SS2011 SNEAK PREVIEW

We've been doing SS2011 trends at work and I'm currently so pleased with the way this one is working I thought I'd share it. With compliments to the team in the studio of course!

THE JEGGING, PART TWO

It might interest you to know that my highest visitor numbers are for my post on the jegging. Certainly it's fairly disappointing that my lovingly crafted sketchbooks, inspirational and authoritative trends and wistful musings on vintage Americana are passed over in favour of knitted jeans-look leggings. I'm sure jeans themselves feel the same way.

However, I have decided to bow to popular demand and give a run-down of the current available jeggings from the UK, including styling & fabric composition. I am not sure which are the best fitting, but I do know that I haven't seen that many pairs on the street that look good, apart from yesterday when a girl was wearing what appeared to be a woven jegging with orange jeans stitching where there are normally pockets & seams. They looked pretty cool, but I think it's because a woven fabric just looks a bit cooler anyway, there's some wash effects at the seams etc.

I am also willing to bet that the UK is the world centre of the jegging. It's just that we love the combination of trendy and unflattering that this trend seems to promise.

Your decision is basically between a woven fabric (a super stretchy lightweight denim) 'pull on' jean, or a legging made with denim-look jersey. I would council people to go for a super-stretchy woven fabric rather than a knitted denim-look jersey, if only because the denim jerseys look really hairy, and you know you are going to look back on it with that awful sinking feeling of regret you get when remembering past fashion mistakes.

But what I think would be best is maybe a dark denim jersey with some kind of resin or cire coating, to give a edgy cross between the leather-look legging and the denim-look legging (hey, I say edgy, others say terrifying mutant cross breed). I think the coating would add a bit more structure to the jersey and you'd start to get the 'fashion wrinkles' that make jeans so flattering.

Anyway:

Asos has the 'Kate' jegging, which are pretty much all 85% cotton, 13% polyester, 2% elastane. There are a couple (grey & printed) which are 98% cotton, 2% elastane. I am going to go out on a limb and say they are made from woven fabric, based on what I can tell from the zoom.
They do them in black, indigo, vintage blue, grey, acid wash, cropped length and printed with roses.

TopShop.
They have a printed jean-look legging, which is an acid wash look, like a photographic transfer of a jean, and made, interestingly, out of slinky viscose: 94% Viscose,6% Elastane. Their denim-look leggings are jersey, and 96% Cotton,4% Elastane. Dare I call these the classic jegging? They also have something called an Indigo knitted Tregging, 85% Cotton,10% Polyester,5% Elastane, with back pockets.

River Island, Urban Outfitters - both good places to go, both have good websites, forgive me if I've run out of steam a bit with picture editing. We'll save that for the third update.

SYDNEY

A truly dreamy vision of Sydneysiders in denim. The gentle side of life.
Source: Garance Dore

TEXTURE

Textures moving towards extremes, the textile version of the Beyond the Thunderdome aesthetic. Slit sweatshirt material, ragged khaki and slubbed cobweb knits from Graham Tabor.

COLOUR OF THE YEAR

Apparently 'Mimosa' has been declared colour of the year by Pantone (PANTONE® 14-0848).
They say: "In a time of economic uncertainty and political change, optimism is paramount and no other color expresses hope and reassurance more than yellow. The color yellow exemplifies the warmth and nurturing quality of the sun, properties we as humans are naturally drawn to for reassurance," explains Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. "Mimosa also speaks to enlightenment, as it is a hue that sparks imagination and innovation."

Now I peddle this kind of thing for a living, and even I will admit this is rubbish. And also, how hard is it to say what the colour of 2009 will be in December 2008? This is not a challenge with a professional level of difficulty.

So, with scorn duly poured, check out these lovely acid yellow jeans as work by Park & Cube.

SEQUINS FOR ME

All this studding, zips and rips demands a softer side of shine, a counterpoint, for when the fetish and bondage looks just aren't going to cut it. Slightly deco, geometric and all-over flapper-style sequinning make bleached, tie-dyed and marbled jeans a bit more easily accessible. Pixie Market Leopard Sequin bomber jacket Siwy sequin jeans Ksubi sequin tank dress Never Denim jeans

RETRO GEO/90's HI-TECH

Seams and panels. Diagonals and cut outs. Cut outs and seams. Seams and Diagonals. Oh, I could go on. Seams and denim together are made in heaven, no other fabric behaves in the same way when stitched to itself. The seam movement and indigo fading... In a previous incarnation, the brand I worked with actually washed the panels of denim before cutting and sewing, to try and get a super clean finish in amazing traditional tailored pieces made out of denim. Not many factories would do it, and the wastage, well, let's just close our eyes to that. This styling should achieve the exact opposite; a kind of retro futuristic geometric feel, it's denim as fashion rather than denim as heritage. Panelled jeans: Indie Cult Vintage
Lightening bolt jeans: Never Denim Cutout dresses: stylestalker Panelled denim skirt: Current Elliott

CYBERDOG

All images through Jak&Jil, and the jeans from my new favourite Hot Topic. These are pretty stunning, a combination of serious, almost sterile, medical metal panels and studs with blind puching and embossing. But the Givenchy clutches remind me of nothing so much as the accessories from Cyberdog in Camden Market. A slightly different price point.

FETISH

Clockwise from left!
Herve Leger swimwear
Opening Ceremony dress
Alaia shoes
Body webs - yes, I too would walk quickly past these if I saw them in real life
Alexander Wang
Hot Topic (new favourite online jeans, very Adam Lambert from American Idol)

HELL'S ANGELS

I'm super-inspired by the BleachBlack website/blog at the moment. Their aesthetic is so perfectly right, with the combination of 1990's skater, edgy d.i.y. fashion and very Kate Lanphear-esque fetish couture.

What I particularly love is the road-hog hippy looks that are half Burning Man, half Hell's Angels, with lacing, fringing, studding and American classics mixed in. If anyone can persuade me towards cut-off denims and cowboy boots, it's them.

Legalise jeans from RVCA X Erin Wasson, bright red Frye boots, tank top customised by Bleach Black. The bags are from Sawgrass Blossom, and are making me revisit my desire for some handcrafted leather goods. In keeping with my current trends being inspired by trashy TV (stay tuned for the American Idol reference tomorrow), I think this look is all about Rock of Love.

SURF

I found these paintings by Raymond Pettibon at the end of last week, in my naivete tried to find a print or poster, only to find out he's a. pretty famous; b. pretty cool; and therefore c. no way was i getting my grubby little paws on a print - unless someone has $5000 they would like to share with me.

I love surf brands and surf movies in particular - a very cool, distinct sense of style that is definitely coming back into play with the return of all things 1990's. I think we'll see a combination of the 1960's original surf aesthetic, plus the harder edged, more 'fetish' side of surf style, with rips, studs, seams, check, bandanas and printed cotton jersey - and hopefully less of the funky fish graphics.
With perfect synchronicity, the Raymond Pettibon pictures are accompanied by shots from Hedi Slimane that I found this morning.

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HARDCORE HARDWARE x 2

Layers and panels of studs inspiring they d.i.y. fashion bloggers and me! Hardcore hardware take 2. Version of the Balmain blazer by Maison des Reveries, studded jeans from Bess NYC - picture from Jak and Jil (you can see the Bess NYC AW collection here), Aldo diy studded boots from Fashiontoast, version of the Alexander Wang studded denim bag from BleachBlack.

DENIM & LEATHER

Harper's Bazaar has a great mood board selection of the best pale denim and leather fashion. They've chosen Suzi Quattro, which certainly challenges my claim that Mel Gibson rocks this trend the best (or would, if they'd just put Max in jeans rather than head to toe leather). Set aside the eyewatering designer items, and this is a combination whose time has definitely come.

NORDIC LOVE

What's not to love? The Scandinavian aesthetic is such a winner. I'm obsessed with the It's ebayLE! blog, already elegantly described me as men standing outside sheds. If you go to Japan for your anorak's denim, and the US for the LA premium thing, Australia for street/vintage, then Scandinavia has to own cool fashion jeans at the understated/rock & roll axis. I wish British denim had an identity, but honestly it's a bit me-too, and I say that as a denim designer in Britain. Our high street stores are super innovative in denim fashion, and don't have any hang-ups about having to do denim with integrity, which means they can throw everything at the wall and try to be as fashion-forward as possible. It often works brilliantly, but you can't really qualify it as an aesthetic that is created, considered, defined, built on, expanded, challenged.

I'm going to call the Nordic knitwear intarsia, mainly because I like knowing the words for things - I'm not actually sure if it qualifies as intarsia. The Lee SS09 shoot has a really similar feel, a mix of faded 1950's kitchen sink american life and scandinavian folksiness.

The combination of check, scando jumpers and faded denim is a perfect trad folk look, and has elements of American puritanism and classic, rather than trend driven fashion, which is a leading direction for brands at the moment. The Scando brands have pioneered the dark fashion denim look for so long, I think this is now showing a great way to wear the faded blues that are taking over, even for winter... The dreamy images are from Dazed & Confused.

DENIM CATWALK TRENDS: RRRIPS

Rip, patch, repeat. I've put a rip in the knee of a pair of my ankle skinny jeans (so I can be down with the kids, you understand), and I have to say I think it's added something to my look. I am toying with the idea of adding another one. But how far is too far...?

D.I.Y DENIM

Unbeknownst to me, there a quite a lot of people out there taking pictures of themselves in clothes and putting them online. It sounds like my worst nightmare, but it's the most inspirational and democratic thing I've found in ages. For one thing, it's clear skinny jeans aren't going anywhere anytime soon, and far more people than you'd expect wear cut-off denim shorts with tights. For another, it's consistently great to see how people take things that you haven't even considered and make them look very cool and wearable without the aid of a Vogue-style photoshoot budget. Both of the shots above are with denim that's been customised. The silver shorts on Rumi from Fashion Toast are originally TopShop, the black jeans are Rodan vs Griffith jeans customised by Mimi Jung.

I've put links to a couple of the best sites that I've found so far on the right, under D.I.Y Denim.

All jeans below customised by Mimi Jung.

DENIM CATWALK TRENDS: BLUE PLEATED GLAMOUR

This is almost my favourite trend I think. Boutique designers and a few catwalk designers tend to treat denim like another fabric, and style it in shapes & silhouettes that are totally non-referential to denim heritage. I think this trend has re-influenced denim designers to start using denim for everything else apart from jeans, and take advantage of the different colour options available. I love denim styled in ladylike shapes, and looser, pleated trousers and 1940's suit silhouettes are a strong direction for this - denim makes them edgier whilst these shapes give denim elegance and remove it from skinnies. Fashionistas are returning to suiting, worsteds, tweeds and classics, and denim can be part of this. In particular I love the fact that these pieces will get better with age, unlike almost any other fabric. That dress will fade around the belt, buttons and collar to become something even more special, and more personal.

POSH LEGGINGS

Alongside denim on the runways have been various takes on shiny vinyl leggings. When brands as diverse as Miss Sixty, Acne and TopShop Unique do something similar, I take note. American Apparel's cire leggings went there first, but Les Chiffoniers's eyewateringly expensive creations cemented the look as an extension of rock chick jeans fashion, with chunky zips in all the same places. Sass & Bide have done some great metallic & animal print rock chick ones for SS09, and it seems to be denim brands that are producing the non-high street versions of these.

Specifically for summer, apart from the Sass & Bide vinyl leggings, Asos have Siwy sequin jeans/leggings which look pretty amazing.

Above, Les Chiffoniers AW08 and Sass & Bide SS09
Below, Miss Sixty AW09, TopShop Unique AW09, Acne AW09