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Topshop designer collaborations for 2011

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JFS STYLE


Left: Slashed jersey-dress by Ann-Sofie Back, £70. Centre: Jersey studded jacket and gold wedges, both £150, by Ashish. Right: Denim pencil skirt, £50 and cropped top, £40, by Jonathan Saunders

The turkey and stuffing might not quite be digested by the time bargain-hungry shoppers prepare to raid the sale rails this Boxing Day, but while the idea of a designer must-have selling at a knocked-down price sounds great in theory, the treacherous and busy road to sales glory is less appealing.

A clever way of buying into designer territory, though, is to hold firmly on to that stash of Christmas cash and to wait patiently for the next instalment of Topshop’s London Fashion Week designer collaborations.

Designer Ann-Sofie Back’s seven-piece collection of gothic-inspired slashed cotton dresses and tops hits stores as early as January 6th, with prices ranging from £50 for a grey T-shirt dress, to £60 for a knee-length, black jumper dress slashed at the waist.

LFW “returnee” Jonathan Saunders, who will present his catwalk show in London again next February, will launch his designs on January 20th. Featuring fabrics such as denim and devoré, highlights of the range include a pencil skirt (£50) and matching cropped strapless basque (£40), made from panelled denim dyed in three different colours, while a black, long-sleeved devoré dress (£45) provides the perfect winter cover-up.

Then, as London Fashion Week fever climaxes in February, Ashish launches his collection. Expect queues on February 3rd as Ashish launches its Rihanna-inspired biker jacket (£150), embellished with sharp studs around the shoulders, alongside a tracksuit-inspired collection, comprising of sweater tops and cropped jogging-style bottoms.

What better way to grab a slice of the action without breaking the bank (or your nerves)?

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Sugababes model the Christmas 2010 sale bargains

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Take three girls, a rail of designer labels slashed by up to 75 per cent in the sales, a couple of trunkfuls of must-have shoes, and let the dressing-up fun begin.

We invited the Sugababes – Jade Ewen, Heidi Range and Amelle Berrabah – to test-drive some of the fabulous fashion bargains to be found in the January sales, many of which are starting on Boxing Day.

The girl-band are back on strong form after Britain’s Eurovision star, Jade Ewen, replaced founder-member Keisha Buchanan, who left in the summer, and have just finished filming the video for their new single, Wear My Kiss, which will be released in February.

They have a very individual approach to style, but have several things in common (apart from the stage), including the love of a good bargain and enthusiasm for “wearing the flag” by choosing British labels, such as Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen and Nicole Farhi, and designs by the younger, London-based stars, Peter Pilotto, Erdem, David Koma, Graeme Armour and Dean Quinn.

Heidi’s best sale bargain

“My Stella McCartney blanket coat is a favourite. My boyfriend bought it for me several years ago. It was expensive, even at sale price, but it will last forever. I wear it every winter. If I see something I really love, I try to sweet-talk the sales staff to put it away for me, so I can get it at a discount price. I’m really into Chanel handbags. I’ve got six now, and I’m still counting. They’re totally classic.”

Amelle’s sales tip

“I love a sale, but it’s best to go to the big department stores or shop on net-a-porter.com, where you have the choice of lots of different brands and you can shop around. Some of my best bargains have been Preen and Alexander McQueen from net-a-porter.com, and Givenchy from Selfridges. I shop by eye and almost never try things on. One in 10 things may not work, but I usually get it right.”

Jade’s shopping formula

Jade is the band’s “shoe queen”, and owns dozens and dozens of pairs. “I’ve got far more shoes than clothes. Shoes are my weak spot, especially Giuseppi Zanotti. When the sales are on, I like to make a whole day of it. I traipse up and down Bond Street and Regent Street. If I see something I like, I have to have it. I can’t stand getting home and thinking, 'I should have bought that’.”

Hilary’s sale shopping master plan: how to be a woman on a mission

1 Check your wardrobe for what you really need.

2 Give yourself a budget – and stick to it.

3 Be a 'Lone Ranger’; friends can muddle your thoughts.

4 Wear flat shoes – but carry heels in your bag so that you can check length and proportion.

5 Try it on: ten minutes in the fitting room can save you untold amounts of money.

6 Always choose classic over quirky; it will result in a better CPW (cost per wear).
By Hilary Alexander
http://jfsstyle.blogspot.com

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'The sight of tarty sequin dresses brings on the bah-humbugs in me'

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The sight of seas of discounted shoulder-padded, tarty sequin dresses in shops brings on acute attacks of the bah-humbug in me. Fast fashion and overhyped luxury products are equally - and doubly – unattractive when retailers give up pretending they’ve been able to flog them at full price.

What you see at this fag-end of the decade is a full display of the fear and stupidity of store buyers who have become wildly out of step with what we want to wear, and I feel brutal about this. Retailers mournfully tell us how they’re “up against it” in the recession, but blaming the economy sounds increasingly like a lame excuse. There’s “tough” trading – competing to sell tacky party-wear at rock-bottom prices – and then there’s failure to interpret the new mindset or to develop products that build a loyal following because they actually perform.
Much of the high street and many of the luxury brands who became so complacent during the boom are guilty of both. So, a piece of advice: what’s coming next is a phase where inspired pragmatism in design is going to win through.

I’ve felt this all year, because the most thrilling discoveries I’ve made have all been clothes, accessories and beauty products that are so functional, durable and replenishable that they underpin my way of life.

It says something about the pathetic state of play that finding a bra that fits, jeans that flatter and shoes that are comfortable feel like major achievements. If even I, as a fashion editor, find it difficult to buy such things, then I reckon more or less everyone must be in the same boat. Here, then, is a list of my year-end favourite useful things to seek out, plus a few tips about designers, shops and trends that are actually on the right track.

1 Uniqlo jeans If I’m being honest, I can’t give Uniqlo an unconditional rave, but I do admire the way it works at basics. Its jeans are cut better than more expensive brands and have the rare property of suiting grown-ups and teenagers. Yes, it has a peculiar range of colours and, although this is the fashion equivalent of blasphemy, I was underwhelmed by its +J line, designed by Jil Sander, launched this year. Yet, I’m living in Uniqlo’s skinny black cords and have complimented 40-plus friends for their denims. It turns out that we’re all buying jeans in the same place. At about £25, they’re worth buying in bulk.

2 Tezenis bras My hatred of the slutty, padded, underwired bras that have spread through every high-street retailer has driven me to despair. Rescue has arrived in the form of this inexpensive Italian brand which does the soft, simple everyday triangle bras Calvin Klein used to do and M&S has long since given up on. They come in lots of colours and cost less than £10.

3 Martin Margiela Replica trainers It was a near-tragedy for me when Margiela left the company this year, but here’s one consolation: the company will keep producing the Replica Seventies Austrian leather trainers that first appeared in 2002. They are men’s, but the smallest size fits women. I bought a white pair five years ago, on the grounds that they’re unobtrusive and cool – though I didn’t know how cool until guys started to stop me and ask where they’re from. They last for years, are super-comfortable and win you credibility wherever you go.

4 Phoebe Philo’s Celine I mention Philo’s arrival at this French label as a sign that something sensible yet chic, is on horizon at the start of a new decade. Philo says she wants to pioneer a daytime wardrobe rather than contribute to the glut of cocktail wear. It’s only her first season, but she’s so influential I predict that her ideas will bring other designers to their senses.

5 Batiste Dry Shampoo The delightful thing about the return of this arcane hairstyling product is that it’s happening without any hype. Part of the fun is that you have to search hidden-away bottom shelves to locate a range which looks as if it was designed when David Cassidy and the Osmonds were in the charts. Better still, it costs under £5 and is made in Lancashire.

6 Elnett hairspray I love the fact that my granny used this hairspray and that I see it backstage at every show – proof that it’s still the best around, and cheaper than salon imitations.

7 Long skirts Short skirts are “in” for spring, so go against the grain and wear long. It’s both avant-garde and classy to abstain from showing your legs in a season of micro-minis. Long was in evidence last summer and I predict that it will persist in a slim, sinuous way (as exemplified by Haider Ackermann) as an elegant stance against the slapper dress.

8 Kitten heels Shock: walkable shoes are back. That the arrival of small heels at Marni, Missoni and Louis Vuitton should cause such a controversy is a gauge of the insane extremes fashion has indulged in for the last five years. To me, it’s another refreshing sign that the new sensibility – sensible chic – will gain momentum as the avant-garde escape from ugly, crippling platforms. About time, too.

9 Utility-wear This catwalk code name for anything that looks related to camping, hiking or Army surplus is another signal that the excesses of the Noughties could be coming to a halt. Of course, the last thing a rational shopper would want is a fancied-up, fashion imitation of authentic utility clothing. The purchase of the real thing – a plain khaki army shirt – or a near-relation from Gap, delivers a nod towards a key daywear look in the most economical way for about £30.

Prêt-à-rapporter by Sarah Mower: say goodbye to tacky - comfortable and practical are the new watchwords in fashion.

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Little black dresses for the Christmas party season

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It’s 7pm. You’ve got half an hour to shower, change, do your hair and make-up and be out of the door on your way to an amazing Christmas party. But what are you going to wear?

The new purple, sequined mini that almost, but not quite, goes with your best heels? The red, satin, Fifties prom-dress that you love, but that doesn’t really work in winter because you haven’t got the right jacket or coat to go on top? The scoop-back, green velvet slink? Except that your only multiway bra – essential, given the spinal cleavage – is in the wash…

Or do you simply ignore the stress of choice and co‑ordination and reach for your favourite LBD, as trusty and reliable as a treasured family pet, and sashay forth, secure in the knowledge that the dress fits, flatters and makes you look and feel fabulous?

Nine times out of 10, I bet it’s the latter. Experimenting with bold colour, an exotic vintage or an elaborate, beaded confection is fun once in a while, but pulling it off requires serious concentration and confidence.

The Little Black Dress is one of fashion’s greatest success stories. It has survived acclaim and criticism, and been dismissed as boring, safe and frumpy. Yet nearly a century after it was first “invented” by Coco Chanel, it remains one of the most essential - and favourite - items in a woman’s wardrobe.

Tellingly, it was one of the most popular choices at the British Fashion Awards gala at the Royal Courts of Justice last Wednesday, worn by the likes of Kate Moss, Victoria Beckham, Grace Coddington, Eva Herzigova, Erin O’Connor, Jerry Hall, Yasmin Le Bon, Princess Beatrice, Pixie Geldof, Bond girl Olga Kurylenko, Daisy Lowe - fashionistas and style warriors one and all.

But to apply the word “little” to the big, glamorous, bold and beautiful creations that these girls were wearing is, well, a little ridiculous. Back in Coco’s day an LBD might have been a little slip of a dress, worn with a string of pearls. Today, though, it’s a major fashion statement.

MAKING THE MOST OF YOUR LBD

- Rock it, like Kate Moss, with a heavy-duty biker belt, a total contrast to her fragile, vintage chiffon gown by John Galliano for Dior
- Create an LBH (Little Black Hairdo) to match. Victoria Beckham’s upswept samurai-chignon was 'dressed’ with wide, black ribbons
- Wear bright red lipstick and shoes
- Pile on the pearls - wrists, ears and neck
- Pick lacy, cobweb or fishnet tights.
By Hilary Alexander, Fashion Director
http://jfsstyle.blogspot.com

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Knitwear for a warm winter

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Michelle Obama’s neat, little 'cardies’ are so 2009. This season, big it up in supersize knitwear.

This has certainly been the year of the cardigan. Where once it warmed only the hunched and bony shoulders of EastEnders’ Dot Cotton, or strained over the ample bosoms of Nessa in Gavin & Stacey, the “cardie” is now a major fashion item.

Championed by none other than the fashion icon that is America’s First Lady, the humble, little cardigan has been elevated to superstar status. Whether they are jewelled by Junya Watanabe or canary-coloured and cannily sourced from the J.Crew catalogue, Mrs Obama has run the gamut of cardigan style, flawlessly demonstrating how these knits can look as at home on the campaign trail as they do in the White House and at No 10 Downing Street. She wore a cardigan to Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen in April, and yet another one in Oslo when her husband collected the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this month.

Michelle O’s personal choice is for the “little” cardigan in strong, primary colours, as bright as a box of crayons, and it has done her proud – until now.

But now, you see, as temperatures plummet on both sides of the Atlantic, the little cardigan must move into “Super-size me” mode. The time has come for it to grow ever larger, the rival to a jacket, the equal of a coat, but oh so much cosier.

Designers actually pre-empted the emergence of the “Super-Cardigan” way back in March, when their autumn/winter collections hit the runway. There were oversized, beaded and embroidered knitted flowers appliquéd onto a wraparound “coatigan” in Antonio Marras’s collection for Kenzo; “Magic Carpet” jacquards from Etro; multi-coloured tribal motifs at Diane von Furstenberg and Matthew Williamson; and hieroglyphic symbols at Missoni. More knit fantasia than fireside plain-and-purl, these were cardigans at their wildest and woolliest.

The knit frenzy was not confined just to the Super-Cardigan, either. There were matching sweater dresses and leggings, and a whole host of knitted accessories including pom-pom hats, arm warmers and leg warmers, trailing, fringed scarves and snuggly snoods. By Hilary Alexander, Fashion Director

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