Fashionfreax.net - A social network for fashion

Fashionfreax.net is a social network for fashion... and its pretty darn good.

It already seems to have a growing and interactive community... with stylers from all over the world riffing about fashion , celeb style and more. Users upload images of styles they like, and other users helpfully tag those images with links or advice on places to buy something similar online.

The 'Spy is a big fan of street style and www.fashionfreax.net seems to do a good job of blending street style with 'where can I find it online?'.

I'll be signing up for an account and making my Portobello presence felt in no time.

Empora.com lets you shop by colour, style and cut.

One of the ‘Spy’s few pet hates when shopping for clothes online is what I call the “next page” syndrome. You go to your favourite fashion shopping website, you click on ‘Tops’... and you spend the next 5 minutes hitting NEXT until you find something you like. A new fashion service, Empora.com, has solved this for us all.

Empora.com lets you search for items by colour, style and cut. For example, click on a pair of white skinny jeans - Empora.com will display the closest matches online from lots of different retailers and brands – some similar by style, some similar by colour and so on. Once you get the hang of it, it really does save you time and effort. (Empora say its powered by their unique Similarity Search technology).

The website’s range seems to be bang on trend and offer a wide price range from cheap to chic, from Warehouse to Vivienne Westwood.

Duggie Fields in Denmark

Duggie Fields

Post-LFW madness its great just to be able to sit and go through emails, this one dropped into my inbox the other day, one of my favourite artists - and Dover Street Market collaborator- is having an exhibit in Copenhagen, the first time he has shown there. So if any of my Danish readers are in the vacinity I urge you to go, and see the artists unique style of Maximalism, Fields comments "Less is less, more or less ... It's a concept that has slowly evolved my life."

DUGGIE FIELDS
Galleri Dorte Philipsen, Gl. Leije 2008
Runs 6th September - 12th October

Made in the Mill

Made in Islington Mill

Following such a hardcore week only die-hard fashionistas (and those not off to Milan) were going to make the Topshop: Made in Islington launch. The party took place at the Moustache Bar in Dalston, you'd be forgiven for thinking there was nothing going on at all just a normal night at the boozer, P.S. was left thinking that I'd turned up on the wrong day; until I bumped into my friend (and DJ at the event) Dean Golden. The event was so low-key and with out press releases so I can't even bring any news of the label to my readers, it certainly made a great change to the previous parties that week. Finally spotted, Kevin Rowland of Dexy's Midnight Runners, who came up to P.S. quizically asking "Do I know you?" which in all fairness wasn't as scary as Keko off Project Catwalk coming up to me saying "You're Portobello Spy!" I feel my cover has been blown!

Just Fash Off!

Image Billa Baldwin

Never has a party been and done what it says on the tin, with most people 'fashing off' in the queue due to bad organisation, with two parties taking place at the same venue, namely BBB in Shoreditch. A scrum of fashionista's packed the door, with friends of the door whore Daniel Lismore dragging people through the swelling crowd, proving it's easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle; than for a fashionista to enter Beach Blanket Babylon.

After queueing for a bloody hour, not that I mind, just frustrating when your queueing by yourself due to bad punctuality/fashionably late/whatever, I finally got in to find the downstair bar full of the exact same wankers as were at the International Fashion Party; talk about needing to 'Fash off!.' On making a hasty retreat upstairs I bumped into my old friend Ben Charles Edwards, and spent the evening in a rather relaxed affair having an extended chatette with the director, and his good friends Roger Spy (no relation) and Hamilton Stansfield. All in all a relaxing end to LFW, the circus rolls on to Milan, but P.S. for one won't be partaking in the madness.

Sleeper in Metropolis

Inbar Spector S/S 09

The day was rounded off by the wonderful Inbar Spector, who created some fabulous jumpsuits using her trademark fetishtic twisted seams and zips in a monochrome palette. The collection saw models stutting down to a soundtrack provided cult 80s electro artist Anne Clark with her Zenith 'Our Darkness.' The styling by Rebakah Roy was inspired, as was the hair and make up by Jan for Toni and Guy and Lan Nguyen respectivly. Key pieces for P.S. included the chiffon mini and with asymentrical shoulder zips and chains, the balck wool fishtail jacket adorned in an array of zipped seams; and what can only be described as the effin' huge puffball dress with loops of tulle intertwined into a rope with small snail like trickles of chains coming through. It was dark, it was gothic and could not have been more of a contrast the the previous show. There must have been a glitch in the matrix that day - watch for the model walking off the wrong way at 2.36.

Saved by the Bell ... again!

Emma Bell S/S 09

Is there anything about the next designer that P.S. hasn't told you about, with our forays into Budgie compitetions, Limehouse raves and the like. Anyway I am biased but I effin' loved Emma Bell's collection with its playful use of knitwear tecniques, with a myriad of knitted food stuff knitted together to form a quirky dress. Other key knitwear pieces included the fried eggs beach cozzies and watermelon shorts, a bit like what they wore to the beach in the olden days. It also saw the use of quilting and return of the Bingo Caller bomber jackets and leaderhosen from last season, P.S. favs were the rubber duck print 50's style dress and the 3/4 length sparkly pink trenchcoat. The show saw the VFS packed to capacity, making it the biggest crowd drawer at the venue all week, two seasons from now I can see Miss Bell showing on schedule for sure. Also a big mention must go to Charlie Le Mindu for creating such wonderful wigs, and to the ever talented Melissa Victoria Lee - assisted by Matthew Alexander - for making the Swarovski crystal masks.

Scott Ramsay Kyle

P.S. fav Scott Ramsay Kyle showcased a collection of tabards, far removed from what you imagine on dinnerladies and cleaners and such. These were sumptious wool creations covered in embroidery (which he used as part of team Biba last season) fringing and piping. The collection drew on inspiration from Grace Jones and The Queen of Hearts hentchmen from Alice in Wonderland. The key outfit for P.S. was the sleeveless wool jumpsuit, embellished all over with gold piping, I just hope it'll be easy to pick it up a knock-off from Marks and Spencers; as for P.S. I'm heading down Scott's Hackney studio for a tabard or two.

FASH OFF!

Fash Off!

So the final day of fashion week what did it bring? Bora Aksu's show at the tents, missing Ashish because we had decamped to the pub, the trilogy of great shows at the VFS and Fash Off! closing party.
Bora Aksu's collection was suitably feminine, showcasing a collection of draped chiffon numbers, with a few paper silk dresses thrown in for good measure, with puffball sleeves featuring heavily for the designer. Nothing thats going to change the world, but pretty none the less.

A few blind stories full of Fashion Week gossip for you -

Which style magazine editor has been cutting a whopping 15 years off her real age for her press age?

Which designers ridiculously oversized entourage ate all the backstage grub for that show, and for the following show; leaving the last designer, team and models of the day hungry?

Challenge Anneka hits Dover Street

Anneka Rice

With all these fashion parties going on with random celebs turning up, see Lady Victoria Hervey, Sandi Thom et al at the International Fashion Week party, it was great to see a celeb with a bit of class on Thursday night. P.S. is of course talking about Anneka Rice, who flew into Dover Street by helicopter putting the supercars outside Mahiki to shame, sporting a canary yellow jumpsuit - very much on trend for next season. Today's challenge was in conjunction with the local scout troup to get a signed copy of Andrew Logan's book, from it's launch at the Dover Street Gallery. Ok the former was a lie, she was however in attendence to get a signed copy of Logan's latest tome. Very much a case of Logan goes West, other guests were friends of the jeweller including the Rocky Horror Picture Show's Patricia Quinn - who commented on how wild I was looking - sculptor Carol McNicol, artist Duggie Fields and fashionista David Reeson.