SHOW AND TELL: TOPSHOP AW12

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

Every time I enter Topshop Oxford Circus, my heart flutters a little, well quite a lot actually. This is because Topshop was the first place I got properly excited about clothes, a place I could go and drown entirely in the possibilities and options calling out to me across those three huge floors. Autumn/Winter 2012, and this summer for that matter, are going to be seasons to get really excited about a trip to Topshop. In fact, those of us lucky enough to go to the Unique show during February's LFW have been in a thrall since we saw the luxe military, shearling and bomber coats parading past us as part of former Vogue Fashion Director Kate Phelan's first collection as Creative Director.

I went along to Topshop's press day this morning where I heard plenty of fashion press discussing which jumper/ coat/ trouser they'd be ordering.

The neckline on this red crosses jumper is going to look bang on for AW12.

Melanie is ordering one of these

That low polo neck again, this time sportier. I wanted to wrap myself up in this quilted, animal-y jumper.



One of the best things about the Unique collection is the heavy, layered up theme which runs through. It makes it look and feel properly high end.

Melanie's favourite bomber, she wants the coat version too (greedy girl)

My personal favourite- zippy shearling...

Double breasted bomber.... Genius. 

AND there were highly covetable accessories...

It wasn't just the Unique collection on show today. Richard Nicoll has worked with Topshop on a small collection of bridal wear which is going to launch in June. There are no pics allowed yet, but expect baby doll and nightie shapes in wedding white as well as sweet pastels. A very refreshing alternative to frou frou frothiness and really rather bargainous at around £300.

Next Friday sees the launch of Maarten Van Der Horst's collaboration. If you like the Fashion East designer's Hawaiian shirt spin offs and bright colours then you'll love the Topshop line. I've got my eye on the tailored Bermuda shorts. Alex Fury wrote all about the trend for Hawaiian prints in last Sunday's Indy.

Finally, if you're still searching for perfect pyjama then never fear, Boutique is coming to the rescue. I immediately made a mental shopping list for the red overblown paisley print tee and shorts which will hit stores in May.  Oh Topshop, you do spoil us. 

All images by Fashion Junior at Large

HURRAH TO ANOTHER TEN YEARS OF TOPSHOP AND NEWGEN!

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

Not only is today the first week of London Fashion Week Autumn/Winter '12 but it also marks the tenth anniversary of Topshop's sponsorship of the NEWGEN scheme. This morning, the fashion world's collective heart was in its mouth as Sir Phillip Green announced that 'the ten year sponsorship has come to an end'. Surely not? However, in the next breath the Arcadia boss confirmed that the partnership would continue for the next decade- what a great start to London Fashion Week!

Topshop have made a timeline of their Newgen sponsorship at topshop.com

Topshop's sponsorship will not just be about catwalk shows. The high street giant will also be working with the British Fashion Council and the government to look at ways to grow British manufacture. Over the past three years, there have been signs that a revival is beginning to take place.  The BFC's 'Future of Fashion' strategy claims that 'where gaps exist, action must be taken to fill them, for example through carefully designed apprenticeship programmes'. Furthermore, 'our fashion education system needs to be marching in step with the needs of our fashion industry'. Phillip Green is clearly dedicated to this cause; 'we need as much focus on the new generation of production talent as there has recently been on new design talent'.

This is all about taking the incredible leaps which British fashion has made in recent years and consolidating the benefits it's already reaping. London can now keep its best designers at its own fashion week rather than losing them to Paris, Milan and New York. So, why not MAKE the clothes here too, rather than losing the business to other economies just because they're better equipped to cope with the demand?

To celebrate ten years of NEWGEN, Topshop teamed up with SHOWstudio to create a film starring Karlie Kloss. Kate Phelan, who recently joined as Topshop's Creative Director after twenty years at Vogue, and Nick Knight collaborated on this brilliant showcase of work by designers who've come through NEWGEN in the past decade. It's an inspiring reminder of all the designers London is proud to call its own...

THE WEEK IN FASHION: FEBRUARY 6th-10th

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large, with assistance from Joshua Drew

New York Fashion Week is well and truly under way, but there's plenty of news from all corners of the fashion world keeping us entertained this week....

The Queen by Karl (image www.metro.us)

Editor-in-chief was the new title given to Karl Largerfeld last week. The creative director of luxury French house Chanel turned his cutoff leather gloves to editing one of France’s biggest national newspapers, Metro, demonstrating once again his infamous superhuman abilities.

Karl's sketch commenting on the troubles in Syria (image www.metro.us)

After recently promoting his KARL by Karl Lagerfeld collection for Net-A-Porter (in a unique interview in which Karl interviews himself) we were glad to see the German designer being interviewed by a third party once more. Among Karl's list of favourite places to shop and eat were controversial comments about Adele, which proved a hot water topic amongst tweeters worldwide as Lagerfeld described the singer as "too fat." Another controversial Karl comment (JD) We hasten to add that Mr Lagerfeld has since apologised!

Miu Miu's London bags (image from graziadaily.co.uk)

 All the major fashion cities- New York, London, Milan and Paris- went head to head this week as Miu Miu spoiled us with more of their fab accessories, just in time for fashion weeks. The collection comprises 46 styles in everything from ostrich  and python skin to brocade and glitter. Very nice, but naughty with pieces starting £1,295 (JD)

New York bags from Miu Miu (image from graziadaily.co.uk)

Talking of amazing accessories, YSL's Cruise video is a delectable three minutes of fashion and accessory p*rn...

You're safe with LV (image from telegraph.co.uk)

Louis Vuitton is getting sexy. With the release of the most exclusive contraceptive to date, the LV condom is taking the brand's sexy kudos even higher heights than THAT AW11 fetish show. Would you take Vuitton to bed?

Another batch of magazine covers for us to mull over. We're mostly loving Victoria Beckham on iD, a completely unexpected match made in editorial heaven....

image from telegraph.co.uk

 Fabulous Kate Moss in Erdem on W

image from telegraph.co.uk

 Despite the dodgy reviews of his debut SS12 show, Kanye West confirmed that he'll be back at Paris in a few weeks to show his second collection. On top of that, it looks like the rapper turned designer might be ready for a diffusion range. he was apparently spotted having lunch with Phillip Green this week. Naturally, this has fuelled rumours of a Topshop collaboration.

Kanye West SS12 (image from catwalking.com)

While everyone on Twitter was complaining about the number of English people who are now willing to stay up for Super Bowl, my theory (from the evidence of my twitter feed, so biased perhaps) is that everyone was staying up for Madonna's half time show. She didn't disappoint with her Givenchy costume. The performance was pretty awesome too.

Riccardo Tisci's sketches for Madonna's costume (www.vogue.co.uk)

All Madonna images from dailymail.co.uk

And one of our favourite looks for NYFW yesterday comes from label to watch, Creatures of the Wind. Happy Weekend!

Creatures of the Wind AW12 from cat walking.com

HOW NEWGEN TOPSHOP T-SHIRTS HELPED SAVE LONDON FASHION WEEK

Posted by Melanie Rickey, Fashion Editor at Large

When I first started out in this career in 1996 Topshop wasn't the fashion hero it is today. Designers moaned about how high street stores like Topshop copied their ideas without paying for them. And they were right to moan. High street stores did copy, often brazenly. For designers, the high street was the Big Bad Wolf come to gobble them up.

Back in 1998 two visionary women working at Topshop decided to see if they could reverse the dynamic. Jane Shepherdson, then Brand Director of the store (now CEO of Whistles) and Sarah Mower MBE, esteemed American Vogue fashion critic and nowAmbassador for Emerging Talent for the BFC was then Fashion Director of Arcadia Group. They had the bright idea to invite designers to collaborate with the store, giving them the opportunity to reach new consumers and make money to help grow their businesses. Topshop also part sponsored their catwalk shows.

"Young designers had zero tolerance of the high street and it was my mission to make sure that [if they collaborated with Topshop] they wouldn't be raped [by the experience]. Over  my dead body," Sarah Mower, told me this morning. "Among the first designers we worked with were Hussein Chalayan and Clements Ribeiro.  We had a dream that London would become the world number one centre for emerging talent. Today when I look at the number of people that have come though NewGen, like Christopher Kane, Erdem and Jonathan Saunders, I feel we have achieved that."

Spookily enough, while researching further into this story I came across a piece I wrote in 1998 in the Independent about the advent of Topshop's work with young designers. (I worked at the Indy as fashion writer from 1996-1999.)

In 2002, seeing further mileage (and now doubt enjoying its rehabilitated image as the saviour of young designers, rather than the usurper) Topshop began its headline sponsorship of the NEWGEN program. Today it not only sponsors NewGen, but also Fashion East and it has created the Topshop Show Space at London Fashion Week, which offers a free venue and production for the hottest young British designers. This brings us neatly to the photos you see here, the store's way of celebrating their 10 years of supporting NewGen.

On February 17th on the first day of London Fashion Week, Topshop owner Philip Green is scheduled to do a presentation that will outline his plans for his next ten years of fashion industry support.  Also on the 17th these T-shirts launch in-store and online at topshop.com. In the meantime enjoy 10 of the 20 £30 T-shirts shot by Scott Trindle on a selection of new models (all profits go to homeless charity Centrepoint) and decide which one/s you want to get your hands on. I love the Erdem, Chris Kane and Mary Katrantzou tees... What about you? You can catch the other 10 T's in this weekend's edition of The Times.

                                                                        Francesca wearing JW Anderson

Ashleigh wearing Erdem

Mia wears Marios Schwab

Grace wears Christopher Kane

Georgina wears Jonathan Saunders

Sara wears Peter Jensen 

Olga wears Meadham Kirchhoff

Agnes wears Holly Fulton

Natasha wears Mary Katrantzou

Jaz wears Roksanda Ilincic

SHOW & TELL: MEADHAM KIRCHHOFFS HYPER PRETTY SS12

Posted by Melanie Rickey, Fashion Editor at Large

At this time of year fashion media people start mobilising towards attending fashion shows. The real die-hards will already be on the road in Milan and Florence at the mens shows, and are about to head to the Paris mens shows followed by the Haute Couture and pre-fall. They will soon be speaking incomprehensible fashion. At FEAL we'll be keeping a close eye on these shows while bringing you all that is exciting, new, interesting and thought-provoking in fashion now.

To kick off our coverage of the Spring/Summer 2012 collections I want to start with our old NEWGEN gang members Edward Meadham and Ben Kirchhoff of Meadham Kirchhoff who are deservedly and swiftly gaining a cult following. I've been following their work since pretty much the beginning of their careers. Their S/S '12 collection of hyper femininity was a social and fashion media triumph which disseminated through the Web and found a home in the hearts of disaffected teenagers and Riot Grrls of the old and new school around the world.

The Riot Grrrl manifesto 

Theres a lot of women and girls out there who don't buy into the idea of what a modern woman is supposed to be according to the fashion and mainstream media. With their work Ed and Ben give those woman a connection to catwalk fashion they would not otherwise get. By signposting their way to Courtney Love, Tavi Gevinson the Riot Girl manifesto and the Japanese Lolita subculture, MK are giving disaffected alt. fashion lovers a home.

                                               Meadham Kirchhoff SS/12 ( images: topshop.com)

"Its a celebration of girls. Of the ridiculous artifice and expectation of female beauty. A celebration and disgust of it. So yeah...the normal." - Ed Meadham

Since airing this collection last September the designers have been picked up by the London office of New York based marketing company Black Frame whose other fashion clients are Rodarte and Visionaire. Currently the designers are simultaneously creating both their Autumn/Winter 2012 collection and the next edition of "A Magazine Curated by ".  I'm looking forward to both; especially as one of my best friends Brix will be in their magazine.

A "Lolita" girl in Tokyo wearing the brand Angelic Pretty 

The Angelic Pretty Dolls.

Meadham Kirchhoff have been considered a bit like Marmite in the fashion media up to now; but 2012 will be their year to go global as they now connect to their fans and therefore to their marketplace.  Not long ago an A-list editor said to me in an exasperated tone "I can't understand why you like Meadham Kirchhoff". Now they feature prominently in her magazine's editorials. That says it all.

There is much to appreciate with the work of Ben and Ed this season, both intellectually and fashion wise.  But don't look too far beyond the cupcake platforms and Hello Kitty inspired knits. They are too brilliant not to be enjoyed.

Meadham Kirchhoff Spring/Summer 2012 shoes by Nicholas Kirkwood. Whats not to love?

I do want to share the fabulously incongruous first drop of their S/S 2012 collection with you though. Interestingly, rather than commence the season by displaying their luxurious high-end pieces (with their equally luxurious prices), Net-a-Porter.com have smartly realised (as has Topshop who tapped them for two previous collaborations) that MK's fan base is not your average high ticket fashion consumer lady. She is definitely more punk rock than glossy fashion maven. Hence Meadham Kirchhoff fans will appreciate a hyper sweet T-Shirt perhaps especially if they have to scrape their pennies together to buy one. Anyway, here they are. Which one do you want? I adore the "Love is Revenge" T-Shirt. (P.S I've just checked and they are already selling out fast, especially in smaller sizes)

Love is Revenge t-shirt £130

Kitty tee £130

Riot Not Diet £130

SHOW & TELL: TOPSHOP SS12

Posted by Melanie Rickey, Fashion Editor at Large

While the other brands within the Arcadia group sink further into obscurity (400+ stores closing in next two years and lack of personality driving them), thank God the brilliant creatives at Topshop (and Topman) work it to maintain their pole position as the coolest fashionistas on the British and international high street. 

There's no denying Topshop is an exciting and innovative fashion brand. Yesterday while other stores are sea of sale signs and packed rails, its Oxford Circus (London) store was a palace of pretty pastels and streety sportswear. Their plans to celebrate Topshop's 10 years of NEWGEN support gave me a thrill when I heard them - ten years worth of amazing collaborations, revisited in special luxe T-shirt collection. Yes please!

Last Autumn TopShop brought Kate Phelan in as Creative Director of Topshop from her senior position at British Vogue. I wanted to share her advertising images from the new Spring collection. The photographs by Josh Olins, and Kate's studied (colour) and beautifully insouciant (black & white) styling are a perfect introduction to the new season.  

This model looks like the younger sister of 30-something Belgian model Anouck Lepere

This jacket is on my shopping list 

My summer look 

Jacket + silver mini rucksack please!

I'll be pulling together a look like this asap

Topshop Spring/Summer 2012

Stylist, Kate Phelan
Photographer, Josh Olins - CLM
Hair, Sam McKnight- Premier
Makeup, Hannah Murray - JW
Manicure, Jenny Longworth- CLM
Production, CLM