What’s in a name. Namely, what’s in an Emma Charles Lady Gwen?
The young London designer has been crafting her signature style for the last three years, one of the key brands focussing on the move from the millennial IT bag to the Generation X preference for the sweet spot price point – a bag that delivers big on directional design and construction, at a price that satisfies predominant freelance pockets while not scrimping on the wow factor or the work/play/bar/dinner expectations a bag needs to fulfil.
Her signature style, the Lady Gwen, is like the prettiest fortune cookie you ever saw. Served in a seasonal selection of colours, always on the discretionary scale, the unique shape gives Emma the head start over her competitors for something that is immediately recognisable to its creator.
With a slew of bag brands popping up, as audiences look for the underground name they can pioneer, rather than the monster fashion house design they can wield, Emma is on to a good thing: with an intimate range of luxury stockists, we called it first.
Her clothing range, lesser known, is no less worthy of a second look. Drapery and embellishment is key, but much like her bags, it is done in a delicate manner: a plume of marabou feathering on the shoulders of a black blazer; a constellation of modern studs on a bag.
Emma’s colour palette is always delightful, matching discretionary tones with shots of zesty greens or blushing pinks.
As she works to expand her handbag offering, Emma shows she is still a designer finding her feet. Formulas have occurred in seasons that have not made the cut for the next. This is good to have this time for exploration – as when it works, like it has with Lady Gwen, it magically begins to fall into place.
Wanting an example of sharp style and well tested design? Come for the Lady Gwen and stay for the capsule collection separates.
“Today we are so surrounded by waste. For me I really like when the material has a story. It is like animating something that is currently inanimate: if you put it in a new context it always has this spirit! Especially for our times, we have so much waste and we need to do something about it.”
Renata Brenha is a designer of precision and feeling. Her debut collection, showcasing at London Fashion Week, puts to work this meticulous and formulated explorations of her Latin American heritage, her fascination with Mexico and a pre-occupation with material and its consumption.
Her clothes attempt to catch a spirit, an attitude, of the communities she explores: utilising the silhouette and work with cloth to translate these nuances. There is always a translation – its important the way I work with fabric: pleating, painting, reimagining – but I always want to capture that spirit.
I love performance, and clothes have that ritualistic space. You are in that moment, you are that person.
Each item of her 16 look collection holds an anecdote – I like to feel them as individuals! – which is retold through their cut. The tales range from the Grandma dress, made with studio scraps from the pattern of a dress her grandmother decreed as perfect; the coat-trouser coagulation – there is a Mexican saying “a courageous woman is someone who knows how to wear her trousers”; to her tights top, a reworked version of the improvised thermals her mother created to keep Renata warm in the winter months of her hometown just outside Sao Paolo.
Workwear is weaved throughout the collection – when you travel to Mexico to see communities you see workwear half-references through their natural dress. Traditional clothing with something intuitive about putting things together. I love canvas, it’s something that really tells the passage of time. There is always a story behind it: when you put it behind a female body the story changes that I find so interesting too.
While saved for the presentation itself, headdresses are to be made by a gardener, Luciano. Initially Renata wanted the headdresses to be more dangerous, more testing (initially thinking of cactus) but after looking at images by Claudia Andujar, and the ritualistic energy from her feather headdresses, Luciano felt he could create something similar with moss.
The moss comes together with braids in the hair intertwining, much like the fabric, cuts and reference points.
Renata’s heavy referencing of Mexico came about from the desire to visit a place that she could relate to through the Spanish language, but also look from a distance. Mexico felt like home but also really fresh – a little bit of space but still a connection. She found a lot of affinities with her own home of Latin America: both holding relationships with mysticism and improvisation.
A colour palette deeply entrenched in blacks, whites and blues give clarity and corners to her garments: the smocking, the hand painting, the deliberate reworking. While her shapes are anthropomorphic, and her vision is cut from a refreshing cloth, Renata has just begun her brand – here’s to her future fables of fabric.
So little time, so much to love – Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s Pre-Fall 2015 collection is filled with lust-worthy items for your autumn wardrobe. The twins have created a statement collection using their trademark pared-back luxury. This year, zip closures, zigzag stitching such as is found on wetsuits, and fabrics backed with scuba material are all a subtle nod to 50s and 60s Californian surfing culture. Favourites include a high-necked navy dress over matching slim-cut trousers, paired with sandals; a cream tunic over a knee-length skirt; and a camel ensemble consisting of culottes, shirt and masculine-style coat. Cool, understated perfection.
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