New York: Ladies Who Lunch & Leafy Streets on the Upper East Side

Whenever I land in New York, I make a beeline for the Upper East Side; home to gossip girls and ladies who lunch, tree-lined streets, glorious art galleries and the kind of apartments that have gloved doormen and a line of chauffeurs waiting outside. So on my first day there, I hopped straight in a car with Nicolette and made for the neighbourhood.

We started with lunch at Fred’s at Barneys, where the rooftop views are breathtaking and the conversations to be overheard are nothing short of entertaining. By way of example, at one point the glossy ladies who lunched at the table beside us where discussing the most glamorous way to have babies, and stated “…if we want Spring/Summer babies, we have to get pregnant right now! I suppose I’d better let him start touching my body…” It was all we could do to contain our hysterical giggling until we burst through the shiny glass doors and onto Madison Avenue (via the shoe department, of course).

After lunch, it was time for a walk uptown via Madison Avenue for some window shopping and a stop at the new Laduree outpost to buy macarons which we ate watching autumn leaves fall beside Central Park and, rather cheesily, whilst peering in the windows of Tiffany’s doing our very best Holly Golightly impressions.

We stopped at the Frick and strolled the residential streets which run off the Park, each lined with a row of shiny porticos and patient doormen, and passed tiny dogs, immaculately-coiffed women with their well-mannered children, tiny salons and private courtyards that we peered into as we dreamed of living in such apartments and throwing garden parties in in the summertime. Oh!

Wearing: Sass and Bide tee, Carven skirt, Prada sunglasses, Michael Kors watch, jewels from Mimco, Jersey Pearl and J.Crew.

Don’t you just treasure those days where you skip about town being a lady of leisure and pretend to live in an entirely different tax bracket?

Love, Miss B xx

London Fashion Week: Highlights from Day 1

2010 Fashion Fringe prize winner Corrie Nielsen’s debut solo show was a sumptuous feast for the eyes, and a demonstration of true artistic genius.

I do realise that it’s now the close of Day 3, making this post precisely 2 days late, but between 15 hour show days with not a moment to stop (quite literally, lunch is eaten out of a box in the car en route to the next show) and an average of 4 hours sleep a night, I’ve forgone my blogging duties in order to soak up as much of Fashion Week as possible.* But fear not, I have a veritable library of wonderful photographic moments to share with you over the next few days.

The first day of Fashion Week is widely considered the ‘warm-up’ for the days to follow. The alpha editors are yet to arrive in town (from the last big shows on the New York Fashion Week roster), and our feet are yet calloused from tottering on our Louboutin heels over the perilous cobbles of Somerset House. That said, Day 1 was far from short of highlights. In the absence of energy to write anything more substantial, here is a visual collection of a few of my favourite moments from the day.

The Preen salon show, where the jawdroppingly intricate embroidery and hand-embellished beading was a demonstration of workmanship of the highest calibre.

Practical? No. Art for the feet? Yes.

From birdies in trees at both Orla Kiely and Mulberry, to white feathered dresses at Felder Felder and Prophetik, to Maria Grachvogel’s plumed Erikson Beamon cuffs and ruffs to Hilary Alexander’s OTT fabulous feathered cape, birds and their feathers seem to be the order of the day.

Maria Grachvogel’s beautiful show in the newly re-opened Savoy Ballrom. Watercolour printed silks and burnt orange gowns were the perfect start to the morning.

The sight every sleep-deprived, hungry editor wants to see: Laduree macarons in our front row goodie bags at Corrie Nielsen

Stay tuned for the Day 2 highlights tomorrow!

Love, Miss B xx

* That being said, I do apologise if this post is incoherent babble. It’s currently 2:00am and I have a 6:00am wake-up call for shows tomorrow.

London Fashion Week Spring/Summer ’11: Best in Show

While this might seem horribly late, I genuinely wanted to take time to reflect on all the shows I had seen at London Fashion Week. When attending Fashion Week, it sometimes seems all too easy to get caught up in the sensory excitement of some shows, yet when we step back and take a more considered look, it’s often the more pared back and less dramatic shows that leave the most lasting impression and prove to be the ones we want to import into our own wardrobes. So here is my verdict on the best of London Fashion Week Spring/Summer ’11.

THE MOST DESIRABLE:

Mary Katrantzou:

Fashion is a cyclical beast. Though trends and whims evolve, generally the transition is an expected, if not predictable one. It’s only a few times a season that a show really takes me by surprise for being truly different, clever, or breathtakingly beautiful (and if we’re very lucky, all of those three in one). In London this season, Mary Katrantzou’s show was exactly that for me.

Inspired by vintage interiors magazines, Katrantzou translated this subject in the most literal way. Skirts were shaped as beautiful (and oddly, entirely flattering) beaded lampshades, entire rooms were digitally printed on dress panels, while trims in the form of ruffles, fringes, or contrast colour panels became tablecloths, ceiling cornices or, in the case of silk chiffon panels fluttering (as though catching the breeze of the room’s open windows) where a normal peplum waist might ordinarily sit, curtains. Accessories too had the same interior-decor whimsy: I particularly loved the golden necklaces shaped as chandeliers and positioned to sit as though hanging from the ceiling printed on the garment below. The fact that Katrantzou managed to interpret her inspiration in such a beautiful, wearable way (where, by contrast, other literal translations are often gimmicky or costumey) all in a palette of beautiful pastels is a testament to her enormous talent. I loved her more and more every season and expect great things in years to come!

Erdem:

Erdem Moragliou has been one of my favourites on the London fashion scene for a number of seasons now, and this show did not disappoint. I was privileged enough to see this show in person, and it was exceptionally beautiful to watch. The dresses to match were just as beautiful – a flutter of swirling spring blossoms (Erdem again demonstrating his prowess with digitally printed silks), lace in white, rouge and inky black, and embroidery inspired by the Ballet Russes (Erdem had spent the past summer behind the scenes at the V&A, rifling through the treasures of the current Diaghilev and the Golden Age of the Ballet Russes exhibition). Also loved the floral tie-up heels by Nicholas Kirkwood.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS:

Opulent elegance at Antonio Berardi (L) and Roksanda Ilincic (R)

Saying he wanted to explore a more romantic ideal, Beradi this time sent a slew of dresses down the runway that were a lot softer than the usually sexy looks we have come to expect from the designer. There was an abundance of of white, dove grey and cherry red, and I particularly loved the floral appliqued white (as above) and lipstick-coloured dresses – perfect for summer garden parties on a country estate. At Roksanda, it was all about lighter than air silk chiffon, 70′s headscarves, sculptural draping and pops of coral against the softest dove grey. Just beautiful.

The new romantics at Charles Anastase (L) and Richard Nicoll (R)

I love the world of Charles Anastase: it’s all dreamy Parisian ‘It’ girls who one imagines spends her summer days reading Nabokov in the Jardin de Tuilleries. This floral appliqued mesh dress, while perhaps impractical, made me gasp with it’s fun romanticism. Ditto Richard Nichol’s dreamy 70′s cape tops/dresses, in particular this blush pink iteration (above).

Elegant femininity at Peter Pilotto (L) and Matthew Williamson (R)

Peter Pilotto has mastered the dress in a way that is both extraordinarily clever and devastatingly beautiful. His show this season was a study in clever cuts and beautiful eccentric elegance. Meanwhile, the theme at Matthew Williamson might have been ‘shipwrecked’, but it was the wispy silk maxi gowns (in bright oceanic colours and muddled pastels) that I loved the most.

Ballerinas in black and white at David Koma (L) and Jonathan Saunders (R)

The ballet was a recurring theme this season (much to my pleasure!). A relative newcomer, David Koma did wonderful things with modern tutu-style cuts in shades of blush and monochrome. While Jonathan Saunders is known for his mastery of colour and print, I also loved his short, full skirts and the dancer-esque silhouettes they created.

Fun rainbow brights at Christopher Kane (L) and Holly Fulton (R)

There’s no doubt about it, shocking brights will be huge for Spring/Summer. I loved Christopher Kane’s Princess Margaret inspired-show, where he sent out conservative twin sets and twee suits reincarnated in neon yellow, orange sherbet, lime green and lolly pink. Over at Holly Fulton, she had fun with her brilliant 60′s prints and bright dresses appropriate for a grand cruise.

The whimsical urbaniter at Michael van der Ham (L) and Sass & Bide (R)

Michael van der Ham’s patchwork dresses are not for the faint hearted or the less than leggy (indeed, they’d probably look horribly frumpy on me in all honesty), but I love the quirky combination of fabrics that somehow, just seem to work. It might be Antipodean pride, but I always love Australian design duo Sass & Bide, and this season they really excelled in softer fabrics and digital prints. Pair that dress above with killer legs and a statement cuff and you’re good to go for a night of adventures!

So tell me, do you have a favourite show from London Fashion Week?

Love, Miss B xx