A Tale of Two Cities

Today in Selfridges VA witnessed a real life fashion cat fight! The scrap broke out over the last pair of Henry Holland 'House Mock' Over the Knee Tights for Pretty Polly. The clever design has proved so popular, that they are this season's hosiery sell-out.
The pattern brings to mind an incredible 1920s black chiffon and beaded Coco Chanel 'LBD' we have in our private collection- proving that an iconic skyline will always be in fashion.

Cat Power

This spring the catwalk is crawling with feline inspired fashion.
At Azzaro, Vanessa Seward made her furry friend Monsieur Jo, the star of her S/S 10 collection, when she enlisted artist Florence Deygas to sketch her pet, and then embroidered the image in sliver onto a collection of silk white dresses.
Miuccia Prada presented a feline-fest at Mui Mui with plenty of girlish cat prints, and oversized kitty broaches pinned onto lapels.
Finally Alexa Chung was ousted as a ‘cat-lady', when she sported Lulu Guinness’s ‘Kooky Eyed Cat’ clutch bag on the red carpet, the showpiece in Lulu’s current collection of cat inspired accessories.
Here at VA we are dreaming of Schiaparelli’s 1960s cat –eye spectacles, Tatty Devine's cat cut-out bangles and this vintage yellow cat print dress, as seen in Harriet Magazine: a fashion zine we picked up in Magma bookshop. This adorable shoot in Harriet concludes, ‘You will never walk alone with cats on your dress’ - Purrfect.



Link to Harriet Magazine:-
http://www.harrietmagazine.com/

In the Hood

Fashion is rarely practical, so it came as a pleasant surprise this season when Nicolas Ghesquiere sent his models down the Balenciaga catwalk, with hooded leather gillets to shelter them from the spring rain. A word of caution when trying the ‘hoodie’ trend - the look is more sportswear/club-kid than Scottish widow advert, so avoid velvet and stick to a sporty silhouette. Here at VA we have a beautiful 1980s Alaia hooded dress that is perfectly encapsulates the look.

http://shop.vintageacademe.com/products/1980s-alaia-hooded-dress

Earn Your Stripes

During a spot of late night ‘e-tail’, we came across this cheeky thick striped jumper dress by Sonia Rykiel. It bought to mind the incredible Traffic Light dress by Ossie Clark we have recently added to our collection.

Move over the humble breton stripe - the future is streaked in wide bands of the brightest rainbow hues.

Confectionary Couture

This week's Chanel haute couture show signalled a much welcome end to the recent serge of eighties power dressing. Lagerfeld presented a generous scoop of ice-cream coloured, feminine fashion, with not so much as a ‘pagoda shoulder’ in site. For your own exclusive piece of the (cream) pie, check out one of our most recent acquisitions: a 1960’s pink haute couture Chanel suit, no doubt this silk shift dress and jacket was plucked from the Chanel archive, and used as inspiration for this season's collection.