Miss Nash

Just like some perfect-fit dark jeans, a shredded grey tee-shirt or a pair of faithful Converse, you should officially consider an all-in-one jumpsuit a basic in your wardrobe. I don’t know if Tibi’s one-shouldered design is all-in-one or a separate top and trouser affair, but I like to imagine it’s a one-sy. In this case, it’s on my wishlist for SS10. A garment like this is the epitome of easy elegance – the perfect balance of smart & casual. If you looked up ‘smart-casual’ in the dictionary, you’d find a picture of this. No written description – just this picture - ’Nuff said. It has everything you could possibly want in an ”oh i had 5 minutes to change so I threw this on and re-did my mascara in the taxi, but don’t I look absolutely fabulous?” outfit: Sexy, select exposure, at-ease elegance, alluring design detail, and an even ratio of masculine:feminine.

Continuing on a similar train of thought from Tibi’s evening all-in-one, Rachel Roy’s fuchsia draped jacket and low slung pants are another textbook example of head-to-toe,  relaxed, tailored elegance. But the twist is the colour. My god the colour; it’s like eating black cherry ice cream with your eyes! The fabric begs to be touched and stroked. I can only imagine you’d spend all your time trying to politely fend off every man and woman’s wandering hands whilst wearing it. Note-to-self about the power of good design: Whilst remaining fully clothed you can attract the same amount of attention and affection that you would whilst lounging around in a cut-away swimsuit. If Ms Roy had a dye-to-match service for this outfit I would literally wear nothing else but.

Still obsessing over relaxed tailoring I move onto the next look, which comes from my latest girl-crush, Wayne Lee. I’ve never heard of her before this season, but what a delightful discovery! Minimal, clean, uncluttered sex appeal is what her clothes are about, and this jacket/shorts combo is my pick of her lot. With its juxtaposition of sharp shoulder on the left and a fall-away drape on the right, this jacket does things to me that I can’t put down in PG-rated prose. I love the touch of sheer at the neckline, the exposure of the legs contrasted with the complete coverage of the upper body, and the quiet intelligence that this look encapsulates.  And the jacket would look totally hot with some distressed jeans – for those inevitable occasions when the weather is behaving with much less intelligence than this outfit.

Tight, bright white, lingerie touches, lace-up, sheer. This descriptive checklist is enough to send any hardworking, fun loving, dessert-eating girl running for the hills. But not in this case. How anyone manages to make an all-white outfit look so urban, chic and subtly sexy is beyond me – Mr Melbostad has achieved it hands down. I love the combination of the corset-inspired lacing down the side leg of the pants, the casual flop-top ‘don’t mess’ boots and the soft structure of the jacket. The carefully selected lingerie details actually give the outfit a hard-edge rather than an overly feminine charm. The clean bright absence of colour immediately smartens the whole thing up – in blacks, greys or dirty greiges it could have been a completely different story – one that i’m getting very tired of seeing time and time again on the high street. It’s kind of like Francisco Costa designed a collection for AllSaints, and this is the stunning scrubbed up result! Loves it.

Preen. Why oh why won’t you come back and show in London?! You’re breaking my heart! At least we Brits can be proud of our seriously slick, high fashion duo whilst they woo America, (and do so a damn site better than some of our pretty poor Pop-Act-exports, who-shall remain nameless…) The strong-shoulder blazer acts as a chic suit of armour protecting fragile, paneled lace. By contrasting the lace and ruffles with a serious dose of masculinity, Preen have managed to make an otherwise very revealing girly-girl dress look positively upperclass. The bold shot of colour on the feet sets the whole look off and these sandals are a refreshing change from all of the studded, sequined, crystal-adorned and bow-tied platforms that I’ve seen plodding all over the place recently. This outfit sends my imagination into overdrive: ‘You find yourself at an impromptu underground party after a chic uptown dinner, and run out for a cigarette wearing some mysterious stranger’s dinner jacket…’ Yes please!

It turns out I love Vera Wang. Like – I really REALLY love Vera Wang RTW. Wedding dresses don’t get me in a twist, but all of these gorgeous SS10 pieces certainly do. I was looking forward to this show so much after analysing and salivating over the AW09 collection, and Ms Wang didn’t disappoint. This looks to me like it’s a suit-dress – like she took a sleeveless dinner jacket, and made it fold in the right places and then flow into a sexy, sheer hem. My mom AND I could wear this out to a cocktail party no problem (though not at the same time and at the same party, obviously!) -it’s appropriate for all ages. And I like the thick bandage-style straps of the sandals. I think that I’m veering towards anything with a seriously generous ankle strap for summer – probably because i’ll be looking to make the same strong statement with my summer shoes as I do with my boots during the colder months. This is a dress in which you could be totally at ease whilst simultaneously commanding with authority. Like you could be holding a breifcase, or a glass of champagne, or both at the same time! I would wear it with a clean, sleek head of hair and some black lip gloss, allowing the strength of the design to do all the talking.

I almost can’t believe that TWO outfits from the same designer made it into my top 10. I tried to be as diplomatic as i could, in order to get a broad spectrum of the coming trends and a variety of old masters/young talents, but I guess I can’t deny my instincts. You have to go with your gut sometimes, no matter what. So with no shame I must introduce this little stunner from Tibi. Again! Tropical colours & imagery tamed into a symmetrical graphic print, strong shoulders, tight but not too tight, short enough to show off some sun kissed pins, but not too short to reveal any remnants of a winter spent in 100 derniers…Need I go on? And the model is S-M-I-L-I-N-G! She’s happy! Yey! It makes me want to wear it and have a good time in it too! I can hear the cash registers ringing now…

In complete contrast to the aforementioned Tibi tropical number is Max Azria’s mysterious asymmetric design – and for very different reasons it has me in just as much of a fluster. The satisfying mushroom grey, seemingly seamless (sorry, homophone couldn’t be avoided) construction and fluid hang of this dress had me reaching out towards the screen. It must be mine. In all colours of the dirty rich rainbow. It looks like Mr Azria stood on a ladder and poured crepe de chine or some kind of insanely fine suede from a bucket down the model and, voila! I suppose that summary sounds kind of insulting – but I don’t mean it to be in this case. I think Mr Azria and his team have achieved a truly beautiful, uncomplicated design. It is sexy (short hemline) intriguing (fabric/asymmetry) and it almost immediately directs your gaze to the face and features of the wearer. So you are actually looking at the girl wearing it more than the dress itself (as is often the case). It would attract the right kind of attention, which is more than I can say for the Herve Leger by Maz Azria elastic bandage dresses, (who wants to look like a slutty mummy or like they’re still undergoing the 5th ceram/seaweed wrap treatment that they needed to get in order to squeeze into one?!) The kind of guy that would find this dress appealing on a woman would be someone who was – ok fine, GAY – or is from that stellar percentage of guys who are not complete neanderthals and would like to woo a woman with some taste and style (and killer legs…!)

I bow down before you Lady Donna and grovel. In this wise words of Wayne and Garth: ‘I’m not worthy! I’M NOT WORTHY!’ If my budget would allow, and I had to choose one and only one NY designer to wear for the rest of my days, I would wear nothing but Donna Karan all day every day. AW09 was MADE for me, and SS10 was a beautiful, lightened and brightened continuation of that wintery love affair. Fluid, liquid silk captured in a variety of draped dresses, long and short. Comfort-factor evident as always, graceful, sexy, feminine, effortless. I love you Donna, you can do no wrong. If only you would consider bringing your prices down just a touch – I promise you I could rock all of these clothes to within an inch of their lives. Oh Donna I’d do you proud, and so would thousands of other ladies if only you’d give us a chance! (and a severe discount!?) You can try to cater for us at a lower price point all you like, but DKNY just ain’t the same. Who else is feeling my pain here?

Last but not least, we have a swimsuit *gasp*scraping into the top 10! I fell in love with this ‘parading suit’ (come on – who’s going to be swimming in those sleeves?) from Derek Lam because I recently designed something very similar that I was looking forward to making and wearing. My references were 50′s Old Hollywood heroines like Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. Fortunately there are an awful lot of photos to be found – both candid and staged – of these curvaceous ladies in their swimmies, and I took careful mental notes when researching for a design of my own. Looks like Mr Lam beat me to it! Off-shoulder, grown-up, clean lady-like colour, and an added rough touch with laced-up sandals. But you wouldn’t be wearing high heeled sandals by the pool/seaside (well, not the vast majority of us anyway) and it would get a tad hot in there with all the sleeve action. But to take it from runway to real life, I would like to see this suit adapted to a design sans-sleeves, and maybe with a carefully placed print splashing across the upper bodice, or up from the crotch area. Sounds crude, but it would look so sexy – imagine it in a McQueen print from SS09 and you’ll start to see what I’m getting at…