Paul Smith (all images from Style.com)
With Patti Smith as inspiration this had to be our favourite collection at LFW. Androgynous classics contrasted with softer, feminine fabrics and bright injections of colour, and we just adore those trousers shapes.
Betty Jackson
Usually one of our favourite collections, this season we felt the strange fabric bases and unflattering shapes were not up to Betty's usual high standard. But we did love the head to toe bright tomato red. We have said it before and will say it again, coloured trousers are a 'must have'!
Giles
Austere and prim shapes in black and white, contrast with wild and shaggy goat fur jackets and gillets in an 18th century governess meets a fierce dominatrix kind of way. It seems black is back – thank goodness!!
Jaeger London
Jaegar London designer Stuart Stockdale played with scale, using exaggerated proportions and over size details. We preferred the simpler shapes and loved the high quality luxe fabrics and colour combinations.
Jonathan Saunders
Inspired by 40's photographer Paul Outerbridge's pioneering techniques in colour photography, Jonathan Saunders use of colour, print and pattern, and retro inspired silhouettes stood out as one of the most exciting, yet still wearable collections at LFW.
Erdem
Beautiful printed dresses, odd combinations of fabrics and layered colours, combined sophistication with a little bit of chaos at Erdem, and we loved the contrast of the simple shift dresses with the eccentric prints.
What we didn't love however was the sick looking teenagers on the runway at both Erdem and Felder Felder. These young girls may well have fast metabolism's and eat huge amounts of healthy food, but they certainly don't look as if they do and should not be held up as examples of how women should look – end of! We can't believe we are still having this conversation?
Must Haves
- Coloured trousers, or if they are too daring, caramel or paprika coloured trousers.
- Mens shaped trousers, either flat fronted and wide legged, or pleat fronts and paper bag waists (that's a belted, gathered in waist, for non fashion peeps!).
- An oversize boyfriend blazer, either worn with jeans or those lovely coloured cropped trousers.
- 1940's neat blouses and mid calf length tea dresses.
- Colour blocking – this is not going away! Wear a variety of different colours in an outfit, or one bright colour with black if you don't feel like making too much of a statement.
Alternatively wear one colour head to toe as seen at Betty Jackson.
- Fur – we saw it at NYFW and again in London – remember you heard it here first (or on Style.com, WGSN etc etc!!) Fur is going to be MASSIVE for Autumn/Winter 2011.
The girl in the middle of the 'shockingly skinny' girls is my god-daughter. She is 16 and really is that skinny naturally and so is her brother.
Interesting Jo that she is only 16 as of course it is entirely possible to be 16, very thin and very healthy. I suppose the question is, should the fashion industry be using 16 year old models to sell clothes which generally target an older consumer. As young girls bodies change so much as they grow up, should the way they look be held up as an example of what is fashionable?
Would be interested to hear what you (and your God daughter think?)
J
She might be a very healthy 16 year old Jo, but I still am not sure we should be encouraging such skinnies as aspirational role models to all teen girls. I'm sure she's thrilled as can be to be involved in the catwalks shows, but she probably unaware herself of the message her presence sends out to other girls. Do you think it's a good look, in all honesty? If you didn't know her to be a healthy girl, would you not think it was a worrying look? Ax
I'm with you in that one Alyson – no fur for me either, but will be definitely doing the 'retro tomboy look!
J x
Well, what do I think?
The thing is, because I know her, I know this is a really unflattering picture and does make her look skeletal. She did 9 shows and this is the worst picture there is.
She didn't particularly have aspirations to be a model, unlike some of the girls in The Model Agency, but was spotted about 4 years ago and the agency has followed her since. She and her mother, the opposite of pushy, kind of feel 'let's see where it goes at present and if it doesn't make her feel bad about herself, then give it a go'. She's back at school this week, didn't go to Milan.
It is a difficult issue as undoubtedly clothes look better on thin girls and I guess we prefer images of young girls rather than old fogeys like myself. And frankly I'd rather be thin – how nice to be able to eat what you want and not to always have to think about every bite that passes your lips. And while it may inspire some young girls towards anorexia, the reality is that there are more obese people than anorexics. And I don't think thin models are are the only reason for anorexia, there is much more going on there.
So really, I'm torn. A bit of a Lib-Dem answer.
well it's a very GOOD Lib Dem answer Jo! I agree whole heartedly on the fact that we should worry more about the increase in obesity, a real concern, and I would also prefer to be thin than overweight but I still get anxious looking at that picture.
And good luck your god daughter, we wish her well, but it's the effect of her projected image on the rest of the teen population out there that's up for discussion here. However healthy you know your god daughter to be, she's giving off an image that's skeletal.
When I interviewed Carole White from Premier, she said -interestingly- that often the younger girls, those around 16, could stuff their faces and not put on any weight….until they hit 19 and finished puberty and SUDDENLY what they ate mattered. The move from being naturally thin to needing to watch their weight often came as a shock, and Carole said it was then problems started…..
And can we just remind ourselves that using 16 year olds on a runway to sell clothes that mostly sell to the over 30s seems a bit archaic to us…but let's not even get STARTED on that argument!
What does anyone else think?