Erdem and Maya

Fashion weeks have turned out to be a grueling challenge. The task facing anyone trying to follow the shows in New York, London, Milan and Paris was always going to be formidable. This little and exclusive sphere of activity suddenly goes into a never-ending obsessive frenzy bringing together buyers, editors, photographers, street style photographers, stylists, journalists, paid celebrities and bloggers all blending together into a morass of fashion. I navigated my way through the London shows secretly wondering how some designers managed to advance further up the career ladder (I didn’t think much of the Flintstones and over the top 80s Madonna lace wedding dresses). Just as I was beginning to tire of fashion several names with the magic tag managed to recapture the old frisson of excitement: Mark Fast, Charles Anastase, Burberry and Erdem. Erdem Moralioglu's Spring/Summer collection is eye-catching partly because of the exquisite combination of varied intense colours, and partly because of the delightful and simple shapes. He seems to have favoured a Japanese or Asian influence guaranteed to attract success with its visual references to extraordinarily vivid flowers, gardens and carefree romantic attitudes. The printed flowery fabrics are further sweetened with lace details and sometimes contrast with silk tee-shirts. The result is striking and memorable, utterly convincing masterpieces. I loved the dreamy sensuality of these dresses. They have a beguiling freshness that made me wish for a hot summer’s night. I still can’t quite decide what it is that makes Erdem so different, so modern and so appealing but if I could afford one of the spring 2010 pieces I would buy it immediately!
Another great pleasure of London fashion week was finally meeting Maya from Turned Out. I have mentioned her before and talked about the fact that she is a constant source of photographic inspiration and style education. A genuine talent. We had been exchanging emails for a while and I had been admiring her work for the past six months. Meeting her in person was so much fun. She is simply captivating. I found her to be not only extremely pretty and elegant but also endearing, unpretentious, watchful and intelligent. Anyone who reads this should look at her website straight away. Street style photography at its best!
Maya: move to London… Now!

Photos courtesy of Style.com