Vogue feature

I have been featured on the website of Vogue Greece. I couldn't be more happier, it is so great! Special thanks to my dearest reader Rania for letting me know.
Enjoy your weekend!

IN DEFENCE OF 'MOM HAIR'

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

Vogue's February issue, with a smiling, Mom haired Arizona

Ever since February's Vogue landed on my doormat, I've developed a mild obsession with its covergirl, Arizona Muse's hair. Not because I am a long-haired girl craving a change but because her hair is the perfect version of my own style.  In fact it is my style.

Thanks to fashionista.com for compiling my ideal hair mood board

Since this Vogue hit news stands there has been a backlash against the style. Some people are not so receptive to what they call 'Mom hair'. The audacity! As if short hair with a feminine, slightly blow-dried swish to it was somehow the preserve only of harassed mothers of young children. Fashionista.com wrote about this and linked to a forum where Arizona's Vogue cover was being dissected. Do these people have lives?
Some of the comments included:

"  Btw the hair is the same that both my Grandmas have"
"  I  just wish her hair wasn't so matronly"
"  From Model Mom to Mom Model"

Arizona for Fendi SS12 (image from fashiongonerogue.com)

 Well, Fashion Junior is wading in in defence of 'Mom hair' because I love it and will probably, boringly perhaps, keep this style for the rest of my life. It kind of deserves its Mom moniker because it is the world's easiest haircut. I run most days and commute to work, so would never be faffing about with blow-drying a high maintenance long hairstyle. I also suffer from an inexplicable disgust at any hair which creeps beyond the neck. While my friends coo over each others nearly waist-length locks, I get shivers at all that dead protein lying prone on their backs. And don't get me started on ponytails.

Fashion Junior's 'Mom' hair- Do I LOOK like a Mom???

Arizona for Isabel Marant SS12 (Image from fashionista.com)

Admittedly, both those reasons are just about personal preference but from a style perspective, Mom hair is also a winner. The look is short enough that it makes you stand out, it's fresh and it's cute. There's not the obvious girliness of long hair, but there's enough to flirt with. It's certainly not so short that you risk looking like a boy. Mark my words, I predict 'Mom Hair' will be fashionable by Spring time.

Arizona's look is a case in point. In the Isabel Marant ads she wears it natural, but in Vogue it's quiffed and curled. For New Year's Eve, I slicked mine right down for flapper-girl fancy dress. SS12 is a breath of fresh air- everything is light and pretty, but also with sporty and retro elements playing their parts. 'Mom' hair is an ideal accompaniment and can be tweaked for any of those trends.

Arizona in February Vogue, styled by Lucinda Chambers

 I know that at 24, I should probably be experimenting with dip dyeing and undercuts like most of my super trendy contemporaries, but I've always been drawn to classic, with a twist. 'Mom' hair does just that for me. Call it matronly if you like, but there's not an apron or a small child in sight in my life.

SHOW AND TELL: SHOE BUSINESS

Posted by Melanie Rickey, Fashion Editor at Large

As most of you know, I have two fashion lives; one as a journalist and blogger, the other as a consultant. In my consultant life one of my clients is my other half. Just writing that makes me think arrrgggh! Collaborating with ones own spouse has the potential to be fraught and stressful, but happily this job isn't tough at all. When the project is as enjoyable as conjuring up perfect everyday fashion shoes for summer with Clarks, work becomes pleasure. The Mary Portas & Clarks shoe collection was conceived last year to be one offering beautifully made, gorgeously on-trend fashion shoes with the high quality and glorious hidden comfort Clarks is famous for.  The idea with each shoe is to create a fashion cocktail with chic + edge, then decorate as ingredients. The range is aimed those grown up women who have given up  taking a few Nurofen so they can go out in heels for the night.

The first Mary Portas + Clarks collection for AW11 was a hit, (massive phew) so I'm excited to show you a sneak preview of the new collection for Spring/Summer 2012 which arrives at Clarks online, selected Clarks stores and at House of Fraser Oxford Street on February 13th 2012.  My favourites are the lilac suede La Amelie (below, left) and the black studded La Provence, (the white ones are far below, right.)

La Amelie in lilac suede, natural snake leather and lime suede. £99.99  

La Gigi in coral combi leather and snake combi leather £79.99 + La Provence in white leather £89.99

A few of the styles from the first collection have been updated and given a twist for spring.

La Wesley in tan snake leather, £89.99 La Peep in lime suede, (see below), La Marianne in black £79.99 

We made a peep toe out of last season's platform court shoe... love the colour

La Peep £99.99 (also in black leather, lilac suede, natural snake) 

We also gave our black suede wedge boots the peep toe treatment and warmed up the colour

La Minx £110 (also available in black suede)

The bestselling easy court shoe from last season  has been refined to be more pointy 

La Marianne £79.99 (also in coral snake leather, natural snake leather and black snake leather) 

Le Pink

I adore this dress from COS, I love the shape and the pink contrasting with the blue collar.
The leather jacket is from Supertrash, the bag is from my own shop Fashionzenvintage, the vintage casio watch is from Dressrepublic,
the sunglasses are from ASOS and the ankle boots are from H&M.

MORE YAYOI KUSAMA

Posted by Melanie Rickey, Fashion Editor at Large

Couldn't resist sharing. If you want to know more about Yayoi we posted this earlier in the week.

PREFALL AW12: GETTING TROUSERED

Posted by Melanie Rickey, Fashion Editor at Large

As a fashion editor I'm supposed to be analysing the just launching prefall collections to give you a steer on the where fashion is going, but instead I'm shopping for myself.  This is to be expected as the prefall collections are, certainly for me and my friends, the richest source for the designer clothes we hone in on and buy as they arrive at the shops in late summer.

I'm not a woman who buys an off-the-runway look. However fabulous it is, give me the stuff I can wear over and over again please. As a dedicated wearer of trousers (today I'm wearing my navy "Cult of Nobody"jeans AGAIN) I have been looking for inspiration for where to take my trouser style, and happily found it from my personal current favourite crop of designers. These are: Carven, Theyskens Theory, Preen, and Givenchy. Celine is currently off my list as the Autumn collection was too heavy to wear for normal London life, and way too expensive.

Sometimes I feel like the only trousers obsessed woman on the block... Its not that I don't like dresses, I can rock a dress like the best of them, but I love wearing trousers. Are there any more of you out there?

Theyskens Theory Prefall AW12 - these leather jeans are effing gorgeous

Giles Prefall AW12 - digging the flares again

Preen Prefall AW12 - a good shade of orange

Givenchy Prefall AW12 - loving this whole look to the max

Carven Prefall AW12 - i think you would call these "slacks" now theres a word I haven't heard for a while

Images are courtesy of the designers

TREND TRASH: "GET THE MARGARET THATCHER LOOK!"

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

If I were a more easily influenced consumer then I might be wearing a twee M & S suit and pussy bow blouse to bring you this blog post. Fortunately, I have thus far managed not to succumb to all the press releases and media stories (newspaper fashion journalists, you know who you are) which insist that, to coincide with the release of Phylidda Lloyd's Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher biopic, The Iron Lady, we should all be forming an orderly queue to buy a blue skirt suit and asking our hairdresser for helmet hair.

Thatcher enters office in 1979 (image from guardian.co.uk)

Last Thursday, The Guardian (admitedly not a likely source of Thatcher loving) asked a number of high profile women that terribly uncomfortable question, Is Margaret Thatcher a feminist icon?  To my mind, she showed girls they can achieve anything they want, but that does not make her a feminist icon.

I was far more interested in what feminist columnist Bidisha had to say:

'Her stiff serge tailoring, boxy croc handbags, patent court shoes, pussycat bow blouses and set hair have been fetishised by a moronic, apolitical fashion industry'

Those words MORONIC and APOLITICAL have stuck in my mind since, and snaps back into focus every time one of those aforemetioned "How To Get The Margaret Thatcher Look!" PR emails pings into my inbox.

I don't want to look like Margaret Thatcher, and I know my friends don't either. Since when has 1980s Tory chic been cool?  I checked with the FashEd, to make sure I hadn't got it all terribly wrong, and she assures me that in no point in the history of time has the Thatcher 'look' been even close to fashionable. Even in the 80s, she looked about thirty years out of date compared to mega glam supermodels, and Comme des Garcons clad trendies or power-shouldered yuppies.  So why should we start 'getting her look' now just because we're seeing the film, in our droves allegedly?

Thatcher speaks  at conference (image from guardian.co.uk)

One of the brands to home in on the hype is Anya Hindmarch. They have dedicated the windows at their Pont Street Store to mannequins trussed up in Thatcher-ish outfits and carrying the brand's Ebury bag (which Meryl Streep and Margaret Thatcher both own). Hindmarch said:
 
'The cleverest thing about Thatcher’s image was how her clothes never detracted from her character. That was quite a feat, I suspect, to look good and still not be talked about for your clothes.’

Anya Hindmarch's window tributes

The irony of this comment is blatant. If we admire someone for the fact that their clothes are not the first thing we think about in relation to them then putting faceless mannequins in said clothes flys in the face of your theory doesn't it?

Launer, whose bags are carried by the Queen, suspect their 59% sales increase over Christmas is down to The Iron Lady effect. Well, I beg to differ. My predecessor wrote last year about the revived interest in Launers, mostly down to a prevailing fashion mood which values ladylike elegance and is not in any way confined to Maggie fever.

Meryl Streep as Britain's first and only female Prime Minister

Given that Thatcher owns Launer and Anya Hindmarch bags, the brands can almost be forgiven for taking the opportunity to underline the link. Bizarre, however, is Peacocks, purveyor of cheap and barely cheerful fashion for 30-40 year old women who are suggesting that we go to them to for our Maggie makeover.

Why any woman of that age would want to frump up Thatcher style is beyond us. Oh and before you go believing the Evening Standard's theory that the reemergence of cobalt blue is down to the Tory associations, may we just say Yves Klein to you and suggest that the roots of that colour trend are a result of a deeper exploration with colour referencing which fashion has embraced for several seasons now. You only need to watch Miranda Priestley (also played by Streep) give her monologue on the emergence of cerulean blue in that fictional fashion world in The Devil Wears Prada to know that it is far more complex than a designer googling a picture of Thatcher entering Downing Street.

So, a FEAL warning... Thatcher style is not to be copied. In fact, it is shit and the sooner it disappears from our inboxes and magazines the better.