Events in fashion often occur in twos. Two Kate’s got married in phenomenal dresses in the same year; two high-end designers recently collaborated with US department store Macy’s, and even fashion week happens twice. Even if I am leaning on exaggeration here, there’s a recent mirror image fashion event that just can’t go ignored: fashion’s darling and retro ambassador, Alexa Chung, being snapped up by Danish high street retailer Vera Moda, and fashion model Daisy Lowe posing for Peacocks. Two very beautiful women, with every designer at their beck and call, vying to get them to grace front row, or even better, walk the runway à la Lowe for Chanel. So why would they choose to ‘downgrade’ and represent the high street? It more than surprised me to learn Chung, who is rarely seen without her trademark mini Chanel bag and sporting nothing less than an offhand, vintage-inspired, thrown-together outfit, took on Vera Moda. She’s not exactly a self-confessed admirer of the retailer’s average designs, and I can’t envisage Chung in its creations, either. But Lowe’s venture into high street modelling is a little more understandable. Playing loyal to blood ties, Lowe is the face of her mother Pearl’s autumn/winter collection – her seventh – for purse-friendly retailer Peacocks, and looks a delectable vision in a range of vintage-inspired dresses. But motherly love aside, the question still arises: why Peacocks when PPQ are on tap for this 5’10” beauty? Quite ironically, in fashion terms, I see a ‘trend’ arising. High street mega-brand, H&M, snapped up world-leading models Freja Beha Erichsen, Anja Rubik and Raquel Zimmermann for their spring/summer and autumn/winter 2011 campaigns. Although appearing as a mutually beneficial alliance, frankly speaking they don’t need each other. The chosen models make mega-bucks from the biggest fashion houses, and H&M has a […]
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