Joanna London Fashion

Halloween, or Oíche Shamhna in Irish, is the eve before the day of the dead when a fissure opens between their world and ours ––if you’re very lucky you can even get a photo of them: caught this one in the garden this morning ––said she was an accountant in our world, but now that she’s dead she’s decided to let her hair down ––you go girl!!!  

B is for Brogue.   Brogue is a style of men’s shoe which originated in the Irish peasantry, they were used as a means of traversing bogs, as their many perforations allowed for better traction while walking through wet-lands. As peasant wear they were inexpensive and mostly made from less expensive untanned leather, which contrasts with Louis Vuitton’s latest incarnation of the “bróg” [styled as ‘Beaubourg’ as they now pronounce it in a French accent] cost a staggering €500 plus per pair. One wonders what other former peasant apparel from the auld-Emerald Isle might be appropriated next by fashionistas of the extremely well-heeled? Are Fendi to bring out a line of Aran sweaters with their “FF” logo stitched into its cabling? Or maybe Chanel with bring out their “CC” logo as a Tara Brooch with a ‘lucky’ shamrock shaped clutch as an accessory ––no? Though I have heard ––and this is a scoop ––Louis Vuitton is to add to its ‘Irish Peasant Line’ with a set of ‘shoulder suit cases’ styled a

A   is for   Avant-Garde.   The Avant -Garde styles itself a more ‘intellectual’ approach to the design process ––it’s a way of thinking which is forward looking , innovative and goes against the mainstream: it stands out against the ‘run-of-the-mill’ and convention. Some fashion designers, who desire to be noted partitioners of the Avant-garde, go so far as to use the philosophical works of the ‘Deconstructionist’ philosopher Jacques Derrida.   Deconstruction: if you’re not familiar with contemporary movements in post-modern thought, is actually a critique of the metaphysics of presence in the ontology of phenomenology ––which of course translates into the fashion of having a jacket with 6 displaced arm holes and the use of a trouser leg as a hat. Which is all well and good from an ‘intellectual’ perspective ––but from the daily practicalities of looking chic while shopping, it does rather make it considerably difficult to retrieve your purse from one of your many thigh-bags.