London Fashion Love Letters: Bryce Aime

Hi Emmi,

Sorry for late reply. Yesterday morning I went to the Charlie Le Mindu SS11 show. You know, the hair guy who has long been SS sweetheart? The queue was horrendous; I could feel the vibe, the excitement among the queu-ers. The not-so-fab thing was that, unlike most of the shows I attended at this year London Fashion Week, we were made to queue outside, in the cold! You know, my fever--as in medical fever, not fashion fever--was raging and I was about to give up Charlie's show, but seeing Fred Butler in her metallic pastel outfit walking past me and our London's superstar blown-up doll Pandemonia in her 8-inch stilettos strutting into the Victoria House--I know they're not Janice Dickinson, but they got me going!--my intuition told me the Charlie Le Mindu's haute coiffure show must be HOT!!

Before I get deeper into Charlie Le Mindu, I should, first, share my thoughts on the Bryce Aime catwalk show that was on last Saturday. I can tell you, in the last couple of years, Aime makes a very impressive entrance in the fashion scene. Two seasons ago, I predicted his harsh, spikey and heavily structured SS10 collection would attract Lady Gaga. I was wrong. It is Rihanna who wears Bryce Aime's in her music video "Hard" and shows. And so does Beth Ditto in many of her gigs.

This year, Bryce Aime departs from his harsh design aesthetics in favour of a much softer, though still structural, silhouette.

The collection titled "Asiarama" strikes a high oriental note and features a subtle fusion of traditional Japanese theatrical Kabuki costume and Beijing opera. The fabrics, Aime uses, range from jersey, Lycra, to chiffon in rather neutral colours of pale pink, white, green and yellow. His dresses are worn with leggings, some of which are monochromatic, others printed. I must say, I'm a fan of the printed ones. Check out them ones with falling sakura flowers. They make the legs look as if tattooed on! Also, these leggings are much more flattering than Bora Aksu's.

The shoes, too, are also updates of their oriental versions.

Looking at the collection as a whole, I must say many of the pieces do not look particularly expensive, while others border on being a little too theatrical.

And, if you check out the expression on the dude's face (on your right!), I am certain his opinions are not too remotely different from mine.

I will blog about Charlie Le Mindu soon. In the mean time, you can check out my clip from the Bryce Aime SS11 catwalk show.

Ciao,

Perm

London Fashion Love Letters: Spijkers en Spijkers

Hi Perm (again)!

I know I wasn’t supposed to tell you this just yet, but I really need to boast about my celeb spotting, so here we go:

After visiting Somerset House for Craig Lawrence’s exhibition, I headed down to Victoria’s House. I do have to apologize for mocking your orienteering skills earlier, as mine told me to walk pass my destination without even noticing. After asking for directions and walking back to where I was supposed to be, I finally ended up queuing to get into the Spijkers en Spijkers show. This time I was lucky, as my invitation had a red dot on it - those red dots make you rise a little higher on the fashion rank and get inside sooner than the rest. It might not be like being a VIP, but still...there's something about the red dots!

For the new Spijkers en Spijkers collection, the designer twin sisters Truus and Riet had found inspiration in the gloomy story of Elisa Day. She's a girl whose lover is so entranced by her beauty that he decides to kill her in order to preserve her image. He takes Elisa to a place where wild roses grow and ruthlessly takes her life after kissing her goodbye.

The collection was a blend of the innocence and darkness of the story: floral fabrics took us back to the flower fields, lace brought in the lightness of air while dark colours and geometric shapes contradicted that purity. Did I like the collection? Lets say that I might have to fight the urge to get part of it into my own wardrobe.

While happily snapping pictures of the outfits, I noticed that in the background of the photos there seemed to be a familiar face. A face that I had seen on a screen before, a TV screen that is. Even though the lips did look smaller, it could not have been anyone else than Janice Dickinson herself, sitting there about 3 meters away from me! Hurraying myself for recognizing someone famous, I tried to take a picture of her in the most casual manner possible. Of course my attempt to capture her face failed miserably, but at least the photo gives you some waterproof evidence!

Maybe you'll run into her tomorrow? If you will, then say hi from me - she might know me as The Stalker.

Emmi