Rainbow Androgyny

Here I am tempering bright blue tights, purple brogues, yellow houndstooth check, and a ginger hair explosion with a crisp white shirt and a masculine Crombie-style coat.

As with my take on neon loafers, what I enjoy about this look is the slight feeling of disharmony; sharp masculinity and a streamlined, even Mod-ish, element combine with a vivid and colourful palette to create something else entirely. Plus, I'm wearing bunches! What's not to like?! It's all jolly good fun.

Colour, Collars, Carven

The Carven Spring 2012 collection, shown as part of Paris fashion week, is really lovely. The evening wear looks are fresh and unexpected, the chunky shoes (though reminiscent of a lot of the flatforms around this season) give the looks an intriguing masculine edge, and the bold cut-out detailing gives the collection a sense of vitality as well as continuity and coherence.

The collection features some super-short silhouettes, which obviously look gorgeous on the models. Equally obvious, however, is the fact that my purple-white sausage legs would look infinitely less desirable in this abbreviated variety of skirt. Ditto the unmade-up faces. There are some elements of the show which do really tap into my current style preoccupations, however, and which I therefore both covet and wish to approximate in some kind of budget version.

I'm very keen on the golden / mustard tone which punctuated the second third of the collection. It's not a colour I would usually experiment with, but Carven made it look so sumptuous that I might just have to give it a go. I think that the palette in general is pretty delicious (not to mention the prints!); it manages to retain a real sense of femininity whilst also seeming bold, strong, and modern.

I also love the way that shirt collars can be seen peeping out from the necklines of dresses. I have tried this kind of look before, but always in a more winter-y way - white shirts buttoned to the neck beneath grey woollen dresses or pinafore-type numbers. Here, however, not only do the colours help to make the outfits more season-appropriate, but a number of the collars themselves are autonomous. That is, one need not wear a shirt in order to get the collar effect, but can just wear the collar separately - shirtless collars rather than collarless shirts! I think that's a genius idea for when the weather turns hotter and nobody wants to layer up.

In short, I really like the whole collection. Well done to Guillaume Henry. I want to finish off with an outfit that manages to encapsulate all of my favourite elements, and which I will have filed away in my noggin as style inspiration come spring. I love the colours (the mustard with the blue lace against the baby pink, combined with the acid bright shoes), I love the buttoned up collar, and I love the very neon librarian feel about the whole look!

Further Adventures in Fabric

I am continuing to love the time sink that is Spoonflower, and have yet to stop tinkering with various designs. In a slight change of pace, I have moved on from the more painterly themes I started out with, and am currently exploring scientific imagery. Medical scans, fractals, and images obtained using electron microscopes can make for some surprising pretty textiles designs. The three prints below, for example, are all based around microscopic photographs.

The middle one is my favourite. It has a kind of woven, almost folky feel to it. My only concern is that the pattern might be a wee bit small. The design might lose some of its impact when viewed from a distance. Here's what a yard of the fabric would look like:

Still cute to my eye - it could potentially work nicely as a kind of contemporary kilting fabric - but it undoubtedly loses something of its delicacy and nuance. I'm still playing, anyway, so I'll let you know how I progress.

The Colour and the Shape

As a follow up to yesterday's post on design-your-own digital prints, I just have to mention the most recent Basso and Brooke collection. Shown as part of London Fashion Week, the collection was lavish, zesty, and overwhelming in the best possible way. In a season in which lots of designers have been dabbling with pattern, Basso and Brooke remain the go to guys for colourful, maximal prints. Below are some of my favourite looks, but you can check out the whole collection over at Style.com.

Images from Style.com

Print on Demand

I'm loving the images coming in from New York Fashion Week 2011. I am particularly mesmerised by all the gorgeous prints - pattern and colour galore! It's right up my street. Check out these images from the Vogue website:

Derek Lam Spring 2012

Preen Spring 2012

DVF Spring 2012

I particularly love the Preen collection, with its pixelated pastels, lacy details, and miniaturized peplums. My absolute favourite so far, though, has to be Thakoon. The blazing brights, insistent prints, and gorgeous gold-tipped booties blow my mind, whilst the sugared almond hair is dreamy and delicious.

I'm less keen on the cowboy-style hats and some of the cross-body sari details, but there is a lot of this that I would just love to wear. It would certainly cheer up a long day in the library! I am particularly inspired by the extravagant, exploded paisley print which crops up throughout the collection, often placed in juxtaposition with other lavish fabric choices. 

It's given me some great ideas to try out with my new Asos shirt (pictured below). I've been working it with brown suede shorts, grey tights and Chelsea boots, but I think it's time to draw inspiration from Thakoon and pair it with something a little bit bolder. Bring on the Spring 2012 print clash!