160…!

>> I'm not quite sure if there is a set protocol to celebrating a birthday that is as old as 160 years but Lane Crawford, the fashion retail behemoth in Hong Kong, has gone about it in a way that focuses on the idea of heritage in a way that clearly lops those years off, fast-forwarding from 1850 to 2010.  One of the projects to celebrate the big bash anniversary is a tribute to the trench, that interestingly asked editors, stylists and style influencers to customise a Burberry trench, as opposed to designers – which is I suppose is a consecration of an era of industry show-goers as celebrities or well-known figures in their own right.  Some of them are possibly an easy DIY but some have gone through some pretty dramatic transformations.  In the midst of my own trench custo project myself, I came out spinning with ideas of err… dying, embellishments and photo-printing after I went to take some close-ups of some of the trenches.  There are full sized images and info about the trenches are on the microsite  for greater inspection as well as campaign imagery and video by Pierre Debusschere for the project but I was definitely chuffed to go through the DIY deets in person and at the time, guess the person of each trench…

Well… err… this one needs no guessing…

Simon Doonan randomly put on different sized egg whisks… because apparently "The only thing more classic and timeless than a trench… is an EGG!"   Man has a point…

Stylist George Cortina went for an overload of nude/black satin rosettes…

Keegan Singh used Steiff teddy bear fur to do this black trench number… hmmm… maybe Steiff needs to get in on the fashion collaboration game… well at least for this texture driven-season…

Designers were definitely employed seeing as Patrik Ervell created these burn marks on the trench represented by V Magazine… was trying to work out the burn-down pattern but I love how he tried to emulate a leopard print with the burning…

Candy floss reigns supreme on Lynn Yaeger's trench…

Kate Lanphear went for a ruberrisation of her trench – a full length pic needs to be seen but who knew rubber tubes in the Burberry check colours could almost look convincing….

Anna dello Russo raided her closet to add these brooches (probably a drop in her vast jewellery closet…) to the trench all over…

Patti Wilson's trench was oneof the more complex ones with a lace overlay as well as a Burberry check pattern created with chains….

Taylor Tomasi Hill, the style director of US Marie Claire also put a lot of work in with a built in corset and an olive dye job…

Unsurprisingly (or not?), for immediate wear, Topshop came up trumps with a sheer sleeved trench dotted with teensy tiny crystals…

I'll be blogging for the microsite during fashion month with some fairly short tidbits which probably eats into my 'possible' trench-customisation time – Milan will be my respite and project completion date.    

 

(Campaign images and film for the Lane Crawford's Heritage 160 Trench project by Pierre Debusschere)