‘Not quite present and correct’

A car crash. The end of an era. A terrible nightmare it’s impossible to wake up from.

These clichés may be more suitable for a relationship breakdown or some other natural disaster, but for this article they’re related to the news that the Luella fashion label has ceased trading.

Like a house of cards falling, it started after her ready-to-wear manufacturer, Carla Carini, closed down last month, halting production of the SS10 collection. Then a key financier, Club 21, pulled out last week stating that it would simply “not invest further in Luella Bartley Ltd”, meaning the brand that initially drew me to fashion no longer exists.

In the winter months of 2007, after reading a few fashion magazines and feeling convinced that I was going to be the next Alexandra Shulman, I discovered Luella. I was looking at all these beautifully crafted designs and found that none of it really spoke to me until Luella’s SS08 collection.  The square specs that set off that hideous trend, those Linda Farrow ‘Batgirl’ glasses that reminded me of the first time I saw Ghost World and finding Steve Buscemi weirdly attractive (I was young and impressionable). I craved the shiny bat print trousers and the tiered prom dress Alexa Chung wore to the Elle Style Awards 2008. I found the collection to be somewhat prim but with some startling attitude – the hems on the skirts and dresses were daringly short without giving everything away. Florals for an SS show are nothing out of the ordinary but she made Liberty florals cool again by adorning them on shirts, skirts and even raincoats.

A year later, the SS09 collection wowed me again. Pops of contrasting colours that The Sartorialist may have wet himself over, familiar Liberty florals from the previous collection seemingly thrown together. I’d say it was as prim and proper as the previous SS collection, though considerably more ladylike with skirt suits, brightly coloured fascinators everywhere and Peter Pan collars, which have cropped up in more than a few collections, adding a lovely kitsch feel to it all. You also can’t deny her equestrian influences what with veiled riding hats which one cannot help would think would’ve made an excellent wedding hat, if she was still trading.

Another thing about her I love is her almost startling unpretentiousness, she looks like the sort of woman you could just go up to and strike up a conversation about anything and she’d gladly chat to you.

It’s a shame what the recession is doing to the industry, especially to designers with such character and ingenuity, so let’s cheer ourselves up with a sum up of her collections written by the lovely lady herself:

“On first glance everything is rather proper, with bow fronted blouses, pleated skirts and mini, structured queen mum bags but there’s a strange, wonky undertone. Things aren’t quite present and correct”.

Kate Preston

Share this post with others:

Tags: Fashion

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 22nd, 2009 at 1:28 pm and is filed under Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.