It sounds too good to be true, the power-house french label, Lanvin collaborating with H&M. There have been some collaborations in recent years but none so spine-tinglingly exciting.
The 48 piece collection focuses on cocktail hour clothing with dresses, jackets, jewellery and shoes, yes shoes!
Now you can own a little slice of designer heaven for a fraction of the price. Normally one would expect to pay substantially more for Lanvin’s fun and flirty designs but on the 23rd November fans can afford to indulge.
The maximum you will pay for a dress is £149.00.
The acid bright chandelier earrings that have an almost punky feel to them are a steal at £14.99.
Smoke net dress, £149.99, image from Fashionista.com
The Scoop
Grazia magazine, who got a sneak preview of the whole collection, spoke to creative director Alber Elbaz about the clothes. He revealed his need for everything to be happy and joyful;
‘The range is all about colours, shapes, flowers and happy clothes, inspired by creations from Lanvin’s recent past. It is very much about melodrama…and also full of humour.’
The colour palette is a blend of bright and youthful pinks and reds combined with some neutrals such as taupe and dark gold.
The standout pieces
One favourite item that will surely fly off the hangers is a seemingly strapless smoke net dress (seen above). It features the finest of nude meshes on top, a truly Elbaz touch, which is attached to a sweetheart bust in smoky grey net.
With its ribbon tie waist and full net skirt this dress is dainty and delicate whilst also being show-stopping, it also comes in fiery red.
Some of the other party dresses, frankly, couldn’t have landed sooner. The yellow asymmetric mini dress with ruffle neckline and black contrast waist band is a Grazia favourite.
Meanwhile the black evening jacket made from light-as-air tulle would sit beautifully over any cocktail dress adding sophistication and a note of Parisian elegance.
Round it all off with a pair of Lanvin for H&M heels, leopard print with ribbon ankle ties, and you are set to go for the winter party season.
Emma Watson at a press conference, image courtesy of ursulakm
Emma Watson, of Harry Potter fame, has exploded onto the fashion scene stealing the press limelight from the veteran style elite. Is she is now paving her way towards becoming the next fashion zeitgeist?
The ultimate fashion accolade is to have your style recognised because it sums up the spirit of the times.
In the ’60s we had super-short hemlines, shift dresses and bold patterns. Brigitte Bardot, Twiggy, Britt Ekland and Marianne Faithful symbolise an era with their often provocative dress sense.
The 80’s brought us punk and girls like Debbie Harry from Blondie and Madonna. They covered themselves in leather, lycra and leopard. The girls of the ’80s had an air of nonchalance, a sense of rebellion that also speaks volumes about the decade.
For her Vogue December cover shoot Emma Watson is styled in a distinctly ’60s manner and she taps into the current zeitgeist movement of looking back and reliving what has gone before.
What with Mad Men on our tv’s, Lydia Leonard playing Jackie O on stage in Onassis, and other such cultural phenomena dominating the public domain fashion is having a deja-vu moment.
Reliving retro styles
The gowns that floated down the runways for a/w 2010 heavily referenced the fifties.
Louis Vuitton models were picture perfect in their ’50s style kick flare dresses; Dolce and Gabbana similarly showcased grown-up glamour in retro styles and Prada balanced full skirts that had cut-out bodices.
Balenciaga and Miu Miu championed the ’60s shift mini dress and the reason your office is awash with camel is because designers and high-street stores have fallen in love with the ’70s hue.
For spring, summer the retro look is still strong.
Oscar de la Renta used fifties shapes in modern patterns and boxy tweed jackets over sheath dresses to reinterpret the glamourous era for his resort collection.
Coupled with the fact that last august the fashion elite packed up their bags and left London for Vintage at Goodwood, it is clear to behold that fashion is having a moment of nostalgia.
The Vintage at Goodwood event was themed around all things bygone; Lilly Allen, the Grazia girls, Sophie Ellis Bexter, Daisy Lowe, and Brix Smith-Start all descended on Sussex for a weekend of vintage fun.
Deja-who?
Emma Watson has been closely followed by the fashion press ever since she donned a camouflage print corset and micro-mini shorts at Glastonbury in the summer.
She has regularly graced the covers of some of the worlds most prestigious fashion magazines, these include British and Italian Vogue, Marie-Claire, Elle, Tatler and ES the Evening Standard’s style supplement.
The pictures of Watson for British Vogue were immediately picked up by The Telegraph and she featured on their front page as well.
Styled in a ’60s manner the images beg the question, is Emma Watson set to become the eye of the retro fashion storm?
Hermione’s on hold
Watson rose to fame in 2001 as Harry Potter’s intellectual yet headstrong friend Hermione Granger.
Growing up in the public eye on film has actually lent her a few favours, fashion favours that is.
In 2009 she became the ‘face’ of Burberry, a role that can really launch a career, her predecessors include none other than Kate Moss.
In 2008 she was signed to be the new face of Chanel’s Coco Mademoiselle taking over from Keira Knightley.
In a number of high-profile campaigns the child star has managed to shake off her associations with Hermione and become a young woman in her own right. This is no mean feat in the eyes of the media and she has been lauded for her style ever since.
Earlier this year SunHeeGrinnell a fashion blogger for Vanity Fair perfectly summed up Emma’s rise to fashion fame;
‘Where did our little Hermione Granger go? Harry Potter’s sweet but fiercely spirited friend is surely all grown up! Look for the pretty, pretty Emma Watson in the new spring ad campaign for Burberry. She looks now like a young woman, still cautious but with that “It girl” energy.’
Vogue cover shoot
Lisa Armstrong at Vogue announces that Emma Watson is ‘possibly the biggest British star of her generation’, she managed to earn £20 million last year while at Brown university in America.
Within its glossy pages Watson emanates an inner-glow, and appears confident and enigmatic.
The styling for the shoot is undeniably sixties; her elfin crop slicked and reminiscent of Mia Farrow and Edie Sedgwick, black smoky eyes and in one shot a black long-sleeved jumper dress that wouldn’t have looked out of place on Brigitte Bardot.
Watson has been styled by the Vogue team for her photo-shoot and yet she managed to drive the look herself. She was the one who chose to cut her hair; Vogue had nothing to do with her decision, they just championed it.
She is rapidly becoming someone to turn to for fresh fashion inspiration.
Emma herself notes in the Vogue article that she has only just regained control of her appearance;
For nine years I was contractually obliged not to cut my hair, not to tan. All the normal things girls do.’
So now that she is coming into her own, will she remain the girl with the golden touch? If the Vogue pictures are anything to go by, ring in the Watson era.
Haiti, one-time luxury idyll plagued by sunshine and tourists now in disarray after it’s 7.0 magnitude earthquake earlier this year.
Fast-forward to the present and make-shift camps where the damages were worst are threatened by armed gangs indicating that the countries troubles are far from over.
The 12th january saw the Caribbean island devastated with the epicentre of the quake just a few miles shy of the capital Port-au-Prince.
The National Palace was destroyed, the second story of the building completely collapsed; the BBC reported that a large number of UN personnel were missing and front-line emergency services suffered great loses.
One of the largest referral hospitals in Jacmel, the St. Michel District Hospital, was also brought to the ground.
Breath-taking scenery in northern Haiti
These beautiful images show the northern landscape of Labadee, an exclusive stretch of beach that is leased by cruise company Royal Caribbean. The photographs were taken at the end of December 2009, just weeks before the natural disaster devastated the country.
Labadee, Haiti
Holiday-makers having fun in the sun while locals deal with the diaster
The area was not hit as hard as it sits on the northern most tip of the island. Royal Caribbean sparked outrage with their decision to continue docking at Haiti. Consequently passengers were allowed to vacation on the beach in paradise whilst such extreme poverty was just sixty miles away.
Speaking to Steve Inskeep of NPR the CEO of Royal Caribbean explained the companies decision to return to Haiti.
On their decision to go back Adam Goldstein stated;
‘We actually felt it was a pretty easy decision once we realized that the physical site at our property at Labadee was unaffected by the earthquake, and second, after the Haitian government made it clear that they wanted to continue to have our ships visit, both for the economic benefit that they normally bring, as well as the humanitarian aspect of delivering relief supplies. It was a no-brainer.’
He later reported that the company are one of the countries largest foreign investors spending $50 million on the property.
Some holiday-makers were ‘sickened’
The Guardian reported that many passengers on the first ships to return to the island after the quake stayed on board;
“I just can’t see myself sunning on the beach, playing in the water, eating a barbecue, and enjoying a cocktail while [in Port-au-Prince] there are tens of thousands of dead people being piled up on the streets, with the survivors stunned and looking for food and water,” wrote a passenger on the Cruise Critic internet forum.
Labadee's Port
Rape updates in Twitter status’
Roll on to October and the country receives a flush of new media attention after American journalist Mac McClelland uses twitter as a platform to publicise the rise of sexual violence against women and children living in Haiti’s refugee camps.
The reporter arrived in Port-au-Prince and was shocked by what she found. She tells Grazia,
‘Gangs prowl the refugee camps – home to hundreds of thousands…kidnapping girls as young as five, raping and leaving them with horrific injuries.’
Much to her surprise Mac McClelland’s inbox filled up with hate-mail about her journalistic ethics. Was she sensationalising a story on twitter to get a reaction?
McClleland insists it was the only way she felt she could draw attention to the horrors continuing in Haiti as the world’s attention was drawn elsewhere. She defends what she did.
Sarah Menkedick who writes for the internet site Women’s Rights was not convinced;
‘I have to agree with those who bristle at McClelland’s decision. I know we live in an age in which few moments can be spared the spectacle of their presentation on social networks, but there are certain deeply traumatic and serious issues — rape being one — which do not belong in tweet status updates.’
Zip-wire lines in Haiti
The UN are launching an anti-rape campaign in Haiti to help protect the estimated 1.3 million homeless and vulnerable women and children.
The Style Starling 