skins

reece hudson blog // tommy ton for style.com

Not quite sure whether seeing these raw crocodile and python skins repulses me or excites me, but it sure does fascinate that it starts off with just a few buckles and belts of leather and becomes a fully fledged bag. Reece Hudson is the label to watch. Favourite of the fashion crowd - a really fun game to play when you're bored is to spot how many No.1 Oversized Clutches you can see in the slideshows of Tommy Ton's fashion week coverage (so far, the count is at 4). I'm not surprised he loves to snap them, since he lensed their first ever lookbook and sent this barely 2 year old label into fashion's buzz stratosphere, with features in Harpers Bazaar and Vogue to follow. They're stocked at Kirna Zabete in New York and also Belinda in Australia.

I think it's pretty neat that Reece Hudson have a blog that doesn't just cycle through their influences (a sprinkling of lou dillon here, a smattering of vintage kate moss there) or endlessly spouts press clippings - although there is a bit of that. They actually feature behind the scenes footage, shots of their mates or girls on the street who are wearing their bags and great little intros into the bag-making world like these. The second picture was accompanied by the caption "Reece has just picked up the python skins for the new collection". What a deliciously enigmatic sentence. Where from? The python market? I love the fact that there a accessories designers around the world who still run around and pick up the materials for their collection. Sure, it might add a few extra dollars to the price tag, but hey, it makes for a beautiful bag.

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the launch

Dion Lee for Cue is officially in select Cue stores nationally today. The people at Golightly PR were good enough to send over a lookbook and boy - does this look good. The press Release highlights points that I was struck with by the images in Vogue, this is all about taking Dion Lee's innate skills at tailoring, draping, shape and cut into a "Real World" setting. Just like Olivier Theyskens at Theory - today is all about the real world, huh? - Dion Lee's designs sometimes have an air of the unreal about them. Not because they are overly romantic in the manner of Theyskens, in fact Lee's 'unreality' comes from the fact that his stuff is so architectural and, well, cool. You have to be a certain sort of girl to pull of his infamous pleat-tuck dresses or rorscharch ink blot prints. It takes confidence (body confidence, that too) and balls to wear a dress so obviously 'fashion'. The kind of confidence that you need for designers like Christopher Kane or Mary Katranzou. Evidently great tailors and masters of shape and cut, but with an added edge of detail and design that can scare most devotees of utilitarianism away completely.

I think this collection bridges the gap perfectly. Searching for the perfect white shirt, jacket or khaki skirt that can take you from the office to the party - which is, after all, Cue's bread and butter - look no further. These pieces are so simple and practical but stamped with the Dion Lee edge become so desirable. First of all, I can't get enough of that white tuxedo shirt. Buttoned all the way up to the collar - it's all about that slightly prim and proper look right now. And second, maybe I should ask myself how many utility jackets is too many utility jackets, but that parka is amazing. And the colours! Rich, Taylor Tomasi blues and that rasberry red mixed with stark whites (what Dulux Paints would call White number 1) and khakis. A mix of colours to slip perfectly into my newly renovated room and wardrobe - after a massive and I mean massive cull of clothes I have whittled my wardrobe down to one shelf. It's like a rainbow of neutrals in there with the odd smattering of pastel and jewel tones. Now, if only I had that parka, that blue trench, that white shirt and that red tuxedo jacket I'm sure my wardrobe would be complete!

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ps. more on my renovated room to come I promise! I came home to find my parents had completely painted my room and taken everything out. I'm still trying to sort it all out - my magazines are just overflowing and taking over the house. ahh!! But as soon as I can work out my camera/computer situation I promise to post pictures. It's so fabulous - a real grown up's room! But I think my mum accidently threw out my wall of Celine - I had lookbooks and had torn out Celine in editorial to make a big wall of love. Oh well, I'll just have to start a new one.

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true romantic

garance dore

I used to be a big Olivier Theyskens fan. Okay, let's not kid here. The biggest. On my post-end of school pilgrimage to Europe I went to every single Nina Ricci store in Paris. And was given the biggest death stares because of my doc martens and generally grubby 17 year old appearance. But I never thought I could actually wear any of his stuff. It was floaty and ethereal and fantastical and from the dark and twisted imagination of a true designer. They were to be admired afar, as wedding dresses or something to wear to the Crillon debutante ball - because of course, yes, I was going to be invited, of course! Which is why I literally cannot believe how, well, wearable the stuff from Theyskens' Theory is. Little cinched in motorcycle jackets perfect for throwing over a gauzy, sheer party dress, navy blue tee shirts with the peplum, an array of perfect white shirts that button up all the way to the collar for a fashion take on work wear. Who would have thought that underneath the ex-Rochas and Nina Ricci designer (reputedly fired for not designer clothes that were wearable hmm hmm), was someone who could make clothes that women not only wanted  to wear but actually conceivably could.

This outfit with the long coat? Perfect. It is actually perfect. I would wear this. I want to wear this. I want a coat with an inverted, starched down collar like this that creates that funny little geometric line. I want it in an Amish-style calico that could have come straight from mill. I want to wear it with a floor length dress with a Calvin Klein style simple shift silhouette and nipped in waist in a country-hick flannel. I want to chop my hair so that it has blunt ends and wear it in a middle part and tuck it behind my ears. This is so good. I can't even believe how good it is. Swap those heels for some strappy flats and I'd be out the door. There's a hint of the Edwardian - this look ain't sexy - and lashings of 90s grunge via The Row. These were 'real-word clothes', though, to borrow style.com's phrase. I think a better term would be perfect world - I won't get to have these clothes in the real world. But I'll cobble something together out of my real-world clothes and hopefully capture just a little bit of that Theyskens romantic magic.

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give me an O!

 style.com Jil Sander FW11

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packing light

vogue.com, streetfsn, street fashion 5xpro, jak and jil

Did Taylor Tomasi only bring one clutch to fashion week? We all know she likes blue and that she likes wearing her favourite things over and over again (just like us, right?), but isn't this taking it a little far? Won't we get sick of seeing that pochette all the bloody time? That beautiful, buttery electric blue leather pochette with the discreet gold embossing, the perfect minimal period to a high fashion chameleon's sentence. That beautiful masterpiece of accessory design with its perfectly practical shape and single zip, it's almost pencil-case like purity that opens out to give easy access to the items within? Well it certainly leaves more space for clothes. And anyway, it's Celine. Who's kidding, we'll never be sick of it!

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clean and bright

garance dore

Minimalism isn't always about clean lines, colour blocking, and sharp, sterile design. Sometimes it is about a state of mind - a style that embodies cleanliness and purity rather than overstatement and exaggeration. It doesn't mean that you have to wear Calvin Klein - but by all means, if you've got it, you better bloody well flaunt it - and it also doesn't mean you have to steer clear of brash colours and crazy prints. It just means that you have to approach them in a simple, unfussy way. 

Jil Sander said "I prefer to call it ‘pure’—minimal can be very empty". This is purity it in its utmost form; classic, oversized menswear, scraped back hair and barely there make up that sings of last nights parties. I've just bought the perfect nude lipstick - Topshop's "Mink". After faffing around at the Lancome counter wondering whether I should spend 50 dollars (50 dollars!!!) on the "Absolute Rose" that they pigment matched to Daria's lips - yes, yes, they actually did that, and it's beautiful but a little too pink, maybe? - I found one that is just right for my olive complexion. And with my Marant coat and melange of simple shirts, this outfit is well within reach. I only have to wait for winter to come around again, as being back in Australia and 35 degree heat just looking at a coat brings me out in a sweat. It's hard to adjust back to Summer after I've been in winter for so long. But hey, it's good to be back!

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brand new baby

So I wanted to share the good news with you all first... I know you will all understand my excitement and elation. I am now the proud owner of a Celine bag - the first of many pieces and the start of a beautiful relationship (har har har). This is my baby, a little beauty of burgundy leather, burnished gold hardware and the trademark chic Canvas print. Vanessa took this photo and I have been hugging it all day. I am having such a fantastic time at fashion week, it's been really nice to make new friends, drink loads of coffee (the fashion week diet, it would seem), and people watch. Although, having said that, I am so excited to be going back to Sydney on Friday. Something about this grey weather has made me long for blue skies and beaches and al fresco dining. You know what they say - you can take the girl out of Sydney...

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on your bike

tommy ton for style.com

I suppose if you must wear shearling, and in this february chill sometimes you have no choice, you better make it Burberry. Nothing else has that rocker-razor-sharp edge to match your fiery hair, or that molasses coloured casual-cool to match your charcoal sweater. Nothing else can be simultaneously hard core and chic, all with just a change of colour.

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wow

park and cube

London Fashion Week is like nothing I imagined. It's louder and bolder and brighter and colder than any other fashion week I've attended. There are more photographers - yes, more even than New York - and they make more noise. There is more fur and more colour and more high heels, though that may be because of trends rather than the city itself. I've been drinking more coffee, but I think that's a fashion thing, not a London thing.  I can't believe I'm here, I am pinching myself every second. It's only been 2 days and already it's been like a fashion baptism of fire. I can't believe how different it is to New York. Well, I'm steeling myself with warmer clothes, slightly higher heels and a big, Aussie smile on my face. I still can't believe I'm here. Wow. That's all I can say. See you on the other side!!!

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Red Red Red

streetfsn

Taylor, How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love how you are the definition of a style icon - someone who inspires and invigorates your personal manner of dressing by constantly pushing the sartorial envelope. You embody the idea of a fashion chameleon, someone as comfortable in studded trainers and junya watanabe blouses as you are in celine cardigans and isabel marant shoes. I love how you mix and match with aplomb and polish - you manage to throw things together in a totally unique and exciting way, but you do it with that lick of new york 'up town' sheen that makes it all look OK. I love how you can be minimalist one day and maximalist the next - life's short, why should you have to devote yourself to one camp and one camp alone. I love how you inspire me to try new things, to give knee length skirts a chance, to think (just think, mind) of lopping off my hair to a sharp, chic bob, to get a big cosy oversized knit sweater, to find something - anything - in chartreuse and wear it proudly. I love how when I'm in a fashion rut you remind me of just how exciting it can be when you wear things that you love. It doesn't matter what people think or say about what you wear, if you like it, you should wear it with a smile, and it makes me long to head back to my wardrobe and bury myself in all my favourite, slightly silly clothes, like my Opening Ceremony burnt orange and red swing coat, my alexander wang heels and my Gap men's parka.

But most of all I love how I don't feel the slightest inclination to copy any of your looks. I'm not cool enough to pull off tulle and trainers and army skirts and I'm not chic enough for thigh high boots and high collars and burberry biker jackets. I'm just content to sit back and enjoy the show. Honestly, it's much more exciting and inspiring than anything that comes down the catwalk. At ease, soldier.

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Start Cue-ing

vogue australia march 2011

 

Often when designers collaborate with the high street it ends up becoming a watered down version of their current designs. I have nothing against the recent Lanvin for H&M collection, or even the Stella McCartney for Target Redux - they were wonderful capsule collections that brought high fashion design to the high street. That is, after all, what we want. We want those beautiful plisse Lanvin slips, the bejewelled and beribboned bags, the signature Lanvin laissez-faire, and we want it at a quarter of the price. That is why designers tend to go simple, recognisable and easy for the high street. The point of the collection is not to design something completely new, it is to give the plebs a taste of what they can't have. I understand that, I really do, and a lot of the time I buy into it. But what I really applaud is when a designer collaboration brings something completely new to the table. 

Witness Dion Lee's collection for Cue, recently unveiled in the spectacular March Australian Vogue. This utilitarian collection is nothing like what Lee has previously shown. Sure, there are the hints of the ruffles, the pleating, the gorgeous gathering that he has become known for. But now it is stiff, starchy calico and topped by a crisp white shirt and not a Roscharch inkblot blouse. It's a serious, business-woman's idea of Dion Lee, which I think is fantastic because Cue is a serious, business-woman's kind of label. Can't you picture some of the more daring customers in that white shirt and camel skirt number at their offices? Dressing up with the sleeveless trench over a plain skirt suit? I love it. I love how new and fresh it is - especially for Lee. This could easily have made waves (no, tsunamis) on the catwalks of Rosemount Australian Fashion Week in April, but no. He's given it to Cue. And with that he has signalled that his customers will come to Cue too, to shop his 'new' collection and buy just another piece of that Dion Lee magic. Why separate the high street and the designer shopper when you can bring them together spectacularly like this? Well done Dion Lee. Well done.

Ladies, form an orderly Cue (har har har).

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a little bit

garance dore

Spending time in layovers waiting for trains and planes and trains to planes inevitably means reading a lot of magazines and books. In my case, after reading a truly dreadful (penny dreadful, perhaps) spy novel mostly magazines. And the march issues seem to be saying one thing. Goodbye monochrome, murky tonal shades and the like, hello colour. Its not surprising really - colours for spring, how groundbreaking, to paraphrase icy meryl streep in the devil wears prada. But still, it bears thinking. After being truly devoted to camel, oatmeal, khaki and charcoal for so long now, can I go back to colour? Should I even? Should I bend to trends or just keep on plodding along in a style that I have cultivated and understood and made my own, safe in the knowledge that eventually fashion's fickle pendulum will swing all the way back - only to depart again a couple of season's later. I am a firm believer that we shouldn't be a slave to trends, a belief that I cultivated only after being a slave to them for so long. Just because minimalism is on the way out - or is it? more on that later - doesn't mean that we have to go out and buy a whole new wardrobe. That would go against the precepts of minimalism in the first place, and if you're going to behave like that, then you really don't deserve to own Céline, whatever your credit card statements say in the opposite. 

I think that, as with anything fashion related, there is a way to make this new season desire for colour work for you. I used to be all about the colour, I was in love with this Richard Nicoll teal shirtdress and sherbert orange mad cortes overshirt ensemble that was very Marni-esque and Italian and attention grabbing. The more I think about colour, the more I realise I want to wear it again. But this time, not with the bright red shoes or the checked skirt I used to pair it with. But instead with a plain black skirt, tan sandles, and a black bag. A flash of colour is all you need. That's what I thought when I saw this picture. Being a slave to internet cafes since my laptop broke and being in a different country, I haven't been completely up to date with blogs and the such. This picture taken by Garance last week wonderfully illustrates my new season colour mantra. No, I'm not going to throw away all my beautiful caramel toffee coloured sweaters (in fact, quite the opposite, I just bought one from COS haha), instead, I'm going to work colour into my outfits in simple, small, exciting ways. A flash of tangerine lipstick. A hint of neon on a sweater. The rich jewel tone of a watch band. The shining leather of a non neutral coloured bag. This is what I love about Garance. Although I like this outfit, it's not quite something I would wear. The skirt is too short - no matter what I do I can't quite embrace shorter lengths - and the jacket too, well, brown. But I really like this outfit. Maybe with a khaki flak, and a longer skirt, and... there you have it. Garance is inspiration distilled. Now, where did I put that orange lipstick.

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ps. im in venice and loving it! it is so beautiful. tomorrow im going to london and will be there until I leave, if anyone wants to meet up for tea or coffee or fashion week macarons, just email me hryee1@hotmail.com, i'd love to meet up! X

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