Michael van der Ham for Topshop, available from 15th September. Prices from £130 to £240, jump through to see the rest of the collection.

Exciting news, Michael Van Der Ham, one of my favourite emerging designers, is being stocked at Liberty. A pretty handful of his AW10 collection has just hit the store, I can just imagine the pieces against the dark wood interior. He manages to mix a hodgepodge of fabrics & textures and yet his pieces still [...]]]>

Exciting news, Michael Van Der Ham, one of my favourite emerging designers, is being stocked at Liberty. A pretty handful of his AW10 collection has just hit the store, I can just imagine the pieces against the dark wood interior. He manages to mix a hodgepodge of fabrics & textures and yet his pieces still look luxe and well put-together. It’s high fashion for the charity shop girl who is now a woman.

Van Der Ham is scheduled to show again this year at LFW on the Topshop catwalk and I’m looking forward to see how he progresses. This might also mean that in a year’s time we’re looking at a Michael Van Der Ham collection with Topshop? I hope so as his aesthetic could translate quite nicely onto the high street.

Shop at Liberty.

Lavazza’s Selection at London Fashion Week from Lavazza UK on Vimeo.

I know this is a backtrack, but it’s just gone up so I wanted to share the last Lavazza LFW vid with you. It was awesome that I basically had my pick of designers to chat to at the Topshop New Gen stalls which was [...]]]>

Lavazza’s Selection at London Fashion Week from Lavazza UK on Vimeo.

I know this is a backtrack, but it’s just gone up so I wanted to share the last Lavazza LFW vid with you. It was awesome that I basically had my pick of designers to chat to at the Topshop New Gen stalls which was such a treat. I would have liked to speak to Louise Gray, but we couldn’t fit her in, wah!

Can I just tell you all that I asked Mark Fast about his plus size models, he was so nice about it I immediately felt like a dick for asking, esp cause y’know, it’s Mark Fast guys! You can see it on his face “oh god another person who’s not going to talk to me about my clothes”. We did eventually talk about his clothes, Fast’s collection was based around the metal sculptures of Demetre Chiparus, an Art Deco sculptor who made bronze figurines. On a weight level you could see the influence as the clothes were heea-avy! There was also a gorgeous floor length frock which is a first for Fast and featured a flowing hemline reminiscent of a Chiparus design. Love the enclosed Swarovski crystals, especially on the flapper-like dress.

Michael Van Der Ham was also really sweet, he totally didn’t want to be on camera but I bugged him because his clothes are really beautiful. His collection featured a mish-mash of fabrics and textures, but they came together expertly. As a thrifty magpie I loved it.

I also spoke to blogger fave Fannie Schiavoni, love her chainmail harnesses, they remind me of a cuff my friend Michael Warren made me at uni.

Christopher Raeburn’s sheer macs are on my lustlist, I heart them HARD. No wonder they’ve been snapped up by Browns. He uses reclaimed military fabrics and is joining the ranks of ecochic (sorry for the lazy vocab, I’m on my lunch break) designers. He also told us a funny story about being semi-forced by his brothers in that sibling way to eat a jar of coffee as a child and can’t even think about coffee now without feeling ill. Err so no Lavazza for him then, moving on!

Tara Scarlet do a fine line of ’40s and ’50s repro all made in the UK, for an ex-nostalgia freak like me it was a pure trip down memory lane. By the way, have you ever tried to suggest WWII as a theme for a Brownie parade? It ain’t pretty. (Mad props to Rachael who has heard that story a 100 times).

Last but not least, LPBG, the line started in collaboartion with Ben Grimes (fellow ex-Lycee Francais student… how random?) and Lily Parker ex-Richard Nicholl staff. It was great to see their mod-ette collection in the flesh, I’ve heard a lot of hype about the label and wasn’t sure whether it would be a Frostfrench-esque affair, but no it’s really proper and their adjutable playsuit which converts into shorts is the tits.

There you have it, another fine piece of lunchtime journalism from me. I shall be covering these designers in more depth as they all deserve it, ta-ra! *chomp*