Summer Trend – Ripped Denim

Denim has featured quite a lot on the catwalks this year, both in the men’s and women’s collections, with Vogue saying “where denim’s concerned, anything goes.” It can be baggy, skinny, pale or dark; as long as it’s denim it doesn’t matter.

Ripped denim has been especially popular in Spring/Summer 2009 collections from designers such as Balmain, Dolce & Gabbana (both below) and Christopher Kane. I also love the ‘rock-chic’ Spring/Summer 2009 collection from Evil Twin which features some great ripped denim boyfriend shorts.

Celebrities such as Lily Allen, Victoria Beckham and Nicole Richie have also been seen wearing the style.

I think less is more with this style, even if it’s only for the reason that summer will soon be over and I imagine that the jeans could get pretty breezy with too many holes. At least the look can easily be achieved with a bit of D.I.Y. and a cheap pair of jeans, and it would suit this season’s biker glam style.

What do you think? Does this style look good or does it just look messy?

Models Direct: Ripped Denim

Models Direct: Ripped Denim

Models Direct: Ripped Denim

– Kathy @ Models Direct

Indie – when fashion and music collide…

Models Direct: Indie - when fashion and music collide...

It’s been a long-held view that fashion and music act as huge influences on one another, and the 2009 British indie scene shows just how true that is. Both indie music and indie fashion can be traced back to the 1980s, and indeed in the 2000s, we’re seeing a lot of the past trends hitting the catwalk, the stage and the high-street once again.

Bands such as Depeche Mode and The Cure pioneered the music movement of the eighties, and with them they created a whole new daring style, attitude and persona. Though this particular kind of fashion isn’t always followed by the indie musicians of today, the impact of an artist’s style still resonates hugely with music fans of today.

In many cases, we see the fashion of one or two bands begin to influence fans, and from here we see high street fashion adjust accordingly. When Razorlight and the Arctic Monkeys hit the music scene back in 2004, it wasn’t long before young boys were consistently dressed in skinny jeans, waist coats and neck scarves. By 2007, Razorlight frontman Johnny Borrell was the seventh man in the history of fashion to appear on the front cover of Vogue, and Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner was in a serious relationship with model Alexa Chung.

And, of course, it’s not just the men, either. Female fronted bands like The Ting Tings and Yeah Yeah Yeahs have been equally influential. Katie White of The Ting Tings and Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs were wearing oversized tees, patterned leggings and funky coloured short shorts before any of us high-streeters had even begun thinking about it. Musicians such as Lily Allen and Beth Ditto have made crossovers directly into the fashion world, adorning the covers of magazines and modelling for high-street and designer brands.

So this summer’s innately rock and roll style isn’t entirely new, but here at Models Direct HQ we reckon it’s still full of creativity and we have no doubts that it is just naturally oh-so-cool.

– Lauren @ Models Direct