5 posts tagged "Katie Hillier"
Louise Trotter Bags It for Joseph
For Louise Trotter, creative director of Joseph, releasing a handbag collection was always a matter of “when,” not “if.” With a little technical help from accessories designer Katie Hillier, Trotter has now made her vision a reality. The bags, which hit stores on Monday, are composed of a single piece of bonded cowhide mixed with side panels made from butter-soft napa leather. Devoid of any visible stitching, each bag appears seamless and malleable. “When I design for Joseph, I always look at how much I can take off,” Trotter told Style.com.
Trotter’s focus has been on ready-to-wear since joining the London-based brand four years ago. And, with the exception of a playful zebra print and a few splashes of color, the bags mirror the tailored sensibility and neutral palette of Joseph’s Fall ’13 line. “The bags aren’t really a diversion, as much as an extension of what I’ve been working on [in ready-to-wear],” said Trotter.
The collection features totes, shoulder bags, clutches, and handbags, all in soft-edged square shapes. Retailing for between $265 and $1,695, there’s no doubt the bags will appeal to Joseph devotees seeking luxury essentials. As for her style of choice, Trotter opts for the shoulder bag, which she likes to wear as a clutch with the strap dangling down. “It’s how you carry it, and your attitude, that changes it from day to evening,” she said.
London Parties For Fashion Week, With Dinner, Drinks, And A Few Well-Placed Torsos
You don’t get to much shopping in the course of a busy day of London fashion-week shows. But last night, two of the city’s marquee boutiques found another way to welcome fashion weekers to town: Over in Chelsea, Joseph was hosting dinner at the store’s Joe’s Café, and back in the center of town, Browns had set up shop in the Royal Academy vaults to celebrate the store’s launch of Club Monaco in the U.K.
First, dinner. Joseph served up a nicely British repast of beet carpaccio and sea bream, one partaken of by Charles Anastase, Pat McGrath, Tamara Mellon, and Katie Hillier, as well as acclaimed chef and British-cuisine cheerleader Mark Hix. Meanwhile, over at Browns, where the likes of Tracey Emin and Sophia Hesketh could be found, Hix’s team of mixologists from his pop-up Speak Easy were treating guests to high-class cocktails, including a dangerous dark-cherry-flavored concoction. The spirit at Browns was a bit more Frenchified: The party’s host was Lou Doillon (left), and Le Baron’s André Saraiva had hopped the Channel to deejay. Or perhaps the mood was more transcontinental, what with Club Monaco being an American-owned brand, and the after-party going down at London’s recently opened outpost of the Box. Welcome to the global village.
Best to down another cherry cocktail, stop thinking about geography, and start looking at the art decorating the scene. The Royal Academy vaults had never before been opened to a private event, and the sculpture-strewn space may have been the real star of last night’s party. Vaguely creepy and seriously cool was the general verdict, and designer Saloni Lodha, who had presented her collection the previous day, was already making plans to relocate her show to the Royal Academy next season. “You think they’d let me do it?” she mused, staring up at a bank of muscular stone torsos hanging off one wall. “I mean, I don’t even know how Browns managed to pull this off. I didn’t even know this was down here!” As Doillon might have noted, après moi, le deluge.
10 Turns Ten
A decade is an even longer time in fashion years, so for its tenth anniversary, Sophia Neophitou’s 10 threw an appropriately lavish bash. “It’s miraculous that I have made my dream come true and enjoyed it for ten years,” Neophitou said at her mag’s celebration in London last night. “I hope the next ten years bring more and more fantasies and the adventures that creatively challenge me and my readers—always.”
As challenges go, there are few people in the business better equipped to provide them. The Greek goddess (above, with Roland Mouret, left, and Tim Blanks and a partygoer, right) with the throaty laugh and penchant for combining a utilitarian parka with teetering, non-utilitarian heels has worn more hats, and worked with more people, than most. Included on her CV are the titles of editor (in addition to helming 10, she edits fashion coverage for Harper’s Bazaar U.K. and Russian Vogue), creative director (of Roland Mouret and Antonio Berardi), and stylist (in which capacity she had the enviable duty of touching “those bodies”—i.e., David and Victoria Beckham, for their 10 covers). In the course of it, she’s made more than a few high-profile friends and fans, including Christopher Kane and Tammy Kane, Jonathan Saunders, Katie Hillier, Dree Hemingway, Henry Holland, Mouret, and more, all of whom packed Il Bottaccio to raise a glass and sway to three of the hottest new DJs in town: Mez (of The Neat) and Michael Hibbert and Alex Parry (of Chapel Club).
A tenth anniversary issue demands an appropriately festive cover girl, and Neophitou snagged the prize of the moment: Anna Dello Russo. The ADR cover, she explained, “celebrated everything fashion should love, has a sense of humor—after all, we aren’t brain surgeons—and a real sense of fun. Also, there is definitely a sense of being a little addicted to fashion.” 10‘s the perfect fix.
Rabbit Season
What is it right now about fashion and pets? Cats, as we’ve seen time and again, are enjoying a moment, and according to Mandy Coon, who dropped by our office yesterday to preview her Spring ’11 collection, bunnies are, too. Coon is known for her diaphanous, draped creations, which she’s showing for Spring in cotton, tulle, and burlap, but just as much, apparently, for her Bunny bag. Her Fall ’10 collection had no sooner hit stores than the bunny—available in velvet ($405) and leather ($450)—had sold out. Reorders are already coming in and Colette, Assembly New York, Opening Ceremony, and Eva are all carrying the purse. Bunnies have already made an impact in London: BFA-winning accessory designer Katie Hillier uses one as her totem and creates rabbit silhouette necklaces in 18K gold and diamonds, and LOVE editrix Katie Grand’s affection for her rabbit, Clara, is well documented. Are cottontails poised to take America by storm? @BunnyBisous, we’re looking at you…
Five Fashion-World Pros On How They Got Where They Got
Amid the confusion and uncertainty prevailing in London at the moment, last night’s party for the launch of The Teen Vogue Handbook here brought a clear, sunny message: As editor in chief Amy Astley put it, “Think big and you can do it.” In a packed Marc by Marc Jacobs store, Astley signed copies of The Teen Vogue Handbook—a primer on breaking into the business of fashion—for a crowd that included Pixie Geldof and Henry Holland (pictured with Astley), Venetia Scott and her daughter Lola, Edie Ashley (granddaughter of Laura), and Katie Hillier. So what words of wisdom did they have to offer?
Henry Holland suggests “being enthusiastic—just go for what you want and don’t be scared.”
It’s about “timing and meeting people at the right time,” according to Venetia Scott, who has worked with Marc Jacobs as well as at V, i-D, and The Face. “Marc gave me a very big break and I still have that break! And meeting Juergen [Teller] was a lovely thing as well.”
Designer Katie Hillier credits the late super-agent Katy Baggott, who also represented Phoebe Philo and Juergen Teller: “She trusted me and believed in me and got me to where I am now. I’m just pleased and proud that she managed to see me win Accessories Designer of the Year last year and launch Hillier.”
“Persevere, always keep smiling, and never flap,” says Vogue U.K. market editor Emma Elwick-Bates.
And stylist Sam Ranger recommends hard work, total commitment, and interning a lot. “From 16 till the end of time” should do it, she said, or at least until “it all finally pieces together and you’re very happy.”