A very special invitation

So you have probably realised I'm not exactly the King (Queen...) of the Great British Highstreet, as Gok likes to call it.  Case in point, I sleep in a House of Holland slogan tee-shirt (well, what else are they good for now?), my favourite accessory is a lurid green organza Issey Miyake bow-tie, and today I am wearing head-to-toe Castelbajac to work in a theoretical materials science office.  BUT I was very very excited when I opened up this invitation to the Arcadia Group press day next week, because I am in fact a secret lover of Topshop/Topman.  When I was a teenager, Topman was full of what looked (to me at least) like cheaply-made clothes for boys with very little style (hoodies in thin fabrics, straight-leg stone-washed jeans and t-shirts with almost offensively garish prints).  But in the past couple of years, the brand has grown up and collaborations with designers like Mjolk and Carolyn Massey have completely won me over.  And then there is the Topman Ltd brand offering special capsule collections of very affordable, and yet covetable items, as well as Topman Design which shows at LFW and is starting to create, rather than follow, fashion trends.  Just this month alone I have picked up some fabulous black wool wrist warmers and some grey marl oversized long-johns.  Their website is updated so regularly that I only allow myself to look at it once a fortnight. 

Turning to Topshop, the list of successful collaborations is seemingly endless: Ann-Sofie Back, Ashish, KTZ, Meadham Kirchoff...  All this means I'm more than happy to turn a blind eye to Kate Moss's overrated collection.  And of course there is the Topshop version of Topman's Design: Topshop Unique.  A fashion article about Topshop couldn't also fail to mention the whole Topshop/NewGen collaboration with the British Fashion Council and the Topshop show venue during LFW, allowing the brand to support many of the up-and-coming designers I hold dear to my heart. 

So let's just say I more than a little keen to see what these two great brands have in store for us next season.  And who knows - maybe they'll also be able to convert me to other highstreet shops...?           

xxx
Duck

Saints and Sinners

J W Anderson is a Northern Irish designer I have been following for quite a while now and who has been showing his menswear on the LFW catwalks since 2007 (and has more recently branched out into gear for the girls).  I find his darkly grunge/punk fusion of 90s styles with slightly more futuristic, maximalist looks very attractive, and he fits right into the London fashion landscape along with menswear contemporaries like Katie Eary and James Long, or womenswear designer Louise Gray.  His très cool combinations of tartan, embellishment, print and metallic hardware have attracted stockists such as the quintessentially London department-store Liberty or the up-and-coming Young British Designers site, and have led to a successful collaboration with Topman.  I have been coveting this synthetic ivory ring from his Autumn/Winter collection for a few months now online, but decided it was only sensible to try it on before I loosened the purse strings (oh who am I kidding, they were only hanging together by a thread anyway!).  And so somehow I found myself in Liberty's jewellery room, slipping this bad boy onto my finger, and moments later I was happily skipping out of the store, that iconic purple bag swinging from my hand...

For those of you know me - no comments on whether I should have gone for the SINNER option instead!

xx
Duck