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)
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.
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....
Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large, with assistance from Joshua Drew
New York Fashion Week is well and truly under way, but there's plenty of news from all corners of the fashion world keeping us entertained this week....
The Queen by Karl (image www.metro.us)
Editor-in-chief was the new title given to Karl Largerfeld last week. The creative director of luxury French house Chanel turned his cutoff leather gloves to editing one of France’s biggest national newspapers, Metro, demonstrating once again his infamous superhuman abilities.
Karl's sketch commenting on the troubles in Syria (image www.metro.us)
After recently promoting his KARL by Karl Lagerfeld collection for Net-A-Porter (in a unique interview in which Karl interviews himself) we were glad to see the German designer being interviewed by a third party once more. Among Karl's list of favourite places to shop and eat were controversial comments about Adele, which proved a hot water topic amongst tweeters worldwide as Lagerfeld described the singer as "too fat." Another controversial Karl comment (JD) We hasten to add that Mr Lagerfeld has since apologised!
Miu Miu's London bags (image from graziadaily.co.uk)
All the major fashion cities- New York, London, Milan and Paris- went head to head this week as Miu Miu spoiled us with more of their fab accessories, just in time for fashion weeks. The collection comprises 46 styles in everything from ostrich and python skin to brocade and glitter. Very nice, but naughty with pieces starting £1,295 (JD)
New York bags from Miu Miu (image from graziadaily.co.uk)
Talking of amazing accessories, YSL's Cruise video is a delectable three minutes of fashion and accessory p*rn...
You're safe with LV (image from telegraph.co.uk)
Louis Vuitton is getting sexy. With the release of the most exclusive contraceptive to date, the LV condom is taking the brand's sexy kudos even higher heights than THAT AW11 fetish show. Would you take Vuitton to bed?
Another batch of magazine covers for us to mull over. We're mostly loving Victoria Beckham on iD, a completely unexpected match made in editorial heaven....
image from telegraph.co.uk
Fabulous Kate Moss in Erdem on W
image from telegraph.co.uk
Despite the dodgy reviews of his debut SS12 show, Kanye West confirmed that he'll be back at Paris in a few weeks to show his second collection. On top of that, it looks like the rapper turned designer might be ready for a diffusion range. he was apparently spotted having lunch with Phillip Green this week. Naturally, this has fuelled rumours of a Topshop collaboration.
Kanye West SS12 (image from catwalking.com)
While everyone on Twitter was complaining about the number of English people who are now willing to stay up for Super Bowl, my theory (from the evidence of my twitter feed, so biased perhaps) is that everyone was staying up for Madonna's half time show. She didn't disappoint with her Givenchy costume. The performance was pretty awesome too.
Riccardo Tisci's sketches for Madonna's costume (www.vogue.co.uk)
All Madonna images from dailymail.co.uk
And one of our favourite looks for NYFW yesterday comes from label to watch, Creatures of the Wind. Happy Weekend!
One of the most hyped events of Paris Fashion Week was Kanye West's debut collection which was shown on Saturday night. There had long been rumours about who the musician might be collaborating with for his first foray into design after a longtime FROW presence. And he dived straight in at the deep-end with a full-on catwalk show at an imposing venue (the grand library of a French lycee opposite the pantheon) on the Saturday night of the Paris schedule. Basically, this was always going to be a BIG DEAL.
Kanye with Chanel Iman and Sky Ferreira (WWD.COM)
For the vast majority of Fashion Editors, the clothes haven't quite lived up to the hype. At The New York Times, Eric Wilson said 'What Mr. West eventually showed was confusing'. Tim Blanks on Style.com wrote that 'what we actually saw was something that looked like a baby Balmain vision of womenswear'. While Lisa Armstong's headline read 'Kanye West's Paris Fashion Week debut was rap with a capital C'. And it wasn't just Fashion Editors having a dig, Malcolm Harris, a designer with connections to the worlds of art, film and music writes an open letter to Kanye begging him to go back to what he does best. All over OUCH.
People were confused by Kanye's use of fur in a Spring/ Summer collection
The models were sent out in clothes which didn't fit
Kanye seems to have pre-empted his critics with the speech he gave at the after-show party. WWD reported his words and we thought we'd post them here in the spirit of true fashion justice.... What do you think?
“Thank you for anybody that didn’t believe, because they motivated us to break our boundaries,” he said.
“We don’t know what the reviews will be, we don’t know what they will say, but I got a chance to go to Italy and feel those fabrics. I begged Louis Vuitton to let me do more shoes after my shoes sold out in two weeks, and they did not. I begged Nike, I begged this company to let me do it. And I took out motherf---ing loans to get the best models, to get the best designers, to get the best venue. I gave you everything that I had.
“This is my first collection. Please be easy. Please give me a chance to grow. This is not some celebrity s---. I don’t f--- with celebrities. I f--- with the creatives in this room, the amazing people who spend every day of their life trying to make the world a more beautiful place.
“The amount of people that tried to get me a celebrity f---ing deal. They said, ‘You need to do boot-cut jeans, or you won’t sell.’ Shut the f--- up ! Or Hedi Slimane in the motherf---ing Mercer, sitting with me, saying, ‘Stop giving them your ideas, Kanye. Do your own thing.’ Hedi Slimane! To feel so frustrated. And I thank anybody who came to this party, everybody who supported, everybody who believed, because people thought it was a joke, and maybe people still do, but I can only grow from this point”
After ranting this, he asked the DJ to play "Try A Little Tenderness" by Otis Redding. Bless his cotton socks.
From exactly one minute in, this is the best graphic visual music video I have ever seen. (Though don't fast forward or you miss Elton playing!) Directed by Hype Williams, the video is inspired by the opening and closing sequences of the French movie Enter the Void, which was released early last year. Critics accuse Kanye and Hype of a total rip-off, and while it is very close to the original, their version is an improvement in my eyes. They say creativity is all about hiding your sources, well Kanye and Hype didn't burrow into the distant past, so what do they expect? Anyway, it's of no matter. This is a thing of beauty. Rihanna is sublime.
For me, watching this on a loop is the perfect palate refresher between London and Milan fashion week. Simply cannot stop watching/listening. Kanye, Elton, Rihanna, even La Roux is in there somewhere. Enjoy.
