(Tom Ford S/S 13)

Move over 90’s, there’s a new decade in town; make way for 1960’s sophistication. Tuesday 27^th November 2012 showcased the annual British Fashion Awards held at the elite Savoy hotel. The night was filled with the fabulously dressed, many of which were sporting the sixties look in a demure style. Winner of ‘Model Of The Year’ Cara Delevigne, 20, wore a simple metallic green Burberry shift dress and dark eye make-up creating a youthful look of sophistication. Alexa Chung, who won the British Style Award for the third year running, channeled her famous sixties look with a boyish charm in a Simone Rocha black embroided high neck skater skirt dress. Style motivator for the more mature women, Samantha Cameron, wore a high neck, knee length floral shift dress by Erdem proving that great style doesn’t stop at 40.

Elegance is back, it graced the catwalks of Tom Ford and Gucci during their spring/summer 2013 collection shows signaling the backlash has begun. A sea of neutral colours, sleek up-dos and shift dresses adorned the runway chasing away the bright nostalgic trends of 90’s hip hop. This fresh backlash is an open armed welcome for any lady who wants to wear a suit of sophistication. The sixties look has always been going in and out of fashion but this latest trend of refined sophistication is available for women of all ages making it appealing to a wider audience of trend followers.  In a recent Elle survey of the sophisticated sixties trend versus the trend of 90’s hip hop, 100% of correspondents agreed this particular trend of 1960’s clothing is available to all age groups. Agreeing that ‘structured silhouettes, neutral colours, shift and swing dresses make any one look good.’ 80% agreed that the 90’s hip hop look would not be suitable for all ages, claiming that ‘bright colours, crop tops and high waisted shorts are not suitable for women over 36.’ When asked whether they find inspiration for how they dress through media such as film and TV the majority of answers agreed. People agreed that 90’s fashion films, 60’s set film ‘An Education’ and TV shows such as Downton Abbey are inspiring.

A rise in sophisticated lifestyle media has enabled women to be encouraged to dress with style suited to their age. BBC 2 drama The Hour is an espionage thriller based in a newsroom set in Britain during the late 1950’s. The show features an array of rich shades, tailored silhouettes and the famous ‘Dior length’ hemline that compliment the Cold War era by showing sophistication over rules the anguish of the era’s troubles. American hit drama Mad Men has also help produce an army of sixties trend followers with a glamourous edge created through the advertising agency the show is set in. The show is dripping with opulence, showing the glamour of sixties fashion with structured shift dresses, paisley prints, bat-winged dresses and monochrome. The decadent world of Mad Men is set to make a return in spring 2013, just in time for the showcase trend of sophisticated sixties.

The sophistication of sixties dressing is undoubtedly accessible to all women of all ages in comparison to the 90’s hip hop trend. Freelance stylist Rebecca Jackson tells Elle; ‘It [the sixties trend] has a feeling of nostalgia that older women will relate to. The flattering silhouette and shapes of the classic shift dress will suit older women and compliment their age.’ Although the trend has been prominent with designers on the catwalk, high street labels are catching on and producing affordable luxury pieces. Cos is renowned for it’s structural designs and their latest collection features an assortment of defined silhouettes. High street giant Zara also offer tailored dresses in the sophisticated sixties style at an affordable price. The chic revival of classic sixties dressing is slowly being seen on the streets, wearer of the trend Anastasia Devereux explains; ‘I have always adored the culture of the sixties and sophistication is a must in my look’

So, let us say our final goodbye to the bright youthful look of 90’s hip hop and embrace this desired want for sophistication and say hello to a classic way of dressing. 

From the moment she could crawl Suri Cruise has been branded a ‘style icon’ in many medians of the media. Most recently, the young infant of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes ranked at an impressive number nine in InStyle’s ‘Best Dressed Of 2012’ poll. According to Holmes, Suri, aged six, has a ‘great eye’ for style and even helps style her mother on a daily basis. Many questions have been raised in the rise of media interest in these apparent young style icons, but is it really that bad? Isn’t it just lighthearted fun?

Suri is not alone in this apparent new wave of miniature style icons. Actor Elle Fanning, aged 14, has been elevated to ‘style icon’ status for her eclectic style and love of couture on the red carpet. Along with her love for Louis Vuitton and Cavalli, she last year she became the face of Marc Jacob’s Autumn/Winter 2011 campaign. Eccentric and vibrant pop star Willow Smith also has a number of adoring style fans. The 12-year-old has even been given the title of style icon by fashion designer Derek Lam when Vogue ran an article of designer’s favourite style icons. Lam described Willow as; “naturally talented, charismatic, unblemished optimism, with the whole wide world open to her possibilities and abilities, I think she is the future-forward American icon.” The youngest emerging trend setting infant is of course young Harper-Seven Beckham, who at just one year old already has a blog praising her outfits. A blogger simply known as ‘Stardust’ created a blog entitled ‘harperbeckhamfashion’ that features hundreds of photographs of the baby in various outfits and where to buy them. The blog has hundreds of followers, ‘Stardust’ also has other celebrity child style blogs for example Suri Cruise and Honour Warren (daughter of actress Jessica Alba) have blogs dedicated to their apparent style. More recently, Lorraine Candy, editor of Elle magazine tweeted how she was lusting after baby Harper’s black Burberry cape.

With growing media attention focusing on what these young celebrities are wearing there has been some criticism on the well being of these children. The Guardian conducted a survey asking the general public for their views. 78% of the public think that the high profile parents of these young children are to blame for this accelerating growth in sexualisation, particularly when Suri Cruise was photographed wearing heeled shoes aged three and red lipstick at aged five. However when asked if the media is fueling this debate there were mixed responses. Many correspondents believe the intense focus on these children have forced them to grow up to quickly but are not necessarily being sexualised. On the contrary, others believe that by growing up too quickly they are being sexualised by being judged through the media by what they are wearing.

Psychologist Amit Ghosh has an interesting perspective on why fashion designers are embracing youngsters as their new muses. ‘There is the belief that childhood is the saddle of creativity. Children are curious and creative,’ observed Ghosh,  ‘they like imagining and fantasizing. So getting into child’s mindset brings fresh creativity in fashion designers.’ In terms of consumers of fashion and women seeing these children as style icons, Ghosh added; ‘Regression is a defence mechanism process where when people are insecure, we like to go back to our childhood. So in an insecure saturated world of fashion one may like to regress.’

Are all these opinions just an excuse to be dramatic? Is it really that shocking that these children want to be creative and express themselves through their outfits? Blogger Allie Hagan created the famous ‘Suris Burn Book’ blog, a satirical blog that criticises celebrity children from the severe insight of Suri Cruise. The blog has a mass of followers and has now become a published book called ‘Suri’s Burn Book: Well Dressed Commentary From Hollywood’s Little Sweetheart.’ Hagan described the book; ‘It’s not to perpetuate but to make fun of the media’s celebrity-kid fixation. There are so many more celebrities now, and the obsession with children is apart of that. My goal is to poke fun at that and how weird it is.’

For years young girls have enjoyed playing dress up, every mother at some point must have found their daughter dressed in their clothes and 5 sizes-too-big heels. It seems that we are at a point in society where even the youngest members are under scrutiny. Is the innocence of childhood dwindling away under this surveillance controlled by the media? Alexa Chung has even admitted that she ‘enjoys dressing like a five-year-old’ and told Grazia magazine; ‘‘She (Suri Cruise) has more clothes than me but we defo share the same style.’’ It appears that we have come to a point where adult clothing and childrens clothing are merging in to one. High street giant H&M have designed adult clothes and then children’s copies, Liam Jenkins a visual merchandiser for the store explains the ethic of the chains children’s range; ‘H&M cater for a wide range of children’s needs and wants. The cuts and styles of the clothes of the clothes are at an acceptable standard making the customer feel happy about shopping from our company. Heels on shoes are always at a suitable height keeping the children looking youthful.’ Mother of two, Lynn Aldoori explained her views; ‘I believe that the majority of children’s clothing is acceptable on the high street. I think that ultimately it is down to the parents on how they dress. In terms of how Suri Cruise dresses, I believe her mother shouldn’t let her out in public with lipstick and high heels on, that’s more of a ‘stay home and dress up’ attire.

Overall it appears that society and the media just want to escalate something out of nothing. The whole idea of ‘child style icons’ is humorous, with Hagen’s book deal mocking the medias interest on celebrity children. It’s hard to believe that these children are really inspirational style icons for adult women, the notion of ‘dressing up’ is something children have always enjoyed and the media should just let them be. 

Mathematics of Love by J.W Anderson

J.W Anderson’s latest menswear show for Fall 2013 at the London Collections: Men tore apart male dressing codes and produced a collection full of creativity and thought provoking pieces.

The young J.W Anderson is no stranger to blending the boundaries of gender through menswear and womenswear. His dream world of ‘boy-girl’ and ‘girl-boy’ dressing came to light during his A/W 2011 womens collection ‘The Fear Of Naturalism’. The collection evoked a somewhat innovative take on gender by creating a collection of fabrics and cuts that could be worn for both sexes by mixing in rough attitude balanced with soft femininity. Anderson has pushed the boundaries of gender even further with his Fall 2013 collection ‘Mathematics Of Love.’ Through this collection, Anderson has transformed the roles of male dressing with shift dresses, frills, boob tubes, and varying hemlines that graced the runway at the BFC Show Space.

The majority of the collection was very feminine, with only a handful of looks being stereotypically masculine, for example heavy coats and pinstripe trousers.  Femininity absolutely dominated the runway and although we will probably not be seeing your ‘Average Joe’ walk in to a pub wearing a grey shift dress with knee high frilled leather boots or perhaps leather pleat-skirt tunics anytime soon, the overt progression of combining the stereotypes of how we should apparently dress is something to admire. Of course this collection will not be to everyone’s taste but there is no denying that Anderson is forever producing new and enthralling designs which is something that everyone should note and respect.

  CELINE WOMENSWEAR S/S 13

Famous for it’s structural and sharp silhouettes, Celine’s latest women’s ready to wear collection show in Paris has evolved to be more relaxed but still incredibly chic.

Phoebe Philo’s collection for Celine shown at the Avenue Foch in Paris revealed a more relaxed Celine aesthetic from the powerful and structural minimalistic collections seen before. The collection transformed the Celine woman with looser tailoring such as oversized black trousers, oversized satin coats and draping vests all, however, effortlessly chic. Although there was a more relaxed vibe the collection oozed perfection and simplicity with it’s tailoring that was as sharp as ever but had a softer edge.

 The clothes glided effortlessly down the catwalk to the sound of ‘Useless’ by Depeche Mode that fitted perfectly to the whole ‘unfinished’ feel for example excess material that hung impeccably from the garments. The colour palate of the collection was of course the trademark greys, blacks, creams and whites that although are seen as masculine colours, the tailoring enabled the collection to showcase ultimate femininity.

Philo injected a hint of extraordinary to the show with her choice of shoes, leather and fur sandals. The majority of the shoes were flat slip on sandals with two straps of leather on different coloured furs, however the all over furry stilettos in yellow and red fur was an extreme eye catcher and most definitely added excitement to the flowing movements of the tranquil silhouettes. Overall, the collection was simple and although it wasn’t aesthetically flawless, the collection exuded powerful minimalism that made the collection perfect.

Now ladies, I know King Louis XVI is probably the last person you would think to be a style icon but since the baroque trend has taken over the fashion world by storm it has left girls all over the world yearning to wear garments fit for royalty, but is the look fashionable or fit for fancy dress?

 Dolce and Gabbana’s ‘Baroque Romanticism’ show at Milan Fashion Week, in February for A/W 12, inspired by 17^th Century finery added fuel to the fire for all wishing princess’s. The collection featured delicate lace, golden embroidery in rich velvet designs with featured prints of cherubs and angels. Samples included jacquard jackets, elegant tapestry blouses and sensual sheer corsets. Sophisticated and luxurious, the baroque trend is sure to make any girl feel like royalty but how do you get the look right without looking like a pompous King Louis XVI?

Have no fear my desiring princess’s I am here to answer and that answer is simple; only wear once piece at a time. An overload of such heavy decadence will look distasteful. The fashion world has leapt on the baroque bandwagon and is available to all purse strings, whether they are loose or tight.

So there we have it ladies! King Louis XVI is your unlikely style icon, now go forth and rock baroque without, er, actually looking like him. 

Cream/Gold Contrast Blouse - Zara.

Leather Skirt - H&M.

Pumps - Charlotte Olympia.

Leather ‘Boy Bag’ - Chanel.

Quip Jacket - Rachel Comey.

Cat Eye Sunglasses - Tom Ford.

Nail Polish - Chanel.

Side Ways Cross Necklace - Nastygal.com

How cute is this rucksack?! I’ve been lusting after it for ages…and still am. Maybe I’l buy it when pay day comes….

E x