping make British design talent the best that it has been in a long time and it's paying off. Take her recent collaboration with Topshop for example. After launching last month, the collection quickly sold out both in stores and online but now, the designer is thinking of spreading the love by making her designs available in larger sizes.
'Net-a-Porter asked us if we would go bigger [to a size 16] and we would - we had a discussion with them," she told Vogue.com. "I buy online - I think as a bigger size, you feel more comfortable trying things at home.' But this is something the Greek-born designer has been thinking about for a while. 'I was looking at a size 14 woman wearing our dress and I thought, 'I can't believe we don't go bigger than that size!' because she looked tiny," she said.
This season's London Fashion Week is a special one for Topshop as it marks the tenth year that the retailer has been sponsoring NEWGEN, an intitative to fund the shows of London's best design talent. To celebrate the anniversary they have teamed up with twenty designers that they have worked with, past and present, - including Holly Fulton, Christopher Kane and Mary Katrantzou - to create a special line of t-shirts that will be available in strores and online from Friday February 17 to Tuesday February 22.
In the past London Fashion Week was the city that everyone felt like they could afford to miss but with the support of the BFC/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund, things have really turned around for London. The program, which provides all of the short listed designers with an industry mentor and £200,000 for the winner, has helped propel the businesses of previous winners Erdem Moraliglu and Christopher Kane. Both designers success in the UK and beyond is testament to the success of the program.
Yesterday the BFC announced that this year's short listed designers are: Jonathan Saunders, Roksanda Ilincic, Mary Katrantzou, Richard Nicoll, Marios Schwab, Peter Pilotto, Meadham Kirchoff and Zoe Jordan, as well as Nicholas Kirkwood.
Yesterday was big day in the British fashion calendar as it saw the British Fashion Council play host to the 2011 British Fashion Awards at London's Savoy Hotel. Big winners on the night include Mary Katrantzou who walked away the Emerging Talent - Womenswear award, Victoria Beckham was awarded the Best Brand award and Stella McCartney was quite rightly awarded the Red Carpet award.
