FASHION Magazine

What better way to start London Fashion Week than practically getting physically violated at Topshop, where Mary Katrantzou‘s collection launched this morning? Not! But forget that—on to the shows!

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View the Jean-Pierre Braganza backstage beauty photo gallery »
View the Todd Lynn runway photo gallery »

View the backstage beauty photo gallery »
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As huge fans of the fishtail, we were very excited to see this braided style at Jean Pierre Braganza. Backstage, Pantene’s consulting stylist Justin German described the look as softer than what Braganza showed in London, with the braid stemming from the base of a very bob-like shape. To achieve this structure, German went through the hair with some volumizer, then blow-dried it into the desired shape. An elastic at the base kept it all together, which German wrapped with hair after the fishtail was finished.

View the runway photo gallery »
View the backstage beauty photo gallery »
View the runway video »

Bringing a bit of math class to the runway, London-based Montreal-born designer Jean Pierre Braganza showed so many dizzying geometric variations at Friday’s Ritz Carlton show that our heads were spinning (the good way, not The Exorcist way). Opening the show with FASHION favourite Liisa Winkler, the show included metal-dotted, hexagon-printed, revealingly slashed, beaded night-time dresses, pantsuits, and blazers that were done up in so many unique ways and we could see them being worn by many interesting ladies (we’ve personally witnessed the multitude of uptown, downtown, and arty types that visit Queen Street West’s Carte Blanche specifically requesting his wears). While Carte Blanche is currently Braganza’s only Canadian stockist, we’ll bet that the list will getting longer after Friday’s strong showing.

Tune in at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. EST to watch the Jean Pierre Braganza and Todd Lynn Spring 2012 collections LIVE from the shOws at the Ritz Carlton in Toronto!

The post Livestream: Watch the Jean Pierre Braganza and Todd Lynn Spring 2012 shows LIVE! appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

I decided to kick off London Fashion Week by nearly falling…into my fabulous silver Mercedes Benz sedan. Thanks, British Fashion Council (and ouch, Louboutins)! Not a great start, but all was forgotten once I got to the Jena.Theo show, where an excited Hilary Alexander was already seated, wearing the cutest leopard-print sneakers. Loved the great big hair and red lips inspired by old-Hollywood glamour (fitting for a collection called Fatale).

Check out our London fall 2011 fashion week photo gallery »

“It’s fashion week here?” says the taxi man, pulling away from Paddington Station. “That’s good.” For the cabbing business? Of course. Fashion week heels and London cobblestones don’t mix.

Luckily I’ve got razor-grips on my Camilla Skovgaards, which have already been photographed, in early Jak & Jil style, more times than my face. Er, I won’t take it personally. After all, I took the red-eye quite literally; if I were any more bloodshot I’d be Charlie Sheen. Crimson was the colour du jour at Jean-Pierre Braganza, too. The Ryerson grad and ex-Montrealer is one of my favourite Canadian expats, and that’s saying a lot, because there were loads of them here by my last count. Homeboy has got a wicked way with tailoring, envelope-folding, laser-cutting… even the LBD is interesting in his hands.

Big congrats to Victoria’s Secret model Doutzen Kroes who is pregnant with her first child. We’re already expecting to be wowed by her post-baby bod. [The Cut]

The London Fashion Week schedule has just been released: after two seasons in Paris, Brit designer Giles Deacon will be presenting on home turf, along with LFW newbies Acne. The usual slew of Canadians are on the list as well, including Mark Fast, Todd Lynn, Jean Pierre Braganza and Erdem. London Fashion Week starts September 17.

The work of four Canadian designers will be featured in a designer pop-up at an outlet mall outside of Oxford, England. The British Design Collective at Bicester Village outlet mall offers buyers the opportunity to pick up looks from Erdem, Mark Fast, Jean Pierre Braganza and Todd Lynn (as well as, you know, some British designers) at up to 50 per cent off. The pop-up opens March 31 and will be open for six weeks.

For argument’s sake, lets take these pieces from Mark Fast and Erdem that we found at full price on British retailer Browns’ website (brownsfashion.com). (Browns has no affiliation with the sale, nor do we know if these pieces will be available.) The pieces are, from clockwise from the top left corner, left, are £1,595, £985, £420 and £240. At the current rate of exchange that’s at total of CAD$4,910.

Let’s do some fashion math:

Knowing not a word of Spanish, I assumed the gilded words “El Hangar” on the Mango gala invite meant the whole glittering shindig would go down in a Barcelona airport hangar.

Not quite: the location of the Oscar party (that would be the jury chairman and too-charming host of this year’s El Botón-Mango Fashion Awards, Oscar de la Renta, not the little gold man) was in Mango’s BCN headquarters. To fete the second incarnation of the awards, the warehouse was transformed into an amber-lit hive of fast-fashion festivity, all champers and ciggies and swift kisses on both cheeks. The international jet set was in full force, so in that respect it was a sort of hangar, after all (and never mind all the overbronzed hangers-on).