Fashion Voyeur

People will stare, make it worth their while.

Categories: The Fashion Closet

The Ouze present The Process Is the Point for London Fashion Week AW26

For London Fashion Week, jewellery brand The Ouze made a formidable return with their second presentation entitled The Process Is the Point – a reflection on making, material and the value of visible process.

Rooted in wax carving and the lost wax casting method, The Ouze’s jewellery is defined by how it is made.

The aesthetic is a direct consequence of the process. Fingerprints, exposed hallmarking, raw surfaces and texture are left intentionally visible, celebrating the handcrafted rather than refining it away. There is no final piece without its past failures. Wax casting introduces an element of risk, where outcomes are never guaranteed. These moments of uncertainty are not edited out, rather they are essential to the finished work.

To extend this idea beyond jewellery, The Process Is the Point draws a parallel with music, another art form shaped by repetition, rehearsal and mistake. Throughout the presentation, London based cellist Ramilda gave a haunting performance in the BGC showspace which was decked with sheet music as part of the installation, with the music unfolding as an ongoing process rather than a polished recital.

Finished jewellery was showcased alongside wax models, half made pieces and silver objects, allowing the journey from idea to final form to remain visible to the audience.

The Process Is the Point is a quiet but deliberate statement on craft, embracing imperfection and placing value on the work that happens before a finished object exists.

Categories: The Fashion Closet

KSENIASCHNAIDER presents Denim Workshop for AW26 at London Fashion Week

KSENIASCHNAIDER presents Denim Workshop for AW26 at London Fashion Week.  The collection is primarily a study of denim beyond the fabric. representing a  conceptual experiment with denim as the brand’s core material and a fundamental part of KSENIASCHNAIDER’s DNA. The collection pushes the material beyond its expected function through unconventional forms, engineered constructions and unexpected translations, transforming denim into a platform for creative exploration.

This season denim exists in multiple states: knitted, printed, quilted, reconstructed and displaced. Knitted jeans and jackets replicate traditional construction in yarn, preserving the logic of denim while abandoning the fabric itself. Printed outerwear transforms denim into image: puffers, skirts and shorts are crafted from insulated technical fabrics yet finished with hyper-real denim textures.

Continuing their investigation into construction, the designers deconstruct denim’s iconic gold topstitching and redeploy it as ornament and drawing. Gold stitching traces the outline of denim garments in both menswear and womenswear, forming embroidered denim-shaped motifs. The collection further expands into new materials, including BROD-X — an innovative textile developed from recycled denim waste.

Continuing the original KSENIASCHNAIDER Men line by Anton Schnaider, menswear returned with multipocket constructions. Utility modules expand across jeans, shirts and jackets, transforming garments into modular systems of compartments.

The collection marks the brand’s second collaborative work with Lee Cooper and deepens the dialogue between Lee Cooper’s authentic British denim heritage and the brand’s experimental, reconstruction-driven approach, merging archival craft with progressive manipulation.

Categories: The Fashion Closet

The Perfect Ganni Seersucker Dupe Dress

Remember the Ganni Seersucker minidress that sent Instagram into a near meltdown last Summer?  Well that gorgeous check pattern in its unmistakeable black and green hue is going nowhere this Summer and the puff sleeve, swing hem shape is sticking around all season.  That particular Ganni dress was produced in a soft cheesecloth type fabric and I’m here to show you how you can recreate the look for a fraction of the price with 100% of the style, and some of the sustainability factor (not that Ganni is particularly known for its sustainability credentials).

Take one high street dress, I’ve always told you that it takes a half a season for the British high street to pick up on pieces at the top end of the fashion chain and turn them into pieces for consumption at the mid to bottom end of the fashion chain, that’s how this thing works.  It takes Fashion Editors and journalists to spot those pieces, models and influencers to max out on them and then the high street to respond to that need after the social media responses are generated in terms of your likes and comments.  Those pieces are then produced in a direct response to what you, the consumer expects, wants and needs as a forecast for the season ahead based on what was popular in the previous season – these are called micro-trends.  Ok, fashion lesson over, on to the dress and this one is a doozie….

Pixie Tenenbaum wears a green and black checked minidress dupe of the Ganni Seersucker minidress at St Mary's Inn in Morpeth
Lime Green Seersucker dupe £35.00 at Topshop

It’s an almost exact replica of the fabric in terms of wearability, it’s got that same cheesecloth type feel with the banding that runs through the checks.  The sleeves stay puffed up (the Ganni dress has to be re-puffed regularly if that’s the look you’re going for), and this one doesn’t have a deep v-neck which is good if you’re particularly flat chested like me.  It’s empire cut so is almost a fit and flare style from the bust out, a very flattering cut on most shapes, especially given its shorter length.

Pixie Tenenbaum wears a green and black checked minidress dupe of the Ganni Seersucker minidress at St Mary's Inn in Morpeth
Lime Green Seersucker dupe dress £35.00 at Topshop

We all know the Ganni Seersucker sold like hot cakes when it was reduced in the sale to £150, but this Seersucker dupe from high street giant Topshop is just £35.00 and you can buy it here, but be quick because I can’t see this one sticking around.  It’s the perfect seasonal transition dress paired with opaques, a light polo neck and boots and then on its own for lazy Summer days and vacations paired with cowboy boots.  Of course if you’re not sold on the empire line and puff sleeves – I get that it’s not a look for everyone – but you want in on the pattern, then Topshop also have this straight bodied version available with frill detailing on the front if this is more your thing for £39.99.

Either way, get amongst it Voyeurs, this is one with a decent amount of wearability in it.

Pixie

Categories: The Fashion Closet

Olivia Rubin’s 80’s Inspired Rainbow for FW20

On a cold wet February day in London the fashion elite gathered for Olivia Rubin’s rainbow coloured presentation and for twenty minutes we completely forgot about the weather and focussed completely on animal print hearts, polka dots and the swishing of silky tiers as they sashayed past us up the makeshift runway.

Models lined up on the runway at the end of the Olivia Rubin FW20 Fashion presentation at London Fashion Week in February 2020

Rubin is known for her use of colour. She’s become synonymous with it, whether it’s pastels, prints, primary colours or checks, all of the above work themselves seamlessly into one collection because colour is the common denominator. Like RIXO, Olivia Rubin is a “sunny” designer, one that has the feel good factor, you know that when you slip on an Olivia Rubin dress, your mood will lift, and trust me, it really does.

Her Fall Winter collection for 2020 is no exception – filled with sequins so tiny they’re almost fluid, tye dye ombré that was made for lazy vacation evenings and 80’s inspired silhouettes that look achingly cool when complimented with colour blocked opaque tights and wide sash belts; a look I’ll definitely be wearing next season and undoubtedly beyond.

The most easily wearable and relatable look though is seen in Rubin’s signature rainbow colours draped effortlessly through tiers of fabric in either mini, midi or maxi dresses made from swathes of silk and sequins. With wide boat style necks these gorgeous swishy frocks are sure to keep your spirits high when temperatures begin to drop in September, and with her high end high street price point, they’re pretty affordable for us mere mortals too.

Pixie

Categories: The Fashion Closet

What I Wore: Gunne Sax Prairie Dress

When it comes to searching for vintage clothing you most likely have your favourite eras.  Whether it’s the swinging sixties, the flamboyant eighties or the prohibition era – there’s something out there that makes everyones heart flutter.  For me it’s the prairie dress.  Obviously you know this already because I’m always swanning around in them but there are a few different houses and designers who were particularly fantastic at creating the perfect prairie dress.  Roberta and Gunne Sax were two of them who set the bar for the likes of Batsheva and The Vampire’s Wife in 2018 and 19.

Recently I asked a vintage seller I know to help me find an original Gunne Sax dress, a pre-McClintock Gunne Sax with a billowing, layered skirt and a high neck.  Thinking this was an impossible task – she came up trumps with the most beautiful dusky pink dress from the archives.  Ever.  How she managed to track it down I’ll never know.

Gunne Sax is expensive.  For vintage.  It’s not as expensive as regular old high street and it’s still a sustainable option.  They’re very hard to come by and the sizing is tricky to get the hang of as it works from 1-11 rather than 0-whatever and it’s loosely based on the US sizing system.  Gunne Sax sizes are real small but once you find your groove with them they’re absolute keepers.

This one is better than anything I ever could have imagined from a commission, when you ask someone to find something for you you never know what might turn up but this is like something that got up and waltzed off the set of a period drama straight into my wardrobe.

The high street might have jumped on the prairie dress trend, but damn, they really don’t make ’em like this any more!

Pixie