Cardi-can!

Yes, cardigans can conjure up the image of sweet grannies knitting in a rocking chair but we at The Stellar Boutique are here to tell you that cardigans are rock n roll, people! For 2018, trend forecasters have told us that cardigans have a laidback mood, with slouchy silhouettes and rustic texture. You only need to look at some of the icons below who have rocked a cardigan to know it should be a staple part of your wardrobe. We have a great selection of vintage cardigans in the shop, so have a peek at these versatile vintage gems.

 

Bjork

Icelandic queen of the quirky, Bjork, often sported a cool mohair cardigan or jumper during the 90s. Her style was feminine with an edge; a cardigan layered with a silky slip dress and chunky boots was one trademark style. Bjork embraced an unusual style and took inspiration from all corners of the globe, a practice she continues to this day.

Channel your inner Bjork with our 70s vintage loop knit cardigan (£39)

 

 Kurt Cobain

As an intern at The Stellar Boutique, I couldn’t write a cardigan blog without including one of my grunge gods. Kurt Cobain is arguably the most iconic rock and roll idol ever to wear a cardigan and is a style inspiration to both women and men. Kurt’s casual thrift store style saw him cross gender boundaries, throwing together dresses, cardigans, ripped jeans and Converse.

Rock the casual look with our 70s vintage chunky cable knit cardigan (£43)

 

Drew Barrymore

Scream sister, Drew Barrymore, is one of our ultimate icons of cool. One of her best friend was Hole singer Courtney Love, and she once dated guitarist Eric Erlandson – true rock connections. We love Drew’s ability to go from sweet to sassy, embracing lace, denim and leather to name a few. She has the layered look down to a T.

 

Layer our 80s vintage mint green cardigan (£25) over a slip dress or distressed jeans for a versatile look.

 

 Gwen Stefani

A true chameleon, No Doubt singer Gwen’s style has evolved through the years, bringing inspiration from punk-inspired edginess, designer wear and Japan’s Harajuku district. Never one to shy away from the bold look, we think Gwen is a true style icon.

Embrace your inner Gwen with our 80s vintage cardigan in jade green (£40)

A retrospectively vintage season

It’s been a hell of a season in the wonderful world of fashion and here at The Stellar Boutique we couldn’t help but take a moment to appreciate the absolute inundation of vintage fashion inspiration on the Spring Summer and Autumn Winter catwalks alike. In a fad of revival, all things vintage seem to be fundamental in both catwalk and street style alike. We’ve been utterly bombarded with nostalgia this season with the revival of Mod culture, monochrome and op art from the sixties a la Moschino, candy stripes at the likes of Dolce & Gabbana (the raffia bag is to die for,) and checks at Chanel and Louis Vuitton, alongside Paco Rabane’s swinging sixties on the Autumn Winter 2013 catwalk.

Vintage Mod
Chanel Spring Summer 2013
Acne Spring Summer 2013

We are absolutely loving the reincarnation of nineties, with the phenomenon of androgyny, dishevelment and the most portent – grunge. An anti-fashion and a trend that lived and died on the streets, the more unkempt the better, think Nirvana, a catalyst for this trend alongside the likes of Marc Jacobs acting as a key facilitator for this fashion movement. This season we’ve seen designers revisit their own archives to portray their own pre-eminence ready for both Spring Summer and this coming Autumn Winter 2013, with the likes of Nicole Farhi, Rihard Nicoll and Chloe taking inspiration from the asexual grunge spectacle of the nineties, combining the sensibilities of the x and y wardrobe this season. Apprehensive? We were too until we paid attention to our favourite fashionistas Mary-Kate Olsen and Cara Delevingne, carrying off nineties grunge like it’s nobody’s business.

Marc Jacobs Grunge 1992
Kurt Cobain 1992
Mulberry Autumn Winter 2013

Contrary to this we have some serious style envy from the orientalism on the catwalks of Stella McCartney and Marni with inspiration taken from the genius that was Paul Poiret, seen as the solo individual who pointed the way to the modern era.  Ranked among the most exceptional contributors in fashion history, he was not only an avant-garde couturier, but a visionary, a man who was prepared to take many risks, producing garments of orient-inspired costume in which the trend reached an apex during the early twentieth century, using kimono sleeves made expressively due to the avant-garde art movement, inspired by the Far Eastern costumes of the ballet Russes.

Emilio Pucci Spring Summer 2013

Lucky for us here at The Stellar Boutique, melancholy is here to stay, with Autumn Winter shaping up to be a perdition of a vintage celebration. We see designers look through their own previous collections for inspiration – think Christian Dior’s ‘New Look,’ seventies dogtooth and Hitchcock femme fatales at Gucci and Temperley. And finally, we’ve saved the best until last, we see the merriment of British heritage with Alexander McQueen’s Elizabethan collection and anarchistic punk at Topshop Unique and Versace for the Vunk label. Think heavy duty with leather and studded embellishment spikes, dominatrix patent and bondage slashes to reveal flashes of flesh, leaving it all to the imagination. Unassuming is no longer standard with traditional tartans, oversized furs and dishevelled leopard prints. An inconspicuous fall? Chances are “pretty vacant!”

Punk Editorial Feature with Agyness Deyn
Skinnies and Dr Marten Street Style
Vivienne Westwood Punk Retrospective
Moda Operandi Givenchy Autumn Winter 2013

Corinne Day, photographer of our time.

On August 27th 2010 the fashion world lost one of it’s greatest photographers of a generation. Corinne Day, known as the woman who launched Kate Moss’s career, sadly died aged 48 from a brain tumour after a long struggle with cancer.

A self taught photographer and previous model, she became one of the most influential photographers of our time. Her pictures were original, provocative and often controversial. Shying away from the high glamour trend of the 80s, she took a more documentary approach to her photos.

In 1990 she teamed up with a young, fresh faced Kate Moss and headed down to Camber Sands, Kent, for a series of candid and intimate portraits for The Face magazine’s ‘3rd Summer of Love’  editorial. I will never forget how I felt when I first saw those iconic black & white images. Unpolished, raw, natural beauty unlike anything I’d seen in fashion before, she captured a moment in fashion history and inspired a whole generation of people, me included. Credited for pioneering the Grunge movement, the images spawned a new era of fashion and fashion photography.

Three years later she was causing a storm once more when Vogue magazine published the somewhat seedy pictures of Kate Moss in a grubby bedsit wearing mismatched underwear and looking pale and forlorn. Gritty, hard edged and real, the shoot caused international outrage and the radical new wave of photography, labelled  ‘dirty-realism’, paved the way for the ‘Heroin chic’ trend that was to follow.

A revolutionary in fashion image making, Corinne Day changed the way we viewed fashion photography.

Street Style Heroes ….. Summer 2010

Thought I’d share with you some of my favourite Street style looks from the last few months on Lookbook.nu.

These budding stylists/photographers/models have created some inspirational looks mixing vintage, grunge, boho, preppy and rock chick glam, which pretty much sums up the way I feel about fashion right now…..