Collab // Topshop X Meadham Kirchhoff

If you haven't heard yet there's a brilliant collection being released soon! Coming November 21st is something i'm super excited for, after their 2010 collab with Topshop the eccentric and wonderful Meadham Kirchhoff are releasing another collab "The Cherries". After their various magical different  shows "The Cherries" will probably be a dream for any girl who loves the fabulous duo!

Meadham Kirchhoff's S/S 2014 Collection 

I have to say how much I love Meadham Kirchhoff I think they always have such an interesting collectino with a brilliant theme running through out. I can't wait to see where they take their new Topshop collaboration which is apparently going to consist of a massive 60 pieces! I think their style's matured and grown a lot since 2010 so it'll be fascinating to see where they take this venture. All I can say is I hope it's everything we love from Meadham Kirchhoff bright and bold whilst still feeling romantic and stylish! 

 

A few images of Meadham's 2010 Topshop Collaboration

For anyone who loves a designer highstreet mix then this is something you need to have in your wardrobe! I'm definitely excited to see what they bring this time around and hopefully they have something everyone can hope for especially just before Christmas! I think it'll sell really well though, especially seeing how anyone with a keen eye for fashion seem to love Meadham Kirchhoff. 

Highstreet // Toxicity

Has the highstreet finally reached it's peak, posioning and killing off other brands? We've seen various brands struggle to survive in the market that exists currently and with Nicole Farhi filing for administration has the monster that is highstreet finally dealt a killing blow? 

 

Nicole Farhi was founded in 1982, the brand have five stand alone stores and also sells clothes in major department stores such as Harvey Nicholes, Selfridges and House of Fraser. If a brand has all of these various points of contact with the consumer how have we reached a point where a brands dying? 

Is Nicole Farhi the first of many brands to be hit by the venom that the highstreets beginning to deal out, personally I really hope not. I think our love of cheap clothing really does make it harder and harder for luxury brands, who would spend more if they didn't need to. It's only sense. I mean brands such as Topshop and Urban Outfitters dominate the market and you have Primark who make the most money of anyone, it may be a shift in products meaning that clothes are cheaper and cheaper which have dealt this blow to luxury. 

Fingers crossed that somebody will be interest to take up Nicole Farhi's name and help the label out in the time of need, we can only hope. I guess luxury brands trigger warnings will be sounding and they'll really have to think about their sales but also how to draw into extra cash. One obvious way is clearly through perfume, such a lucrative way to make money for luxury brands it may be that we see more of an increase in new releases. 

For the sake of luxury brands I really hope whatever they do they manage to pull through such a hard time and break through this chokehold the highstreet seem to be applying. What worries me is more so how will this affect younger designers and smaller brands who possibly don't have such a strong brand presence and client base as the bigger labels. 

H&M//Isabel Marant

H&M have done it again, another designer collaboration this time with Isabel Marant. Her design style has been called 'boho chic' and her collaboration is set for release November 14th of this year, with her releasing womenswear and for the first time menswear too. 

Some of her Spring/Summer 2013 Collection

I'm always speaking my praises about the Swedish retailer and how I think it's brilliant that they choose to work along side the designer to make a more afforable range without just ripping designs off. Personally I see it as a way of tackling the idea of fast fashion and designers having cheaper copies of their work produced by other companies.

Isabel will bring a more of a mainstream feel to H&M, especially following up after having a MMM collab. I've got a feeling that her collection will go down really well, being the perfect balance of luxury brands and highstreet. 

Here in this video Isabel talks about working with H&M and she says a few things I find really interesting. One of these being that she's looking at making something that really works in a lot of different ways, which will definitely appeal to the customer. She talks about how her work speaks more about her than anything can so I'm expecting the pieces to be really special.

I think Isabel Marant is an amazing fit for the brand, her style seems like it would work well in H&M stores and will appeal to the customer. Listening to her talking about her work to really cements that she knows what she wants to do, she knows what is expected from her customers too which is another brilliant aspect about her which I love. 

Real Women//Plus Size

We live in an era where size seems to be everything. Being a size 6-8 is considered beautiful and anything else is ostracised but in all honesty the average size for British women is now a 12. How do we feel about this?

We'd all love to be this size and being a guy I guess its a little different, size is less of an image we feel the need to aim for. But rather than talking about how much of an issue size is I wanted to talk more about how much is actually on the market for women of plus sizes. Size 12 women make up almost  31% of the market, so they're no longer a niche market so should we aim to design for them more specifically?

With Stars such as Beth Ditto gracing the cover of LOVE in 2009 we also have to think about the idea that size is something which should be embraced rather than turned away from. If you have a client like Beth Ditto are you going to turn her away and tell her to get an outfit from somebody else, or are you going to try and suit her needs?

Talking about women and size a mention has to go to Mark Fast who grabbed headlines in 2010 by walking both 'normal' and size 12 models down the catwalk, firstly he had to go to a specialist agency to get the models. From other uni projects looking at the future of fashion and modeling lots of people said to me that they think the future of modelling is going to see a rise of more modelling agencies who deal with more 'specialist' modeling, including plus sized. 

My main gripe with just sending these models down a catwalk in size 12 is the clothes are still designed for a smaller silhouette, they're just in a bigger size. If you're going to use size as an issue and tackle it why not create something which is more flattering for the women wearing it. This is where I feel the issue stands with size and fashion. We have noone designer for bigger women and noone designing anything which will suit their body size better and also something which could cover areas they have more of an issue with. 

After a talk with David Sassoon at uni something he really made a point about was that he was designing for people who problems with parts of their body and it was his job to tackle these problems. He highlighted that actually not every outfit is going to fit any woman and its exactly the same for fashion which is designed for thin women. If the average size is a 12, why not design for it clearly a massive target market is being missed here. 

Take these designs from Elena Miro Fall 2012 for example, here you have someone designing for larger women but also taking size into account unlike Mark Fast who seemed to create a desgin for a smaller size and put it on a size 12. She's managed to do as I said and look at people's problem/insecurity areas and do something about them and still create something which I think is both beautiful yet stylish for the women. 

I think fashion designers and especially students really need to think about size as something that become a real issue and something which could easily be tackled and faced. Brands like Asos have brought out Asos Curve, they understand the market and thats probably the secret behind their success. We need to have less being just aiming for luxury brands and make people realise there is money in other areas of fashion too i.e. highstreet and aiming for a bigger market. 

Beyonce//H&M

 H&M have been really been working on hard on their promotion the past few months with various campaigns such as their David Beckham and Guy Richie viral video, which got them so much press and they've really continued this with their work on their Consious Collections. 

Their most recent announcement was obviously that they'd have Beyonce Knowles as the face of their new Summer collection and now they've revealed photos of the collections which she helped design.

I think for H&M getting big named stars such as David Beckham and Beyonce is something that really works for their brand. Being a highstreet brand which is affordable for everyone and having names like that in is something which their customers will react well too. I think H&M really need to keep up this marketing and keep their brand really fresh and attractive to customers.