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.
If you fancy splashing £1,000 on one of Hakaan's coveted dresses you'll have to head to London's Harvey Nichols. This season the department store managed to secure an exclusive for the whole of the Turkish ANDAM winner's collection
This is huge for the retailer and naturally flows on from their recent attempts to celebrate cutting edge contemporary brands. Earlier this year they launched the re-design of the forth floor boasting brands like Alexander Wang, Meadham Kirchoff and Marc by Marc as well as a wall dedicated to women's trainers. "We are targeting a customer that I have believed strongly in for sometime," Avery Oates, Harvey Nicols buying director, said at the time. "The new floor gives us a lot of scope to spread our wings and tap into new emerging markets which also include a younger generation of shopper. We are able to execute this within an environment that encompasses a modern way of shopping and embraces all aspects of a fashionable lifestyle from fashion to furniture to art. Expect the unexpected!"
Headed by the likes of Ann Demeulemeester, Rick Owens and Meadham Kirchoff, the glam grunge look has had a cult following that is not going away anytime soon. The anti-trend mixes black deconstructed clothes with leather accessories for a tough directional style. For SS09, Demeulemeester took inspiration from a caged bird, with delicate chains hanging from the models' faces. Floor-length black skirts and dresses were teamed with leather waistcoats and tailored cut-out jackets.
This trend is all about street style, so it comes as no surprise that we found many a doting Demeulemeester fan channelling the look. The zebra wedge boots and tartan bag add a personal touch, whilst the black maxi-dress and leather jacket are classic glam grunge. Sheer fabrics and cut out detailing will take this through to summer, but until then layer up that leather.
As ambient music echoed amongst the excitement of a certain American magazine editor seated alone on the front row, patent spiked heel brogues stomped down the catwalk showcasing Kirchoff's Spring Summer 2010 installment.
Layers formed the basis behind the collection, with Kirchoff using a diverse range of techniques to create voluminous sleeves and back detailing, multi-architectural shirts in black and white and grungy gatherings of petrol and inky blue crepe silk. Metallics made yet another appearance at London Fashion Week in the form of structural gunmetal and candy pink glimmering tops, toughened up by skinny fit dark trousers with assymetric seams and panelling. With dishevelled wavy hair, nude faces and a palette of washed out peach, nude, off white, petrol and black, the focus was set entirely on Kirchoff's use of layering, asymmetry and adrogyny. Jumpers cropped across the bustline, navy polka dot chiffon and small detailed velour bows were to be seen, however it was the mash up of delicate nude chiffon dresses with grecian style drapery over roughened, washed out black roll sleeve tees and slim trousers with slashes behind the knee that made the show. A beautiful mix of delicate femininity and trashy masculinity.
Welcome to the third installment of Behind The Scenes At Fashion Week. Over the past two weeks we've spoken to Anthony Gordon, Director of Scouting and Communications at Premier and DJ Sam Young. This week The Fash Pack caught up with one of London's leading PRs, George MacPherson from Starworks. In the interview, MacPherson talks about the stresses and strains of fashion week and how it feels the moment American Vogue confirm that Anna Winour is attending a show.
The Fashion Pack: How does your job change during the fashion week season?
George MacPherson: My emails seem to double or treble. I get a crick in my neck from holding my phone on my shoulder so I can talk whilst typing and I only seem to eat food from the Wasabi Japanese place, which is literally underneath our building. I try to get all the usual stuff out of the way early in the month- reports, meetings etc, and then concentrate on the shows and designers who are participating.
