Archive for the ‘Style’ Category

Pump it Up

Posted on: June 13th, 2011 by riddaway No Comments

Clare Finney on the rise and rise of the ballet flat, and the arrival of Pretty Ballerinas
 

They don’t look like the sort of shoes that would inspire controversy. In fact they almost seem designed to avoid it. Yet if there’s one emotion the soft, sweet ballet pumps being sold in St Martins Courtyard have never inspired, it’s indifference.

 For one thing they’re flat, a concession to comfort that seemed almost blasphemous in the days of yore. Even now, shoe height has the power to spark controversy: witness the unions’ insistence that high heels be banned in the workplace, or the furore sparked by a former MP’s rant against flats.

 Yet the gradual rise of the pump can actually be traced as far back as revolutionary French, when the Napoleonic Code of 1803 banned women from wearing high heels due to their connotations of aristocracy and pretension, which hadn’t been helped by Marie Antoinette wearing a pair to her execution. Only when the Victorians started fetishising woman’s ankles did heels become fashionable once more.

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Maid in Britain

Posted on: March 30th, 2011 by riddaway No Comments

Mark Maidment, creative director of Ben Sherman,  talks about shirts, suits and being first down the pub

How long have you been at Ben Sherman?

I’ve been here eight years. It’s a long time isn’t it? A brand goes through all sorts of phases and when I came on board the brand name had started dipping, which was very sad – but now I look out there and I think there’s nothing as exciting as Ben Sherman right now. We’re a brand that’s coming back up from a lull; we’re halfway back up the mountain.

You’ve certainly come a long way since the button down shirt of yore. How did you engineer the transition from shirt staple to lifestyle brand?

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In Bloom

Posted on: March 17th, 2011 by riddaway No Comments

Clare Finney and Holly Cox take a sniff around spring make-up from Covent Garden’s most delectable beauty boutiques. For a homegrown version you can follow the instructions here; for the full blown flower, however, you’ll probably need make up artist Angelina from Screenface, hair stylists from the Covent Garden Salon - and a handful of sheer audacity

Viola x Wittrockiana

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The Farhi Queen

Posted on: March 17th, 2011 by riddaway No Comments

Nicole Farhi has remained at fashion’s forefront for nearly 30 years; Shannon Denny endeavours to learn a few of her tricks

Fashion may have a certain reputation for being fickle, but there is a handful of designers whose work remains relevant and desirable not only from one short season to the next, but year after year – even decade in, decade out. Nicole Farhi falls gracefully into that camp, with a list of accolades for her services as long as a supermodel’s arm.

The winner of four British Fashion Awards for her collections for women, she has been named menswear designer of the year at the FHM awards and British designer of the year at the Maxim awards. She won a Fifi – the fragrance industry’s version of the Oscars – for Nicole Farhi Homme. Then in 2007 she received the CBE for her services, and added a Légion d’honneur only last year.

What’s the formula for her success? Nicole was born in Nice to Turkish parents and at first thought she might become a painter. After studying art and sculpture she moved to Paris to train in fashion. Her career began with a job as a freelance designer in Paris; she next worked in Italy and then in the early 70s moved to England, where she and Stephen Marks became partners both professionally and personally. Together they founded the French Connection fashion label and then gave birth to a daughter in 1975.

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High rollers

Posted on: February 10th, 2011 by riddaway No Comments

Skateboarding fosters artistic creativity to an extent rarely matched by other sports and outdoor pursuits. Shannon Denny meets artist, skater and Slam City collaborator Arran Gregory to find out why

“Any skateboarder ends up being drawn to London like a magnet,” says Arran Gregory. Where you or I might see concrete seating, a handrail and a staircase, a skater sees infinite possibilities. A bench forms the basis for a trick, a rail becomes a surface to slide on and steps offer a whole new way of envisaging and navigating space.

“Skateboarding’s a really good way of mapping out a city,” he says. “We have alternate routes that we take. There’s a route that shoppers have in their heads of London, there’s a tourist route, and then there’s skateboarders. Our route takes us to really random places and backstreets. We’ve got this weird map in our heads.”

For going on 25 years, that map has included Slam City Skates. The cobbles and crowds make skating in Covent Garden impossible, but kids in sneakers carrying boards bearing four wheels have been beating a track here since the mid-Eighties.

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