Batlak & Selvig - Spring/Summer 2011

Instead of having a regular fashion show with models walking down the catwalk, they opted for a fashion presentation. The guests were escorted into the venue in small groups. Inside the gallery the collection was displayed on mannequins. The atmosphere was more that of a vernissage than a fashion show. No models and no celebrities on the front row to steal the limelight – all focus was on the clothes. Blurring the line between fashion and art is not something which is new to the duo, as made evident by their previous work – for instance their Mondrian-inspired collection of cocktail dress a couple of years back.

Batlak & Selvig - Spring/Summer 2011

The collection consisted of classic 60’s style dresses. Simple and clean silhouettes and above-the-knee hemlines.

Batlak & Selvig - Spring/Summer 2011

Admir earned his graduate degree in Fashion Design from the Istituto Artistico dell’Abbigliamento Marangoni in Milan, while Charlie did her degree at Central Saint Martins in London. As students they did their internships at Proenza Schouler and Hussein Chalayan, and have since also worked as design consultants for Dolce & Gabanna and guest lecturers at the National College of Art in Oslo. Along with Kristian Aadnevik, Peter Dundas and Siv Støldal, the duo are undoubtedly amongst the most interesting contemporary Norwegian designers today.

Batlak & Selvig - Spring/Summer 2011

Photo sources: Stella Pictures

Hope - Spring/Summer 2011

Also make sure to check out Bryanboy’s post about the show with a video of the final walkthrough.

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Photo source: Stureplan.se

Peter Jensen - Spring/Summer 2011

Peter Jensen - Resort 2011

Photosource: Copenhagenfashionweek.com

Filippa K - Spring/Summer 2011

The collection we have decided to review first is from the Swedish clothing label Filippa K. The label was founded in 1993 by Swedish designer Filippa Knutson. Over the years Filippa K has become synonymous with simple, sophisticated silhouettes and minimalistic design – a Scandinavian Calvin Klein. Next season’s collection is no different. Simple, plain and wearable basics.

Filippa K - Spring/Summer 2011

The materials used are soft silks, cashmere, jersey and relaxed cottons. While last season’s palette was dominated by muted grays with accents of pastel pink and turquoise, this season’s colour palette is white, light grey and beige with warm orange, yellow and brown accents. The 90’s seems to be the biggest inspiration behind this collection, as indicated both by the colour palette, the silhouettes and design details such as the cargo style pockets on the trousers. The result is a simple and clean look, perfect staple pieces for the spring/summer 2011 wardrobe.

Photo source: Mathias Nordgren/Stureplan.se

Louis Vuitton in Oslo, August 2010

Spools of golden lace in the windows at Louis Vuitton. The reels double as a table for the merchandise. The golden lace has also been used to embroider “Maison fondée en 1854″ on the back wall of the display chambre. I love the reels, but I feel more could have been done with the display . I’m all for keeping things simple, but I would have loved to see more merchandise on display and perhaps stuff which isn’t monogram (since they have that in the other windows too).

More pictures from Louis Vuitton, Hermès and Hugo Boss after the jump

Louis Vuitton in Oslo, August 2010

Louis Vuitton in Oslo, August 2010

Louis Vuitton in Oslo, August 2010

Next up is Hermès where the theme is picnics in the park and enjoying summertime in the garden. As with Louis Vuitton I like the overall theme, but I think the whole display falls a bit flat. There’s not enough merchandise in the windows, the few things they have there look as if they’ve just been thrown in at random and to be honest it looks as if it was done a bit half-heartedly. I also think they should consider creating a wall that covers the entire back of the window. The “half walls” they have at the moment aren’t really helping make things look better.

Hermès in Oslo, August 2010

Hermès in Oslo, August 2010

Hermès in Oslo, August 2010

Final shop up in this post is Hugo Boss. Their displays are very simple, as always. I do find it a bit odd though that they only had men’s styles on display when the shop carries both menswear and womenswear.

Hugo Boss in Oslo, August 2010

Hugo Boss in Oslo, August 2010

Hugo Boss in Oslo, August 2010

]]> http://fadeto.c5c5c5.com/2010/08/13/fashion-windows-oslo-august-2010/feed/ 5 http://fadeto.c5c5c5.com/2010/08/09/the-september-covers-2010-part-1/ http://fadeto.c5c5c5.com/2010/08/09/the-september-covers-2010-part-1/#comments Mon, 09 Aug 2010 19:33:19 +0000 awais http://fadeto.c5c5c5.com/?p=1877 It’s that time of the year again. Last week the September issues of some of the world’s leading fashion magazines hit the newsstands. The September issue is usually the thickest issue of the year. Since the recession the magazines might perhaps not be the door stoppers they used to be just a few years ago (the September issue of US Vogue in 2007 for instance had 840 pages), but the issues still have a decent amount of pages.

I’ve always been fascinated by how the magazines present the most important issue of the year and have to admit that I do judge the magazine by the cover. For this post I’ve taken a look at the covers of some of the leading British fashion magazines. I will try to do more reviews in a couple of weeks when the French, Italian, American and other international editions of these magazines have launched their September issues.

First magazine up in this review of the September covers is British Vogue, which features Kate Moss on the cover. Kate Phelan has done the styling and the photographer is Patrick Demarchelier. The fact that British Vogue has used Kate on the cover doesn’t really come as a surprise. This is Kate’s 30th British Vogue cover and it’s the 6th time she’s on the cover of their September issue. The issue weighs in at 380 pages. What I really like about the cover is that for once Vogue is going for a full body shot.

Kate Moss on cover of British Vogue, September 2010

More covers from Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, i-D and Vanity Fair after the jump.

The UK edition of Harper’s Bazaar features Gisele Bündchen on the cover. The newsstand cover is in colours, whilst the subscriber’s cover is in black and white. The cover was shot by Cedric Buchet and the styling was done by Sophia Neophitou-Apostolou. The issue has 364 pages.

Subscriber's cover on the left, newsstand cover on the right

The UK edition of Elle features Emily Blunt and the photographs are by Matthias Vriens-McGrath. Just like Harper’s, the subscriber’s cover is black and white, while the newsstands one is in colour.

Newsstand cover on the left, subscriber's on the right

The pre-fall issue of i-D magazine has multiple covers featuring Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Lady Gaga. The pictures have been taken by Nick Knight. In June SHOWstudio posted a series of behind-the-scenes posts from the shoots with Naomi and Kate.

Kate Moss on cover of British Vogue, September 2010

Nick Knight has also shot Lady Gaga for the September covers of the UK and US editions of Vanity Fair. The stylist was none other than Nicola Formichetti who also did Lady Gaga’s i-D cover. Earlier this week SHOWstudio posted a video from this particular shoot.

The September covers of the UK (left) and US (right) editions of Vanity Fair

I think all of the covers are good, but I like the Vogue and i-D covers the best (but then again, I’m a bit biased as I’m a Kate fan). What I like the best about the covers are the full and half body shots. When it comes to Harper’s Bazaar and Elle, I like the subscribers covers the best. The black and white photos add a special touch to it all.

Photo sources: tFS, SHOWstudio, i-D

Cameron Diaz in a silk crêpe jumpsuit from Chloé

The stylist behind this photograph is Rachel Zoe and the photographer is Terry Richardson. I haven’t seen any new Charlie ads for years, but in the Autumn/Winter 2010-edition of Elle Collections, Revlon has a double spread where they’re running a couple of their vintage ones from the 70’s.

Charlie ads in the a/w 2010 issue of Elle Collections

For more vintage Charlie by Revlon ads, read The Scented Salamander’s excellent post on gender roles and how women are portrayed in these ads compared to ads for other fragrances.

Photo sources: harpesbazaar.com and Elle Collections A/W 2010

Pictures from some of the posts from the past year

Last summer Qing and I met up in London. We had been classmates in university many years ago, but hadn’t seen each other for the past five years. As we were catching up and reminiscing about the old days, we started talking about fashion blogs and how we both wanted to write one. An idea was born and we registered the blog.

Fast forward 12 months and we have reached a milestone, this post is our 100th post! 12 months have passed since we wrote our first entry, but our writing didn’t really take off before December. We still have a long way to go before we’re where we would like to be, but in the past few months especially we’re slowly starting to get there. As I am writing this we have just reached 31,000 hits. Maybe not a high number compared to many other fashion blogs, but still.

Since our first few posts last year, we have added quite a few new regular features we will work on from now on, these include:

• “I love you back” – A lot of fashion blogs, street style ones in particular, always show the front of an outfit. In this feature we show you the “backside” of fashion.
• “Outfits” – like a lot of other fashion bloggers, we like to dress up too. And occasionally we show off our outfits.
• “What’s in your bag?” – The one where we put unsuspecting victims on the spot, grab their bags and go through the contents.
• “Fashion Windows” – A series of posts documenting the fashion windows, displays and visual merchandising of different fashion stores around the world.
• Fashionology – A series for the true fashion geeks, it will have posts about fashion theory and fashion history.

In addition to this we will of course continue to post about other things as well – fashion weeks, different fashion campaigns, models, designers, collections, praises of things we love and rants about things that we don’t.

A few days ago The Guardian wrote about how the August editions of arch rivals British Vogue and Elle UK both feature variations of “the same dress” from Miu Miu (it’s not actually the same, just two very similar styles from the same collection). To make matters worse, “the same dress” was also featured on the cover of the July* edition of W magazine.

Several bloggers and newspapers have picked up the story. Today, however, I stumbled upon this blog entry on Stylebrity and guess what dress is featured on the August cover of Elle Sweden…

The August cover of Swedish Elle, featuring Mona Johannesson, photographed by Jimmy Backius

*I think the article in the Guardian says the August issue of W, but it’s actually the July issue.

Photo source: tFS and Fashionising