I am getting very excited for my trip to London, especially after I received this photo from my friend Dal this morning.

It’s a package that arrived from Topshop, and inside are the Louise Goldin for Topshop shoes I asked him to order for me.

I got very excited about them in November, when this photo came out:

The shoes were supposed to look like this.

And then was a bit disappointed when I saw the final version, which is a lot more tame than the prototypes. But they are a pretty cool day shoe for work, and I can’t wait to tear open that box and try these on.

And the commercial version ended up like this.

So that’s one of several pairs of shoes I plan on acquiring in London!

Topshop Unique’s Fall Winter 2010 show had some pretty crazy accessories, including some amazing animal headdresses. I love their cable knit socks and leggings, and I really wish I didn’t have to wait until next winter to get my hand on a pair.

Images from Elleuk.com.

A typical "Nu-Rave" ensemble. Disgusting.

Every now and then a fashion trend comes into existence that is so bad, so tragic, and so hilarious, that the only thing you can do is make fun of it and hope that it goes away. Nu Rave was one of those trends, one of the worst trends I have ever seen. EVER. This premise of Nu Rave, which was very 2007 in London, was that it was a revival of the 90s rave scene. Now, I hate to admit it, but I was part of that 90s rave scene, and I can assure you I never wore the disgusting clothes that the Nu-Rave trend regurgitated.

Cassette Playa menswear from Spring Summer 2007. Note: this was NOT a joke.

The worst Nu Rave brand of all was Cassette Playa, designed by the worst dressed woman in London, Carri Mundane.

Carri Mundane. The outfit says it all.

Another really bad brand was KTZ, which was created by the founders of the Nu Rave fashion store on Greek Street, Kokon Tozai. I used ot go into Kokon Tozai with my friends Daniel and Dean just to laugh at the clothes. Seriously. They were so hideous, and so over priced. I mean, a $250 cashmere baby rattle from Hermes seemed good value compared to this stuff. I once asked the sales assistant at Kokon Tozai, what person actually bought the hideous $300 Cassette Playa t-shirts, which were basically an XXL Hanes tee printed with a three colour screen print motif. He said “Fashion students at Saint Martins.” No fashion student at Saint Martins will spend $300 on a shitty, ugly t-shirt that they can whip up on their own in the print room in about half an hour (I know, I WAS a fashion student at Saint Martins.) This stuff was a joke, and I am so glad the brands have sort of disapperaed…well, sort of.

A £215 Cassette Playa t-shirt. That's over $400CDN. Nope, this is still not a joke.

The reason why I brought this up is because my friend Michelle emailed me today and asked me whether this was KTZ for Topshop dress was serious. I had to tell her that unfortunately yes, it was serious. She couldn’t understand why anyone would pay $400 for this hideous monstrosity. I can’t understand either. It is just gross.

Pearl Dot Priss Dress by KTZ for Topshop. This dress sells for £200. That's a lot to pay for a dress that will make you look fat and ugly.

However, I’l take this moment to say that despite this disgusting dress, Topshop is usually pretty amazing, and I’l be dropping a lot of cash when I go there next month while I am in London. Can’t wait!

Cassette Playa images from their website. Carri Mundane image from here. Topshop image from their website.

On thing I loathe about many young British designer’s early collections is that they often look like bits and bobs bought from a jumble sale, and thrown together on a catwalk. I always tell my fashion design students to think about their entire collection on one rail in a store. Does it look like a collection, or does it look like a rail of clothes at a garage sale? Because if it is the latter, then they need to go back to the drawing board. This is what Mulberry’s collection looks like, lots of nice pieces, but terribly styled, and it all looks like you can go to Topshop and get the exact same thing for a fraction of the price. I do like their accessories, but you can’t really see them properly in the photos. I guess the accessories are really all that counts for a brand like this…

I Love…

a simple, elegant, fun wool winter dress. In a really nice colour.

the mustard tones (which seem to be very fashionable for next winter) and the bolero jacket, with great fabric detailing.

I Loathe…

boring jeans on a catwalk. There is nothing special about these, why buy from a brand that has little experience in working with denim, when you can go to an expert denim brand, probably pay less, and have a better looking ass.

a dress, no actually, an outfit, that looks like it was bought for $15 at a cheap vintage store.

dogs on a catwalk. I hate gimmicks.

another "bad-British-designer" cheap-looking outfit that can probably be replicated by hitting a few garage sales.

All images from Style.com.

The fashion news of the day is that Puma has sold its majority stake in the Hussein Chalayan brand back to Hussein Chalayan himself. However, he will apparently stay on as Creative Director at Puma.

I thought this was pretty interesting. When Puma bought a majority stake in Hussein Chalayan in 2008, we presumed the brand would become a bit more commercial, and at the same time, Puma would become more exciting because Hussein was going to be the Creative Director. The fact that he bought his company back, would imply that he wasn’t happy with the arrangement, but since he is staying on at Puma, I’m guessing there are other reasons behind todays. news, and maybe this was part of the original plan.

Hussein Chalayan is another one of London’s super edgy designers, although he is from a Turkish background. His career has been bumpy, because he has often refused to do many commercial products, and therefore has often been tight on cash. He is best know for his incredible fashion shows, but some of his other career highlights included designing clothes for Björk, working with TSE cashmere, designing for Marks and Spencer, and receiving and OBE from the Queen (Order of the British Empire.) I also found this quote on Wikipedia: “A passionate fashion designer, Chalayan has made his feelings for celebrity-based fashion clear when he publicly announced how he felt about Kate Moss’s collaboration with high-street clothing label Top Shop, calling the move ‘insulting’” Go Hussein!

Puma is also a really cool brand, when it comes to sportswear. They have always been the edgier than their competitors, and I feel that in many ways they have more integrity than Nike, Adidas or Reebok. Puma is more of a fashion designer’s brand than the others. They dedicate their efforts targeting the early adopter community (the cool people who pick up trends first) instead of the mainstream, which means their products are usually more interesting and innovative. It made sense when Puma and Hussein Chalayan joined forces, as Puma would benefit from his creativity, he would benefit from their cash, and the brands would not clash. By the way, Puma is controlled by Gucci Group PPR, so there was also the involvement of a luxury conglomerate.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the brand now. I hope he works on expanding his diffusion line, Chalayan, and widening the stockists, so we can buy it in Vancouver. Let’s look at some pictures from Hussein Chalayan’s collections.

Hussein Chalayan Spring Summer 1998. This show caused a lot of controversy, for obvious reasons.

Hussein Chalayan Autumn Winter 1998

Hussein Chalayan Spring Summer 1999

Hussein Chalayan Autumn Winter 1999. The last two images show the dress as it opens up.

Hussein Chalayan Spring Summer 2000. Second and third rows down show another dress opening up.

Hussein Chalayan Autumn Winter 2000. This incredible collection shows a set of living room furniture turning into clothing, the highlight being the coffee table turned skirt at the end

Hussein Chalayan Spring Summer 2007 featuring the famous Bubble dress.

Hussein Chalayan Spring Summer 2009.

And here’s a little bit of interesting information about Puma. Their red Clyde shoe was considered to be the shoe of the best breakdancers in the 1980s. In fact, you couldn’t wear this shoes unless you were one of the best, it was a status shoe. Here’s a image and some more info from the Classic Sports Shoes website.

“Definitely the most legendary and popular Puma style of all time, this classic has a place in history and in every Hall of Fame. At the 1968 Olympics, the newly released Puma Suede was worn by Tommie Smith, the prominent Olympic athlete, when he took to the Olympic awards podium with one fist held defiantly in the air.

Walt Frazier wore this style in the 1980’s and this shoe became known as the “Clyde”.

The Suede is widely regarded as the original B-Boy shoe. It was made famous by early break dancing crews, such as the New York City Breakers and the Rock Steady Crew, who rocked them religiously at early Hip-Hop jams in New York City.”

Catwalk images from Hussein Chalayan’s Website.

My friend Michaela pointed out to me recently that everyone has just sort of been ignoring the fact that we are about to enter a new decade. Well, I wouldn’t say it has been ignored, but I agree we aren’t really making a very big deal of it. Maybe we had millenium overload ten years ago, but no one can deny that a lot has happened since 2000.

I have been working on this post for a while, looking through other websites’ and newspapers’ “summaries of the decade” and trying to think what I felt was really important from the last ten years. I have combined it all under a few categories, and I am probably forgetting loads of important things, but here I go. Also, I don’t agree with Time Magazine, who has called the 00s “The Decade from Hell”, I prefer just using the term The Noughties. Nought means zero in British English. Maybe we can call it The Decade Nought to be Forgotten? Ok, that sounds cheesy. Lets just call it The Noughties.

It is a very long post, so I have broken it down into 3 parts. Here is Part 1. Enjoy!

The Politics of the Stars and Stripes really took over the world stage in the past ten years. First, the Americans had the disastrous Bush era, whose ignorance, terrible international relations, and poor leadership led to the US being the most hated country in the world. That pissed some people off so much that they flew planes into the World Trade Centre towers, which led to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and very long line ups to get through security in airports. Things started to look up at the end of the decade, when Barack Obama was elected the first African American president of the United States. He hasn’t been around long enough for us to feel the effect of his good deeds, but it definitely brought hope to the world, and has calmed down their enemies… a little. And his wife is the best dressed first lady ever…she deserves mega kudos for showing off her arms, supporting young American designers, and wearing affordable clothing.

Yay!

These images from are from The Cut’s Michelle Obama Lookbook, they have been documenting all of her outfits. Definitely worth a look.

A Shift of Power took place in the fashion industry, as we saw established designers disappear, famous retirements, celebrities taking over the industry, and revived brands making headlines.

Valentino retires, and so we say goodbye to the man known for red dresses, animal prints, and perma tan.

Emanuel Ungaro also retired in 2004, which resulted in turmoil in the house for several years, leading up the current disastrous state which sees Lindsay Lohan as Artistic Director. The above images are from her first collection for the house, which was bought by only two stores.

Things are not looking good for Christian Lacroix, who has had to suspend his Haute Couture and Pret-a-porter because of financial difficulties.

The Ferre brand is also unstable, since the death of the founder, Gianfranco Ferre, in 2007. Image source.

And some very old brands have been reinvented…

Alber Elbaz is now the Creative Director behind Lanvin.

Nicolas Ghesquière is the Creative Director for Balenciaga.

and Christophe Decarnin is the Creative Director for Balmain.

Luxury Made Accessible by the high street retailers collaborating with big names. Owning a piece by Karl was no longer unattainable, as long as you were willing to wait in a line up.

H&M were the pioneers of the designer high street collaboration.

H&M designer collaborations. Clockwise from top left: Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney, Viktor & Rolf, Matthew Williamson, Sonia Rykiel, Comme des Garcons, Jimmy Choo, and Roberto Cavalli.

Christopher Kane for Topshop, the famous crocodile print.

Target launched collections with McQ Alexander McQueen, Anna Sui and Rodarte (shown above.)

New Media changed the way we consumed news and information. Time Magazine summed it up in 2006 when they named “You” as person of the year. Web 2.0 changed the way we consumed the web, making users the new contributors. Google, Wikipedia, Facebook, and Myspace changed the way we searched, researched, communicated and socialized.

The computer screen was a mirror...

This image of bloggers Bryanboy and Tommy Ton (from Jak & Jil Blog) sitting front row at the Dolce and Gabanna Spring Summer 2010 show with Anna Wintour, Hamish Bowles, Suzy Menkes and other big player fashion journalists showed that blogging was being taken seriously in the fashion industry.

Scoot Schulman’s street style blog, The Sartorialist, is known for his well-chosen photographs of men and women of all ages on the streets of the world’s fashion capitals.

Websites like Vogue’s Style.com has allowed us to view fashion catwalk images hours after the runway show itself, changing the way we consume fashion. Years ago, fashionistas would wait until the magazines published the new season’s collections, usually months after the show itself. Now we see the shows immediately after they happen, and hear about them on Twitter as they are happening.

Catch Part 2 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.

Backpacks are a terrifying accessory for me. There are VERY few nice ones, and they remind me of hiking and scary Canadian brands like Taiga and Mountain Equipment Co-op.

This is my idea of hell. I shudder just looking at this image...

However, I will not deny the benefits of a backpack. My life in London meant that I was often commuting an hour to work on public transport with a handbag, laptop bag, and gym bag, which is extremely uncomfortable. There was a time when I prayed that Prada could come out with a backpack and make them cool, so that I didn’t have my kilos of stuff hanging off one shoulder. When I saw that Susie Bubble posted this story on backpacks, I got excited. Can we bring back the backpack and make them fashionable?

Here are a couple of the images she posted:

I tried to do some research and find a few cool backpacks. Net A Porter and My Wardrobe had none. Topshop and Asos had these ones (the Topshop one is own brand, but the Asos one is Rick Owens for Eastpack. Eastpack has actually done some pretty cool collaborations.)

Topshop to the left, Asos to the right.

Here are more of Eastpack collaborations, this time with Eley Kishomoto and Raf Simons.

To the left, Eley Kishomoto for Eastpack. The rest are Raf Simons for Eastpack.

But the backpack jackpot was definitely at Yoox, the online discount retailer. Here are some pieces from Balenciaga, Ruco Line, Tosca Blu, Giadadanielle, Piquadro, and Parentesi, available on Yoox.

From left to right: Ruco Line, Tosca Blu, Piquadro, Parentesi, Giadadanielle, and Balenciaga.

I am having trouble getting around the idea of having a backpack, but it is defintiely something I would consider now that I have seen there are a few nice ones.

By the way, Style Bubble, mentioned above, is another one of my favorite blogs. I interviewed Susie Bubble many years ago for an article about Web 2.0 for View2 magazine, and it is great to see how far she has come since then. I definitely don’t share fashion tastes with her, but she is one of the best blogs for interesting fashion brands.

I bought one of Aldo’s DIY kits this week. I am sure that any craft store would sell the same studs or even better ones, but I thought the price was pretty reasonable for this little kit ($4) and a lot of people won’t be bothered to go to a craft store. I am not sure I will put this on a pair of shoes, maybe something else, I’ll post the results when I have them.

I like that Aldo has decide to launch this range, it is very on-trend for recessionistas, and it is a fun way to update shoes. I thought the studs thing would be going out of fashion, but apparently not, especially since the new Lousie Goldin for Topshop shoes are generating A LOT of hype. I want them.

No studded shoe will ever compare with these Sonia Rykiel shoes I got years ago when I was working there. Their box is labelled “The Shoes”, they have had quite some history, and have travelled many places. My favorite incident was when I broke both heels off falling down the stairs at Claridges Hotel, coming out of Mick Jagger’s penthouse suite. Thankfully I had a great shoe repair in London! These never went into production, so there was only ever a small number made (maybe 4 or 5?) which makes them even more special.

THE shoes

Aldo also had these leather straps you can add onto boots. These are also pretty cool, I would put them onto biker boots. (I don’t have any biker boots, but am contemplating buying some. They would be practical for the weather here in Vancouver, rain every single day, for 23 hours a day.) The Aldo photography and layout looks a bit dodgy tho…