Spanx has just announced a range for men, described as a “A true cotton compression undershirt that will forever change the way you look and feel in your clothes.” More on this on their website, where they are taking pre-orders.

I somehow doubt this guy needs Spanx for men.

Although I admit that Spanx has its uses, it’s uncomfortable, causes bulges, and I had a traumatizing experience with a shop assistant who tried to get me to wear Spanx crotchless bicycle shorts on my wedding day (I avoided this, thankfully) so the brand sort of scares me. I really hope my husband never gets to the stage where he needs Spanx for men.

Here is Part 2 of my summary of the last decade. Click here for Part 1.

New Blood in the fashion industry and on the catwalks. Images from Style.com

Christophe Decarnin for Balmain.

Tomas Maier for Bottega Veneta.

Christopher Bailey for Burberry Prorsum.

New designer Gareth Pugh.

Ricardo Tisci for Givenchy.

Alber Elbaz for Lanvin.

New designer Marios Schwab.

New designers Rodarte.

New designer Giambattista Valli.

Stefano Pilati for Yves Saint Laurent.

New designer Zac Posen.

Nicolas Ghesquière for Balenciaga.

And I am not forgetting Jonathon Saunders, Proenza Schouler,  Alexander Wang, Philip Lim, Richard Nicoll, and many others (including revivals of Halston and Ossie Clark.) In fact, when I was researching this post, I realised that in Fall 2002, Style.com showed 114 designers’ catwalk collection on their website. For Fall 2009 the number was up to 262.

A New Retail Perspective resulted in an shopping evolution, or revolution.

Dover Street Market in London.

Dover Street Market, considered one of the “best” stores in the world, opened on London’s Dover Street. Curated by Rei Kawakubo from Comme des Garcons, the store continues to innovate.

Primark’s first central London location had people queuing over an hour to buy £1 tights and £3 t-shirts. Dubbed “Primani”, the store continues to attract crowds and has not felt the recession as badly as most high street retailers.

A new retailing concept: The Pop-Up Store. A temporary retail space, opened for a short period of time, sometimes with a limited edition product. This one is a pop up for Louis Vuitton’s collaboration with Rei Kawakubo from Comme des Garcons for a collection of handbags.

Net A Porter changed the way consumers shop for luxury online.

ASOS (As Seen On Screen) started as a site selling copies of celebrities outfits, but as turned into one of the largest, most-successful multi-brand online retailers.

Gilt Groupe is one of the many discount luxury retailers thriving in the recession.

American Apparel sold basics tees with a new angle: using sleazy and sometimes pornographic images to sell a product made in the US in factories where workers had holiday and sick pay.

A Decade to be Forgotten. How many of these fashion trends do you look back on and smile, or cringe? (in no particular order…)

Kate Moss wearing gladiator sandals, first seen at Balenciaga.

Luxury denim, aka the $300 pair of jeans. These ones from Rock and Republic.

Lingerie becomes fashionable again, thanks to brands like Agent Provocateur.

I remember when there were one hour lineups outside the Birkenstock store.

Bling: a trend I definitely did not embrace.

Nu Rave. The worst trend of the 00s. What were they thinking? This look by Cassette Playa.

The IT bag: Chloe Paddington anyone?

and we certainly cant forget the Motorcycle bag by Balenciaga.

The new IT bag: The IT shoe. From top to bottom: Manolo Blahnik, Jimmy Choo, and Christian Louboutin. I think we have Sex and the City to thank for this.

On second thought, Crocs were definitely the worst trends of the 00s, with Nu Rave coming in a close second.

Not wearing pants. A Lady Gaga phenomenon, lets hope this one doesn’t last. Image source.

Leggings. These ones by American Apparel.

Boho, Hippie, Hobo, whatever. A look that kept on giving. Sienna Miller image from Dave Hogan/Getty Images.

Skinny jeans helped us to discover the muffin top. These ones by Topshop.

Maybe it was a decade of really bad shoes…. But unfortunately we still haven’t seen the end of the Ugg boot.

Wellington boots by Hunter. Remember when there were for farmers, not festivals?

If anyone had told me that a company would make millions buy selling velour jogging suits, I would have never believed them. Nauseating.

The Birth of the Recessionista and the credit crunch will probably be one of the defining events of the last decade, even though it took place at the end. The losers were the big luxury brands that didn’t have a strong brand identity, hedgefund managers, department stores, anyone selling cars or furniture, and the millions who ended up unemployed and homeless. The winners were the discount retailers, online retailers, anyone selling an education, and MacDonalds.

Susie Bubble as a Recessionista.

Catch Part 3 of 3 “Remembering the Noughties” posts tomorrow!

All images from the brand’s or person’s website, except all catwalk images from style.com, unless otherwise noted.

I love the new photos of Lara Stone in the Spring Summer 2010 Eres campaign. Lets start with Eres, one of the beautiful lingerie brands in the world. I have always favored brands that don’t tailor their products to well-endowed women, which is generally the case with Agent Provocateur and other sexy brands. Eres, and several French brands, make product for french women, which usually means smaller cup sizes. Eres makes the most beautiful basics, so amazing you wouldn’t really need any fancy lingerie if you had a wardrobe full of Eres.

Here are some images from the lingerie collection, from the Eres website:

I have never been one to follow the model gossip, it is just not something I am that interested in. I used to know all the top girls when I worked in Paris at Sonia Rykiel, because we used to cast them for our shows. That was the time of the Brazilians, like Gisele, Fernanda, Mariana, and Ana Claudia, Mario Testino was shooting them all oiled and sexy in the sun, and none of them were size zeros. They all looked amazing, tanned, and very healthy. Now with the whole size zero debate going crazy, I suppose Lara Stone definitely stands out. She is a size 4, which is big by model standards. The industry is going crazy for her, Carine Roitfeld dedicated a whole issue of French Vogue to her, but the sad thing is, she is still feeling pressure to get thin. According to Elle UK, she said “I don’t want to be the fat one anymore, so, I have just started doing Pilates every morning, then going to the gym, running, and swimming.”

Some images of Lara Stone on the catwalk from www.style.com

This image has been getting a lot of attention this week, its the cover of the next issue of Love magazine, with Lara Stone, shot by Mert and Marcus. Everyone is saying she has fabulous breasts, and I won’t deny that. The crazy thing is that this is a body that is considered big by model standards. Who wouldn’t dream of having a body like hers?

I bet Helmut Newton would have loved to shoot her. He is my favourite fashion photographer of all time and he is definitely one of the few photographers that can photograph women in the nude but still make them look uncompromising and powerful.

Helmut Newton's Big Nudes

Anyway, I won’t go on about this for much longer, but I do have a few points to make about size zero and obesity, which I will discuss in a post later this month. Meanwhile, here are the Lara Stone for Eres images. She is beautiful and makes their swimwear look fantastic.

Dear Holts,

I had some very pleasant surprises yesterday when I came in, as well as a few disappointments. I was in a bad mood after work so didn’t want to enter in the shoe department, in fear I could leave potentially feeling worse. I could see some fabulous shoes that were out of my price range, which would not help to feel any better, or, worse, I could see no fabulous shoes at all. In fear of the latter, I went to your lingerie department.

Well Holts, judging by your lingerie department, your customer’s average age must be 65. You should call it your bathrobe department, because that is really what it is, with a few bras and panties and tights. The brand selection was pretty dull, including La Perla, Elle MacPherson, D&G, Lejaby, Donna Karan, and Chantelle (I have the BEST Chantelle lingerie story ever, see the end of the blog.) DKNY tights took up a full wall of prime space, wool tights shouldn’t exactly be the focus of a luxury lingerie department. And there was robes and nighties, robes and nighties, and robes and nighties.

Bathrobe department at Holts, with a bit of predictable D&G leopard print.

You also had another Canadian favourite, a selection of a basic piece in every colour of the rainbow (see Field Trip to Metrotown, Old Navy) this time things by Hanky Panky.

Hanky Panky thongs in every colour of the rainbow. Not so sure about the yellow...

I’ll admit there were a few nice pieces, the lacey Spanx were much better than the crotchless bicycle shorts the brand is usually known for (another great story to tell there…another day), a few nice Donna Karan bras reasonably priced at 89 dollars, and some a few bits of Stella McCartney and D&G (but why is it always the leopard print D&G? There are things in the D&G collection that ARENT leopard print you know…)

Crotchless bicycle shorts by Spanx

So really all you need is a few bits from some fantastic brands so that people like me can go in and treat myself tom something nice. Here is what I suggest, a bit of Princesse Tam Tam, Kiki de Montparnasse, Chantal Thomass, and Wondervoll.

This brand is so underrated.

Kiki de Montparnasse, sounds French but they are actually American.

Beautiful and totally affordable.

Possibly the only cool German lingerie brand.

I could suggest a few more, but I think you would need to start paying me for that…

And by the way, your staff were fantastic. That is one thing you can count on Canada is good customer service. (In case any readers are retailers in the UK, this word may be unfamiliar for you, so the definition of customer service is “the provision of SERVICE to customers before, during and after a purchase” Wikipedia)

As I was leaving I noticed that you were selling Peachoo + Krejberg. Well done Holts! What a fantastic brand, very edgy, but beautiful, and not mainstream at all! That was a very pleasant surprise. I will have a proper look around the womenswear after I’ve hit shoes, sometime very soon, and now you’ve given me something to look forward to!

Peachoo + Krejberg, a very mysterious brand...they don't even have a website.

——–

OK, the Chantelle Lingerie story…This happened when I was teaching at Central Saint Martins over the summer. I had a student from a Middle Eastern country, I won’t say which one, but it wasn’t one of the ones known for its giant luxury malls, nor one in full conflict. I’ll try and re-create the conversation as best I can.

Here is the situation, each student has been assigned a catwalk show, and they need to present a short report on it. My student was given Burberry.

Student: I am sorry, I am not familiar with this brand, Burberry?
Me: Uhhh, sorry?!?!?!?!?!?!
Student: We don’t have this brand in my country.
Me: You MUST have this brand in your country, this brand is in every country.
Student: No, we don’t have many brands, we only have one mall.
Me: Yes, but you should know Burberry, or at least you would have seen Burberry if you had read a fashion magazine. ANY FASHION MAGAZINE.
Student: No, no, never seen it.
Me: You must have. Ok, do you have Chanel, because if you have Chanel you probably have Burberry. And EVERYONE has Chanel.
Student: Yes, we have Chanel, but only the bras.
Me: They don’t make bras…
Student: Oh, sorry, I meant Chantelle. We have Chantelle, not Chanel.
Me: Please don’t tell me you have just confused Chanel and Chantelle.
I then needed to take a breather.