This week there’s a massive festival range by Topshop being modelled at Coachella, Ellery is being taken to court by Myer and punk is going high-end couture…
It’s Coachella month in America – the festival where celebrities congregate in the desert, wear bikinis and headdresses, and generally try to look like the peak of relaxed California cool.
And Kate Bosworth was at the festival showing off something exciting: a preview of her festival collection with Topshop.
We’re loving what we saw – a laser-cut loose top with matching shorts, in what looks like light, pale suede. Of course, it helps if you have Bosworth’s legs.
Apparently she didn’t design the collection, which is Topshop’s entrance into the whole festival-cool aesthetic – she just gave creative input, and agreed to model it at all the world’s most prominent music fests. Good job if you can get it!
So what’s the Topshop festival collection all about? It’s still top-secret – but they’ve said it’s a “360-degree campaign that involves music, clothes, film, journeys and the attitude and energy of British festivals.”
Music fests in the UK are famous – there’s the Isle Of Wight, T In The Park and the daddy of them all, Glastonbury, where Kate Moss has worn some of her most influential outfits. Gumboots and short-shorts, anybody?
Bosworth has said that her contribution was all about the mindset of ‘the California girls’ – and that Coachella was the best place to ‘test out’ the new range.
What do you think- will you want to get your hands on a Topshop festival piece for Falls Festival or Big Day Out?
Image: Kate Bosworth modelling Topshop at Coachella.
The Metropolitan Museum in New York is opening a retrospective on punk fashion in May – and the fashion world is getting extremely excited.
Called ‘Punk: Chaos To Couture’, the huge retrospective has inspired a whole host of events, including Vogue asking a photographer to go around NYC finding street style that exemplifies modern punk style.
(What that means? Spikes, clashing leopard prints, green eyebrows, collars, skull tattoos and in one case, a beautiful blue up-do.)
Now Moda Operandi have launched a limited edition ‘punk collection’ featuring one-off designs from Dolce & Gabbana, Balmain, Givenchy, Rodarte and – of course – the grandmother of punk style herself, Vivienne Westwood.
The 13-piece range, launching on May 2, will try to marry ‘high fashion and rebellion’, according to Moda Operandi’s co-founder.
However, with prices ranging up to $AU12,500, the range has been accused of missing the ripped, non-commercialised point of punk entirely.
Will you be checking out Moda Operandi’s collection in May?
Image: Punk gone high-fashion in Vogue.
This week fashion had a ringside seat at the Supreme Court, as Myer sought an injunction to prevent Ellery from selling clothes at David Jones.
The Victorian Supreme Court is hearing Myer’s case that Ellery signed a 3-year exclusivity agreement with them – a legal contract saying that she would only sell with Myer – and then reneged on it by moving to David Jones.
The conditions of the contract? Myer has said that it stated she was to produce collections for Myer until 2014, and was not allowed to sell her two labels, Ellery Land and L’America, at any other large department store.
Ellery’s designer Kym Ellery began selling her designs in David Jones in January, and was sued almost immediately.
The ‘war’ between Myer and David Jones has always been a serious part of Australian fashion, with both department stores competing to attract the best designers, models and spokespeople for themselves.
Ellery was apparently worried about her sales at Myer, who encouraged her to expand her market by designing professional workwear as well as ‘occasion’ dresses.
Ellery is one of Australia’s more high-profile cult fashion brands – she showed at Lincoln Centre for New York Fashion Week in 2012, and even put on a catwalk for this year’s Paris Fashion Week in February.
Kym herself has been quoted as saying that she believes David Jones is ‘ a great fit’ with her vision. She is insisting to the court that the exclusivity agreement is restraining her trade, and not legally binding.
We’ll keep you posted on the results – many Australian designers will be watching closely…
Image: Ellery at a Myer event.