Unleash Your Inner Child - Novelty Fashion is Here!

Guest Post By George Langford (Glitterbird)

In case anyone hadn't noticed, the weather is all over the place at the moment - one second sunshine, the next torrential rain. This seriously annoys Fashion Editor at Large and me, because it stops us indulging in the silly summery fashions that have tickled our fancy lately.

Readers may have spied Melanie's 'Funny Sunnies' piece in last week's Grazia, talking about all the kerazy sunglasses out there right now. Problem is, it is hard to rock some Marina-esque pineapple shades when it is cloudy and cold. Fear not! The fun doesn't have to stop when the sun goes in; the alternative sartorial craze at the moment is nutty novelty jumpers. Vintage stores are bursting at the seams with these bright, patterned pieces, which are perfect summer sweaters.  Beyond Retro, Rokit and Ebay are all one stop shops for deliciously OTT jumpers.

A basic rule of thumb for picking your knits: the more it looks like your Nan made it, the better. In fact Kingston Menswear graduate David Stoneman-Merret took the Nan theme literally in his final collection, featuring a digitized sweater design based on a snap of his own Grandma.

(Spot the Difference)

From her insider position at GFW, Susie Lau has already been raving about David's work on Style Bubble

If the sun does reappear and it is too hot for jumpers (we can live in hope!) then turn to the work of amazing Central Saint Martins Menswear graduate Alex Mullins. His exceptional talent has just seen him join an elite group of eight students accepted onto the Royal College MA Menswear course. Mullins' final collection was inspired by iconic movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and was a brash, bold, one-fingered gesture to the establishment - basically using acid brights and anarchic imagery to 'stick it to the man'. 

Alex Mullins

The irreverent novelty theme continued through the rest of the graduate collections - we spotted Sera Ulger's puffin dress (Glitterbird's favourite!) in the Rankin/GFW campaign shots, as well as Kitty Keays' frivolous fringing. 

 Sera Ulger

K

Kitty Keay

Fashion Editor at Large is waiting to see if any of these beauties make it through to the Graduate Fashion Week Gala show tonight. Watch this space...

(Images: Grazia, Catwalking.com - Christopher Moore Limited, Rankin)