COACHELLA FASHION: THE FOUR EASY RULES OF FESTIVAL FASHION, PLUS TUPAC RISES FROM THE DEAD

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

Hanna Gaby Odiele and Kasia Struss rocking out at Coachella (image from Harper's Bazaar)

It's a pleasingly predictable occurrence at this time of year: the hype surrounding Coachella as the first music festival of the year. There is always buzz about the line-up, the attendees and What 'Everyone' (aka fashion bunnies) Will Wear. But what is quite comforting about the photos which pour out of Coachella - which is near Palm Spring in California - and therefore has quite warm weather - is that what people wear never really changes that much. The general uniform is frayed denim shorts, some form of boots (Dr Martens/ wellington/ worker) a cool top (boho fringing or graphic print), and some sweet friendship necklace/wristband type thing, not forgetting the obligatory slouchy bag. This is a good thing.  When in daily life there are many ways to look cool, so many options that it can often be overwhelming, Coachella, and festivals in general, are places where it is easy to look pretty fab in four easy steps. Not including getting off your face and lost in music, obvs.

THE FOUR RULES
1. Denim shorts
2. Cute little top
3. Work boots
4. Slouchy bag

Here are a few of our favourite takes on the denim shorts look...

Kate Bosworth in animal tee and little Mulberry bag. I'm a big fan of the
lime fish earrings too (image from  harpersbazaar.com)

Coachella not scout camp- boyish badges and camouflage, and hey is that Josephine de la Baume? (image from harpersbazaar.com)

Ok, they're coloured denim but these laced up shorts are along the same lines. Really love the scarf flapping in the wind and wintry hat (from www.mrnewton.net)

Zanna Roberts Rossi lets her bleached and ripped denims take centre stage. This is a bit chavvy for us at FEAL.  (image from harpersbazaar.com)

The Zombie that is Sky Ferreira does double denim, and looks more grungy than cutesy festival.  (image from www.fashionologie.com)

When the festival fashion formula is so easy - read: safe - it takes a lot of sass to veer off course. These girls did and we love them for it. Hanne and Karla (top and below) are my best dressed for the sole reason that they actually look like they're at a festival. They're a bit thrown together but there's not a a denim cut off in sight plus they actually look like they're having a brilliant time. 

It's Hanne and Karla again... LOVE Hanne's fringing, face paint and pewter patterned trousers (image from  www.harpersbazaar.com)

Best Dressed Who Are Clearly VIPs at an Exclusive Party Rather than Moshing in with Everyone Else...

Harley Viera Newton looking very sweet in pastels and Charlotte Olympia slippers. (image from HarpersBazaar.com)

Alexa Chung in Phillip Lim- a sweet evening dress and Jesus sandals. Not an outfit for muddy days or tents. Long gone are the Barbour days for Alexa (image from Derek Blasberg at Harper's Bazaar)

Nathalie Love and Gia Coppola (image from Vogue)

Best Dressed Normal People...

I have no idea what this girl is actually wearing, but her make-up is fabulous enough to warrant a special mention (image from Huffington Post)

Blanket coats...

Image from HuffingtonPost.com

What festivals are all about... 

Image from www.huffingtonpost.com

Best dressed man: Kanye West in Celine SS11. We like the 80s open chest plus medallion styling. 

Kanye in Celine (image from harpersbazaar.com)

See through rucksacks? These girls must be staying at The Standard or The Parker as their bags are filled with lollipops and bright fun things rather than pants and wet wipes. 

Image from Vogue

PLUS, you MUST WATCH the hologram performance from Tupac and Snoop Dog. It's moving and beautiful and quite unbelievable that a performer could be so present nearly 16 years after his death....

CAN VOGUE TURN THE TIDE ON THE CULTURE OF "THINNESS"?

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

We, world, are messed up; on the one hand, one in four adults in the UK is obese with that figure projected to double in the next 20 years. On the other, there is a widespread obsession with 'thinness', which is almost always blamed on the fashion industry. But, do nine year-olds read Vogue? No, they watch TV, and use the Internet.

On the Daily Mail website today, a quick count down the infamous sidebar-of-shame shows 24 different stories which refer in some way to a female celebrity's body, whether she is 'showing off her tiny tummy' or 'heading to the gym after her fast food slip up'. Vogue has a circulation of around 200,000 while the Daily Mail has 52 million unique visitors each month. Nobody has boycotted the Daily Mail or Heat magazine yet, so all of us who check the site or the read the magazine, even as a guilty pleasure, are feeding the monster.

A Kardashian hits the gym today to work off the burger she ate yesterday. 

The Daily Mail today uses this picture as confirmation of Drew Barrymore's pregnancy. WHAT?

Vogue, Elle or Grazia would never be able to write a story along the "look at her cellulite", "ooh she is thin" lines;  they would be villified. So how does the Daily Mail get away with it?  The readership is complicit.  However, judging by a triumvirate of comments coming from Camp Vogue this week the power players of fashion are sick of the culture of thinness in the media and are fighting back, and to my mind winning.

On Monday, Vogue's new Fashion Editor Fran Burns told Business of Fashion," I never want to make women look ugly or depressing or too thin or miserable. None of those things."  Also on Monday, Vogue Italia editor Franca Sozzani told Harvard University "We will do our best, but it will be impossible to fight this widespread idea of thinness all by ourselves". In an interview which she gave to The Guardian this weekend, British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman explained the thinness problem (which she has tried to address in the past by writing to the world's biggest designers) in this way-

'I find it very frustrating and I don't know quite where it comes from, but I think if I had to absolutely nail it, [it's] probably the designers, because they're the ones who are cutting the clothes so small. And if the girl can't fit into the clothes, then they won't get booked. So then you've got the model agent saying: 'You've got to lose weight.' And then, when it comes down the wire, the photographers – and to some extent the fashion editors – want to use the girls that they think are the cool girls, and the cool girls are the ones who have got to be working with the designers, so it kind of feeds itself'

I'd like to give high fashion magazines a break when it comes to this problem- they do seem to have a done a lot to address issues in the industry over the past few years. But it's hard, when on one side they are duty bound to use healthy but slim models for their pages, yet when it comes to actual celebrities their standards slip. They need girls like of of the moment, 'cool girls' like Alexa Chung on their pages, but if she were just a model they probably would not hire her because she is too thin. It is a catch 22.

Barely a week goes by when images of her wearing exactly the kind of fashion Vogue needs to feature are beamed around the world. Alexa in a Chris Kane dress or J.W Anderson paisley PJs are gold dust for British fashion. Alexa has become scarily thin of late yet she is still in Vogue and nobody dares mention it. There's a lot of skirting round the issue, like interviews which mention her playing with her food and sort of forgetting to eat it.

I think it IS terrifying that Alexa is the girl every fashion obsessed teen and twenty-something wants to be, but also that someone isn't making sure she's being looked after. We have to separate the fashion from the girl.

I hope people remember Alexa is not just a clothes horse (image from www.glamourmagazine.co.uk)

If you have an eating disorder, then you ARE ugly, depressed and miserable. And I know, because I had anorexia for four years when I was a young teenager. I'm no psychiatrist but I would hazard a guess that my problem, and that of hundreds of thousands of others, is not really rooted in fashion magazines but in our relationships, genetics and personalities. In fact, I'd be quite offended if someone had tried to explain away my problem with a prescription of fashion cold turkey. As Hadley Freeman said in her brilliant column on this subject last year, 'eating disorders have existed for hundreds of years, predating, amazingly, Kate Moss'.

Maybe designers need to use a bit more fabric so that they can make their sample sizes more realistic. But that's not going to un-fuck-up a world where a normal sized person thinks they're fat or where it's fine to say 'oh my god, you're looking so skinny' but unheard of to tell an obese person that they're doing themselves no favours. I am really happy that Vogue is taking up this issue, but I hope that everyone else doesn't think it's just Vogue's battle to fight. It's really patronising to those suffering with eating disorders to tell them that their life threatening, debilitating illness has been brought on by them looking at some pictures of thin people in nice clothes.

THE WEEK IN FASHION: 12th- 16th MARCH

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

The Week in Fashion is back from its fashion month break and ready to bring you, our lovely readers their end of week fashion news round-up. Following the marathon of catwalk shows you'd think people of the fashion world might have spent the week collapsed on the sofa in the recovery position, however I'm pleased to say that there's plenty to tell you about...

Samantha Cameron, in Alessandra Rich, and Michelle Obama, in Marchesa, at Wedesnday's State Dinner (image from dailymail.co.uk)

Just in case you hadn't noticed, Dave and Sam Cam dropped into the White House for a few days this week to visit the Obamas. Instead of your average bunch of flowers or bottle of wine, the Brit contingent came bearing gifts of a ping pong table and a Jonathan Saunders scarf. There was a State Dinner attended by politicians, celebrities and other powerful people like Anna Wintour. The US Vogue editor picked a Chanel couture gown which she had already, shock horror, worn once before back in 2009.

Anna Wintour at the Met Gala in 2009. She wore the same dress to
Wednesday night's state dinner (image from www.nymag.com)

Michelle and Samantha naturally did us all proud on the fashion front. Alessandra Rich dressed the PM's wife in a floor-length, high neck blue lace gown from her Spring/ Summer collection. The style reflects the new covered up fashion mood we're feeling for AW12. It has been said that the dress was Sam Cam's own way of bringing a bit of real-life Downton Abbey to Americans who are going crazy for the series. Meanwhile, Mrs Obama went for her tried and tested State Dinner look- knockout dress and chunky necklace. Her outfit was by Marchesa; luckily Georgina Chapman, the woman behind the label, was at the dinner to see her good work in action. During the visit, Sam Cam also wore a few of her favourite London designers including Emilia Wickstead, Burberry and the gorgeous Roksanda Ilincic.

SamCam in Roksanda Ilincic with Michelle O in Zac Posen (image from in style.co.uk)

Huge congratulations to Lucy Yeomans, currently Editor-in-Chief at Harper's Bazaar, who will be moving to Net-a-Porter to head up their editorial offering from September. The move is another indicator of the way retail and editorial are becoming ever more intertwined. DisneyRoller Girl has written about what this means for the fashion industry. Jenny Dickinson, currently at Elle, will become Acting Editor at Harper's Bazaar. We look forward to seeing Net-a-Porter with the Lucy Yeomans touch.

In more moving-about news, Barney's Ney York Vice President and Fashion Director, Amanda Brooks, resigned this week and announced plans to move to the UK. We wonder if we'll be seeing her take up a big job in London sometime soon?

Nicholas Sarkozy awards Franca Sozzani with France's highest honour (image from fashionologie.com)

Congratulations are also in order for Vogue Italia editor, Franca Sozzani who was awarded France's highest honour, the Knight of the Legion of Honour, in Paris this week. Many of the great and good from Italian and French fashion were there, including Raf Simons, Karl Lagerfeld, Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce, indeed Franca was wearing straight-off-the-catwalk Dolce and Gabbana for the occasion. Franca is the world's most accessible Vogue editor, with over 80,000 Twitter followers and a daily blog on the Vogue Italia site. She posted Conde Nast's Chairman Jonathan Newhouse's speech the day after the ceremony, it's a great read.

Sparks flying: Arizona and Freja for Chloe (image from telegraph.co.uk)

My own personal number one model, Arizona Muse, has this week been announced as the new face of Estee Lauder. The beauty giant's Creative Director, Richard Ferretti, told WWD that "Arizona is warm, engaging and smart. She has an innate graciousness that we believe will translate to whatever advertising we choose to do with her." Apparently, Muse's first Lauder ads will be out "within a year". We can already enjoy Arizona in ads for Fendi, Massimo Dutti and Chloe, in which she appears with Freja Erichsen, her sometime girlfriend. Arizona has said that she is a big fan of Estee Lauder's Re-Nutriv- we're adding that to our shopping list this weekend then.

House of Holland SS12 (from catwalking.com)

If you're planning a spot of shopping this weekend then may we suggest that you head to Harrods where the new House of Holland collection drops today? We've had a sneak peek and love the Miami pastel shades and over blown animal prints. Our favourite piece might just be the pastel panel shirt (above). Harrods have also made the lovely Mr Holland their designer of the month. They've given FEAL this little video in which Henry talks about how he started off working on magazines before moving into design- his big break came when Gareth Pugh and Giles Deacon wore his tees to take their bows in 2006. Check out the full interview below and on the Harrods site

Else Schiaparelli, the Surrealist designers whose label Galliano was said to be in talks to
reinvent this week. 

There is still plenty of designer musical chairs action going on. And it's only increased this week with news that Derek Lam is leaving Tod's after six years designing for the classic Italian label. There have also been rumours that John Galliano is set to make a return. Vogue and WWD reported this week that he may have been set to reinvent Schiaparelli, which is now owned by the Tod's group. However, Galliano's spokesman claimed they were 'rumours and nothing more'.

Alexa Chung in Holly Fulton, one of the designers who'll be up for grabs at the British Designers Collective (image from Vogue via catwalkqueen.tv)

If you're a regular reader, then you'll know that we're getting prepped to visit the British Designers Collective at Bicester Village which launches next Wednesday. So, we were very happy to hear this week that one of Britain's best fashion ambassadors, Alexa Chung, is the spokesperson for the initiative. She'll be there on Wednesday and so will FEAL so look out for updates on what Miss Chung loves about the fact we get to buy pieces from the hottest Brit designers at Bicester Village's reduced prices.

Avenue 32 is a new web shopping site which gives each designer their own space- the aim is to make it a personalised experience, more like popping into a designer's own boutique than scrolling through web pages which group many brands together. Just a few of the designers who have areas on the site include Giles, 3.1 Phillip Lim, Preen and Emilio de la Morena. We like!

Now Avenue 32 have created a film 'What are you gonna wear?' which showcases the new designers landing for SS12. To celebrate, they are also offering anyone savvy enough to enter the chance to win a £4,000 Spring/Summer wardrobe. You can find out more details and enter here- what are you waiting for?

Mary and the team in their knicker factory (image from dailymirror.co.uk)

Finally, we hope you were all enjoyed Mary's new show 'Mary's Bottom Line' on Channel 4 last night. It's a three-part series in which Mary dusts off the sewing machines at an old textile factory in Middleton and employs eight young people from the area to launch her Made in Britain "Kinky Knickers". It's pretty emotional but also a really interesting exploration of how the decline in manufacturing has affected whole towns in the UK. And the knickers, I can personally vouch, are lovely. Get them now at Liberty, in-store and online. Our favourites are the pink and peach.

THE BRITISH FASHION AWARDS.... CANDID CAMERA

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large
I've gathered up some of the pictures which guests were tweeting and tumbling as a bit of change from the night's official pictures.

There also are a few videos from the night's proceedings. If you weren't there then this is surely this is the next best thing?!

Abbey Clancy with Kristen McMenamy(from LOVE magazine's twitter)

Model of the Year, Stella Tennant, with Kristen (from LOVE magazine twitter)

British Style Award winner Alexa Chung, in Christopher Kane (from Net-a-Porter tumblr)

Amber Le Bon in Peter Pilotto *jelz* (from net-a-porter tumblr)

Caroline Sieber's shoes- pretty sure they're Charlotte Olympia (from Net-a-Porter's twitter)

Christopher Kane, winner of the New Establishment Award (and soon to be Uncle to sister and business partner Tammy's new baby) from Net-a-Porter's tumblr

Chris Kane accepts his New Establishment Award....

Daphne Guinness in Gareth Pugh (from Grazia's twitter feed)

David Gandy chats in the Net-a-Porter lounge (from net-a-porter tumblr)

Kate Moss with Sam Gainsbury, to whom she presented the
 Isabella Blow Fashion Creator award

Kate on stage (from Laura Craik's twitter)

Fashion blondies, Poppy Delevigne and British Fashion Cultural Ambassador,
Laura Bailey (from Laura's twitter)

The 'Loser' table- I can definitely see Paula Reed from Grazia, Jonathan Saunders and
 Kristen McMenamy. Losers indeed! (from LOVE magazine's twitter)

AW, Mary Katrantzou (Emerging Talent winner, yay!) with Alexander Fury from
showstudio.com (@fashedatlarge)

Watch Mary winning...

Sarah Burton backstage after winning Designer of the Year (Grazia's twitter)

Sarah accepts her award as Sam Cam looks on (from @fashedatlarge)

Watch Sarah collecting her award... 

Stella looks on as her mate Kate poses (Grazia's twitter)

Stella and Kate (BritFashAwards twitter)

Watch Stella getting her award...



You can watch all the event highlights here:



And the winners were:


DESIGNER OF THE YEAR - Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen

DESIGNER BRAND - Victoria Beckham

RED CARPET AWARD - Stella McCartney

ACCESSORY DESIGNER - Charlotte Olympia

MODEL - Stella Tennant

BRITISH STYLE AWARD - Alexa Chung

MENSWEAR DESIGNER - Kim Jones

EMERGING TALENT AWARD - ACCESSORIES - Tabitha Simmons

EMERGING TALENT AWARD - MENSWEAR - Christopher Raeburn

ISABELLA BLOW AWARD FOR FASHION CREATOR - Sam Gainsbury

NEW ESTABLISHMENT AWARD - Christopher Kane

BFC OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN FASHION - Paul Smith

FASHION GOES TORY???

Guest Post by George Langford (Glitterbird)
aka the NEW Fashion Junior at Large

Fashion and politics don't always mix, but it seems that Mr Cameron's recent arrival at Number 10 has had a significant effect on the style set. It may be 20 years since the Conservatives were last in power, but it has taken about 20 minutes for two very Tory garments to become essential fashion items for young cool scenesters everywhere. The Barbour jacket and straw boater hat, previously the uniform of public schoolboys and huntin', shootin' country folk, are now two of this summer's must-have items.

       The Barbour "Bedale" jacket £179 from www.barbourbymail.co.uk

Barbour is an authentic, family owned British brand, which has long been the favoured supplier of outdoor garments to such style doyennes as the Duchess of Cornwall and the Queen.

 HRH Princess Royal showing the cool kids how it is done back in 1988!

The extremely Conservative, upper class jackets are traditionally dark forest green with a tartan lining and particularly pongy waterproof wax coating - so why on earth have they suddenly become fashionable?

This trend has been a slow-burning phenomenon of the power of street style - without any involvement by the brand itself, these jackets have fast become the only outerwear to be seen in, and if you aren't sporting one at a festival this summer, you might as well not have bothered going. Over the last three years, the Shoreditch set have embraced these chunky, hard wearing coats, and Barbour-fever has quickly spread across the rest of the UK.

Boys are rocking the 'Hackney Farmer' look, and smartening up their t-shirts and skinnies by slinging on a wax jacket, whilst girls are teaming theirs with floaty mini dresses and chunky boots for a surprisingly practical festival outfit.  Most bright young things are snapping up second hand Barbours at bargain prices - a brand new one can set you back around £200. However Barbour are quickly producing new styles to keep up with the fickle tastes of the festival crowd - wearing last years model is almost as bad as wearing some neon Wayfarer sunglasses (quelle horreur!). Alexa, Pixie Geldof et al were all wearing their Barbour "Bedale" see below and above at last weekend's Isle of Wight festival, so this trend ain't going nowhere (for this summer at least.) The other Barbour style storming up the popularity charts is the "Antique Coastal Durham".

 Alexa Chung at the Isle of Wight festival in her Bedale

The Antique Coastal Durham, £199.95 from barbourbymail.co.uk

To get the genuine, country-fied Barbour look, have a look at Oxfam's vintage selection here or get a brand new one from BarbourByMail.
 

Also making a comeback is the straw boater hat, which has quickly usurped all other styles to be the headwear of choice. Boaters were usually only seen on the heads of very, very posh public schoolboys - they have been regulation accessories at Harrow and Eton for hundreds of years. Apart from a once yearly outing at the (also very posh) Henley regatta, boaters had been consigned to the fashion skip.

Public schoolboys at Henley

A minor celebrity called Lady Gaga wore one last year and kick started the boater revolution - now these cute, easy to wear hats are all over the high street and on the heads of many a style maven.

Gaga in 2009, looking fairly normal, wearing a boater

 CherryBlossomGirl's best pal and fellow blogger, Louise, at Paris Fashion Week. http://www.misspandora.fr/

They are infinitely more chic than the trilby and cowboy styles that seem to reappear every summer, perhaps because they are remain true to a traditional design, just like the Barbour jackets. Gabrielle Chanel originally made boaters fashionable back in the early 1900s - and anything that was good enough for Coco is good enough for me. I bought my own boater from the Angel's Vintage sale way back in March, much to the ridicule of my peers, but look who is laughing now...

If you want to buy your very own boater, check out the Urban Outfitters version here or this classic style from Albertus Swanepoel at Net-a-porter.

Perhaps this move towards traditional British heritage garments is some sort of ironic protest against the Conservative government - a subversive sartorial mockery of the class divide. Wearing a Barbour or a boater is no longer the sole territory of Home Counties residents - everyone is at it! Young, old, 'have' or 'have not', it doesn't matter anymore. Wear your countryside garments with pride and the knowledge that you know you are being ironic, even if no-one else does.

(Images: Wayne Tippet, Rex, Peter Stigter)