Catwalk Fashion

House of Fraser has launched a new area called Testbed on its website to trial five new niche brands dedicated to women’s fashion.

Very by Vero Moda, Paul & Joe Sister, Selected Femme, Almost Famous and Pink Soda are all featured in the new Testbed section of the House of Fraser site. The collection features beautiful tops and dresses to complement the premium denim department. This season’s trends highlight pastel shades, feminine looks and delicate fabrics, all of which are visible through the brands within the Testbed area.

Almost Famous is a British brand established in 2002 and based in the heart of London’s Fitzrovia. Its womenswear collection takes inspiration from style icons of the past, giving the collection a vintage feel. Almost Famous offers unique wearable designs for day to evening and its signature style is eclectic with great attention to detail.

Pink Soda is a sophisticated contemporary brand for the glamorous modern woman. The collection is made up of bead embellished dresses, tops and jersey pieces which are designed to flatter. This brand offers basic essentials that can be worn as stand alone pieces or alongside its denim collection to create a unique look.

If customers are looking for a cosmopolitan contemporary look that oozes confidence and individuality, then Selected Femme is the brand for them as it allows women to create their own personal style. The style is feminine, cool and chic with an edge. The brand cleverly combines the art of classic tailoring with an informal feminine look that can take wearers effortlessly from day to evening.

Very by Vero Moda is a premium and directional diffusion range from the Vero Moda family.  The trend-led very by vero moda label uses luxurious fabrics such as soft silks, lambswool and leathers with the focus on directional yet accessible fashion. It offers timeless pieces that embody sophistication combined with a nod to catwalk trends. Ultra-feminine tops are paired with clean, sleek tailoring and skinny pants are worn with cool T-shirts.

Launched in 2006, Paul & Joe’s Sister is the chic younger diffusion line of Paul & Joe. Named after creator Sophie Albou’s two sons, this label embodies her own style; quirky and bubbly with retro characteristics, using strong kitsch prints to depict her own love of travel. The range includes beautiful flamboyantly printed tunics and silk shirt dresses, cute embellished tops and luxurious knitwear.

Coming in September 2010 a new fashion and film website will launch entitled Imagine Fashion (IF) which will offer a collection of inspired film editorials that are straight from some of the most prominent creative minds in the industries of photography, fashion, film, art, and music. The contributors to the website will be some of the pioneers and respected figureheads of their industries, offering unique views of fashion set in motion through the visual arts viewpoint.

The aim of IF is to provide a unique platform for a luxury and fashion publication to consciously collaborate around the barriers that usually exsiting in the fashion world, instead opening viewers up to the world of digitally viewed fashion. Due to the fact that culture and our surroundings often offer new parameters to judge fashion by, IF will be the first website/publication to offer a look at how the digital world cross-pollinates the way that we perceive fashions that exist around us.

The base of the film fashion site will be editorials that contain multiple layers of content so that users get a full rich experience with insight offered from exclusive sources about the best shopping, news, and new talents that are coming out before they actually break.

Each of these items is carefully crafted to make sure that it is the best out there with layout and aesthetic to match. After all, the top fashion journal online takes care to be fashionable itself.

Those who take a moment to look through the IF site will notice that all contributors at IF offer a creative passion that storms out of the screen through a wide collection of ideas so that both those with little fashion sense and those with vast knowledge of the industry walk away with new information. At the same time, the editors take great care to keep the films highlighted independent from mainstream views, instead offering only films that will alter the perception of viewers.

Thus, the films on the IF site offer a new vision through which fashion can be looked at as a design that integrates luxury, fashion, and artistic triumphs. Thus, viewers get a new way to look at a featured product seeing them in a new life and clearly identifying the venues through which they can purchase the items, or save them in an archive to be perused through at a later date.

The new environment of IF will only offer advertising to companies that are willing to be original and with depth so that partner brands get a premium environment that allows them to build real relationships with interested fashion consumers browsing the site. The audience that the IF site is aiming to attract are those with open minds ready to nurture the unique fusion of fashion inspirations that IF is able to create in its unique digital format.

Here is a taster of what to expect.

Last month London was set for its Fashion Week to begin – the celebrity front row was in place, the famous models at the ready and the beautiful clothes ready to make their debut down the catwalk, just a couple of things missing – the eye-watering price tags and the designer labels.

That was the end of the show then, you might think, but you’d be wrong – it was only the beginning.

Model Erin O’Connor strutted down the catwalk at the Saatchi Gallery, wearing an outfit from the high street store Reiss. Other retailers on the runway included French Connection and New Look. The off-schedule show launched O’Connor’s campaign with the fashion magazine Look which was to make the high street part of the “elitist” London Fashion Week.

O’Connor, who was once the vice-chair of London Fashion Week, said: “Fashion week always seemed so closed off; that’s such a shame as ordinary women are the lifeblood of this industry. I hate this idea that fashion is only for the select few, it’s for everyone, and the high street allows that.”

The show united 14 high street shops, and was the only one which opened to consumers. In contrast to the usual, official line-up, which showcases collections for the next seasons, this show’s featured garments were also available straight after the show.

A digital schedule was launched, that streamed the show live online, helping bring it to a wider audience and make it more accessible to everyone in this digital age.

Fashion is a subject that interests most people to some degree and saving money is something that interests all, so to combine these two is a match made in heaven and this is exactly what price comparison site moneysupermarket.com has done.

Their new fantastic vouchers channel offers everyone the chance to save money on their latest fashion purchases and with many popular high street stores creating designs suitable for the catwalk, you can look stylish and elegant for a lot less and moneysupermarket.com “search thousands of UK offers for the latest voucher codes and discount vouchers”.

Paris Fashion Week has barely gotten underway and already a large divide is forming between those watching the show, the fur sleeves issue.

Although many people may remember the days of Peta and supermodels who refused to wear animal skin, but it seems that with the amount of fur on the runway that in Paris such concerns are now yesterday’s news.

In fact, a large amount of designers seemed to have the same fashion inspiration in mind including Lanvin, Nina Ricci, and Gaspard Yurkievich all of whom along with others used fur sleeves on their jackets which outside of the fur were basic designs.

Outside of this signature look, the fashion season in Paris still feels pretty fresh with enough commercial appeal to sale the fashions. For example, one common fashion trend is heavy wool coats that tailor in at the waist placed overtop of decorative sheath tanks pieces.

Ina Ricci showed off some beautiful silk ensembles on dresses and tops in romantic rich colours such as deep red, aubergine, and purple.
Dries Van Noten also followed the trend with trousers and utilitarian coats which buckled over the stormy but soft colours and prints that his label is known for.

Eighties were another common theme on the catwalk with Studio 54 inspired silky jumpsuits from Gaspard Yurkievich and Lanvin’s large shoulders that towered gracefully over in line should dresses and coats. Also common throughout both lines were chunky tribal jewellery pieces and feathers seen everywhere including on earrings.

1st April 2010 will see the iconic brand of Dr Martens turn 50 years old. The make has survived the test of time, starting out as a simple working man’s shoe, ideal for the policeman, postmen, and the British working class. It has since grown into the symbol of anti-establishment and non-conformity and continues to make a statement by those who wear them.

From punk rock to ska, from indie to grunge and emo, Dr Martens boots have played a crucial role in British culture and heritage. It was a brand that was most aligned with anarchy and although you can buy a pair adorned with flowers now, they still have the edge over their competitors when it comes to making a statement. Theses classic shoes have been worn by Sid Vicious, Billy Bragg, Pete Townshend, Kurt Cobain and Morrissey amongst others and the list goes on to include Madonna, Kate Moss, Agyness Deyn even the Pope! The Dr Martens shoe still balances that fine line between fashion and comfort.

So Happy Birthday to the DM and here’s to another 50 years of brilliant design.

Alice in Wonderland actress Jemma Price has been modelling the new collection from
www.lizprice.co.uk.  Jemma plays the part of Margaret Kingsleigh (Alice’s older sister) in the recently released Tim Burton’s adaptation of the Lewis Caroll classic.

The new collection has been created using quality fabrics, with stylish attention to detail, and there will be new designs throughout the season. Look out for the silk and cotton mix camisoles with co-ordinating long sleeve T shirts trimmed with lace, for everyday basics, and the new jersey collection consisting of the perfect waterfall cardigan to compliment the classic Stella or Niko tops.

Later in the year, there will be a cashmere collection later this year and still a prominent part of the collection is the Lize Price jewellery range. Made in the UK and designed by Liz, each piece is made with one of the dresses or tops in mind.