I don’t discuss denim much on this blog, although, like most people I’m sure, it plays a very important part in my wardrobe. I don’t really do designer denim, I have yet to understand why one needs to spend $300 on a pair of jeans, when you can get a perfectly good pair for $50 or $100. I have a couple pairs of Lee Jeans I really like, and the last pair I bought was from Uniqlo, which are great, and very cheap. I will definitely be spending some time at Uniqlo when I am in London in March.

There’s been a couple of announcements of denim collaborations in recent weeks, including Vivienne Westwood with Lee, and Henry Holland with Levi’s.

Some of my Vivienne Westwood jewelry.

I had a very, very bad experience in the Vivienne Westwood store in London a few years ago, which resulted in me writing a nasty letter to them highlighting the fact that their customer service sucks, and the response from their retail manager was basically “tough shit.” So I will never shop at Vivienne Westwood again, even though I have tons of the jewelry, which I still wear, and have recently been given some more of the jewelry as a gift, which I also love. (I do think her collections are a bit boring, she did a whole bunch of cool things a long time ago, the pirate boot, the platform shoe, the corset, the big pouffy satin ballgown, and the amazing tailored suit, and she hasn’t really evolved since then. Her fashion shows almost all look the same.)

Vivienne Westwood catwalk looks. From left to right: Spring Summer 2006, Autumn Winter 2007, and Autumn Winter 2008. They all look the same. Images from Style.com

Vivienne Westwood Anglomania brand is collaborating with Lee jeans, and according to WWD, “the debut collection for fall will launch to buyers next month, and will include styles such as superskinny jeans and microshorts for women, along with bondage jeans and skinny jeans for men. Washes will run from indigo denim to metallic gold- and copper-colored denim to denim printed with a trompe l’oeil lace design.” If the collaboration is half as good as her ongoing Melissa shoes collaboration, then I am sure we can expect great things. But I won’t be buying it.

Amazing rubber shoes. Vivienne Westwood Anglomania for Melissa. Images from Melissaplasticdreams.com

The other denim project announced was Henry Holland’s collection for Levi’s. I have never met someone working in the fashion industry in London that didn’t think Henry Holland’s collections were a complete joke. His original slogan t-shirts were cool and catchy, but his attempt to turn them into a full on fashion collection were a complete and utter failure, which only captured media attention because Agyness Deyn was his very close friend and used to model his shows. One day when I write a post about models, perhaps I will be able to express my disdain for Agyness Deyn, the one-trick-pony model with terrible poses and who never closes her mouth. But today is about jeans.

The slogan tees were a bit tacky too, but they have their place in fashion history.

I think Sarah Mower summed up Henry Holland’s last catwalk collection quite well on Style.com, by describing it as “a presentation with very little substance and plenty of ironically tacky clothes that are actually genuinely tacky, too (how else to describe tangerine lace?)… he’s a one-man self-marketing wiz who instinctively knows how to brand himself (the quiff, the glasses, the Agy, the cheeky northern wit) and is now using his runway chiefly to display his collaborations with other companies.”

Why did Levi's have to hire Henry Holland to make these jeans look ugly?

Well, his collection for Levi’s is no better. In fact, I think it looks tacky like the rest of his stuff. You can tell he is not a designer.  I’m very bored of Henry Holland, and I wish he would go away.

More ways to ruin a perfectly good Levi's jean jacket, by Henry Holland.

Levi’s by Henry Holland images source.

I have been a bit slow to react on this, but my inbox is overflowing at the moment. WWD posted an article on Monday entitled Top Ten Collections of Spring 2010. You can read it for yourself, but here is their top ten: Alberta Ferretti, Balenciaga, Chanel, Donna Karan, Jason Wu, Marc Jacobs, Missoni, Oscar de la Renta, Stella McCartney, and Versace. Well…

I know that it is inevitable that Balenciaga and Marc Jacobs are always the darlings of the industry, so I won’t argue that. Chanel is, well, Chanel, they rightly deserve a spot in every fashion top ten. But I would like to suggest that we replace Missoni, Alberta Ferretti, Oscar de la Renta, Stella McCartney, and Versace…

Missoni, Alberta Ferretti, Oscar de la Renta, Stella McCartney, and Versace (images from www.style.com)

with Lanvin (always amazing), Celine (what a debut for Phoebe Philo! minimal and NOW), Bruno Pieters (also minimal and very beautifully intellectual), Burberry (those trenches…) and Alexander McQueen (the Armadillos! and what a show!) My choices might be a bit more predictable, but I can guarantee five years from now we will remember THOSE shoes from the McQueen show, and the exceptional first collection Philo did for Celine more than Ferretti or Versace’s collection.

Bruno Pieters, Burberry, Alexander McQueen, Celine, Lanvin (images from www.style.com)

Celine and Pieters collection, amongst others, have definitely embraced the minimal look that we haven’t seen in a while… I would love to see a return to minimalism, I could always imagine myself with a wardrobe full of black and camel from Jil Sander, Michael Kors, Celine, Loewe, and Narcisso Rodriguez. Lots of cashmere and leather…and throw in some Hermes.