The Story of a Storey

I said I was unlikely to become a Topshop Archive customer due to my proximity to about a gazillion more personable vintage stores that have a bit of soul to them.  But then I came across this stunner of a Helen Storey dress they have at the moment. 

The Helen Storey Archive has been used quite a bit in this month’s i-D (it is the ‘Punk’ issue after all…).  Mention the name Helen Storey, and it will draw a lot of blanks from people and the only reason the name rings a bell with me is because of a mouldy gross book on 80’s fashion that I flicked through in my local library as it was the only thing they had under their poor excuse of a ‘Costume’ category.  After working in Valentino, Storey together with Caroline Coates started up her own label, inspired by BodyMap’s creations (another 80’s label getting a re-lookage at the moment…).  A contemporary of Vivienne Westwood, Storey made a name out of ‘shock frocks’ and rebellion against the elegance of fashion that prevailed, Storey is now a professor making dissolvable dresses and doing something ‘bigger’ than fashion (she apparently sees fashion as a silly phase she went through…).

Well, the ‘silly phase’ is well appreciated by myself and many others I think.  The velour dress is so rigorous with its symmetrical cut-outs and despite the original intention of it to be super saucy, to my eye, it looks ripe for wearing over a bright coloured body and tights which means you show off the structural effect of the dress rather than revealing too much.  Sadly there are two obstacles.  I don’t have a spare ¬£300 (though I think you’d be hard pressed to find this dress lying in a charity shop so the price isn’t so mind boggling).  Also, I’m not a UK size 6.  The story of Shopping for a Storey comes to a perfunctory end.