Comments on: Winter wonder style

By: Future ID?

Future ID? — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:31:34 +0000

In response to the first comment: I appreciate your issue with the constant inclusion of high-end fashion in every male magazine under the sun, (surprisingly the budget of this fifteen year old struggles to reach the gross prices of Dior Homme or Thom Browne), but it’s inevitable, and it actually makes quite a lot of sense. By providing you with RTW pieces straight from the catwalks and as close to the pure visions of the designers as we can get, I think it encourages you to think in terms of what you wear and buy. By not providing a simple piece that you can buy on any high street in the country, it should make you think what it is that you actually like about the piece and then look for that, preventing lazy auto-pilot shopping. If an ordinary high street idea is offered, it often ends up being something of a bad copy, incorporating one of the numerous ideas behind designer clothes that isn’t always what you ACTUALLY want. In the original piece you can see the numerous themes that have influenced and inspired the designer and get a far better understanding of the trends for that season.

I know that isn’t desperately coherent, but still. Somewhere in that ramble, there’s a real point to be argued, and it’s for that reason I reject your comments concerning magazines’ constant use of designer pieces. If you take a little time to consider each look being offered to you, you’d realise it’s far better that way. Just think!

Either way, I enjoyed the article, and if i-D get any more painfully pretentious I might consider “ARENA” as a viable alternative. Especially like the novelty christmas knits idea, I’ve tried it out and was pretty pleased, it might be a good idea to wear it with something “hard”, e.g. a leather bomber with zips aplenty, adds a little edginess which is nice.

I’m done.

By: HollieM

HollieM — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 15:03:27 +0000

As someone who spends approximately four nights a week watching bands I’m sure you can appreciate music’s influence on fashion is not entirely lost on me. However, to say that it is the only thing fashion draws it’s inspiration from is a little naive, given the impact factors like art, travel, history and social trends have on fashion designers, whose creative visions it is that produce the catwalk shows which will eventually filter down to the High Street.

I chose to focus on high end fashion and not report on satorial music trends because

1, People like Hedi Slimane are regulars on the indie circuit and way ahead of you in terms of working out what cut of trouser someone like Pete is wearing. Often the look is on the catwalk before it’s picked up public momentum.

2, These days fewer and fewer bands have a half original look. If you think i’m going to sit here and report on waistcoats and skinny jeans you have another thing coming. Yes the Horrors look superb. No, it’s not a look a lot of people see as everyday appropriate.

3, I appreciate that not all Arena readers are under-25. And for this reason probably are unable to pull off homemade t-shirt look currently so popular on the ’scene’. Why tell them about it?

ps, I’m not plugging ‘haute couture’, which happens once a year in Paris and applies to womenswear only. I was endorsing ‘ready to wear’, which is more affordable and vastly more eco friendly than Primark.

By: FLETCH

FLETCH — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:41:16 +0000

There’s far too much high-end fashion stuff in the new Arena. It’s like GQ.

You should be looking at the younger trends (both clothing and otherwise) rather then plugging haute couture.

I’m gonna show my age here, but when I was younger the people I looked to for cool clothing were the bands I was into (flares aside, The Stone Roses and The Charlatans wore some really cool stuff I’ll have you know) and it’s here that notable fashion trends start.

From Elvis, though The Beatles, The Pistols and so on right up to The Strokes and The Libertines. Music is the source of fashion trends.

And the fashion houses steal from them for the catwalks – so why not go to the source and report on that, rather than the vastly overpriced stuff the fashion industry comes out with? Like I said, GQ have all that nonsense well covered already and it’s really dull.

I want the latest Filth And The Fury not an un-ironic take on Zoolander.