Summer trends 2019

Guest post by Hafsa Hussain

The time for long days and long dresses is finally here, the summer wardrobe is back and we cannot wait to slip into this years latest trends

Here’s a look at street style inspiration and trends for Summer 2019

Pleated Skirts 

This Spring, pleated skirts are clearly a new found fave and have become more sought after than ever with a 60% increased search on Google. These trending skirts fall just above the ankle and have a super-defined pleat. Pair with jumpers and t-shirts for a great way to amp your summer wardrobe.

                             

Jewels from the sea 

Dreaming about a holiday by the beach? Well if you’re not able to get there this year then you can bring the beach to you with this new jewellery trend! Sea jewellery is the latest craze for Summer 2019, from pearl hair slides, shell pendants and oyster earrings. Kylie Jenner kickstarted this trend with seashell accessories attached to her hair for her Easter service and now we can’t get enough!

Natural jewellery business, Selkie Sheffield focuses on using organic and natural materials to create gold, exquisite and pure items creating a beachy atmosphere.

Tie-dye 

This iconic 60s hippie print is back with a vengeance and we are all for it!

It resurfaced for last season on Prada, Stella McCartney, R13 and Proenza Schouler and has returned chicer and even more versatile, making an appearance on matching two-pieces, jumpers, and blazers. There’s no stopping what you can tie-dye, with colours the bolder the better.

Tie-dye is a symbol of individualism and has a long history with a sense of freedom and creative expression. Tie-dye can be seen as a defiant yet peaceful protest. There’s no right way to wear tie-dye, just make it loud and proud!

Shop our tie-dye handbag here!

Guest post by @hafsahussainphotography

Second to ASOS? That’s us!

We were delighted to be second to ASOS in Marie Claire’s online vintage stores countdown.

Here are the highlights:

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Or how to look like Alexa Chung, Kate Moss, Sienna Miller and co.

Mixing vintage with high-street clothing is the key to being trendy without looking too try-hard, just ask Alexa Chung, Sienna Miller and Kate Moss.

But vintage shopping isn’t easy, you can easily spend hours in a store and walk out with nothing – which is why online shopping is the answer.

We’ve rounded up the best online vintage clothing stores for you, whether you’re after a vintage Chanel 2.55 bag, or the perfect retro band t-shirt.

2. The Stellar Boutique
You are very safe in Stella’s hands. Having worked at Levi’s, Marks & Spencer, Topshop and own a stall at Portobello Market (Kate Moss and Stella McCartney were regulars, FYI), she set up The Stellar Boutique. It’s bursting with one-off gems from designers and artists from all over the world. Warning: you will lose hours of your life pouring over Stella’s cleverly curated collections.

Read the full article here

Casting our vintage net

This was a lovely surprise for us; a mention in German magazine Maxima’s website.

Great to see us reaching vintage fans from far and wide!

Just incase your German is a bit rusty, here’s the translation:

“Prior to starting her online career, the operator of this store worked for Levi’s and Topshop and had her own booth on London’s famous Portobello Market, which was often visited by Kate Moss and Stella McCartney. A very good address to pimp your own wardrobe with vintage treasures! You can search for a decade or a category. Since this is more about style than labels, the prices are also cheap. We are in love with this Seventies skirt!”

Read the full article here

En vogue environment

With nature and sustainability hot topics right now, I was excited to see the V&A’s new exhibition, ‘Fashioned from Nature’. The exhibition is set over two floors and take visitors on a journey through fashion’s relationship with nature.

On entry, visitors are greeted with a room filled with antique treasures. Some garments are undeniably beautiful. Others, like furs, a controversial talking point. There are some beautiful printed dresses, made from fibres such as silk and cotton. The prints are often inspired by flowers and plants. The ground floor also documents the industrial revolution, and how the mass production of clothes was both helpful in bringing reasonably priced garments to the lower classes, and also a hindrance to the environment.

Moving up a floor, the tone of the exhibition changes. This floor explores sustainably and the steps that designers and manufacturers are taking to be kind to our planet. The pieces include both vintage and current pieces. Designers such as Stella McCartney, a pioneer in sustainable fashion, and Vivienne Westwood, climate revolutionary, are prominent. I found an interesting ensemble designed by one of my favourite actors, John Malkovich. I was unaware that Mr Malkovich launched his first menswear collection in 2017 and that he favours traditional fabrics such as linen. Another favourite piece from this floor was a pair of trainers by Veja, who work directly with co-operatives to produce sustainably grown organic cotton. Finally, I enjoyed learning about new and innovative techniques such as that by company Colorifix, who are aiming to create a low-water, pollution free method of clothes dyeing.

It was so inspiring to see so many brands and designers making great progress in the way of sustainability, climate change and animal rights. The exhibition also had a little gift shop where I was very naughty and splashed out on the accompanying book, and a couple of badges. Here’s some photo from my fun and informative visit 🙂

Colorifix’s innovative dyeing processes

John Malkovich’s linen and cotton suit

Stella McCartney

Revolutionary Vivienne Westwood

‘Fashioned from Nature’ is on at the V&A museum, London, until the 27th of January 2019. Head over…you’ll love it!

Best of british

The fashionistas were out in force last night to celebrate the best of British fashion at the BFC’s British Fashion Awards. No doubt there were a few sore heads this morning as well as a few sore losers! But among those who had reason to celebrate victory were JW Anderson who had a spectacular night, scooping a double wammy for best men’s & womenswear designer! Stella McCartney for brand of the year, Jordan Dunn won model of the year, Karl Largerfeld got the outstanding acheivment award and Gwendoline Christie (Game Of Thrones) was honoured an award voted by the British public! Here’s a few snaps from the nights revelry….

 

Stella McCartney with 'Ab Fab' duo Jennifer Saunders & Joanna Lumley
Stella McCartney with ‘Ab Fab’ duo Jennifer Saunders & Joanna Lumley

 

Jordan Dunn Swept off her feet with model of the year award!
Jordan Dunn Swept off her feet with model of the year award!

 

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Fashion royalty Anna Wintour & Karl Largerfeld

 

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Gwendoline Christie accepting her award

 

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Naomi Campbell, Mario Testino and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley getting cosy

 

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Alexa Chung & Canadian ready-to-wear designer Erdem enjoying his award

 

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Henry Holland, Gwendoline Christie and Daisy Lowe letting their hair down at the after party!

 

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Stella with her ‘date’ for the night Liv Tyler

OPEL WREN blog post

opel wrenopel wren 1As you all know I love online shopping and am happy to waste away hours searching for the perfect items on eBay, but  when searching for the perfect fringed jacket recently, I came across ‘The Stellar Boutique‘, it was a real find as the online shop is filled with vintage treasures and genuine Moroccan accessories. I fell in love with every single one of the bags and couldn’t stop myself mentally designing a new flat filled with treasure from their home section.

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I checked out the about me section of the website and was fascinated to hear more about Stellas life, so I got in contact with her and wanted to share this amazing woman with you guys. The shop was created by owner Stella as an outlet to showcase designers and artists from around the world, she is pretty much living the dream, living in a hippy farm house in the Spanish countryside with in her own words ‘a menagerie of dogs, cats, goats, sheep and chickens’.
After graduating from University for the Creative Arts with a degree in fashion design in 2000, Stella went on to design for Topshop in London; assisted at the Times newspaper’s fashion department; worked in visual merchandising for Levi Strauss and Marks & Spencer; and spent time as a stylist both independently and for the BBC. With such a huge range of experience under her belt, she was able to successfully launch her own label in 2002 which was sold in Topshop, Oxford Street amongst others. She spent 3 years on her stall in Portobello Market, selling hand picked vintage to the likes of Stella McCartney and Kate Moss, being able to count Kate Moss as one of your regulars is a huge achievement and something I am very jealous of!
She has spent the last 10 years working in the fashion industry and travelling the globe collecting treasure which has provided the inspiration for The Stellar Boutique, I love this idea because I am such a hoarder I love to pick up bits and pieces whilst away in the hope that one day I could use them. I wanted to share some of my favourite pieces from the website, you can the website out here and I hope you like what you see as much as I did!
opel wren vintage-jewellery-Collage-11
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Big thanks to Sophie at Opel Wren blog for this fabulous post!

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