Return of the Tanned Tights

Fake tan may be moving slowly out of fashion and David Walliam’s new wife Lara Stone is working the “pale and proud” look, but no one in the fashion world had anticipated this recent nylon bombshell. The Daily Mail has publicly criticised top style-influencers Sarah Jessica-Parker, Beyonce, Claudia Schiffer and Carla Bruni for stepping out in nude-coloured tights.

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At the age of ten I remember discovering what I thought was the Holy Grail, a saviour to my biggest pre-pubescent problem of fuzzy legs. Nude tights were, after all, the ultimate symbol of being grown up and would most surely project me from child to teenager. Even with my young eyes I could see the way tights made your legs look airbrushed, disguising their paleness and the odd bruise from a playground knock-around! Especially as my mother denied me the right to shave my legs until I was in Year Nine (a really unfair rule, I thought!), skin-coloured tights answered my prayers.

It was alarming to learn that this garment had actually been subject to much ridiculing and hatred from fashion superiors, the voices I would soon become to count upon in work, study and play…

As my 21-year old self, I have come to learn to live by a few essential fashion rules. Beware of the VPL is one. And never show too much cleavage or leg is another. But a rule against wearing skin-coloured tights? Now that’s a new one…or have I just been living under a nylon-covered rock?

I still can’t quite get my head around the reason for a war on tights. We live in a climate which is punishing to our skin forcing it to come out in blotches, goose-bumps and clearly showing the lack of rays we get here in the UK. Therefore, tights are a fundamental safe-guard, right? If we could all have legs like Jennifer Aniston we would jump at the chance but as us mere mortals can't afford £££s on treatment and sunbathing on our Malibu beach home we have to simply make-do. Granted, the gathering around the ankles look is one usually associated with ‘old dears’ but worn correctly, surely they should get the green light?

Never say romance is dead, it's back and it's dark...

Glossy magazines this week are making a huge hoopla of the new trend to hit the fashion scene: Dark Romance, a twist on the boho vibe from a few summers ago. Whilst I'm personally terrified of thinking about A/W 2010 trends this is simply down to a personal financial crisis seeing as I have to wait another two months until the Student Loan is in. That means a further eight weeks of longing and loving from afar.



The muted tones and real autumnal colours (greens, auburns and browns) will look great on anyone; blond or brunette, tanned or pale. With my monetary dilemma upon me, the best solution I can come up with is looking through my wardrobe and pulling out all the garments I think work under this trend. I'm already thinking I have a khaki green loose fitting pullover and a brown checked waisted skirt. I had been holding onto the latter and saving it from the boot-sale pile where I had discovered it for quite a while, maintaining that one day I would have the time to hem it. But, heck, now I hear that midi-length skirts are back...will I be brave enough to try this? At a mere 5ft 3in, it could be really risky!


Check out Look! magazine's selection of garments for working this new Dark Romance trend: http://www.look.co.uk/pictures/shop-the-trend-dark-romance/topshop-dark-techno-maxi-dress-%C2%A360

Staycation

It may not be as adventurous as back-packing around the States as two of my friends have done this year, or jetting off to the family villa in South France like another, but a stay-cation is arguably just as relaxing and enjoyable as a va-cation!

First things first you don't have to face the dreaded flight which is bound to include at least one of the following: irritable passengers, an array of football chants from the stag group off to Estonia, super-smiley but unhelpful air attendants, cramped airplane seats and a screaming baby for in-flight entertainment! There's also the inevitable cold you catch from the return journey to Blightey faced with a torrent of rain to bring you back down to earth.

One thing I'm looking forward to is finally shutting up moaning about English weather and actually starting to enjoy it. I don't think any of us anticipated such an amazing spell of sunshine and warmth. Whilst it makes commuting in London that bit more unbearable, everyones mood is certainly elevated.

Fashion-wise our magazines are covered page-to-page with 'Best Summer Buys' and 'Holiday Items You Can't Live Without' and luckily even guidance on how to fit it all into your 20kg weight allowance. Despite not holidaying in the exceptionally popular Ibiza, Cyprus or Egypt, I have definitely been making the most of this press. I have finally succumbed to the trend for a maxi-dress so I will look the part along with my straw trilby.

Having been looking forward to two-weeks off from my work-experience-packed schedule this summer, calling it a stay-cation is making it feel far more special.

MOST AMAZING application on the H&M Website

I have discovered a new guilty pleasure. It's an adult's version of dressing our dolls. But the treat is, the clothes are real and you can, in a sense, 'try before you buy' or simply collate different outfits and see which ones you like.

Here is what I threw together today:



I love this girly day-time look with a nautical edge. The boots and the necklaces glam it up quite a bit. I'm thinking it could be paired with a boyfriend-fit suit jacket to conserve some heat as you go into the evenings.



This is a definite party outfit...in fact I think my social butterfly of a friend might own this dress! I've accessorized it with the boots to make it seem a little less conventional and let's face it, those boots will be a heck of a lot comfier than stilettos!



Now I'm not used to styling a man but I know what I like to see guys wearing. That's why I've chosen this big duffel coat. Nuzzling into it and getting that faint aroma of aftershave, it totally makes me think of snuggling up watching the fireworks (this isn't a tangent...I'm applying it to, er... the context as it's the Fall 2010 collection. Hmm, convinced?) I've injected a bit of colour with the scarf to brighten the whole outfit (the duffel and scarf combo would totally work over a suit, seen it done and it looks hot!) Absolutely love the chunky boots, even want a pair myself: super-masculine, practical but look gooooood!

The Trend for Ugly Footwear…where are the fashion police?

Let’s face it, when the Ugg was first printed in a magazine no one was jumping up and down at the sight of them. The only kudos was they were emerging on the festival scene upon the likes of Kate Moss’ feet. That was enough it seemed to propel the sheepskin-lined suede boot into becoming the ‘must-have’ footwear. It soon dominated every celebrity’s wardrobe and descended through the high-street stores with their take on the Australian boot. It needn’t have mattered that the boot wore like an ill-fitting sock, was highly unattractive to the opposite sex and the heel support broke within 100 strides on the shop door. £180 well spent, eh?

Then along came the Croc. A shoe which could be considered cute upon the feet of toddlers, but grown women? Tim Gunn, fashion consultant, told Time Magazine, “…the Croc – it looks like a plastic hoot. How can you take that seriously?” A Facebook fan page titled “I don’t care how comfortable Crocs are, you look like a dumbass” accrued over 1.5 million “likers” as of June 2010. Back in 2007 when they first emerged, celebrities such as Brook Shields and Nicole Appleton jumped on the bandwagon whilst the Style section of every magazine was in uproar. President Bush made himself unpopular with fashion journalists in 2007 when he emerged wearing matching shirt, shorts, socks and Crocs, “…there’s one thing we can all agree on when it comes to President Bush: he is not a fashionable man.” Stylelist goes on to declare Crocs as “the ugliest pieces of footwear on the planet”. According to Manolo Blahnik – the Internet’s foremost shoe blogger – “this is ground for impeachment”. Whilst the Croc was hailed as comfortable, and perhaps the reason so many celebrities endorsed it, it still came under scrutiny when a toddler was injured on an escalator due to the soft rubber upper getting caught. A safety hazard and ugly, really not much going for them!

But fear, the next edition of hideous footwear has arrived: The Wörishofer. A shoe designed based on function over aesthetic, claiming to improve comfort for bunion-sufferers. Now there’s a real hook, it may ease pain but everyone will know you have bunions! You may as well have a stamp on your forehead declaring it! Miraculously, a German podiatrist has developed a cult following of celebrities and style-stalkers. Photographed wearing the new "it" shoe is actress Maggie Gyllenhaal and outspoken rapper Mia. These are two rather unlikely candidates considering The Wörishofer as only ever seen on shuffling grandmothers complaining of back pain since its advent almost 70 years ago. They have become popular on the streets of Brooklyn, and as the book The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell identifies, breaking into a community like this can impact the majority into thinking this is a brilliant new trend. Just think back to the Hush Puppies revival...hmm...

The fashion industry’s turn to “ugly shoes” has been explained by Harriet Quick, fashion features editor at Vogue, "It's a combination of two things, the current taste for previously geeky styles, like Clark's and chunky brogues, and the vaguely orthopaedic styles channelled on the catwalks right now. They're an active antidote to the fierce sky-high heels we've seen, and they're grounded in functionality; girls are fed up of crippling themselves."

It seems, however, to be from one extreme to the other. Surely there must be some medium ground on which we can compromise the ugliness for a little sexiness (even if there is a little pinch)?

Stella McCartney for Olympic 2012 designs

It has been reported by the Independent Online that Stella McCartney is going to team up with Adidas to design the Olympic GB team ranges.

Having been to the exhibition Fashion versus Sport at the V&A Museum back in 2008, we are seeing more frequently these two industries merging their expertise.

The Brit designer teamed up with Adidas back in 2004 to create a performance collection which was an instant hit with active fashionistas. 'Each season we are able to merge more and more performance products with style,' says McCartney

The intelligence required for designing sports and athletic wear will not be compromised by the aesthetics. McCartney’s input is creating “the chicest sportswear around” for all areas of exercise: running, gym, yoga, tennis, dance and even wintersports.

View her previous collection at: http://www.net-a-porter.com/Shop/Designers/Adidas_by_Stella_McCartney

Visual Merchandising Trends AW10

My programme leader Tim would be so happy to know what an impact his lectures on visual awareness has had on me. Having initially been extremely overwhelmed by the mass of images we experience day-to-day, Tim made the point that as fashion marketers we have to stop letting this information go over our head and stop and acknowledge what is around us. Therefore I found myself putting down my copy of Stylist and looking out the window of the bus on my journey from Ladbroke Grove to Oxford Street. The no.23 bus wound its way through Portobello market and headed for Paddington before passing the Marble Arch and driving up the UK's busiest shopping street; the haven to all shopoholics and fashionistas, Oxford Street.

I wish the bus driver hadn't been lurching between stop and start and flooring the accelerator at any opportunity as I might grabbed some half-decent photographs to share with you. However, the key theme I picked up today is documented below:

- - - It will sound silly and you'll think, Well that's obvious but 'shopping' seems to be an umbrella trend for VM displays. Trolleys, in particular, seem to be heavily featured for once off the shop floor and in front of the window's street audience. One instance was a minimalist white stage and backdrop and in the fore-ground just two shopping trolleys placed one behind the other. Granted it was effective but I have no idea what the shop was or what in fact they sell. I know window displays are meant to catch you're eye, and that is certainly did, but aren't they supposed to lure you inside? I guess being intrigued would but those who are simply window shopping and never been to the area before might not have the same urge to follow it up...