The potential implications of Brexit on the UK fashion and textiles sector so far appear unfounded, with exports last year rising 7% thanks to innovation and interest in the country’s heritage manufacturing, new figures show.
Margaret Howell unveiled her women’s collection alongside men’s wear for the first time at a coed show held at Rambert 99 in Lambeth.
“This opportunity brings the men’s together with the women’s because I always liked the androgynous look on the girl,” said Howell. “I suppose in a way, it’s like a street sort of look, but also contemporary with quality. It’s not so much an inspiration for the collection, it’s continuing.”
She said the themes for the season were confident, independent, casual and natural.
Howell’s strong fall outing for women and men — which followed the same unisex aesthetic — was a relaxed and unfussy collection filled with her signature sturdy, luxe fabrics and classic silhouettes.
There was lots of smart layering in the lineup, which had a haphazard feel and worked well. A navy short cropped wool jacket was worn over an untucked dark blue button-down shirt, matching cropped trousers and short blue paisley necktie for women. Meanwhile, a tan wool overcoat was piled over a brown V-neck knit and a white shirt — which was tucked in halfway — and paired with tapered trousers with a knitted green beanie.
Howell played with scale in silhouettes and went for a more oversize and looser look
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Contemporary artist Domingo Zapata held a lively and fun presentation showing his Love x Fashion x Art collection. He had a number of fans at the presentation, most noteworthy of whom was Lindsay Lohan, who was not doing interviews. For fall, Zapata showed his original hand-painted artwork on various pieces. He broke up the collection into five different categories, each with looks for men and women, starting with a bullfighter-run group that had hand-painted bullfighter jackets, a deconstructed snakeskin moto and a tiered flamenco dress. He went on to show playful panda motifs, sweet florals, a quirky Mona Lisa-inspired group and finally an ode to anarchist punk — all in a variety of jackets, jeans, T-shirts and dresses. But one must ask, how will his wearable art translate off the runway?
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British-born Osman Yousefzada celebrated difference with his upbeat and opulent fall collection, sending forth a cast of his artist friends of different sizes and ages interspersed with his catwalk models.
In an optimistic reaction to the current political climate, specifically immigration issues in America, Yousefzada, whose family hails from Afghanistan, put forth a joyful exploration of color and texture – with lots of happy-by-default sequins. Yousefzada’s use of ethnic references was minimal in this outing, but still evident in the midi-length silk dress printed with a pattern taken from an Afghan rug in his home, and in the wide copper leather sash tied at the waist of a long plaid coat.
There were nods to the Eighties in the OTT ruffles that topped one-shouldered dresses, and in the one-shouldered, egg-yolk-yellow sequined dress. He put his spin on power dressing with a red cropped trouser suit, while a gray blazer had a pair of matching trousers with a gathered flare leg. And a pale-pink cashmere coat topped with a matching fur gilet was pure sophistication.
A red floral jacquard added extra opulence to a full skirt worn with a trim black leather jacket, belted in a jacquard sash, and to a fitted, double-breasted jacket that came with
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Warning: Molly Goddard is a big believer in fantasy frocks that can shine on a runway but are pretty much useless in real life. For fall, there were quite a few of them, alongside some delightful ones that bore her signature smocking and ruching, as well as some baby-doll and ballgown shapes.
After showing off cotton-candy pink, aqua and coral-colored confections, models sat down at Georgian-style dinner tables, chatted and quaffed Champagne.
“I wanted to look at all generations at the dinner table — how they wear clothes and how they evolve — old ladies, babies, middle-aged women,” said the designer, one of London’s fast-rising talents, who sells at Dover Street Market, I.T in Hong Kong and Nordstrom Space, among other stores.
Some of Goddard’s wilder numbers included a cotton-candy-pink dress with tulle skirts and sleeves like ballooning lampshades, a voluminous white nightgown style with ruffles and smocking — based on a christening dress — and a whopper of an aqua tulle gown that turned out bigger than planned — double the size — due to a mistake with the fabric delivery, according to the designer.
More wearable creations included a pleated trapeze top, a gray cotton pleated dress with pouf sleeves, and a lineup of ruched tulle and Lycra leggings, which looked as delicate as
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Combining traditional fabrics with futuristic silhouettes, Christopher Kane’s collection — while hard-edged — was intriguing and strangely appealing. Noting that he wanted to express a “tougher femininity,” the designer looked to the practical uniform that a female factory worker might wear, resulting in some no-frills, mannish shapes. Here was an oversized wool coat, with a row of what the designer called “OCD pockets” on the sleeves, while there was a wide-shouldered gray trench, striped with bands of iridescent foil.
But given Kane’s wont for splicing deliberately disparate design elements together, he worked opulent, feminine silks into some of those angular shapes, too. He fashioned Gainsborough silks in lavish, neoclassical floral designs in peaches, pinks and blues into shiftdresses with stiff, sharp-edged panels, lending the garments an uncompromisingly clinical air.
Amid this laboratory of ideas were quirky space-craft prints inspired by artist Ionel Talpazan on silk smock dresses; pointy-toed, patent pumps padded with yellow kitchen sponges and bits of industrial foam, and a foil-covered cashmere in an oil-slick like color — an effect Kane called “quite grimy and dirty” — worked into pieces such as a formfitting sweater dress. The bejeweled Crocs that Kane unveiled last season were stripped of baubles and lined in fur.
At times, the
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Beauty manufacturer Fisk Industries is heading back to MAGIC after a 15-year absence.
Steven Adler, the company’s president, said, “We do a lot of business in beauty, and we feel our products are right for the clothing industry.”
He plans to show the Difeel brand for hand cream; Hair Chemist for hair care; Dermactin TS for facial masks, and Barielle for nail care. Adler added that the company would be showing for the first time a caviar-infused hair-care line that includes a shampoo, conditioner, hair mask and hair serum. Most products that Fisk plans to show at MAGIC retail between $5 and $10.
Adler said he was influenced by the expansion of beauty products at Urban Outfitters’ Anthropologie, as well as the increase of nail care and nail coloring at mom-and-pop stores. “These are all impulse items. The products lend themselves to clothing [stores] because of their customer base, and the products are not seasonal. If the stores hit the right one and the right line, it can generate extra business,” Adler said. He explained that the opportunity is great for apparel retailers to “get on top of something that’s trending.”
According to Adler, beauty accounts for 30 percent of fashion retail, and he expects
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PARIS — Yves Saint Laurent is back at Colette.
The Paris concept store on Monday unveiled two window displays devoted to the French fashion house, signaling a reconciliation: Saint Laurent had severed ties with the retailer in 2013 after former creative director Hedi Slimane objected to Colette carrying parody T-shirts with the logo “Ain’t Laurent Without Yves.”
Sarah Andelman, Colette’s creative director, purchasing manager and the daughter of store founder Colette Rousseau, said discussions with Saint Laurent resumed after Anthony Vaccarello was named creative director of the brand last year. Colette previously carried Vaccarello’s eponymous line, which he shuttered when he joined Saint Laurent.
“We have worked with Anthony since his first collection. It was obvious that we would be able to work together again,” Andelman told WWD. “As soon as Anthony’s nomination was announced, we met and we started planning the beautiful windows we have right now.”
Vaccarello unveiled the collaboration on his Instagram account.
An image from Anthony Vaccarello’s Instagram account.
Anthony Vaccarello
The windows will remain on show until March 1, the day after Vaccarello parades his fall collection for Saint Laurent. Andelman noted this was exceptional, since the store usually switches its window displays on Sundays.
The display consists of an assemblage of video screens
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SPACE CASE: Christopher Kane is experimenting with see-now-buy-now for fall, with plans to sell two Safety Buckle accessories straight off the runway at his Mount Street store, on christopherkane.com and at retailers including Style.com and Selfridges.
These are not just any accessories, however; they’ve traveled to outer space. Kane’s Devine bag and high-top sneakers, which come in six color combinations, were launched into space on Feb. 6 from Ashbourne in Derbyshire, England and landed about three hours later, within 120 miles from the takeoff spot.
According to the company, the bag and shoe reached altitudes of up to 38 km, or 24 miles, above Earth, with pressures approaching 0 percent compared with sea level, and with temperatures going down to minus-64 degrees Celsius, or minus-147 degrees Fahrenheit.
A see-now-buy-now sneaker by Christopher Kane.
Courtesy
None of this should come as a surprise to anyone who’s familiar with Kane’s work and utter obsession with science and the natural world.
In 2015, he did a color cosmetics capsule collection with Nars that featured neon brights and sparkling shades with science-lab monikers, such as “Starscape Blush,” “Quantum Illuminating Multiple” and “Nucleus Lip Gloss.”
He has a penchant for biology in particular: “I think there’s such a great source of inspiration there,
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Streetwear phenomenon is still in full effect as designers sent out even more puffed-up puffers.
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