Founded by Rei Kawakubo of Japanese label Commes des Garcons in 2004, Dover Street Market is more of a designer boutique slash art gallery than an actual market. It’s so-called because individual concessions, or ‘stalls,’ are spread over five floors, occasionally interspersed with art works you can buy. Cooler than Selfridges and edgier than Browns, but just as expensive, DSM is where rich arty types…

At times, London fashion week can be a bit of a gamble. For every Erdem or Burberry on the schedule – guaranteed to be grand, glossy productions chock full of desirable clothing – there’s a designer (not necessarily a rookie either) whose show is, at best, boring, or, at worst, displays a complete disregard for the fact that the ultimate aim of a fashion collection…

There was one celebrity who didn’t quite fit in at the Topman Design spring 2012 show at London fashion week on Wednesday. On a front row crammed with the usual suspects – Nick Grimshaw, Alex Zane, Rick Edwards and Jamie Hince – boxer Amir Khan, not someone known for being a dedicated follower of fashion, was a bit of an anomaly. But then, about half…

‘Someone who’s not afraid to wear something a little more bold’ is how Michael van der Ham describes his customer. True to his word, that’s exactly the kind of woman the Dutch designer catered to at his spring 2012 catwalk show at London fashion week. We’re not talking bold in a gimmicky or trashy way though. In essence these were unchallenging pieces – straight knee…

Having been relegated to the foyer, and the big black box that they call the cinema, when the main London Fashion Week show space was over capacity at 5pm on Saturday, I was close to throwing a hissy fashion fit. Turns out my demotion was a stroke of luck because at the John Rocha spring 2012 show the devil was in the detail. Watching a…

Have you heard? The 1920’s will be roaring back into fashion come spring 2012. And apparently it’s all Baz Luhrmann’s fault. The Australian filmmaker is directing a remake of The Great Gatsby, out next year, which means that all and sundry will be jumping on the historical trend train: next stop, flapper town. It all started at New York fashion week, where Ralph Lauren referenced…

Powder puff pink, palest mint green, faded peach – the first few looks out on the PPQ spring 2012 catwalk made us sit up and wonder where the label’s usual don’t-mess-with-me attitude had gone. Well, it hadn’t disappeared entirely; the super short hems on those dresses still provided sass in spades. Nonetheless, design team Amy Molyneaux and Percy Parker’s favourite colour soon showed up and…

I’m no royalist. I’m not even a particularly big fan of Kate Middleton – sorry, the Duchess of Cambridge. But I have to admit that I really enjoyed The Royal Wedding Dress: A story of Great British Design, the exhibition currently on at Buckingham Palace. Last Saturday I went down and joined the hordes of tourists, audio guide headset in place, to meander through the…

Let’s face it, most fashion competitions that implore you to upload a photo of yourself for one reason or another are generally predictable affairs, thinly-veiled attempts to boost social media presence. But Woolmark’s Fashion by Feelings promo is a cut above. With an adorably designed website (where a sheep called Karl Lamberfield gently chastises you if you don’t fill in your details correctly) and a…

‘Forget Mr Berlusconi, we all have our problems,’ joked legendary fashion writer Colin McDowell last week in his speech marking the opening of Masters of Style, the new fashion photography exhibit at London’s Somerset House. Forget the scandal-prone Italian Prime Minister, McDowell insisted, and instead focus on ‘what Italian style is about. It’s about doing it properly, doing it without fuss, doing it chicly.’ Open…