My Fashion Life

Hands down Zara gets my award for best coats on the high street. Breaking from tradition, this season I invested in just one coat, rather than splitting my cash and buying two. Best decision I made, and even wiser was my choice to head to Zara. Being on the tall side, for once I had zero problems with the length of the sleeves, rather I had more difficulty in choosing just one and opted for a black, military style, ¾ length coat, rationalising that it would go with all outfit choices. It was affordable and I have no complaints at all about the quality.

Being ready to indulge myself, and on the lookout for another coat with colour this time round, it still has to be Zara, especially after seeing the coat above. The colour satisfies my current obsession for red, the bold buttons add effective detail while keeping it simple and as spring approaches the structure and length are perfect for the transition in everyday wear to dresses. To think, despite all the hype I wasn’t the biggest fan of Zara prior to 2006, but credit where credits due, they have an excellent selection of coats for winter.

Fresh with being honoured designer of the year, Giles Deacon has confirmed his next career move will be to the high street. Teaming up with retailer New Look in a relationship that could well be for the long term, Deacon will begin with designing a capsule collection of 35 pieces for Spring 07, an accessories line is also in the works and actress Drew Barrymore looks set to be the face of the campaign…

While the concept of designers teaming up with high street retailers used to be quite exciting, take Luella and Target and Stella McCartney and H&M for example, it was quite dissapointing to read this morning that Giles Deacon would be partnering up with New Look, there is a residing feeling of yet another designer selling out to the allure of the high street and the commercial success it could possibly bring.

Before it “appeared” that the collaborations were in the interest of the people who wanted great designs at affordable prices however now the partnerships between designers and retailers are leaving quite a bad taste in the mouth of the fashion industry mainly because rather than bringing anything new to the table, designers are now more focused on appealing to the masses, which could end up being quite damaging not only to the industry but for the designer themselves.

{image: from a selection of Christmas looks at New Look}

[WWD]

This is a very interesting article which highlights the point that unlike the music and film industry the fashion world accepts rather than rejects imitations. I have never actually thought about this in depth before and I have always viewed copying as the norm in the fashion industry. It is not unusual that you have the runway shows full of new trends and creativity and within 6 months there are duplicates in the high street shops. If there are complaints from designers I don’t hear about it too much and I think this is probably the reason why.

For virtually all players in fashion, some form of derivation, recombination, imitation, revival of old styles, and outright knockoff is the norm. Few denounce, let alone sue, the appropriator for “creative theft.” They’re too busy trying to stay ahead of the competition through the sheer power of their design and marketing prowess.

Designers are always are trying to keep ahead and if they attempted to sue all those that copied their work they would never work themselves. Whether its right or wrong for their creativity to be re-worked I cant really say. I can completely understand why they would be irritated. But to be honest I have always viewed it as a compliment for the designer and not as if they are being ripped off.

For me, when I make it big one day, I would feel a large sense of happiness to walk into a high street shop and see an imitation of my design. Mainly because if I do make it to the level of the Prada’s and Gucci’s, I would appreciate that not everyone could afford my clothes. I would want them to wear my vision and if they couldn’t afford it then fine wear a copy. At the end of the day it is my creativity they are wearing and which they like, that would be enough for me.

The legendary designer Coco Chanel understood this reality. She once said, “Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only; fashion is something in the air. It’s the wind that blows in the new fashion; you feel it coming, you smell it … in the sky, in the street; fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening

I was going to prepare an article about the beauty of Topshop, but this piece of writing says it all for me. It doesn’t however spell out some of the cons of the ever popular shop. So I will…

1. You are guaranteed that at a party, barbeque or drink up every girl will be wearing “Topshop” and there is an 80% chance someone will be wearing the same jeans as you too.

2. You can no longer lie when a stranger or a friend asks “where you bought those great earrings from?”…chances are you will be caught out (I have been!!!)

3. Topshop now have the best shoes, so not only will all females have the same clothes but the same footwear too!!

4. In a club ur’e boyfriend might try and surprise you from behind and to your dismay grope the girl with the same outfit as you!!

In order to avoid any of this occuring to you try to mix and match ur Topshop with some of the following:

Zara

Miss Selfridge

H&M

Mango