Fashion Voyeur

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Categories: Fashion, Models

Amy Thomson FW19 Loved And Lost

Whenever my London Fashion Week schedule is finalised I always check it for my favourites.  No we all know that fashion is fickle and whilst designers and their PRs move increase their audience and range with each new season, there’s always the case that some designers don’t make it back on to the schedule for whatever reason too.  This season my beloved Starsica left a crucifix shaped hole in the schedule without any explanation, and another designer I was devastated to see missing was Amy Thomson.  You might remember I covered her fabulously kitsch pink presentation at Fashion Scout last season which just screamed Barbara Cartland in the most fashion way possible, I mean I almost threw my credit card at the girl it was so fabulous.  I wanted everything.  This season I was excited, but it wasn’t meant to be.  Or so I thought.

I arrived home from London, a little later than planned, to find an email from Amy, explaining that she wouldn’t be showing this season, however that she was still around and had indeed produced a small collection for FW19 entitled Loved And Lost.  I mean I love it already, the title, the personal contact, – I’ve failed to mention that Amy is an illustrator so the email is filled with hand drawn pink and red hearts so I’m already feeling a connection…..

Amy Thomson Loved And Lost FW19 Copy for Fashion Voyeur by Pixie Tenenbaum

So, basically with each collection that Amy Thomson produces, there’s a story.  With this one it’s a playful, childhood romance remembering treasured memories, emotions and relationships.  This feminine filled love affair explores characters from the overwhelming love of your first crush to your first end of the world falling out with your BFF.  Loved And Lost is inspired by romance, by relationships with objects and people at different stages of your life from a child’s perspective.  Thomson has a real talent for asking the viewer questions that take them back to their youth and ask them to reimagine and re-examine, in this case it’s remembering your first overwhelming love.  Maybe it’s a first pet, a toy, or even a first sweater that you’d wear over and over.  Amy Thomson is asking us to remember, reimagine and to fall in love all over again.

Red is obviously a key tone throughout the collection for FW19 and it’s tonally matched with hues of precious pink, powerful purple and even a hint of teasing turquoise.  Romance is a strong vibe and the use of texture conveys that well with faux fur outerwear complimenting the exaggerated full frill silk garments that hooked me in last season.  Foiled leathers add in further sparkle and there’s an added element of hand embroidery this season.

Thomson has ditched the large scale illustrations this season and instead focuses on illustrative playful motifs that are built up using text and slogans like ‘crushin on you’ and ‘teenage love shrine’ to further narrate the collective prints.  This season brings with it a collaboration with Sassy Freak and some super freaky jewellery to further illustrate the narrative around this collection.  Clip on earrings – very 1980’s hot mamma and one hell of a pair of glam-ma glasses with a pearl chain so glam-ma doesn’t lose ’em.

Group model shot for the Amy Thomson x Sassy Freak campaign for FW19 Fashion Voyeur Blog by Pixie Tenenbaum

What’s really cool though, are the campaign images, shot by Georgie Fen at Poodle and Blonde Location House, they’re everything you might expect from the description above, and a little bit of insider information about Amy Thomson and her design style.  Powerful, feminine and empowering, now how do I get hold of that first pink dress?

Pixie

Categories: Fashion, Models

Chanel Joan Elkayam FW19 at London Fashion Week

On the final day of London Fashion Week, usually the pace slows a little, you can start to relax, maybe even venture outside of the BFC and shop a little.  Definitely not the case for the past two seasons, in fact these past two seasons I think the final day has been one of my favourites.  I’ve been in great company, seen some awesome shows with some powerful messages, and had fun.  See in the past London Fashion Week was frantic, it lost the fun, and in the last two seasons, it got a little bit of that fun vibe back.

So often when it gets to final day you’ve overdone what’s known as the ‘treadmill’, it’s when you schlep in and out of the BFC via the same entrance and exit on a loop over and over again for shows.  There’s only so much time you can spend in the showrooms, on Day 1 they’re shiny and new and everything is amazing, but by Day 3 you know it all off by heart.  So, when the opportunity arises to go offsite, quite often you just grab it, regardless of what it is, because you want off that damn treadmill.

Day 5 provided me with such an opportunity, a fashion designer and I guess, sort of a friend of mine, Chanel Joan Elkayam was holding an on schedule, but off site runway show in Camden on a February day that could have easily been mistaken for June.  Counting Victoria Beckham and Cheryl Tweedy amongst her personal Fash Pack despite her mere 21 years, I was intrigued.

Wide shot of the models on the stage with designer Chanel Joan Elkayam after the FW19 show at London Fashion Week. Fashion Voyeur blog by Pixie Tenenbaum

There’s so much to observe about this particular show and designer and none of it is about the clothes.  First of all the show ran so late, we sat on the front row waiting for an hour for the show to start and in that time we watched as we waited, Chanel is a really interesting character.  Yes she’s a fashion designer and a huge amount of money and preparation went into what was undeniably a huge show for her, her first on schedule show at London Fashion Week and rounding off the big four for her making her the youngest ever designer to show on schedule at New York, London, Milan and Paris Fashion Weeks – a huge achievement for a woman of her age.  But here’s the thing, she wants you to notice the woman, not necessarily the clothes, and that’s unlike any fashion designer I have ever come across, ever.  I mean sure, they might say it, but this one means it.

Trust me, we had the time to watch, to observe and to listen to what was going on around us in that unintentionally long break before the show.  Chanel Joan Elkayam as a brand has always been about female empowerment, from her first collection La Sola Rosa, through to this I Don’t Follow I Lead collection.  Elkayam believes in the power of an independent woman with a sovereign mind, her press statement reads that she believes strongly in the empowerment of women, that the Chanel Joan Elkayam woman is fearless and unstoppable, powerful and completely comfortable within her own body.

It’s not often you get the chance to play sleuth at a show, or really dig into exactly what the message or methodology is when it comes to fashion because designers are so very different and relatively inaccessible.  With Chanel, you get the impression that the message is the driving force, not the collection, rather that the collection is the tool in which to deliver the message.  Her campaign for FW19, I Don’t Follow I Lead, is borne out of a need to shed conformation and constraint and to lead, as we were meant to.  Listening and watching, I genuinely get the impression that Chanel Joan Elkayam wants the world to sit up and take notice of women; all women, no matter what colour, shape, size or origin story.

Her choice of models for the show is inspired and reads like a roster for representation and diversity; transgender model and activist Munroe Bergdorf opened the show, followed by Kate Grant and a full line up of black, Asian and white models including a child model paired up in a matching outfit for the final walk.  There were older models represented on the Chanel Joan Elkayam runway and it definitely felt that representation was the strongest message of all.  Could this be a pivotal moment for London Fashion Week?  Probably not, but something tells me that this woman knows that her message is every bit as important as her product, maybe even more so in this particular case, and that’s exactly her point here.

Pixie

Categories: Fashion, Models, Uncategorized

Bora Aksu FW19 at London Fashion Week

“Once you’ve been in space, you appreciate how fragile the Earth is.” – Valentina Tereshkova

Let me set the scene for you, I’ve just arrived in London, checked into my hotel, changed into an insanely fabulous outfit, been papped twice and have literally pegged it from Covent Garden to The Strand to catch my first show of the day.  I’m a little sweaty, a bit windswept, in a good way, and hella late.  I mosey on into the BFC showspace for the first time this season to find that it’s half it’s usual size and I’m ushered to my front row seat and handed a piece of paper that says this:

Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to fly in space in 1963.  The daughter of a tractor driver and a textile plant worker, at 17 she had to leave school and began working at the textile plant in order to help support the family.  But she wanted more from life.  She insisted on earning her education and opted to study by correspondence.  At the age of 18, while working at the textile mill, Valentina joined a club for parachutists and wrote a letter to the space centre volunteering for the cosmonaut team.  Tereshkova, a woman with little formal education, was selected as one of five women, all of whom were much more qualified than her: test pilots, engineers, and world-class parachutists.  After intensive training, Tereshkova proved she could make the final cut.

On June 16, 1963, she spent almost three days in space and orbited Earth 48 times in her space capsule. While TV viewers saw her smiling face and her logbook floating in front of her, they didn’t realise that the flight had almost turned into tragedy, a fact that remained classified for 40 years.  In the years to follow, Tereshkova went on to graduate from the Zhuykosky Air Force Engineering Academy in 1969 and earned a degree in Technical Science. She then toured the world promoting science and feminism.  Valentina serves as a role model for all women throughout the world who wish to strive to achieve their dreams.

I mean goosebumps right?!  Forget the shrunken showspace, I’m all in, talk about setting the scene!  So it’s clear before we even get underway that this collection is dedicated to Valentina Tereshkova.  Bora Aksu creates garments that reflect Tereshkova’s space trip drawing on the contrasts of her early life growing up in a small village and her determination in standing against traditional restrictions also provides inspiration for this powerful collection.

It’s a slight step away from the norm for Bora Aksu, there’s an exploration of new silhouettes and materials and the colour palette lends itself excellently to the theme.  The iridescent organza and tulle fabrics appear ethereal in texture and draw gasps of wonder from the baying audience, myself included as this theme hits every note on my pleasure chart.  The combination of soft feminine fabrics and structured shapes add a romance to the bolder silhouettes.  There’s an element of weightlessness which is conveyed perfectly through the use of tulle and organza and the addition of pearl sunglasses created by Halo and Co, specifically for the show add a layer of interest.

If you’re looking to spin this look on the high street, sadly it’s a very tricky one to recreate well.  Needle and Thread do it very well and I’m sure they observed this show very, very closely at the end of a needlepoint, but their pricepoint is high so be prepared to pay above the odds for it.  It’s worth it though, it’s a look that’s guaranteed to turn heads again and again.  I can honestly say, and I know I say it every season, that the first show, straight out the gate, is always the best show of the season.  Bora Aksu, so far, you’re shaping up to be the best show of FW19.

Pixie

Images by Chris Yates Fashion Photography

Categories: Fashion, Models, Uncategorized

Cassey Gan FW19 at London Fashion Week

I discovered Cassey Gan by accident a few seasons ago, one of those happy accidents that you note and seek to repeat on purpose.  I was leaving a runway show at Fashion Scout and exited through a presentation space whilst a presentation was wrapping up, there was hardly anyone in the showspace and the models were occupying the space serenely, holding their poses, faces in bold, sullen model pose.  The pieces themselves were bright and geographic and completely juxtaposing in texture.  I stopped and whipped out my phone, I had the whole space to myself to get up close to the pieces, I remember writing down the name of the designer and deciding to find out exactly who Cassey Gan was.

Since then I’ve made it my mission to get on the list for Cassey Gan’s presentation at Fashion Week, whilst it’s a small presentation of only a few pieces she can definitely pack out a room.  Occupying one of the longer time slots in the presentation show space, Gan’s work is admired from opening to close, unlike that first time I saw her which coincidentally was also her first show at London Fashion Week.  Her work has a definite style and she’s stayed true to that, it’s easy to spot a Cassey Gan piece, the lines, cut and print are easily identifiable, but the textures and the fabrics change with the season.

Drawing inspiration from Tim Braden, Malaysian designer Cassey Gan has dissolved and reassembled her world in her FW19 collection, Pixelated.  Vivid brushstrokes take the form of pattern heavy, non-form fitting garments that reveal a new layer of Gan’s evocative work.  Known for loose fitting silhouettes, original prints, and lightweight textiles, Cassey Gan explores thicker fabrics for the first time.  Her colour palette of blues, olives, maroons and mustards build on the collection alongside wool and padded fabrics, furthering Gan’s textured approach to her luxurious FW19 pieces.

The collection uses innovative shapes and heavy layering as with Gan’s previous collections, but shifts between representation and abstraction as if to hint at something new.  Comfort and style are of equal importance for the label aiming for a timeless modern appeal, Pixelated will focus on metaphor and craftsmanship to achieve the collection’s goals.  Influenced also by the impossible pace of the fashion industry and the inevitable changes rooted in the digital age, Gan harnesses her frustration at the speed which designers must now work, into a furious, and interconnected collection. Drawing from the incomplete and elided images of the collection’s verbal namesake, Pixelated comments on the love / hate paradox Gan sees in contemporary fashion. As speed increases, precision sometimes falters, leaving Cassey Gan’s Pixelated to recombine the pieces into a meaningful statement about the contemporary moment.

It’s a definite evolution for Cassey Gan, it’s a new shape, it feels more whole, like more of a collection and a more fruitful vision.  What started off as a group of pieces and shapes, feels like it grew up and moved on, like it reached it’s teenage years and is deciding what it wants to be when it grows up.  That’s as simple as it needs to be for these shows and is often all it takes for a designer to make things happen in the fickle world of fashion.  In short, put your head in the game, know your style and graft.

Solo Model at the Cassey Gan FW19 presentation at Fashion Scout for London Fashion Week Fashion Voyeur blog by Pixie Tenenbaum

I’d love to see more from Cassey Gan, and eventually a runway show in the vestibule of Freemason’s Hall, the pieces and the inspiration is there, the vision is there, the progress is definitely there.  In just a few short seasons this young designer has come a long way, she’s one I look for on the schedule and if I’m around I’ll be there watching, seeing how she’s grown.  Definitely a one I watch with curiosity and interest.

Pixie

Categories: Fashion, Models

Rocky Star FW19 at London Fashion Week

Rocky Star is one of those shows that causes an absolute scrum outside.  I mean everyone has an invite, but not everyone makes it through the doors, it’s a pretty elite show and there’s a reason for that.  Rocky Star’s shows are awesome, they’re full of sparkle, fringing, tulle and it’s the look that probably inspired what you’re wearing right now because it’s the one the high street most often rips off.  Yes, everyone wants a piece of what Rocky Star is selling, even you, whether you know it or not.

For FW19 Star was inspired by Vatican architecture, the collection features his take on the painting Separation of Light from Darkness, and in a bid to unravel the myriad of experiences we undergo ourselves as humans, throughout the collection, Star touches upon the realm of fantasy and the romanticism between good and evil.  It’s something we’ve seen glimmers of in earlier collections, but nothing quite so forceful as this and it’s a collection that I love, those fringed trousers that were made for slo-mo walking are to die for.

Star has always been about female empowerment.  Dressing the female body and empowering women has always been at the core of his work and his Fall/Winter collection for 2019/20 is no different, the values remain the same.  Where there’s powerful tailoring this is instantly juxtaposed and almost challenged with free-flowing silhouettes in the line-up.  Typical Rocky Star fabrics made the cut including feathers, organza, velvet, lace and silk, as well as those more skilful elements which showcase the young designer’s talents, pleated sequins, quilting and flat broad collars.

Rocky Star continues to be a show I look forward to each season, I watched from the front row, which really is the only place to absorb the intricacy of the workmanship that goes into creating each Rocky Star piece, from the sheer volume of triple flip weight sequins (no flat single stitch paillettes here), to the way the feathers are placed to make them lie as they would on a living bird.  The craftsmanship is what matters here, sure the end product is special, but the work that goes in is phenomenal.

I remember bumping into Rocky Star the morning after his show a few years back, it was back when Freemason’s Hall used both show spaces and there had been a riot outside before his show.  The guy is so damn humble and it’s easy to see why reality stars who leave the Big Brother House (RIP) or Love Island end up desperately trying to get Star on speed dial.  His style is familiar, but inaccessible to the mainstream.  This is the wondrous thing about Rocky Star; it’s editorial fashion, but it’s also wonderfully commercial.  The highstreet looks to this midpoint, to the Pioneers and it takes elements from every point, top, middle and bottom of the collection with the intent of reproducing and repackaging them.  Star’s collection is one of those that you’ll no doubt see everywhere, maybe you’ll even buy a highstreet replica thinking that you’re buying something original.  Well know this; you saw it here first on the runway of Rocky Star at Fashion Scout.  The only question remaining, is when will we see this designer on schedule?

Pixie