Merry Christmas!

Und noch einmal...

Girlfriend!

Sex & The City II: I just watched the trailer.  I'm very excited.  Can you tell?

Ciao
Duck

LFW Faves for AW 10/11: Aminaka Wilmont

So we kick off Anastasia & Duck's reviews of our favourite London Fashion Week designers with Aminaka Wilmont, the first ever fashion show I had the pleasure of attending in 2008!  They had just won the prestigious Fashion Fringe award which funded them to produce two full fashion shows, with a venue in the tents at the Natural History Museum.  Their first commercial collection for AW 08/09 was entitled Vector XXY and was inspired by Tron and vector-graphics.  The laser-cut clothes featured razor-sharp patterns in a palette of black, grey, and red. 

 

A personal highlight of the show was the first time Anna and I ever met Erin O'Connor. 

For their second collection, SS 09, Maki and Marcus experimented with lighter colours and softer fabrics.  The juxtaposition of the sharp architectural jackets and pointed shoulders with the long flowing dresses was bold, but somewhat disconnected.  It would not be until the next season that they seemed to get this balance right.

 

 

AW 09/10 saw the pair combine slouchier clothing in gorgeous abstract prints (think other hit Londoners, Peter Pilotto or Alexander McQueen) with their now trademark leather jackets and coats.  They also extended their somewhat experimental footwear with thigh-high boots, reminiscent of Rick Owens or Maison Martin Margiela. 

 

 

Finally, for next season, SS 10, Aminaka Wilmont featured lots more prints, wrapped sexily around the body in clingy dresses of many different shapes.  The jackets continued, and a series of interesting headpieces were also introduced to the line.

 

 

For February, Anastasia & Duck is hoping Aminaka Wilmont perfects their leather wear, and continues the more body-conscious appeal of their SS 10 collection.  They are stocked by Net-A-Porter.  All photos either by myself or from Vogue.com.

Laters

Duck
xx

Reflections of a postmodern muse

Lily Allen.  For Chanel.  Blasphemy.  But still...

xoxo

Duck

LFW Autumn/Winter 10/11 Line-up

The British Fashion Council have released the line-up for the next London Fashion Week, running from the 19th to the 24th of February.  You can see the full schedule here.

What is Anastasia & Duck most looking forward to?

Friday 19th Feb: 

Aminaka Wilmont

Hannah Marshall

Saturday 20th Feb:

Mark Fast

Mary Katrantzou

House of Holland

Ann-Sofie Back

PPQ

Maria Francesca Pepe

Sunday 21st Feb:

Richard Nicoll

Meadham Kirchoff

Julien Macdonald

Ashish

Eley Kishimoto

Monday 22nd Feb:

Antonio Berardi

Christopher Kane

Roksanda Ilincic

Erdem

Marios Schwab

Markus Lupfer

Tuesday 23rd Feb:

Peter Pilotto

Basso & Brooke

Jonathan Saunders

Josh Goot

Burberry Prorsum

Wednesday 24th Feb:

Carolyn Massey

James Long

MAN

Over the next few weeks, I am going to be writing a short review of each of these designers, taking a look at previous collections and why Anastasia loves them so.  Then maybe we'll make some fashion predictions for next season...

Ciao dahlings,

Duck

xx

Ho ho holidays

Oh dear, the holidays have begun.  And I have retreated to my family home... which means the posts will be a bit less frequent over the next two weeks!  But not to worry, I will still be visiting lots of exciting places so I shall have lots to write about come the New Year!  And I will be trying to log in as often as possible, assuming I can drag myself away from the parties and long evenings in front of the fire with a selection box glued to my face....

Merry Christmas everyone!

xxx
Duck

Gaga Christmas

Some totally gratuitously amusing Lady Gaga-inspired Christmas fun!

You may also enjoy:

and

All thanks to Bryan Boy. Love the fashion-remakes!

xx
Duck

bruno Pieters eyewear

The Belgian designer bruno Pieters, who has worked for Maison Martin Margiela and Lacroix Haute Couture, who also likes to play with volume and capital letters..., has designed a new eyewear collection.  Bruno has been running his own ready-to-wear brand since 2002 and has been the creative director of Hugo from Hugo Boss since 2007.  He has also won the Andam award twice, as well as the Swiss Textiles Award.  This is Bruno's first foray into spectacles: 

"Eyewears are [sic] the ultimate accessory as well as the ultimate alibi. They are the status symbol that conceals the gaze. I wanted to create new shades for my muses to play their part in
We wanted to create eyewears that suited the bruno Pieters men and women – whatever the occasion"

 Très chic.

Ciaos
Duck
xx

We have a NEW MURPHY (Henwood)!

EEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeekkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!

Róisín Murphy's publicist just announced that she has given birth to her new baby girl, Clodagh Henwood!  The baby weighed in at 8lbs 4oz and was born at 3.20 am this morning!

Best wishes and fashionable love goes to Róisín and her expanding family!

P.S. I am sure Róisín will be spending the next few months looking after her baby, which should help prevent this blog from transforming completely into a fansite...

xoxo
Duck

Pregnant Róisín Murphy in ZOO

As so often happens, this post has been inspired by the glorious font of fashion knowledge that is Diane, who posted the above picture of Róisín Murphy on the cover of German art/fashion/culture magazine Zoo (link).  It turns out ZOO has been issued with 4 covers, two devoted to Róisín, and one of the others to Natalia Vodianova.  I know it's not a competition but we know who won...

Now that Borders is shutting down, I am finding it more and more difficult to get a hold of obscure or foreign fashion magazines, even living this close to the centre of London.  So I was very happy to discover that ZOO posts many of the pages from each new issue online!  I hope you enjoy the photos (it's a shame the text of the accompanying interview is too small to be legible) of the sultry singer showing off her baby bump.  Can't be long now until the little one appears - and I know the question that will be on everybody's lips: "Who's your baby wearing?!"

 

xoxo

Duck

The Face

I was talking to my friend Eve a few days ago about magazines we love, their coming and going, and of course, we ended up talking about the iconic magazine that was The Face.  To my surprise, Eve (who works in music journalism) said that they are in discussions about bringing it back in some form or another!  This excited me at first, and then slightly worried me...  I do hope, if they bring it back, that it is as good (is better possible?) as it was in its heyday.

Anyway, today I suddenly thought about my favourite issue of The Face, which had a cover shot of Macauley Culkin.  I remember drooling over this as a teenager.  I thought you might enjoy the history lesson :-)  Unfortunately, I could only find these two photos.

Btw, is it wrong to still kind of fancy him in the smoking shot?

Ciao,
Duck

ALICE by Alice Temperley

After viewing SS10 Temperley London (which you can read about here), their PR has helpfully sent out a press-release detailing their new diffusion line called ALICE.  The blurb says that:

Reminiscent of the Temperley London mainline Collection, but with its own fresh and accessible aesthetic creed, “ALICE” opens the doors to a wider market and offers existing clients a new option for mixing high and low or simply adjusting their style to new times. With prices ranging from £80 to £500, “ALICE’s” modern, feminine and flattering pieces that have a rock-n-roll edge, offer amazing value to an audience that can appreciate, enjoy, and craft their own version of the Temperley London DNA at a contemporary price point.

Well, there is no problem with the price-point, and we're also pretty sure it will sell well, given Temperley's popularity with a certain section of society (read: rahs who are at university and so can't afford the mainline collection without Daddy's credit card).  But the concern is that this will divert Alice's attention away from her mainline even more, resulting in an even worse collection than the one she presented for next season.  Why not go back to the gorgeous goddess dresses and embellishments that we know you can do so well?

As for ALICE itself - have a gander below.  The look isn't really what I'd describe as "rock-n-roll" and is in fact quite derivative (Diesel anyone?).  The stripes are simply too abundant, and come on, bows??  Still??  Just because your gangly model has a fringe and sultry look doesn't make your clothes cool.  It seems Alice has fallen straight through the looking glass and got stuck on the other side, trapped in a universe devoid of style or direction...

 

However, I think I quite like this dress:

NewYear, NewGen

The results are out and those receiving the coveted Topshop NewGen sponsorship for next year are:

Catwalk
Mark Fast, Mary Katrantzou, Meadham Kirchhoff and Peter Pilotto

Presentation
Holly Fulton, Louise Gray, Maria Francesa Pepe and Sykes

Exhibition
Atlanta Weller, Christopher Raeburn, Craig Lawrence, David Koma, Dominic Jones, Fannie Schiavoni, Holly Fulton, KTZ, Louise Gray, LP.BG, Maria Francesca Pepe, Mark Fast, Mary Katrantzou, Michael Lewis, Michael Van der Ham, Natascha Stolle, Peter Pilotto and Sykes.

It's been a good week for Peter Pilotto!  The only disappointment - I wish Michael Van der Ham had at least got presentation funding!  Although I guess he is pretty new...  Still, I love him, so I decided to decorate this post with his pictures (from Style.com, of course) :-)