The Fashion Week Round Up

If you followed my 'Top 5' lists, which summarised my top 5 (unsurprisingly) shows from each fashion week, then this post will seem a logical conclusion. Throughout the next few weeks, once I've got a bit of headway on my uni work, I'm hoping to write my own little reviews of my favourite shows for AW11. I'm no Sarah Mower, but I feel the need to get the old fashion-writing cogs in motion again, so expect to see a more in depth view of the following shows which stunned me.

Which shows were your ultimate favourites?

Source: style.com

New York Fashion Week AW11 : My Top 5

My top shows from New York fashion week AW11.

What were your favourite collections over the past few days? Are you excited for London Fashion Week? I can't wait for Erdem.

P.S - I'm not sure how long this will be running for, but you can catch the Proenza Schouler show here.

Source: style.com

Preen S/S '11

Preen is one of my favourite collections, and one of the shows I most look forward to seeing out of all the fashion weeks. Last season was pretty close to perfect for me. I loved the heavy husband tailoring (remind me to get a masculine jacket this autumn, before I veer off course with aviator and military styles), juxtaposed with the softness of chiffon and de-constructed dresses. This season, I don't like the collection as much but I'm 100% sure it will grow on me. It already has in the short amount of time I've been typing this up. The summer of 2011 will hopefully be warmer than the cool, frosty blue and silver tones seen on the catwalk. What could easily have been cold and harsh, however, was actually very soft and pretty with asymmetric dresses, and gorgeous chiffon blouses tucked into elegantly tailored trousers and skirts. Alongside the soft hues came the hardness of black, reminiscent of their a/w collection last season, which worked just as perfectly this time around. 

My favourite pieces? A beautiful nude blouse (4th photo), a greige mid-length dress and the asymmetric, ice blue number (3rd photo).

Source: style.com

Top 10 Resort Pieces

Today is going to be a lazy day. The proof of this is that I have so little to do in my life before going back to work next week, I'm still in bed and I don't actually have to get up for another hmmmm, let's say three hours. So, to fill the time happily, I decided to pick out one piece from the Resort collections of my favourite designers and post them on this here blog.

The decisions came about a little like this: if each designer was offering me just one piece from their Resort collections, which would I choose? Have you ever imagined such an event occurring? I think it would be both painful and pleasurable in equal measure.

As I mentioned somewhere previously in a post, the Resort collections tend to pass me by, so instead of putting up an insurmountable number of posts for individual designers, this way seemed a lot more concise and orderly for my Resort-rejecting mind.

BCBG Max Azria

Bottega Veneta

Burberry Prorsum

Technically two looks, but equally perfect and they came as a photographic package.

Christian Dior

Erdem

Don't like this collection nearly half as much as last years pre-collection, but it's growing on me every time I see it. It was a close call between this dress and the following maxi, that was much more reminiscent of Erdem's silky, floral maxis '09. 

3.1 Philip Lim

Preen

Proenza Schouler

Roksanda Illincic

Stella McCartney

Bonus points for using Magdalena as your model.

Which Resort collections have been your favourite?

All photos: Style.com

Proenza Schouler: A/W 2010

As far as I can remember, this was the first time that the first look sent down the runway had such an effect of me. The dark hair, vampish lips, white skin and the scribble print that makes your eyes dance, made quite a dark and scary first impression. I was holding Proenza Schouler's vibrant, surf inspired collection from last season in mind, and wow, what a change.

Grandma knit sweaters over the top of stark white shirts, buttoned up to the neck, were a disconcerting combination. Dresses, belts and in particular, collars and that strip down a shirt where buttons should be, were made in leather, giving a cool edge to the Gothic feel of this collection.

A predominant trend of NYFW so far seems to be the reworking of the preppy, school-girl look, and it's been interesting to see how different designers have played with it. Proenza Schouler add a lot of texture to theirs with heavy, long furs in navy hues and sleek black. I think what gave this collection such a creepy factor for me was it reminded me of psychopathic characters in horror films. They kind of looked like a mysterious girl in school , who turns out to be murdering off the other students one by one.

As the collection progressed colours were introduced in the palette of a bruise; black-green, pallid-yellow and threads of navy blue. I particularly liked the long-sleeved, empire line dresses with mesh panels across the chest - a perfect look for autumn.

Further down the line, the collection became more reminiscent of spring/summer, with a day-time sky blue, and dresses with quite a pretty, paint speckled print.

The collection was really strong and very wearable. I wish I could buy at least half of it. Definitely, one of my favourites from NYFW, up there with Preen.

P.S - and let's not forget the shoes: AMAZING.

Preen A/W '10: modern romantic.

Do you get that knot of excitement inside, when you see a designers collection, which you just know is going to be a big hit, because every, single piece just works? For last season it was Burberry, Christopher Kane and Alexander McQueen to name a few off the top of my head, who I felt were going to largely shape the highstreet for the next six months, just from that one collection. So far, I've felt the same about Preen. It was the first collection I've seen of NYFW that gave me a sliver of excitement and finally animated me, as I sat trawling through style.com (not to say I don't enjoy doing this, but you know, it takes a while looking through these designers!). 

First up: florals with a contemporary feel. 

The sneaky peeks of décolletage spied through cut-out panels of heavy black and sheer fabrics, made floral print look contemporary and sexy, whilst still exuding the labels cool factor.

Masculine tailoring that doesn't make you look too....well, mannish?

What I really loved about this collection was the masculine tailoring, which looked effortlessly cool and still somewhat chic, without being at all androgynous. As Meenal Mistry said in her review of the collection, this type of tailoring has moved on from the slouchy, younger looks of 'boyfriend' size. This is about "husband" pieces; heavy, well structured and so big they can wrap you up nearly twice round; the look is strong and undeniably sexy. It looked particularly nice in a neutral palette. The key here, is whatever you wear underneath your coat,  make it ultra feminine. Whether that's with a protrusion of sheer fabric or with the underwear as outerwear trend; with sexy, cut-out panels or if you just keep the legs out, it's the fusion of feminine and masculine style which makes this look so appealing. 

Bits of the collection reminded me of Christopher Kane's S/S '10 (yes, I really did love his collection and you will hear about it alot). However, Preen's wasn't about being subversively, sexy; it was bold and confident, and it made a very strong statement.

What do you think of Preen for A/W '10? Who's designed your favourite collection at NYFW so far?

Photos: Style.com