British Fashion Awards 2008

MODEL – Jourdan Dunn
Nominees – Agyness Deyn, Lily Donaldson

DESIGNER BRAND – Jimmy Choo
Nominees – Agent Provocateur, Paul Smith

ISABELLA BLOW AWARD FOR FASHION CREATOR – Tim Walker
Nominees – Pat McGrath, Terry Jones

MENSWEAR DESIGNER – Christopher Bailey for Burberry

Nominees – Richard James, Paul Smith

ACCESSORY DESIGNER – Rupert Sanderson
Nominees – Lara Bohinc, Jonathan Kelsey

SWAROVSKI EMERGING TALENT AWARD – READY-TO-WEAR – Louise Goldin

Felder Felder, Danielle Scutt

RED CARPET DESIGNER – Matthew Williamson
Nominees – Giles Deacon, Stella McCartney

SWAROVSKI EMERGING TALENT AWARD – ACCESSORIES – Nicholas Kirkwood
Nominees – Charlotte Olympia, Anna Vince

Excellent news for equal opportunities, as a black model Jourdan Dunn wins, maybe British Vogue will follow the lead of Italian Vogue earlier this year and feature her on the cover. Although slight concern that the winner has thighs the same size of her upper arms, models are thin yes, but Jourdan is extremely so.

Matthew Williamson also announced at his win for red carpet designer of the year, his plans to join forces with H&M for their spring/summer collection 2009. He will be in good company as previously Stella McCartney and Viktor and Rolf has also put their name to the Swedish high street brand.

Models with own lighting for Autumn 2007

Victor and Rolf are best known for being a an incredibly close dutch design duo. They describe themselves as twins and both dress the same and finish each others sentences.

Viktor & Rolf met while studying fashion at the Arnhem art academy. After graduating they moved to Paris, interning for brands such as Maison Martin Margiela, designing their own clothes in the evenings and presenting them in the art circuit.^[1] In 1993, Viktor & Rolf won the Festival d’Hyeres prize.

In 1998, Viktor & Rolf put on an unauthorized, underground fashion show during Paris Fashion Week designed to attract members of the press. Ready-to-wear and their menswear label “Monsieur” were to follow over the next five years. Viktor & Rolf also produces women’s shoes and hand bags (designed by Dutch designer Fredie Stevens), glasses (Asia only), neckties, scarves and lingerie. Viktor & Rolf have also worked as curators for several exhibitions, and have designed stage-outfits for several theatre productions. According to the designers, “For us, fashion is an antidote to reality.”

In 2003, the Fashion Museum in Paris presented a 10-year retrospective of the designers’ work. In 2005 they opened their first, flagship shop in the Golden Quadrilateral (Quadrilatero d’Oro) in Milan, and were contracted by L’Oreal to develop their first perfume, called Flowerbomb. In 2006, their first men’s perfume, Antidote, was introduced in the US. Viktor told Harper’s BAZAAR the fragrance was “all about the power of transformation. The power of every individual to turn anything into something positive.”

In November of 2006, Viktor & Rolf followed Karl Lagerfeld and Stella McCartney in designing a line for the Swedish-based retailer H&M.

Characteristics of their clothes include layering, distorting, exaggerating and repeating of classical design elements (blouses with 10 nested collars, upside-down and lop-sided dresses). Full article.

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Continuing with the success of their popular range of clothing for H&M, the cheeky designers Viktor & Rolf

The design duo launching the range

have ventured into the wedding market.

Launching their collection with only one dress, fashion concious shoppers snapped up the gown, only for them to appear on Ebay at double the price hours later.

They have also included a mens tuxedo and other wedding appropriate wear to the range. See High Street Brides for more budget alternatives.

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Giorgio Armani has been presented the French award “Officer of the Legion of Honor” by President Nicolas Sarkozy. The award, akin to a British OBE, has been given for his services to fashion. Celebrities there to watch the ceremony, included Carla and Silvia Fendi, Nathalie Rykiel, Lady Helen Taylor, Eugenia Silva, Mafalda von Hessen and Oscar winner Helen Mirren. Tina Turner also sang an impromtu version of Simply the Best. Full Article

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Prada have now lunched their haute couture range of bags.

For £2,500 Prada will now make bags “to order”, with a variety of material and colours to choose from. This bespoke service can be ordered from Harrods‘ or Prada’s Sloane Square store, with a delivery time is around two months. Who says fashion waits for no one!

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The Famous Red Sole

According to a survey by the Luxury Institute Christian Louboutin’s shoes are currently The ‘most sought after shoe’. The famous shoes, with their trade mark vinyl red soles, were so coveted that they topped a survey in June 2008.

The shoes normally retail between £400 and £800 a pair and are staple of many celebrity wardrobes, who love the paparazzi attracting red flash as they walk.

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Christian Louboutin’s new flagship store is now to open in Mayfair, London.

French shoe designer, Christian Louboutin, famous for red-soled shoes, has taken a 2,850 sq ft store on two floors at 17 Mount Street at around £162,500 a year. This is the second store to open in London for Louboutin this year, who also opened a new store in the in Harvey Nichols, London.

Christian Louboutin already have a store in London, at 23 Motcomb Street Knightsbridge, SW1X 8LB, though with the stores in Harvey Nichols, and the new flagship store relatively close (only 1.5 miles away), it is not known if they will keep this.

Mount Street, Mayfair is becoming increasingly popular with luxury designers with recent the recent additions to the street including the classic Parisian designer Balenciaga. Other luxury shops on Mount Street are: Marc Jacobs, Nicky Clarke, and Sautter of Mayfair. There is some excellent dining on the street as well.

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H&M is now moving into the “Organic” market, and is increasing its efforts to produce clothes made from ethical sources. These clothes are due to be launched across their department stores in Autumn 2009.

The retailer has also announced it will incorporate other organic materials such as recycled wool and polyester. “We are now using organic cotton in all departments,” said H&M Head of Design, Ann-Sofie Johansson.

In the same month Stella McCartney has released her own organic range exclusively at Harvey Nichols.

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On July 3rd 2008 Stella McCartney launched the first ever Stella McCartney Organic Collection.

The launch was held at Harvey Nichols 5th Floor restaurant, with guests including , Sophie Ellis Bextor, Corrine Day, Laura Bailey, Camille Belle, Dasha Zhukova, and Bella Freud.

Stella said “The biggest compliment tonight was that most of the people here didn’t even know the collection was organic.”

The 20-piece Organic Collection has all been ethically sourcing. The collection is now available at Harvey Nichols, exclusively.

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Matches is a boutique chain of eleven stores based across, North and South West London. Regularly used by celebrities and the fashion forward, Matches has become the one stop shop for well chosen designer pieces. Most of the stores carry a range of carefully selected designers however MaxMara and Diane von Fustenberg are featured however, the stores also have space allocated to emerging and new designers.

Every season they edit the international collections right down to the most sought after key pieces and are a really good indicator of chic. It is very hard to ‘go wrong’ in Matches and they even have different ‘atmospheres’ in each shop, to enable clients to furthur individually identify with the brand.

Regularly referenced in the media, Matches is fast moving from a small chain of boutiques to a wider market with the introduction of their online shopping service. Global domination awaits.

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