virtual PR showroom reality

Have a jacket worth more than a 1982 Jag or hocked the fridge to fund a coat? The most out-there outerwear story or photo will appear on fashion platz and win you a box of Cadbury chocolate-coated almonds. (We’re not tight, just poor). Email your coat-ecdote to becx at styleassociation@googlemail.com by 1200 AEST. Thursday 22 October.

Berlin gets its fash on

You may remember a rant we posted after lunch with the PR for one of Berlin’s bigger fashion exports. We were miffed that the city spent so much time and (borrowed) Euros on preaching ‘Poor but Sexy’ to the converted, instead of giving local fashion talent a lift across the border. Well num, num, num. That’s us chewing on our words (not to be confused with eating them). An upcoming symposium called ‘Too Fashionable for Fashion? – How Berlin can be transformed into a city of fashion’ at least recognises that Germany’s capital is not yet on the map.  Admitting you have a problem is the first step. Those who have cracked nether markets  – think the prodigious Leyla of Lala Berlin Lala Berlin’s Leyla and Michael Sontag – will throw their hats into the ring on October 19. Perhaps they’ll mention booking berths at Paris Fashion Week. Wolfgang Joop’s Wunderkind (pictured above) has just shown spring 10 in the City of Lights and while critics were scathing of kneeless compression stockings and other athletic nuances, stirred in with floaty prairie dresses and mushroom-like silhouettes, we’ve an inkling he did it on purpose. Le Berliners are tres strange, non? Oui, but they are German. Got them talking, didn’t it?

second skin

Two days ago this post would have been a different beast.  It was going to be called ‘Skin Coloured’, and assure you unequivocally that spring/summer’s hottest hue is ‘Muted Melanoma’. Then Harry Connick Jr made us see the trend so strong in Vienna and Copenhagen in a whole new light. We mean, way. A tone reflecting the complexion of a percentage of the population, but by no means inferring superior intelligence or value, is next summer’s must-have. Sounds sexy, dun’t it?  We have editorial adoration for the stiff leather shorts in Caucasian Suntan at Vilsbol de Arce, and jumped out of our dermises for Presque Fini’s fringed frock. If you can’t come at getting about in the pseudo-nuddy, opt instead for a faux finger necklace from quirky contemporary jewelstress Margaux Lang. Maybe massage some Ambre Solaire into the knuckles before wearing. (Not that there’s anything wrong with being white. Er, we mean faded.)

Home is where…

Thanks for popping by, but today’s post is not here. Instead may we send a virtual driver to take you to October’s Style Sample Magazine (out today, Oct 6)? Style Sample is an innovative new mag for, and about the world’s most exciting fashion bloggers (there’s more to cyberstyle than Rumi and Tavi, give yer the tip). This edition is extra spesh because it features a piece on fashion in our beloved home town (yes, after living in NYC we agree Melbourne ain’t no city). Oh, did we mention we wrote it? Please support us by clicking through… pull up at Page 12. xx

If you need another distraction, head on over to our fave local style site www.melbournestreetfashion.com. Editor Emilia Terzon has a PhD in hip (isn’t that what the ‘h’ stands for?)

sartorial supremacists

There are some places people expect to be irrefutably unstylish. Just look at our inbox the day we revealed the best of Bangkok. And we soon realised our own attitude of sartorial supremacy, when the sales lad in one of those fancy Italian bag stores asked if we were from Nepal Ex-key-yoos-me? (Never mind the borderline-albino factor). Because that’s how people dress in Nepal, he said – bleached out ripped skinny jeans, striped oversized shirt and black patent ankle boots they’d of course need for kicking the goats if they stopped before base camp.

This ignorance, while inexcusable, makes it all the more more exciting to discover talent from exotic locales. Take confessed ‘maximalist’ Manish Arora (pictured top and above). Spring/summer’s detachable lion heads make shoulder pads look so middle-of-the-road, and you call that a tulip dress? Most embarrassing when London Fashion Week’s standout collection is by a codger from New Delhi, innit?   

A similar thing could be said of the Thais, whose fashion-forward detail and lack of inhibition outshone European counterparts at Pret-A-Porter Paris last month. (Pictured above is Klar.) 

It seems that being in the fashion wilderness is, in its own way, liberating. No Grazia espousing the virtues of investment dressing navy, and only ever one small US dollar order from relative richness. It makes sense that fringe-dwellers are leaving foreclosure-fearing fashionland natives for dead.

 

 

 

hopping in clods

We make no secret of our love for the word clodhopper – few words capture an idea so well. So, naturally, we’re delighted to see shoesies like inflatable boats sailing into stores. Check out the back for an Allan Key would you, Mary? These new-fangled cloggy things don’t fit our shelves. One of the most interesting incarnations for AW09/10 is Finsk’s pony hair hopper (above), available at Oak. Acne of course continues to shoe the Scandinavian set with the orthopaedic-looking Atacoma series.

Thankfully the parade of podiatric casings doesn’t discriminate between hemispheres. While Finsk and Camilla Skovgaard cater to those who may need to jump puddles (if you can lift ‘em), John Rocha’s cutaway couta yachts, at London Fashion Week, put the trend on summer’s shopping list.

they’re only nipples

  

A friend rang during the week just to check, hope you don’t think I’m imposing I just worry, you know that we didn’t really endorse those transparent dresses from 388 Wonderboutique. I mean you may as well photocopy your nipples onto a transparency and turn on the overhead projector. Wait until she gets wind of the evolution of sheer. For ss10, barely-there mesh morphs into what is known in the industry as air. From stanley knife-style circles at Austria’s Butterfly Costumes to fibres that look to have been nibbled by silverfish all winter at Manish Arora and John Rocha, nothing is the new something.  Disclaimer: Fashion Platz does not advocate the exposure of private bodily bits. All trends should be attempted with caution. If in doubt, consult your personal stylist.

chich toothed

Just as we were writing a euology for both the zipper and embellished shoulder (not to be confused with the sculpted scapula, which is perfectly healthy thankyervemush), comes an incarnation that resuscitates both. Finland’s DIY genius Outsapop Trashion creates custom zipper epaulets to order. We’re thinking of tacking them on a lapel-less short-sleeved 80s blazer for the Australasian spring.

Not entirely original (we’re sure we saw a similar concept in a boutique in New York’s Soho recently… might have been Kate Cusack), but a shade more practical, this toothy collar is also on the wish list. It featured in October’s Olivia Magazine. You could get away with the most basic LBD and still steal the show, so it’s economical, too!   

To order, email outsapop@gmail.com .

sheer wonder

Never forget the lady who stormed up to the Mercedes Fashion Week tent at Bebelplatz and insisted that the organisers had made a mistake with the signage. ‘Um, has nobody else noticed it’s 2009, not 2010?’ she huffed. Out in fashion land even ss10 feels passe. Bring on 2025. But reality is on the lady’s side, and that of the Thai labels who just showed ss10 in Paris. If only we could get our hands on label 388 Wonderboutique (above). Still, having just seen a ton of Thais Sretsis and Kloset in Aussie trash-fash mag Shop Til You Drop (October), we reckon the Wonders might be down under by 010.

austrians on the radar

< Spent a good part of the weekend immersed in all things Austrian ahead of this week’s Vienna Fashion Week. Positively, rapturously, no-that’s-not-a-twitch in love with Ali Zedtwitz (the talented young thing who just launched a capsule for Swedish brand Weekday). The hirsute shoes are a whisker (geddit) creepy but a reasonable idea considering the outfit’s lack of texture.

Loving Christina Berger, too. The cheeky 29-year-old says she designs for the heroine who was born sexy. Well don’t look at our baby photos, but reckon we qualify.

Also burning a candle for Eva Blut, who is pitched as an accessories m’am but cuts a fine shirt. We do prefer her earlier work such as this ss07 remnant.

 Stay tuned for pics from Vienna Fashion Week, from this Thursday, September 24.

reality show

Friends we’ve never met, birthday cakes we can’t eat, money that’s never been printed… It’s hard to know what’s real these days. Especially when we’re so disconnected from what we do Take the typewriter. 1. Hit key. 2. Watch little silver letter flick up and hit paper. 3. Reach for the fricking white out because I hit the stupid n with the b again. Far more real than whatever goes on in your HP Pavilion, dontcha think? The virtureal installation at Amsterdam’s Inside Design event explores the notions of real and virtual. Jelte van Abbema has met the brief to transform a space within the design-oriented Lloyd Hotel with a typewriter linked to a 20-something inch LCD monitor. We haven’t come up with an answer but it did leave us craving the good ol’ days. This silver and enamel typewriter key jewellery (pictured top and bottom right) from Melbourne store Gazelle hits the nail on the head.  Not literally, of course. Might break.

Inside Design is at Amsterdam’s Lloyd Hotel this weekend. Gazelle is in Centre Pl, off Flinders La, Melbourne.

flagship opens – where’s the ceremony

 
Riding escalators between the eight sparse-but-thematic floors at Tokyo’s virgin Opening Ceremony flagship, we imagined the architect’s rationalisation of spending a good portion of the budget on cubby houses and a candy pink kitchen.

Will US post boxes really sell more handbags? Well no, but…

That’s the thing with tricked-up retail environments. We imagine the designers of the Shibuya space, formerly housing Movida, explaining they’d aimed to lead shoppers on a journey of exploration and interaction with the diverse product offering in themed concept areas that eschewed the hallmarks of a ’shop’. They’d be encouraged to linger, but never approached. Japanese consumers are suffocated by so-called ’service’ and many don’t actually like to be coddled, they’d reckon.

We were rapt to find Camilla Skorvgaard’s AW09/10 clodhoppers in the mix and imagine a solid local market. But at close to US1,000, we weren’t inspired to, um, interact with them.

 

hello japan: storiito sutai-ru

Let’s not beat around the bamboo – as much as we came to Japan to visit Tokyo’s spanking new Opening Ceremony flagship, and to shoot street trends in Shibuya, we were not paying our departure tax without spying someone in a kimono. (So autumn/winter 1010!)  

As well as paying homage to tradition and its deities, Kyoto is packed with hip young things falling over their fierce lace-up ankle boots for a look at the maiko (apprentice geisha). The city renowned for its holy sites is a shrine to all things stylish. (It is the birthplace of Akira Isogawa, after all.)

 

Nearby ‘modern meropolis’ Osaka is a melting pot of disparate (and often extreme) styles. Kansai’s commercial capital is widely credited with spawning the trends that trickle through to the western high street. It is also home to Esmod and Bunka.

 
The sharp edge of Japans style, however, is in the world’s biggest city – Tokyo. Here the trendy Shibuya district, home to Harajuku, is where the young, beautiful and achingly hip come to be seen.

unseen design scene

It’s 6.30pm on a rainless August night at Bangkok’s ‘posh night market’, Suan Lum Night Bazaar, where we’ve come in a last ditch attempt  to buy something that warrants, “Bought this in Bangkok. Really cool Thai designer.” Past the fish massage stand, where two red-faced tourists slip off their knockoff Birkenstocks and plunge their swollen toes into a tank crammed with orange Nemos that will nibble away their dead skin, we see it. A  white batwing sleeve, flapping above a floor fan.

  

 

Steps from the ensuite-size booth sandwiched between two deserted aisles we place bets – knockoff Comme des Garcons. Does Reality Studio sell in Thailand? The pale latte wrappy-drapey thing, gotta be Margiela. Why didn’t anybody tell us about this place, instead of sending us off to the putrid polyester-filled Chatuchak?

Within seconds we’ve relieved te racks of half their stock. “Who designs this stuff?” we ask a figure slumped, head down in  the corner, struggling not to drop a forehead-high pile of clothes.
“Yes,” says the tiny Thai shop keeper, rising from his wooden seat to pull a metre-wide curtain along an overhead rail.
The shopman-slash-designer, who has more than a touch of Akira Isogawa about him – deep creases from years of embarrassed smiles, round glasses about two seasons too early, and head-to-toe black cotton – looks at the racks carrying avant-garde designs with perfect drapes, folds and tucks in pure cotton and silk, and shrugs.
“Just small business.”

 

Indeed, the God Bless You stand is Peerapun Tranerattapit’s only retail point of sale, and it’s no stroll in Lumphini park. Survival demands his presence at a tiny booth in an airless shed from 6 to 12 seven nights a week, to catch the fashion-forward wheat in the fake Tiffany bracelet-hunting chaff. Even then, each sale is a battle between he and haggle-happy westerners who refuse to pay prices that top out at AUD36 for an exquisitely-made cotton/silk dress that would have the Met Gala crowd choking on their Beluga. A Garcons-esque pure cotton jersey cocoon top is AUD16.

 

Peerapun’s is just one of many stories of unsung fashion greatness in this city, where marble super malls neighbour slums drowning in uncollected waste, and test-driven luxury cars overtake tuk tuks.

While the Thai Government is backing a number of programs to put local fashion on the world map, and link-heavy websites such as Thaicatwalk.com and Thailandfashion.net showcase a few savvy labels with Bunka pedigrees and baht to spare, the official channels neglect many designers whose creativity more than matches their agency-represented counterparts.

Peerapun’s heartly laugh at the suggestion of a website reflects the prevailing attitude to what is essential for any modern marketing, and begins to explain the failure of many fashion designers to rise to the level of world-famous Thai labels Sretsis, Senada, Fly Now and Kloset. Even the card we collect from a young man with perfect English at t-shirts and accessories label Green Dragon House leads to a defunct MySpace account.

When Gi launches her new collection next month, it will not be in a tide of blinding flashes in Siam Paragon, but heralded with a sign in her 2m x 3m ‘1606 Shop’ booth at the end of an out-of-the-way aisle abutting a darkened alley.

“And I will get a website!” the petite 20-something designer exclaims, reaching for a pen to write our email address in her Tesco notebook.

Wholesale is where it’s at for designers without a ‘name’. The sheer volume of marketplaces in Bangkok – most suburbs have their own retail tent cities measuring acres – ensures steady demand for product. A suite of labels including Brio, Mama Don’t Cry and Mama Say Zeed turns up in stands everywhere from Sukhumvit Road to Silom. But this promiscuity presents its own problems. While it can generate a decent income, it also guarantees that a designer will never join the likes of Sretsis on the world stage. The intellectual property is valueless.

Gi is genuinely shocked that we return, as we promised, to buy a pure cotton shirt with perfectly-executed pleating and ’winged’ sleeves seen in the European ss10 collections. And that we agree to pay 500 baht (AUD17.50), when wholesale customers would take 20 pieces at the price. We hope she puts it towards web hosting, and that one day we’ll be the proud owners of ‘vintage 1606’. (Bought it in Bangkok. Really cool Thai designer.)

Other ’labels’ worth seeking out in Thailand’s unofficial fashion landscape

Brio – oversized chambray shirts with batwing sleeves and on-trend dye techniques
Every Perfect – oversized jersey with interesting button details (sensing a trend?)
Green Dragon House - unique t-shirt designs & accessories
Now Or Never – hip asymmetric jewellery & accessories, and t-shirts, all limited edition
Four Fiftyseven Co - hints at Balmain, margiela, and other designers du jour
Mama Say Zeed - oversized jersey & pale denim pieces, at suan lum bazaar & soi 4, siam square
Mama Don’t Cry - a frill here, a shoulder detail there, all on-trend
December No 5 – more oversized, Japanese-influenced styles
Art Self (www.art-self.com) – hand-painted & died tanks, tank dresses & tees in pure cotton
Exhibit – ‘upmarket’ brand with well-made sack dresses, drapy things & shirts, in a proper branded tore on Soi 4, Siam Square

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

hipsters and hermes collide

At thirty-five degrees, with humidity nudging 100 per cent, there was only one thing to  do today - hit the malls. Bangkok’s shopping centres put the ‘chi’ in chi-chi, packed with Prada, Balenciaga, and the usual luxury suspects. But they also house some Thai labels and concept stores that more than match their Euro counterparts. Curtained rooms of couture and day spas occupy discreet corners of dimly-lit emporiums on Level 2 of uber-flash Gaysorn Plaza. We happily spent an hour in Myth Bangkok Hipster Store, where we discovered Thai jewellery label TriMode.

if it’s good enough for paris

As the Buddhist monks pondered, if a label hung in a Siam Square boutique, but didn’t show up on google, did it really exist? We’ve zuzzed the old zen contemplation to match the material orgy that confronted us today in Bangkok’s answer to Meatpacking or Mitte.

Unfortunately few of the labels we scribbled on our mission to uncover Thailand’s foremost fashion players have made it on to the world wide web, despite being showcased in countless windows lining the sois (streets) du jour. But a few questions to our tenuous local connections revealed a fascinating fashion industry that is pony-walking at full pace towards the world fashion stage. In fact, our newfound faves (pictured above and below) are presenting at Paris’ Pret A Porter Paris early next month via the Fashion Identity agency. (That’s a plug.) 

The city has its own frequent large-scale trade shows and designer showcases – many of which we missed by a day! But we hope to make up for it tomorrow during our visit to the ‘garment district’. More to come soon.

shoulder pad thai

 

Okay, someone at Fashion Platz has a problem. Her addiction to shoulder pads is affecting other areas of her life. Like the fact that she took seven hours to close her suitcase (apologies to the guy in the apartment opposite – it was the only way). And that the Finnair check-in lady had to call head office to get clearance for a 28kg suitcase. You know it is serty-five degrees in Bangkok, no? But therapy will have to wait, because after 28 gruelling hours in transit (including a few hours’ style-spotting in Helsinki) we are now in shopping heaven. Otherwise known as Bangkok. While we are dying to check out Sretsis, Senada and Kloset (see look book below), we are equally excited about the ’street labels’ selling for three dollars apiece by the road. The oversized graphic batwing tees would look perfectly at home on the racks of Berlinerklamotten and Fat, and will blend nicely with our jersey-riffic wardrobes. Course there is the small issue of space. One of those blazers might just have to go. 

 

Check back for daily updates on labels we discover and baragins we collect in Asia’s City of Angels. 

gold rush

These decadent sandals from Germany’s Prose Studio remind us of DNA strands dipped in liquid ore. In fact, the fabric in the Golden Decay collection has been painstakingly melted using the flame of a candle, before being stitched together by hand. Sublime.

Golden Ashes sandals 400 euro; dress  2700 euro, necklace 950 euro.   

wanted: three pairs of legs in good working order

Heard this week that the first successful limb transplant recipient can put his arm above his head, which got us thinking of joining the waiting list for an extra few legs (with feet on the ends, obviously). That’s about the only way we imagine getting through the catalogue of covetable shoes for next spring/summer, shown at the recent northern European fashion weeks. We’re reckoning Minimarket’s fierce black platform-wedge ankle boots at the front, Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair’s violet-y wedges up back, and EnD’s lifeboat-like cobalt ankle huggers in the centre. We’d also order an extra-long pair of pins and throw on Minimarket’s blue suede brogues (with the season’s skew towards seriously swollen soles, wouldn’t want to be lopsided or anything).

timelessness is not a trend

It happens every season. By the time we’ve got our hands on the second cut of the ‘it’ thing we procrastinated over six-and-a-half minutes too long, fashion forums fill with posts asking if it’s still okay to wear. You can bet your bottom 500-dollars-plus-tax it’s not. That’s why we were so thrilled to witness the inauguration of this year’s Rookies & Players victor at Stockholm Fashion Week. Two-year-old Swedish label Patouf presents timeless design, infused with French couture and femininity rarely seen in these androgynous times. Designer Anna Angseryd beat co-nominees Matilda Wendelboe and Farzan Esfahani to join an elite Rookie pack including uber-label Dagmar. We loved Designgalleriet’s Rookies guerilla store, but we’re waiting to shop at Patouf’s boutique because, for once, time is not of the essence.

 

ego is not a dirty word

 

 

 Full-time jobs are soooo 2007. This tank by model-slash-designer-slash-blogger Ida Pyk captures Gen Y’s attitude to what our parents called ‘a career’. Paris-based Pyk added ’designer’ to her CV this week in Stockholm, where she launched a small line of tops, including a  version hitting back at accusations of anorexia in her catwalk hey day, and some sporting the faces of Osama Bin Laden, and Nicolas Sarkozy. We’re not keen on trivialising terrorism, or eating disorders. But Pyk says she aims to provoke. Consider us agitated.

 View the look book featuring Ida as model here. The range is now available at PUB of Stockholm, and selected smaller retailers. Tanks around 500SEK.

 

 

 

 

warm & fuzzies @ camilla wellton

After lunch in full sun by the water, a show called ‘Coats & Jackets’ was the last thing we felt like going to. But no sooner had we said so than fate intervened, in the form of the most ferocious hailstorm we’ve ever experienced. G-g-g-g-ive u-u-u-u-s s-s-j-j-j-acket-s-s-s.

Lucky, because Camilla Wellton’s outerwear is the best we’ve seen in a long time. Impeccable tailoring and exquisite attention to detail remind us of the days when women dressed up for a day in the city. When wearing the wrong size was a fashion crime. It still is, according to Stockholm-based Wellton, who makes most of her pret-a-porter pieces to measure on request. After all, a stray two centimetres could destroy the architectural aesthetic.

We’re torn between the Flower Queen Jacket, Empire Coat and Kimonoat, all perfect for those days when we need to look super-polished in a heartbeat. Then again, given that they’re made from natural fibres and that 10 per cent of sales goes towards saving the forests,  it would be uncharitable not to buy all three, wouldn’t it?

stockholm fashion week – let the champagne flow

Hey from Stockholm! After a fraught 24 hours threatening the hotel owner, we’re finally back online (not that we’ve had much time to sit down since we arrived in this magnificent, water-flanked city). As we’re waiting on PR pics from the first night’s show by Swedish label Saga Lova, let’s move on to the show at the Mode Center (above), where countless brands are showcased in adjacent glass booths for buyers to peruse and editors to pull. Chocolate cake to the power of 1,000,000.  Especially the CCDK showroom, where we got to play with the Karen by Simonsen ss10 collection. Lust!

Alas, we’re not so inspired by the four key themes presented, which dredged up last summer’s most overdone trends – ombre, fringing and prairie frocks. Still, Australia does tend to be a season ahead due to the seasonal upside-down, upside-down ness, so we’re hoping that explains it. We can’t bear to think that the Scandinavians aren’t the sartorial seers we imagine.

ss10 trend report/hello stockholm

As promised, you can now read our Copenhagen trend report, which reflects the ss10 trends as seen in Berlin, Amsterdam and Copenhagen. Because we just can’t get enough of Scandinavian style, Fashion Platz is crossing the archipelago to Stockholm’s ‘other’ fashion week. From Wednesday to Sunday we’ll be popping into showrooms, pretending we speak Swedish at cocktails (so Sven, which ikea tv cabinet do you have?), and catching a couple of shows (we’re particularly keen on Camilla Wellton). We’re also praying to find a pair of platform wedge boots like Acne’s, within our pauper’s budget. Thankfully our hotel has free wi-fi (it would want to at the price), so we’ll keep you posted daily, as usual. Speak soon x

great balls of fur at designskolen kolding

copenhagen fashion week continues (wtf?)

Lugging a laptop and camera is wearing thinner than a model’s ankle, so  we thought we’d take it out on the ridiculousness of the past few days at Copenhagen Fashion Week. Plaits sitting like doggy-got-into-the-sennetabs on hats at Wood Wood, flesh coloured pull-ups at Vilsbol de Arce, and no that cling wrap is not invisible m’dear (Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair). Thankfully the clashing primary-coloured sockies at Fifth Ave and Minimarket returned us to the lighter side. Houston, we have a t-r-e-n-d.

(Check out our ever-balanced show coverage &  pics below.)

copenhagen fashion week – struts & cuts

Day 3 (August 7) – Karen by Simonsen (debut collection!)

When we read this fresh Danish designer’s bio today, we were charmed immeasurably by her tales of a youth spent sleeping in a grotty kitchen after her mother left to join a commune. Of finding inspiration in the darkest places. Of Worshiping mathematical theories (wrap your tape measure around those geometric dresses). It was a refreshing break from the usual fashion fairy tales and reminded us that it’s nice to be human. (By) Karen Simonsen’s first collection, for ss10, is just as multifarious, spanning conservative navy, quirky asymmetry, rock star rags and seeeeeee QUINs. It also pedals over to the Velodrome, affirming the prudence of the bike pant seen at Alexander Wang ( get that magic stepper out of the garage, would you?)

 

Day 2 (August6) – Designers Remix Collection, Denmark Design School & Bibi Ghost

Designers Remix Collection

 

What could be better than an al fresco fashion show on the perfect summer Copenhagen day? Bobby pins, that’s what. And perhaps some Prozac. What good is a whimsical peach palette when the models are either eating their bangs or battling PMS? We did look past these technicalities, however, for Charlotte Eskildsen’s ‘treasured Danish vibe’. But what we saw was the entire WGSN trend forecast crammed into a catalogue of 20-odd ensembles. Androgynous tailoring, one shouldered, peach silk, slashed pants, the obligatory leather jacket, and shoulders that jut like hallway shelves (no longer funny, for the record). There was nothing we didn’t like; we died for the fish-scale frock and can’t fault the squeaky-clean classics (hello Denmark). We just expected more difference, less same from our equal-favourite Dane. Let us know what you think – are we being too harsh? (Costs nothing to comment!)

 

 Denmark Design School 

The Danish Design School show was an epaulet (collective noun) of shoulders. In fact we wondered whether this was the brief. While some flirted with costume, others took a protein shake approach with subtler takes on the scapula.   

Bibi Ghost

Day 1 – Minimarket & Rutzou

Told you peach blazers were for real, whispered one half of Fashion Platz to the other as we settled in for Minimarket’s much-hyped show on Day 1 of Copenhagen Fashion Week. Whisperer has been rabbiting on about flesh suiting since Lew’s appearance in Amsterdam. Whisperee is coming around to the tone that anchors the ss10 collection of the Swedish super label. But the Elvestedt sisters haven’t put all their, um, nectarines, in one basket. They also sent out a series of cropped jackets and frocks with clever twists on the overstated shoulder, in an indisputable palette of navy, black and neutral. A capelet was a welcome addition to the otherwise-structured show and caused Whisperee to spill her Coke Zero on an unsuspecting somebody. Ner, ner, told you capes were for real. 

Rutzou

(To see what we’re up to next, check out our Copenhagen Fashion Week schedule.)

crazy about copenhagen

Berlin’s bold spectacles have been and gone. Amsterdam passed in a whirl of avant-gardism. Now we take to Copenhagen to see how the Danes measure up. That’s not entirely true. Long-time fans of Barbara I Gongeni, Stine Goya & Malene Birger, we are somewhat prejudiced in favour of Danish designers.  Here are our picks from Copenhagen Fashion Week’s action-packed schedule. Updates daily…

forgive me, pants, for i have sinned

Just as we were about to send six pairs of poo-catcher troo-sers  to the free store (more on that stroke of genius soon), fate intervened. In the form of the latest collection from blaintechnologie, by Leipzig-born Alexandra Kiesel and Japan’s Aya Kikutani. Droopy crotch unflattering? Who said? The range notes mention ‘prothesises otherwise invisible to our bodies and souls …’ After a wine or two we might agree. But we’re thinking otherwise glaringly obvious results of too much cake. Oh, these pants are magic. Now we’re off to the free store – with four pairs of skinny jeans.

pictures http://annekathrinschuhmann.de/

festive feet

Jarvis Cocker reckons we’re in for heavy weather. (Or was it nasty? Semantics.) There’s a fair chance the heavens will open for August’s Berlin Festival and damned if we’re going to spend two days in wet socks. So this week’s mission, and we did choose to accept it, was to find rubber boots that respected our inner rock stars. (Yes, they’re deeply buried.) We settled on these fierce studded Hunter numbers (left), which would have the Stasi shaking in their , er, boots. Tres bad-ass with an oversized tee and leggings. Now we hope to high heavens it rains on the 7th. (And that Jarvis sings that song so we can fix the first line of this post.)

£125 at Urban Outfitters UK. Delivery to Germany within 3-6 days, £10.95  per item.

amsterdam fashion week – struts & cuts

end

P.S. This pic from the EnD show says it all. Amsterdam is one stylish city. Find information on this fledgling Dutch label below, under Mexx. (Just look for the face paint.)

lew

Before we get back to Berlin (and what a weekend it was in local fashion) we’re taking one last look – through Coke-bottle glasses - at Amsterdam International Fashion Week. Now we know what you’re thinking about that boilersuit and the what-in-heaven’s-name-do-you-call-that-colour?, but Lew’s ss10 show was an exciting moment for its two designers, who announced through a clever narrative that the label has come of age. In Lady Lew &  Blue Boy, their trademark academia gave way to pragmatism with wearable shapes and (for some skin tones) colours, inspired by their design digs in a former gay bar. Delicate dresses in powder box peach summoned a gentleness confined to fond memory, and the fleshy power blazer showed their humour is here to stay. We wouldn’t be  surprised if the Lew show inspired a revival of the tong curl and four eyes specs, either.

malousebastiaan

 

 

Anyone who’s read Galileo will know the perils of appropriating space without science. But with the internet challenging notions we signed off on centuries ago, theorists are returning to their charts. Quick question, do you reckon the earth’s still round? At least that’s the shape that emerged when young Dutch design duo malousebastiaan embarked on a search for a place without borders. For SS10, Malou Verharen & Ferdinand S Hartgers have channelled their imaginings of ‘the atmosphere’ into an intriguing collection of disfigured orbs fashioned from blown-up boiled sheep, goat & deer leather. Fixed to faces and frocks, the organic matter lends a gust of power to the Globurar (‘globular’) collection’s  floaty fabrics. After all, power is knowledge. Or something like that.

 

Daryl Van Wouw

Designer Daryl Van Wouw is one of few people to benefit from 80s fashion’s refusal to die (the CEO of Top Shop’s another).  Van Wouw’s SS10 collection, Hypercube, is yet another product of the energetic designer’s fascination with shapes and colour. Between shows that convinced us we were pattern-blind, the visual-arts-class aesthetic was refreshing, if not reassuring. Oh, I remember. Fashion is fun! While this doubly bubbly toil and trubbly cube dress (pictured right) channels a prom queen on acid, a cropped leather jacket with suede lapel insets only whispers its connection to the era of conspicuous consumption. Except when paired with lime-coloured vintage 501s. And a liquorice allsort crop top. Which, by the way, spins us right round (baby round round).    

Elsien Gringhuis

At first we pretended we knew this label, because we assumed from the pictures that we ought to. Oh, Gringhuis… thought you said greenhouse, we’re so silly!  Minimalism requires a certain cognitive cleanliness that young designers just don’t have. Au contraire – Dutch designer Elsien  Gringhuis has been out of Arnhem Academy for less than 12 months (although she did cut her teeth at G-Star,where she still toils). We’re in awe of Gringhuis’ colourless ss10 collection and her courage to discard what sense would say one shouldn’t. As pared to perfection as the orange raincoat that won her last year’s Create Europe Avantgarde Award.  Bet you already knew about that.  

Mexx by EnD

…a last-minute photo shoot and then our luggage… skip it? Okay. We’re actually devastated we missed one of the most exciting-sounding shows of Amsterdam’s big week. Usually we’d rather have our eyebrows shaved than see a ‘collaboration’ between a brand trying to up its cachet, and a vulnerable young label oblivious to the perils. But Mexx by EnD is different. Rather than storming in with tree print leggings (believe it – see EnD post above), or something as wildly foreign to the core customer (Josh Goot for Target, anyone?) , fledgling Dutch creatives Eva van Overbeeke and Delia Drel, of label EnD, remixed 10 seasonal looks for mass appealer Mexx. They’ve managed to impart a  childlike naivete to the decidedly commercial brand – without alienating Mexx loyalists. Truth be told we’re astounded it came off so uncontrived. We’d wear the jodhpur ensemble in a heartbeat (although we might save the face paint for special occasions.)

all AIFW pictures: Peter Stigter

western influence

We always get a slight chill as the train pulls into Friedrichstrasse station. It is hard to fathom that it is only 20 years since this behemoth of glass and American food housed the men with keys to a brave new world. Ironically, now we’re allowed in, we find the west a little too self-consciouly modern (ugly’s such a strong word).  However, this futuristic cityscape also is part of Berlin’s rich, recent history and it, too, is inspiring some daring fashion and costume design. This Reality Studio dress (2nd row, left), for instance, mimics an aerial view of Potsdamer Platz, as does jeweller Momentopia’s shop fit (bottom left).  And Joey Love’s Jetsons-esque sneakers (top left) summon parliament’s lofty dome. And with that, we’ve got a train to catch to Ostkreuz, before our ticket expires. x

learn your labels

Remember those alphabet cards the teacher held up in grade school – with the little pictures of apples and xylophones? Something like that would be handy right now because learning the names of Berlin’s fashion labels is harder than, well, learning German. Adddress with three ‘d’s, Finn (dot?) K, Butterfly Soul Fire (is that one word or three?) These T-shirts are even better, matching the names of local labels with cheeky rhymes you can chant to yourself on the S-bahn. We bought House of Holland’s ‘What A Corker Karen Walker’ tee a few years back and can’t fault the syllabus. Or the (give an inch, take a mile) style.

35 euros at berlin bitches.

er, i’m a bit tied up

Just as we expected, those 12 euro desert scarves have gone off to that great outlet store in the sky and left loyalists to sport their cravats in peace. No, dude, it is not way rad gear. It is pure silk. Get your painted fingernails away.  To promote the proper use of the textilian phenomenon that transcends fads and elevates an outfit from kinda smart to unutterably chic, we thought some instruction was in order. There are hundreds of ways to knot neckwear, but our favourite is the classic neck wrap, as pictured above. The best effect is achieved using a pure silk square, like these face print scarves by Germany’s Aschon (‘beautiful’). Cotton and linen also work well. But just remember, the polyester police are watching.   

1. Fold the scarf in a triangle.

2. Hold the two ends of the folded side and wrap around the neck.

3. Bring them forward from the opposite sides and tie a knot.

4. Take one layer of the scarf beneath and toss it over the knot as illustrated in the diagram.

5. Adjust a little and strut into that chi chi boutique you’re always too scared to go into!

Aschon scarves 155 euro at www.styleserver.de or Oderberger Str 49, Berlin. Or at Episoda, Boxhagener Str 113, Berlin.

tying tips & diagram courtesy www.texeresilk.com

 

 

 

 

great danes

Yes, Prince Fredrick. Chuckle chuckle. Did you see Princess Mary… now we’ve got that out of the way, let’s talk about the real Denmark. This tiny country has a knack for design over and above chairs. Barbara I Gongeni (pictured above and below) is a case in point, combining various streams of ‘the arts’ to create a multi-dimensional experience. The label, which releases collections twice a year, will show at Copenhagen Fashion Week (August 5-9). We’ll be posting the highlights from this and other shows, so watch this space.

…city of angels

blanket statement

The man in the little grocery store downstairs says he’s sorry. This is a bad summer. Not usually like this. We, on the other hand, are rapt (although a little confused) with the cold snap. Frankly, we’ve had it up to here with sweat patches and sensible clothing – our greatest loves have been thermally impractical, if not health hazards. Take this oh-you-are-so-coming-home-with-us-even-if-we-have-to-pay-baggage-excess hirsute oversized gillet (left) we bagged at Humana last week after months of delving in thrift bins. Not only does this chiquity have the potential to stop traffic on the autobahn, it has the comfort factor of an old blankie. We implore you to wear your winter wildest this weekend, while you can. Because the guy downstairs reckons…

Happy snuggling

x

bands of colour

As the old imwearing readers know, we don’t do colour.  (Or PU, but that’s irrelevant because today’s muse is soft-as-a-baby’s leather). Alas, while our monochrome is perfect in Paris, Milan and just about every European city – besides Berlin. Here head-to-toe schwarz looks positively funereal (if not GDRistic). When summer is a few weeks’ break between cold and dark and really cold and really dark, you get that hot pink mini skirt on. Now. Don’t make me. I’m counting. Thankfully we’ve found a way to respect the local custom without sending our little heads into a katherine wheel-like spin. These uber-soft leather belts by 2-year-old Berlin label c’est tout are a happy compromise – a step above pastel but not quite bright. We’re easing in with the pale blue, tied around an oversized (black) blazer. Jeans on the bottom, of course. After a couple of weeks we reckon we’ll be ready for the salmon. (At 79 Euro, it’s a low risk.)

(Check out our Sales page for c’est tout’s one-day super sale on July 18!)

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