Here’s a heads up for all you style aficiondaos based in the UK. BBC are launching a 5 part documentary called British Style Genius. It begins on Tuesday on BBC 2 at 9pm. Will be intrigued to find out what you readers make of it…
I’ve never embedded in my life before, so here goes nothing – the trailer for the series. Am loving the music, the fact that they filmed it in one of the most iconic London landmark’s (the deserted Battersea Power Station) and the bejewelled British Bulldog masks!
Here’s a snippet from the press release of what’s in store for the first episode:
Episode 1: A Fashion Democracy – The High Street Look
British Style Genius begins by telling the story of the story of British High Street Fashion, in which fashion icon Kate Moss makes a rare TV appearance whilst working on her new line of clothes for the British high street.
Moss launched her first clothes collection in 2007 for Topshop. This move was not only a brilliant PR coup for the country’s biggest high street fashion retailer, but a perfect example of fashion democracy at work – making top end “supermodel” style at high street prices that are within reach for everyone – something the British have excelled at.
Kate Moss followed in the footsteps of the first British supermodel, Twiggy, who launched her own range of clothes in the late Sixties.
Before then, high fashion was the preserve of the elite and young girls aspired less to look like supermodels and more to look like their mums.
The programme speaks to Mary Quant, the trail-blazing designer who broke the fashion mould by making clothes for young people. Barbara Hulinicki followed closely behind. In 1964 she founded Biba – a store which went on to offer a complete fashion lifestyle experience, just as Topshop does on the British high street today. One of the first British “name” designers to work closely with the high street was Ossie Clark. He and his wife Celia Birtwell had become the darlings of “swinging London”; their client list was littered with aristocracy – rock and otherwise. Celia reveals the secrets behind their success and how their designs are still relevant today. Thanks to chains like M&S and Topshop, the gap between high fashion and high street has never been smaller. And the turnaround from the design room to shop floor is incredibly fast. British Style Genius shows how, with the help of high profile icons such as Kate Moss, and a slew of designers, the British high street is today the envy of the international fashion industry. As well as being a hothouse for cutting edge design, it is the fastest moving, most affordable and one of the most vibrant shopping experiences in the world.
Other contributors to the film include: Philip Green; Jane Sheperdson; Jonathan Saunders; Christopher Kane; Paula Reid; Twiggy; Stuart Rose; George Davies; and Anna Wintour.
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