most favorite day

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

Rihanna in McQ on X-Factor (from fashionforlunch.com)

This has been a wonderful few days for London Fashion Week build-up after two of Britain's
greatest fashion exports, Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney, both announced that
they would be holding shows during February's London Fashion Week. The Alexander
McQueen house's younger line, McQ will be showing for the first time ever and has
chosen London for the occasion. McQ's first store will also be opening on Dover
Street next Spring. Meanwhile, Stella McCartney has held her catwalk show in Paris
for years now but she is bringing a special one-off presentation to the capital. Next
February's London event will be an evening affair to celebrate Stella's association
with the 2012 Olympics, for which she is designing kits for Team GB. Not to be
outdone by McQ, Stella also has plans for another store, this time in Brompton Cross.
Until then, we can satisfy our Stella love at Selfridges' 'World of Stella' pop-up in
January. Be sure to check out next week's Grazia for more McQ news from the FashEd.

A stellar 2012 for Stella (image from newsonlineinternational.wordpress.com)

NEWS JUST IN: Just as I thought all the excitement was over for another week in fashion, I've just seen the breaking news on WWD that over $400,000 worth of Louis Vuitton bags have been stolen in an operation by masked thieves last night at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. After last week's Marc Jacobs burglary, the designer is not having much luck at the moment.

Someone's on the run with a hell of a lot of Vuitton (image from coachhandbagclub.com)

A quite odd announcement from the Advertising Standards Authority this week; the images
of 14 year-old Hailee Steinfeld sitting beside a railway line for Miu Miu's SS11 campaign
have been banned. This is because they show a child in a hazardous situation. Obviously,
that's completely understandable grounds for banning an image. However, they have have
been all over the Internet and in magazines for months. This makes me think that the damage
is done by now, so why ban the images just as they are being replaced with those from the
Resort campaign anyway? I cannot help but think that is a clunky bit of bureaucracy
rather than a meaningful decision. Am I wrong?

Look away children

On Wednesday evening, Net-a-Porter founder, Natalie Massenet interviewed Christian Louboutin at the V&A museum. You can see the best bits in the video below. Net-a-Porter were tweeting the event live. One of these tweets informed us that Mr Louboutin's dream woman to make shoes for would be Queen Elizabeth II. Interestingly, that very same day, some quite funny pictures were published of none other than Her Majesty (clad in her usual sensible black courts) shooting a concerned look at the Louboutin-esque footwear of Hayrunnisa Gul, the wife of Turkey's President, as she arrived with her husband at Buckingham Palace as part of their state visit to the UK.

Will Mr Louboutin be hearing from Her Majesty shortly we wonder? (image from dailymail.co.uk)

Rumoured supermodel couple Arizona Muse and Freja Beha Erichsen are the stars
of Chloe's SS12 ad campaign. They were spotted at Chateau Marmont in LA, posing
in dresses from the collection and generally having a fab time. We have hair and tan envy.

Summery fun for Arizona and Freja (Image from fashionologie.com)

And now for something a little more sobering. Most of us probably think of Arcadia as the behemoth of the British High Street; an almost untouchable retail giant. So, when it was announced yesterday that the company's profits had dropped by 38% and that 250 stores would be closing it was a signal that the economic environment is massively challenging right now. We may have been expecting bad news from smaller chains and businesses but Arcadia's decision to close nearly 10% of its stores shows that nobody is immune.

If you need help with your Christmas party attire then may we suggest you pop along to Harrods which is hosting a day of activities in their 'Way In' partywear department (on the 4th floor) on Saturday 3rd December. Fashion Illustrator David Longshaw will be there drawing customers in their new purchases. Henry Holland will also be transformed for one afternoon only into a shopfloor assistant, on hand to advise customers on the best looks. Actually, that all sounds like a bit of a party in itself, non?

Karl Lagerfeld gets the David Longshaw treatment

As Christmas is on its way, we thought we'd let you know about a couple of good causes to get involved in during the Season of Goodwill...

Erin O'Connor with some of the bags which are up for grabs.

For the next week, Save the Children are hosting an online designer bag auction to raise funds for their No Child Born to Die initiative. There are plenty of beauties to choose from including bags previously owned by Sienna Miller and Samantha Cameron. Also in the mix are some beauties from Alexander McQueen, Sophie Hulme and Christopher Kane (his liquid clutch which Erin O'Connor is holding is AMAZING). You can bid until 4th December. If all that doesn't make you visit the site, then perhaps Tilda Swinton can persuade you... She says:

“Bid high! Bid so much higher than you think you will or can! Think of a dicey number and double it. And then double that. No fancy bag can ever carry what your generosity will mean to the children it will help to live. Make this beautiful object truly valuable by investing real money in real life - and carry the evidence with pride. Don't count the cost. Think of it as paying something back for all there is to be grateful for in your days.”

If you're still feeling charitable then Volcom are asking for your donations of denim you no longer want... More details can be found here.

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

Azealia loves her Mickey jumpers (image from GQ.com)

THE new girl to buzz about is Azealia Banks, who has just topped NME's Cool List. The rapper from Harlem could not be more different from last year's winner Laura Marling, a folksy singer from a sleepy Hampshire village. Azealia Banks is culture's new naughty girl; where last year we hankered after the whimsical, goody two shoes vibes of Marling, that all feels a bit, well, quiet now. Banks is here to shout and swear us into a mad, hopping dance through the streets. And as she demonstrates, there's really just one uniform for that- a Mickey Mouse jumper.

Azealia looks super cute with her plaits, denim cut offs and cartoon tee- like a girl playing out in the summer holidays. Oh, but then she opens her mouth and all kinds of naughty words come out- beware of watching the video if you're a bit sensitive. She told GQ that the reason I, being English, love her song is because it makes me feel like I could have a shouty, sweary strop:

'I think that's a lot of the reason why people relate to it so much, because everybody wants to say, "F*** you!" I think by virtue of English culture being so polite, I feel like there's definitely a part of every English person that just wants to be like, "Aargh!" That's why it's picking up so much over here'

AAARGH exactly! I do think that however many times you want to scream c*nt, it's always that little bit more charming coming from someone with a childish quirk about them. I have to admit, I wouldn't be writing about Azealia if she'd been looking all tough in scary leathers and spikes. Instead, I see her as embodying so many things in the melting pot of mainstream Western culture right now. As the FashEd wrote earlier in the week, everything's got a bit BORING of late so listening to Banks is like turning all that on its head, shaking us awake and saying COME OUT TO PLAY. Her lyrics aren't the most profound ever and revolve quite a bit around sexual innuendo but at least they're challenging and provocative. She's an angry young woman. Her tangled but beautiful music reflects the frenzy felt by so many young people right now. From a fashion perspective, doing all this in a Mickey Mouse t-shirt takes what she's saying to another level. There's so much novelty, childish fashion on its way next year that the only way to do saccharine sweet without veering into vom territory is to add some Banks-ish attitude.

If a Disney jumper doesn't float your boat, a frill sock is a nice nod (image from GQ.COM)

I'm afraid I can't direct you to anywhere where you can purchase Azealia Banks' particular brand of f*ck you attitude but there are lots of Mickey tees about to get you started. Much more fun than a Colin Firth Christmas jumper.