Neon hippie

Topshop dress £36 (topshop.com)

I would love this bright fluorescent Topshop dress with tan sandals for summer nights. It's right on trend with the neon wave hitting the high street for Spring/Summer 2011.

Splash of fluo

Legs at LFW

Laura Fantacci

I just stumbled across these cool outfits from LFW on Telegraph Fashion of neutral outfits teamed with eye-popping accessories. Italian-born Laura Fantacci, stylist at Red magazine, is really good at this look. See her blog Wearing It Today. I really like her laid-back but chic style, she really works the classics well. When working there, I found that Red magazine really love long-lasting items that go with everything. They are very good at classic outfit building and have some great style and 'Can I Wear It?' features on their website: Red magazine.

Central Saint Martins MA Show

Central Saint Martins MA students show at London Fashion Week, from Adam Welch on Vimeo

Sunday night saw the latest from the MA students at Central Saint Martins MA course (which produced Stella McCartney and Christopher Kane).

Designers Phoebe English and Viktor Smedinge won the L'Oréal Professional prize and were presented with this by Elle's Fashion Features Director, Rebecca Lowthorpe. Other ones to watch are Myrza du Mynck and Maarten Van der Horst. 

My personal favourite is Phoebe English's hair-like creations, that evoke the wispiness of Aubrey Beardsley's arabesque design of the late 1800s.

Phoebe English

Fast Fur

Mark Fast A/W 2011

How amazing are these fur hats in Mark Fast's A/W 2011 collection. I love the furry boudoir shoes and off the shoulder dress, which serves to create a really interesting silhouette. The huge black fur jacket and knee length contrast dramatically with Fast's generic spindly barely-there dresses. A fierce collection that fits with the gothic theme present at Giles and Julien MacDonald, this Autumn Winter 2011.

Teastained silk at Temperley

Temperley A/W 2011

Stunning 1970s caramels and ivorys swooshed down the catwalks at Temperley A/W 2011.

I love the pale skin punctuated by red lips and that the glorious milky silk was occasionally accented with black.

Emmanuelle Alt's first Vogue cover

Emmanuelle Alt
 (I Want To Be a Roitfeld)

Vogue UK have confirmed that Gisele Bundchen will cover the first Paris Vogue under new Editor-in-Chief, Emmanuelle Alt. This issue will hit the shelves in early March and I'm not alone in my anticipation to see what she's done with the publication.

Paris Vogue editors seem to take on a kind of mythical, authoritative status. What they say is cool, goes and is widely accepted. Alt's first Vogue cover is her chance to prove that she is up to the job and will carry on the Roitfeld legacy in true, Parisian style.

When asked how she chose Gisele, Alt replied, "It was just a spontaneous decision...There was no question."

The April front cover will show Gisele in St Barts wearing Dolce & Gabbana.

"I hope you like it," she says, and I'm sure we will!

Autumn Leaves at Mulberry

Olivia, Clémence and Kirsten

Olivia, Clémence and Kirsten look like a blend of Mulberry handbags here - all dressed in warm caramel-y shades they channel Mulberry's shades of autumn leaves for Autumn Winter 2011.


"SHE'S a gorgeous girl living in a dilapidated country estate, popping outside for a cigarette," explained Mulberry creative director Emma Hill of this season's girl following this morning's show at Claridges. The collection had its inception in children's film The Fantastic Mr Fox, a reference that was made clear when Hill's muse, model Ella K, opened the show to a piercing wolf whistle and George Clooney's voice as the film's lead character was heard over the music (Vogue.com).

Mulberry AW11 (Vogue.com)

Animal

Olivia on way to Vivienne Westwood party

It looks like animal prints are a sure fire trend for A/W 2011 if Olivia Palermo's wardrobe and Topshop Unique's catwalk collection are anything to go by! Here Olivia has teamed monochrome animal prints with neutral fur and shoes in a dramatic ensemble. 

Olivia at NYFW at Matthew Williamson

Here Olivia mixes patterns and brights on a black base. Keeping her hair tied back serves to uncomplicate the outfit. she complements the busy prints with my favourite of her bags, the vintage-style tan clutch.

Camel and leopard

Olivia at Jaeger London

Olivia really suits camel and this shirt dress complements her tan nicely. The leopard booties, that she wore in New York also, are a fun touch to an otherwise simple outfit. As always the Queen of Accessories has chosen a perfect gold (Mawi-style) necklace to offset her tan palette.

Olivia at Mulberry

Another outfit choice from Olivia, she blends warm browns to set off her tan and comfortable shoes for walking around at London Fashion Week. This isn't my favourite Olivia outfit as I don't think the shoes match the outfit or her handbag. However I like her choice of tans and browns for the main body of the outfit, they bring out the paler shine of her hair.

Furry peach

Olivia Palermo

Keeping a close eye on Olivia's style during the Fashion Weeks, here at NY FW, clashing fur, oranges and leopard print. 

Awash with blue

Olivia Palermo in Topshop at Matthew Williamson 

Olivia Palermo blends sky hues effortlessly in a Premium skirt (£60) from Topshop.com and cosy stone wool polo neck jumper, perfect for cold days at the start of Spring. The brown leather serves to accent the pale colours and complement her shiny chestnut hair.

TOPSHOP UNIQUE A/W 2011

Special guest Anna Wintour

Anna Wintour at Unique (@Go_to_show)

CHECKLIST:

Dark red patent

Dalmatian

Regal

Fur-trimmed

Big fur jackets

Purple jumpsuit

Pin stripes

One looks like pyjamas

Geometric shapes

Modernist geometric shape maxi dresses

1920s style

Busy tights

Sweetheart necklines

All with Minnie mouse hair

Cube heels

Finale

Topshop Unique finale (Forever Without on Tumblr)

Watch Topshop Unique AW11 again at: http://live.topshop.com/#

Musée d'Orsay 2011

A gorgeous video about the wonderful Musée d'Orsay, Paris. There is an exquisite pre-Raphaelite photography collection coming up in March, see the photos below.

Kate

Coolspotters.com

Kate Bosworth spotted in Isabel Marant SS11 - gorgeous jewel colours which stand out vibrantly against the white background. 

Bambi

Coolest new supermodel Bambi for No magazine

She's the epitome of boy meets girl, a hybridity of subtle masculinity and overt femininity. She has already modelled for the likes of Topshop Unique, Jen Kao, Diesel Black Gold and Joseph Altuzarra and has had a front cover for Australian Harper's Bazaar.

Bambi is a 2011 blend of Natalia Vodianova's looks and Erin Wasson's attitude. I've seen her in the flesh at the Topshop Unique SS11 show and she is truly striking...those eyebrows! Despite her slightly odd walk, she has an unforgettable face and this is why she was chosen to open the Unique show.

 Look out, this is one to watch.

A weighty issue

Lara Stone: a modern-day, gap-toothed Brigitte Bardot, Carine Roitfeld’s protégé; eight Vogue covers later, she has walked the runway for almost every major fashion house and fronted ad campaigns for Givenchy, Calvin Klein, and Hugo Boss. Thus runs the existing repertoire of the Dutch model, oh, and “she’s bigger than your average”.

Stone in Vogue

In the last few years, this 26-year-old has taken the fashion world by storm, cited as the next Kate Moss and, in a similar way, has become the most desired model to front the world’s biggest clothing campaigns. Today, her fresh, angular face adorns numerous covers and the minutiae of her professional and private life fill the bulk of the international press. Her engagement and marriage to Little Britain and Come Fly with Me's David Walliams kept her firmly in the public eye.

However, despite the frenzy incited by her outstanding natural beauty, the press has still dedicated an alarming amount of column inches to her (very normal size 8) weight and womanly bosom. Having temporarily attempted diet pills and, for a period, resorted to alcohol to numb the pressure of the size zero phenomenon, Stone has learnt to accept her body as it is.

Stone at Louis Vuitton AW10

Stone looked amazing in a busty dress in the Louis Vuitton AW10 catwalk, alongside womanly Elle MacPherson and Victoria's Secret model, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. Her success so far shows a change in the mindset of the fashion world. After two decades of malnourished pre-pubescent girls padding down the catwalks, a handful of fashion houses are beginning to favour more womanly models to showcase their collections. After all, designers want their clothes to be wearable, and as Virginia Smith, the fashion market editor of Vogue quite rightly said, “Lara makes clothes look good.”

Take, for example, talent Mark Fast, whose spidery, skimpy body-con dresses became the ‘must have’ of 2009, gracing the wardrobes of Kate Moss, Rihanna and Alice Dellal. The press had a field day when Fast stomped three size 12-14 models down the runway at London Fashion Week in 2010, proving the versatility of his dresses. A furore was unleashed when two of Fast’s colleagues resigned the day before, highlighting, unfortunately, that the fashion industry still harbours unrealistic ideals and irresponsible prejudices when it comes to women’s weight.

Mark Fast LFW SS10

Yet, Fast’s courageous move marks revolutionary bravery that is beginning to penetrate the fashion industry. Women are coming to the fore to remind the largely brainwashed female public that it is acceptable to have curves; that it is unnatural to wear a size 0 Beckham-style jean.

In 2009, when Lizzie Miller posed nude in the September issue of Glamour US the blogosphere was inundated with worldwide discussions of her brave action. Some of the response was positive, some not so.

It seems that, despite the fashion industry’s enduring obsession with ‘thin equals chic’ of the 90s, heads are starting to turn and waistbands are being slackened due to the prominence of real, curvier women in the media. Love magazine featured a bare Beth Ditto for its launch issue and followed it up with a body issue displaying eight real-looking nude supermodels.

It seems that more than ever the industry is pushing boundaries. However, what concerns me is the recent dramatic change seen in the 'plus-size' model Crystal Renn, so celebrated for her stunning looks and womanly, curvaceous figure. A recent shoot in Vogue Germany shows her looking gaunt and thin. 

The transformation of Crystal Renn

In the bigger picture, the fashion industry still has a long way to go before it represents the larger part of women in today's society.

Futurist Bohemian: Dora's Fur

Futurist Bohemian picks from Topshop SS11 inspired by Dora's Fur.

Georgia, of Dora's Fur, has an amazing eclectic hippie style that reminds me of long summer nights. She knows how to layer and I love her trailing dresses and kaftans. I think the current Topshop collections Snake Valley and New Age Constellation perfectly sum up her style...

Me in a Feature on Palatinate TV

Topshop Unique Showspace LFW Autumn/Winter 2011

Old Billingsgate Market

Topshop will show at Old Billingsgate Market this coming London Fashion Week. 


"When choosing a venue for the Topshop Show Space we have a lot to consider as, in addition to our own runway show for Topshop Unique, we traditionally open up the space to a host of our favourite designers, including the Fashion East collective," says Mary Homer, managing director of Topshop. "It's our chance to give something back to the fashion community and host some of London's most inspiring talents. It's got to be near Somerset House, London's fashion hub, it's got to be a neutral space that each designer can make their own, and it's got to be a large enough space to accommodate our now infamous and hugely popular Topshop Cafe. The Old Billingsgate Market ticked all of these boxes - it's a landmark building with stunning architectural features, right on the Thames, and it's just a nine minute cab ride from Somerset House! I'm really excited to see some of the week's hottest shows in such an inspiring environment." 

Topshop Unique showspace SS11

Having been lucky enough to work at the Topshop Unique S/S 2011 show in September 2010 at Waterloo station, I am eager to see what this season's collection has in store. This is a really exciting time for Topshop. As the first high street store to show at London Fashion Week, they really are paving the way for non-designer labels and Unique is now taken very seriously, in terms of fashion, in the worldwide market.

Topshop Unique A/W 2011

Considering last year's A/W 2011 collection where  the designers sent animal fur-clad models down the runway sporting antlers, I'm waiting in anticipation to see what they have put together for this year's Autumn Winter collection...

Red or Dead?

Red is hot this season, appearing all over the catwalks, 'red' carpets and high street shops. Is it easy to pull off though? January Jones looks stunning in red-hot Versace at the Golden Globes and I love Topshop Unique, Calvin Klein, Lanvin and Erdem's (clockwise) interpretation of the colour wave also.

Tomato red lips were strong at Gucci on a palette of barely-there make up. On the high street you can pick up this red suede biker jacket at Topshop or this red handbag at LK Bennett.