ashish look of the day: pajamawear as outerwear

Lounging around in bed on a sunny Sunday morning, relishing the down time before Mr. Dot drags my sorry ass across town to Spitalfield's (& hopefully, lunch @ the Luxe). Just still trying to go thru & organise & compress all these photos.. like eating too much candy, I'm feeling saturated from fashion week shots & need to shoot some civilians!!

But couldn't resist another Ashish shot. Today it has to be striped PJs, because that's what I feel like wearing out. Actually, I feel like staying in bed all day in our new crisp white sheets & duvet cover with big white embroidery Indian style flowers, drinking coffee & compressing jpgs. If you're in the UK, the Times is doing their special big Style section today, it's really quite good actually, altho, frankly, nothing we haven't already seen in our collective blogs. I counted four, no five, no, SIX mentions of MY phrase 'underwear as outerwear' and told Mr. Dot, who said, 'Well, you should have patented it.' But I didn't, so let's see how far today's phrase travels. You saw it here first, girls!

I wonder how this look would go down in Tesco.

nudes

Altho I'm not yet seeing it that much on the street, I am so ready to wear nudes (the whole range, from ballet pink thru to beige). I was wearing it in Miami, of course, and I'm wearing it here, too: just not seeing it that much, apart from popping out like the first snowdrops in early spring, in the form of wisps of skirts peeking out under coats. It's still too dark & cold to do the bare legs, but we can get an edge with leggings & tights.

This is one of the rare shots on my blog not by me: I got it from Topshop's look book. I don't work for Topshop, btw: I don't work for anyone. I 'promote' - i.e., gush about - whatever I feel like at any given time. Just read an interesting, thought provoking piece (& comments) on the Business of Fashion, re: the whole Tavi thing (or Bowgate, or even Babygate, as I've heard it called). *



For example: I've just seen an inside scoop on Richard Nicholl's S/S 2010 eight piece collection - his 5th collaboration with Topshop. Now what am I to do: I happen to love everything, because it's all in shades of nude/pink with a lot of underwear-as-outerwear themes at play. At 65 quid, I'd snap this denim stripe two piece zip 'dress' (bustier, aka bandeau, & skirt), in a heartbeat.

No one is offering me a sample, or even a discount. And yet, I can't help but spread the word, because I love it. To me, the whole point of having little bosoms is that I can get away with stuff like this.

*(Just discovered, TAVI HERSELF has just done a brilliant post on the subject, addressing the BoF article/post.

I'm curious: what do you think: can you be bought? And if so, at what price?

fashion forward

Got my London Fashion Week registration sorted while in Miami, and now I'm musing: what will the big trends be?

Looking back while looking forward.. I just can't imagine that anything could live up to my first Fashion Week last September. For starts, it was so hot & sunny, and fashionistas were melting in their furs & boots, so we had to get creative & mix little frocks and bear legs with great shoes (not me: I was running around in ballet flats: it's the only way I can shoot). I had such a fabulous time. I just hope the weather is good, as I'm shooting people in the outdoor courtyard. Fingers crossed.



I wonder if we'll see much of the underwear as outerwear trend off the catwalk.

Speaking of.. it's funny, I'm still finding that phrase everywhere in the UK. Magazines, newspapers.. I know I said it before and someone chastised me that I couldn't have possibly invented the trend - which I SO did not - but I'm pretty sure I coined the phrase. @ least, I thought I did! I might have subconsciously picked it up, but I can't find any evidence of the phrase before I posted it last spring. Alas, if only one received royalties for phrases.



After flying in from Miami, I was hanging out @ home in my new purchase: cream coloured men's thermal underwear (top & bottom) from Target. I was going to go out in it - accessorising with boots & bracelets, of course - when my husband, Mr. Dot, said I can't because I'd get 'arrested'. Apparently they're arresting women for wearing pyjamas to Tesco. What next? Will they start incarcerating girls sporting satin bustiers at PR events? Or silky slips @ art launches?



What do you think will be big this spring? Do you think the peep toe bootie/big wedge silhouette will still reign supreme?

Shown here from top to bottom: KTZ catwalk, All Saints window in Spitalfields, boots @ Somerset House, September.

santa, baby, i'd like the whole kate moss collection, please

How exciting: just got a sneak preview of Kate Moss's Christmas collection, and, girls, it's so gorgeous, that I'm breaking with my tradition of just posting my own shots (altho, man, would I love to do my own street shoot with this line!)

Thank you for your lovely, lovely comments yesterday on the underwear-as-outerwear thing. So glad you get it: it doesn't matter who coined the phrase, altho I still think it's me ; ) - it's the idea of wow, we're all connected, we're all on the same page. That's the whole point of blogging!



Which makes Kate's new collection - which launches tomorrow, I believe - all the more interesting. I can't show you everything in one go - I'll show more later, I promise - but this time there's some gorgeous underwear which no one is stopping you from wearing as outerwear, (these are bras you seriously must be seen in) and in some cases like this dress, revealing the lace underneath is intentionally built into the design.





This such a rich collection, lots of glam factor, as we'd expect from our Kate at Christmas, but what really spells luxury for me are the traditional Japanese and Chinese influences. I've always wanted one of these Cheongsam dresses, and the one time I found one at a charity shop, the silk was so restricting I felt I couldn't breathe. But this is cleverly done in lurex knit, so we can do more than breathe in it. If you get my drift ; )



Last but not least, these yummy rose print silk pyjamas, adorned with an embroidered K, which come with a drawstring bag in the same material (don't you love those bags? Perfect for traveling, even to the pool @ the gym). And either the top or bottom would look great on the street.



Santa, baby, I so know what I want under my tree this year!

c

this is not just another love song

Like saving my chocolate Easter Bunny til Thanksgiving (and then, finally relinquishing it only after my mom cajoled me to 'make room in the fridge for the chocolate Turkey'), I've been hoarding this shot from Somerset House since September, for the right day. It was probably before the Ashish show @ fashion week, and I didn't even ask this sweet model for her name. And today is a gift from the gods here in London, unseasonably warm and semi-sunny. As perfect an English day in late October can reasonably hope to get. There must be some compensation somewhere in the world: I bet you somewhere in the Carribean, it's raining.



I've been thinking a lot lately about 'blog power', especially in the fashion world. For example: you know I've been banging on since I started my blog, about this 'underwear as outerwear' phenomenon. Well, sure enough: this Saturday's Telegraph magazine did a whole thing about it. In fact, they used these very words:

'If you thought showing your bra straps was unslightly, prepare to be horrified by next summer's key trend: UNDERWEAR AS OUTERWEAR.'

Now, granted, I didn't copyright the phrase, and there's no way of knowing if the author, Jeremy Farr, read my blog, or if we're just on the same page. But, still.

So I'm wondering: who else out there has noticed that what they're posting is ending up in the press?

I'd love to do an experiment. What if we - as a group - made up a trend. Just a phrase or stupid word, like elephants. 'Elephant grey'. I mean, as Pearl of fashion pearls of wisdom pointed out, someone out there coined 'coatigan' and some other genius came up with 'jeggings'.

We could just make something up. And then we start using it, and, like the Emporer's New Clothes, time how long it takes for a fashion editor to print it. Bit like tracking birds in the wild.

Any suggestions? Winner gets a free Obama Underground tee shirt (click here for image, and story).