Julien Macdonald SS/15.

Julien Macdonald’s Ready-to-Wear SS/15 collection was a slow burner.

Awash with geometric Great Gatsby style prints and knee-length bodycons, the opening pieces were nothing too show stopping. The audience were more preoccupied spying Abbey Clancy and Tanya Burr in the FROW than the designs they had come to see. Macdonalds usual audience don’t seem the type prepared to spend a mint on such boring run of the mill pieces and if he knows his demographic at all, who is he designing for?

The drab opening left the press curious, Macdonald’s usual style was pushing out high glamour from start to finish, all embellished trumpet dresses with a blinding amount of glitter. So far the collection was boring and deflatingly highstreet, nothing to call home about.

When half the collection had been shown the show started to pick up as a sweetheart off the shoulder cut empire line dress stormed the runway in a flurry of tulle and metallic lace. A somewhat jellyfish silhouette reminiscent of scuba diving, a very subtle nod to summer.

Fashion photographer Dan Cowley said the pieces were “Remarkably crafted” and while this is true, Macdonald has upcycled many elements of his collection from AW/14, same hair, same makeup, and same materials. Most of the gowns were chiffon and lace with diamond encrusted detail and had a subtle Aquamarine theme. An idea that has proved popular so far for the coming season and is very in character for Macdonald compared to previous seasons.

The flourishing finale fresh out of the studio was a floor length lace wedding dress with a short train. The detailing was nestled and layered around the lower region of the dress and thinned out towards the top to give a faux nude look. The traditional essence of the piece was skewed as the model-bride had ditched the veil and instead had pieces of lace instilled in her hair. As his first wedding dress on the catwalk it was impressive. Simple and elegant but not what he is known for, could this be symbolic of change at the atelier of Macdonald?

Little Mistress Competition:

Little Mistress are an online womenswear brand who seem to specialise in girly cuts and classic dresses. As part of the E-tail PR blogging competition I was asked to pick any pieces from the site to style my own ideal outfit. This piece features a LBD dress layered with a floral pencil skirt. The use of an LBD as a top section means that you can wear it twice as a dress and as a two-piece. The floral in the skirt draws the eye as the mesh blouse-top acts as a simple but stylish base layer.

What I like about the skirt is the way in which it almost looks like the flowers are painted, like a form of artwork. I always look for artwork in fashion because fashion should be about expression and beauty and passion and culture in the same way that art encompasses these societal details and expresses them to an audience or in this case just anyone you meet.

More posts soon, guys!

CelestialMoonRock .xx

PS. Im in London this week for a Uni interview and for London Fashion Weekend (IM AN OFFICIAL REPORTER FOR PLATFFORM MAGAZINE) so I swear to do some posts on that while im there.

Ins-and-Outs of: Vintage Store Shopping.

Vintage stores are popping up all around Britain and from my experiences today i can see why.

Today my sister and i visited the Blitz Vintage store in Spitalfields, London, with a 20% student discount and a high reputation amongst the Londoners themselves I had to try it out. The layout of Blitz is 100 times better than what i expected from a vintage store as most of my local vintage stores are very "search-through-a-pile-for-hidden-gems" where-as Blitz' items were all categorised according to style, type and label. Neckerchieves and scarves were in suitcases at the front whereas clothes and home-wares were in the back, downstairs are the sales (a real steal, i got a pair of brown leather loafers for £5) and men's clothes, shoes and bags. Although some items can be a little pricey (a particularly gorgeous leather backpack at £60) its mostly quite cheap and for what you get and the name brands its definitely worth it. After a couple of hours of aimlessly marvelling at the fashions on show i ended up with a Barbour tartan blazer with a suede collar and sleeve turn-ups for £30, A Denim with leather collar Levi Jacket for £38, Brown leather loafers (marked down from £35) for £5, and a pair of size 1 white converse for £20. Overall the quality of the clothes was top notch and there was plenty more in the store i would have bought had i had the time or money and its definitely worth getting yourself down there if you want some good name-brand clothing on the cheap or home-ware such as typewriters,bottles and signs. A small walk down the road took us to a large open market of food stalls, Malaysian pancakes and clothes, the stalls we stopped at were a sunglasses stall (very gaga-esque) and a cheap dress stall from which i bought two dresses i had seen in the high street store new look and for more than half price! all dresses were £12, another bargain added to the bags.

*Pictures will be uploaded shortly*