Not at all slackkk

my my. Gemma Slacks ss10 collection has me all a quiver, with her usual focus on the fetish, hard edged leather, Slack injects an element of the superhero with her high waisted, shorts that are allll about the legs. Not to mention all the metal plating, putting a bit of an armoury spin on the whole thing. So when a couple of Gemma's Gems dropped into Tank for a shoot I had to share.

oh my god

Tank ladies have started a blog - http://tankmagazine.tumblr.com/ and they've done and put me on it...init...

INTERNS

Interns make the magazine world go round and ours are particularly amazing. So we thought we’d give some credit where it’s due and tell you a bit about them.

So we’ll start with Niamh. She is sort of Queen Bee of the interns. We love her because she has huge bangs, purple lipstick and this sort of weird Irish/ west country accent that makes everything sound way funny. Aside from which she’s just so goood.

In terms of fashion, what turns your head?Great trousers, a strong eyebrow and playing with proportions.

In your opinion what makes someone stylish?Confidence and effortlessness… or at least the appearance of it.I think its important to test your own comfort levels with what you wear, it helps your style grow with you.

Do you have a favourite collection for Spring 2010?Alexander McQueen for the shoes and the hair, Miu Miu for the adorable prints and Louise Goldin for stuff I want.

Shoes or Bags?Shoesss

What is your favourite beauty product?MAC Ruby Woo lipstick

What/who inspires you?My friends, blogs - especially of the street style variety, shiny new fashion magazines.

Goldin's girl

Louise Goldin s/s10

I went to Brighton this weekend and realised that, aside from one jumper, every one of the 6 tops I'd packed were cropped. If that wasn't already pretty ridiculous, when I went out on the Saturday night I borrowed my friends top which was, needless to say, cropped. I think I may have a problem. And miss Louise Goldin is not helping my little problem with these cute-as-cute-pie cropped knitwear jumpers.

A hole where my heart used to be

Luella s/s10
Louise Gray s/s10

I can just sense my clothes cowering at the back of my closet. They've seen Luella and Louise Gray's spring/summer 2010 collections and they are living in grave fear of having heart shaped holes cut in them. I'm not gonna lie though, they have every reason to be scared...yum.

SHE'S ONLY 16!

Just found out Karli is like sixteen years old. ker-razy. Nabbed this photo from jakandjil, that's right, this isn't even editorial...it's just how she looks...

MCQUEEN OF THE SHOESSSSS

No words necessary.

Ashley Isham - urm

This and the jc/dc show were the only ones I saw, and above are the only nice pieces from Ashley Isham, the rest of which was all bright jewel colour fabrics with bright jewel coloured embellishment *cough* cheap *cough*, *cough* tacky *cough*, excuse me I appear to be coming down with something...

Julian Smith

I helped out on Julian J Smith's show at On/Off this fashion week, it was my first time assisting a show and I learnt three things;

1. Models get naked fast and often

2. Models are late

3. Assisting at fashion shows is funnnn

movie me

Elizabeth Shue ('Jordan')

My sudden intern dry spell means I have buckets of time on my hands and despite finding that altogether quite miserable it has meant that I finally got to watch Cocktail on film4 and a gem of a film called Captain Ron on channel 4 (the midday film showing for bums). Cocktail was never destined to be a fail what with my never ending 80s obsession and the only thing that made the experience any more exceptional was the wardrobe of Tom Cruise's love interest Jordan (Elizabeth Shue). Perfect. 80s. Get up. I loved literally every outfit, esp. some high-waisted pastel printed floaty harem trousers she wears on the beach with a cropped black vest. mmm love. Unfortunately there are no film stills showing her in clothes (saucy waterfall sex scene wins out on google images) so you'll have to watch the actual film to see what Im on about, but really, what are losing there?

Meadiw Sisto (far left)

Meadow far right

Meadow far right, but I also love mum's monochrome playsuit. yum.

Captain Ron was a pleasant midday surprise, the perfect trashy early 90s film about a family boat trip gone awry due to an unruly captain (uh Ron?) and here my heart was stolen by the styling of the daughter character (played by Meadow Sisto) who pulls off early 90's soft-core grunge perrrrrrfectly. Probably because it was the early 90's dur. She's all high-waisted everything (esp. denim shorts and skirts), bra tops, tied up oversized shirts, gold earrings, leather jackets etc etc. Basically embodying a look we're all tryin' right now but will never be as good at as those who did it first time round.

Marry Meadow and Elizabeth in these movies and you have every look I strive to achieve circa 2009. lovelovelove.

just a little bit

The ones I want

Acne Wedges £335

The ones I may be persuaded to get Cos £129

Who needs eyebrows anyway?

Valentino a/w '09

Miu Miu a/w '09

Givenchy a/w '09

The lima without brows...um, no. Givenchy a/w '09

much better.

See I was happy with the full brow look. I may originally have had perfect eyebrows for this before I went on a half decade tweezing tirade in which I cruely plucked from above (gasp!) and now manage to achieve only a mediocre semblance of the striking Emma Watson-esq look. But regardless I remain quite happy with a having a salvageable means of framing my face in this most aesthetically pleasing of ways. But shuddup niamh, put down the slightly colour miss matched eyebrow pencil, because fashion decrees that eyebrows are out. They have been annihilated in a ruthless attack against prettiness, with peroxide as the weapon of choice. Off the top of my head I can name three a/w '09 advert campagins alone which feature the dreaded whited-out brow and to verious levels of success. In Valentino it's demonstrated that the only way to attempt anything resembling beauty in conjunction with a bleached eyebrow is to take the smoky eye to an eighties extreme, bringing dark eyeshadow all the way up to the brow bone. In Miu Miu, the whitewash images and muted pallett of the fabrics actually make for a pretty cool look, in the context of the campaign of course. I do like how this shot features a model with more than a hint of a 'but what am I to do about my eyebrows now?' look about her. Lastly, this shot from the Givenchy campaign, whose general theme echoes the Valentino campaign closely, shows how truly damaging and bleached eyebrow can be...when it turns Adriana Lima into this, how can it ever be a good idea? No. That's right. It can't.

my heart is lost to Karlie Kloss

Oh my. Everytime I see this girl I must turn back the page and look again. She has these enormous, angry, temper tantrum eyes and a petulant-shaped mouth that just make her look like she'd throw a fit if she couldn't walk for the likes of Marc Jacobs, Givenchy, Chloe, Oscar de la Renta and Lanvin, so it's probably a good thing that she has. Quite the miss popularity, Kloss is all over a/w '09 campaigns, as one of 3 in the Chloe campaign, flying solo in Pringle of Scotland and managing to look really quite bad in Sportmax...um when ya look back on your styling decisions for this campaign Sportmax, do you think 'yeah, that short, black, on-seeing-me-eat-cheese-straight-from-the-block-my mother-said-'are you really sure you shold be eating that?'-and-in-a-desperate-need-to-exercise-control-over-my-life-I-hacked-all-my-hair-off-with-a-pair-of-pinking-shears-sobbing-sobbing-because-I-know-I'll-never-be-good-enough-for-her wig really works'?. Yeah. I thought not.

Damn the desert is hottt

But Clark’s has always been at the forefront of edgy British footwear non? Non. Alas their petty obsession with the idea that the ergonomics of shoes should be physiologically beneficial and not crippling to the point where walking unaided is asking too much, has come at a cost to their designs non? Oui. Comfortable, Scholl approved shoes have the same appeal to me as rucksacks, um...none. But they keep powering on don’t they? That’s the thing with these sensible concepts, based not on the fragility of trends and fashion but the common sense of health and comfort; they have themselves a solid foundation. Clarks’ foundation in design terms revolves around their Clarks’ Originals range, and the reigning king of the originals is the esteemed ‘Desert Boot’. Now here’s a trick, design a sturdy little boot, say 60 years ago, based on designs sold in the bazaars of Cairo (obviously), produce it consistently regardless of its reception and calmly wait for the trend tides to turn. And suddenly footwear fashion treads quickly into a world of androgyny, where all our cherished club-kids and fashionistas must be seen in nothing less than a masculine, kind of ugly shaped boot to give just the right impression of effortlessness and style savvy to make the well-heeled crowd feel constantly awkward and over-dressed. Enter the re-discovery of the Desert Boot. Nathan Clark done good here and his creation has been splashed across every reputable mag and blog as the unexpected high-street star of the old granddad boot, creating almost as much drawn out sensation as those Pierre Hardy for GAP ankle boots. I bring these boots up now for two reasons, one is that I just nabbed some half price in the sale, got ‘em for a mere thirty quid, down from £70. Secondly, I walked into the really very claustrophobic (due to renovations) Topshop shoe lounge to find a carbon copy of Clarks’ very desert boot, retailing at £75, in a variety of colours, which will naturally just add fuel to the already well fuelled Desert boot fire. But Clark’s is ready for Topshop’s little glary stealing tricks and is unleashing it A/W Desert boot series soon, consisting of some jaunty interpretations of the desert boot, from a Doc Marten style patriotic union jack pair, to a pair with a lil’ fringing, some with some useless and weird pockets on the side and the adorable tweedy ones which will no doubt steal the show.

Clarks' A/W '09

LCF grad show '09

On Thursday 4^th June, London College of Fashion showed their graduate collections in the mighty Flower Cellars of Covent Garden. As the 28 collections walked on by, a few overriding themes popped up, as I suppose is inevitable in shows from one school. There was plentiful use of stiff woollen/felt fabrics, statement structure defined the majority of collections with special emphasis on top heavy designs; you couldn’t run or hide from big shoulders here the consistent shape was upside-down ice-cream, all big-rounded shoulders and peg trousers, and finally cut-outs or all descriptions really found their place here.

From the finite laser-cut detailing shown by Irene Brandt, to missing parts as shown by Kim Hughson’s Jackets sans shoulders, to Annick Littlewoods’ House of Holland inspired circle cut-outs to the two collections (on Ying Lai and Hannah Beth Stenberg) featuring a denim jacket consisting only of its seams (hmmm).

Divided Exclusive - a belated homage

There are times that I think I may be more loyal to H&M than I am to my mum. It’s always there for me when I need it most, we have a give and take relationship (I give money – I take clothes) and it definitely has a more amorous feeling about my spending habits. It’s love. So how,

on God’s good earth, have I missed the entire blogging rave about H&M’s Divided Exclusive collection? It’s only after I was browsing the long acre store (new third floor by the way, niiice) on my lunch break that I spotted the summer ’09 leg of the collection and got all shocked and excited and flustered and such. Its all dusty greys/blues, creams and pink floral, each item with a special attention paid to structure and detailing. I loved the cropped floral top but there were only size 14's left and I am not blessed with a size 14 chest so it was lost on me, instead I got the cream dress with the shoulder pads and stitched detail. Excited to wear it indeed. Did I mention this is all stupidly cheap? Not just cheap for a cool collection cheap, like H&M cheap...Niamh cheap.

So, simultaneously disappointed and inspired by my ignorance, I investigated further, and found that I didn’t have to search far or wide as the internet is literally raped by the amount of blogs on the upcoming atumn ’09 Divided Exclusive collection, to be in stores by the end of August. There literally couldn’t be more hype around it. It’s a pretty hardcore collection, with plenty of webbed knitwear, maintaining a focus on structure, especially in the dresses, and lots and lots of lovely velvet. The Skirt with the suspender belts has a particular desire to belong to me. It told me itself. Take a look see and you will understand...

Pop Idol - a generation reborn

It has occurred to me that, despite many ramblings to friends and loved-ones on the matter, I am one of the (possibly?) two bloggers who hasn’t yet passed written judgement on the gaga. The Lady GaGa. Well I’d better just get it out there in the nick of time, before anyone jumps to the conclusion that I don’t care about (or indeed for) the GaGa, because were they to jump to said conclusion, my more patient friends, they would be wrong. I do care, in fact I’m quite opinionated on the matter and my arguments fall wholly in the defence, nay, celebration, of Lady Gaga. And here’s why; I am nostalgic. Nostalgic for a time I wasn’t even able to enjoy, a time of icons, real life icons. As a lover of blogs and social networking and all that jazz, I appreciate a new multi-mediated society as much as the next laptop-toting young ‘un, and I definitely appreciate what it has done for accessibility in the music industry (hello spotify). I don’t even mind the dizzying turnover of ‘best new acts’, and find it entertainingly comforting in a Hollyoaks, miss-a-bunch-of-‘em-and-still-catch-up-in-one-episode kind of way. But it has come at a cost. This fame free-for-all has taken away the necessity of building a brand, creating a product in the most old school sense.

As far as I see it our brave new world has divided musical fame into two distinct categories; industry and independent. Fairly easily identifiable, those industrial stars find themselves squeezed neatly into a tried and tested formula, through which they emerge on the other side as glossy haired, auto-tuned, choreographed little sex angels, styled to within an inch of the colour-coordinated existences. If that made me sound in any way upset about that state of affairs it was unintentional, we can’t forget that the formula works for a reason, there’s something about bright colours moving in formation, singing what is essentially 7 variations of the same song, that is just about irresistible. Then there are our more morally esteemed independent artistes...those cool kids who shake their half-shaven heads at the corporate music industry and bemoan the loss of musical integrity. Those whose hard graft, because internet social networking can be a bitch, has got them a fan base big enough to feed their egos but small enough to keep their moral superiority complexes intact (I like these guys too by the way, my tone can be misleading...). My point is this, between the well oiled machine of corporate music industry and the unclean faces of the internet music generation at no point do we see any effort to create anything new and exciting. The effort that is lost is that of the show, the spectacle, and the icon. If you think hard and try to come up with an icon of our times, in terms of the image they wish to create, can you really think of anyone you could easily emulate at a fancy dress party?

80s pop bought us Madonna, acting the virgin in coned bras and black and white lace, Blondie (drawing parallel lines), from the late 70s we had David Bowie (as Ziggy Stardust obvs) and all the glam rock lot. This was a time when success depended not just on the music but on the entire package and the prerequisite was that the package had to bring something edgy and over the top and very recognisable. There is one Lady Gaga stroke of genius that has been forgotten in a world where the turnover of new bands is almost equalled by the turnover of fashion trends, it is the genius of repetition. To be recognised within the realms of a look, repetition is key. How many different lace outfits did Madonna rock? How many stage performances did Ziggy Stardust do with that iconic make-up? Kiss anyone? And the Gaga herself is more than proud to promote that method, I’ve seen here say in interviews that despite (or because of...) her passion for designers, both classic and new, and her creative flair in making/adapting her own clothes/costumes and doing all her own styling, she insists on wearing the same outfit at a number of events precisely in order to enable the power of recognition so integral to creating a brand. Imagine as well how hard it must be, when being advised by so many industry professionals, having sample clothes and stylists thrust at you from every direction, to stick to your guns with an idea like this. And this is the effort I think a lot of today’s stars shy away from. It takes such a level of self-assurance and confidence and, let’s face it arrogance, to commit to this ideal, but the buzz that has surrounded this lady from day dot is surely proof enough that it pays off, non?

It seems such a shame though that this multi-mediated world is being used to promote isolated strands of the entertainment industry, for example just the music or just the over-processed image, when it should be used to its’ fullest to promote every facet possible, and all at once. It is now that this can be done to an extent that we never seen before, it is now that Icons could be created to the most dramatic effect and instead of celebrating those new children of the internet age they are being ridiculed. Homogeneity has been nurtured by this age of technology to the extent that the significance of ‘the idol’ as individual and different is one that should be revered and for me is actually pretty exciting. In retrospect though, it’s obvious that objects of ridicule tend to become those pioneers of things to come, so hopefully the Gaga is signifying the beginning of a revival of the ‘icon era’. I do hope so.

UNIQLOve

Mother dearest was wed at the weekend, and unlike her first wedding, my sister and I actually got to witness, no, not just witness, star in the event (please mother we all know who everyone was there to see), and boy was it a good show. Mother shone in a tailor-made, floor-length silver dress and the rest of the bridal party were all clad in white. Songs were sung, vows were made and tears were shed (I was a messss). Anyway let’s backtrack to the important stuff, so its Tuesday before the Saturday wedding and Niamh hasn’t got a bloody dress, and where do I stumble upon a nice little number but UNIQLO! Now, I love UNIQLO (I’ll probably be buried in the flannel UNIQLO shirt), no, my exclamation is just to emphasise my surprise at having found a wedding-appropriate dress here. Obviously my version of wedding-appropriate is probably about 5 inches north of other more decent folks’, but regardless this fit my bill, and its bill more than accommodated my budget (Oh snap! Bill...bill, d’ya get it?! D’ya see what I did there...amazing), at a meagre £25. Mon dieu! Zute alors! Other French exclamations! £25 for a wedding-appropriate dress?! Oui oui mon petit bon bons, this blessing was brought to me courtesy of the Designers by Invitation scheme at UNIQLO, it’s probably been around for bare time but I’ve only just be made aware of it and I quite enjoy it, yes yes. My dress is a simple white number with a fancy god-zip and panel detail thing at the back and it did receive a number of compliments on the big day, but I also quite fell in love with a little strappy playsuit, neither of which are adequately photographed on the UNIQLO website (hmm annoying), but both of which are by designers Shipley & Halmos.

                My Knowledge of this spritely pair was as rich as my knowledge of the existence of this little UNIQLO rolling designer collaboration thing, so I took a look see at a couple of their most recent actual collections, what one can’t buy for the pittance I paid for the UNIQLO dress, and here’s what I found; Their womens wear is nice and simple, if (alas) a little dull and very reminiscent of pretty much the exact high-street luxe tailoring you can find at the likes of Reiss and Cos. The only womenswear item I could covet (if forced) is the satin Peg trouser, although I can’t really see what separates it from similar styles already out there (hmmm). But calm down Shipley, relax Halmos, my review is not all doom and gloom, your menswear shirts have quite tickled my fancy and stir within me and sudden and unexpected urge to rock a geek-meets-dandy look, I mean the urge will never truly evolve past the conceptual phase but as an idea it certainly is entertaining me.

In short, Shipley & Halmos in collections = average, Shipley & Halmos as invited to the UNIQLO party = very nice and cheap and stuff, and, UNIQLO Designers by Invitation = Jolly good idea, may as well have been designed to satisfy my growing need for designer X high-street collaborations. Thank you and Well Done.

Shipley & Halmos A/W '09 (Image - style.com)

 Shirt I like. Shipley & Halmos A/W '09 (Image - style.com)

Beach Wear - a grudge

I was as excited about the Matthew Williamson collection at H&M as everyone else, especially the covetted electric blue Gucci-esq suit with the pink piping which like so many things these days is relegated to my imaginary wardrobe full of imaginary clothes bought with imaginary money paid to me by my imaginary job...its a beautiful place, believe me, the fact that it will probably only ever exist in the realms of my mind is above and beyond the point. I digress, I was about to launch a semi-attack on the MW collection before the closet of my dreams went and took over the subject matter (it really is very lovely), so dragging myself back to point I must express my disappointment at finding out that the collections theme seemed to scream 'beach wear' from every translucent, brightly-coloured, printed kaftan and all I wanted to do was cover my ears and run. I should tell you now how I harbour a deeply negative feelings about beach wear. Just to be clear when I refer to 'beach wear', I'm not refering to Bikinis or the like that would fall neatly into the inoffensive category of swimwear, I'm talking the dreaded sheer kaftan, the sarongs, the flip-flops, anything that you really would never wear on the streets of your home town. I just can't see how in our entirity of wardrobe options we can't scrape together something beach approriate, a long t-shirt for example...casually thrown over a bikini non? A strapless summer dress...casually thrown over a bikini...one can only throw on garments casually on holiday, rushing and flustering is nigh on in possible, I tried it once and had to sit down and rest a while. Another frustrating thing about beach wear is its stationary position in the evolutionary process...at what point since the invention of the beach kaftan have you seen a new and innovative beach look? I can tell you at which point...It was at no point! Not even in my imaginary wardrobe assembled of imaginary garments can this invention be realised, beach wear is permanently stuck in the damn kaftan vortex, throw in a little zebra print and some paisley and cue every single beach wear corner of every single high-street store in your vicinity. Bored. Bored. Bored. Who made up the rule that when one holidays one must holiday from their sense of personal style as well as their hectic lives and the curse that is the British summer? Whoever is was I want to meet them and I want to make them eat a kaftan. 

PS I do actually LOVE the tv advert for the Matthew Williamson X H&M collections, its awesome and made me realise we don't really tv advertise clothes stores in the UK, I'm thinking Phillip Arcadia Green et al. should consider following suit, then I wouldn't have to watch so many boring, unattractive people bang on about how tripping on a curb was the fault of their next door naighbours dog and they were gonna sue it for all its doggy pounds on a no win no fee basis. yes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRio4P6BtXk

Advert I like

Au revoir Simone dans le Bush Hall. oui. oui. bravo. encore. oui.

After the day from hell at the Diner I gots a call from the boyf saying he'd booked tickets to see our mutual girl crush Au Revoir Simone that night at The Bush Hall. Well that done cheered me right up. Au revoir Simone are basically the definition of adorable, all long, shiny hair, nautical stripes and sweet as pie dresses; this New York trio took the biscuit of Parisian cuteness and ate it right up. And if it wasn't enough that they looked like they floated down from a cloud on a floating gondola, they make pretty music too. All keyboards and drum machines and drinking tea on stage. If I was a guy I would wanna date them. But I'm a girl so I just want to...well...date them.