Countdown to February's London Fashion Week is well and truly under way.  If you've been lucky enough to catch any of the catwalk shows of previous seasons, you'll know that they are traditionally dominated by collections of womenswear.  No more!  The BFC announced today that the schedule for LFW will include 13 promising menswear designers who will all be showing on the afternoon of February 25th.

We can't wait to get a look at Carolyn Massey and James Long.  After all, there is room for menswear on the catwalk too, especially if it happens to be clothing a rather exquisite looking gentleman.

Most museums, I can take or leave. Don't blame me, blame my attention-deficient generation. And MTV.

However, this one's definitely worth the trip - and especially between now and 17th of May:

Image courtesy of Hussein Chalayan.com's blog

An exhibit of works by the award-winning fashion designer Hussein Chalayan from 1994-2009 is on at London's Design Museum.

It's purpose is to look at the creative approach of a man who brought us portable architecture, a dress made of aircraft materials and another made of Swarovski crystals and 15,000 flickering LED lights.

It's the most compresensive presentation of Chalayan's past fifteen years of experimental projects and will include his past and present collections.

It should appeal to anyone who loves fashion, technology, innovation or art. Basically, anyone with eyes and brain.

And I dare you to leave without once contemplating the phrase 'frickin' laser beams'.

As if there wasn't enough to look forward to at next month's London Fashion Week, we learned today that William Tempest has been named the recipient of the inaugural Vauxhall Fashion Scout Merit Award.  Receiving this award means Tempest can stage his first solo catwalk show at LFW.

Tempest narrowly missed out on winning last year's Fashion Fringe at Covent Garden award and has been much talked about lately since actress Emma Watson took to the red carpet in one of his creations.

At only 22, Tempest's C.V includes stints at Giles Deacon and Jean Charles de Castelbajac.  Not bad for a young lad.

So t'interweb really loves our latest addition, Tour de Force.

Shall we find out why, lovely readers? Then let's begin..

First, there's this:

Pleated Flower Headpiece, £89

..and then of course the nice discount on this:

Butterfly Crown, was £89, now £69.

..and it's also can't harm that the designer, Camille Roman, is fresh from creating some of the magic at Johnny Loves Rosie, with a CV that also lists Lanvin, Zac Posen and Lulu Guinness.

So there you go - visit Tour de Force's shop to make a stylish statement with a simple outfit, or when you want to be the most fashion-forward guest over 2009's wedding season.

Balenciaga RTW A/W08, courtesy of Style.com

Here are the latest chart positions for designer funding:

Amount Invested    Shares Sold      Designer

£390                         39                    Georgie W

£340                         34                    Love Cole by Samantha Cole London

£290                         29                    Kelly Love

£170                         17                    Tom Florian Atelier

£160                         16                    Fred Butler

£120                         12                    Daughter Earth

£90                             9                    Marshall&Vox

£70                             7                    Plastikowy

£60                             6                    Clash&Refine

£30                             3                    Tatiana Biktimirova
£30                             3                    Lucy Willis
£20                             2                    PopRina

£20                             2                    Solemare
£10                             1                    Paula Mattoso
£10                             1                    Jennivi Jordan

£10                             1                    Saia Ikavalko
£10                             1                    Sample Remix
£10                             1                    Cristina Schamann
£10                             1                    Alisa Benay

Why are some designers not clickable?
Some of the designers haven't got any products on sale at the moment and so their profile is currently inactive.

All shares purchased still stand and you can view them in My Account > Designer Funding.

1. Take 12 splendid designers:

2. Ask them to provide an image inspired by Light.

3. Using some sort of magic, refract said images through a Swarovski crystal and allow people to meddle with them with a mouse hover.

Images courtesy of SHOWstudio

4. Run an automatic spooky music track on the page that will eventually convince viewers to check that poltergeists aren't coming out of the television.

Et voila! SHOWStudio's 12 days of Christmas. It finished on the 6th, so all 12 are there for you to go and fiddle with now.

Here are the latest chart positions for designer funding:

Amount Invested    Shares Sold    Designer

£350                         35                    Georgie W
£280                         28                    Kelly Love
£270                         27                    Love Cole by Samantha Cole London
£160                         16                    Fred Butler
£111                         11                    Daughter Earth
£80                             8                    Tom Florian Atelier
£70                             7                    Plastikowy
£60                             6                    Clash&Refine
£60                             6                    Marshall&Vox
£30                             3                    Tatiana Biktimirova
£30                             3                    Lucy Willis
£20                             2                    PopRina
£20                             2                    Solemare
£10                             1                    Paula Mattoso
£10                             1                    Jennivi Jordan
£10                             1                    Saia Ikavalko
£10                             1                    Sample Remix
£10                             1                    Cristina Schama
£10                             1                    Alisa Benay

Why are some designers not clickable?
Some of the designers haven't got any products on sale at the moment and so their profile is currently inactive.

All shares purchased still stand and you can view them in My Account > Designer Funding.

We are thrilled to welcome Markus Lupfer and his fabulous knits to Catwalk Genius.

Markus graduated with first class honours from the University of Westminster and immediately sold his graduate collection to Koh Samui.  Markus' own label was born in 1998.


Since then, Markus has become renowned for his use of stunning prints and bold colours and his knitwear has been worn by many a starlet, such as Gwen Stefani.

Well, would you look at that? It only went and turned 2009, while I was distracted by a particularly succulent mince pie. Hope yours was a lovely festive period.

In some parts of the internet, January is known for its sales. So if you're looking for a bargain, we wouldn't like to disappoint.

Here are some of the juicy discounts you'll find in our Sample Sale:

Red Print Dress by Aganovich; was £375, now £185 (over 50% off):

 

Pleat Front Jersey Dress by Nicola de Main; was £75, now £38 (half price):

Heart tee by Jojo & Malou; was£45, now £10 (over 75% off):

Shop the entire Sale - give yourself a treat while you're squaring up to face the perils of January!

 

Huge crowds by superciliousness (CC)

If you dropped by earlier and found us mysteriously absent, please accept our most fragrant apologies.

Apparently you're visiting in ever increasing numbers (possibly because some lovely people have been talking about us - thanks!).

We're very flattered, but it caused the blog to get a bit wobbly*. We fed the meter with a bit of extra bandwidth and here we are back again.

Fingers crossed, normal service is now resumed!

x

*We were at a Digital Media conference at the time. Is that ironic? Or just unfortunate? Since that Alanis Morrissette song, I can never tell.

We couldn't let the recent New Gen sponsorship announcements pass us by, without offering our public congrats to Fred Butler.  Fred, who is selling her much blogged about Dodecahedron necklace with us, is a worthy winner of this sponsorship which has helped launch many a successful career, including that of Alexander McQueen.

There were of course lots of other worthy winners, including some of my personal faves.  You can (and should) check them all out on the LFW site right here. 

Nice one Fred.  We'll see you in February!

At CWG we are usually full of good cheer and inspiring (ahem) fashion chatter, so I apologise if this may be a little depressing.  Amanda Wakeley is no longer working for Amanda Wakeley.  Yes, it seems strange, but her fashion company has just fallen victim to a corporate takeover.  In a statement released today, Wakeley said:” I have been advised that I will be no longer required and have tendered my resignation which has been accepted with immediate effect. I shall leave the company today.”

Wakeley's label has been running since 1990 and she has a dressed an array of red carpet stars such as Scarlett Johansson and Demi Moore. 

We may still see her SS09 collection at this Feb's LFW as she, like many others, is considering ditching the runway and showcasing her collection via a presentation.

Whatever happens, I think it's safe to assume that we haven't seen the last of Amanda Wakeley, and thank goodness for that!

The 4th Fashion Bloggers Brunch took place last weekend and Audi were nice enough to be our hosts.  We drank and ate probably far too much but hey, it's Christmas! 

In amongst all the food and champers we were surrounded by some uber cool Audi's (my own personal fave being the R8), and art from Irish street artists and illustrators Bren B, Maser, Chris Judge and Hugo.

Thanks again to I Blog Fashion for arranging the brunch and the fab goody bags!

Merry Christmas to all our fashion blogging friends!

Here are the latest chart positions for designer funding:

Amount Invested   Shares Sold   Designer              
        £350                   35              Georgie W  
        £280                   28              Kelly Love
         £140                  14              Love Cole by Samantha Cole London
         £70                      7              Daughter Earth
         £60                      6              Fred Butler
         £60                      6              Marshall & Vox
         £40                      4              Lucy Wills
         £40                      4              Tatiana Biktimirova
         £20                      2              Paula Mattoso
         £20                      2              Tom Florian Atelier      
         £20                      2              PopRina
         £20                      2              Solemare
         £10                      1              Alisa Benay
         £10                      1              Amisha
         £10                      1              Cristina Schamann
         £10                      1              Jens
         £10                      1              Queerkinks
         £10                      1              Saia Ikalvalko
         £10                      1              Sample Remix

Also new and available for backing: plastikowy.



Why are some designers not clickable?
Some of the designers haven't got any products on sale at the moment and so their profile is currently inactive.

All shares purchased still stand and you can view them in My Account > Designer Funding.

Last week our friends at Dublin Streets invited us for tea with Yoske Nishiumi and Svenja Specht.  Yoske is the founder of Berlin's Koi Klub.  A club originally set up some years ago for creative folks to come together and share ideas.  Svenja is the founder of Berlin's fashion label Reality Studio.

At the intimate event, sponsored by Barry's Tea, Yoske and Svenja shared some of their golden moments, including how they met and what inspires them to be creative.

We are loving Svenja's current AW collection and can't wait to get our hands on the SS09.  Check out the collections here.

We saw an interesting article on Wall Street Journal (via Business of Fashion) recently. In summary, it suggested that some designers will ditch their usual runway show in 2009 because of the expense.

As examples, they pointed to Marni (running a presentation), Marc Bouwer (webcasting a show after a successful attempt in 2008) and Carmen Marc Valvo (another presentation).

We're delighted to unveil the SS09 collection from LP.BG, the new collaboration between designer Lily Parker and model Ben Grimes.

It's not even Christmas yet, but that doesn't stop us from dressing up in red suits and getting all generous.

The code below is valid for a handful of free designer funding shares, on a first come-first served basis:




Here's how to find a designer and spend it.

The formidable Anna Wintour, Editor of US Vogue, has been awarded an O.B.E for services to British journalism and fashion in America.  With her iconic bob and current collection Chanel suit, she felt 'honoured' collecting her award, despite many of her American colleagues having no idea what an O.B.E was!

Wintour has had a long and successful career in the fashion industry, starting when she was just a teenager, then taking the reigns of British Vogue before she moved across the pond to America in the late '80's. 

If you'd like to join in the unique crowdfunding project and 'Back a Designer', here's a screencast to show you how to buy shares. Click the image to play (you'll leave this site):

Fashions glitterati turned up last night to the much talked about Fashion Oscars.  The 2008 British Fashion Awards never fail to disappoint, with many a well dressed celeb gliding down the red carpet.

Now, at CWG we don't like to pick (too many) faves, but we were delighted to see that Nicholas Kirkwood was honoured with the Swarovski Emerging Talent Award for Accessories.  Well done Nick, our feet salute you!

Other winners were:

DESIGNER OF THE YEAR: Luella Bartley

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN FASHION DESIGN: Stephen Jones

ACCESSORY DESIGNER: Rupert Sanderson

MENSWEAR DESIGNER: Christopher Bailey for Burberry

MODEL OF THE YEAR: Jourdan Dunn

RED CARPET DESIGNER: Matthew Williamson

SPECIAL AWARD FOR BESPOKE: Richard James

ISABELLA BLOW AWARD FOR FASHION CREATOR: Tim Walker

DESIGNER BRAND: Jimmy Choo

SWAROVSKI EMERGING TALENT AWARD ACCESSORIES: Nicholas Kirkwood

SWAROVSKI EMERGING TALENT AWARD READY TO WEAR: Louise Goldin

On Tuesday, the BFC bring out their dancing boots and host the British Fashion Awards.


We're keeping our collective beady eye on the 'emerging' categories, that include:

• Danielle Scutt
• Louise Goldin
• Felder Felder

..in Ready to Wear - and in accessories:

• Nicholas Kirkwood
• Charlotte Olympia
• Anna Vince

But the star of the show will be Stephen Jones as the winner of Outstanding Achievement in Fashion Design.


And crikey, there's some achievements worth celebrating.

His headwear has perched gloriously on the noggins of most of musical royalty (see: Sir Mick Jagger, her Kylieness, the right honourable Roisin Murphy), actual royalty (the-Lady-Di-Queen-of-Hearts) and acting legends (Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth, Keira Knightly in Atonement and soon, Audrey Tatou in 'Coco Avant Chanel).

So early congratulations to the master milliner from us - and for you, dear reader: some hat-fun from the maestro in John Galliano's Spring 09 RTW collection:

Tomorrow sees several catwalk shows from Roksanda Ilincic at the Victoria and Albert Museum as part of its 'Fashion in Motion' programme.


Tickets are free and therefore almost certainly rare. If you have one, clutch it tightly to your chest and remember the rest of us poor, unfortunate majority who can only look on with searing envy.


In the meantime, we thought you could do with this little reminder of the delectable draping, structure and colour that formed the A/W 08 collection. Mmmmm.

Look out for some gorgeous pieces from Jojo&Malou in both our Boutique and Sample Sale sections.

For those of you lucky enough to stay close to the fashion capital, the Fashion Expo opens it's doors tomorrow at London's Business Design Centre.

The event, hosted by Laura Bailey, provides a platform for over 80 London-based designers and manufacturers to promote their collections and production skills to retailers.  A glamorous gala evening will conclude the event with a catwalk production show and awards ceremony.

For more info visit the Fashion Expo site.

Just a reminder to the Londonites among you that those fashion awards of which Lynsey speaks are in Shoreditch Town Hall, EC1.

Tomorrow sees the launch of the first RE:Fashion Awards.  The only awards show of it's kind to concentrate solely on ethical fashion.  There are 12 award categories covering key areas of the fashion industry, with points for innovation, cutting edge design and driving positive social and environmental progress within the industry.

The highlight of the evening might just be the magnificent catwalk show, where one-off designs created especially for RE:Fashion will be unveiled. They will be modelled by ethical celebs including Daisy Lowe, Pixie Geldof, Leah Wood, Leah Weller and Portia Freeman.

Designers creating for the RE:Fashion catwalk include Vivienne Westwood, Zandra Rhodes, Preen, Bora Aksu, Allegra Hicks, Todd Lynn, Aimee McWilliams, Jonathan Saunders.

If you fancy heading along to the awards, check out the RE:Fashion website to get your hands on a ticket.

Did you notice the dodecahedron necklace on Style Bubble last week?


We did. It's the work of the delightful Fred Butler and - unless you can persuade Susie B to donate it to you - it's only available on Catwalk Genius. Behold the awesomeness:

The 2008 MTV Awards were held in Liverpool last night and as always, we were studying the red carpet to see what our fave stars were wearing.  Beyonce Knowles, known for her love of all things Armani, decided that this year was the year to go British.  Beyonce arrived at the MTV awards looking fabulous in a creation by Gareth Pugh.  But one Pugh was not enough for Beyonce, as she performed later in one of his cyber-chic creations, the very same that was modelled by Agyness Deyn at February's LFW.

Gareth Pugh will be featuring at this years Clothes Show Live event at the Birmingham NEC in December.

You may think you deserve a fashion award just for standing up in your 5inch Louboutins for 4 hours on a Saturday night, and I would tend to agree with you.  But someone who has done much, much more for the world of fashion is Louise Wilson, Course Director of the Central St Martins M.A programme.  Ms Wilson was honoured with an O.B.E last week from Queen Lizzy herself and sparkled in Lanvin jewels as she graciously accepted.

Central St Martins has been the starting point for many great designers of our generation such as Peter Jensen and Christopher Kane not to mention our very own Sinha-Stanic. We at CWG would like to say congratulations Louise, an award thoroughly deserved! 

I’ll leave you with this: "My students know I love them. I'm the only one who cares enough to hate them."                                     

Louise Wilson.

Unless you’ve been living in a bubble for the last 6 months, you’ll know that we’re right smack bang in the middle of some tricky credit-crunching times.  Today Jens Laugesen sadly announced that his label has folded after 6 outstanding years.  The Danish born designer has won just about every award out there and received sponsorship from the BFC’s New Gen programme.  Unfortunately in this day and age that just isn’t enough if you don’t have the funding to back it up.

We at CWG believe that fashion designers sometimes need a bit of help.  We care about the fashion industry and that’s why we’ve launched our ‘Back a Designer’  scheme.  Here you and I can purchase shares to fund a designer’s next collection.  Once the funding target is reached, the funds are used towards the production of a new collection or diffusion range.  Once that collection is sold, the profits are split between you, CWG and the designer. 

We like to think we’re doing our bit.  If you fancy doing your bit, check out the designers we have who are available for backing and why not purchase a share or 2?

     

Hello again,

After a summer off, we've decided it's about time we got back to work.

A lot of people have been very busy on our behalf and if you were a registered designer before the break, here are the changes you'll notice when you log back in:



Got more questions? Drop us a line at talktous[at]catwalkgenius[dot]com, or leave a comment.

The shop will open to the public in just a short while, so watch this space for more info and special offers.

On Saturday Mal and I finally made it along to a Dublin Fashion Bloggers' Brunch after being I'd been distraught at missing the first two, goody-bag laden events.   more »

You may have noticed that our homepage has gone a little coy recently - it's because behind the screen, we're getting changed. Check out the new logo, for a start.

Over the next few weeks, the team will be working on adding some gorgeous new sections that'll include some new exciting designer additions and a lot of beautiful fashion for this Autumn/Winter.

If you're a designer and you'd like to put forward your new collection for a professional photo shoot to be held in London at the end of August, please email us some images and information using talktous[at]catwalkgenius[dot]com.

If you've adopted a designer - don't worry, your elements remain unchanged. All registered members may still log in and maintain their account as before.

If you have any questions, just drop us a line and we'll do our best to answer them.