Category: London

Burberry show – front seat

Posted on by Stephanie F.

I’m not (yet) on any list, I don’t (yet) get the fancy invitations made of amazing materials & colors, I’m not (yet) in London and so, sadly, I couldn’t attend the Fashion shows during London Fashion Week.

Today though, I was sitting at the front seat at Burberry’s. Watching it being streamed live, I felt like I was part of the buzz. And with the comments from others, I also felt as if I was sitting next to ‘the girls’ fawning all over the new collection. Well that was fun.

Well, of course, it’s not the same. But after seeing a week worth of Tweets about this show and that, it was getting depressing! And that’s not counting New York fashion week the week before, and Milan coming next.

About the collection itself? Very nice, as usual. It seems Burberry keeps on reinventing their trench, it’s their signature item (together with the checkered pattern) but somehow they always find ways to make it exciting again each year. I love their colored clutches (lime green, cyan…). Not too fond of the silver leggings. And yeah, couldn’t miss the biker jacket in all it’s shapes, fabric, colors…
The added bonus being that you can now order coats and bags from the runway… Well you can try, it might already be sold out by now.

The sun did shine today, and it suddenly felt like summer again. Watching the SS11 collection was inspiring. But I’d like the temperature to drop now because I’m really looking forward to wear my Burberry shearling aviator jacket!

It’s all about the details

Posted on by Stephanie F.

London, day 2.

The charms of the english country side in the city? On Sloane Street? Hackett, of course.
My boyfriend, Thomas, is a huge fan of this extremely british brand (men only) and what can I say, he has great taste! When we got to the Hackett shop, we raised some eyebrows… I guess it was partly due to the fact that unlike most couples, I’m not the one selecting the clothes.
That and the fact that we’re both very attentive to details which made the shop attendant curious (he thought we were designers or merchants, checking Hackett out… Maybe we should be mystery shoppers?).
The only shame about it though, is that just like other brands, their ‘slim fit’ shirts aren’t really slim… As we already knew, American brands (Brooks Brothers, Ralph Lauren…) don’t do slim fits. So why not, Hackett? After all, you provide for the rowing team, aren’t they eager to wear slim fits?

I’ll spare you the details of the afternoon, we visited more shops, and more shops… Ah, London!

As we had reservation for Bentley’s at 8, we thought about getting a quick aperitif before hand. I had found Dirty Martini online and it seemed like a good moment to try it out. Well, it didn’t work as planned: I guess the happy hour combined with a table of 8 ordering cocktails didn’t help us, but soon, it was 5 to 8 and we had to rush, without martini’s! So sorry about that, Dirty Martini, we’ll come back.

Bentley’s was once again, a perfect experience. We love to sit at the bar, watch the waiters fight the oysters… The food was delicious: grilled squid with hummous and of course lobster linguini. We finished off with a shared dessert, lemon curd-like mixture with rasperry and shortbread: amazing!

But more disappointment followed from the Gaucho, not allowing us to have drinks on their terrace anymore (but we could stay seated if we wanted to?).
For a friday evening, London was quick to go to bed… we followed and retired to our room in the St Martin’s lane, happy and exhausted

On a side note, I’m nicely surprised by how friendly all shop attendants are in London. They help you with a smile, they ask about you, where you come from, they give you a personalized card so you can contact them regarding your purchase… It never happens in Belgium. In most case, you feel like you’re lucky to be allowed in the shop. Beware shop attendants, if I’m not feeling welcome, I won’t give you my money. There.

The A/W 2010 jacket

Posted on by Stephanie F.

London, day 1.

Since end of July, I have been drooling all over any ad, catwalk photo or edit featuring this amazing shearling aviator jacket by Burberry Prorsum.
So when we got to London, one of the first things we did was checking out all Burberry stores in the center (Regent Street, Bond Street): no luck.

Then we headed to Liberty’s where I try on a nice Rick Owens jacket and a terrible Acne version of the Shearling aviator jacket, it’s not looking good, it’s big, it’s shapeless… But I secretly hope that ‘the one’ will be different.

Since the jacket I’m looking for sold out on net-a-porter in a few days,  I couldn’t believe my luck when I saw it hanging in the Burberry store in Selfridges!

I’m afraid to try it on, and I’m right to be: it fits like a glove and it looks awesome (the over-sized collar is wow, the materials are gorgeous and the model is cinched at the waist making the aviator jacket more feminine than ever). Last one in my size in the whole of England, oh my. All I need is the “Just get it” from my approving boyfriend’s lips and I do. 

I remember Coraline (the friendly french girl at Burberry’s) saying something like “You can bring it back in the 14 days if you change your mind” and the boyfriend thinking “oh, no, not gonna happen”.

This jacket is mine!
Waiting for the temperature to drop under 15°C, surely, it’s ok to wear shearling then.