Ri-Ri for River Island

It's definitely been a tumultuous couple of days for Rihanna since she debuted her River Island collection during London Fashion Week on Saturday so apologies for this post being a bit behind the times. She used Jourdan Dunn and Charlotte Free to showcase her first ever collection. Other featured models included Tao Okamoto, Ataui Deng and Bambi Northwood Blyth.  I LOVE the name Bambi #justsaying

At the after-party following her fashion show, the singer slash designer got a bottle thrown at her by a heckler outside the club, which resulted in her bodyguard getting his leg injured and RiRi getting a bloody scrape on her knee, poor love.

Now, the reviews for her collection are in and let's politely say they are mixed.  Tom Sykes of The Daily Beast called it "a horror show," saying:
"Rihanna's show was a tiresome, underwhelming and uninspired marketing exercise. The clothes were hideous and without an ounce of panache or style between them. It was like Fright Night in Kmart."

On the other hand, Elle magazine was rather kind, with fashion editor Anne-Marie Curtis saying:
"The collection is an ode to all things high fashion. Think Eighties Norma Kamali meets Alexander Wang luxe sportswear. From fluid jersey dresses to sweatshirts to all-in-ones and varying length skirts almost exclusively in a navy, black and white palette, there are myriad options here for even the most discerning fashion eye. Stand-out items include a black jersey column evening dress, a brilliantly cut bra top, a navy cropped sweatshirt, and a properly fabulous denim jumpsuit."

I'm just going to point out that Rihanna is the April cover girl for Elle, so maybe this isn't exactly an unbiased review..Good and bad reviews aside, however, RiRi's laughing all the way to the bank!  The range lands in stores on March 5. Let me know your thoughts...

Erdem 10 out of 10!

There were two sources of inspiration for this post, one being that it was the London Fashion Week show yesterday (more of that in a minute) and secondly, that I read a quote by the designer that made me want to high five the man. Now, I'm not going to wade into the size zero debate, suffice to say that yes I do believe that there are a high proportion of models that are ill and underweight but there are a proportion of models who are genetically predisposed to be tall and skinny and that's life! In an ideal world we would all be healthy, eat our five portions of fruit and veg a day, treat ourselves to the occasional pie and not go to the pub multiple times in a week but most of us mere mortals are fallible and at the end of the day, we all want to look good in what we wear which can be a problem with catwalk clothes as they aren't designed with 'normality' in mind.

"It's one thing to design a size-eight catwalk dress, it's another to make sure that dress will proportionally fit someone who is a size 16"

Yes Mr Erdem! Absolutely! What a skill to be able to produce clothes that a versatile enough to look good on everyone. The interview in The Guardian goes on to say... Unusually for a designer, Erdem's sizes go up to a 16. Does he think other designers are blinkered by not offering bigger sizes? "I don't know, it's not my place to say," he says, ever diplomatic. "It's a great thing when you see a dress you have designed and it works in different ways. It's one thing to design a size eight catwalk dress, it's another to make sure that dress will proportionally fit someone who is a size 16. I think it's great, I'm proud of it." And why should only size-eight women be able to buy beautiful clothes? "Exactly. And who are the women who buy designer clothes? If you're buying a dress for £4,000, chances are you might not be a size-six, 18-year-old girl." 

To the show..by all standards his most beautiful yet.  A radiant palette of colour mixing the stunning prints that he has become so known for with simpler dresses that explored texture. I would even consider the first one as an unconventional wedding dress!  With very many thanks to Vogue and style.com for this smattering of pictures. If you could have just one item, what would it be?