Walk This Way in The Year of The Opaque

Formally announced as The Year of the Pig, we’d think it only fair to suggest that 2007 should also be referred to as another, more flattering historic milestone - “The Year of the Opaque Tights”. Though as much as we’ve seen this in 2006, thick tights have been everywhere in the Autumn/Winter 07/08 shows.

Prada sent out girls wearing cool knee-highs socks in a variety of colours. Anna Sui took up the metallic theme and focused on silver and gold-infused lurex tights.

High Street Bling

High Street-store-meets-designer-brand is a concept that’s clearly gone somewhat over-board these days. We’re not being snobs here and we’re definitely not whinging about the accessibility. No, we mention this as it is a weird phenomenon where the novelty of buying a designer piece at, say H&M, seems... less exciting because of this. Take the most recent designer collaborations where Stella McCartney’s 42- piece collection for Australian Target is planned to maximise Target’s revenue sale by 24%. Target alone isn’t the only budget brand that’s brought in big names to trigger sales figures. We’re thinking instantly of Adidas, Puma and LeSportsac who’ve all exclusified their products by Stella, Yohji Yamamoti and the likes. Victor and Rolf’s gig with H&M lats spring took dramatic proportions where some stores reportedly sold out in less than 10 minutes. Next in line is Kate Moss for Top Shop and (featured here) Madonna’s collaboration with H&M.

Total Makeover at Belen Echandia

We mentioned Belen Echandia some time ago. This time around Jackie, the brainchild behind the label has been a busy bee working on all sides of her business. Collection-wise she’s doing Italian workshops resulting in tons of exciting additions to the line. Some of the things we love are the additions of luxurious silk fuchsia linings in the bags. PDA pockets and a new logo are other elements we simply adore. The website has had a bit of a face-lift too, adding great visual effects with vivid images and easier navigation.

Hot bags: Hold Me in silver (£160) and Take Me Anywhere in tan (£495)

Marc Jacobs in NY: Declaring the Thirties the New Black

Come bright neon colours mixed with grey... bring heavy fabrics mixed with silk... take the large number of hats in a variety of different shapes... These trends are all easy to love and incorporate in your own way. But the one observation that sticks to mind from New York so far is the Thirties style. Silhouettes are long and lean, hats are wide-brimmed, and wrist-length gloves come in coloured leather. Quick summary: We like it a lot.

Karen Walker: Autumn/Winter 07/08

For a designer who reportedly designs clothes for outsider women, the Kiwi designer’s view on the “anti-it girl look” is as bizarrely fashionable as any hyped-up Marc Jacobs’ show. We’ve reported on Karen Walker before, and yet again, we’ve nothing but praise to give to this talented woman.

For autumn/winter 07/08 Karen Walker had a number of key elements in mind; tailored tweed, thick woollen coats, neck warmers in bright colours and casually worn berets. While the best part of this collection came down to earthy, muddy tones we loved the introduction of contrasting colours that add to the effortless, ‘accidental’ look that Karen does so well. In keeping with the unpretentious theme, her collection featured contrasts throughout the show: masculine and feminine, tailored and baggy, luxury and street-smart, dark and super cute.

It doesn’t come as a surprise that the style press love Karen. What does surprise us on the contrary, is that it’s only Walker’s second season in New York.

More from Marvellous Mouret

Reading that French-born Roland Mouret will launch a satellite women’s wear collection, came as thrilling news yesterday. London-based Mouret plan to launch his new line during the next Paris haute couture season in July. The collection will be sold under the ‘RM by the designer Roland Mouret’ label and will comprise 21 ultimate ‘must-have’ pieces which can be ordered for in-store delivery in November. The satellite collection will focus on the iconic dresses, jackets, skirts and coats for which Mouret has become famous.

On the new collection Mouret says: “The idea of this satellite collection is for me to be able to express the most concentrated vision of my ideas of dressing women and to deliver that vision to them in the shortest time possible. This collection will focus on signature silhouettes and key pieces that I believe women demand. I want to celebrate women with this collection - they are my greatest source of inspiration.”