A Fashion Designer's Guide to London

Fashion star and Londoner Sarah Swash, of womenswear, accessories and swimwear label SWASH, gives you all the juice you need on her favorite hangouts in the capital.

THE BAR “I’ve always loved Bar Italia in Soho—going there is like taking a little trip to Italy and the only appropriate thing to drink is an Aperol Spritz.”

THE CAFÉ “My partner Toshio, the other half of SWASH, and I lived by Broadway Market in Hackney for years, and our local café was La Bouche. It’s crazy busy but our little boy is friends with all the staff there, which is why it qualifies as my favorite!”

THE RESTAURANT “We go to Kikuchi by Tottenham Court Road for amazing sashimi and sake.”

THE HIGH STREET STORE “I like Cos for basics like T-shirts, and I’m addicted to Muji for stationery.”

THE CONCEPT STORE “Dover Street Market has a good selection of Celine, one of my favorite designers, and lots of great brands like Rick Owens, Robert Clergerie, and Moncler Gamme Rouge. I never leave without making a wish list.”

THE INSPIRATION SPOT “The Wallace Collection is stunning: It’s an amazing building, and I always find something new there, like the tiny miniatures I was fixated on during my last visit. I also love Petersham Nurseries in Richmond—I take the boat from St. Margaret’s and then walk along the river to get there.”

THE STREET “Gloucester Road in Camden is so pretty; it reminds me of my grandma who lived nearby. Sloane Street is another favorite. As a child I loved visiting that area of town—the streets are so wide and beautiful it just couldn't be anywhere but London.”

THE PARK “The best park in London, hands down, is Regent’s Park—it’s an incredible green space right in the middle of town. We like to walk Candy, our whippet, and the SWASH muse, there, and meet friends for a bacon sandwich at the Honest Sausage café."

Source: CN Traveler

Adam Levine launching his Menswear Line

Adam Levine wants men to feel relaxed in his new clothing line.

The Maroon 5 frontman is launching a new menswear line called 222 for Kmart. With pieces including chequered shirts, T-shirts and dark denim jeans Adam has catered to what he believes men find appealing.

He hopes his "simple" designs will make things a lot more straightforward for males.

"I think that men, to a large degree, like things to be easy. That's a big deal for me - I don't want to have to think about it. I think easy is the key and it's simple and classic and you can't go wrong with this. No one thinks this is ugly," he explained in a promotional video as he holds up a green and white gingham shirt.

Adam hopes his collection will make men feel "comfortable" and stand out from other brands on the market. He wants people to wear the ensembles in both casual and smart environments as he believes 

Suri Cruise to launch her own fashion line?

The seven-year-old daughter of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes has reportedly signed a £1.5million deal to design her own clothing line.

According to tabloid The Sun, the seven-year-old daughter of Hollywood actors Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes will put her name to a fashion line called 'Suri'.

The fashion-loving youngster, who was reported to have amassed a £100,000 shoe collection by the time she was five, will be paid £1.5million for the collection aimed at young girls.

A department store in New York, where Suri resides with her mother, will stock the line initially. If it is successful, it will be rolled out across stores in North America.

Inspirational Coco CHANEL: From an Orphanage, to absolute Fashion Glory

FG10 came across 10 overwhelming facts about the Coco Chanel; we read them over and over again and all you could notice is one wave of inspiration. The determination, the creativity and innovative mind she carried are clearly the reason of why CHANEL still stands as one of the most prominent fashion brands the industry has ever known.

Chanel posing in her own perfume advertisement (1937)

It caught our eyes since we're in a time where emerging talents are struggling to find their way to the runway. Perhaps, these few facts will touch you and inspire you the way they did to us. Perhaps these facts will show you that passion and determination can take you anywhere, that there is never an "end", but continuous new beginnings that unveil at the threshold of every accomplishment. We hope these facts tell you that there is nothing as "I'm there"; instead, there's "I want to do more - this isn't just it..".

Ali MacGraw - star of "Love Story"

TEN Inspirational Facts about Coco Chanel

She was born in France in 1883 and was part of a big family, as one of five children.

When Coco was 12, her mother passed away from tuberculosis and her father left the family; she spent the next six years in an orphanage.

She became a licensed hat-maker and owned her first shop in 1910.

She introduced her first perfume, Chanel No. 5, in 1922, and it was one of the first perfumes ever to mix natural and artificial essences.

She invented the “Little Black Dress” in 1926, which French Vogue dubbed “Chanel’s Ford”, for its practicality and marketability.

She is credited with popularizing the concept of “costume jewelry” in the 1920s, creating seasonal jewelry that mixed fake pearls with real stones.

She introduced the idea of using jersey fabric to create clothing, which had prior been used only for men’s undergarments.

She and her brand are most well known for costume jewelry, two-tone shoes, quilted bags, and simple suits made of tweed or jersey.

Her classic Chanel suit became famous for its flattering cut, simple fabric, and specially weighted lining, to give it that perfect hang.

She died in 1971 at the Ritz Hotel in Paris at the age of 88.

You won't believe who Louis Vuitton dressed!!

Louis Vuitton's creative director Marc Jacobs has costumed holographic 'Vocaloid' Hatsune Miku, one of Japan's biggest popstars, for her operatic debut.

Marc Jacobs' latest project for Louis Vuitton is rather surprising - he's dressing a hologram, or more precisely Hatsune Miku.

Miku is what's described as a 3D 'Vocaloid', and despite the fact that she's a holographic projection with a computer-generated voice, she's one of Japan's biggest popstars and routinely sells out stadiums.

When the team behind Miku decided to branch out into opera with stage show 'The End', it was Marc Jacobs and his Louis Vuitton team that was called upon to dress her for her genre-change debut. The sickly-sweet hologram is usually kitted out in school uniform, but in true fashion form Jacobs decided to outfit her in four looks from his checkerboard-heavy spring/summer 2013 collection , complete with hair bows, handbags and statement flats.

The show, which debuted in Japan last December but is now going on tour due to popularity, will hit Tokyo in May and Paris in November, reports Global Grind .

Heidi Klum joins America’s Got Talent judging panel

German supermodel Heidi Klum has been confirmed as the fourth judge for the new series of the Simon Cowell-produced 'America's Got Talent'.

Heidi Klum at yesterday's 'America's Got Talent' auditions

Heidi Klum is adding yet another notch to her belt by becoming a judge on America's Got Talent .

The German supermodel will join three other judges, comedian Howie Mandel, DJ Howard Stern and fellow newbie and former Spice Girl Mel B (nope, we're not sure why either), who will seek to find America's most talented citizen.

Klum was chosen for her "international sensibility and understanding of what works in today's global entertainment industry", Paul Telegdy, president of NBC alternative and late-night programming told People.com , and we're betting her pretty face played a part too - after all, this is a Simon Cowell-produced show.

The 39-year-old is no stranger to reality TV contest format - she's also the host of Germany's Next Top Model and Project Runway, which aim to find the next big model and fashion designer, respectively.

That's what's BANNED from the Grammy Awards

Grammy Awards broadcaster CBS issue a 'wardrobe advisory' notice ahead of Sunday's ceremony to encourage flesh-flashing celebrities to cover up.

Celebrities are finding ever more inventive ways of baring their assets on the red carpet. Side-boobs, waistline-necklines and backless dresses, which sit so low they reveal something of 'what lies beneath', have become the norm. And that's before we've even got into the thigh-split dresses that so love to make a feature of a girl's underpants.

Such rampant, flesh-baring antics have now driven CBS, the broadcaster of Sunday's 55th Grammy Awards, to take the unusual step of sending out a 'Standard And Practice Wardrobe Advisory' notice to all attendees, containing a strict dress code.

'Please be sure that buttocks and female breasts are adequately covered', it begins.

'Thong type costumes are problematic. Please avoid exposing bare fleshy under curves of the buttocks and buttock crack.' 

Addressing the growing side-boob trend, the notice cautions 'Bare sides or under curvature of the breasts is also problematic. Please avoid sheer see-through clothing that could possibly expose female breast nipples.'

Sorry… female breast nipples? Who wrote this? So male's nipples are okay??!!! 

Jessica Alba: She Wears It Well

Actress Jessica Alba gets in early on spring's grunge trend.

Jessica Alba is so beautiful she'd look good wearing just her eco-friendly tote but today we're admiring the-31-year old's early season run on grunge.

Tartan trousers, hobnail boots, shapeless white T-shirt. Why, we could be at a Nirvana gig back in the day. OK, perhaps a little too polished for a crowdsurfer but nevertheless Alba is totes on trend.

Plenty of designers have given a spring/summer 2013 nod to the 'Come As You Are' era, including Dries Van Noten, who for my favorite collection of the shows, put plaid shirts, jackets and pyjama trousers with florals, sequinned skirts and more plaid for a nonchalantly slinky take on the Nineties.

And because tartan/plaid has been around for a while now is the perfect time to make like Alba and buy into the trend early - and at discount. I just had a sneaky peek at asos.com and found heaps of the stuff on sale. And maybe I did make a small purchase myself.

Victoria Beckham wins Best Designer crown

The former Spice Girl Victoria Posh Beckham has added another feather to her glorious cap by winning the prestigious title of Womenswear Designer of the Year at the esteemed 2012 WGSN Global Fashion Awards in London.

The multi-faceted 36-year-old English singer-cum-fashion designer has beaten the likes of Alexander Wang, Christopher Kane and Jonathan Saunders, who were also nominated in the same award category.

 

Other than Victoria, Kim Jones at Louis Vuitton has won the best menswear designer’s title this year.

 

The WGSN Global Fashion Awards recognizes and honours the best in fashion and retail designs on a global scale. The award winner is selected through individually casted votes by a panel of industry specialists.

 

The global trend forecasting agency WGSN helps fashion and accessory brands to come up with innovative ideas for new collections.

 

Mrs Beckham, who only launched her fashion range in 2007, was included on an apparent selective roll call of the finest fashion designers that Great Britain has ever produced. Say what?

 

 

London Fashion Week: Tom Ford spring/summer 2013

Chastity and perversity are the twin themes of Tom Ford's spring/summer 2013 collection.

Tom Ford's style certainly polarises opinion these days, between those who find it backward looking and those who regard it as classic. The vote splits as soon as you're ushered through Ford HQ in Victoria and into the lifts by the same breed of chisel-jawed, side parted, uncannily smooth haired flunkies as the ones who used to line the route to the Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent shows a decade ago. All of them, it turns out, hired for the day from a model agency.

Some like the intimacy and the wink to the past (or maybe it's more of a mugging). Others, not so much. "A good journalist friend told me to quit talking at these things," Ford confessed, as he tapped away on his iPad, cueing up the models and controlling the soundtrack.

Naturally being Ford, it wasn't an entirely wordless affair, which is a good thing. The banter is what personalises these presentations. Two words in particular couldn't be dispensed with. "Chastity and perversity," he explained, were the twin themes of this collection.

Chastity came in the guise of camel cashmere sweaters, taupe skirts and long high necked black paper taffeta column dresses; perversity showed up in the form of black patent zip pencil skirts, caped backs, and the multi buckled leather strap, bondage sandal-boots.

There were plenty of what have become classic Ford tropes: backless black fitted chiffon dresses with cupped breasts (very 50 Shades of Grey ) and long, slashed, beaded skirts and skinny pants, updated this time thanks to an injection of sportiness.

USD 18 Million of fake Louboutins seized

Christian Louboutin is the latest high fashion designer to fall victim to Chinese counterfeiters as millions of pounds worth of fake Louboutins are seized by US customs.

Customs and immigration officals display the seized counterfeit Louboutin items Photo: GETTY

More than 20,000 pairs of counterfeit Christian Louboutin shoes have been seized by customs at the Los Angeles/Long Beach seaport complex. It is thought that the shoes were destined for sale through one of the many websites that sell fake designer goods.

The haul, which arrived in the US from China, was split into five separate shipments - four of which were seized on Tuesday, with the fifth being seized late last month, revealed Jaime Ruiz, spokesman for US Customs and Border Protection, in a statement regarding the situation.

Mr Ruiz stated that the 20,457 pairs of shoes, all of which bared Louboutin's trademark red sole, had an "estimated manufacturer's suggested retail price" of $18 million.

A pair of counterfeit shoes seized. PHOTO: Getty

"Worn by celebrities and royalty in the fashion world, the lacquered red sole in (the) shoes is a distinctive symbol of the famous French designer Christian Louboutin," he commented further. "However, US Customs and Border Protection specialists have a different view of the lacquered red sole. They see a trademark protected by US law."

The shoes, which are said to be "very good counterfeits", will most likely be destroyed.

The shoe brand is just one of many high-fashion brands that suffer from widespread counterfeiting. Earlier this year, Hermès and Burberry were both awarded £63 million in damages in separate cases against websites selling counterfeit goods illegally bearing their brand names.

French designer Christian Louboutin, holding an original pair of Louboutins. PHOTO: Reuters

Christian Louboutin is also currently embroiled in two separate legal battles with Yves Saint Laurent and high-street store Zara , both of whom sold shoes featuring a red sole. Louboutin argue that the use of a red sole could cause confusion, mistake and deception among the relevant purchasing public as to the origin of the infringing footwear.

Lenny Kravitz, the next Ralph Lauren?

Musician Lenny Kravitz has announced that he is going global with his lifestyle and fashion brand.

Not content with conquering the music world with his inimitable style of psychedelic rock, and the silver screen with his bucket-full of attitude (yes, the gold eyeliner-sporting stylist in The Hunger Games was Lenny), Kravitz has caught the celebrity-turned-designer bug, and he's set his bar high.

The 48-year-old rocker diversified from his day job in 2003 when he founded Kravitz Design , a company specialising in innovative and dynamic design solutions for commercial and residential properties. Earlier this year, he dipped a toe into the world of fashion by collaborating with ethical footwear brand TOMS.

"The plan is to make it a lifestyle brand . . . my dream for this company. In the same way you would see Ralph Lauren or Giorgio Armani" he told CNN.

Furniture, bedding and clothing are high on the agenda, as well as an eco-resort on a farm he owns in Brazil next year.

Perhaps Kravitz will rope in his stylish actress daughter Zoe to consult on cuts and colours. Thanks to her kooky, pared-back style, the 23-year-old regularly graces best-dressed lists around the globe.

Vera Wang and husband Announce Separation

Famed bridal wear designer, Vera Wang, has split from her husband of 23 years, Arthur Becker.

Wang, the world's best-known wedding dress designer, has so far declined to comment on the split but her company's president, Mario Grauso, issued the following statement to WWD : "Vera Wang and Arthur Becker have mutually and amicably agreed to separate. They remain devoted parents to their two daughters."

The couple married in 1989, and Becker, a former stock broker and CEO of technology company NaviSite, is said to have been instrumental in the building of Wang's fashion empire. They have two daughters together, Cecilia, 22, and Josephine, 19.

It is unknown how the split will affect Wang's business but an unidentified friend of the designer's has said the couple "will not let this impact the running of the company. They have worked too hard to build it up."

Chanel coat that took 3,000 hours to Make

Ever wondered why couture fashion is so expensive? Let Karl Lagerfeld explain...

Paris Haute Couture week is a world of pure fantasy, where the super-rich congregate to have their wildest fantasies indulged by the world's leading fashion designers. 

As the event draws to a close for another season then, leave it to Chanel creative director, Karl Lagerfeld, to explain why couture customers routinely spend upwards of 170,500 AED for an outfit.

"Couture has to be something nobody can do. You know the tweed is not tweed - it's embroidery, all done by hand. There's a coat with no sleeves that took 3,000 hours to make."

That's right, 3,000 man-hours by the world's most skilled couturiers - known in Paris as Petites Mains - embroiderers, button makers and weavers.

If we imagine for a moment that these craftspeople are working a regular eight hour day, that's a total of 375 days - to make one coat.

Here it is in all its glory and we have to admit, if we had the money, we so would...

FG10 sniffs Collaboration: Martin Margiela for H&M?

Maison Martin Margiela is said to be the next designer brand set to collaborate with high street giant H&M.

Maison Martin Margiela will be the next luxury brand to collaborate with Swedish chain H&M, if reports on WWD are to be believed.

According to "market sources" as well as the Telegraph's article, H&M will announce the news soon, although at the moment they are declining to comment. If true, Margiela will be following in the footsteps of Lanvin, Versace and Marni, amongst others, all of whom have created high street-ready versions of their famed designs, causing hoards of frenzied fans to queue for hours outside H&M stores to get their hands on cut-price pieces.

Established by publicity-shy Belgian designer Martin Margiela in 1989, the house is famed for its cleft-toe boots, deconstructed tailoring and surrealist approach to classic fashion. It was bought be Diesel founder Renzo Russo in 2002, and Margiela later left his position as creative director at his eponymous label in 2009, although his unique design characteristics very much remain. Upon Margiela's departure, no replacement creative director was appointed and the house now works and speaks as a team with no appointed public spokesperson.

H&M are currently gearing up for the release of an accessories collection in collaboration with Vogue Japan fashion director and all-round fashion extrovert Anna Dello Russo. Entitled AdR for H&M , it will hit stores on October 4.

Karl Lagerfeld's Cat "Choupette" is now on Twitter!!!

A Twitter account for Karl Lagerfeld's cat, Choupette, has been set up following the deisgner's admittance that his beloved pet has two maids and eats at the table.

Following on from Karl Lagerfeld's revelations that his Siamese cat Choupette is possibly the world's most pampered pet, the fluffy feline seems to be building up a following that could soon rival that of her enigmatic father.

Yesterday a Twitter account was set up using the handle @ChoupettesDiary , and in less than 24 hours it has garnered almost 2,000 followers.

With such gems as "In my 9 months I have pawed at more Chanel than most women will see in a lifetime. I bask in your envy" and "Today's Goals: Bat my kitten lashes for catnip, knead the tweed, contemplate how to dye my white locks pastel.", Choupette's tweets are the talk of Twitter

The as-yet-unknown tweeter behind @ChoupettesDiary also undertook an interview with fashionista.com in which she described her now infamous two maids as "just like every other human: useless and easy to manipulate" and said she slept "in piles of last season's Chanel, which are no longer of use to Daddy."

It is not known whether the Twitter account was set up by someone associated directly with Karl or Chanel (we're guessing not) or an opportunistic Choupette fan, but either way, Karl's wish to publish a book documenting Choupette's daily routine is looking more and more likely with each new Twitter follower.

Other celebrity pets to have featured regularly on Twitter include David and Victoria Beckham's French Bulldog Scarlet and British Bulldog Coco (remember those painted claws that caused a furore?) and rapper 50cent's dog, Oprah, who has a page of her own. - Telegraph

Karl Lagerfeld stars in music video with Snoop Dogg

Designer Karl Lagerfeld has teamed up with French musician Jean-Roch to star in his music video 'Saint-Tropez', which also features rapper Snoop Dogg.

Karl Lagerfeld often leaves us near-speechless (remember the time he called Adele too fat? ) well this time we're well and truly lost for words.

The Chanel creative director has somehow found the time - in-between redesigning hotels and staging decadent fashion shows at Versailles - to star in a music video. And that's not all - misbehaving rapper Snoop Dogg is also in this!!

Yes, the evidence is below, as French singer-songwriter Jean-Roch managed to persuade Lagerfeld to profess his love of Saint-Tropez, the south of France's coastal enclave for the rich and famous, where he staged an extravagant Chanel Resort show back in 2010.

Beware, the tune is ridiculously catchy. Altogether now: 'sitting on the dock, sitting on the dock…' ;-)

*FG10 team is currently dancing... We shall blog you soon!!*