If a cursory glance through the minimal trends for Spring and Summer left you thinking that dazzle had been left on the sidelines this season, think again.

While all-out glitz has been temporarily shelved (even on the red carpet), the new way to wear sparkle is through pieces that hint at craftsmanship and heritage. Detail and finish take their lead from haute couture, not mass production. Shades of bronze and pewter take precedence over silver and gold: think ‘old-gold’ rather than ‘shiny penny’.

This wow-factor dress from Miu Miu is a brilliant example of how the new approach works. The layers and layers of sequins make for a cool, edgy finish that’s smart, not showgirl.  The column dress is nothing new for evening, but the avant-garde detailing makes this a head-turner for all the right reasons.

Many classics for S/S 2010 have been revisited this season: military, tribal and even minimal chic. Each one has had a major overhaul, but sparkle, out of all of these, required the most extensive top-to-toe makeover of all. Tarnished by associations with D-list celebrities going for broke on the red carpet, dazzle done well is beautiful. Applied with no concept of when to hold back, it’s a disaster.

This is why the makeover was needed and why it has worked so well.  The remodelling of glitz and glamour has been from the ground up: you couldn’t imagine this Oscar de la Renta frock making an appearance at the Soap Awards, but it looked pitch-perfect worn by Kristen Stewart at a ‘New Moon’ premiere last year.

Taking elements of the unexpected (Lanvin’s jewel-encrusted jumpsuits; Prada’s cobweb vests and Burberry’s bedazzled coats), the new bling is challenging us to pause, look again and re-evaluate. Nothing here is obvious or on the nose. From Dior to Richard Nicoll, old and new perspectives alike have struck gold with their interpretation of what it means right now to dazzle.

Far from being harsh and over-bearing, the softness of the colour palette being used across the board means that designers can go to newer, bolder silhouettes and no-one bats an eye. The Balmain mini-dress, while certainly challenging for the waist-line, is a perfectly plausible look for Xmas. If done in silver-white, it would be a different story.

The good news is that this look works on every budget. As much as you may covet the Lanvin jumpsuit, not everyone can lay down that sort of coin. But the new dazzle is absolutely achievable; it’s just a case of knowing how to put it together.

When accessorising your mini-dress that pays homage to Balmain, or a jewelled jacket, think laterally. Burberry teamed their mega-watt crystal coat with nude ankle boots. French designer Isabel Marant paired her bronze mini-dresses with suede, fringed Navajo boots.

Footwear is a brilliant way of underplaying glitz. Nude tones also work well with smaller glitzy pieces for day. The trick is for every element of sparkle, anchor it with two quieter pieces, whether that’s an accessory or part of the outfit. This trend has legs too: the pewter and bronze pieces will work brilliantly with the bevy of camel and toffee colours beginning to emerge for autumn. Take the Chloe catwalk as your inspiration: leg-lengthening trousers with a jewelled shell top tucked under a camel coat. It’s smart, flattering and almost unbearably chic. Prepare for this autumn to be your best-dressed ever.

Dazzle and sparkle used to have quite a mean-girl reputation: they translated as ‘look at me’, or even worse, ‘I can afford this – and it’s the real deal!’ It’s not surprising many designers in this frugal age have opted for subdued, less showy looks on the runway. If we’re meant to be moving towards a mood of austerity (and in it together), then wearing your entire bank account on your sleeve doesn’t exactly make you part of the zeitgeist.

This makeover is more than skin-deep: it goes right down to the very soul of the trend. Dazzle now celebrates the very things it opposed: artistry, longevity and uniqueness. It’s a look that not only signposts personality, but encourages you to express yours. This trend’s rarest gem is that it works for all kinds of women. If you want to go all-out sexy like the William Tempest asymmetric mini or quirky-cool like Giles’ skin-tight silver suit, every possible combination works.

This is a sub-trend that you will see emerging this winter too. Gone are the days of one trend fits all. Regardless of your personality, being on-trend used to mean donning a particular heel height or a shade of blue, whether it suited you or not.

What the recession has done for the fashion industry is loosened the rules, by necessity rather than design. Trends are becoming flexible, so they can fit you, not the other way around.

 

 

It’s all about the wider movement to create fashion that’s wear-now, love-forever. The days of disposable fashion seem increasingly distant and foreign to the way we live now. A trend’s currency is not only its wearability, but its worth. Making that personal, meaningful connection is rapidly becoming the intelligent way to buy clothes. Buy into the new dazzle and it’ll be the best purchase you’ll make all year. Pick your pieces carefully, and they will, just like the finest jewels, appreciate with value.

HELEN TOPE

 

Even the vampire-shy can’t have failed to notice the mammoth world tour to promote the second Twilight film, ‘New Moon’, which finished with a premiere in Los Angeles last week.

The saga, penned by Stephanie Meyer, has made its lead actors into stars virtually overnight. Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson are now familiar Hollywood names, with Taylor Lautner and Ashley Greene noted for their portrayals of Jacob Black and Alice Cullen.

If you’re not familiar with the phrase ‘Twi-Hard’, and the last teen film you saw had Molly Ringwald in it, here’s what all the fuss is all about. The story starts with Bella Swan, a teenage girl who doesn’t particularly fit the typical teenager mould. When her mother remarries, Bella chooses to relocate and move in with her father, who lives in a tiny town called Forks, based in Washington. In attempting to adjust to a new school, Bella meets Edward Cullen. Edward isn’t like the other boys. He is quiet, mysterious and a bit of a looker. To use the Jane Austen vernacular, an attachment forms between the two. But there is something unsettling about Edward. His eyes change colour. He is incredibly fast and strong. Bella eventually figures out that Edward is a vampire. Throw in an ancient grudge match between vampires and werewolves, and you’re pretty much up to speed on how Twilight operates. This is Romeo and Juliet for the Facebook generation.

But back to the important bit: who wore what. The exhaustive world tour has seen Kristen Stewart wear everything from Rodarte to Proenza Schouler. A girl never afraid to dress her age, Kristen is exemplary at taking the stuffiness out of red carpet dressing. The final stage of the ‘New Moon’ promotional tour at Los Angeles saw Stewart pull out all the stops in Oscar de la Renta.

An old-school label, the curious choice intrigued the fashion press, but from the (unbitten) neck down, the look works. A spare, elegant print and clean sharp silhouette serves Stewart well, keeping the look modern and youthful.

Her hair, unfinished and rocker-chic, raised some eyebrows. Not entirely Kristen’s fault (it is intended for a Joan Jett biopic due for release in 2010), the hair doesn’t off-set the dress but rather fights against it. As a result, her red-carpet look is a game of two halves. But from the neck down, it is a triumph.

The Twilight saga has been responsible for launching not just Kristen’s career but that of her co-stars as well. Ashley Greene, who plays Alice Cullen, has been sparking some serious blogger activity, due to her love of fashion, both on and off-screen.

For the L.A premiere, Ashley chose to champion an up-and-coming designer, Prabal Gurung. A sumptuous cut-away red gown, Ashley played the vamp card, drawing comparisons with fellow starlet Megan Fox. Managing to be both cool and sexy (a particularly tough combination to manage), Ashley is already being tipped as a style name to watch.

 

A newcomer to the Twilight fold is former child star Dakota Fanning. A star of such films as ‘War of the Worlds’ and ‘Charlotte’s Web’, this is Dakota’s debut as a member of Young Hollywood. Dakota put this into consideration, when she stepped out in a Valentino gown.

Again, this Italian heritage label is renowned for creating beautiful gowns for women twenty years Dakota’s senior. On paper, a teenager wearing couture rarely works. Fashion is all about youth, but not when it comes to eveningwear. Designers know that most teenage girls don’t have the opportunity to play dress up on such a grand scale, hence the bias towards the more affluent thirty-something with the need to impress. However, Dakota chose her weapon for the night wisely and picked a short strapless gown that was pure girly Goth - and chosen by many as their favourite look of the evening.

 

Dakota amped up the fashion quota with a pair of red satin platforms and minimal accessories, making the look sufficiently edgy and age-appropriate.

The high fashion theme carried on with model and actress Noot Seear. Wearing Alexander McQueen, Noot showed off her fashion know-how in a wildly printed dress that represents the very latest of McQueen’s work. Paired with vertiginous gold snakeskin sandals, this look was definitely the most fashion-forward of the evening.

 

Someone who didn’t fare so well was Noot’s co-star Elizabeth Reaser. Wearing a pale Herve Leger bandage dress, she got slated for making a ‘predictable’ fashion pick. Any ‘it’ dress on the red carpet circuit has a shorter life expectancy than a butterfly, but the ubiquitous appearance of the Leger (tight, sexy, instantly recognisable) meant that its time in the spotlight was short but sweet. In real life, the sleek high-street incarnation of the Herve Leger classic is brilliant at showing off a killer bod, but in terms of Hollywood’s rather exacting standards, it no longer cuts the mustard.

 

But of course, it’s not all about the girls. If ‘Twilight’ belonged to Edward Cullen, in ‘New Moon’, he’s got a little competition from Bella’s classmate, Jacob Black. Another boy with a secret (not such a big reveal if you’ve seen the trailer), he’s just cute enough to tempt Bella to pastures new.

Taylor Lautner, who nearly didn’t get the role of Jacob, is proving a hit with the fans and, if the rumours are to be believed, with country singer Taylor Swift as well. Lautner came to the premiere flying solo and dressed to thrill in head-to-toe Calvin Klein.

 

An all-American look, the retro contrasting blues of the suit and shirt played beautifully against Taylor’s skin tone. Formal menswear can be limiting, especially if you’re in the tricky 18-21 age group, but Taylor made a smart choice by choosing colour as the main story of his outfit. Gimmicks such as pattern and print are all well and good, but they only work if you’re a total party animal – or Johnny Depp.

 

Taylor’s red-carpet rival for the night was Robert Pattinson. The face of Twilight, Pattinson is James Dean for the i-pod age: with Rob it’s all about the hair. Decked out in Gucci, Pattinson has come a long way since his red-carpet appearance for ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’, where he turned up in a red velvet blazer. He’s certainly earned his fashion stripes, his off-duty wardrobe winning much praise from fashion pundits. If you’re young, male and want to know how to do cool without looking like you’ve tried too hard, just Google a few pictures of Rob. A natural at putting together a relaxed look, Pattinson scores serious red-carpet points for the impeccable suit matched with the artfully tousled hair. Approaching red-carpet fashion with a sophistication that belies his age, he knows how to do formal without looking old-fashioned or looking like he’s trying to channel George Clooney. Pattinson is his own fashion-plate, which makes him a very exciting prospect for future red-carpet events as his career will undoubtedly flourish beyond the Twilight years.

This batch of stars not only has style-smarts, but they represent a Young Hollywood that has learnt from the mistakes of the Lohan-Spears-Hilton escapades two years ago. Determined not be cautionary tales, this new generation which includes Mia Wasikowska, Ellen Page and Amanda Seyfried are getting that attention the right way, by focusing on their work. More intelligent about the image they project, you’re more likely to catch them schlepping about in a hoodie than falling out of a club at 3am.

Noticeably minus the histrionics one would expect from an event featuring several of-the-moment actors, this was a red carpet that was surprisingly low-key and relaxed, even though ‘New Moon’ is expected to do serious business at the box office. Leaving their egos at home, the young actors showed their older counterparts how it should be done: no fuss, no frills - just great clothes. If this is how the next generation approaches Hollywood, its future, on and off the red carpet, is in very safe hands.

HELEN TOPE

A colour that evokes glamour, mystery and seduction, black is the shade of the season, bar none.

Even a cursory glance at this autumn’s collections will serve to point out that black is the colour that has everybody talking. A perennial fashion favourite, upstaged by grey for the past few years, this time black really is the new black.

But this is not bleak, Ingmar Bergman fare. This year, black is not the bringer of sour depression, but quite the opposite. Designers have re-evaluated what black can do, and have produced some stunning examples of drop-dead, sophisticated urban wear to take us into the next decade.

A step-up from the uber-sexy statements from Luella and Rodarte last year, black is reinterpreted as hard-working fashion for hard-working women. Designing to a pagan theme is certainly fun, but this year the colour is the story.

Re-drawn in coats, skirts and dresses, whether intended for night or day, every look is immediately wearable straight off the catwalk. It can be worn as quirkily or as deadpan as you want. The look can be stern, flirty or downright naughty – whatever mood you’re in, black can cater to it. It’s worth noting that no other colour has the same impact of emotional transference: white somehow manages to look puritan whatever way you wear it.

For day, black (far from being boring) is dawn-to-dusk glamour. Whether it’s a DKNY cape or an Alexander Wang jacket, what designers have learnt in the intervening years since black was last this hot, is that it lends itself very easily to extreme silhouettes. It makes the un-wearable very easy to apply to real life, indeed transforming the way we think of daywear for the better.

Black’s put in the leg-work over the years, being the backbone of corporate Britain. Anyone who considers themselves even remotely ‘in business’ owns a black suit. If cut badly, it has a tendency to read as dull, and definitely unimaginative. Due to this, it has somewhat unfairly received a bad press over the years, but it is not the colour that is at fault.

Cut and sewn by people who know what they’re doing, there’s very little that can out-smart a black suit in the style stakes. Done right, it is sleek and authoritative. Done badly, like couture, it is a disaster. Fit is everything.

But where black soars above the competition is how designers have chosen to reinterpret it. Nowhere will you find boring, bland ‘classics’ to keep the wolf from the fashion door. This season, black acts as the ambassador for fashion at its most brilliant.

 

 

Cutting-edge fashion has been making its way steadily to the high street via the drip-feed effect of haute couture and ready-to-wear. We are rapidly becoming attuned to the ‘scary’ shapes (the lantern skirt, the bold shoulder, the sculpted jacket) and learning that they are nothing to be afraid of.

Taking the fear out of the extreme cuts available, there’s no better way of selling daring new shapes to the public by courting them in black. In any other colour, the lure of the extreme is somewhat uncertain: all you can see is the extremity of the outline; you don’t see how it blends and feeds into the rest of the garment, and by implication, the rest of your wardrobe.

Dresses by Christopher Kane and Martine Sitbon are the height of cutting-edge glamour, but in buyer-friendly black, they sell themselves with aplomb.

 

 

The high-fashion cut of the dress doesn’t seem so intimidating. We see the dress as a whole, rather than as the sum of its parts. You forget that you’re buying into a trend, and focus on the beauty of the dress itself.

Even the more traditional brands on the high street have recognised that to stay in business, they must keep the consumers’ interest. There will always be the girl who wants a clean, modern pencil skirt, regardless of what is happening in fashion. But where extreme shapes come into play is with the consumers who would politically be classed as ‘undecided’. These people soak up influences and are happy to go with the flow –but only if sufficiently convinced.

Selling these silhouettes to the public requires great skill and diplomacy, but by using black, the strategy has worked. Stores are making – and selling – designs that five years ago belonged exclusively to the world of couture. A Rick Owens jacket suddenly doesn’t seem as much avant-garde, as an exciting addition to your Saturday morning uniform of t-shirts and jeans. The power of persuasion is such that people are looking at fashion with new eyes, imagining where it can slot into their lifestyle. This is a radical about-turn, where previously people who lacked the confidence to try new things, imagined that they would have to be the ones doing the shuffling. The new designs are challenging, there’s no two ways about it, but with anything that’s a little tough to get your head around, the initial groundwork always pays off in the end.

No-one, when this trend began, really expected it to take off, simply because at the time, no-one was ready to wear it. We are ready now. Consumers are taking that leap because black gives them the nudge they need. It’s essentially a big, sartorial safety blanket.

There are those who might suggest that designers’ preoccupation with black is a nod to our collective mood at the moment. I would argue the opposite: I would instead suggest that the business of getting back to black is a sign of us gravitating towards optimism.

You can see this in how black has been applied to eveningwear. This is glamour with an edge. Oscar de la Renta and Marchesa have produced stunning designs all on variations of black. La Renta prefers the aid of embellishment, while Marchesa has produced a delicate wisp of a gown, so light and airy you almost forget it’s in the darkest colour of all. It certainly challenges the concept of black being a ‘safe’ choice for night. It is detail that underpins (good) black eveningwear: even a tuxedo jacket, whether it is worn in a full YSL Le Smoking moment, or draped over bare shoulders, has intricate design peppered on the lapels to raise the visual stimulation.

What the newest designers have learned from the past is that no-one wants to look like they haven’t tried, or at least made an effort. The LBD has, while forming an infallible part in the canon of fashion classics, fallen by the wayside in recent seasons, with jewel colours being given preferential treatment. Colour du jour, regal purple, has its place, but when you want to seduce, nothing gets it done faster than black. For heterosexual men everywhere, it is the international symbol of a woman who doesn’t mess around – and who has time for games?

Black for night has, in a sense, never really gone away, but where it differs now is that if you want to keep it modern – think detail, detail, detail.

 

 

Undersold by poor design, black has unfairly been portrayed as the stodgy cousin to the alluring metallics and dazzling jewel tones. But when it is done right, in its moments of magic, the glamour, the sophisticated finish, the edge – if none of these factors are neglected – nothing comes close to black.

It is somewhat fitting that the ‘safest’ colour ends up being the conduit for the boldest and bravest shapes to be seen in fashion for a decade. Shedding its previous image, this season has proved to be a kind of renaissance for black. Revisited and reworked by the newer talents in the fashion pack, it has become the colour everybody wants to wear.

Black, for the first time in years, is the hottest colour of the season, without being labelled or reinvented. It is not Goth; it is not Pagan-temptress. This season, black is allowed to operate on its own agenda, and remind us of why it is the most popular and versatile colour we have.

Black renewed is something joyous and truly creative – light years away from the mediocre hell it found itself in during the late Nineties. This modern look is fresh, inventive and unapologetically optimistic. Far from being mean and miserly, it is suggestive of opulence and generosity – the very best things in life. The darkest colour is bringing us pure moments of light.

Does that sound like doom and gloom to you?

HELEN TOPE