Giles AW15

The Victorians hold less interest for me than what came before. Regency, or even Baroque, is much more my cup of tea. Not only did they throw a prudish spanner in the works and set gender equality back aeons but their version of lace and modesty was just too fussy, too contrived. It's all embroidered velvets in garish shades and poor proportions.

Yet reinventions of Victorian fashion, like that at Giles AW15, hold boundless appeal to me. A little bit Lestat, a little kinky and wonderfully dark. I mean, the leather frock coat? I could wear that all day, every day and never get bored or love it less. High lace collars with mini-skirts. Waists falling at more natural points. Menswear tailoring for female garments. Making being very much covered up into something overtly, palpably sexy - taking sensibilities of that period into the hands of an empowered, assured woman of ours. Theatrical explosions of ruffles and bows. Vampy black lips and little else in the way of make-up.

The success here is in the re-imagining. The heart of the garments, and even their purposeful containment of the body, remains the same but the way it is expressed and how it is interpreted is different. The woman who wears Giles is choosing to leave more to the imagination but she is a bit of a minx, she winks at us. She knows what she is doing rather than being forced to conform to standards of the time. And she has a flair for the dramatic - you won't miss her when she arrives at the party.

It's enough to make a wanna-goth swoon.

(Images via vogue.co,uk by Indigital)

P.S. It's great to see Andreja Pejic stomping the runway once more x

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Valentino A/W 2012.

All the leather I have ever wanted is in this collection; a cape (a frickin' leather CAPE), a three-quarter length leather coat, a jumpsuit, a trench and the perfect skirt. Seriously, this leather is absolutely perfectly executed. These are investment pieces that will never date, never let you down and last a lifetime. I would buy literally every leather item here.

The dresses are wonderfully hippy-like and scream peace, love and easy glamour. They are mostly tunic shapes that skim over the body in a highly flattering and sextastic manner. There's a certain sense of demure and elegance, the lengths are usually full or just above the knee and cleavage and arms are largely covered. The female form is what is celebrated here, rather than flashed, and it is one's silhouette that lends the sex appeal to these dresses. The evening dresses are a little less demure but there is still little reliance on the exhibition of skin and more of a shift to the sexiness vampy reds and black lace.

The colour scheme is fairly restrained; black, white, red and some patterning. There is a simplicity about it all, more about the silhouette and detail than anything flashy. The collection is very timeless and romantic, I can imagine it looking fresh and enviable in any era. I love the play between minx and virgin. The full-on leather outfits juxtaposed with modest white dresses. It seems to speak of a heroine who is vampy and tough at times, soft and running through meadows of flowers at other times. Or, even, stunning in sparkly gowns on red carpets.

The entire look with the very pretty, girly, romantic hair and simple make-up is fresh and compliments, rather than distracts from, the timeless pieces of the collection:

Now for my favourite pieces: 

CAPE!

GAH! - So BtVS!

Amazing blouse!

Hippytastic!

So pretty!

Quite Lana del Rey...Pretty sure I saw her in an outfit just like this.

Yowza!

Victorian lace - come at me, brah!

Floral love.

More bows...dayyuuummm.

SPARKLES.