Pop-Up For The Dirty Pretty Things

Last week I was invited along to the Dirty Pretty Things lingerie pop-up store, situated in the heart of Soho. Exclusively open for two days only, the pop-up was a novel way to celebrate the launch of the British brand’s new e-commerce store.

Images courtesy of Surgery PR

Greeted by a bevy a beautifully dressed ladies, who literally stopped traffic, guests were served Mahiki cocktails from a bright purple van, which proved to be a big talking point of the evening.

Setting themselves apart from the run-of-the-mill high-street lingerie brands, Dirty Pretty Things offer a selection of sensual and luxurious underwear at affordable prices. Designing for a liberated woman who wears sexy lingerie for herself, the focus is on the texture and comfort, making DPT the go to brand when you want to feel empowered.

With Leroy Thornhill of The Prodigy and Pam Hogg on decks, this party is certainly one to remember.

SS11 Press Days: Snow PR

Last week I also stopped by the Snow PR showroom for the inaugural time. With a great client list (highlights of which below) I was keen to check out their best brands in person. The first works I spotted were by  fashion designer and artist Zakee Shariff, whom I have written about previously. As a massive fan I loved looking at her newest prints and accessories in a plethora of bright colours - I particularly like the skull print. 

Another designer whom I spotted was that of On|Off founder/ director Lee Lapthorne who launched his eponymous range of scarves and hoods two seasons back. This time round the colour palette is light and crisp with beautiful digital prints in cool colours and silks.

A firm favourite is PPQ, who in my opinion didn't produce their strongest collection to date, however their SS11 offering was filled with lots of cute cocktail dresses (such as my favourite pictured right). Perfect for edgy and youthful sophistication.

A treat on the catwalk and a treat in the showroom is how I view the work of Pam Hogg. I absolutely love her space and 80's vibe aesthetic (above) and love how for SS11 its been mixed in with thick and heavy linens (below), with an intriguing straight-jacket theme reminiscent of a SS09 Converse trainer designed by Ozzy Osbourne.

 Lastly I spied the work of Horace, above and below, whose painterly, distressed and slightly OTT garments are brilliant - definitely a brand now firmly on my wishlist.

London Fashion Week Diary: Day Four

Another great day today... I met so many friends both personal and professional and spent most of the day catching up with people...
Also caught the fabulous Pam Hogg, Hermione de Paula and FAD shows...

With her trademark penchant for cat suits in full swing Pam was in her element for the AW10 collection entitled ‘Valley of the Shadow of Darkness’. With futuristic metallic’s featuring heavily on the catwalk even the hair and make-up took a turn for the futuristic with the models sporting heavy eyebrows reminiscent of a certain Captain Spock.

With a procession of well known celebrities including Jodie Harsh, Ex-All Saint Melanie Blatt (with beautiful daughter in tow), Pearl Lowe, Peaches Geldof and Jaime Winstone, it was a paparazzi photographer’s dream! I also spotted Nick Cave sneak in, followed by Jefferson Hack.

On Mon­day night I was delighted to be invited to the 2010 FAD com­pe­ti­tion com­pris­ing of a cat­walk show and awards cer­e­mony held within  Freema­sons Hall, Venue of Vaux­hall Fash­ion Scout. Short­hand for ‘Fash­ion Aware­ness Direct’, a reg­is­tered char­ity since 2005, the com­pany ethos focuses on mak­ing ‘the per­son cen­tral to design, pro­mot­ing respect to the wearer and inte­grat­ing art and cul­ture into fashion’.

With the focus of Monday’s event being the FAD com­pe­ti­tion, I was very excited to see what the 14 short­listed design­ers would present.

With only three awards (bronze, sil­ver and gold) on offer, the judg­ing panel made an excep­tion and granted a fourth designer, Vera Thor­dar­d­ot­tir a spe­cial men­tion for her inspired sculp­tural lace col­lec­tion, reward­ing her efforts with a work place­ment at William Tem­pest.

In bronze posi­tion was Rebecca Solity, of DeMont­ford Uni­ver­sity whose lay­ered satin and chif­fon pieces received rap­tur­ous applause when they went down the cat­walk. Inspired by what appeared to be the late 1970s, Rebecca’s colour palette was grey and cream, uti­liz­ing volu­mi­nous shapes to great effect, embell­ish­ing her satin jump­suit with a util­ity belt and mock-medals, earn­ing her a work place­ment with Jonathan Saun­ders.

The run­ner up was Alice-Jane Hut­ton, whose two out­fits con­sisted of chic sep­a­rates with heav­ily padded shoul­ders and exquis­ite laser-cut Per­spex jew­ellery. Win­ning her­self a work place­ment with esteemed British designer Sir Paul Smith!

Finally the over­all win­ner of the 2010 FAD com­pe­ti­tion was Rasa Abra­mavi­ciute, a sec­ond year fash­ion stu­dent at Mid­dle­sex Uni­ver­sity. With a fash­ion for­ward cap­sule range of knit­ted tex­tural dresses Rasa was most cer­tainly the stand out designer of the show, with sev­eral peo­ple in the front row gasp­ing at the sheer detail and immac­u­late fin­ish applied to her designs. Her first dress, inspired by mem­o­ries of her child­hood, was con­structed entirely from leather with Lithuan­ian folk print and inno­v­a­tive 3-D origami details. The sec­ond out­fit rep­re­sented the unity of her coun­try, with a patch­work car­pet dress in earthy shades, per­fectly com­pli­mented by a struc­tural leather jacket. Win­ning first prize of a place­ment with none other than Dame Vivi­enne West­wood and £2,000!!!