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Wednesday 31 March 2010

Fashion Update - Marchesa

My daily Net-A-Porter newsletter has just popped up in my inbox, today offering me three Marchesa beauties, two of which have already sold out!

The first, this floor length silk-chiffon gown comes in at over four grand, and is unfortunately sold out but the perfect colour and detailing in it is equisite. Instantly hitting the pretty trends, through the grown up, elegant route. I love the immaculate gathering and the way the luxurious fabric falls beautifully, gently resting on the ground. The beaded detail is delicate and intricate, and the unobvious gentle asymmetry of the cross over is a nice touch.


The second is this dramatic beaded and feathered number which has an air of twenties flapper glamour to it. Once again note the fabulous beading, perfect rows of bugle beads lying alongside minute clear round beads boasting luxury and opulence.



Last but not least is the most showstopping dress. A nod to the lingerie as outwear trend, this dress has just the right balance of girly and classy. The sophisticated flower embroidery combined with full black feather skirt make for a truly striking gown. Oh yes, and this one just so happens to be the one in stock!

Sunday 21 March 2010

FD - 20th March - Dancing on Ice

I've just finished watching this week's Dancing on Ice... How beautiful did Holly Willoughby look yet again? Her dresses each week have been perfect and her hairstylist deserves an award. Here's my take on tonight's canary number, plus a couple of extra sketches!

Thursday 18 March 2010

FD - Thursday 18th March 2010 - Fashion Sketches

Excited for my forthcoming London adventure, (which you'll here more about soon!) here's a few fashion sketches I did in a spare moment last night...


Thursday 11 March 2010

Why Fashion is so important in the world today

This is a shortened (yes, really!) version of an essay I wrote for my GCSE English Language last year and now its all graded and done, it can appear on here!


Fashion is everywhere. Some may say fashion is everything.


Everyone has their own taste in clothes, even those who wouldn’t say they follow fashion. However, some people don’t think fashion is important.
I believe that there is more to fashion than clothes, and I want prove why it is incredibly important in the world today.
Fashion distinguishes tribes, from Native American Indians to todays WAGs, displaying who you are. While the WAG culture is all about the glamour and the skyscraper heels, the Native America wore animal skins for practicality, and while maybe not to everyones taste today, it was relevant to their culture. Without those skins, the indians may have just looked like everybody else, likewise, the WAGs are their own assemblage and they don’t just want to look like every other tanned, immaculate woman. On an individual level, how you dress says a lot about you as a person, and without fashion, clothes would be nothing more than material.
But while we can talk about fashion now, many years ago, it didn’t exist. According to historian James Laver, curator at the V&A museum for 37 years, “the fourteenth century marks the emergence of recognisable ‘fashion’ in clothing” Things that are important are often given start and end dates, and this shows fashion is very important, more so than just clothing.
In the middle ages the idea of clothes being a status symbol emerged. What you wore, displayed your wealth and demonstrated where you stood in the heiracrchy. This is the same today. People with money to spend, like to spend it, and wear clothes that show it.
In 1914, the First World War broke out. Changes in clothing were really more necessity than fashion. However some of the changes in clothes adopted names that were to do with the war, for example a skirt was named War Crinoline. People were forced to lose the extravagance of the centuries before, but fashion designers joined in. Coco Chanel adapted, and created a new innovation of what we now know as costume jewellery, cheaper than the usual fine jewellery as it was made using less expensive glass or crystal beads. Another designer who flourished in the war was Burberry. Originally their garments were designed purely for practical purposes, with their revolutionary waterproof fabric lending itself to the conditions of the trenches perfectly. However it wasn’t long before the protective clothing for troops became a must have item for celebrities, and stars such as Audrey Hepburn were soon seen sporting the trench coats. With this, Burberry had successfully transformed from practical to high fashion.
This demonstrates fashion’s importance to people, having survived a war, and even developed further.
Looking at it from a business angle, fashion is very important for the world’s economy. In 2007 it was estimated that the UK market for clothing and footwear was worth £48.55 billion, and in both America and Australia, the fashion industry contributes 25% to each of their economies.
For employment too, fashion is important. The designer fashion economy alone employs 115,500 people in 1,400 different businesses, and this doesn’t even take into account the huge High Street fashion economy. However many people think that people who work in fashion are unintelligent and it’s not a proper job, but really, working in marketing, for example, in the fashion industry requires exactly the same qualifications as marketing in the pharmecutical industry.
For my work experience, I went to the decorative arts department in the museum and I was amazed at the sheer volume of clothing that they have in their collection. They have thousands and thousands of dresses, tops, trousers other clothing, and many hundreds of accessories including over four hundred hats, which I had the pleasure of sorting out! But what interested me was that in a national museum, alongside things like bones, swords and mummies, they are keeping clothes shoes and accessories from many eras ago to the present day because people are interested in them and they are part of our country’s history. This shows that as well as the mass population, even people who don’t actually work in the fashion industry think fashion is important.
There always will be those people say that fashion is pointless and not at all important. There will always be some that say that those who work in fashion are complete airheads and have no brains, but I think that, to put it bluntly, they’re wrong. Although a major (and pleasing) part of it, fashion isn’t totally about the glamour and glitz. Aside from the fabulous clothes and shoes, fashion is about business and economy, culture and history and is a highly influential theme in our world today. I wholly believe that there is far more to fashion than meets the eye, and it is extremely important.

Monday 8 March 2010

Lady Gaga

Considering I went to see Ms Gaga well over 2 weeks ago I'm really quite late with this post but honestly, I think it's taken me this long to calm down and take it all in!

Firstly my outfit and the picture as promised... and yes I was freezing!

While it may look like I'm lacking some clothing , as expected, Gaga had less on than me, in fact she spent the majority of the show in just her underwear. Aside from that she did parade some spectacular outfits. One which particularly stood out was the one that bore some resemblance to Dougal from the magic roundabout or could alternatively be described as just a mop! She also worked a sparkly teal version of her favourite Thierry Mugler Origami dress and numerous high leg leotards which would give Borat a run for his money, let alone Baywatch.

Oh and the mechanical white dress she wore on Jonathan Ross, she wore that, on a little circular stage, high in the sky!

In all honesty I can't remember what her opening outfit was because I was too busy wailing, saying that, I can't remember much past the 46 second mark of the countdown.

Musically, even if you weren't a hardore fan like some people, she certainly put on a show, and yes, she was note perfect. Performing all of her well known hits plus songs off the album and a couple of new ones, everyone sung along - or was that just me?

The whole thing was a work of art, the set, the lights, the costumes and of course the music, and one which I cannot wait to see again... Roll on June!