Flares are back as Topman Design mixes 70s retro with 90s Britpop

The default rock'n'roll silhouette of the Topman look – which has its roots in rocker culture of the 60s – has been replaced at London's menswear fashion showcase by a hybrid of the 70s and the 90s. Doing away with the skinny jean, models wore Jarvis Cocker-esque tight flares in denim, cord and pinstriped wool. Some wore wigs designed to look like 70s shaggy cuts with chunky glasses and others had trainers that looked like the classic Adidas Gazelles favoured by Brit Pop heroes such as Verve's Richard Ashcroft. Pastel colours, tight T-shirts and even woollen tank tops featured.

Sunday was the first day of London Collections: Men– with Topman Design's midday show the highlight. Woodstock, parkas and Brit Pop all formed part of this collection. Designed for spring/summer 2015, this survey of festival fashion could be worn right now. With Glastonbury mere weeks away, it looked timely.

If towelling short suits in bright daisy prints were perhaps a retro step too far for the average 2014 twentysomething, the overall feel was zesty and fun, a palate cleanser from the more sober mood of some menswear in recent seasons.

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An Instagram-worthy film of nature playing in the background, and soundtrack that included Blur's Girls and Boys, Tame Impala's Elephant and Derrick May's Strings of Life all suited the fashion in a field mood.

After the show, Topman's creative director, Gordon Richardson, said there "was Brit Pop at one end and Woodstock at another" on the moodboard while designing the collection. Twin muses of Liam Gallagher and Jimi Hendrix added up to louche tailoring, flower prints and urban staples like a swagger-tastic Gallagher parka. Richardson's own adolescence was also in the frame. "I had these purple embossed paisley cords," he said. "I wore a lot of this kind of stuff when I was younger."

The demand for a flared lurex suit in pistachio green might be small but a high street brand sending this look out speaks volumes about where London menswear is going. With the menswear shows in the capital now on their sixth season, such trifles have their place even in the mainstream world of an Arcadia-owned brand. With menswear worth £26m to the UK economy and expected to grow by a third in the next five years, a bit of experimentation is perhaps warranted.

There was more of it later in the afternoon – as the current generation of young designers presented their collections. MAN, the new talent showcase run by Lulu Kennedy and Topman, featured newcomers Liam Hodges and Nicomede Talavera along with Bobby Abley, who has previously shown with the initiative. Hodges' Boy Scout-influenced collection was particularly intriguing, with versions of the badges collected by scouts dotted over simple sweatshirt shapes that grown-ups would want to wear.

Christopher Shannon, who was announced as winner of the first BFC/GQ Designer Menswear Fund last week – and the recipient of £150,000, plus business mentoring – was another highlight. The collections continue on Monday with JW Anderson, Alexander McQueen and Moschino on the schedule.

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Roland Mouret brings pre-collections trend to London with resort show

London got its very first taste of the resort phenomenon on Thursday morning as Roland Mouret presented an intimate catwalk show of mid-season clothes in his townhouse-cum-HQ-cum-shop in Mayfair. While other designers have chosen to present their pre-collections at strategic international points on the retail map – Chanel in Dubai, Céline in Beijing and Louis Vuitton in Monaco – Mouret became the first designer to show his commercial collection in London to a small group of editors and buyers, and he hopes others will follow suit in the coming seasons. He said he hoped to "open the doors for great British designer collections to be showcased here".

Resort, cruise or pre-collection (all are essentially the same thing, a collection between the main autumn/winter and spring/summer shows) are becoming increasingly important in the fashion calendarand are now beginning to compete with the main shows for attention and industry standing.

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Naturally the clothes shown by Mouret emitted the body-conscious, restrained glamour that we expect from the Mouret house. This time there was, in the words of the designer, a "south of France-slash-London" flavour to the collection, with folded scarfdetails at waistbands, cropped tops and capri pants reprised in fluoro peach and aqua; zips and structure realism meets Riviera optimism. The standout piece was a monochrome jumpsuit with Mouret's trademark bandage structure providing the back view. They were clothes which you can imagine hanging in the plush carpeted changing rooms of the Mayfair store, which is, of course, exactly the point; these clothes will account for 70 per cent of Mouret's retail sales and represent the commercial point of view of the brand.

It isn't really the trends that matter here (although they will become actual street style if your street is Bond Street, you favour a sleek silhouette, and your credit card is platinum) it's more the fact that showing a resort or cruise collection on a catwalk has become a trend in itself, a trend that London is now part of.

It isn't a move that all designers are enamoured with. Tom Ford told earlier this week that cruise catwalk shows missed the point. "The fact that cruise is now shown with these giant productions means it's no longer what it was supposed to be, which was clothes that were maybe not strong enough to show but were your real bread and butter; the clothes that women wanted to wear. But now that they're being shown, they'll have to be amped up, and women won't want to wear them any more," he said.

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However Mouret's resort show, with its downplayed salon-like atmosphere, was without pretension. He admitted that pre-collections are "what makes my company exist because they are relevant in my customers' wardrobes". The designer also pointed out that for him this trend within the industry of spotlighting resort is reminiscent of the moment when Yves Saint Laurent moved from showing only couture to showing ready to wear as well in the 1960s. "It's that same transition. The ready to wear shows are more the image of the designer in terms of craft and mentality and the pre-collections are what we are living with."

Charles James Then and Now: An Artistic Interpretation

Not everyone at last night’s Met Gala knew the story of Charles James—not by a long shot. “He’s a new person for me,” admitted Hailee Steinfeld, who was utterly adorable in Prabal Gurung. “He’s someone I don’t know. I’m 25!” laughed a Michael Kors-clad Ming Xi when quizzed on the couturier. The evening’s DJ, Diplo, referred to Charles James: Beyond Fashion as “Fashion and the Thingamajig.” And when we asked Katie Couric about James, she jokingly replied, “I think he’s from the forties, isn’t he? Don’t ask me any more hard questions!” However, while not everyone was familiar with the details of James’ career, most everyone had seen the iconic 1948 Cecil Beaton photo, which features eight women in pastel James gowns. Or, as Hedwig and the Angry Inch‘s Lena Hall called it, “that Cecile photograph.” She made up for the slip with her charm, and by looking divine in a Jamesian Zac Posen number. “I’ve seen that photograph a lot. In fact, I think my mother has it on her wall. So when I saw that, I was like, ‘Oh, I guess I know more about him than I thought.’”

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Gala chair Aerin Lauder had an even more personal story about the famed snap. “I own the Cecil Beaton photograph, but I didn’t know much about [James] before working on the event for a year.” It would seem many a starlet and socialite looked to said image for sartorial inspiration—so much so that we were able to re-create the photograph with some of the ladies from yesterday evening’s red carpet. Here, for your viewing pleasure, we give you a modern-day mockup of Beaton’s photo, starring TV chef and girlfriend to Governor Andrew Cuomo Sandra Lee’s gargantuan dress (a questionable blend of a James ball gown and his Butterfly design), Hall, Amy Adams, Katie Holmes, Liu Wen, Sarah Silverman, and more. You’re welcome.

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Ten Looks, One Show: The Industry’s Top Stylists Honor the Albright Fashion Library

It’s been over ten years since Irene Albright first opened the doors to the Albright Fashion Library—the more than 15,000-dress-, 7,000 shoe-strong collection of contemporary couture, ready-to-wear, and accessories now housed in a massive 7,000-square-foot loft at 62 Cooper Square. “Irene was working with KCD and saw that people were running around chasing clothes, and she just decided to start buying [important pieces],” recalled the Library’s creative director, Patricia Black. “Eventually, people would come to her saying, ‘Oh, do you still have that sweater? Can I borrow it?’”

Today, after a decade functioning as a sort of dream closet for fashion insiders, the Library is feting its history, as well as the incredible individuals who have pulled from its continually evolving archive, with Albright Goes to School, an exhibition in partnership with the Fashion Institute of Technology and MAC Cosmetics that opens this evening at the Museum at FIT.

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“I wanted to celebrate Irene, the Library, the stylists—the people who were working on the inside—the shakers and tastemakers,” said Black. “Without them, we wouldn’t have what we have in terms of this colossal space just packed from floor to ceiling with clothes.”

The show—a first look debuts here—features individual looks that ten stylists (June Ambrose, Paul Cavaco, Catherine George, Tom Broecker, Freddie Leiba, Lori Goldstein, Kathryn Neale, Mary Alice Stephenson, Kate Young, and Patti Wilson) created using iconic wares from the Library. A Tom Ford goat hair jacket layers over a Comme des Garçons tank in Goldstien’s look; Balmain is mixed with Givenchy and the artist’s own choker and face mask in Leiba’s; and Patti Wilson utilizes a Lanvin body harness to sex up an otherwise high glamour Yves Saint Laurent and J.W. Anderson combo.

There’s a rich history to the institution, and Black, Museum at FIT director and chief curator Valerie Steele, and set designer Stefan Beckman were tasked with expressing that through a tight narrative. “There are some incredible stylists who pulled these outfits, but they each have their own different story,” related Beckman, who described the installation as a “gritty fire escape urban idea.”

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Steele added that the Museum’s interest in the exhibition stemmed, in part, from a desire to champion stylists. “People tend to think, Oh, designers make fashion. So it was important to be able to bring in stylists and show that they also have a really important role in putting looks together.”

The ten ensembles will be on display through March 31. The show marks the beginning of a greater collaboration between FIT and the Albright Fashion Library. “Irene is such an eclectic collector of everything from fashion to art to houses to people. So who knows what she’s going to start collecting next and where we’re going to take that,” suggested Black. “[But] I’m excited about the beginnings of seeing how we get to work and inspire the new generation of kids who dream of becoming the next designer, visual director, creative director, fashion editor, stylist, or costume designer. I’m hoping that we can lend a little bit of light to them in this moment.”

Men's shoes: focus on footwear trends at the AW14 shows

As a shoe obsessive, I often point my camera lens at the catwalk floor, even when footwear isn't the intended focus. At the recent London shows, two strong footwear themes emerged, and they have continued on into the Milan and Paris collections.

First there was a definite element of fashion following the austerity agenda with simple, utilitarian shoes, apparently reflecting the uniforms of working men (quite literally on the wet pavements at Topman Design). And second, we saw the continuing influence of trainers and sportswear details in high-fashion footwear.

However, this being fashion, looks can be deceiving, so apparently straightforward shapes such as simple workaday oxfords turned out to have a subtle, metallic sheen (as at Common) or were high-gloss with elements of bright colour at the sole (at Jonathan Saunders).

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At Prada, always directional with their footwear, shoes were a shiny hybrid of chunky trainer and shoe in solid brights, not wildly dissimilar to the Miu Miu men's trainer-shoe amalgams of the 90s with their then-revolutionary rubberised flashes of primary colour. The proportions of these shoes were less extreme than the espadrille platforms and raised shark-teeth soles of recent Prada collections and, as such, are likely to find a wider fan-base.

Which brings me on to a third men's shoe theme of note: a certain element of proportion play, verging on the ugly, but in pared-back colours and with one or two elements exaggerated as part of a minimal whole.

Rick Owens has been playing with this outline for some time, with his solid rubber-soled trainers and canvas boots with a slightly turned-up profile, like an exaggerated form of the classic downtown baseball boot (one such style of his is titled Ramones). In his Paris menswear show this week, the heavy rubber toes of the boots were seen peeking out from under long trouser hems in his airman-meets-Trojan-warrior collection.

Owens' ongoing collaborations with Adidas also explore this exaggerated perspective as with the avant-garde elevated soles on display at his much-discussed step-dancing women's show.

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Raf Simons highly applauded collaborative show with artist Sterling Ruby featured solid-coloured, rubber-soled boots with an even more exaggerated profile than Owens', of JS Lowry-cum-cartoon-character proportions.

Less controversially, perhaps, at Carven, earlier in the week as part of a collection infused with looks inspired by the sartorial excess of classic American gangster style, spats were given a futuristic update: alongside solid white, black and grey shoes exhibiting elements of both the high-gloss and minimal trends.

Bringing the workwear trends and proportion play to a head on Saturday, Kenzo showed oversized safety boots, some sporting bold cross-straps in industrial white or more subtle chevrons in brown or orchid on black.

An Early Glimpse at Victoria’s Secret Model Lineup

Walking the annual Victoria’s Secret extravaganza is a milestone in any model’s career. After all, it’s as much about lighting up the stage with your personality (not to mention dance moves—who could forget Jourdan Dunn doing the robot last year?) as it is about having a killer body, and being able to smile while strutting with a pair of thirty-pound wings on your back. While there’s no way to confirm exactly who will be appearing on the VS catwalk this evening alongside Taylor Swift, we’ve come up with an educated guess based on social media clues gathered over the past week, as well as shots from yesterday’s rehearsal (like the one above, featuring Sara Sampaio, Martha Hunt, Jasmine Tookes, and Leva Laguna working the runway).

Of course there are bound to be appearances by veteran Angels such as Adriana Lima (it will be her fourteenth time participating in the show), Candice Swanepoel, Alessandra Ambrosio, Behati Prinsloo, Doutzen Kroes, Lily Aldridge, Karlie Kloss, and Cara Delevingne. [Regrettably, Miranda Kerr announced she will be ending her contract with the lingerie megalith to pursue other projects.] Those aforementioned supers are all but givens at this point, and so it’s the remaining twenty-plus coveted slots—selected by casting director John Pfeiffer—that really get us excited. Style has learned that several high fashion runway regulars will be making their VS debuts tonight: Sigrid Agren and Josephine Skriver (both posted snapshots of themselves sporting the official Angels bomber jacket on Instagram), as well as Ming Xi, Maria Borges, Kasia Struss, and Jac. We were even more thrilled to hear that some our top Spring ’14 newcomers including Malaika Firth, Devon Windsor, Cindy Bruno, and Sara Sampaio also beat out dozens of more established girls to earn their first pair of wings.

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