Sale shopping tip no.1 – Folk Fuchsia Cardy

This is a fun time of year for shopping eh? Trudging through the streets agonising how you’re going to spend the last of your pennies on ungrateful family members you only see once a year. Anything you see that you might actually want for yourself you have to pass over in order to partake in this pantomime of exchange and gratitude. I vote we all give up on presents and just spend the money on ourselves.
Wow, I’m cynical.
I have a tip though, to make Christmas shopping a bit more self-serving. When you go round the shops, you can start planning for your sale shopping – scoping out those garments which you wouldn’t buy full price but would take a chance on come the January discounts.

Read the rest of this entry »

All Saints knitwear – Is it a coat or a cardigan?

Occasionally, scrambling to be amongst the
first to wear something can leave you looking like an idiot. Just look at those
people who started wearing neon in the absurd belief that dressing like Timmy
Mallet would catch on. It didn’t and now they’re left with a wardrobe full of
multi-coloured Cheap Monday jeans. I’m no psychic and I can’t tell the future
(neither can psychics for that matter, the fraudsters!) but I can predict that long
cardigans won’t be popular.

Long cardigans dangle awkwardly between
coat and jumper, not making its mind up and deciding to stay in limbo. They’re
also far too feminine, even for the most fashion-forward androgynous male out
there. To be honest, it’s a miracle they even made it onto ASOS.

John Smedley ducan cardigan

With geek
chic outlasting most trends, you’ll need to up the ante. A plain cardigan just
isn’t geeky enough anymore. John
Smedley’s ducan cardigan is in line with this seasons trend of patterned
knitwear, but isn’t as ostentatious as some of the patterns that have been on
the high streets. The fit is slim, but not as tight as J.Lindenberg,s fits
(which are ridiculously tight, if you didn’t know).

John
Smedley isn’t a cheap brand, with plain jumpers costing £100 and this cardigan
costing £120. This cardigan is available from ASOS for £96 this week as part of
their week-long sale, so buy it while you can get the discount.

Bruuns Bazaar cardigan

A wise man once
said ‘you can never have enough cardigans’, I’m not sure who that wise man is
or when he said it, but it’s good advice. Seeing as cardigans are now ubiquitous
you’ll need to do a little bit more to stand out. This slim
fit cardigan  – made by Scandinavian brand
Bruuns Bazaar – has a certain sophistication that other plain cardigans lack.

This is
down to the black trim, giving it an upmarket look that wouldn’t look out of
place at work or at a bar. It cost £70 and is available from Zoovillage.

Uniqlo’s Cashmere knitwear

Uniqlo’s merino wool cardigans were the
best value merino wool cardigans available (costing £20 for
100% merino wool compared to Topman’s £25 for 100% acrylic) but
it looks like it’s slowly being phased out. As an ardent cheap
cardigan wearer, I’m slightly disappointed at this. To make matters
worse, the cashmere looks to be single pleated, which bobbles quickly
and can get unwearable unless you wear it.

If the allure of wearing cashmere is
irresistible, then you can find their range on their website.

John Smedley style selector

The current trend
for chunky knits and granddad-style patterns has led to some label
revivals of late. The biggest one has been John Smedley, originally
aimed at over 40s, they’ve now been adopted by ASOS as a premium
brand. On John Smedley’s own website, there is a rather
handy style selector.

From here you can choose
your perfect top according to occasion, fit, neckline, sleeves,
fabric (no acrylic here) and weight.  In a world of fashion
websites that are hard to navigate or operate totally in flash, it’s
nice to have such a usable feature on a website.

COS cashmere scarf

COS, the upmarket offshoot of H&M,
have created a niche amongst themselves as a little beacon of exclusivity in
busy Regent’s street. With only one store in England and ten stores worldwide,
It’s safe to say COS is pretty exclusive. This is all rather useless unless you
live in London or Brussels, with COS having no online store as yet. If you do
live near one of collection of style’s stores, there are some great pieces to
be picked up.

One of
these is this Cashmere scarf (on the left). Going against most patterned trends
of this season, its plain and all the more stylish for it. Made from double
pleated cashmere, it only costs £35 which is a great price – if you can find
it.

Insight double breasted cardigan

Making
items double breasted seems to be in vogue right now, with coats and cardigans
receiving the ‘one more set of buttons’ treatment. But most double breasted
cardigans have an extremely deep V cut, which doesn’t show off the double
breasted styling to its full effect.

Insight’s
cardigan avoids that with a High V cut, making this look like a cross
between a pea coat and a cardigan rather than a bog-standard cardigan with some
extra buttons on it.

The one
fault with this item is that it’s made of 100% acrylic,
quite possible the worst fabric for a cardigan you can think of. If you can get
past that, then the cost is £55.

Cheapie of the day: ASOS cardigan for £12

ASOS have
recently started a 75% off sale on their website and whilst there’s a number of
items which make you wonder why ASOS ordered them in the first place, there’s
also a few gems, such as this grey
knit print cardigan. The fine grey stripe and contrast detailing is pretty sharp, and the slim straight fit is trés flattering. Snap it up before someone else does!

On the Up…

Pic Dries Van Noten AW07.

If I was a gambling man, I’d bet on mohair being big in the coming seasons. I don’t mean it’s going to be huge, but I reckon it’s one to watch.

Mohair comes from the angora goat (not to be confused with angora, which comes from a rabbit) and is super silky and fluffy. Just looking at it makes me feel like I’ve got a hair in my throat, but apart from this minor detail, I can’t see much wrong with it. Johnny Rotten worked it whilst swearing and shocking the nation on that infamous Bill Grundy Show episode, and who know’s better than him? It looks fresh and interesting at Dries Van Noten and even Hedi Slimane did a black and white striped mohair jumper in his last collection for Dior Homme. Get it here.

You heard it here first.