David West

Remember how excited I was about this show?

Well... slightly disappointed, won't lie! but there were some elements of the collection that really appealed to me - the classic David West pleats and beautifully constructed collars - the magic for this collection was in the minimal detail:

Thread - no apparent thread except for the continuous calf-length socks (very preppy).

Opinion: his detailing is just amazing! His material-bound foam fabric was DeGorge - and holds shape very well (my thought when i saw that was I can finally get to a party and leave it without looking like a wilted flower beacause the garment rapidly looses shape... Thank you for addressing this!). below is a pic of this material (it's actually not neoprene - material used for wetsuites and also used by LaQuan Smith in his Africa Fashion Week Collection - as I thought.)

Look - I was not exactly expecting avant garde or anything of the sort (not for a resort collection atleast) but a little bang on the design side would've gone a long way! But individually, the pieces are quite smart and I would have absolutely no qualms walking into his Old Biscuit mall store and purchasing something, but more attention should've been spent on assembling the garments for the catwalk...

BS> love the shoes and socks combo! so retro and so cool! (yes, cool!)

Winter Lusts: The shirt issue

Not much focus is given to the season's shirt... unless you consider the high-collar Largerfeld-esque shirts popular amongst yuppies and Tenderpreneurs to be the "it" item this season, of which I beg to differ, then this season is quite dry on shirts. Nothing shakes me!

With the rise of the denim-on-denim look (which I will steer clear of), the denim shirt-dress is on the rise; a browse in Foschini, Truworths and ilk confirms this. It's a rather interesting look but yet again - I will keep my distance. Pic #1 above makes the look look fabu-bubu, giving the illusion of a catsuit - which is brilliant! With that said, try this look on a regular body... I'll wait to hear from you! David Beckam puts such a masculine, Camel-man ruggeredness (Retrosexual vs Metrosexual, love how he enjoys skipping from one extreme to the other)) to this trend that I think I might give the look a bash - two contrasting colour palettes of denim with a white Tee to off-set the whole-denim look and a few accessories to break the look further. I am warming up to this... *watch this space*

A throw back at Spero Villioti and Thula Sindi's Fall collection at Audi Joburg Fashion Week strike a rather interesting chord with me: Chiffon and Satin - although this will be covered in another Winter lust issue.

When it comes to shirts and blouses, David West is my ultimate life-saver. Just his basic white shirt is phenomenal. My favourite, however, has to be this heavily pleated number - for lack of a better phrase - where, in my opinion, he is showing off how truly talented he is. I look forward to seeing a lot more of his work - and it is my number one stop shop when I land in Cape Town later this year (Old Biscuit Mill, Woodstock is where he's trading). The plan of action with this shirt is simple: leggings and booties or off-set the formal wear that this shirt seems to demand by wearing DIY denim shorts (with the booties) or better yet wear a tux (letting the convolutions on the shirt form the focal point framed by a standard modern-lapelled tux jacket) or I could try a... seriously: my ideas on this piece are endless!

Something I do own (I am so fortunate! only one in the world from this fashion house! again, so fortunate!) and absolutely love is this David Tlale white shirt which I wore to the Top tv launch. how DeGorge is it? okay, I love it!

Maque DeGorgeous outfit: shirt, tuxedo jacket and 3chain neckpiece by David Tlale. Glasses: a good find, LOL! prescription +4.5 (I am soo blind!)

Pics: Denim-on-Denim by Ali Kaplan ; David beckam: www.denimblog.com ; David West pics by Robyn Cooke