July 11th 2011

Scarf Series

I think Ive become known as the scarf girl since a mention came out in the New York Times that I liked to wear scarves in a multitude of ways. Blame it on the sheer power of NYT. Since that article, every day a scarf label seems to suddenly emerge out of nowhere in emails accompanied by the gentle push of “Lets see if we can work out a deal where you write about me and…” blah blah blah. Sadly it tends to be a bit of a deal breaker when they address me as Tavi or Rumi, after a copy and paste mishap. Still, better for me to chase the scarves that float about than vice versa. It just so happens that four scarfy finds have come up simultaneously for me to earn the scarf girl moniker.

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On Tuesday, Grazia had their first Fash Factor competition. Replace the X with Fash, minus Simon Cowell and delusional singers and bung in the editors of Grazia plus a few guest judges such as myself, Jonathan Saunders and Jane Shepherdson. With one minute to pitch their label either wearing their own wares or an accompanying model, designers queued around the block to try and nab the chance of being featured in next weeks Grazia. With a longer pitch, an uber bitchy-judge (we were all too mild-mannered perhaps…) and a TV show could be in the making. The winners have been announcedand the runner-up in the accessories category was Ali Mapletoft, the designer behind scarf label Age of Reason. I missed her pitch but the judges mentioned the words bondage, Hermes-esque and Russian Dolls. After a poke around Age of Reasons blog, I found a wonderful pic of Ali herself wearing her scarves in a way that makes scarf girls like myself most excited with glints of bondage chains and gimp-maskedmatryoshka dolls peeking from a swash of pale pink silk. Alis designers references recognisable scarf designs and layouts with very different motif and subject matter, contorting the Hermes-esque flurries of chains and flowers into hand cuffs and sketches of saucier stuff (for a special range of Coco de Mer- one of the nicest places to shop for lingerie in London in my opinion). The geek in me niggles that with limited stockists, Age of Reason could do with e-commerce but Im sure that will change once the Grazia piece comes out and a likely deluge of requests come her way.

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Going to the Pitti event in Florence proved to be an opportunity to follow up on the designers I saw last time I was there, one of them being Pierre-Louis Masciawho still has mega cute vids on his website demonstrating bits of scarf wearing. For S/S 12, he continues to mix up different genres of prints – the traditional paisleys with the abstract marble strokes and florals, leopard and polka dot also thrown into the mix. Huge scarves come double sided and split up into panels and t-shirts made up of silk panels balance out these patterns together in a seemingly haphazhard way. Pierre-Louis has also added bags (with contrasting lining of course) and double sided blankets and towels to appropriately get into the homeware pie. I think I renacted a Lenor fabric conditioner advert at the stand when I took one of the blankets and rubbed it against my cheek, exclaiming how soft it was. Pierre-Louis might have been a bit scared that I was going to make off with it…

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I definitely havent fogotten about Forget Me Not whose scarves mix geometrics, forest animals and vibrant colour palettes. Cocos illustration portfolio continues to become a rich source of inspiration and her scarves are one outlet of her drawings. Once restricting herself to large squares, for A/W 11, the collection expands to long rectangles that make knotting into make-shift dresses or skirts an even easier affair. The diamond shapes are definitely for fashioning into headbands. The added fringing on the heavier twill scarves make for warmer wrap-up options. For timings sake though the image from Forget Me Nots S/S 11 campaign which has the model laid out on rectangular scarves as though they were beach towels is definitely inspiring for all my anticipated (it may not happen…) Cornish beach laying and Hampstead Heath-lounging over the next few weeks.

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Finally, this is a scarf tidbit that isnt really news but Marnis Foulard collection for A/W 11-12 is well and truly a welcome addition in so much that its also supposed to be a slightly less expensive collection than its mainline. This isnt the first time Marni has done diffusion as, I think this is an additional diffusion collection, to accompany Marnis Edition line which I only just recently discvered in Browns. Consuelo Castiglioni describes the Foulard line a a flirtatious little love poem in comparison to the mainline collection novel which only makes the collection even more enticing. Not that I need poetic persuasion when Castiglioni mixes these graphic printed silks with ease and skill. The “Lets see how many colours and patterns we can fit into one ensemble” is a dangerous game to play but Castiglioni knows when the clash produces far too much noise which leaves it far too tempting for the likes of me to make these pieces an even louder affair.

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