FASHION Magazine

Check out our London fall 2011 fashion week photo gallery »

In London’s far far east, where no fashion boutique has gone before, LN-CC is boldly going in a new retail direction. While the industry bickers over whether worldwide e-tail like Net-a-Porter or hyper-localized concept retail is the future, LN-CC is doing brilliantly at both like it’s no big thing.

Everyone loves a Canadian designer in London. From Erdem to Mark Fast to Thomas Tait, it’s a whole new boys’ club over there. But they better make room for one serious creative force of a girl: Kat Marks.

The Calgary native graduated from the Ryerson School of Fashion in 2008. I’ve never forgotten her work at the grad show. While most of her peers were fussily reinventing the cocktail dress, Marks was making balloon-shouldered bodysuits and plastic torsos with jutting hips. Think Margiela, but at a sex shop. Soon after leaving Ryerson, off Marks went to the London College of Fashion, where she got her Masters in Fashion Artefact and all the right kinds of attention.

Today, Marks’ fashion film, The Karass, premieres at SHOWStudio.com. No big deal: it’s just the major-est, most respected avant-garde fashion force in the whole UK. And yes, the short is shot by the site’s mastermind and genius image-maker, Nick Knight himself!

Experience the video for yourself, but be sure to keep in mind that every interchangeable piece of these hyper real tuxedo-like breastplates was made by Marks’ own hands: the vegetable-dyed, heat-moulded leathers, the manipulated bits of brass and the Perspex, which was hand-etched (“tattooed,” she says) with ink.

How did Marks and this bizarre, wearable-but-just-barely work get such a spectacular break? She didn’t. She sent an email. Alexander Fury, fashion director of SHOWStudio, “got it” right away. “It is rare to see pieces as distinctive and strong as Kat Marks’ work,” he says in a press release for the film. “Rare on the catwalks, and certainly rare in a designer so young.”

And so here’s the mega-talented Ms. Marks in her own words, typed over Skype and delivered straight to you.

EVERYONE WAS TALKING ABOUT…
The four models who slipped at the Burberry Prorsum show; the French bulldog that appeared on the Mulberry catwalk; and the trek, in heels, up to the Topshop Unique show venue on the old Eurostar platform at Waterloo station. Seriously—couldn’t they make the moving sidewalk actually move?

When Naomi Campbell wiped out on Vivenne Westwood’s runway in 1993, she was wearing a purple mock croc pair of the designer’s Super-Elevated Gilles. The nine-inch high lace-ups were made for Westwood’s Anglomania collection and are one of nearly 200 pairs currently on display at Selfridges Ultralounge for Vivienne Westwood Shoes, An Exhibition 1973 – […]

The post See punk rock boots, winged sandals, fetish golf shoes and more from Vivienne Westwood’s footwear exhibit appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

We’re great lovers of wrapping ourselves in a big warm topper, so it’s hard to resist this Lovely’s beautiful robe coat. The oversized purple motif is smartly cropped so you never quite see that it’s a flower (just right for avoiding any granny connotations).

See the full look after the jump.

London-based Canadian designer Mark Fast will show his Fall 2010 collection on February 20 at 3:45 p.m. GMT (10:45 in Toronto and Montreal, 8:45 a.m. in Calgary, 7:45 a.m. in Vancouver) and we have the live stream here. Update, 11:14 a.m.: We’re told the show is running late but people are being seated. Check back […]

The post London: Catch the Mark Fast Fall 2010 live stream right here! appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

On Friday morning we trekked out to Plutino Groups gorgeous loft offices to shoot an interview with London’s designer of the moment, Winnipeg native Mark Fast. We also got to see a few pieces from his upcoming lower-priced line, Faster (which we can’t share yet), and check out some complicated knit creations from his Spring […]

The post Think fast: Mark Fast’s Toronto meet-up appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

When we were young, our mom would decorate our Christmas tree entirely with shiny, light pink metal bows, which was so embarrassing, because everyone knows that real Christmas trees have reindeer and tinsel. If anything could have turned our tiny, traditionalist hearts toward decorator trees it would have been John Galliano‘s Dior Tree, unveiled today […]

The post John Galliano’s vision of Christmas includes leopards appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

Canadian designer Erdem Moralioglu will showcase a collection of his favourite designs London’s Victoria & Albert Museum. Erdem’s pieces will be showcased in the Raphael Gallery in conjunction with the Fashion In Motion series. “I am thrilled and honoured to be showing at the Victoria & Albert Museum,” said the designer, who has been based […]

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  Lovely in: A lady-like look worthy of a box seat at the Queen’s Plate.

Spotted: Spitalfields Market, London

Why: For wearing a prim and proper ensemble with a dash of whimsy that makes us long for the polish of a bygone era.

Check out the full look after the jump.