Lux Cheap

>> The WANTING and the NEEDING continues and yes, it's late in the night here but frankly I'm too wired to be doing my normal routine of going to sleep in a hotel with a news channel on (I'm quite shaken by the fact that BBC World is not available here which thus ruins my normal hotel ritual… I guess CNN will have to do…).  Cheap Monday, despite its well, 'cheap' intentions properly set the tone for Fashion Week by Berns which, with its small schedule does rely on the Swedish denim heavyweights to bulk it out.  In Cheap Monday's case, bulk meant people.  A lot of people.

I was just dallying around in a half empty huge warehouse type venue, stupidly pondering when the guests were arriving when there was an increasingly loud screeching noise from a stampede of teenagers (ok, they could well have been older but to me, it sounded like a stampede of teens…) that came storming into the venue.  Turns out the show was open to anyone who registered on the website.  A whole separate post could well be dedicated to analysing the volume of shrieking and people that turned up but I'll resist and move onto the clothes…

Whilst we've been seeing the Ann Sofie-Back signature seeping into Cheap Monday since her appointment to creative director of the brand and her 'debut' for S/S 10, I'm told that Back's first properly and wholly designed Cheap Monday collection won't actually be presented until S/S 11.  That said, her creative directorship is evident and her style is definitely coursing through the A/W 10-11 collection from the lookbooks, the direction of the hair and make-up and then to the actual pieces themselves.  

From duct tape, severe shredding and the more typical notions of grunge in S/S 10, A/W 10-11 was altogether slicker and more subdued.  The slashes are still there but they appear slashed and then repaired on denim and jersey pieces.  There's a heavier emphasis towards tailoring which makes me wonder whether I'll succumb to yet-another-mannish-blazer when these hit the stores (if I happen to be in a Weekday store in Stockholm during sale period like I did last time I was Stockholm, then I'll definitely falter…).  It goes without saying that the gussied up grey sweats get my vote.  I'm even liking the logo sweater which thankfully veers away from Cheap Monday's logo font, and instead opts for something more streamlined.  It's like the upgraded, souped-up version of The Sweater Shop version that I had in a fetching periwinkle blue.  I may have worn it over a black polo neck and a velvet alice band.   

There's something uneasy in its balance between the fitted and the loose which I kind of like… and somehow seems more ASB… if S/S 11 is indeed her first PROPER Cheap Monday outing then I'm wondering what that beholds. 

Warning: This is just the start of bringing Back BACK as I'll be checking out her latest Back collection as well as of course seeing her return to London Fashion Week…

If I artfully apply dry shampoo or talc powder to my hair, will I get a stripy grey quiff do too?