Design Britain

I love happy coincidences.  Having just booked my flights home for three weeks in the summer, immediately coming across information on the cool Britannia-style exhibition the V&A museum are holding until August 12^th seems almost serendipitous.

The exhibition traces the best of British design from post-World War II to now, with the curators taking gallery-goers on a journey through iconic eras such as the swinging sixties and the punk-inspired seventies.  I’m envisioning odes to pillar-box red phone boxes, Mary Quant’s miniskirts, The Sex Pistols’ lewd posters, and so much more. 

Images: Topshop's blog and fabiolug on flickr

Meadham Kirchhoff SS12

A little Meadham Kirchhoff SS12 for you, just because I can't stop watching it.  The frills, the flounces, the pure delectable fashwan of it all.

Image: The Style Crusader

Simplicity Reigns

I don't spend much time poring over pictures of what the schlebs wear to fashion week.  It's usually the photographs of the ordinary people I watch out for, who are snapped looking extraordinary.  As a rule, celebrities lack the interest in style which is innate within the stylish girls who get photographed for their genius outfit combinations.

Kirsten Dunst is a case in point. She turned up to the Mulberry show on Sunday in the simple camel jumper and jeans combo pictured above, and later on to the Mulberry party in one of the brand's plainer pre-Fall evening dresses.  If you passed an unknown individual wearing either of these unadorned outfits in the street, I doubt you'd look twice, and if Kirsten Dunst were a not a super famous actress she would not have these images of herself broadcast on several style websites since Sunday.

Yet Kirsten with her austere outfits has struck a chord with me.  I think it's because she does look decidedly average - which isn't always a terrible thing.  You hear all about these people who look as if they've 'thrown something together', but the outfits often encompass several layers and styles, and are likely to have been laid out on a bedroom chair the previous evening.  Kirsten's are definitely thrown together - there's nothing more efficient than a jumper with matching bag and shoes, worn with jeans, or a dress with tights and heels.

Lately, I've been indulging in fashion in a dreamlike manner instead of literally wearing the clothes I would like to, throwing on jeans and a top instead of a complicated combination that could have come straight from an Urban Outfitters mannequin.  This is why I personally took note of what Kirsten Dunst was wearing.  Because she looks cool and free, wearing everyday clothes that aren't particularly 'in fashion'. They're not steeped in hyperbole, they aren't histrionic.  They're classic, easy, they're SIMPLE, and they're what I, and most girls, wear on a day-to-day basis while we get on with our hectic lives.

While occasionally daydreaming of wearing Meadham Kirchoff, Celine and Acne, of course.

LONDON FASHWAN WEEK OVERLOAD

I feel like I've binged on London Fashion Week and am about to have the sartorial equivalent of a hyperglycemic attack as a result.  I am a single catwalk-show viewing away from pledging never to wear an item of clothing ever again.

As an antidote to this, I'm reading through all of Michael Hogan's satirical '#madeuplfwtweets' (example: 'Stranger asked if I loved bags.  I replied, "Totes!"  She thought I meant just tote bags! HILAIRE!') while listening to the calming influence of Feist.

Already my threat of nakedness has been pacified.  I will instead don a Feist-inspired Breton top and wear it for the rest of my life.  And maybe avoid the internet until fashion week is over.

Topshop Unique Live Stream

Topshop Unique's Autumn/ Winter 2011 Fashion Show is streaming live here from 3pm today.  It's always one of the best catwalk shows in terms of young, funky and unorthodox styling, so is probably worth a watch.  I'll certainly be glued to my computer screen in half an hour's time.

Work Experience

I'm already being very lax with this blog.  I do have an excuse though, I've been doing work experience at More magazine all week.  I got the opportunity last minute and before I knew it I was wandering around Covent Garden trying to find A and J shaped helium balloons for a photoshoot with Alan and Jimmy Carr.  (I didn't succeed, I managed to get completely lost, and I didn't get to meet them).

I did come across Neal's Yard while taking a wrong turning, a bohemian-style square in the middle of Covent Garden that I want to go back to in the summer to drink iced tea and pretend to be in an Italian piazza.  It's painted in sunny colours and has random signs on the walls like the one to the right.  I love that you can get lost in London and discover so many interesting things.  You could never get bored.

This week's made me so much more determined to eventually work in fashion media.  This means that I'll probably have to work for free for the next year or so before actually achieving a paid wage for my services.  Not quite sure how I'm meant to manage that??  It goes against the grain, that you'd have to work for free in order to eventually work to get paid.  There's a very fine line between 'work experience' and 'working for free'.  The journalism industry goes so far over the line that the line becomes entirely invisible.  Unfortunately competition for jobs makes this a reality when applying to work in an industry which offers perks.