Vivienne Westwood's Jubilee Collection

When you think of Britain, you think fish and chips, ability to queue, narrow mindedness, the royal family and Vivienne Westwood. And so it only appropriate that Vivienne Westwood launches a capsule collection to mark the Jubilee; celebrating 60 years of her reign.

The Queen of British design, Westwood frequently uses typical British shapes, designs, Union Jack and crown motifs designed the collection inspired by gowns that Her Majesty has previously worn.

The range of ten dresses and four pairs of earrings will launch in May is beautiful with Union Jack colours, corseted styles and full-length dresses in silks, satins and tafetta. My favourite from the collection is the stunning full-length dress in Union Jack print that has aged effect; a cowl neck, rouched shoulders and flattering draped style it is amazing and not tacky being Union Jack at all as it Westwood.

The breath-taking Union Jack print dress by Dame Vivienne Westwood; image courtesy of Vogue.com.

Although being inspired by royalty and designed by fashion royalty it comes with the matching price tag- prices range from £650 to £3,000.

http://www.viviennewestwood.co.uk/

Punk... Then and Now

Rebelling. Attitude. Originality. Anti-glamour.

After the perfect eras of the swinging sixties, hippie seventies, squeaky eighties and punk is on your doorstep. With permanent tattoos and that Doc Martin shape footprint engraved into fashion history punk made a lasting impact on fashion.

The look; a reaction against glamour and the falseness of fashion meant to symbolise a change in attitude and the public’s desire for realness. Not only a direct rejection of the ideology ‘sex sells’ and the optimism within fashion adverts and photography like the Wonderbra campaign of the early nineties featuring Eva Herzigova in lingerie with just the words ‘Hello Boys’.

When you say the words punk you think of mohicans, leather, tartan, safety pins and studs. Quite ironically punk came to a dramatic end when it became too mainstream. Punk stood for originality and wasn’t afraid to be different but the punk minority grew into more of the majority and fr punk to survive it had to die then.

Fashion is always a direct link to societal change and the mood of society. Punk fashion is a great example of that. What I think is so moving is that it remains one of the most iconic fashions.

I love the fact that our fashions today are influenced by punk. Even with my girly fashion I love that fact that my wardrobe contains punk elements to it and had great delight in 'punking' my little sister up for a school disco a few days ago. Anything from a denim jacket to checks to leather can be punk inspired. I love a few studs too and one of my favourite pieces has to be a vintage denim jacket in a washed denim colour and baggy style.

It’s not only me punk affects its all of us but my brother went through a big punk phrase. Looking at my brother now with his 2 year old son you would never believe that he had a 5 inch Mohican he used to spike up and tartan trousers (probably the most larriest trousers you could find with one leg a royal, bright blue and the other a canary yellow). He may have calmed down in his fashion since then although he still has his leather jacket as one of his prized possessions but I think he did punk to express himself. He wanted to reject the reality of what was going on around him, rebel and shock everyone.

I love the fact that even 20 years on punk fashion still remains the greatest influence to fashion and even in my feminine look will probably continue to do so. Look in your wardrobe I am in no doubt everyone will probably have something influenced by punk in there... I didn't believe it until I truly thought about it with my wardrobe doors open. So take a bow to such a quick fashion 'fad' that caused a storm at the time and still continues too...

Photography through the ages...

Like fashion, photography has changed over the years. The scene of what reflected and the angle of photo’s has evolved over time.

The phenomenon that was the 1947 Christian Dior’s ‘New Look’ although not that ‘new’ considering the work of Parisian couturiers during the war saw the age of photography meant to encapsulate a sense of freedom, breaking free and independence for women. The image below is posed on the street although kept clean, with minimal background the photography was designed to sell women a new, better lifestyle.

 

Above: Dior’s 1947 ‘New Look’ Collection. Image courtesy of designmusuem.org

 

Photography developed more, if you look back at the swinging sixties for example most of the fashion shoots are studio based. If you was to search on for images of Twiggy in the sixties the majority are in studios using different coloured backdrops with some location shoots. These location shoots were mainly streets not really giving information or character about the model. It was intended to represent women of the sixties having increased freedom although at the time there was still a gender power issue.

Above: Twiggy in one of the many studio-based photos during the sixties. Image courtesy of twiggylawson.co.uk

As the photography has developed the nineties was a significant era. I think after the punk movement gave fashion more of a reality outlook and the connection to personal feelings and attitudes become apparent change descended. The photography during the 1990s; which saw the rise of the now style icon Kate Moss become raw to the point that it was not known whether the designer, stylist, model or photography was in fact on drugs. Was that blur intended? The photographs revealed a reality, meant to show a glimpse into the models life giving more personality than a show ironically these photographs down to the placing of cigarette butts and the awkward pose of the model was all staged. The anti-glamour shots were also symbol that the world is imperfect but that imperfection can still be beautiful and who better to show that than Kate Moss.

Above: Kate Moss  shot by Corinne Day in the ‘heroin chic’ era of the 1990s. Image courtesy of corinneday.co.uk

However I feel that fashion photography has always reflected more than just the clothes in them. The era of ‘heroin chic’ just demonstrated it.

The true power of fashion

So in my opinion fashion has helped to revolutionise society. I believe fashion helped to evolve our world into what we see today. Cliché a little but it did help to bring about that change for women’s rights. One of the leading designers for this I believe to be the magnificent Coco Chanel; one of the reasons I love her brand is because of the power her designs had and still have. That simple use of jersey material back in the 1920s and the androgynous theme to her designs, gave increased freedom and movement to women, shocked the world but ultimately assisted in securing gender equality.

Yet it shows just how much influence fashion has on the world.

Simply, you can see that power every-day. For instance, the current big trends are making your waist exciting with peplums. First seen on the catwalks for Spring/Summer 2012 back in September last year from designers including Alexander McQueen, Vera Wang and Yves Saint Laurent then making appearances on red carpets around the world with celebrities such as Emma Watson, Miranda Kerr and Blake Lively. Now peplums are well and truly here in every high-street store.

The power the fashion industry has is shown when that influence, is used in a different way to just spreading the newest trends.  It’s when one of the most arguably successful models Erin O’Connor, steps up to support a campaign that wants to explore the media’s portrayal of women it is highlighted. In the campaign ‘All Walks Beyond the Catwalk’ the aim is to discover how fashion can be used to promote wellbeing.

The campaign comes as news of Erin O’Connor’s Fashion Sanctuary has been forced to close for this season. The Model Sanctuary has been invaluable for young models since it opened in 2008. I personally think it’s this act of kindness for the welfare of the models that carries fashion. There are a lot of people involved in that setting of a trend; the inspiration, the designer, the manufacturer, the press but the model is the one that showcases it to the rest of the world. Therefore the biggest fashion should become to care for those who are the key to setting the trends.

I think that is one of the reasons that drew me to fashion. There are a lot of misconceived ideas that fashion is all about bitchiness, but it isn’t always so negative. Fashion does have the power to achieve a lot and influence so many on the basic level of the high-street and further than that society can also change due to it.