Wednesday night was the Arts Institute of Vancouver student fashion show, one of my first “fashion” events in Vancouver. (actually, it was in Coquitlam…and I won’t say that is Vancouver, because it is clearly not.)

I wore my Finsk Purple cut out booties for the first time:

Image courtesy of www.finsk.com

Student shows are usually all quite similar, unless you are at some of the great fashion schools (for me that means Central Saint Martins College in London, Royal College of Art in London, Royal Academy in Antwerp, and a few others.) You get a lot of evening wear, some wedding dresses, and a lot of outfits that students have been dreaming about making since they were kids. There doesn’t seem to be enough reflection on what society actually needs, and what is going to get you a job. How many jobs are there designing wedding dresses? Probably not many, compared to the number of jobs designing jeans, or casualwear, or tailoring.

If I were to teach design again, which I haven’t really done in some time, I would tell the students the following:

1-Design something someone actually will want to wear, preferably you.

2-Dont design evening wear unless you are going to design something that isn’t already available in a thousand stores. Seriously.

3-Dont design wedding gowns. EVER.

4-Don’t style your models with up-dos, hair pieces, head feathers, or anything like that. EVER. EVER. EVER.

I went to the show with my friend Jason, who runs his own company. We studied fashion together in Vancouver 15 years ago, and we both admitted to having designed student fashion collection that, on reflection, were pretty tragic. The difference was, we didn’t have access to high fashion, unless we bought expensive magazines. Student these days can find out what everyone is doing through the click of the mouse, so there is no reason to design something that isn’t NOW. The strangest thing was, after each students designs were on the catwalk, they came out and did a bow. Nearly all the students were wearing outfits that were more interesting and exciting than their catwalk looks. Maybe they are looking in the wrong places for inspiration.

Here are some show highlights: (excuse the crappy photos, I am still trying to get used to trying to shoot catwalk shows from the side)

Krista Brown had a really amazing silhouette with this dress.

This would have been fantastic with a more modern hairdo, something a bit slick to contrast the the puffiness of the dress.

I also like Savannah Qiu’s puffy shoulders here.

Yvonne Xie designed a great dress inspired from an old-fashioned nightie, shame the shot is from the back.

And the highlight for me was Rachel Bernado’s little summer outfits. Everything she designed was wearable and fun, she gets my top prize. Here is an example of a student designing something that is relevant to today, and looks cool on the catwalk.

(again, sorry for the rubbish images)

If only the models had been wearing pony tails and plimsoles.

I love this installation in the Stockholm Head Offices of H&M by UXUS, a group of designers from Amsterdam. It is for H&M Home, which looks very promising; it looks a lot more exciting than Zara Home, and feels a lot more “designed”. I have no idea when the home collection will arrive in Canada, if ever, but right now it is available in Sweden. Sweden is a mecca for modern interior design, even the most basic of homes look like an Ikea catalogue, in a really good way. The Swedes are just born with great design sense, something I will probably talk about over and over again in this blog.

From UXUS:

“UXUS followed up the Home Reflections presentation with “Interaction”, an installation celebrating H&M Home’s transition from an online and catalogue retailer, to a physical showroom where one can indulge all the senses, especially touch.”

Imagine walking into work every day and seeing this before you head to your desk!

I read about this first on Dezeen, one of the best design blogs.

Images courtesy of H&M.

(By the way, anyone toying with the idea of getting a job at H&M, I heard they are a fantastic company to work for, but they do all sorts of creepy profiling interviews. They also expect all designers to start at the bottom, whether you have 6 months experience or ten years. Probably the reason why I am not living in Stockholm right now.)

It was announced last week that the Rodarte boots from the Autumn Winter 2009/2010 collection (designed by Nicholas Kirkwood) will only be available in Dover Street Market in London. I toyed wit the idea of calling to se if they had any left in my size, not that I can really afford them (they cost £2250) but they are so bloody fantastic it might just be worth it. In the end, I didn’t call, knowing full well that they were probably sold out before they even arrived in store.

But it does make me think…I find it a bit strange that Rodarte designs pretty nice dresses, but their shoes are AMAZING. It seems there is a major discrepancy between quality of shoe design and quality of dress design. No offence to the Mulleavy sisters, who are great designers, but their shoes are from another planet, a very rock’n'roll planet at that.

Rodarte AW09/10 boots designed by Nicholas Kirkwood (image from www.dazeddigital.com)

In fact, my dream shoes are a pair of the Louboutin spike stilettos from their Spring Summer 2009 collection, and I’ll take a pair of the matching gloves too.

Rodarte Shoes SS09 designer By Christian Louboutin (image from www.harpersbazaar.com)

Rodarte Shoes SS09 designer By Christian Louboutin (image from www.harpersbazaar.com)

The Rodarte Gloves (image from www.hintmag.com)

Bottega Veneta is one of the best fashion brands of the moment. Tomas Maier creates collections that are utterly desirable, beautifully classic, and he has helped to make Bottega Veneta one of the most exclusive fashion brands. Not exclusive in the way that they are hard to get (although the brand is not available in many retailers), but exclusive in that there aren’t sunglasses, perfumes, and cheap handbags bearing the Bottega Veneta label saturating the market.  I have yet to buy anything from the recent collections  (haven’t even bothered to check yet, but I am pretty sure there isn’t much available here in Vancouver), but it is definitely on my list. I would go for a cocktail dress in a muted jewel or nude/coffee/chocolate tone, or a leather coat.

Some images from Spring Summer 2010:

And more wonderful images from Autumn Winter 2009/2010

A few from Spring Summer 2009

and finally Autumn Winter 2008/2009, probably one of my favourite catwalk collections of all time.

All images from www.style.com (the site I use  for browsing catwalk shows.)

I knew I had officially become an adult on the day that my husband and I decided not to go out with friends on a saturday night, and spend the money on a Dyson vacuum cleaner instead. We never regretted it, but still mourn the fact that we had to leave it in England.

I love Dyson, because it combines great design and functionality, which is often hard to do. And I am very excited about their new bladeless fan, even though I probably won’t buy one (I’m saving up for the Animal upright vacuum cleaner.) There aren’t many brands that can get me excited about a fan, but this one certainly does. If only shoe design could be more like this, imagine an amazing pair of heels that you can run around in.

Dyson's New Bladeless Fan

This is how normal fans work (they "buffet" air)

This is when the air isn't "buffeted"

Here is how the Dyson fan works. If only all technology were this straightforward.

All images from www.dyson.co.uk

Before I write this, I should explain that my purpose for writing a blog is not so I can get front row invitations to Dolce & Gabanna, although I would probably accept if the offer came up. I am writing this to educate, guide, and inspire fellow Canadians (particularly Vancouverites) about fashion. Basically, to help make this country become a bit more stylish.

But this photo, seen on Bryanboy’s blog, says a lot about how bloggers have been accepted into the fashion industry. Its pretty phenomenal that two bloggers, who were unknown a few years ago are sitting front row at Dolce & Gabbana’s Spring Summer 2010 fashion show, amongst THE fashion heavyweights. I’m also glad there aren’t any celebrities in this photo, but I am sure they are there, sitting further along.

From left to right: Suzy Menkes, Michael Roberts (Vanity Fair), Bryanboy, Sally Singer (US Vogue), Anna Wintour, Hamish Bowles, and Tommy Ton (Jak and Jil). Image from bryanboy.com

I think a very suitable first post topic would be one about something we can’t find here in Vancouver, as I’m guessing a lot in this blog will be about just that. I suppose I am somehow hoping that I can convince Canadian retailers to start to sell more exciting clothes, but I suppose first I need to convince Canadians to want them.

Anyway, for Canadians unfamiliar with Uniqlo, imagine a bunch of stylish Japanese people getting their hands on Gap and injecting colour, style, and cool. That is exactly what Uniqlo is. Then, to top it all off, they ask Jil Sander to come in as Creative Director. Their new line, J+, launched 2 weeks ago, has resulted in line ups outside the Paris store for over a week. So there must be something amazing in there, and I can’t have it. In fact, the only place it can be found in North America is New York.

Here are some photos, and if you really want to upset yourself, have a look at the prices on their website. I should also note there is tons of fantastic menswear, which we all know is very difficult to find if  you don’t want to break the bank.

Photos courtesy of Uniqlo.