Warehouse Blog

Catwalk Special

Want to know what you’ll be wearing next season and what trends the dress press are working right now, then tune into our catwalk special from Elle magazine’s Stacey Duguid. She’s torn round the Big Apple, hopped on the red-eye back to London before flitting off to Milan and then Paris, all in the space of a month with scarce a wink of sleep, so that you can remain smugly stylish and in the know. Thanks Stacey, you rock!

It always kicks off in New York, the city that never sleeps so I rarely bother [sleeping] either, but that’s mainly thanks to Beatrice - the hipster restaurant de jour - owned by Chloe Sevigny’s brother Paul.  First stop on the fashion merry-go-round is the DKNY show.  Can you believe it’s been going for 20 years?  The collection was as cute as ever; Donna is queen of cool-girl-uniform.  It was all exaggerated bows and neon and there were lots of cute dresses worn sporty with boyfriend jackets and trainers.  Talking of which, I love the oversized boyfriend jacket; I’ll be wearing a black one by Stella all this winter. Oo-la-la, the trench went on my must-have-it-now-list, I love a great trench for Autumn too.  The highlight of the show came at the end, when a parade of children hit the catwalk to the tune of ‘Happy Birthday’, ahhh, even the most cynical fashion hags smiled away. Donna looked about 20 herself when she came on to take her bow, not bad for 60-something-year-old.  Next it’s off to DVF (that’s fashion speak for Diane Von Furstenberg), and it was all groovy goddess, a little bit 60’s, a little bit 70’s, a little bit yay!   I liked the longer flowing chiffon maxi’s and imagine that Coleen Rooney has her name on at least 12 of them already.  Wonder if Cricket were at the show?

  By the way, it’s all about jumpsuits next spring.  Get one for day and for night. In fact, get a selection and wear nothing but jumpsuits all spring long!  Daytime jumpsuits are casual and best in denim or electric blue worn with cute flats (everyone here is loving the tap shoe), at night go for black silk with killer heels.  Even with my passion for a jumpsuit, I draw the line at the heart printed one I saw at a show which will remain nameless – it was more ‘care home’ than catwalk, yikes!  I am so loving the oversized clutch!  It works with everything next season and looks so-right-for-now.   

 

My favourite show of the week was more of a presentation by designer Alberta Ferretti who showed her younger line Philosophy in a huge downtown loft.  There were perky parkas worn over purple mini dresses, embellished maxi dresses worn long and loose with Pocahontas fringed sandals.  Oh I want to be a Philosophy girl next summer! Maybe it was the fabulous lychee vodka martins but I felt quite overcome by a passion for fashion as I hugged the designer so hard security got twitchy.

The New York women really do know how to get a look and run with it.  This season they are all head to toe in pretty patterned delicate dresses worn with a statement pair of shoes, it happens to be a look I have personally been working all summer and plan to carry through into autumn by adding a pair of leggings now there’s a wee chill in the air.  There is a toughness to the look which us Brits don’t really do, having said that, that’s not all we don’t embrace from these chicks, I’m not sure I’ve seen such so much plastic surgery in under one roof! Talk about Joan Rivers on a bad day, I even saw a knee lift!

For the latest catwalk coverage visit www.elle.tv

WELCOME TO OUR DEBUT BLOG!

Oh, what to do with a virgin page? Well, seeing as this is the first EVER Warehouse blog, we thought a brief bit about what you can expect in this section of the site wouldn’t go amiss.

First up, this is an area where our team of editors and guest editors shed the sales pitch and tell you how it actually is. This might mean some juicy behind the scenes gossip - we’re launching with a bumper report from Elle magazine’s Executive Fashion Editor, Stacey Duguid, on what looks have been hot on and off the runway at the spring/summer 08 shows - or very real advice about trends and making them work for you; for instance, playsuits might be, like too cool for school right now, but they look best when you’ve got a bit of height, so make sure you wear yours with some sky-scraping heels!

The blog will also act as a virtual canvas - or mood board - where we’ll post pictures, films and thoughts about who and what inspires us on the style front. This might be the girl we saw sneaking in the fire escape at last night’s gig with dress sense to rival Agy or a pensioner down the local caff who frankly never looks short of impeccable. Oh, and don’t always expect good taste - it’s the kinks in someone’s look that set them apart from the textbook trend follower.

To give you an idea, we thought we’d kick off with a picture of Rachel, a button-cute fashion writer we stopped in her tracks near Oxford Circus, during London fashion week. She works the tailored look like a pro by softening its mannish lines with a vintage ivory lace top and blooming corsage . And she smiles for the camera  - leave the po-faces to the catwalk ladies!