THE WEEK IN FASHION: 28th NOVEMBER- 2nd DECEMBER

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

This week's news begins with some of our favourite editorial images released in the past few days...
Italian Vogue Editor-in-Chief Franca Sozzani has been shot by Terry Richardson and styled by Katie Grand for the cover on Industrie, the magazine which charts the lives of fashion's insiders.

Editor becomes model

Kate Moss is transformed into Ziggy Stardust for French Vogue's Music issue. Shot by Mert and Marcus.

Image from telegraph.co.uk

Resident Italian Vogue photographer Steven Meisel has captured Karlie Kloss in a series of nude and clothed contrasted images for the publication's January issue. Entitled 'Body by Kloss' , it's making us think twice before delving into the mince pies...



Images from fashiongonerogue.com

 Transsexual model Lea T has scored her first major cover this month with Elle Brazil.  She is dressed in Givenchy as designed by her good friend Riccardo Tisci.

When you work in the fashion industry, it soon becomes clear how many unspoken heroes there are behind the scenes; beautiful clothes cannot be created by one person alone although it is often easy to slip into that way of thinking when designers are superstars. Francois Lesage was one of those behind the scenes people. His death this week came after a long illness. However, Monsieur Lesage should be remembered for his fine mastery of haute couture embroidery. He leant his expertise to the creation of couture at the most esteemed Parisian houses including Christian Dior, Balenciaga, Chanel and Givenchy. In 2002, Chanel bought Maison Lesage in order to guarantee the survival of its unique contribution. French Cultural Minister Frédéric Mitterand told WWD this week: “He was one of those people who make you aware of the slim border between art and craft. He was also known for his generous spirit and waggish humour.”

RIP Francois Lesage.

Work by Maison Lesage- Yves Saint Laurent 1988

As our friends at Editd so astutely point out, the Versace x H&M collaboration has had huge effects across the world of fashion and had a huge uplift in social media awareness for Versace and Donatella. We have definitely seen how lots of the SS12 high street collections have been 'inspired' by the line, of which there's more to come in January. For their next partnership, H&M have chosen a much more fashion-insider brand, Marni.

Although editors frequently sing the praises of the label designed by Consuelo Castiglioni, it does not have the fame and brand power of Versace. Lots of people were pointing out on Twitter when the news broke on Monday that Marni would probably be confused with Armani by those who didn't know better! The collection which as with Versace majors on print, launches on March 8th. We expect rather a different queue to those Versace ones the other week.

Marni's designer Consuelo Castiglioni and H&M's Margareta van den Bosch
 style a model wearing a dress from the collection
 (image from vogue.co.uk)

I had a dig at Dame Vivienne Westwood a few weeks ago for what I perceived as her hypocrisy at launching stores in China and then supporting OCCUPY London. So, I was very pleased to hear this week that she has donated £1 million from her business to Cool Earth, a climate change charity which is campaigning to halt deforestation in Borneo, Peru and the Congo Basin. Westwood said  'Governments…are so slow that we can’t wait for them any more. We have to get this thing moving and hope that they’ll join in'.

It's no fun being extinct, says Vivienne Westwood

After winning Red Carpet Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards on Monday, Stella McCartney was happy to hand the limelight to Jennifer Saunders (in full Edina get-up) on Tuesday as she turned on the lights at Stella's Bruton Street store. Ever since the very first images of the forthcoming Ab Fab episodes were released, we've known that Eddie has transferred her Lacroix fixation to much a more now Stella addiction. Later, we learnt that Stella is going to be making a cameo appearance in one of the episodes, the first of which airs on Christmas Day. Oh we feel spoilt! And to whet your appetite for Ab Fab's return, a little teaser clip was released this week... Enjoy!

'Eddy' with Stella and Emma Bunton who both star in
the new episodes (image from dailymail.co.uk)

Next week, Thirty Seven Feet , a new designer shoe hire concept, will be launching with a pop-up shoe emporium at the Old Truman Brewery to raise funds for charities such Small Steps and Muscular Dystrophy. There will be a launch event on Thursday evening which you can get tickets for by visiting the site. There are loads of exciting items up for grabs including pieces previously owned by celebrities and donated by top brands like Mulberry and Lanvin. We here at FEAL encourage you to pop along to make some purchases, all in the name of charity.

SHOPPING ROUND-UP...December is traditionally the time for many things, one of them is FASHION SAMPLE SALES. The FashEd tells me that they are not always great but if you get there early and with sharpened elbows you may get what you want. Here are a few we recommend.

On 8th December, creator of utterly divine shoes, Nicholas Kirkwood, will be holding a sample sale. Prices start at £25 (!) and doors are open from 10am. Be sure to get down to The Music Room, 26 South Molton Lane to get your hands on some beauties.

Nicholas Kirkwood SS12- sadly these won't be at the sample sale but
items of similar fabulousness will be available

Barberini Fashions will be having a sample sale on 9th December (12pm-8pm) and 10th 
December (10pm-6pm) at Unit 7, Suna House, 65 Rivington Street. Some of the brands
 there include Pam Hogg, Ashley Isham and Magenta 8. 

Erdem SS11 (image from catwalking.com)

LFW darling Erdem has a sample sale on December 8th (1pm-8pm) and December 9th (10am-6pm) at The Future Gallery, 5 Great Newport Street, WC2H 7HY. Prices start at £80 and the pieces will be from SS11 and before.

LFW darling no.2 Christopher Kane is getting in on the action too with a sale on 8th December from 1pm to 9pm at Mercer Street Studios, 16 Mercer Street, WC2H 9QE.  Bring it on!

To see a full list may we direct you over to Susie Bubble's sample sale calendar.

SHOPPING: BOXPARK

Posted by Melanie Rickey, Fashion Editor at Large

Boxpark Shoreditch looks a lot like this, but I didn't have a helicopter to get the angle

I must admit I was quite excited about the prospect of Boxpark, which promised to be the "coolest pop-up shopping mall in the coolest area of the coolest city of the planet." The idea behind it is to use former shipping containers recycled to use use as shops, and have them occupied by young clever brands that would not normally be able to afford their own retail space. The concept allows the piled up containers to be placed in a disused area, thus regenerating it while also creating work for local unemployed people and helping young businesses to flourish in these challenging economic times. The Boxpark idea also seemed to offer something new and, crucially, uncorporate to the shopping area of the locale it is placed in.

The charity Art Against Knives has my favourite outlet. Their rent is subsidised by Boxpark: thumbs up for that. 

That was the idea. The reality is the two storey "pop-up mall", with 40 units downstairs and 20 units upstairs which is dropped next to the new Shoreditch High Street overground station, opposite Shoreditch House private members club, is everything it said it would not be.

Ok, you can build it in a no time; but this is no pop-up. The plan is for Boxpark to stay in positon five years.
I imagined an array of eclectic brands moving in - and was looking forward  to making some discoveries but independent contemporary brands are certainly not in evidence.

This place will be heaven if you are a man over thirty who loves streetwear. Nike has four units. New Era, Kangol, North Face, Diesel, Oakley, Dockers and Puma all have units. Err... last time I looked all of these brands were amongst the biggest and most powerful in their category on the planet.  There are some quirky stores: Cyber Candy sells fun American sweeties and oddly flavoured lip-balms, and both Amnesty International and Art Against Knives have units upstairs alongside the food and drink outlets which are genuinely good...

Fancy kissing someoen whose lips taste of chips?

The guy behind Boxpark is Roger Wade, the founder of the Boxfresh street wear label that was cool way back in the 90s. In his press conference, he gave us a whole spiel about how he was "a little guy thinking big". He cited Steve Jobs as his inspiration before painting himself as a Man With a Dream, an idealist who wanted to make shops out of container boxes and change the world of retailing. When he was asked how much it cost to set up, he claimed "It's not about money, its about the the community, the idea, giving back..." Then he introduced his new non-executive chairman, Charles Dunstone of Carphone Warehouse asking him "How many shops do you have, Charles?" The answer was 850.

It would have been so much better if he'd just been honest. Boxpark is about money. Boxpark is a business. There's nothing shameful in that. It is also about his big idea, which is patent pending. Wade got into hot water last month after threatening a similar container shopping mall in Christchurch New Zealand with legal action over Intellectual Property rights. That the container mall was created to house businesses displaced after the earthquake, didn't deter Mr Wade's lawyers.

Roger Wade says "All high streets look the same, from Brighton to Bristol." Yet his plan is to bring Boxpark pop-up malls to the world.

The high points of Boxpark were Art Against Knives and a visit to Hop Namo, the Vietnamese cafe upstairs at the venue. It turns out the owner's parents used to run my favourite Viet Cafe in my old Dalston neighbourhood.

Yum!

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