Chanel’s new pop-up beauty boutique at Covent Garden

Against the quaint brick walls of Covent Garden Piazza, the iconic double C’s of Chanel mark a new attraction: Chanel’s first beauty boutique in the UK has popped up, so to speak, for a few Olympic visitor-filled months and then some (the pop-up store will be open until 27 December this year, snagging the Christmas crush too).

Chanel’s interlocked graphemes - here in daringly glamorous and unapologetically feminine cerise - take pride of place in the window with perhaps the hope of being a siren’s call across the tourist-filled sea. Inside, the décor is all black, white and mirrors, the perfect backdrop for Chanel’s autumn collection to be displayed alongside a dazzling rainbow of Chanel Le Vernis, which includes the highly sought-out blues from last year’s Les Jeans de Chanel collection, released at Fashion’s Night Out. Polite, sharp-suited staff are on hand to assist with the parting of money; not that there would any difficulty in doing so.

Chanel pop-up beauty boutique, Covent Garden Piazza, London, WC2E 8RF

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Elle Fanning wears that little black jacket

The classic Chanel bag, Australian-style, to celebrate the Chanel boutique in Brisbane

Vanessa Paradis does luxe bohemian in Chanel

Garance Doré loves sport, and since she’s only arrived in London a day ago, it’s definitely not because of the city’s Olympics fever. “I’m very sporty,” she says in her charming French accent. “I love sports and I like snowboarding and like mountain biking and like hiking and all this kind of stuff. Maybe that’s not something you would expect from somebody in fashion…”

It’s not, but it’s precisely this sort of unpretentious, un-fashion-y behaviour that has the ragtrade industry falling in love with her, and that Kate Spade New York have tapped into. For their autumn/winter 2012 collection, the US label’s girly-polished dresses, skirts and patent-leather beauty cases have been tagged with the fashion illustrator, photographer and blogger extraordinaire’s vivacious drawings, handwriting and of course, her impish sense of humour. After all, meeting Doré is like running into your best friend from when you were 12 who has turned out to be impeccably stylish and successful, but, thank goodness, still has that same sense of mischief, making for a potently wicked good time. Case in point: she whips out her iPhone to show her favourite piece in the collection, a case covered by her own tongue-in-cheek illustration of a chintzy cocktail party. Mostly, this is her favourite because she really, really loves her iPhone. “Once you have one, you can’t go back, it’s so addictive, like a toy!” she says, suddenly noticing my woefully scratched Blackberry-wannabe Nokia. “What is that?” I don’t know, I say woefully and we both laugh.  

Indeed, nothing could sum up Doré more appropriately than the collection’s sartorially oxymoronic ‘slouchy-chic’ sweater featuring the words ‘joie de vivre’ scrawled in her elegant lettering. Her love of fashion is enthusiastically infectious - “[Fashion is] part of the things that make life more… fun, more light, more easy; it’s one of the pleasures that we have in the morning, like food,” - and despite being inspired by the graphic grandeur of the Cour d’Honneur at Paris’ Palais Royal for the collection, she turns the notion of the haughty parisienne completely on its heels with her endearingly unpolished manner.

Indeed, unlike some of her countrymen, she openly professes a love for those on this side of the channel - “People have a really great sense of humour [in London], and they are not too serious about too themselves, which I really really love.” She would like to stay longer, but must head back to New York - she has work to do, she says. Does the unofficially crowned Miss Globetrotter have any travel tips or better yet, any travel rituals she would like to share then? “I, um, what do I do?” She pauses to think. “I buy a ton of magazines. Uh…any magazine! There’s a moment when I will buy any magazine, even the one that you don’t wanna show in your apartment, because I’m a magazine freak.

“The gossip ones, Oprah magazine, all the stuff! Like everything. So I’m very happy you know…” she says, then with that oh-so-charmingly guileless laugh adds, “and then I leave it all on the plane.”

Kate Spade New York stores are located at Covent Garden, 104 Langley Court, London WC2 and Sloane Square, 2 Symons Street, London SW3 2TJ; www.katespade.com

p.s. When asked if she had one last thing to add, she wanted to say, “Scott, I miss you!” Sweet, no? 

Related links

See Garance Doré in the front row at Milan Fashion Week (on vogue.com.au)

Live colourfully indeed, with this paint-splattered umbrella

Garance Doré does a make-up tute and meets Emmanuelle Alt

Designer Gary Bigeni pays the same attention to detail to his luxe, draped-to-perfection womenswear as he does to running his burgeoning business both online and offline. Here, he talks about how he makes sure both his digital fans and his traditional bricks-and-mortar stockists receive the love they need.

Gary Bigeni / Xiaohan Shen via vogue.com.au

You have your online store and a number of online boutique stockists as well. Why did you want to start selling online in the first place? 
I really wanted the opportunity to interact in a more direct way with my customers and make the Gary Bigeni label more widely available both through Australia and also internationally. I also believe it is important to continue to evolve your business and make sure you stay on top of how customers shopping habits are changing. 

How have you handled selling both online and in retail? 
I’ve had a strong presence in both local and international boutiques for quite a few years now, well before I opened my online store. The boutiques are such an important part of my business and have been very supportive from the beginning. To ensure I continue to support these stores I deliver my collections to them a couple of weeks before I release pieces on my online store. 

I have worked hard to find a balance between my existing stockists and my online store, as it’s important not to forget those who have been with you from the start. 

What was the process like for setting up both sides of the business?
I have been very lucky in setting up the wholesale side of my business as boutiques have had a genuine love for the brand right from the start. Launching my online store was a bit more challenging, simply because it took longer for me to get my head around the technical side of e-commerce. I wanted to make sure I understood every part of the process as it’s so important to get your online store right. 

I’ve learnt so much along the way and I’m still learning. Online stores need constant maintenance, updating and love so I keep building on my knowledge as the store grows. 

I’ve heard other designers say their own online store lets them deal more directly with the customer, without having to dilute their brand. What do you think of this? 
The direct dialogue with customers is my favourite part of the online store. Customer feedback is such a vital tool to help build my brand and I really enjoy finding out what women want from the label. It helps me get to know what kind of women my customers are and the more I understand them, the more it assists me with designing my collections. A lot of my customers send emails asking questions about fit, colour and fabrications and they seem to really enjoy getting emails back from me directly assisting them with their purchases and recommending pieces.

Online shopping – it’s the future. Agree or disagree, and why?
Both. I believe in traditional retail and online shopping working hand in hand, rather than it being one or the other. I don’t see why we can’t do both. I see such value in the face-to-face customer service that boutiques can provide and love the in store shopping experience.  

On the other hand online shopping gives me access to hard-to-find and international labels that I can’t get in Australia. Similarly I want everyone, not matter where they are, to have access to the Gary Bigeni brand. I hope that as online shopping continues to grow exponentially that it doesn’t mean we lose the personal interaction of boutique shopping.

See more of my interview with Gary Bigeni and photos his new collection on vogue.com.au

/ Xiaohan Shen

Singers at Laneway Festival on the weekend had some stories to share about their fashion, and so did the festival-goers.

The lifestyle of a band member, the modern day equivalent of the medieval ages’ travelling troubadour, inevitably leads to some interesting style stories.

Backstage at Laneway Festival in Sydney on Sunday, relaxing on the lawn behind the photography studios at the University of Sydney’s College of the Arts in Rozelle, Caroline Polacheck of Chairlift revealed her ultimate shopping destination: “Honestly? The further away from civilisation the better.”

Naming a thrift store in the backwoods of North Dakota as an example, she said: “[The thrift stores away from the cities] haven’t been picked over. They’re also kind of time capsules. People aren’t so tuned in to trends so they wear the same thing they’ve been wearing for the past two decades and then they take that to thrift stores. You find older stuff… [and] the most unusual stuff.”

Relaxing in front of her dressing room, Cameron Mesirow of Glasser was wearing a dip-dyed leather jacket from Acne’s collaboration with UK artist Daniel Silver she’d received from the designers themselves after they’d used one of her songs in a video. It was the final touch to her backstage outfit, she said.

“I think today I sort of have a ‘look’ to me but it’s not really intentional. I like to mix it up, that’s why I went and got my jacket [that Acne gave me after they] used my song for their capsule collection with this artist, Daniel Silver.”

Not to be outstripped, festival-goers had some stories of their own to share. Chloe Bennett, a student and avid dress shopper, had ventured out two days previously and found a lace dress in a vintage store in Oxford Street, which she decided to wear back-to-front and pair with a belt for Laneway, while Kate Loxton, a PR consultant, confessed she had tried to go for an understated cowboy look. 

“I wanted to go for a country style today because I knew it would be dusty, and I went for a crisp white shirt because I think it’s hard to look fresh at an event like this,” she said.

Of course, there were also those who just wanted to look good. Amy Harris, a nurse, looked the epitome of preppy summer chic in a navy jumper and printed Karen Walker shorts with a hat she said she’d picked up from Homebake festival. She said festivals were her chance to play with fashion. “I love clothes. There’s only two variations on our uniform at work so I like to take the chance to dress up.” 

Full interviews to come later. See more street style pics from Laneway by Xiaohan Shen at vogue.com.au

‘Japanese retail chain Uniqlo will open in Australia within the next two years.

Tadashi Yanai, president of Uniqlo’s parent company Fast Retailing, has confirmed that the company will open in Australia as soon as possible. 

Following a business strategy conference in September in which Yanai announced the possibility of opening stores in Australia and New Zealand, he confirmed to The Australian that there were definite plans to launch the casual clothing brand down under.’

Read more of my story of Uniqlo’s plans to open in Australia on vogue.com.au

Valeria Rysyukova wears Uniqlo in Moscow / Uniqlooks

‘Fashion’s Night Out gets interactive with the launch of Vogue’s VIP shopping app, with gifts, discounts and special offers.

Sydney’s Pitt Street Mall will set the scene for a virtual treasure hunt hosted by Vogue, as an interactive shopping guide app leads shoppers through stores to unlock special offers and gifts on Fashion’s Night Out, Thursday 8 September.

The free location-based Vogue VIP app will lead shoppers to nearby stores recommended by the Vogue team and highlight any special offers or gifts available.
 at
“You’ll stand there and it’ll go, ‘What’s around me?’ and it’ll find a store and tell you how to get there,” said Vogue marketing director Skye Fisher.’

Read the rest of my story on this shopping addiction-fueling app for Fashion’s Night Out at vogue.com.au

‘Celebrating its colourful and kooky history, fashion-forward shoe brand Melissa invites Melburnians into its interactive pop-up store.

Melissa, the Brazilian jelly shoe company known for its collaborations with Vivienne Westwood and Jean Paul Gaultier, has opened a pop-up store in Melbourne.

Called Melissa Pop, the store is situated in Melbourne Central and was designed to convey the “little bit kooky” history of the brand, says Susannah Kerr of Melissa Australia.’

Read the rest of my story on the funky pop-up store by jelly shoe manufacturers Melissa on vogue.com.au

/ vogue.com.au

Topshop’s flagship store on Oxford Circus, London / via vogue.com.au

“The first stand-alone Topshop store in Australia is set to open in Melbourne by the end of the year, finally bringing the Topshop phenomenon to our shores.

Set to open in December, the 1300 square metre site at The Jam Factory on Chapel Street will also include clothing from men’s line Topman.

The Australian store will be similar in terms of stock and services such as personal styling, says Hilton Seskin, chairman of Next Athleisure, the company that has secured the franchise rights to Topshop.”

Find out more about Topshop’s plans for Australia on vogue.com.au