Irenebrination: Notes on Architecture, Art, Fashion, Fashion Law, Science & Technology

That Surrealist Touch: Maison Martin Margiela S/S 09

If you like writing and you have a passion for fashion, then every catwalk by Maison Martin Margiela can give you a deep sense of joy and satisfaction as it can inspire you to write not only an article, but a whole essay. Yes, spectacular catwalk shows surprise the audiences, filling them with wonder and awe, but Martin Margiela usually creates a conceptual show, that allows those with the necessary fashion history background to draw up fashion references and contextualise the maison’s designs into a wider universe. 

Take yesterday’s catwalk: the collection marked the 20th anniversary of the maison, yet the outfits weren’t just a reference to the past, but a vision of the future. Many designers recently used the ‘80s as a ubiquitous reference in their collections, Margiela echoed it in the shoulder pads of his jackets and body suits, but then dared to go even more backwards in time and mixed his need for anonymity with a great touch of surrealism.

All the models’ faces were blanked, literally erased by scarves and wigs, in some cases recalling the “Surrealist Phantom” pictures of artist Sheila Legge standing in Trafalgar Square in a tight satin gown, her head hidden by a wire cage covered with pink paper rosebuds. But while Legge was the incarnation of the women in Salvador Dali’s painting Three Young Surrealist Women Holding in Their Arms the Skins of an Orchestra (1936), Margiela’s models were visions generated by the house's constant obsession with anonymity.

The blanked face theme resurfaces every now and then in fashion, but it always bears the same connotation: it’s a denial of the fashionable identity. So models at Margiela’s moved like ghosts on the catwalks, their vision partially impaired - and, in the case of those models wearing plaster cast lab-coat-like jackets, also their movements - their identities missing, but still disturbingly haunting the show.

The pointed shoulder detail wasn’t the only reference to Margiela's previous collections: the Perspex plastic display with the infamous "It" bag from the Autumn/Winter 2002-03 collection, was substituted by a model framed by a padded jewel box, her faceless head protruding from the giant box and the stage lights shining on a necklace from the Autumn 2008 collection; circular details reappeared in fabric and leather jackets; trademark wigs created a disturbing Schiaparelli monkey hair coat-meets-vulture effect; Margiela's lab coats appeared photographed on a dress. The designer's surrealist irony wasn't missing as the lab-coated assistants wheeling in some of the models on individual mobile stages as if they were inanimate dummies, also proved.

Even the very end of the show was a joke on the fashion anniversary theme as a massive white fabric birthday cake walked onto the catwalk. This was an extremely exuberant fashion moment for the maison, but I suppose that a moment of extravagance in 20 years can be absolutely forgotten.

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Hieratically Yours: Rick Owens S/S 09

Last week I had the chance of interviewing one half of Italian design duo a.Ve (Ante Vesperum Edicta). Elena Pignata explained me in that occasion that, while her colleague Valentina Vizio is fascinated by Japanese designers such as Yohji Yamamoto and Comme des Garçons, she admires Ann Demeulemeester and Rick Owens. I was looking this morning at some pictures from yesterday’s Owens’ catwalk and I found myself sharing Elena's admiration for the American designer. The main reason was that I couldn’t stop thinking about one of my favourite fashion references, Medea.

No, don't worry, Owens' Spring/Summer 09 collection didn’t have anything to do with sumptuous film or theatre costumes, but it had a sort of starkly and dark hieratic touch. The base colours for the collection were black and dusty grey and all the models wore on their heads what looked like a sort of nun’s veil.

Unfortunately the veil didn’t do justice to many models (I often think that as beautiful as they can look, some models have difficulties in carrying off the hat/headgear/headdress look...), but seeing them all in their veils walking together among the dry ice, gave the impression they were all members of a choir in a Greek tragedy. This impression was also reinforced by the fabric wraps that, crawling up to the models’ knees or bundled up around the ankles, hid the sandal-clad feet and gave a sort of barbaric feeling to the catwalk show.
 
Owen's neo-minimalism emerged throughout his collection:  there were tops with cut-outs or nude panels and all-in-ones with soft and relaxed silhouettes, though the most interesting outfits were skirts with knots, twists and fabric inserts. The knotted jackets and coats also proved a winning idea: they looked wearable though chic pieces, the sort of garments that will resist the test of time.   

If there was a new adaptation of the Medea tragedy for the big screen, I would enlist Owens as costume designer, I'm sure his cold post-minimalism would give new power to the witch of Colchis. I would also love to see Rick Owens' S/S 09 outfits worn with Arnaldo Pomodoro’s sphere and disk-like jewellery.  I'm sure the juxtaposition of Owens’ starkness to Pomodoro’s sculptural pieces would create an astonishingly beautiful effect.

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Gareth Pugh Vs the British fashion media

Gareth Pugh is one of Britain’s most original young designers and that’s a fact. Yet I have a strange feeling about him, mainly generated by the British fashion media’s constant raving and ranting about him. “Genius”, “impressive”, “brilliant”, “extremely talented”: hyperbolic adjectives are the norm when Pugh’s name is mentioned by the British press. Now, if you have even the slightest knowledge of the fashion industry, you will know that having your name hosannaed by the press doesn’t mean you have the necessary amount of money in the bank to get on, not only with your collections, but also with your daily life.

I always thought that if you champion somebody’s designs - and you can afford it - you might as well buy their stuff. Isabella Blow firmly believed in Alexander McQueen and supported him by buying his entire degree collection and paying for it over a long period of time. I'd like to have a list of names of all the journalists who raved and ranted about Gareth Pugh and also had the guts of buying AND wearing one of his most outlandish creations.
   
At least France was less of an hypocrite than Great Britain: earlier this year Pugh received the French ANDAM (Association Nationale pour le Developpement des Arts de la Mode) award for new talent. Now, if Pugh was so great, why wasn't he give by some kind of British fashion board €150,000 to develop his business? Yes, ANDAM is supported by big companies such as Longchamp and The Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint Laurent Foundation, while the LVMH Group and Swarovski are among its partners, but I’m pretty sure that, if you really want, you can find the necessary money to support your supposed geniuses.

There are moments when I get worried about Gareth Pugh: I often wonder if those same British fashion journalists who so far professed to love him, will one day turn nasty and start saying he’s just a fetishist cyber-Goth producing bizarre haute couture costumes. Maybe this won’t happen in the nearest future though: at yesterday’s fashion show in Paris, Pugh presented a collection inspired by Hamlet and Elizabeth I, references that usually provoke a sickly patriotic effect on the British fashion media.

Pugh’s Spring/Summer 09 collection had an optical look: only two contrasting colours – black and white - were used in all the outfits that were created by juxtaposing different materials such as fabric, leather, plastic and even eel skin. Dresses had white fronts and black backs; huge bi-coloured rigid ruffs with tightly closed pleats completed some outfits; three-dimensional scales decorated mini-dresses and trouser suits, while the armour theme was strong, especially in Pugh's most sculptural outfits.

Armours have often been a reference point for many designers - not many might remember, but Capucci did armour-like haute couture evening dresses almost twenty years ago - but, if you read the British press, Pugh seems to be the only one who ever thought about it. Jewellery by Judy Blame, hand-made gloves by Simon Azoulay and footwear designerd by Pugh completed this rather futuristic collection.    

Pugh has given joy to the British fashion media: he has invaded with his excessive dark and scary mood the French catwalks, representing his country in a freshly anarchist way. So far, no British journalists claimed yesterday’s collection lacked his trademark gothic exuberance or intensity, even though this collection is certainly more saleable than his previous ones. Indeed there was no trace of deranged inflatable garments, while his bi-coloured chiffon coat and trouser suits looked absolutely wearable.

For the time being Pugh has escaped nasty comments and criticisms and, yes, he’s still a “genius”, but I'm curious to see how his career will develop from now on and what they British press will say about him in future. There’s one thing I'm just extremely happy that regards Pugh: exposed to the Parisian atmosphere and to the French fashion scene, the young designer might open up and explore the possibilities offered by high quality materials (he has already done so in a way as this collection was manufactured in Italy) and leave his adored plastic behind.

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Overloaded colours: Emilio Pucci S/S 09

In 1949 Italian designer Emilio Pucci launched in Capri his first beachwear collection. Based on black-and-white prints created by Guido Ravasi of Como, the collection was practical, comfortable and rather chic, and it marked a new success for the young marquis who decided the following year to open a boutique on the island.

Capri and Pucci’s first exuberant and successful designs for his beachwear creations, all characterised by a strong Mediterranean spirit, were the starting point behind Matthew Williamson’s final collection for the historical Italian brand. Pucci’s trademark polychrome prints in orange, blue, yellow and pink were revisited in a modern key in tight jersey dresses, blouses, mini-skirts and bathing suits.

The outfits that worked best were the ones that didn’t bear such strong connections with the Italian designer, in particular long white dresses in which prints were used as small décors, block-coloured dresses with geometrical cut-outs, long gowns with jungle prints and transparent inserts and cropped violet and aquamarine palm printed jackets.

At times Williamson relapsed into Pucci updating the designer’s iconic 1958 sequinned dresses with dark green, violet and black geometrical motifs, using transparencies in a seductive way, or entirely covering a long-sleeved mini-dress in silvery mirrors that sent out brilliant reflections evoking the multi-coloured universe of the Italian maison.

Puccimania can’t be ignored, but the Italian marquis was also famous for his experiments with fabrics: in the ‘50s he produced synthetic velvets, discovered a new jersey for light-weight, crease-proof clothing and patented the emilioform, an elastic fabric composed of Helanca synthetic and shantung silk. Now that Williamson’s contract with the Italian fashion house has expired, Peter Dundas should focus also on this aspect. The time has come to stop developing new combinations of Pucci’s optimistic colours and glamorous visions of life and look at other aspects of the legacy left by the “Prince of Prints”.

Colours were also the main theme at Agatha Ruiz de la Prada’s catwalk. The Spanish designer presented bizarre and multicoloured outfits characterised by outlandish silhouettes and by her trademark heart prints. Ruiz de la Prada’s collection was so overloaded with colours and so extravagant that when British actor Sacha Baron Cohen managed to invade the runway - after failing to do so at Iceberg’s catwalk - somebody thought he was part of the collection.

The actor, introducing his new character, Austrian fashion photographer Bruno, came up with a strange ragpicker-like outfit built up from various garments and accessories. You could spot him as the odd one out just because the palette of his outfit wasn’t as vivid as Agatha Ruiz de la Prada’s.

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Three, the magic number

During the last few weeks the transparency trend has appeared during many catwalks, turning into a staple feature at the Milan fashion shows. See-through blouses, trousers and skirts in ethereal organza and silky materials, in a palette of ghostly greys and whites or in bright colours is the norm for the Spring/Summer 09 season. But the transparency trend also spawned another obsession, the layered look.

In some cases a skirt was worn over another skirt, their different colours and materials creating striking effects. Though interesting this look can be tricky to master as it can cause an undesired excess of fabric on the body, especially when there isn’t a reasonable limit to the amount of layers used. Karl Lagerfeld though seems to have found a good balance in the multi-layered transparent trend.

At yesterday’s Fendi catwalk, he limited the numbers of layers in skirts and dresses to three, proving this is actually the perfect number for the multi-layered look. Though the focus of the collection should have been Fendi’s new bag, the “kangaroo”, named after its shape that leaves one side open as if it were a marsupial’s pouch, the attention of many critics fell on the layered look Lagerfeld came up with.

Some dresses had a modern cinch-waisted silhouette created by bustier-like belts, others had a more sculptural look, while some skirts were based on bell-shapes, yet all the looks were characterised by the juxtaposition of three layers of fabric. Different shapes were created by over-imposing monochrome layers one on the other or structuring the differently-coloured layers at various heights. This trick also allowed Lagerfeld to launch a sort of modern hobble skirt that, stopping around the knees rather than around the ankles like Poiret’s, created an elegant effect.

Lagerfeld also used in a clever and interesting way different fabrics: rather than looking dated and out of fashion, his white or pale blue broderie anglaise was modern and futuristic, thanks to the geometrical effects laser cut outs created on the fabric. 
So, remember, if you ever opt for the multi-layered look from now on, you’d better stop at three. If it worked for Lagerfeld it will work for you as well.

PS A spooky note for those who, like me, love to explore the connections between fashion and cinema and are intrigued by stylish horror films: the music that could be heard in the background during the fashion show was a remix of Dario Argento's Suspiria's memorable soundtrack. Italian production house First Sun, co-founded by Silvia Venturini Fendi, acquired last year the remake rights to Argento's cult film, so the soundtrack was a sort of implict advertising technique (though it sounded rather cool...).   

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Of harnesses and block-coloured shoes: Marni

It’s interesting to see how harnesses have recently become rather fashionable. In most cases, the designers who created such accessories claimed that, more than being obsessed with fetishism, they were intrigued by experimenting how the body movement is altered by wearing such constraints or by the effects created by leather contraptions on the bare body or on the clothes. Harnesses have so far been conceived as body accessories, but at yesterday’s fashion show Marni transferred the theme to shoes in a successful way.

The first sandals that appeared on the catwalk gave the models’ feet the impression they were horses’ heads imprisoned in harnesses. With their thick colour-block leather straps with solid studs, the sandals had a somewhat aggressive though fascinating silhouette. The harness theme came back in massive platform shoes in orange and yellow leather that seemed to hug the foot while at the same time they restraining it. 

There was also another theme on Marni’s catwalk, colour contrasts, as the platform shoes with leather motifs in green and beige, orange and brown or white, grey and violet with a solid yellow platform proved. In some cases strips of leather were also used to create interwoven coloured motifs used to decorate the shoe platforms and heels.

Art Deco lighting zigzag motifs in vivid hues also appeared on white plateau heels, their clashing colours perfectly complementing Consuelo Castiglioni’s multi-layered look created by wearing one on top of the other garments with abstract, geometrical or floral prints in silk, organza and cotton and with a palette going from ochre to blue, from pink to green.

All the sandals were worn with black knee-high socks decorated by just a few minimalist lines in colours that matched the shoes. Marni’s signature solid conical heels, often in natural materials such as wood, were extremely high, but looked more solid than Prada’s precarious heels complemented by ballerina socks with a ribbon that caused the other day more than one tumbling accident at Miuccia's catwalk. 

It was also interesting to see how at Marni the shoes created more colourful clashes with other accessories such as the huge flower and leaf sculpted necklaces, bracelets and earrings, the avant-garde disc necklaces decorated with large stones or the fancy tulle gloves.

Though at times clumpy and clunky and in Autumnal colours and materials, Marni’s shoes were sophisticated, refined and absolutely covetable, a bit like the ones designed by Nicholas Kirkwood for Pollini. You can read my report about the latter on the Dazed Digital site.

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Bitterness, minimalism, those Schiaparelli references and a bit of fun

Despite Italian fashion industry professionals announcing the other day that the atmosphere in Milan was happy and optimistic, there was a palpable tension hanging in the air yesterday. The reason wasn't actually connected with any sort of financial crisis perennially looming on the Italian fashion industry, but it was about the Tommaso Aquilano and Roberto Rimondi saga. At Milan Fashion Week the duo presented their own first collection under their names.

But AR's Spring/Summer 09 fashion show marked the end of their involvement with 6267, the successful brand they worked on for a few years, supported by Italian clothing company Castor. Abruptly left behind by the two young designers who decided to seek new glories with Ferré and with their own brand, Castor (a company that bet on Martin Margiela as soon as the maison started and when nobody wanted to) claimed they didn't feel angry, but were instead rather sad at how they had been treated. The event cast a bit of a dark shadow on Aquilano-Rimondi's first collection.

Allegedly inspired by Elsa Schiaparelli and completely different from the architectural creations the young designers did for Ferré, this collection was based on more relaxed forms. Schiap was present more in the extravagant mood of the collection than in the clothes, though there were echoes of the infamous "Commedia dell'Arte" and circus collection in the velvet fezzes, Lurex tops and cropped pants.

There were interesting intuitions here and there and wearable silky dresses that flickered fluidly on the models' bodies, but you couldn't do without noticing that maybe their best efforts went into the Ferré collection and that, from now on, AR need to pay a bit more attention to their collection if they don't want to risk losing their newly-gained independence.

The second moment of resentment yesterday happened at Jil Sander's: with a catwalk scheduled on the same day as Prada, Sander's doomed connection with the Italian group was still looming in many journalists' minds. The German label, founded in the mid-'70s, was sold eight years ago to the Prada Group. A while back Sander fell out with Prada and terminated her contract and now the company is the hands of its new Japanese owners with Belgian designer Raf Simons as creative director.

Simons, though, successfully managed to calm down the troubled spirits thanks to his minimalist inspirations. The tribal theme was at the back of his mind when he designed this collection as Man Ray's famous photograph of Kiki de Montparnasse with and African sculpture in the background proved, but the influence was filtered through the designer minimal and androgynous style.

Though his jackets with asymmetrical shapes were impeccable, Simons' merit stood in having reinvented the flapper girl, updating her look, draping the traditional fringes of her dress horizontally rather than vertically and applying them also on bags. The best dresses were the black ones in which the fringes created incision-like effects that left parts of the body exposed.   
Moschino relieved the darkest moments of the day with a fun collection. There was again a hint of Schiaparelli's surrealism in the giant dresses used as props, but also in giant ruffles, roses and bows that decorated the dresses and in the by now extremely overused Harlequin print recycled this time in black and white for both trousers and dresses. Bows also gave a novelty shape to over-sized leather clutches decorated with rhinestone clasps that echoed Schiap's extravagant jewellery.

There's a still few days to go before the end of Milan Fashion Week and for the time being while the tension has gone, hypotheses, speculations and conjectures are already being made about the next designer who will be chosen to work on 6267, a brand that the people at Castor don't want to see dying. For my part I'd like to see a young designer taking the place left by Aquilano and Rimondi, somebody able to inject into the brand a new freshness and bring it to new heights.         

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In defence of Francesco Scognamiglio

When it comes to fashion and style, it’s impossible to deny that London is full of exciting ideas and cutting-edge designers who always manage to come up with fresh and amazing creations. Yet there is one thing I hate about London and the international fashion press: when somebody comes up with a rather silly idea in London, it suddenly turns into something extremely cool and covetable; do the same thing in another town or another country and you’re obviously crazy. Take Henry Holland and his Beverly Hills, 90210 revival: if a young Italian designer had done it, people would have laughed their hearts out. But it happened in London, so fashion editors are raving and ranting about featuring in next season’s photo shoots horrendous denims.

So when Francesco Scognamiglio opened his catwalk with a model wearing plastic trousers, the most conservative journalists shook their heads disapprovingly, wondering why Scognamiglio waists his talent onto something so extravagantly silly and slightly kitsch. I’m sure that if Gareth Pugh had come up with this idea, you would have had people claiming this was a touch of genius. I wonder if the reaction would have been the same if Scognamiglio had presented his trousers at London Fashion Week. The doubts remain, but let’s have a look also at the rest of the collection.

Scognamiglio was born in 1975 in Pompeii where at 23 he opened his first atelier. Since then his career has been constantly on the rise thanks to his designs often characterised by a strange dichotomy between research, experimentation and avant-garde inspirations on one side and the traditional principles of the Neapolitan tailoring school on the other.

This perennial dichotomy came back in Scognamiglio's Spring/Summer 09 collection with most of its outfits in white and ivory and some in black or deep turquoise. Perfectly tailored cropped jackets were paired with black plastic see-through trousers; there was an emphasis on sleeves, shoulders and shoulder-pads, often decorated with soft feathers; sculpted ruffles appeared on necklines, skirts and dresses, alternated to cascades of roses.

Soft and light fabrics were juxtaposed to stiffer fabrics used to create more structured volumes and silhouettes, losing in this way their bi-dimensionality and acquiring a new form, creating chiaroscuro effects and a tactile experience exalted by the body’s movement.

Scognamiglio’s ivory silky suits and his signature organza blouses were impeccable, while his coat dresses were maybe a bit too rigid, though in a way these outfits mirrored the personality of the muse the young designer had in mind when he designed this collection, a self-confident and warrior-like though highly sensual and sexy woman. 

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Praise for the heirs: Tommaso Aquilano and Roberto Rimondi at Gianfranco Ferré

Dying young or while still working at their collections is often not only a tragic event on a human level for fashion designers but also a disaster on financial and creative levels. The original ideas of that particular fashion designer die with him and choosing a follower able to pick up his heritage and bring it forward is usually daunting. Italy had to deal with a few of these cases: from Enrico Coveri to Gianni Versace, from Moschino to Gianfranco Ferré. But, while in some cases the fame of the late designer was successfully resurrected thanks to talented collaborators or astute family members, Ferré’s fashion house went through a period of agony.

Ferré’s fame, his refined style and his garments characterised by an impeccable cut, made it difficult to find too soon a likely heir to continue his tradition. Hope was seen with the appointment of Swedish designer Lars Nilsson as creative director. But, hailed as the saviour of the brand, Nilsson was fired soon after his debut. According to some, his major sin was not having respected the basic codes of Ferré’s style; rumours insinuated instead that Anna Wintour's dislike for his work was the real reason of Nilsson’s dismissal.

With such a troubled recent past, it must have been difficult for 6267’s Tommaso Aquilano and Roberto Rimondi to accept on the spot the duty of updating the womenswear collection of a brand that had already lost a great part of its appeal even before Ferré died last year. But the design duo successfully proved they have enough fresh ideas, talent and respect to project the brand into the future and become the official heirs of the great Gianfranco.

Debuting at Palazzo Gondrand, Aquilano and Rimondi based their collection on geometrical forms and architectural shapes. In a way, this must have been a tribute to the master - an architect himself - but the clear and sculpted silhouettes had something refreshingly new about them. Four main colours - black, white, grey and nude - were used throughout the collection that presented jackets with sophisticated structured shoulders, blouses with ample sleeves that gave the impression the models were going to take off as they moved, skirts with built-in arches, ruffle-front skirts and tops with fluid organza motifs that floated like a sail in the wind.

Swarovski crystals and Plexiglas beads were the main opulently decorative elements, echoing that rich and voluptuous style Ferré developed while working at Dior’s, but as a whole the collection didn't present too many excesses and was quirky and wearable at the same time. Aquilano and Rimondi also studied the importance of the accessories in Ferré’s history: the late designer started his career designing belts and jewellery and at yesterday's catwalk some linear but rather appealing belts with metallic details or studs appeared. Architectural shoes with circular high heels that produced a great cut-out effect completed the look. 

Tommaso Aquilano and Roberto Rimondi must be praised for having followed a logical method in creating their collection for Ferré, while also avoiding to fall into the trap of abstract simplifications and managing to produce a very personal collection which is also a great tribute to the famous Italian "architect of fashion".

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Tailored, bold and eye-catching: 5preview

Milan Fashion Week has just started and with it the usual criticisms about well-established Italian designers and brands not allowing young people to emerge and come up with more experimental and cutting-edge ideas as it happens in London. Yet there is a brand based in Italy that started less than ten months ago and that is doing quite well, 5preview. You might have seen their T-shirts on the Internet or in the streets of your own town: some have prints of an inverted Chanel logo or of a mysterious Mickey Mouse hiding his face under a balaclava, others feature upside down prints of famous monuments such as the Eiffel Tower or the Coliseum. The idea behind the T-shirts - all tailored made and printed in Italy - is to catch the attention of the viewer and create a disturbing visual effect.

The brand’s founders, Emeli and Diego, prefer to remain anonymous and, for this reason, to advertise their T-shirts they take pictures of themselves wearing balaclavas. None of them ever thought they would have tried their hand at fashion one day: Emeli wanted to become a librarian, while Diego would have like to work in a gas-station. But after getting great feedback about their T-shirts - and even being stopped in London’s Brick Lane on a Sunday afternoon by 5 people all asking Emeli where she had got her shirt - the two friends thought that maybe they should have gone for it.

Emeli recently explained me that the brand is not just about fashion, but it’s more like a conceptual venture. In a way, 5preview might stimulate the Italian fashion scene and even help to radically change it. Emeli is from Sweden, a country that has successfully exported its minimalism, and she confessed me she can’t often understand the excesses of  Italian fashion. She loves simplicity and loves Luella’s collections as they always manage to make her happy; Diego is even more minimalist than her and likes stuff à la Raf Simons.

Last week I asked Emeli if she thought it was easy for young designers from Italy to emerge in such an established fashion scene. “I don't even know if they try,” she replied, “there are a lot of fashion schools but I think people escape from Italy after they finish their courses or go and work for Italian brands. For us it was really surprisingly easy to emerge, maybe because of the lack of competition.”

T-shirts by 5preview are available in shops all over Italy, from KokonToZai in London (and soon in Paris), The Hunter in Berlin, Ilil in Tokyo, Violent Green in Brisbane and Badeanstalten in Copenhagen. They will soon arrive at Weekday in Stockholm, but can also be ordered directly from Emeli and Diego, by sending them an e-mail with your order.

The design duo has just finished working on their second collection that will also include bags, tank tops, college sweaters and a huge hoodie, but to know more about it you can check out 5preview’s blog or read my interview with Emeli on the Dazed Digital website.