Rosie Scott Blog about Women

The latest Brit girl to front a House of Holland eyewear campaign is a new icon of London, Lily Allen. The singer, whose early hit, LDN was an ode to the dirty side of the town, appears in the new images wearing sunglasses from the quirky eight-piece range designed by her friend, HoH designer Henry Holland.

We asked Henry - who just showed at London Fashion Week - a few questions about the campaign.

Why did you want to feature Lily?

We've been working with her quite a lot, making the looks for her tour and she's been wearing House of Holland offstage too, so it felt like a natural progression to have her be in the campaign. I also just love Lily's image and music in general.

You've worked with various It girls, but what is it about Lily that makes her so damn cool?

I love her unapologetic attitude to life and her wicked sense of humour.

What pair do you think sums up her style best?

The Superhero (pictured).

She's a working mum with two kids, working on another album, touring...

There are so many variations of London style, and Lily has become a symbol of a certain type. What's your favourite thing about London style right now?

London's diversity is such a melting pot of different cultures. There are so many reference points including street style, LFW, exhibitions, art...

What do you love most about London Fashion Week and what it brings to the city?

It's the people who show here and the diversity between collections throughout the week that makes it the best city to show at for me.

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Highlights from London Fashion Week, Part 1.

1. Party Like It’s the 1980s

The ’70s have dominated the runways in such an all-encompassing fashion that, upon seeing a metallic shirtdress with a geometric belt come down the catwalk Saturday in London, it took a second for the eyes to adjust. Then came a splatter-paint jacket paired with wide-whale corduroys. J.W. Anderson thrust the ’80s back to the collective consciousness. “When looking at that period, I think we have a stigma towards it,” Mr. Anderson said after the show. “It was playing with the idea that some genius fashion came out of that.” Mr. Anderson said his muse was a party girl, an especially rich source of fodder for the fashion set this season.

2. Waiting to Exhale

Runways are often filled with over-the-top pieces that will never be produced and sold. They are meant to appeal to the editorial crowd, on the lookout for fashion that will make for interesting photographs. But there are also welcome sartorial palate cleansers, the shows with wearable clothes that aren’t overwrought. Margaret Howell served up just that Sunday, as only she can. Easy, menswear-inspired separates looked relaxed and confident, with an almost academic feel to them thanks to tweeds and wools. The proportions were spot on: The bottoms, including the shorts and trousers, were wide-legged and cuffed. The models walked at a measured pace, set to the tune of “Put A Little Love In Your Heart” by Jackie DeShannon. It was the fashion version of a deep exhale.

3. Walking the Runway for Two

You had to look very closely at two of the models walking the Temperley London catwalk Sunday to notice a slight roundness in their midsection. But backstage, after Jacquetta Wheeler and Caroline Winberg shed the overcoat and blazer worn as part of their respective looks, it was much more obvious: Both women are pregnant. “They’re beautiful and they’re friends and they are models. Why not show them when they’re pregnant?” designer Alice Temperley said after her show. Ms. Temperley, who put together a collection that show notes said was meant to be “effortless and confident,” was particularly pleased with how a bronze sequin gown looked on Ms. Wheeler. “The brilliant thing about that evening dress is it just looked so good on the bump,” she said.

4. Fall Flower Power

With spring around the corner, Preen by Thornton Bregazzi’s runway show Sunday filled with floral silk dresses felt quite timely. Nevermind that this is a fall collection. “We have a lot of customers in countries that never get cold,” Justin Thornton said backstage after the show. And for those who do? “You wear thick tights and a sweater.” That mashup of vibes was a key theme to this show, with its theme of “Dark Romance,” taking inspiration from Sonic Youth and Karen Carpenter. Heavy use of a black base with the florals gave the pieces a toughness, as did the mixing in of checkered fabrics. Of his customers, Mr. Thornton said, “They really like the way there’s a depth to things.”

5. Spotlight on the Sidelines

Pass by any newsstand and you will surely notice we’re in a major model moment. So Topshop made a smart move keeping the biggest models at its Sunday show off the runway, instead seating them in the front row. Kendall Jenner, Jourdan Dunn and Cara Delevingne were perched alongside Sir Philip Green, chairman of Topshop’s parent company. Having them situated there provided ample opportunities for photographs, as well as a chance for the girls to show off a bit their personalities. Ms. Delevingne, in particular, seemed game to chat and sing along to the show’s soundtrack. The crush of photographers and the fans screaming for selfies as the trio left the venue cemented their star status.

Alessandro Sartori knows more than a little about. After Antoine Arnault ’s appointment as CEO of Berluti some four years ago, his first move was to bring Mr. Sartori over from Z Zegna as artistic director. The new hire’s brief: to expand the brand, known for its exceedingly luxurious men’s leather goods, into ready-to-wear clothing. Today, as Berluti celebrates its 120th anniversary, Mr. Sartori, 48, believes he has succeeded. “Berluti has a different take on menswear; we think much more like women’s couture,” he said, noting that all production—from the new trainers assembled using a single piece of leather, to the woven linen outerwear—takes place in-house. “For spring, I wanted to keep the craft as pure as possible while going deeper into the material technology, and applying this to a modern, sharp silhouette.”

Though the men who favor his designs—and can afford them—tend to be a rarefied, highly affluent bunch, they’re surprisingly diverse, said Mr. Sartori, who was born in Biella, Italy, and calls Paris home. “The customer profile is very nice because they are not a specific age,” he explained. “They are strong characters who like to play with their style and don’t want to dress cliché.” Recently, while driving back to Milan after meeting with artisans in the Berluti workshop in Ferrara, Mr. Sartori talked to us on the phone (hands-free) about his resistance to the Apple Watch and what constitutes a respectable shoe wardrobe.

As I teenager, I dressed: mainly according to the trends. But around age 15, I became crazy about suits and classic things. I looked a bit out of the group, but it was very chic.

My favorite Paris restaurant is: Chez André. I like the cold lentil salad, which is just so French; and then a fish. I love to go there alone because it has zero to do with fashion.

I keep a record of my life with: Moleskine notebooks, the large ones. I have dozens filled with writing, photos, fabrics, sketches. Looking at an old page is like listening to a song that has a special memory. A sketch with three words will bring back an emotion.

I like photographing: abandoned buildings. They look so decadent and chic. I use a Leica T.

One thing I won’t be wearing this spring is: the Apple Watch: Don’t get me wrong, I have a lot of Apple devices. But I’m too much into old watches. I have a Cartier watch from the ’70s and another belonging to my father.

The main sartorial difference between French and Italian men is: that Italians follow specific rules, focusing on the perfect blue blazer perhaps, and the French are more individual.

My first choice for flowers is: calla lilies. Normally, I go with the dark ones—they’re an inky purple. When I see them on my table, I smile a little.

The minimum number of shoes a man should own is: 10, between winter and summer, between boots, loafers, sneakers, evening shoes. Me, I have a crazy number—around 100 pairs.

The proper way to thank someone is: a note written by hand. To me, that’s special. And I write spontaneously—not too thought out. Maybe it will just be the person’s name and three words I feel in the moment.

My favorite obscure museums in Paris are: the Musée de la Vie Romantique, the Musée Delacroix and the Musée Gustave Moreau. When you go to these museums alone, you feel the emotion. When you go with someone, it becomes something different.

When I wake up: I sometimes wait until there’s a five on the clock before getting out of bed—6:55 or 7:05 instead of 7. Five has always been a good number for me. Maybe I’m superstitious.

My favorite film directors include: the Coen brothers because they offer a very real yet radical version of reality; and a Franco-Algerian named Nadir Moknèche. I’d describe him as the Arabic Almodóvar.

I collect: jackets. I have a big archive of nearly 200 blazers, jackets and sport coats. Many, I have never worn; some are from the ’40s and ’50s; and some are uniforms.

Two of my influences are: Joseph Beuys and Alberto Giacometti. I have photos of both in my office. They’re the sort of characters I have in mind when I think of the Berluti man.

Instead of cologne, I wear: botanic cream with a masculine scent like wood or bergamot. The one I’m wearing came from a small shop in Florence.

If money were no object I’d buy: a painting by Alberto Burri, one from the ’60s to the ’80s that shows his color layering.

My drink of choice is: a glass of Barbaresco from La Spinetta, a family winery from the Piedmont region.

The most challenging part of a man’s wardrobe is: fit. Men who are taking care of their look always have the perfect fit. If their bodies change, they call the tailor and adjust.

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It caused so much outrage among fashionistas in Paris and such fierce criticism from the press that Yves Saint Laurent had to take a break to let the scandal pass before he could present a new collection.

Now there’s an opportunity to revisit the outrage, courtesy of the Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent Foundation’s 1971 “The Scandal Collection,” a retrospective of the infamous Spring/Summer 1971 “Liberation” show that shocked Paris and the fashion world.

It was a retro “Forties” collection inspired by square shoulders, short draped dresses, knee-length skirts, platform shoes and exaggerated makeup worn by some women during the Nazi Occupation of Paris, and it enraged the public, whose memories of those dark days only 25 years earlier were still very much alive in the early 1970s.

The press, according to Olivier Saillard, the curator of the foundation’s exhibition, considered Saint Laurent the legitimate heir to the great tradition of French haute couture. That’s why they couldn’t forgive him for the reminder of years of deprivation and restriction through which most of them had lived. Their articles unanimously condemned Saint Laurent’s perceived ‘fashion faux pas’.

“Part of the public did not conceal their aversion and expressed their horror before the spectacle of a collection they deemed hideous,” Saillard writes. “They were primarily disturbed by the couturier’s claims that he was inspired by the elegance of the war years and the Occupation.”

The “ugliest collection in Paris” nevertheless gave way to a retro trend that quickly became popular around the world.

“The 1971 collection’s fault wasn’t these references to the material deprivations of the Occupation,” the fashion publication Icon Icon writes. “It didn’t recall the typical wartime wardrobe; it was altogether another story. Composed of more luxurious, more gaudy clothing, it was what was worn by women who resigned themselves to collaborating with the occupiers in a very ‘horizontal’ way. During the Liberation, these infamous women’s heads were forcibly shaved for having ‘slept with the Germans.’ ”

Through images, sketches and the original pieces for the “Libération/Quarante,” the Scandal Collection explores why it triggered a scandal and, in the words of the curator, “caused fashion to come crashing into contemporary history.”

To answer the critics, Saint Laurent said: “What do I want? To shock people, to force them to think.”

The Scandal Collection is credited with bringing down the walls separating haute couture from ready-to-wear and to have marked a shift in Saint Laurent’s trajectory. “It was the manifesto of a designer who now wanted to be the arbiter of ambiguity,” Saillard writes.

In an interview at the time, Saint Laurent said: “I don’t care if my pleated or draped dresses evoke the 1940s for cultivated fashion people. What’s important is that young girls who have never known this fashion want to wear them.”

The Scandal Collection exhibition runs from March 19 to July 19.

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The second season of Jabong Online Fashion Week (JOFW), a young talent-based showcase that serves as a platform to highlight new names from fashion design and related industries, is set to take place from Feb 11 to 17, 2015.

The shop-able event will feature Spring/Summer creations from a selection of emerging designers who have been judged and picked on the basis of quality, innovation, marketability, originality and ability to legitimately take fashion to the next level.

The selected names are Flirtatious by Aakriti Grover, Abhi Singh, Aesthetical Cubes, Jaya Misra, Jayati Goenka, Kanika Goyal, Lalit Sengar, Niharika Pandey, Niket Mishra, Poonam Bhagat, Preeti S Kapoor, Rahul Singh, Siddhartha Tytler, Sonia Jetleey, Sougat Paul and Nitya Bajaj.

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Commenting on the new line-up, Praveen Sinha, MD and founder, Jabong says, “We are delighted to announce the list of winners who will showcase at the JOFW and also retail out of our portal. These winners embody what we believe is the future of fashion and we are absolutely confident that these talented people will carve a niche for themselves in the years to come.”

Speaking about the purpose of the event, the founder adds, “JOFW is our way to create a platform to showcase new-age fashion, and also help upcoming talent to grow in the industry. It remains our endeavour to provide only the best products and services to our consumers. JOFW is truly one such initiative by Jabong.”

In addition to catwalks, the glamorous do will also include a market square area showcasing around 40 exclusive pop-up shops by labels like Pitaraah featuring Prerto, Ridhi Mehra, Raw Mango, Namrata Kumar and House of Sko.

Apart from fashion design, the online event will highlight the skills of several up and coming talents specialising in various genres such as modelling, hair styling, make up and fashion photography.

Additionally, an exclusive preview show will be held on February 11, 2015 at The Grand, New Delhi. The programme will witness the launch of UK based high street brand Dorothy Perkins’ S/S 15 collection, which will be available for purchase on Jabong.

In its continuous endeavour to promote and establish new names, JOFW’s inaugural season brought fashion designer Sidharth K Kakkar to spotlight. The designer has styled and designed outfits for celebs like Kapil Sharma, Gauhar Khan and Rajeev Khandelwal.

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Back in August, we reported that a separate New York Men's Fashion Week — something that designers have been pushing for recently — might be close to becoming a reality.

Now it has been confirmed that American menswear designers will in fact have their own dedicated fashion week event in the Big Apple. This summer, the Council of Fashion Designers of America will launch New York Fashion Week: Men's, WWD reported. The first edition of this event will take place from July 13 to 16 at Skylight Clarkson Sq in SoHo.

New York Fashion Week: Men's, which will consist of runway shows, presentations and other events, will coincide with the Project trade show and New York men's market week.

"American men's wear has never been stronger or more creative. There are many reasons the CFDA is launching New York Fashion Week: Men's. It gives the designers a business platform to show during their market dates and is an opportunity to demonstrate the collective talent of an important segment of our industry," CFDA CEO Steven Kolb told WWD.

"The effort to create stand-alone men's shows is not just backed by CFDA and participating designers, but also by the American editors and retailers who have contributed as we have built this, and they will continue to be involved in our planning."

Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein Collection, Michael Kors, Rag & Bone, Public School, Billy Reid, Todd Snyder, Michael Bastian, Ovadia & Sons, Robert Geller, Duckie Brown, Patrik Ervell, Timo Weiland and Kent & Curwen have all agreed to participate in this inaugural event, although it is not yet known who will actually host runways shows and who will contribute in other ways.

The idea behind New York Fashion Week: Men's is to give American menswear designers a level of exposure similar to what their European counterparts get from events such as London Collections: Men.

"What the British Fashion Council has done is impressive. There's a lot we can learn from them," Kolb said.

"We're not naïve enough to think that we're going to create a huge, international mega men's fashion week immediately. We know we have to build it from the ground up. But we're going to do a good job, and we know we'll be able to compete on a more global basis in the future."

Amazon and its fashion-centric sites— Amazon Fashion, East Dane and MyHabit — will act as the New York Fashion Week: Men's presenting sponsor, and additional support will be provided by DreamWorks and Shinola.

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Whenever we hear about people hustling their way to the top of the fashion industry, we want to celebrate them (and find out everything they know). In an incredibly competitive field, anyone who can stand out from the pack deserves a ton of credit.

So we were curious to find out how two former Elle editors managed to create one of the most popular, widely-read style sites on the Internet. To get the scoop, we chatted with Hillary Kerr and Katherine Power, founders of the Los Angeles-based online fashion magazine, Who What Wear, to find out everything they've learned since they launched in 2006. Here's how they built their empire:

On how working in print helped them launch Who What Wear:

Katherine Power: I think it helped our credibility tremendously and the fact that we had a significant amount of relationships. That was one of the biggest reasons that we never spent any money on audience acquisition or on marketing the brand. Not only did working at a traditional print brand like Elle give us the experience and the credibility and really sort of made us style experts, but also then we had contacts in the media. I used to book all of the celebrity covers for Elle Girl, which was our teen magazine, so I had relationships with publicists and celebrities that ultimately ended up being Who What Wear supporters

Hillary Kerr: I think at the end of the day we had training. And training is so incredibly valuable, especially going into digital media which didn't have the same acclaim or perceived substance that it has now. At that time it was still considered so much the Wild West, we were actually licensing the photos and doing the reporting, and doing the research and making very professional-looking stories, merely because we had tackled this whole project as professionals, this was never a hobby.

On Katherine's decision not to go to college:

KP: I think I was born an entrepreneur from the time that I was little and I think you're either born with that or you're not... I had always wanted to work and I enrolled in college and got an internship around the same time and was just so fascinated by the internship and the fact that I could start working that I ultimately decided that that was for me and you know, lucky for me, my parents were supportive of that. But I don't think it works for everybody.

On why Hillary got a master's degree from NYU:

HK: I was a little bit slower figuring out what I wanted to do and I didn't really feel like I had the necessary internships or training to make me an attractive candidate for working at a print magazine when I was fresh out of college, so I went directly into grad school and .... I really used that time not only to work on my technical skills, but I interned every semester at a different place and over the summers. I think that's actually where I got the majority of my actual work skills. So if you are interested in a certain career path, I highly recommend interning as quickly as possible, as early in your career as possible. By the time that I was hired at Elle, I had done five internships in two years and I was absolutely certain that that was the job I wanted and sure enough when I got the job, it was a dream. So, long story short, grad school is great, if that's where your path takes you, but I think the internship piece of it is more important, personally.

On the one quality Katherine has that Hillary doesn't:

HK: I would one thousand percent bet money on Katherine's visual sensibilities over mine. She has such an eye for composition and for angles and for lighting and just the entire visual side of things. Like I get it, but she definitely has a master class is in. Also she is a morning person and I will never be that [both laughs]. And I have big respect for that because, who gets up that early?

On the one quality Hillary has that Katherine doesn't:

KP: Hillary is an unbelievable writer which I think unfortunately, just because of how the business has grown, she doesn't get to share that as much with the readers of our site. Someone reminded me the other day that Who What Wear invented this fashion-friendly voice that now everybody has adopted and you know we were the first publication to make fashion very approachable and friendly and that really came from Hillary's brain, that voice.

On what they look for when they hire someone new:

KP: We look for really entrepreneurial people. You can tell based on the jobs they worked and how quickly they've made a difference at those companies -- whether it be a revenue contribution or a contribution growing an audience and then what they have taken on on the side. Someone who has a great job but also operates their own really successful blog or Pinterest board, sort of going above and beyond to really build their career is always really attractive to us because we look for people who can wear a lot of hats and take on a lot of different things whether it's exactly in your job description or not.

HK: Yeah, that sweet spot between hustle and passion and experience is always attractive.

On interview deal-breakers:

HK: I think a certain informality can be a bit of a problem just because yes, it's the Internet which is a bit more casual and yes Katherine and I have put ourselves out there quite a bit for work, but at the end of the day, it's still a formal job interview and when people are extremely overly familiar or casual, that can be problematic. Other than that I would say, never ask a question that you could Google, especially about us or the company. My personal pet peeve is when someone comes in and then asks the question like, how did you guys get started? And to me, that for a job interview, you should have done a little bit more research.

On how working in Los Angeles has helped their business:

KP: We started the business at a very crucial time for fashion. It was right around 2004-2005 where we started to see a shift from the big fashion houses and designers influencing what people would wear, to celebrities influencing fashion houses and runway collections and people. So it was a shift in where the trends were coming from and celebrities happened to be in Los Angeles, so for us, it was a great connection to be able to communicate that from an L.A. point of view.

HK: I do believe that being removed from the centralized hub of the fashion industry actually gives us great perspective on it. I'm sure you've seen this on Instagram, where you're looking through your feed and it's like every single person I know in New York is at the exact same event and I think the fact we have a different world has been really helpful in so many ways because we are not part of that day-to-day Manhattan crowd, as much as I love it.

On the one piece of advice they would tell their younger selves:

HK: Take more vacation. [Laughs]

KP: Honestly, I wouldn't actually tell myself anything. I think what we didn't know helped us get so far so quickly because I think if we had known more it would have caused so much more speculation and just over analyzation and doubt to a certain extent. So I think it was better that we didn't know what we were getting into -- we just had this very large goal that we had our eye on and it worked. So I don't know that I would tell myself anything different.

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For someone who doesn't really wear hats, I seem to wear a lot of hats. And this much I know: beanies aren't my best look.

If you happen to look gorgeous in beanies, stop reading this now. There is nothing for you here this week. Go out and frolic in the snow. If there isn't any, emigrate. Or get yourself cast in The Holiday II as Cameron Diaz's younger sister. Beanies need snow.

I'm not bitter about your long, lustrous locks - for those are what beanies require. I'm not comparing cheekbones, either. I'm just saying that beanies are a lot of work. They bring nothing to the table, apart from warmth, which usually comes with itchiness. They're the take, take, take of the millinery cosmos.

A structured, felt-ish hat is far more generous. You need to know this because in winter a hat will stop 70/80/195 per cent of your body heat escaping, depending on which tabloid website you accidentally find yourself. The right shape will also give your face a lovely firm outline, simply by casting a shadow with its brim. (You can use creams to blur the bit in the middle.) If you've chosen wisely, it won't wreck your too-short-for-a-beanie hair - unlike beanies.

I expect you're waiting for the snag - the part where I direct you to a boil-sized hat that costs £600. That's not how investments always work. A warm winter hat needs to be something you can pull off at a moment's notice and stuff in your bag. It cannot behave as Angelina Jolie might reading a Sony email. It needs to chillax. It should have some structure and attitude, but not too much. It must display a GSOH when it is stuffed into your handbag and pulled out again 27 times a day.

Impossible, you say. Yet I found a perfect one in Topshop for £25: it's less rigid than a trilby but definitely a structured, felty hat, and clearly warm. The small print on the label advises not to wear it in the rain. In this country? That's one dumb label. The hat, however, is a winner.

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