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.

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.

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.

 

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.

 

 

 

 

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