Imogen Quest

Simplicity

2008-08-24T05:11:00.000-07:00

Simplicity requires quality to truly shine. Aga looks fabulously understated in her Sonia Rykiel slouchy fit dress, Cos cardie and Liberty sandals. The picture was taken in Clapham Common during the SW4 festival, which brought out gazzilions of identikit fake tanned blondes in shorts and gladiator sandals. Aga stood out as I really love the contrast of black against her porcelain skin and the simplicity of this outfit.

Soho Pride IV - the beautiful people

2008-08-20T13:23:00.001-07:00

Simply stunning - it's the shades and the attitude...

Soho Pride III - a modern take on John Steed

2008-08-20T13:18:00.000-07:00

It's the bowler and red leopard print jeans that give an edge to this outfit. Note the badges on the waistcoat - slightly punky... Modern version of the sartorial perfection that was John Steed:

Soho Pride II - Safari

2008-08-20T13:16:00.000-07:00

The hair, the dress and the totally on trend tartan shoes that somehow defy the full Safari dress look. Simply stunning.

Soho Pride I - pure 80s

2008-08-20T13:09:00.000-07:00

Imogen snooped around Soho during the annual Soho Pride and snapped some pretty natty dressers.

Lovely slim sophisticated silhouette...

Here is pure Eighties but with an edgy twist. As a self confessed loafer-loather I actually love this pair - it's the Adrian Mole style rebellious socks that really make this work.

Rosemary's Baby II

2008-08-17T04:40:00.000-07:00

Do you remember the innocent sweetness of Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby. The Vidal Sassoon boyish crop, the cute smock mini-dresses created a simplicity of clean distinctive look, extremely feminine, and yet with an edge of androgynous ambiguity that so beautifully frames the face and accentuates the features.

Here is a modern day Mia Farrow. The simplicity of the dress paired with black tights and barely any accessories, bar the amazingly well cut hair makes you realise how well this look holds up, among today's trends for an aggressive 80s revival and dark minimalism of the Nineties.

The key here is the hair so here is the shot of the beautifully cut back, that gives an extra edge to a very cutesy do.

The Original Agyness Deyn

2008-08-17T04:33:00.000-07:00

Years before Agyness Deyn came on the scene in her explosion of boy meets girl vintage quirky bag lady chic, there was this girl called Fransje. Fransje had an Agy crop in 2005 and wore chunky trainers and shiny leggings in 2006. As Coco once said, fashion changes, style remains, nobody embodies this phrase more than Fransje, who is totally unique and striking in her style.

Eybrow allure

2008-08-06T13:54:00.000-07:00

Eyebrows make the face, no doubt about it. I have a personal preference for strong eyebrows as I own a pair of fine thick eyebrows, and honestly I love them so much they are my signature. When I once went for an eyebrow shape and the beautician over-plucked them, I threw a hissy fit and refused to pay. My eyebrows are now being done by a lovely Thai lady, patient and careful, yet I still give her a stern look and say pointedly 'only a tidy up please, nothing off the width please'. She indulges me with a patient smile but I am slightly possessive about them. I think Carine Roitfeld would not be herself without her pair of caterpillar like brows and neither would I.

Just look at Twiggy here - the wide eyed strong browed 60s look that made her so influential:

yet the 70s Biba look (OK, I admit this is about the whole look) but just see what difference the eyebrows make - she looks so indistinct and even strange, not like herself, as if her features disappeared:

I am therefore happy that strong brows are back in fashion. While the comeback of the glam 70s' look is great, I am happy that the over-plucked pencilled eyebrows have not sneaked back in.

Loved the ss2008 Dior look - strong Amazonian women with painted on eyebrows giving them strong slightly intimidating but immensely characterful look.

Long live the eyebrows!

Holy Cows of Fashion Part 1

2008-07-17T11:45:00.000-07:00

Imogen firmly believes that there are people who remain the Holy Cows of fashion whatever they do. The strength of their creativity and sheer force of personality means that they rise above the mainstream and the rules by which the mortals have to abide, no longer apply.

First Holy Cow to be featured is Björk.

Frankly, I never understood people slating Björk for her swan dress at the Oscars, or for any outfit she ever choses to wear for that matter.

Björk is a genius, a truly original artist who has an enormous creative integrity. This paired with her impeccable image creation, her immersion in style and essence of each album means that effectively, she is immune to fashions and in some ways, and despite being ridiculed by mainstream, she becomes a trendsetter of sorts. And this is why the Marian Pejoski dress looks great on Bjork. It would look ridiculous on say Sharon Stone, and let's not forget the Lara Flynn I-am-so-thin Boyle tutu disaster, but Bjork simply carries it off.

Remember the supercute impish elf on the Debut cover?

The grungey feel of that torn jumper and tousled hair was so 90s, in that slightly eco inspired grandma jumper sort of way. It set the tone of the earthy colours and worn asethetics of the youth wear of that time.

Then came Post and the explosion of rave colour, the pixie horn hairdos copied by Ibiza ravers and the techno trendies.

Then came Homogenic, where she turned into a Geisha in Alexander McQueen, at the time when Galliano caused a stir with his first Chinoserie collection for Dior and explosion of cheongsam dresses followed (trend now dead and buried and mostly present in Jane Norman shop window) and at Essex weddings.

Then came Vespertine, a beauty of an album, the most delicate and lyrical perhaps of her work, where she wears the swan dress, with white artwork delicately crocheted onto the cover photo.

Medulla was a rebellion again, an instrument free album brought a dark mermaid out in her. A time of darker moods on the catwalk too with statement jewellery as seen at Marni, and whatsmore, tapping into the current trend of elaborate collar necklaces, almost Edwardian in their opulence as seen at Burberry and Lanvin 2008/9

Her latest album, Volta, is based around ideas of nationality and independce. Björk wore an amazing array of ethnically inspired costums during her tour, walking right into the Balenciaga inspired hippy trend, with my beloved Manish Arora finally getting wind in his wings, and Jean Paul Gaultier creating a deluxe versions of tribal dresses.

Eccentric? Trendsetter? Or pure genius who does not have to obey the rules. You decide.

Agyness Deyn, Agyness Schmeyn...

2008-06-02T12:59:00.000-07:00

I am almost reaching the point of saturation. Agyness on prime time TV talk shows, Agyness in fash magazines' best-dressed sections, Agyness in every single copy of London Tube daily papers.

A couple of months ago, i-D magazine filled an ENTIRE issue with Agyness. Agyness's friends, Agyness's mother, Agyness's letter to the Queen asking for an interview (politely declined), Agyness's fave shops, Agyness's boyfriend, Agyness's best friend Henry Holland, with that trademark smug smirk on his face, Agyness... with multiple cover versions of the girl herself by top photographers, including Nick Knight and Terry 'Mr Smut' Richardson. There was almost nothing else in the magazine. Just Agyness, page after page.

All of the articles accompanying the pictures, written in a verbal deluge of screaming adjectives, disturbingly had that same fawning sycophancy you would see in a feature in Hello on one of the minor royals hugging their horses or someone insignificant from Dancing on (sodding) Ice. Hardly the edgy stuff that i-D's known for over the last 20 odd years.

After the 15th page of Agyness doing her trademark shouty and quirky but 'doe startled in the woods' sort of thing, I started feeling a little faint.

I had only just got over being Agynessed into oblivion, when June's Vogue arrived with, guess who, on the cover. No pictures inside, just her on the cover. Just a 'look, we have the hottest model' sort of cover.

You know when something new appears on the horizon? It's cool, it's quirky, it's oh-so hot hot hot. You are searching for it, want it badly, get it in three different variations and all of a sudden you notice that the world and his mother (and their dog) are wearing it. Take the skinny grey jeans, the heaps of ballerina pumps in zebra and panther print and, more recently, RayBan Wayfarers, to name a few. Suddenly they are overcooked, done to death, 'can't be seen in anymore' trends. You ditch it and move on to the next great thing.

Do you see where I am going with this? Well, she is beautiful, unique and model of the moment. Yes, that's all true but, honestly, the fashion world is exploiting her faster than Primark chucks out their multicoloured, slightly wonky versions of Wayfarers. Like the Primark Wayfarers, she will be out of fashion by mid-August with a starting bid of £0.01 on eBay. And, with someone who is quite a breath of fresh air, the best androgynous boy-girl beauty since Linda Evangelista, why would you want that? A quote from The Age of Innocence came into my head…

"[The reason], for their great influence; that they make themselves so rare"

Take note.

P.S. On a another subject… Word spell-check suggests Gayness for Agyness - conspiracy theorists, start working now.

Goodbye and hello...

2008-04-18T14:03:00.000-07:00

Well, I am back. After 2 years if pondering whether there were enough fashion blogs out there without me poking my nose into the blogosphere, I decided to give it another go. I dug up my old posts, and while browsing through the stuff, I found this little thing from exactly two years ago, June 2006:

________________________

Where do you draw the line at recycling a style? Having put on my vintage belt bought in a second-hand shop in 1994, black ultra skinnies, a pair of patent ballerinas with a bow and a baggy top, I had an eerie feeling of deja vu. I realised the combination was almost an exact copy of one of my outfits circa 1994. Have I come the full circle? Was I chasing my fashion tail? Would I wear Buffalo platforms next year?

As I walked down the street, I caught a reflection of myself in a shop window, and frankly, I was pleased with what I saw. I decided that one needed to be open-minded about recycling fashion trends, even if one remembers wearing the same outfit in the golden days of one's youth. If it looks good, don't knock it. As I got home carrying another 'essential', 1980s inspired sale purchase from All Saints, I bumped into my lovely neighbour Anna. During our customary fashion chat, she told me a shocking piece of news. Wait for this... She went to a gig in Hoxton a few days ago (Hoxton is the London fashion hotbed, where vintage is the new black and androgynous looking indie teens are standing around looking moody in their tapered leg jeans and battered Converse trainers). Well, Anna tells me that the new trend that is SOOOO coming back is the Sloane Ranger/young Princess Di look. Yes, that's right. The tapered leg, high waist jeans, the white shirts with the collar up, pastel jumpers and golden necklace worn out on the jumper, hair with short back and sides, massive mop on top. Apparently, once seen in Hoxton, the trend will descend on the town a few months later like a flu epidemic. I had a sudden vision of thousands of young Princess Di lookalikes prowling the streets of London in their pastel jumpers and wellingtons and I wondered... No. I draw a line at that. I will not do the Sloane Ranger look. No way.

_________

It's June 2008 and I have a pair of tapered leg, high-waisted jeans (have not worn my skinnies since last year), Hunter wellies tucked away in their fancy, yet sturdy, By Appointment to HM The Queen box in my wardrobe, and wait for this - Agyness Deyn is a model of the moment in her mad bat 80's old lady crossed with dangly youth glory, not a million miles away from Lady Di in her early days. Henry Conway, the self-styled Sloane queen (made famous as a son of the disgraced Tory MP Derek Conway), is falling out of horse drawn carriages in front of Mahiki club, and yes, it looks like the Tories are no longer nasty and they may win the next election.

Yes, 2 years is a long time in fashion.