Ad Campaigns AW09/10: BURBERRY

(c) Burberry/Testino. For bigger pictures, click here.

Given that I was actually not looking forward to the rumoured idea of Chanel ads featuring Emma Watson a while ago*, the above shots of the Burberry AW09/10 campaign featuring, in what's probably become classic Burberry format, that very same young lady decked out in trenchcoats and bags by the Thames, came as a bit of a relief. I can't help thinking she's really a much better fit for Burberry than she'd have been for Chanel- Young London seems like a good thing for her to represent, methinks, if she really has to model (Young Posh London, seems like). And she looks much better here than in a pile of other magazine shoots in couture clothes- more herself, maybe, as opposed to Hermione Granger dressing up - I adore Hermione, but I think outside of the movies, it's nicer to see Emma. And the pictures have a nice London-in-early-fall/winter vibe which I really like, notwithstanding the house checks, which I am no fan of. Besides, it's also probably good publicity for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which I'm rather excited about.

On a side note: I can't be the only blogger to have got this stuff in the inbox (and this is for a blog that went two months without being updated). I know more people got this- what do you guys think of getting all the PR emails and ad stuff? I honestly wasn't planning for this to be my first proper post in donkey's ages, but it just popped up and begged posting about, given that I whinged about the prospect earlier.

*Just to clarify, I think she's lovely. Just maybe a little young and doesn't seem sophisticated enough for a Chanel ad yet.
And if anyone wonders at the teeny-tiny size on the pictures, the email containing them all but ordered all manner of copyright acknowledgements (which I'm happy to give), and the squitty resolution. Fair enough, I guess.

One of those notes I hate leaving..

If anyone is still reading this, posting will resume in ten days. It's been hard of late, given that all my free time seems to have disappeared into a black hole and nearly all the fashion-related news I've been reading is bad (i-D- i-D- going bimonthly instead of monthly, Veronique Braqinho- whose clothes I always dreamed of owning once I started earning a salary I'm now increasingly doubting I'll ever get to- thank you, recession- is closing down, and doom and gloom prevails). But The Force remains with me, and this blog will restart posting fashion-related things soon, instead of silly notes like this one.

Steampunked Up

I can't pinpoint when exactly I developed a soft corner for steampunk (the why, however, is easier to figure out: apart from the obvious aesthetic merits, it was introduced to me by someone I'm really fond of). At a time when anything futuristic was generally imagined as clean lines and pale colours in the vein of the average modern Apple product, I rather liked the throwback feel to it and the slightly rougher, less sanitised look all the gadgets had. It was just a pity I had no idea where to get to see things looking like that in real life, and even less of a chance to acquire them.

Which is why it came as quite the surprise when, on flipping through old articles on Pingmag (my favourite online magazine, and now a victim of the recession- RIP), I found a feature on Haruo Suekichi, real-life maker of steampunk-style timepieces, whose watches are not only beautiful and unique, but innovative too- I bet not too many other watchmakers make watches that don't need two hands to strap on. And even if I can't buy them, I do appreciate the fact that they fulfil the one condition any watch MUST fulfil in order to be loved by me- large faces! It's a wonderful lot to lech at, even if they're not sold outside Japan..pics are above and below.

pics from pingmag.jp and chiefmag.com

One Of Those 'Sleb-Related Posts..

Anyone who hasn't been hiding under a rock these past couple of months has probably heard of, if not seen, Slumdog Millionaire (which is brilliant*, and I don't care if it gets the Best Picture Oscar or not), and if you're anywhere on the interwebs you're also likely to have seen pictures of its only adult female lead, Freida Pinto, on red carpets everywhere for the last couple of months. Which isn't so remarkable in itself, if it weren't for the fact that she's consistently looked amazing almost everywhere (pics below).

It's worth pointing out that none of Ms Pinto's style choices are particularly revolutionary, and, as is par for the course with these things, she does have a stylist. But the real reason why she draws my eye is because it's just such a damned refreshing change to see an Indian girl on the red carpet who really does carry off her clothes well- something I can't say most of Bollywood** is capable of doing. Sure, there are tons of attractive girls in Bollywood. Many of them (like Freida) are former models. The most highly visible ones get paid a ton of money, and probably have stylists too, and a bunch of major fashion houses keen to break the Indian market sending them free stuff. But most of them, even with those tools, can't dress themselves for nuts (googling most of the big names or, if you are in India, switching on the TV, will bear out the truth of that statement).

Like I said, it's not as if she's jumping through major style hoops, though her Golden Globes dress (the mustard-yellow one in the centre of the top picture) was a not-so-usual choice that looked pretty fantastic. But it's great to have evidence that not all Indian girls think the following; expensive clothes + expensive accessories + ton of slap + smug expression= good red carpet look. In addition to that, I may be making a mildly controversial statement here, but it's kind of nice to see an actress who, unlike most Bollywood heroines, isn't like five shades fairer than most girls on the street in most parts of India and doesn't feel the need to cake on the slap to make her look like she is.
Also, like most other people who've commented on pictures of her, I do believe that at the end of the day, what she wears is really entirely secondary to how she wears it (in this case, with a fabulous smile and poise that most girls' schools can only dream of teaching their students to have- she's an excellent case in support of the Mothership's nags to 'keep your back straight!'). And it really does help that she seems to genuinely love the movie she's promoting- Vogue India has cover material right here. I swear, if they pass her up for the March or April issues it'll just show them up as being sadly out of touch.

* I still can't believe Dev Patel managed to lose his accent so effectively for the movie- it's really quite a change from Skins (note to self, look up third season, stat. Not least because I love Effy).
**note: Freida Pinto can't be called a Bollywood star, because she's only ever done one movie- this one- and it wasn't a Bollywood movie even if A.R. Rahman was doing the music. On a side note: I love the movie for the fact that India now seems to be waking up to M.I.A. (I just caught 'Jimmy' playing on VH1 for about the fifteenth time today).

In Which I Vociferously Object To Internet Snobs

It isn't exactly breaking news to anyone who's been to Chictopia in the last couple of days, but I was really rather kicked to know that three of the site's users (Karla, Melissa and Linda) had been picked to feature in an American Apparel campaign run in collaboration with Chictopia. I'm not a regular user of the site, but there's no denying that a lot of the girls on it are really incredibly well-dressed, and (as with most personal/streetstyle sites out there) complimentary comments on the outfits invariably follow. And the fact that a lot of bloggers use it as a way to share outfit pictures makes it a fun site to browse- I haven't really see Go Fug Yourself-ish fashion criticism on anyone's pictures. And although American Apparel has more than its fair share of controversy (esp. regarding sexual harassment charges against CEO Dov Charney and their rather, erm, risqué adverts), there's nothing about the Chictopia-collaboration shoot- or what's been seen of it, anyway- that makes me think the images are exploitative, or otherwise suspect.

Which is why I was more than a little surprised to find this post on Jezebel- longtime anti-AA stanceholders, if I remember correctly- with the enlightening caption 'American Apparel Now Sponsoring Bloggers And Porn Stars'. Turns out the 'porn stars' bit of the title referred to some ads run by AA in December, featuring three girls who actually were porn stars, in a rather more advanced state of undress/non-dress than the average American Apparel ad. And I'm not even going into the whole objectification-of-women argument in that particular part of the post, so I'll just (finally) cut to the chase and bang on about why that post irritates me so much.
Simply put, the answer is that it's bloody patronising. Please do tell me if you could read the following lines any other way:

"Chictopia, a fashion social networking site whose genius idea is that users can upload pictures of their outfits for other users to comment on so everyone can feel comfortably supported in her precious online fashion-maven status"

"Chictopia is one of those places where the internet telescopes and distends to the extent that being on Chictopia for other people to comment on and rate becomes prima facie evidence of supposed fashion expertise, which supposed fashion expertise becomes a reason to be on Chictopia for other people to comment on and rate. "

"The entire vain and mindless feedback loop was aptly (though unwittingly) summed up by Mashable, which noted newly minted American Apparel model, Chictopia girl Karla "is a beautiful stylista actively pursuing her passion via Chictopia and creative expression on her own blog." Actively pursuing, people!" "And just as blogging and uploading self-taken pics of your original hipster creations is an ersatz kind of fashion activity.."

"It's unethical to paint this experience as some kind of entrée into fashion modeling. It's just another chance to get your kit off for Dov Charney, only now to even do that, you're expected to be an internet Somebody who can write a gushy post about it."

I suppose the writer really intended to call out American Apparel for exploiting women in its ads (and I can see her point there), but the wording of everything I've placed in italics is just IMO horrible, snobbish and when taken in conjunction with the title, misleading to boot- the post was illustrated with two sets of NSFW photographs of the AA ads featuring porn stars, with no images of the Chictopia shoot- so anyone reading the post could probably assume all the images were like that, if they wanted to. And outfit photo sharing is nothing new- TFS, MyStyleDiary, Modepass and a whole range of sites including personal fashion blogs have long been places for people to do exactly that.

But what really surprised me was the snarking about the Chictopia participants themselves- none of whom were directly quoted (even if someone else's gushy post about Karla was used as evidence that Karla needs to be snarked about, too). That, and the bitchiness about Internet outfit-sharers. Apparently our vain, mindless feedback-loop-stuck wannabe hipster fashion-maven selves (wow, we wear a lot of hats don't we? though I must admit, I'm no outfit sharer) haven't any business engaging in 'ersatz fashion activity', and somehow active pursuit of one's interests via a blog isn't really active pursuit, or any kind of creative expression, at all. By the time I got to the middle of the post (which is where the last line quoted came from), I was wondering just why the writer sounded so bitter- and then I scrolled up and discovered that it was Tatiana, The Anonymous Model, Jezebel's (it's self-explanatory, really) anonymous contributor who is in fact a real-life fashion model.

To be honest, it makes a whole pile of sense that someone who is a professional model would feel annoyed that a bunch of regular girls with nothing more than their cameras and computers, are doing something that resembles her job (posing and making clothes look good) and doing it well enough for a large clothing company to sit up and take notice. Sure, maybe no one's getting a modelling career out of this, as Tatiana pointed out, but it's well and truly possible that no one even assumed that this was going to lead to anything of the sort. And IMO it's rather blindingly obvious that the 'ersatz fashion activity' Tatiana seems to hold in such contempt is intended to stand- at least, so the article seems to imply in direct contrast to Tatiana's own- more legitimate, by inference, given her professional status- 'genuine' fashion activity, the kind girls with cameras don't (and shouldn't, is the feeling coming off this) get to engage in.

I'm all for questioning suspect professional ethics and the objectification of women, and sexual harassment in the workplace is not cool AT ALL. But frankly, Tatiana's post on Jezebel seems to direct more bile at Chictopia and at the bloggers from there who participated in the campaign, than at the murky workings of American Apparel- and I don't buy the bullshit that any of it was somehow cool, or feminist in any way. I've enjoyed many of Tatiana's behind-the-scenes accounts of what it's like to be a model and a girl working in fashion, but this time, really, shame on her, and shame on Jezebel.


picture from Chictopia

Hoods Up

I've always been a big fan of hoods on clothes, and living in a place with next to nothing by way of a proper winter tends not to be a good thing if one is fonder of wearing winter clothes than summer clothes. Hoods have had a bit of a bad name in recent years thanks to their sweatshirt avatars (which I love anyway, so-called chav/other associations notwithstanding), but a slightly structured hood is, IMO, one of the coolest ways to add drama to an outfit while simultaneously letting it be practical. In fact, no one puts it better than Dreamecho, who once said, in response to my drooling over the lovely Prairie Underground hooded jacket she'd showcased on her blog:

"The drama of the hood...where at one moment we can cloak our faces in shadow and at another be visible to all the world."
That pretty much sums it all up, really- it's odd that a simple attachment to a garment has so much potential to look austere (I keep thinking of monks) and relaxed at the same time. And I suspect this dichotomy is what keeps my fascination with hoods going (that and the fact that they saved my ears from freezing off through five successive North Indian winters), and it's unlikely to stop any time soon. Spring might be not too far away, but large chunks of the Northern hemisphere are still cold, and sometimes hats are just too much of a pain to take on and off.
And now, in pictures:

Needs no explanation, really: probably the first character one thinks of when thinking of the word 'hood'.

Though I bet Queen Michelle could kick a wolf's ass: the hood might not have been the main focus of her outfit here, but I do prefer her version of the look for its lack of 'scared little girl' vibe.

Hoods are whimsical, cutely worn, and above all, they look warm.

And dramatic, too (L: by Michelle Lowe-holder, R: by Prairie Underground)

And who says they're for girls/winter only?(Yoshio Kubo SS09)

pictures from: (1: elfwoordart, 2: Kingdom of Style, 3:The Facehunter, 4: pic from Michelle Lowe-Holder via Bored&Beautiful, pic from Prairie Underground via dreamecho, 5: pic from The Imagist).

And Look Who's Back..

LLG returns! I'm grinning like a loon at the thought of one of my all-time favourite bloggers making a comeback to the blogosphere...2009 is awesome :). And if you've read this far, click on the link already!

A string of paper submissions, viva voces, and now exams in quick succession have officially shot my resolution to blog (like, actually blog) more into little bitty pieces, but someday when I'm less tired, I shall blog (and now I understand why Fops and Dandies shut down on heading off to law school, though my law school is nowhere near as taxing as hers).

Keeping The Faith

YE GODS it's been a long time since I posted (and the interval between posts just seems to get longer and longer...paper submissions at this time of year absolutely suck). But I'm back for now if anyone still cares, and Paloma Faith is a much, much more interesting topic of blog discussion than my boring life. It's not as if prettily retro-styled singers are entirely a novelty on the music scene * coughKatyannoyingPerrycough*, but the reason Ms Faith piques my interest, besides her admittedly fantastic dress sense (one cannot help but love the way she wears her stage clothes - with love and fun in equal measure- if you need proof, look no further than the pictures), is the fact that her music really is amazing, and that is not something I say lightly. I'm guessing a whole pile of UK people probably know who she is already, since one of her songs was apparently featured in a recent anti-alcohol campaign and she's been doing live shows for ages, but I do hope she gets an album out soon- this stuff (do watch the video at the end of the post) is awesome, and I want it on my iTunes.

http://www.myspace.com/palomafaith

PS: It's a little odd to realise she played an emo girl in the St Trinian's movie too...

images from Google Search. Not mine!

Again, another set of events for which I don't quite have words. It's not as if India isn't used to terrorist attacks, and this isn't even the first time this year that we've had them, but it makes me sick every time, and it needs to stop. This is the third time this year that bombs have gone off, or attacks happened, in places where my friends or I would almost certainly have been, had we been in the cities in question at the time. And to top off one of the worst weeks ever, someone I know- one of the sweetest, kindest girls in a place where people like that were rare- has died (not in the attacks). I'm about ready for November to end, really.

I'm sorry to turn this into a quasi-diary entry, but Nonsense on Stilettos will be back on the fashion jabbering, and soon. I've just got a few exams to get out of the way first..

...I can't find the words to think of a vaguely smart-sounding title for this (and I know I'm WAY late), but- to all the lovely American fash-bloggers out there that I've been lucky enough to read and know, especially those who were old enough to vote (including WendyB, ENC, Rumi, Karla, Ambika, Lulu, Rhiannon, Dreamecho and The Clothes Horse)- congratulations! I hope you guys like your new President-elect :).

picture from lastnightsparty. I thought it seemed apt, a non-American fashion-connected person being in it and all.

Tagged, I Am

A Dreamer tagged me a clear two weeks ago, but a combination of travel, Internet deprivation and laziness prevented me from actually doing the tag till just now...so here goes, if anyone actually wants to know(and sorry for the delay!).

4 things I did today:

1. Trimmed my fringe.

2. Ate three cough drops and an orange (and other things, but the first three were an attempt to cure my cough/cold).

3. Realised I haven't worn a skirt in almost a week (v. unusual for me)

4. Stared at my bookshelf for half an hour before choosing one of my roommate's books to curl up with.

4 things on my to-do list:

1. Clean room

2. Get laptop cleaned of viruses.

3. Look for my dictionary.

4. Stop feeling like a tubercular corpse-to-be.

4 guiltiest pleasures:

1. My seamed black fishnet tights (they're not quite the slutwear they sound like).

2. Living out of a suitcase.

3. Livejournal.

4. Storing old text messages from people I'm particularly fond of, and opening them to read when I feel like it.

4 random facts about me:

1. I have a rotten memory for names, but an excellent one for birthdays (sometimes leading to situations like me realising that today is someone's birthday...but not knowing just whose birthday it is).

2. I've lost approximately one pair of (fat,black) glasses a year since I was sixteen. Last week, I managed to lose Pair No. 8 (or was it 9?) within three days of delivery- a new record, even for me.

3. I hate being photographed. Hate it.

4. One of my DIY skirt projects (pink, brocade) has been lying unfinished since APRIL. Oh, the shame...

I now tag (only if you want to do it, please)

Yumiko of Trials and Tribulations-Yumiko

Spot The Resemblance, Yet Again.

Hair and makeup at Christian Dior SS09 (boring rich-girl clothes, awesome hair+makeup)

Yuuko, the Witch of Dimensions in xxxHolic, Volume 4.

This isn't the first time I've thought it, but if CLAMP ever took to offering styling services/designing clothes for real girls and not just manga ones, I'd probably be first in line among the screaming fangirls to get them. I love me a nice wardrobe... even a two-dimensional one.

Adams Extraordinaire

Obesity Can Kill / L'obésité tue

Balloons/Les Ballons

Steve Adams's work is something I've been a fan of for a while (the picture in this post is one of his), and it's a bit hard not to be a fan, to be honest- the appeal of his work lies in the fact that his pretty, gritty artwork isn't just lovely to look at, it's also more often than not bitingly clever (I think I can safely say no one who's picked up a newspaper in the last three weeks will fail to appreciate it). Which isn't surprising, considering that the publications he's contributed to include the Wall Street Journal and the Harvard Business Review...do check out more of his work at his site, it's well worth a look.

Government Generosity/Générosité gouvernementale?

What's Hiding Behind That Smile?/Que cache ce sourire?

Running for Coverage/À couvert!

All pictures from adamsillustration.com

Models And All..

Fifteen days is a long time to be MIA from a blog especially during Fashion Week (no point me trying to say anything about it, others do that better and at least this time, I'd rather wait till it's nearly over before putting out opinions- I'm no Suzy Menkes or Susie Bubble, after all).
I don't know how many people reading this remember this picture. It was the foldout flap of Vogue India's first cover, which featured two actual models as opposed to Bollywood heroines, and somehow the Photoshop that was so liberally used on it didn't quite manage to make one of the models, Lakshmi Menon, look quite as blank or dead as the other people on the cover.
She ended up opening Givenchy's couture show and featuring in their campaign for this season, which looks rather fantastically cool (and it's nice to see her getting more attention, though it's kind of odd to see someone who's been on jewellery adverts all over Bangalore for half a decade getting called a newbie to modelling like I've seen in some posts on TFS). But the news that she'd been picked for an editorial in Paris Vogue was what got me really happy...pictures follow. (the rest of the shoot featured Yasmin Warsame, but I don't have the time to upload the rest of the pics).

This feels a bit like they got their inspiration from M.I.A...

And this one above reminds me of Susie Bubble's sheer trousers..

Cuteness, Of The Non-Clothes Kind

It might sound slightly berserk to be yammering on about non-fashion things in the middle of New York Fashion Week, but it would be criminal of me not to share the absolute cuteness that is Chii's Sweet Home, a manga by Konami Kanata about a lost kitten who gets picked up and adopted by a young family, whose attempts to feed, bathe, entertain, immunise, toilet-train and conceal Chii (the last being necessary thanks to a building prohibition on keeping pets), all seen from the PoV of a kitten, are about fifteen kinds of adorable and howl-inducingly funny, not to mention a must-read for anyone who's ever had a cat (and seriously, go have a look at it. You wouldn't want to make the kitty cry, would you?)

picture copyright of Konami Kanata, from doki-doki.

Spot The Resemblance.

Rodarte, AW08-09
reminds me of

I can't believe I didn't point it out the last time around, but given that Rodarte did cite Japanese horror movies and slasher flicks as inspiration, the comparison isn't too far off the mark...

painting by Fuco Ueda, A Demand 1 (2002).

I'm not sure how many people reading this have already heard of the fuss created over the Vogue India editorial that featured poor people as models for designer accessories, and the reason I haven't posted about it for so long was simply because I wanted to get a few thoughts in order.

First things first- irrespective of the idea behind the shoot, why on earth did it take nearly a month for anyone to notice it? The editorial ran in the August issue of Vogue, and nothing was heard about it till the very end of the month. If it was really such an utter outrage, I'm rather sceptical of the idea that someone wouldn't have caught on and complained sooner.

Secondly, I've seen the editorial (but I didn't buy the issue thanks to the people they put on the cover) and truth be told, the problem isn't with the images themselves- the people who are featured as models are much more front and central, for lack of a better term, than models usually are on a fashion shoot. And truthfully, on first sight it didn't even look like an accessories shoot at all- I wouldn't have known what the things being modelled were if Vogue hadn't used text to indicate them, it looks like they're just there by accident and happen to be expensive. Fashion magazines do worse than this all the time, if one really wants to talk about the ethical issues behind using poor people as the subjects of fashion photography- what about all the 'background' locals on fashion shoots set in 'exotic' places? Vogue India's not the only magazine to do it.
Which brings me to my next point- the text. Which is the single most problematic part of the entire thing. Magazines often choose not to name their models on the page, but in a situation where I know most of the models' names that doesn't really anonymise them too much. Choosing to use actual people in a shoot and then not naming them- but using the text to name the accessories, loud and clear (well, of course, since it's an accessories shoot) was just plain wrong, IMHO. I get that it's all about the advertisers, and in one way it's a score for Vogue India because the images are much more interesting than anything else I've ever seen from them, but it could have had a lot more meaning if they'd, I don't know, done a short interview with each of the people being photographed? I know I'd much rather read that than yet another gushy puff piece about some socialite with X private jets. I've criticised Vogue India often enough in the past, but really, they could have done so much better. And Priya Tanna's (the editor-in-chief) response doesn't make it any better, really.
Lastly, about the opinions being quoted in the New York Times article in the link. I understand fully well that everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but having seen Kanika Gahlaut's column in the Mail Today and her book, I'd take the opinions of a wannabe third-rate chick-lit author with a large pinch of salt- she's about as bad as Liz Jones in the Daily Mail. Her writings about fashion, as far as I've seen, have tended to spew venom on the field (sure, we know it's silly and takes itself a bit too seriously at times, but outright condemnation is a bit much, hmm?), and really, if you want to see a sample of the kind of things the lady writes, look no further than this place- it might be of particular interest to girl bloggers. And if anyone wants to talk more about India's new economy and the fact that Vogue even exists here, mail me.
image from the New York Times

When Odd Resemblances Strike

Frilled Lizard, on a rock somewhere wearing its own skin

Jourdan Dunn, on the cover of POP wearing Prada.

Of course, one could also say the headdress on the cover looks a tiny bit like a Queen Amidala costume, but the lizard was what first came to mind for me.

Foot Fetishist, Stop Emailing Me Please

I apologise to everyone else for not updating in so long (things have been a bit busy this end), but opening up the blog's inbox for the first time in three weeks led me straight to this gem:

______

hi, id love to hear more about your stocking feet sometime

telboy92@yahoo.co.uk
_________

I'm well aware that a clear twenty-five percent of the Google searches that lead people here come from the words 'stocking tops', 'stockings' or some permutation thereof, but this is the second time I've been hit up with a query like this, and by the same person too, so please will some kind blogger let me know if you've also been getting messages like this (which will lead me to put it down to spam waves) or if it's just me being a freak magnet in cyberspace? Either way, the stupidity is really quite funny.

Thank you all very much

Blue Floppy Hat

Comme Again..

So, pictures of the Comme des Garçons for H&M line are out (they have been for a while, plus there's an interview with Rei Kawakubo in this month's issue of W), and I must say, it doesn't look bad at all- and it most definitely does look more Comme-ish than anything in the LV collaboration. The pictures below probably make the clothes look less than spectacular, and there is the odd item that does look more H&M than Comme (e.g. button-down shirts and a trenchcoat, (though the polka-dot shirts remind me ever so slightly of Comme's AW08 collection), it still has a fairly recognisable influence of Rei Kawakubo about it. And truth be told, a lot of potentially-interesting details don't seem to be too clear in the pics below- is that a hint of deconstruction I see on what looks like a skirt in Picture #3 below?- though methinks the drop-crotch shorts and side-fastened jacket in the pic above and white shirts with sleeve detailing in Picture #2 below, the zippered jacket in Picture #3, and the tailed tuxedo-style jacket in Picture #4, and last but not least, the frilly Goth Loli-style dress in Picture #1, just below, would make for intriguing additions to most wardrobes (though the last is a matter of my personal taste, and everyone might not agree).
It's a pity there's no H&M in this country- I'd have loved to see the clothes up close, and the line is set to be carried only in a few stores (reportedly at a higher price point than previous tie-up collections, and, unlike what was reported in April, it doesn't feature children's clothing since the designer shot that idea down)- but as a collaboration between one of the most left-of-centre designers I've ever known of and a brand like H&M, it certainly is an achievement.