coffee and pie

So I’ve signed up for a little experiment, over the next month I will strip my wardrobe down to only six key items (excluding undergarments, swim wear, work-out clothes, work uniforms, rain/outdoor jackets, shoes and accessories).

As soon as I read uberblond’s post about the experiment I wanted to get involved I’ve been thinking about a sort of capsule wardrobe for a while now and about spending a bit more on a few amazing pieces instead of buying multiple fast fashion fixes. I love how Grace Kelly used the same handbag over and over again as well as treasuring all of her dresses and I want that quality over quantity in my wardrobe. There is a bit more about why I wanted to take part over here.

So I’ve picked my six items below. One of the six is a dress to wear for a wedding so its down to five really. I’ve gone for jeans, two tshirts a leather jacket and a dress that can be worn when hot/cold dressed up or dressed down.

And so it begins. You can follow our progres over on sixitemsorless or @sixitemsorless.

I went to shopping on the Kings Road for this first time the other week, not my usual place to go but I was playing host to the rents and thought it would be a nice change to the usual east London sights. I spotted agnes b’s window and had to go in and find out who the illustrations were by.

The artist Timothee Talerd was invited to illustrate the agnes b collection and they have been exhibited in her stores since January.

I’ve been a fan of fashion illustrations for a long time now and was desperate to get one of Garance Dore’s exclusive Elle covers.

This is the first time I have seen a designer exhibit this type of art in store. Its nice to get that little bit extra when you’re out browsing, it was the illustrations that drew me inside and I’ll be keeping an eye on the rest of agnes b’s store exhibitions and events from now on.

The Westfield Fashion Detector

Westfield have just created this Fashion Detector. It totally taps into how people (women in particular) are inspired by the way other people dress, you only have to look at the rise in fashion blogging, outfit posts and lookbook to see this influence.

Based on an old project I’m really interested in the development of fashion and technology particularly from an ecommerce perspective. Looking forward to seeing how this develops.

I have been obsessed with lion hats since Luna Lovegood sported one in the latest Harry Potter film.

I even tried to find one of my own.

So of course I love Topshops Unique collection from London Fashion Week. LOVE magazine captured some amazing shots backstage

As previously mentioned fashion and social media have been getting firmly acquainted over the last year or so. And Burberry have to be the one of the best high fashion brands pushing the limits on technology and fashion.

Being a bit of a geek and also a girl who loves fashion, Art Of The Trench is probably my favourite social project to date. Joining forces with The Sartorialist and giving control over to fans was a risk that Burberry took and it paid off. And today they push the boundaries again streaming their show to private audiences in Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Dubai, and Tokyo in 3D.

The backlash on fashion bloggers has begun, and perhaps there is some truth in what they are saying but I think Burberrys Creative Director Christopher Bailey makes the most important point

“It’s important that we give bloggers the respect that they deserve. They have a very articulate way of expressing their opinion. The difference between bloggers and traditional press is bloggers are often talking directly to a final consumer.”

It will be interesting to see how many press accreditations are given to bloggers next year, or perhaps how many of these bloggers will be fully fledged journalists by this point. The future of traditional journalism continues to blur as does the once exclusive fashion world.

American Apparel have nailed cosumer engagement. Their last campaign How Do You Wear American Apparel on Lookbook was a perfect example of how to talk directly to the people who love your clothes. When I browse Lookbook I’m pretty sure there is an AA item it at least every other picture. Plus their latest Best Bottom contest is genius crowd sourcing.

H&M are now getting in on the Lookbook action too.

I guess because fashion in the past has been so ingrained with sales and promotions having a two way conversation has actually taken them much longer to adopt than other industries. With London Fashion Week starting on Friday and a whole digital schedule in place it really feels like the fashion world are accepting digital and embracing social media. I think this its going to be an exciting year!

I love t-shirts and I love big words. Thus I love Wildfox. What I love even more is that I wanted half of those t-shirts about a month ago when browsing tumblr. (Although i think tumblr might be a little bit bad) this is brilliant marketing. Taking shots of your products that are tumblr, bookmarking material and watching them spread is pretty cool and definitely highlights you know how to engage with your customers.

Ashish Gupta – Spring/Summer 2010 collection More pictures here.

I WANT that Nike dress!

I am a massive magazine junkie. I tried being good for a while, after all London aint cheap and there seems to be some kind of credit crunch going on. I know they are overpriced and spending my money on them may make me appear shallow but I cant help it. I love the photography and the smell and the thickness of the pages.

Some of the recent offerings have been to hard to resist, aside from Edie, Mary-Kate Olsen is the style queen! A front cover, interview and hauntingly beautiful photoshoot in Interview magazine is too tempting not to add to my collection

The shoot really is gorgeous and the interview is a great read and insight into the more day to day life of star like MK. I recommend getting a copy but you can see more on their site and read the full interview if your not bothered about having the the physical thing

Next up this week I sacrificed my lunch for a copy of Katie Grand’s LOVE magazine.

So far, being a busy bee this week I have only leafed through the 300 odd pages (half of which is ads) but I love some of the shoots, in particular Agyness as the Queen. I also love the interviews, asking short questions, based on different types of Love offer an instant insight, plus its those snippets of information that I always enjoy the most.

So yes, now I am hopelessly doomed to continue wasting my money on magazines I can’t afford. But as Carrie said in SATC “Sometimes I would buy Vogue instead of dinner because I felt it fed me more” hmm, mass consumption eat me up.

“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.”~ Gabrielle Coco Chanel

The trailer for the upcoming Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel biopic have arrived. I cannot wait to see this film!