HELLO TO FASHION AW11! Trend 1: # BURGUNDY

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

The London riots are terrible. I've done my bit today by spreading the word about @riotcleanup and am keeping a level head, not getting carried away in the hysteria like many people around on Twitter today. If my local area is affected I will be there with my rubber gloves and broom.  In the meantime, life goes on. Life should go on. So if you are joining the blog for a bit of light relief, you will find it!

Thanks Susie Bubble for this!

As I mentioned before going on holiday, the blog is getting a revamp. We're migrating to our very own URL Fashioneditoratlarge.com soon, and breaking away from the blogger format.

One of the aspects I'm introducing is posts pinpointing the absolute fashion essentials on any given day, week, month or season. I'm talking about the item or items so on it that when you buy and wear them, they make you feel instantly up to date and amazing. If you're anything like me, this week you'll be looking at online boutiques "What's New" sections at the new Autumn/Winter 2011 pieces arriving, and feeling your pulse quicken.

As we run up to September I'll be revealing the overarching trends for the season in twice weekly blasts. (I was going to do it earlier in the summer, but decided it would be more useful now.) Today I'm making a soft start and writing about burgundy, the colour.

Shades of claret and burgundy are set to become THE colours of the new season; at least through September into October. The popularity of the colour began with Phoebe Philo at Celine a year ago, and it has taken this long to pollenate and touch down at fashion retail level. Buying something in this colour will make you feel fashionable. Its as simple as that. Here are the pieces that are guaranteed to make you feel new season, all brand new and available now, and you can link straight through to the stores too.

Fashion Editor at Large Recommends

Midi-length strapless dress, £37, Miss Selfridge

Acne knit, £230, from Browns

 

J Brand cords, £200, from Net a Porter

Oliver Peoples "Wacks" £200 from Net-a-Porter

DVF "Violet" cloche hat, £125 from Matches

Woven sweatshirt, £28, TopShop

 Klara loafers £52, TopShop

Burgundy pencil skirt, £25.99, Zara

WHEN I MET MY MIRROR AT GIVENCHY

Posted by Fashion Editor at Large

Vanessa Coyle mirroring Fashion Editor at Large

It is not often that I will post photographs of myself on this blog but I was going through my shots from Paris and there was this crazy one of me and my old friend Vanessa Coyle of Harpers Bazaar. It was taken straight after the Givenchy show, and Vanessa and I were thinking along the same lines with our look of the day, don't you think?  The jacket is - surprise, surprise! - by Celine.

Celine was by far the most popular label amongst fashion editors in Paris, and spotting it became something of a sport for myself and yet another British journalist who has this jacket, Fran Burns from Love magazine. It is unfortunate that Frannie wasn't wearing her jacket at the Givenchy show - that would have been a great picture!

That wasn't the end of the Celine-athon. This evening Sarah Mower and myself attended the press event for the Central Saint Martin's MA graduate show. Sarah was wearing the very beautiful Celine coat in camel; she also has it in black. The coat has a very particular look which Ms Philo described to Alice Rawsthorn for the New York Times last month: “It’s cut very specifically like a double-breasted coat, but worn open like a single-breasted coat,” she explains. “The cut of the shoulder and sleeves is twisted at the front, so you get this feeling that it’s sitting on your shoulders.” 

Like me, Sarah is not alone amongst her colleagues in ownership of the same item. She tells me Brana Wolf, [Harpers Bazaar USA], Aliona Doletskaya [editor-in-chief Russian Vogue] and Alex White [W Magazine] and Phoebe Philo regularly wear theirs.   

Sarah Mower looking fabulous in one of her TWO!! Celine coats. She also has it in black.  

Over the course of Paris Fashion Week, Fran Burns said she counted 17 individual women wearing the below jacket - both this length and the shorter waist-length version. I'm torn between being glad I don't have one, to jealous of those who do.

I buy my Celine from Matches. www.matchesfashion.co.uk

On another note the caramel and nude pink colour vibe ushered in this season by labels such as Celine, Stella and Chloe - to my eyes the three most influential labels for AW10 - have inspired the beginnings of my proper Spring wardrobe, which I will explore and share through this blog as it happens. Hence why, during my lunch hour from Grazia HQ today I bought this silky nude-coloured shirt from Zara for £49.99. The girl in who served me said they came in-store today. I love it! What do you think? 

  

Excuse the pose, I was camping it up for my friend Angela Buttolph, Grazia's web editor.

Picture credits:
Chris Moore/Catwalking.com
Fashion Editor at Large