A long time ago, in what might as well be a galaxy far far away, I was invited to Karen Millen HQ to style some of their SS11 key pieces. For once, I didn’t have to dance around in front of the camera so I wasn’t restricted by the old “what looks good on me”.
I have a bit of an odd relationship with Karen Millen. It is one of those brands I used to admire from afar when I was a young Parisian coming to visit London as a tourist in the 90s. I remember thinking how grown up and beautiful everything was… and also how exotic.
Fast forward to 2011 and I am now 32, so in the target market for the brand, yet it has disappeared from my high-street landscape. I just don’t go to Karen Millen for clothes. Probably because even now, it still is too grown-up for me.
I went along to the styling session with my teenage self in mind, cherishing the opportunity to put the collection to the test. Everything was laid out in the showroom, with an emphasis on 10 key trend pieces. The idea was to pull one key piece and mix it up with the rest of the collection.
After playing around with the clothes a little and putting together two outfits that were very “me” and not too grown-up, I changed my mind about the brand a bit. I still won’t wear Karen Millen every day, but I may visit their stores from now on, just to see if they have this one stand-out piece that will fit in with my style.
The first outfit is a no-brainer. This is a good way to colour-block if you are not sure you want to go all the way Gucci style. The top of the outfit is super bright and contrasted, but I chose to mix it with simple jeans and wedges turning it into something you could go to work in without anyone raising an eyebrow or calling you “Bozo”.
Everything Karen Millen: Jacket, Shoes, Bag, Belt. Dress will be online in this month.
For this second outfit, I wanted to try a chic take on the fluoro trend. I really like the pops of dayglo, but I don’t like the idea of looking like a rave kid (been there, done that, got the hangover). I think adding a super bright bag to a neutral outfit is the way forward for a little bit of fun.