Tunbridge Wells Fashion Week S/S 2010

Tunbridge Wells Fashion Week

The catwalk show brought together my favourite eclectic mix of leading brands, local boutiques and some very fabulous vintage.  The Brew House Hotel’s charming venue of The Old School House was perfect for an intimate evening of fashion.

Opening

The show opened with a parade of NSPCC t-shirts (the charity the event was raising money for) and moved swiftly on to Superdry, the brand that plays every element of casual and cool with a preppy Americana feel.  There were some great casual weekend wear and some lovely jersey knits.  Having said that I did feel that we had been short changed out of a great opening. I love a bit of glamour and was expecting a feature piece or a grand opening.  But we all have to do casual/weekend wear sometimes, so it was a welcome balance to the rest of the evening.

Country Stile & Gently Worn Vintage

Country Stile was next up with a great balance between outfits for the traditional country lady and gentlemen and some fantastic takes on this seasons pastels and soft tailoring.  They also married their outfits with some great accessories and some fabulous handbags.

Country Stile

Quite simply the next arrival was the star of the show for me. Gently Worn Vintage.  A fabulous local online store, with some very individual pieces and statement designs from the elegant eras of our past.  For me Gently Worn Vintage was all about the shoes.  Some wonderful pieces of footwear. Pastels again came out and there was some very elegant 50’s style pinned up hair.  Gently Worn Vintage presented some gorgeous detailing, embellishment and captivated my mind for some lovely vintage shopping.

Gently Worn Vintage

Greens & Bod and Ted

Of course fashion isn’t all about the ladies, so there were many interludes through the evening by Greens menswear to give the men something to think about.  A lot of casual tailoring and some fabulous greys.  Grey seems to be the men’s pastel for S/S10.  For men there were a lot of good jackets which can really give a good finish to a mans outfit.

Bod and Ted, the unique boutique from Devon who opened their shop in Tunbridge Wells in January, really hit this seasons key trends with a passion.  They featured a lot of flowing lines, some gorgeous pastels and subliminal blues and had a lot of focus on gorgeous shoes and boots.  They channelled the nautical theme with some lovely jackets and some fab summer tailoring with a new take on city shorts.   One of my favourite outfits of the evening came from one of my favourite designers Malene Birger an ecru and black feather detailed draped Vullan dress.

Bod and Ted

La Belle Femme & Dot your T’s and cross your I’s

A very established boutique in TW is La Belle Femme, describes as one of the largest mother-of-the-bride and special occasions stockists in Kent and South East London.  There were some great outfits and a good mix of separates also with a young vision coming through for this traditional “ladies who lunch“ store.  Again materials were flowing and accompanied with some lovely embellishment.  There was some lovely rouching detail on many pieces and for anyone searching for an outfit for a wedding, Ascot, Cheltenham or simply a fabulous garden party; this is the destination for you.

We next welcomed local designer Chloe Bosher with her collection “Dot your T’s and cross your I’s”.  Again we saw a fabulous display of greys and blacks and a great new way of wearing harem pants slightly higher on the leg to change the look of them.  A lot of loose materials and this seasons pastels into acid colours with a silk finish to present a divine collection.

Mini Maya & Little London

A firm favourite boutique in the town of mine is MiniMaya where romance met rock.  Opening outfit was a hot tan leather jacket that was very neatly tailored.  Their collection featured fab tan shoes and a lot of gold accessories. The eclectic mix of music for the runway really worked with MiniMaya’s collection and we saw some lovely satins, leather, muted tones and a lot of hot accessories; cuff bracelets and shell clutches.

Swiftly we moved on to Little London who continued the soft tailoring and gold trend.  There was a very elegant zebra print evening dress accessorised with silver jewellery and there was a great mix of weekend looks and evening attire.  Another of my favourite destinations is Kitch who took an interesting take on the nautical trend with some nautical style embellishment, a lot of layered, statement shoulders and very heavily embellished shoes.  There were again a lot of greys and muted colours and the materials were draped and flowing.  We did see that high heeled trainers seemed to be the footwear de jour for the fashion show, which raised a mixture of opinion about them across the front row.

Closing with Jaeger

Last but no means least the main brand of the show, iconic British brand Jaeger.  We had an introduction to their menswear range stocked at Fenwick, Tunbridge Wells and then moved onto the ladies wear from their centrally located store.  The menswear channelled a classic men’s knitwear with traditional but classy tailoring.  Ladies were greeted with a fabulous shift dress, satin with gigantic poppies on – a fabulous take on the iconic shift dress, a new take on the dogtooth pattern on a lot of materials. In my opinion their star outfit featured silver and pale acid green, some high waisted trousers and a sequined crop jacket.

Jaeger

All in all it was a pleasure to be sitting on the front row at this local event with a London fashion feel. Louise Clark, Karena Sedgwick and the team did a tremendous job to bring this glamorous event to the town and we can’t wait for the A/W collection in September.  Congratulations to Louise and The Brew House Hotel in association with Hoopers department store. Ladies, its time to come to Tunbridge Wells and hit our boutiques, there are some very special pieces to be found. See you there!