Brought to the capital by Metro, the Oxford Street Fashion Week offers an array of activities.  Amongst the events set to take place over the week are special promotions, style tutorials, mini catwalk shows and interactive fashion workshops.  Proving to be a popular concept, the event has led to both celebrities and large fashion retailers getting involved and the sense of fun and opportunity brought about by the week is creating a real buzz.

As the first event of its kind that has been held around the same as key fashion weeks on this scale, the event seems set to compliment rather than criticise the more prestigious fashion week alternatives.  The New York, London, Paris and Milan Fashion Weeks will always remain the linchpins of the fashion world, showcasing the world’s best designers and leading the way for the following season’s styles, but it’s certainly fun to have an alternative that allows the masses to be excited about fashion.

The ambiance at the event was intentionally highly sexed to fit the theme, with scantily clad cliché maids polishing the steps and welcoming the audience, while the runway was actually enclosed in a black tent, with the inside made to look like an inviting hotel lobby, suggestive of the taboo and highly sensual atmosphere. 

The collection itself rocked bizarre combinations.  They appeared so delicately influenced by taboo fashions at times they were almost conservative.  Combinations such as impressive fur coats, with black and even green shiny corsets graced the runways.  Elsewhere, long and flowing gowns were seen, with white shirts tucked underneath and 18 carat handcuffs.

The most fetish aspects turned out to be the accessories and shoes, which were sold in a rubberized and dominatrix type plastic leather laceups.  Legs on stage were often seen bare, with thigh high stockings coupled with tall boots to give an otherwise conservative outfit a naughty flavour. 

On hand to grace the catwalk were supermodel sensations Isabeli Fontana, Naomi Campbell, and Kate Moss, who all generated a warm reception to the highly successful show.

Normally we save them for the beaches, informal gatherings, when cooler clothing is needed or for those times when the weather is just perfect.  Now short shorts have added ‘chic’ to the list of adjectives that can be used to describe them.  To get the look however; the right type must be worn and it must be paired with the right top.

‘Chic shorts’ works when the upper body is covered to offset the bare legs.  A great structured jacket (or any jacket with a good cut that fits well) is usually needed to achieve this particular look.  The idea is to create a suit that looks sexy at the bottom and modest at the top; basically a reversal of the regular ‘bare arms and cleavage with covered legs’ look.

What not to do

The look often fails if too much skin is being revealed.  In fact, there seems to be a strict ‘legs only’ feel about it at times, since revealing too much skin can easily take the ‘chic’ out of it.  In many cases, the right inside blouse can add a subtle sexiness to the ‘suit’, and is the perfect compromise.  Eva Herzigova famously completed her shorts and jacket with a ruffled, sheer top for her Cannes red carpet appearance back in May.

Taylor first debuted a collection in 1997 and immediately hailed as a designer to watch; both New York and Asian business concerns expressed interest in her aesthetic. A Rebecca Taylor collection typically includes day dresses, knits, skirts with a pencil-line silhouette, and blouses that can only be described as whimsical. Taylor’s label is commercially successful and now contains not only women’s wear but also handbags, jewellery, and shoes. 

Celebrity clients of Rebecca Taylor include Kelly Ripa, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Sophia Bush, and fashionistas such as Reece Witherspoon and Sarah Jessica Parker, who appreciate the romantic, beautiful clothes that Taylor regularly releases. Cameron Diaz is another famous client.

Taylor’s presence is felt in New York City in her Manhattan Store, located in the NoLita District. Her look has often been described as fun as well as romantic, features that can be seen in her use of cover-ups boasting animal prints and separates bursting with layers and layers of ruffles.

Born in Derbyshire, Westwood moved to London at the age of 17 and began attending the Harrow School of Art. She specialised in silver smithing and fashion, but left after a single term to pursue a more traditional career. While working as a teacher at a primary school, her interest in design resurfaced and she began creating her own jewellery, which she sold on market days on Portobello Road. 

Later, she began designing clothes as well, taking her inspiration from bikers and other hard-edged characters she saw on the streets of London. At this time, she was in a steady relationship with Malcolm McLaren, the manager of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols. When members of the band began to wear her designs, her designing career began to take off and she became increasingly interested in the punk aesthetic. It wasn’t long until she began applying punk elements to women’s clothing, combining tartan fabric with chains and spikes for a bold, edgy look that has made her one of Britain’s most important fashion designers.

Dior sacked Galliano back in April after allegations surfaced that the designer had made anti-Semitic comments. A video clip of Galliano making the remarks sealed his fate with the fashion house; Galliano had worked for Dior since 1996. Sidney Toledano, the chief executive at Dior, took issue with the comments made by Galliano, one of which involved praise of Adolf Hitler. “I very firmly condemn what was said by John Galliano,” remarked Toledano.

Galliano had been considered instrumental in the rise of the house of Dior to a new prominence in the last decade and a half. When Galliano joined the fashion house, he replaced Gianfranco Ferré, a famed Italian designer. Galliano’s first show for Dior took place in January 1997, on the company’s 50th anniversary.

This history, however, could not save Galliano from the consequences of his anti-Semitic remarks. Fashion icons such as Natalie Portman, who is Jewish, now refuse to wear Galliano designs in protest of his views. Despite her contract to endorse the Miss Dior Cherie fragrance line, Portman issued a statement expressing “disgust” with the famous designer.

So when comics such as Judge Dredd, films such as Blade Runner and musicians such as Rob Zombie happen, it is inevitable that another fashion style would be born.  Welcome to Rivethead!

Stemming from all of the above and with a pinch of the fantasy genre Steampunk and a little bit of Jacob’s Ladder, the Rivethead sub-genre takes the form of the dark and dangerous and sometimes even the downright creepy.  The fashion can be described as a cross between a tank commander and a welder, celebrating military fashions such as combat boots and fatigues on the bottom half, and anything from tank tops to Kevlar on the top.  A Rivethead’s hair is usually very short or shaven and sometimes spiky.  Imagine what would be the easiest if you were welding all day, then go with it.

Bizarrely enough, headgear such as welding goggles or gasmasks are a large part of the Rivethead fashion.  The fashion style definitely takes liberties from the works of Swiss artist H.R Giger who is also known for his blending of sexuality and macabre, taking it to bizarre extremes.

Sub-cultures such as Rivethead are comparatively small compared to high fashion, but you will be surprised just how many of these people exist right under your nose.  They may be underground, but that does not negate them in any way.

Whatever the answer, you can put anyone in a suit and they instantly look as sharp as a blade.  Suits are not cheap and usually, the more expensive they are the better.  It is not just the material or the tailoring, but the prestige of owning a suit by the likes of Pierre Cardin or bespoke tailors King and Allen.

The suit is one of the few clothing items that go out of fashion as often as it comes back.  It has been a part of formal menswear for centuries, with its earliest recognition coming from the 17th century, but it was not until the Victorian era that the suit became more akin to what it is today.  With the popularisation of the morning coat, the suit became less formal and could be worn casually.

Fashion, being the fluid entity that it is, takes liberties and inspiration from anything and everything.  The old-style suit is synonymous today with gangsters, crooks and Dirty Harry-esque private eyes thanks to the classic writings of Dashiell Hammett and actors such as Humphrey Bogart, who was like that generation’s James Bond.  These fictional characters were as cool as ice and that idea bled over into reality, making anyone who wears a suit look and feel just as cool.

The suit has gone through many changes, colours and patterns.  Today, the road has split two ways:  Some styles have become more formal and expensive, bringing prestige to those who own it, while the other route has become more casual: a garment for the everyman’s daily activities.

New creative directors Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli were appointed from the Valentino workshop, and for three years they have been working on new creations to update the rather staid image the fashion house had given out in the last few years of Valentino’s reign.  Their task was to take the company into the next decade, whilst still keeping its couture and ready-to-wear lines intact.

The new collection was unveiled in Milan in January with an entirely new look featuring floaty, translucent fabrics, but at the same time maintaining the high standard of Valentino with some couture dresses taking up to 500 hours to complete.  Such intense labour will demand a high price, so Valentino’s couture collection is only going to attract serious attention from the upper end of the fashion buying public.  The ready-to-wear collections, on the other hand, still feature the same attention to detail but at a more affordable price.

Valentino was always going to be a hard act to follow, but the Valentino Spring Collection was greeted with acclaim.  The fashion house seems to be back on track with several young celebrities such as Emma Watson and Elle Fanning choosing Valentino dresses for big events such as the BAFTA Awards.

Fashion has seen a major turnaround in sales over the past, which means that the fashion conscious are once again buying the best of the best.  Asia has been the big provider in sales for larger designer companies. 

The AFP reported that Prada, Italy’s largest designer, saw an overall sales increase of 31% last year, reaching more than 2.04 billion euros, mostly due to Asian consumers.  According to Women’s Wear Daily, Prada experienced a 48% rise in sales from Asian countries alone. 

Fashion week was a huge success as fashionistas from all over the world joined in.  As has become standard, BCBG’s opening presentation was enjoyed by many Chinese, South Korean and Japanese bloggers, buyers and journalists alike. 

Everyone who attended made notes of the upcoming colours and designs, taking away photos of catwalk models sporting greys, Bordeaux and mustards combined with long looks, flowing skirts, crepe dresses and fur-lined flannel. 

The audience consisted of many students from the Parsons New School for Design that had been assigned a ‘zero waste’ assignment.  One student, Janelle Abbott, told an AFP reporter, “The goal was to create an organic garment with no scraps.”  The fashion industry is known to have an average wastage of approximately 15%.