A farewell and a tribute to Valentino

Valentino Ready to Wear S/S 2012 watercolour by Frances Ives

I am sad to say that this is going to be my last post for Style & Then Some, for a little while at least. It has been a brilliant year and a half (and several trips to London Fashion Week) being a part of the team, but various different time pressures and commitments this year are demanding my attention, and it feels like time to move on. What better way to end than with a tribute to one of my favourite designers, Valentino?

Valentino Haute Couture S/S 2012 watercolour by Frances Ives

I fell in love with Valentino’s work last spring, when I first saw his Spring/Summer 2012 collections. The neat elegance of the Ready to Wear collection, the flattering feminine cuts and timeless styles – these things all struck me, but it was the Haute Couture collection that really captivated me. The dresses were intricately embroidered, and moved through the spectrum from sweet, simple and pretty, to shimmering, breathtaking beauties. They were truly fairytale gowns. Every last detail was perfect, right down to the plaited low buns twisted all about with bejewelled floral crowns. Call me old school, but I think this is what fashion is meant to be all about – celebrating the female form and making beautiful, well crafted clothing. Arty fraying edges and sack-like, ugly shapes won’t cut it for me, I’m afraid, no matter how much at odds that puts me with the rest of the fashionista crowd. (That reminds me of the time I was commissioned to write a review of the Bloomberg New Contemporaries exhibition at the ICA in London a few years ago. My first draft was sent back, and I was told politely that I had to change it to make it more positive. Apparently you’re not allowed to write a bad review of a modern art exhibition. We all have to stand around the oblong piece of steel and ohh and aahhh about how deep and meaningful it is, how clever the artist is.)

Valentino Haute Couture S/S 2012 watercolour by Frances Ives

Valentino’s Spring/Summer 2013 Haute Couture collection is more structured and grand than last year’s, but it is just as magnificent. Less dancing barefoot in a meadow, more pacing through your throne room. Something about the embroidery work, the piping and patterns reminds me of the Renaissance period. It is all the more suitable, then, that Frances Ives illustrated last year’s collection in soft watercolours, and Sophie Murray etched her vision of this year’s collection in fine pen.

I was overjoyed to read that Valentino has signed up for Greenpeace’s detox fashion challenge earlier this month. The idea behind the campaign is to get major fashion houses to change their policies on toxic water pollution and deforestation (an issue which is clearly a pressing one, if Susan Kim writing for the Huffington Post back in 2009 is to be believed) to combat the negative impact that the fashion industry has on the environment. According to Greenpeace, ‘Valentino topped the list of 15 fashion houses, while six brands came joint bottom on the ranking for failing to take any credible action on these environmental issues. The ranking, “Fashion Duel” rates Italian and French luxury brands based on a survey of three areas of the brands’ global supply chain: leather, pulp and paper and toxic water pollution.’ While Valentino committed to taking urgent and transparent action to eliminate the release of hazardous chemicals throughout their supply chain and products, and put in place concrete measures to avoid contamination of their supply chain from forest destruction, aiming to be ‘clean’ by 2020, brands like Louis Vuitton refused to sign up.

Valentino Haute Couture S/S 2013 by Sophie Murray

Valentino Haute Couture S/S 2013 by Sophie Murray

I feel like my mission as a writer (if it’s not too self important to have a ‘mission’) is to celebrate the work of skilled and talented craftsmen and women, to engage with contentious and important issues and promote the heroes and heroines of this world, the people who really make me proud to be a part of the human race. Writing is – or should be – all about empathy, it is a kind of diplomacy and mediation. In its purest form, it should be something that can raise awareness by presenting the facts, open up discussions that bring us all a little closer to understanding and engaging meaningfully with conflicting view points. I first wanted to be a journalist when I watched the film Blood Diamond, because I got a glimpse of the fact that writing should be about building a better society. Doing my first stint of work experience with a newspaper confirmed my love; I looked around me and thought, ‘This is the most interesting, passionate, funny, quick thinking, curious, bad tempered and good natured bunch of people I’ve ever been in a room with. If this is what journalists are like, I want to be one of them.’

Thank you to my beautiful illustrators for this post, Frances Ives and Sophie Murray. And thank you, Style & Then Some readers, it has been a pleasure. Look after yourselves, and see you around the bend.

You can catch me blogging here, pinning here, and tweeting here.

Does your correspondence deserve a wider audience?

I am having something of a letters revolution this week. First of all, Sophie Caldecott wrote me a lovely, long letter from Oxford, taking up the responsibility of sending me my first non-financial bit of post at my new flat (apart from birthday cards).

And then today I discovered (via the web section of the newly relaunched, and excellent Geek magazine) this incredible archive of letters, memos, faxes and other bits of paper: Letters of Note.

There’s something about getting your thoughts and feelings down on paper, especially now, that requires a lot more care and attention than banging out an email or sending a text message. After reading Sophie’s letter, I tried to think of the last few I had received or sent. The list included a letter from my ex boyfriend for me to open when I arrived in Asia to mooch around for four months, notes to and from an old flatmate and an explanation of what I had been doing since a wonderful charity gave me a small loan towards my journalism studies.

Letters of Note, edited by Shaun Usher, has considerably more interesting examples amongst its 804 posts – a letter from Winston Churchill’s wife telling him to lighten up, another from an emancipated slave from Ohio in 1865 to his old master and a handwritten note from Up and Monsters Inc director Pete Docter on Pixar not finishing films.

A Letters of Note book will be published this November – it’s available for pre-order at £30 for a cloth-bound hardback and would make a lovely limited edition gift. The book will apparently feature examples Usher has held back from uploading online and also include a letter from Hunter S. Thompson starting ‘Listen you lazy bitch’ which was addressed to a film executive but removed from the site.

London’s best ethical shops and boutiques: Style And Then Some’s third guest post for the Telegraph

In Bloom, Portobello: French eco chic

I find it really hard to get my head around the fact that some people don’t like fair trade, kind of like how some people don’t think that we should try to stop global warming, or that sexism and racism don’t exist (or don’t matter). When I wrote my guest post for the Telegraph London blog (following in the footsteps of Katie and the other Sophie), I just assumed that everyone would be on more or less the same page as me – interested in finding out about places where they could shop that are both stylish and beautiful as well as helping, you know, make the world a better place.

The comments are pretty funny – apparently one reader thinks that Free Market Capitalism is the solution to extreme poverty. Yes, really. In this day and age, too, when even the most hardened Capitalists are scratching their heads and having to admit that maybe something, somewhere along the line, went wrong with this supposedly just and infallible system. Survival of the fittest and all that. That might be all very well, but we don’t start with a level playing field in the first place, do we? I work part time at the Ethical Fashion Forum, and a little bit of research into supply chains (hell, just watch Blood Diamond) and it’s clear that the so-called Free Market doesn’t regulate itself. Millions of people are being exploited, and fair trade is trying to address this issue.

But being ‘ethical’ isn’t just about social justice, although that’s a large part of it. It’s also about spending a bit more, and buying a bit less, which is better for the environment because we all have too much stuff and it’s turning into landfill. We all need to be a bit more thoughtful not just about where we shop, but also how we shop.

Read the full article here: London’s best ethical shops and boutiques

You are invited to Common People – a charity exhibition of new London artists – Friday 9th Dec

All you lovely Style & Then Some readers are invited to Common People – a charity art exhibition, curated and organised by Sophie Charara with desserts by our own culinary goddess Sophie Caldecott and featuring work from Style & Then Some photographers Helene Charara and Faraz Pourreza-Jorshari.

The rest of the Style & Then Some team will be out in force next Friday, 9th December at The Studio, 55 Leroy Street SE1 4SR. The nearest tube stations are Borough (10 mins) Elephant and Castle (15 mins) and London Bridge (20 mins) or get a bus to Old Kent Road and get off at the Bricklayer’s Arms stop.

Other young artists, photographers and designers showing their work on the night include: Samantha Meachin, Lily Dunlop, Tom Peet, Emma Goodman, Ismahan Rashid, Doug Stewart, Andy Shrubsole, Scott Taylor, Rosie Caldecott and Frances Ives.

The £4 entry donation gets you a free drink, gorgeous canapes and dessert plus music all night. All profits will go to Amnesty International and the Disaster Emergency Committee and most of the work will be for sale if you want to start your collections early.

COME AND BRING YOUR FRIENDS

Poster credit: Samantha Meachin

Andrej Pejic: A wolf in sheep’s clothing

Image by Sabine Villiard (Photo France March 2011)

The young Serbian-Australian, Andrej Pejic, has been causing a stir on the fashion scene for a while now. We are all fascinated by how he looks just like a beautiful slip of a flat-chested girl, the ultimate conclusion of a society obsessed with androgyny.

Something about it all disturbs me, though. Before you jump to any conclusions, I just want to prefix what I’m about to say with the qualification that I’m not making a comment about Transgendered people in general or anyone’s lifestyle choices. What disturbs me about a man modelling women’s clothes is, simply put, this: haven’t women been trapped and pressured into eating disorders and body image issues by society for long enough by skinny female models? Isn’t this just moving the attainability of our ideals of beauty just another dangerously distant step too far?

On the one hand, this does not seem like an original point, and I feel like it must have been said time and time again before now, but on the other, the fashion industry seems strangely quiet on this fact at the moment. It’s as if mentioning it might make you look overly conservative and anti-progressive. But is it really that wrong to suggest that designers should be designing for women’s bodies, that they should be celebrating and not repressing femininity? Male misogyny at the heart of the fashion industry is no new thing. After all, Cecil Beaton called the stunningly curvaceous Elizabeth Taylor a ‘great thick revolting mass of femininity’, a heinous insult spat out in disgust at the feet of all woman kind.

I should come clean about something here: at 5 foot 10″ or thereabouts I have always had a rather ‘boyish’ build, and rather than feeling pressured into losing weight growing up, I’ve wished again and again I could gain it and have a more feminine body. It horrifies me that so many of my female friends feel dissatisfied with their beautiful curves. In the Andrej Pejic debate, people have suggested that it’s a good thing for a man to model women’s clothes instead of emaciated-looking women. Perhaps this ideal is just so unattainable that women will finally give up on trying to look like models, they say. This argument seems utterly stupid to me. When we see Andrej Pejic in women’s clothing, it does not matter whether or not we know that he’s a man. We see a stunningly beautiful, other-worldly woman, and we – whether consciously or subconsciously – aspire to that ideal. Perhaps I should just calm down and accept the inherent disconnect between reality and the catwalk, I hear you say. Okay, fine – but try telling that to a woman whose life has been dogged by eating disorders. Seen in this light, there’s an intense glow of irony in the flash of those bulbs at the end of the runway.

Do you think I’m over-reacting? Let me know your thoughts, below.

RECIPE: Rocky road cake

When considering the important question of how to get as much chocolatey deliciousness as possible into one slice of cake the other day, I decided this recipe would do the trick. I’m not talking a mega rich, dense chocolate cake. I wanted something with layers, something interesting, fun, and a little different. Something involving lots of chocolate, but without drying your mouth out and making you want to down several glasses of water after eating it. My younger sister should actually take the credit for the invention of this amazing rocky road chocolate cake, as she first had the idea for it earlier this year. I have shamelessly copied and adapted her recipe.

The cake base is an old family classic, the one that my mum cracks out for every birthday or special occasion. It is simple, light and delicious, and to me it’s exactly how a chocolate cake should taste. But then I would say that, wouldn’t I? Licking the bowl of this mixture instantly takes me back to ‘helping’ mum in the kitchen when I was little. It’s super easy – to make it, you’ll need:

- 6 oz plain chocolate

- 2 oz butter

- 4 eggs, room temperature

- half a teaspoon of vanilla extract

- pinch of salt

- 9 oz caster sugar

- 6 oz self raising flour

Preheat the oven to 170 C and grease a large cake tin. Melt the chocolate and the butter, stir well and leave to cool. Beat the eggs with the vanilla and salt, then sift in the sugar and mix well. This is the point at which you mix in the cooled chocolate mixture. Then finally sift in the flour and mix well. Pour into the cake tin and bake for 35-40 mins before testing. The centre should be moist but not runny when you take it out. Leave the cake to one side to cool before turning it out of its tin. (Don’t worry if it sinks a little, or the top cracks – it’s meant to do that, it’s kind of meringuey on top and collapses a little. The icing will even it out.)

For the icing, cream around 4 oz softened butter with around 7 oz caster sugar, then melt a small block of plain chocolate, allow to cool and then stir in until the icing is smooth. Ice the cake and then prepare the final touch – the rocky road for the top. You’ll need:

- 4 oz butter

- 1 and a half tablespoons of golden syrup

- 1 oz cocoa powder

- 1 large packet of malteasers, crushed

- 1 packet of marshmallows, cut up into halves (I use scissors)

- half a block of plain chocolate

- half a block of milk chocolate

Melt the butter, golden syrup and cocoa powder in a bowl over a pan of water. Take off the heat, and stir in the marshmallows and the malteasers. Leave this to cool a little, and then pour onto the top of the cake, over the chocolate buttercream icing. Finally, melt the plain and milk chocolate together, pour over the top of the cake and use the back of  a spoon to swirl the melted chocolate with the rocky road mixture. Put the cake in the fridge to set.

It sounds incredibly rich with all of that chocolate and sugar, and it is very filling, but because the cake is so moist and light, the whole thing avoids being too much. This is the cake equivalent of Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food ice cream: just the right chocolate-to-marshmallow ratio. Perfect for a chocolate cake occasion when you want to do something just a little bit different.

An [ethical] Affair To Remember

My Linda Mai Phung blue silk maxi dress arrived recently, to my great glee (and my dog’s surprise) as I ripped open the parcel with squeals of delight. It’s the one that I fell in love with at the Ethical Fashion Show in Paris last month.

I promptly wore it to a masquerade party last weekend. The compliments kept coming all night. There’s something so refreshingly simple about the design – it’s a flattering cut with a scoop neck line and a racer back which makes it feel a little understated and cool, and it’s a stunning electric blue. All in all, a recipe to make you stand out in just the right way.

I also have my eye on Phung’s gorgeous purple and pink silk ‘Annel’ jumpsuit. A friend pointed out that it looks every so slightly like a Star Trek uniform, but instead of putting me off, that only made me want it more (Captain Janeway was a big childhood heroine of mine). The only thing is, I found out that I got an amazing special 40% discount when I bought my dress at the Ethical Fashion Show, which explained it’s affordability. Her e-shop doesn’t go online until early next year, so at least that gives me time to save up for the 270 euros price tag. Having said that, though, non-sale Reiss and French Connection jumpsuits aren’t that much cheaper. It’s really not too bad then, considering you’re buying something unique, helping to save the planet and supporting a talented young designer all at the same time.

Annel jumpsuit (comes in black or dark purple and pink for 270 euros)

Adeline dress (comes in blue or black for 215 euros)

I think I’m onto something big. And with a Linda Mai Phung wardrobe, there’s not too much of a chance of someone else showing up in the same outfit as me, now is there? Not for the moment, anyway… whoops, my secret is out!

#TodayImWearing: Katie and Sophie Day Two of LFW

Well, that should really be ‘yesterday I was wearing’… You’ll be glad to hear my camera has been fixed after its adventures out and about London Fashion Week with Style and Then Some, so I can share a little bit more of our LFW style.

Our ever stylish editor Katie, below, mixed a vintage M&S 80′s shirt with a high-waisted vintage skirt from Blitz on Brick Lane with H&M boots and socks.

I played it safe in a navy wool maxi dress from ASOS, worn with a pair of scruffy lace-up old boots. No running in heels for me.

GUIDE: A weekend in Paris

I love the order and elegance of Paris. I love how aesthetically pleasing it is, the architectural coherence, the fact that you can look at almost any street corner and know instantly where you are. For a capital city, the centre is pretty compact, and it’s easy to explore on foot.

My favourite area is the Marais district, near the Saint Paul stop on the metro. You can wander past the artisan chocolatiers and arty boutiques through to the Place des Vosges, and sit under the beautiful red brick arches in Cafe Hugo to enjoy a croque monsieur (grilled ham and cheese sandwich).

Cafe Hugo, Place des Vosges, Paris

Just a few minutes away from Place des Vosges is my favourite hotel, Hotel Jeanne d’Arc, with rooms ranging from 64 euros (for a single room) to 162 euros (for a quadruple room) a night. It’s the perfect location, simple and stylish with friendly staff.

Hotel Jeanne d’Arc, Paris

The wonderfully eccentric Shakespeare & Co bookshop on the left bank just opposite Notre-Dame cathedral (about a 20 minute walk away from the Marais district) is a great place to drop by. With a piano and several type writers tucked away amongst the piles of books, there are always a few interesting characters (struggling poets, famous philosophers?) around.

While Notre-Dame and the Sacré-Cœur are worth visiting (the Sacré-Cœur partly because it has such a good view of the rooftops of Paris, plus, you can re-live that Amélie moment on the steps…), my favourite church is Saint-Étienne-du-Mont on the left bank, a short walk from the Jardins du Luxembourg (a lovely leafy park). It’s all delicately carved white marble on the inside, a gem tucked away next to the imposing Pantheon.

For a little taste of Parisian luxury, try a macaroon cocktail in the Ladurée bar (75, Avenue des Champs Elysées – use the side door entrance for direct access to the bar). Famous for making the best macaroons in Paris, it was definitely worth the 16 euros price tag… As I sipped my cocktail and nibbled on a macaroon, I couldn’t help feeling a little like a modern day Marie-Antoinette. At least, Kirsten Dunst’s version in Sophia Coppola’s film.

Macaroon cocktail in the Ladurée bar, Paris

HIGHLIGHTS: Paris Ethical Fashion Show

I have returned home from the Ethical Fashion Show in Paris full of good intentions to save my pennies and spend them on a thought-through socially conscious wardrobe instead of indulging my usual habit of impulse buying. The problem is, when you start scratching the surface of what’s ‘ethical’ (i.e. doesn’t exploit people or the environment in the production line) and what’s not on the high street, the result is a bewildering array of pro and con arguments (mostly con) for each brand, and it can be tempting to give up the whole exercise of trying to shop your way to a better world. (See Vivienne Westwood’s thoughts on how fashion can change the world here.)

Perhaps the solution is to focus on the positives, rather than the negatives. As I discovered at the Ethical Fashion show, there are so many talented designers out there. Ethical shopping really doesn’t need to be a chore. Here are three of my favourite brands that I think could easily replace some of the big high street contenders in my own wardrobe.

L’Herbe Rouge

A standout French brand that is eco-chic at its best – a stylish replacement for your Topshop jeans, very American Apparel with its sexy and bright androgyny but better quality. (Seriously, I had a look at the seams and they are finished really well…) The online shop is currently under construction, but I was assured that it will it be up and running soon and also looks likely to be stocked in some London boutiques in the near future. L’Herbe Rouge does menswear as well as womenswear, and jeans start at around £99. www.lherberouge.com

Natural Wave

This German company makes beautiful, simple Gap style basics in organic fibres that are super soft and wearable. Order online at www.naturalwave.de Prices range from around £20-£35, so it ticks the affordable box as well.

Linda Mai Phung

Paris Ethical Fashion Show 2011 eco fashion ethical fashion best eco fashion brands

It was love at first sight. When founder of the Ethical Fashion Show, Isabelle Quéhé, wore Linda’s dress to present her with the Ethical Fashion Show prize, that irrational ‘It’s beautiful, I want it…’ syndrome kicked in. Luckily for me, it didn’t break the bank at £78. I can’t enthuse enough about this talented young designer – a mixture of Reiss and French Connection, her collection is made up of simple, flattering and stylish designs in bright colours and silks. Linda’s career is just taking off, but she hopes to have her online shop up and running with her Spring/Summer 2012 collection early next year. Watch this space, this is one talented designer… www.lindamaiphung.blogspot.com (My dress is the bright blue silk maxi dress!)