Archive for February 2012
Burberry Prorsum Autumn Winter 2012 Collection at London Fashion Week
Arguably the most exciting show of the week (in a week of enthralling episodes) took place today at LFW in the resplendent Kensington Garden tent, without doubt the most fabulous London show venue of them all. This 156 year old global brand, with a self-professed, ‘distinctly British attitude’ clearly showed how and why it has become one of the, if not, the UK’s premier designer brand.
The pastoral inspired designs brought to life by chief creative officer, Christopher Bailey, mixed tradition with innovation whilst remaining quintessentially British at heart. Herringbone tweeds, flat caps and velvet represented the more traditional British country look while various embellishments, owl prints, ruffles, bow belts, peplums, stripes, stud details and the odd touch of sparkle lent an innovative and contemporary twist.
Although the line showcased some stunning menswear, a noticeable aspect was its striking femininity with body conscious pencil skirts, peplums, fitted jackets and waist cinching bow belts. Whilst the pieces looked fabulous on the gorgeous and typically slender models, led by Cara Delevingne, you could imagine this particular collection looking magnificent on an array of shapes and sizes. Country attire could, for some women, bring perturbing thoughts of shapeless woollen coats and wellington boots to mind but this Burberry Prorsum Autumn Winter 2012 Collection at London Fashion Week brought a whole new meaning with its sumptuous textures and womanly shapes.
The front row was almost as exciting as the show itself including famous faces such as up and coming actor (and current face of the SS12 collection), Eddie Redmayne, his Birdsong co-star and French actress, Clemence Poesy, fellow Burberry model, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, and the British Fashion Council’s ‘young ambassador,’ Alexa Chung. Also among the glittering front row posse was actress Kate Bosworth who modelled an Autumn/Winter Burberry look as if straight from the runway.
Kate Bosworth wearing a look encompassing three of the stand out features of this collection; pencil skirts, owl prints and bow belts.
A star studded front row: Will i..am, Alexa Chung, Jeremy Irvine, Clemence Poesy, Eddie Redmayne & Rosie Huntington- Whiteley
The colour pallet remained typically British conservative with hues ranging from olive, grey, burgundy, plum, mustard and brown in every shade. Florals also made an appearance towards the end of the show featuring on round neck dresses and peplum pencil skirts. And then the heavens opened as if to water the flowers just displayed before us and a downpour of foil rain arrived just in time for the models to show off this season’s striped umbrellas. Nothing, however, could have dampened the audience’s spirits after witnessing such a transcendent display of fashion mastery.
Cara Delevingne leading the finale procession (right) >
Burberry (Flagship Store)
21-23 New Bond Street
Mayfair
London
W1S 2RE
Tel: (+44) (0)203 402 1500
Mon-Sat: 10:00-19:00
Sun: 12:00-18:00
Feature written by Ciara Heslam
FashionBoxx presents Nataliya Dolenko private collection at No5 Cavendish
“Ok, so London Fashion Week has now been and gone, but lets face it, if like us your bona fide addiction to retail therapy simply cannot stomach waiting for NYC, Paris and Milan to showcase the next collections, you’ll be glad to hear that internationally renowned designer Nataliya Dolenko is offering a sneak preview of her latest collection, by way of a private fashion show at members club No5 Cavendish.”
Entering the fashion world when she was 15, she had been successfully working as a model in Kiev (where she was born) and Moscow for seven years, participating in numerous fashion shows, advertisements and beauty competitions. Completing her Master’s Degree in Engineering, she moved to London to study Fashion at the infamous Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. During her BA Course, she was invited to collaborate with her favourite London based designers: Hussein Chalayan and Alexander McQueen, where she gained invaluable experience which were put to use in improving her own design skills, working both in London and Paris design studios.
Nataliya started showcasing her own collections at the end of 2008 in London in the last year of her studies at the Central Saint Martins. The first show of her own Nataliya had when she was invited by Fashion TV London to participate in their competition. Just a few days before the event she made a collection of seven home-made pieces and won the competition. The next catwalk show and presentation of the brand was in February 2009 during London Fashion Week, when Nataliya presented her ‘Sublimation’ Autumn/Winter 2009 Collection a few months later. The Event took place at Ill Bottaccio, Belgravia. Victorian Palace was hosting London’s fashion people, including celebrity stylists and buyers from London’s boutiques including Harrods and Nataliya was named as one of the most promising young designers.
Inspired by Buddhist meditational art, her spiritual experience during the trip to Himalayas and Mandala images and practices in particular, ‘Sublimation’ awoke the interest of the new emerging designer around the world, bringing customers and show invitations spanning Milan to Dubai and London to Cannes. In October 2009 Nataliya collaborated with the Maybach Foundation and donated one of her designs to their Charity Auction in Los Angeles, where it was bought to be worn at next year’s Oscars Ceremony.
While Nataliya is quite conceptual with her design ideas, at the same time she always aspire to emphasize female beauty and tenderness. Her style can be described as very sensual and feminine Haute Couture clothes that epitomize chic elegance.
Design techniques developed by Nataliya are based on a strict order in pleating, unconventionally stitching together shaped patterns and then folding them in a specific way. Her luxuriously feminine, fabric of choice ‘French Silk-Chiffon’ naturally emphasizes the beauty of female shapes, creating a sophisticated look that opens new ways of looking at luxury clothes. The designs are very wearable and comfortable, created in response to body movement and making a woman feel as if from a fairytale, albeit a very modern almost cosmic fairytale.
THE COLLECTION.
Nataliya’s new Collection has been inspired by her travels and thinking about the objects which are never still, like the air, and capturing the feeling of unlimited freedom of flying. Named after her experience in paragliding, feeling of freedom achieved by a jump from Precipice, associating this name with risk and excitement of a person, separated by a moment from a pure happiness.
Techniques and ideas applied in the Collection: play with revealing and hiding certain parts of a body with layered structures to create multi-dimensional shapes and joining them with plain semi-transparent parts, creating unique and unpredictable effects during the body movement, yet remaining elegant. The volumes are created by a slight displacement of conventional places and executed in semi-transparent French Chiffon-Changeant.
A combination of bright blues, vivid olives and violet colours mixed with darker shades of olives and shark (very deep blue/green colour), lightened up by integrating white, off-white and biscuit colours. Fabric is mainly Chiffon-Changeant, which is woven of two different colour threads also some heavier types of silks are used for the ‘white’ part of the Collection.
The tone of this Collection could be described as dynamic and fluid, multi-meaningful and sophisticated, at the same time comfortable while worn, employing unconventional principles of cut, such as removing side seams on the garments and slightly shifting the places for volumes, this does not appear to be created deliberately, but rather adds a natural feel to a woman’s appearance.
The Collection consists of short and long dresses, skirts, draped blouses and suits. Predominantly side seams are moved to the centre front and back, exposing a beauty of falling down naturally created drapes. This adds to a garment’s three dimensional feeling, observing it from any side gives the refined look. Starting with short and light pieces, continuing with classy white designs, culminating with a number of long, generously cut evening gowns.
Join us for this extraordinary evening this coming Saturday 3rd March/strong>
No5 Cavendish,
Mayfair,
London.
W1G 0PG
Doors open at 4:30pm and the show starts at 5:30pm. An after-party will then follow and certainly ensure that this will be an evening that you simply cannot pass up on.
RSVP required by March 1st, contact:
rsvp@thefashionboxx.com
Bugatti to unveil new Grand Sport Vitesse at Geneva Motor Show
Bugatti is set to unveil the most powerful roadster of all time at the 82nd International Geneva Motor Show at the beginning of March.
With an increase in power the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse boosts a mind-altering 1200HP and has opened a new dimension for open-top driving.
Bugatti’s engineers have developed the current Grand Sport, with its 1,001 HP and 1,250 Nm, into an even more powerful vehicle. The Vitesse’s maximum torque is now an impressive 1,500 Nm. The increased power of the new roadster’s 16-cylinder engine is made possible by the four enlarged turbochargers and intercoolers. The chassis has also been modified to support the power increase. The Vitesse therefore also ensures the supreme range of excellent features one would expect of a Bugatti super sports car, from precise driving dynamics to extraordinary acceleration and braking.
“The rapid success of the Super Sport convinced us to increase the performance of the Bugatti roadster. Once again our engineers worked hard to demonstrate that Bugatti is able to constantly redefine the boundaries of what is technically feasible,”
- reveals Bugatti President Wolfgang Dürheimer.
“We did our utmost to transfer the achievements of the Super Sport over to the Grand Sport, thereby turning open-top driving itself into an extraordinary experience at high speed.”
The eternal pursuit of perfection in the art that is Japanese Whisky
When it comes to supercars there is no shadow of a doubt that this is an area where the Italians reign supreme, however, conversely when it comes to whisky, especially that of single or blended malts, this is evidently a territory where the Scots bestow the honours. Well, at least the latter had been my conception until recently savouring the delights of Japanese whisky, namely the Suntory brand.
“Every once in a while there are those rare occurrences that really upturn previously held beliefs and rewrite the rule book, well my first experience of Japanese whisky certainly proved to be just such an occasion.”
The Art of Japanese Whisky
In a way that seemingly only the Japanese know how, anchored in their eternal pursuit of perfection, they have seemingly managed to turn the whisky making process in to an art form. In fact, established in 1923 by Suntory founder Shinjiro Torii, Japan’s first and oldest distillery Yamazaki was purposely built in the periphery of Kyoto, a region famed for having the purest waters in Japan. Inspired by Scottish whisky, Torii understood that it would be the unique terrain and climate of Japan that would distinguish his whiskies, so from utilising the most sacred of waters, to introducing ‘Mizunara,’ a Japanese oak in construction of his casks, he scrupulously ensured that every stage of the process remained true to the delicate harmonies that lie between Japanese nature and its people.
Distinctive and unique
What I find most fascinating, is that the Japanese artisans have not copied Scotch, but rather embraced Scottish practices to develop an entirely new smoother and more rounded whisky, quite unlike anything else the world over. Of added interest, is the way in which they serve it; whilst connoisseurs may continue to insist on drinking it neat, it is actually common practice in Japan to either serve with plenty of ice, a splash of (warm or cold) water, or even diluted with soda water. Whilst particularly the latter may sound somewhat detrimental, it is however worth noting, that as a comparison, in England it has become common to dilute whisky with such insults as lemonade or worst still Coca Cola.
So in many respects the Japanese traits actually pay homage to the purity of the whisky, whilst making it more drinkable over perhaps lunch, or appealing to the typically lighter taste palates of the fairer sex.
Global industry accolades
Suntory whiskies have garnered over 60 awards in the last eight years. Most recently Yamazaki 1984 single malt was named Best Malt Whisky in the World 2010, while Hibiki 21 year old was named Best Blended Whisky in the World 2010. Also in 2010 Suntory was named Distiller of the Year, the first time this accolade had been given to a Japanese distiller.
Having already won over 60 international awards for quality and excellence and quickly gaining worldwide acclaim for being one of the finest brands of whisky on the planet, it comes as no surprise that even the Scots are starting to take the competition a little more seriously, with blind tastings having caught-out even some of the most seasoned of Scottish whisky connoisseurs.
When Suntory was first established it catered solely for their own domestic market. Nowadays they currently export to over 25 different countries and have been accepted with such outstanding praise that they are currently having difficulty in meeting the international demand.
Listen to the experts
Anyway with regard to taste I simply do not have the editorial space nor the necessary thesaurus of superlatives to afford Suntory the honours they deserve.
But don’t take my word for it. Read these comments from experts who know whisky:
Luca Cordiglieri, Bar Manager of China Tang at The Dorchester:
“Yamazaki is a good sipping whisky but is also a great base for a cocktail”.
Robert Gaggl, Bar Manager of Devigne Bar at The Mandeville Hotel:
“ …the Japanese approach to whisky-making has resulted in outstanding whiskies which have successfully taken on the world”.
Pedro Solorzano, Bar Manager of Hush Bar:
“Hibiki 17 year old is the perfect blend. The best way to savour the aromas and flavours of Japanese whisky is to drink it neat”.
Dave Broom, whisky connoisseur and judge at the Whisky Magazine Awards 2011:
“(Of the Hibiki 21 year old blended whisky)…Who can beat it? This is a well deserved win”
“(Of the Yamazaki 1984 single malt)…This whisky is all-conquering. A remarkable result in a very competitive category”.
My only command is that next time you order a drink, make it a Suntory and possibly my personal favourite, the multi-award-winning full bodied malt ‘Yamazaki 18,’ which oozes with aromatic complexities spanning spicy cherry, toffee, sherry and raisins plus a chocolate and a hint of smoke.
In case of difficulty in locating Suntory whiskies simply contact the UK distributor:
Cellar Trends Limited
Tel: 01283 217703
www.cellartrends.co.uk
Fortunately for our lucky members, even if your local bar or retailer cannot cater for your cravings, we have managed to secure a free bottle of Yamazaki 18 to give away. To be in with a chance of winning a bottle, simply head over to our privileges area … Click Here!
or alternatively you can always visit our Facebook page
