Since 1630 Panama Hats have been handwoven in Ecuador. They are made of the fibres from the Toquilla Palm, called Palmata Carludovica.
Now instore are Ecua-Andino Panama hats. A perfect accessory for the summer months, coming in a variation of colours and styles.
Take a look at some of our collection featured above. Prices range from £52 -62.
We hope to see you in the store soon
11 Boundary x
Behind-the-scenes of Winter Kate Spring 2011 & House of Harlow 1960 campaign photoshoot. Filmed at Milk Studio in Hollywood, California.
Malene Birger is one of Scandinavia’s preeminent fashion designers, best known for her self-named label, which since founded in 2003 has steadily grown to ‘must have’ status. Neither too dressy nor too casual, the label achieves effortless elegance and exudes good taste without ever appearing pretentious.
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Classic 50’s and 60’s styles are key Malene Birger design influences but the clean and characteristically Scandinavian aesthetic is ever-present, elevating the label well above purely trend-led brands to the very best of elegant and feminine womenswear.
For Spring/Summer 11 expect relaxed tailoring in beautifully soft fabrics and a fresh colour palette of blue, white and camel for a look that’s part city chic part Hamptons cool.
This season’s safari khaki’s and golds work effortlessly to bring light and fluidity into the summer collection. The fine light weight fabric of he espionage trench coat offers a dress like glamour with beautiful detailing, voluminous cropped sleeves and is perfectly teamed with a contrasting masculine dark leather belt. This, along with the full length chiffon strapless dress with satin border detailing epitomises Birger’s sophisticated, graceful signature.
Sixteen shops and galleries within the Shoreditch Triangle have joined forces to host a series of special late night shopping events throughout December 2010.
On Thursday 9th, 16th and 23rd December, each participating store will be opening their doors late to celebrate the festive season. Promotions ranging from special discounts to mince pies will be on offer.
1. 11 Boundary 11 Boundary Street E2 7JE www.11boundary.com
2. Aesop 5a Redchurch Street E2 7DJ www.aesop.com
3. Ally Capellino 9 Calvert Avenue E2 7JP www.allycapellino.co.uk
4. Caravan 3 Redchurch Street E2 7DJ www.caravanstyle.com
5. Ella Doran 46 Cheshire Street E2 6EH www.elladoran.co.uk
6. Labour and Wait 18 Cheshire Street E2 6EH www.labourandwait.co.uk
7. Lifestylebazaar 11a Kingsland Road E2 8AA www.lifestylebazaar.com
8. Mar Mar Co.16 Cheshire Street E2 6EH www.marmarco.com
9. Mathmos 96 Kingsland Road E2 8DP www.mathmos.com
10. Milk Concept Boutique The Clerks House 118 Shoreditch High Street E1 6JN www.milkconceptboutique.com
11. SCP 135-139 Curtain Road EC2A 3BX www.scp.co.uk
12. Shelf 40 Cheshire Street E2 6EH www.helpyourshelf.co.uk
13. Start 42-44, 40 & 59 Rivington Street EC2A www.start-london.com
14. Sunspel 7 Redchurch Street E2 7DJ www.sunspel.com
15. The Three Threads 47-49 Charlotte Road EC2A 3QT www.thethreethreads.com
A major annual event in the capital’s design shopping calendar, East London Design Show (ELDS) offers a hugely refreshing alternative Christmas shopping experience to the humdrum conformity of the high street, with over one hundred of the best independent product, interior and jewellery designers, all under one roof, just before Christmas.
London’s most exciting design talent will be showcased at the ELDS 2010, being held at Shoreditch Town Hall, Old Street, from 3rd to the 5th December, with a VIP launch party on the 2nd of December and a special shopping evening hosted by Time Out on Friday the 3rd.
This year the event is hosted in association with notonthehighstreet.com, who will also be hosting 2 awards: best NOTHS member at ELDS and best newcomer at ELDS . Hidden Art will be running their annual open studios event alongside, supporting 47 bursaries to Hidden Art members to show at ELDS.
Now firmly established at its permanent home, Shoreditch Town Hall, 2010 promises to be the most exciting yet with exhibitors already confirmed from as far away as Spain, Korea and Japan, as well as the usual unusual mix of local and national designers.
ELDS is the event to discover tomorrow’s talent today, with over 38 new designers- many launching products, alongside superb design from established and respected designer makers - in glass, ceramics, jewellery, women’s and men’s fashion and accessories, children’s clothing and toys, stationery, home-wares and furniture. So why not join them and take advantage of special show offers and make a day of it!
As well as all this, there will be a dedicated create space for all ages, a play area and a Café bar from the wonderful people at The Waterhouse.
CraftHouse: come and hang out in the cosy sitting room with a bit of tea and cake and help create a huge knitted paper chain which will grow throughout the show.
Workshops to include:
Fabrications: sustainable gift wrapping service using vintage scarves, recycled Christmas decoration workshops, snowball tree decorations, knitted candy cane tree decorations, special crafty Xmas decoration kits. Clothkits: launching a new toy to make at the show and something groovy for the grownups.
Janie Lawson; Fascinator workshops - free with the purchase of one of three different kits £5, £10 and £15.
Creative Charlie Come and get in the festive spirit with Creative Charlie, who are back to host the ever-popular ELDS kid’s workshops. This year the theme is Christmas decorations, and there will be lots of beautiful Farrow & Ball wallpaper and design inspiration to create fantastic recycled baubles, stars and birds to take home with you.
Admission costs £5 for adults, concessions £3 and accompanied children 15 and under are free.
Nick Jones seems to have the Midas touch. Of course, most of us were already familiar with the Soho House founder’s talent for hospitality before Pizza East arrived, but any lingering doubters out there should visit for a meal.
Few could convert a bacchanalian Shoreditch nightclub, with its Friday night outflow of wired and tired revellers, into such a cavernous, stylish and popular pizza restaurant.
Drawing inspiration from Los Angeles favourite Mozza Pizzeria – and its devout commitment to produce – the concept is based around thick, chewy ciabatta pizzas in settings as carefully thought-through as the toppings.
“It’s inspired by but not based on Mozza Pizzeria,” says Pizza East general manager Kelly Taylor.
“The pizzas here are more geared for the European market – they’re chewier and have thicker bases rather than crisp, thin ones.”
The menu elevates a food now synonymous with the mid-market sector to a much more innovative level. Gone are the pepperonis, Fiorentinas and Hawaiians, replaced by altogether more inventive options – such as clams, tomato, oregano, garlic, chilli flakes and pecorini (£12), or the almost over-bearingly rich duck sausage, artichoke, Parmesan and boschetto al tartufo (£13). The most popular by far, and now something of a signature pizza, is the veal meatballs, prosciutto, sage, lemon, parsley and cream (£12).
Everything, says Taylor, is assiduously sourced. The deli manager, who buys all the meats and cheeses, came from the River Café, so knows her pecorino from her paglierina. A design-it-yourself meat and cheese board, available to share as a starter, arrives with a pick of 12 different cured Italian meats and cheeses such as lardo, speck and gorgonzola dolce (all £4).
Elsewhere, starters – in Taylor’s words – mix rustic with more modern ingredients, and beg, borrow and steal ideas from around the Mediterranean. There’s a mackerel escabèche with lentils (£4); lamb meatballs with tomato sauce (£5); wood-roasted mussels with a garlic and fennel aïoli (£4); or a hearty remake of the Fergus Henderson dish of wood-roasted bone marrow with radish, parsley and bread (£7). And among the desserts, it’s worth mentioning the salty-sweet masterpiece that is the salted chocolate caramel tart (£5).
Seasonality plays a big part. As we speak, the girolle bruschette is making way as the mushrooms die down for the winter, with tastings taking place to move on the ever-evolving menu.
The food, naturally, forms the backbone of the operation, but as you might expect from a Soho House site, design is also paramount. With its stripped wood flooring, exposed concrete pillars, tiled bar areas and large hanging lights, the urban-meets-rustic-front-room feel that the group conjures up in its private members’ clubs is transposed wholesale to the cavernous interior. Seating 200 on a mixture of communal benches, tables and bar areas, a Saturday evening might see the restaurant do 600-plus covers.
Behind the scenes there’s a 15-strong kitchen brigade, with a production line of seven on pizza duty – two kneading and stretching the bases, two on toppings detail, two working the oven and one slicing. One concession the restaurant makes to the large number of covers is that dishes arrive as they come – although waiting staff are briefed to check this is OK at the outset – so starters may well arrive at the same time as pizzas and so on.
The group’s choice of Shoreditch as the setting for Pizza East is something of a no-brainer. Shoreditch House, the group’s huge private members’ club, is a stone’s throw away, while the vast swathes of twenty-somethings that the area attracts are a perfect clientele. It all comes together perfectly – the buzz, the setting, the food – but then no-one ever really expected anything else from Nick Jones and his stable, did they?
Your favourite photographic gallery theprintspace is proud to present another incredible exhibition, opening here next Thursday 2nd December.
Prestigious annual photography magazine DayFour will bring their latest project, Ulysses II to the gallery in what promises to be a fascinating show of human life.
DayFour believe in the philosophy that we should have a three day working week, a three day weekend and one day to work on a project of our own, that we are passionate about.
In the sequel to their 2004 project Ulysses, DayFour asked 37 contributors based around the world to take one photograph on the hour, every hour, from when they woke up to when they went to sleep on 29th June, 2009.
The result is a mixture of the weird and wonderful – an interesting and honest insight into the boredom, excitement, loneliness, love and beauty of daily life.
Ullysses II will open at theprintspace gallery with an opening night you’re all invited to on Thursday, 2 December 2010 7pm-10pm (refreshments will be provided) and continues until 5 January 2011 Monday-Friday 9am-7pm (except for Christmas, 25 December – 3 January). Admission free.
You can RSVP to the event on Facebook here.
The opening of another trans-Tasman café in London won’t raise any eyebrows among coffee enthusiasts.
Emigrés from Down Under have done more than their fair share in the battle against grainy instant and scorched espresso in the past few years, so it’s not surprising that one of the region’s larger coffee roasters has now made the foray into our competitive market.
Allpress is already a well established purveyor of single-origin whole beans in New Zealand and Australia, which places it somewhere between ‘boutique’ and ‘corporate’.
These premises in the arty artery that is Redchurch Street houses the company’s new roastery and café. It feels very ‘Kiwi’ inside: plucked music lilts from the speakers; the design is all clean lines and natural materials; and the staff’s optimistic dispositions could force a smile from even the most jaded Londonder.
The large roaster sitting proudly in the window is enough to stop fixed-gear passers-by in their tracks. We could be in Ponsonby here, the hip district of Auckland that can stake a claim to be the birthplace of the flat white.
The food menu feels very ‘Aotearoa’ too - creative and (to us) quirky dishes include a boiled egg, avocado and tomato breakfast plate and imaginative Italian sandwiches (piatta cavolo nero and fontina, or salt beef coleslaw with Russian dressing, for example). Pastries are baked in the glass-fronted kitchen.
Brewing equipment includes a La Marzocco machine (Allpress specialises in espresso) and a much-coveted Marco Uber Boiler to ensure fraction-of-degree accuracy in water temperature.
This is a company which is serious about coffee, and it shows in the drinks: a single-origin Sumatran filter and the signature ‘Redchurch’ blend espresso were both spot-on. All the varieties of beans are available to take away to grind at home.
As a bean wholesaler, Allpress is entering a competitive market dominated by established London roasters such as Square Mile and Union Hand Roasted, but as a place to eat interesting café food and drink superb coffee, it’s already a winner
Soho House Group has some seriously tempting offers that might even get Santa off his sleigh over the festive season, so forget being armpit deep in stuffing this year, pack it all in, and let someone else take care of the trimming…
Take the hassle out of Christmas and stay at Shoreditch Rooms. Shoreditch’s many shops, bars and galleries are on your doorstep, while central London is just a tube ride away. Enjoy special room rates between December 24 – 28 inclusive.
With the 26 rooms classified as either Tiny or Small, you know what you’re getting into at Shoreditch Rooms. Except that they are actually slightly larger than what you might expect. Pick one of the four Small+ and you even get a small private balcony.
The rooms themselves are well-designed, in a retro beach cabana-inspired style, minimalist but with plenty of eye for the detail (for those needing additional clutter, there’s a “Borrow Me” selection of vintage books, games and other goodies for free guest use by the lift). All plenty nice, except that you won’t – or rather, shouldn’t – be spending much time there.
Forming part of Shoreditch House, London’s hottest members’ club, guests are granted access to all member facilities, including the fully-equipped gym, its hotspot bars and restaurants, and the posy rooftop pool (better use the gym before considering a dip). Located near Hoxton’s hipster bars and itself being the epicentre of the Shoreditch creative scene, Shoreditch Rooms may well be the best accommodation deal in town.
For more information, email reservations@shoreditchhouse.com or call the reservations desk on (0)20 7739 5040.
DESIGNER: Winter Kate
BEST KNOWN FOR: Nicole Richie’s apparel line, named for her daughter Harlow’s middle names, is quite a step above other celebrity-branded collections. Before getting into the design business, Richie perfected a 1960’s-70’s boho-gypsy look along with her former stylist Rachel Zoe. We saw her grocery shopping in a steady flow of vintage gems and proving to be a force on the red carpet in gowns by Marc Jacobs and Missoni. She launched a successful line of accessories called House of Harlow 1960 and last spring shared a slice of her own wardrobe with us by creating Winter Kate.
SEASON: Spring/Summer 2011
VIBE: This collection is very Laurel Canyon-hippie-commune-chic-meets-Hollywood. When I think of people who wear silk bed coats to a Wednesday lunch (Richie excluded), the names Charlotte Kemp Muhl, Courtney Love, and Kate Hudson (circa Chris Robinson) come to mind. Winter Kate has the vintage glamour we have learned to love from rock royalty and the models who look so good dating them. As a whole, the collection of printed silk blouses, lace-trim slips and camis, kimonos, and high-waist shorts in various petal hues is soft, pretty, and big-time flirty. Coachella 2011 might be a must if we can expect to see any of these looks there.
BIGGEST HIT: The floral-printed silk chiffon halter gowns, are screaming for your friend’s garden wedding next summer. The silk crepe maxi skirt, is delightfully romantic and not too hippie-dippy. Come your great maxi-skirt hunt next spring, you’ll be glad this one exists.
For Spring 2011, TOM FORD introduces twenty-six new eyewear frames for women and men that bring statement-making, directional design to the face, with extraordinary levels of luxury and comfort. The collection includes new versions of TOM FORD’s best-selling sunglass frames plus new styles that morph vintage-inspired shapes into ultra-contemporary silhouettes and colors. Spring 2011 also sees the debut of the ‘60s-style optical frame inspired by the one that was worn by Colin Firth’s character in Tom Ford’s film, A SINGLE MAN.
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“Every frame is imbued with a very high design value. This is obvious in the fashion-forward frames, and subtler in the classic styles. The point is to avoid looking “retro” and always look completely modern,” says Tom Ford.
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An elegant fowl
Redchurch Street, Shoreditch’s new fashion and design hotspot, can now boast its very own boozer The Owl and Pussycat complete with a smart new first floor restaurant.
Set in a Grade II listed building which dates back to the late 17th century, new owner 580 Ltd, behind The Fellow in Kings Cross and Camden’s The Lock Tavern, has ensured it retains the place’s historical character and have restored it to its former glory with vintage furniture and original features. There’s also a lovely back garden – a veritable boon for the industrialised area.
Chef, Nick Leonard’s restaurant menu features modern British and European classics prepared from fresh, seasonal and locally sourced ingredients. In keeping with the local history he’ll be making good use of the pub’s original butcher’s block. Leonard has worked under renowned Michelin starred chefs at a slew of esteemed venues from the Criterion to the Abingdon and The Junction Tavern.
Trademark dishes include slow-cooked ox cheek with parsnips and kale; roast pheasant with horseradish bread sauce, watercress and game chips; and salt-cured duck with pear sauce and turnip greens. Desserts are all about English apple tart with butterscotch sauce and creme fraiche. The downstairs bar menu takes in good old East End classics like oysters and pie ‘n’ mash.
Locals can sup on Peroni, Pilsner Urquell, Heineken and Becks Vier which are all available on draught and ales will include Brakspear Bountiful, Oxford Gold and Ringwood Fortyniner. However, wine loving visitors from West London will be gratified by an eclectic wine list featuring Feudo Arancia Sicilian Pinot Noir, Chateau Poujeaux and even Three Choirs, Coleridge, all the way from Gloucestershire.
And while we’ve spotted neither mince nor quince are on the menu, we suggest you bring plenty of money wrapped up in a couple of twenties.
34 Redchurch Street, E2
This November, for the first time ever, the prestigious Hasselblad Masters exhibition is coming to top East London gallery theprintspace.
The Masters award honours the best in photography by established as well as up and coming photographic talent. Winners receive an equipment sponsorship agreement with Hasselblad, allowing them to creatively interpret any theme of their choice, and are then featured in the Masters book.
The exhibition, which is sponsored and hosted by theprintspace, will feature stunning large-scale works by each of the 10 finalists. The categories include Architecture, Editorial, Fashion/Beauty, Fine Art, Landscapes/Nature, Upcoming, Portrait, Products, Wedding/Social, and General.
Chris Russell-Fish, UK MD and Global Sales & Marketing Director of Hasselblad explains, “Hosting the Masters at theprintspace gallery is a natural extension of our partnership with theprintspace - being official supporters of the Hasselblad Studio. We approached theprintspace because of their impressive expertise in the field of digital imaging and printing, their focus on informing and empowering photographers, and of course their stunning exhibition space in the heart of East London.”
The Hasselblad Masters 2010 Exhibition opening night is on 11 November, 7pm-10pm at theprintspace gallery on 74 Kingsland Road, E2 8DL London. It runs until 1 December from 9am-7pm Monday-Friday.
New star of Shoreditch
Not satisfied with rejuvenating King’s Road’s Eight Over Eight and owning a roster of hip eateries from first UK venture, Cicada in Clerkenwell and Notting Hill’s E&O to the Great Eastern Dining Room and XO in Belsize Park, restaurateur Will Ricker has just moved into the bar scene with the launch of Glo Glo’s on Shoreditch’s Great Eastern Street.
Designed by Michaelis Boyd behind Soho House Berlin and the slightly nearer to home, Pizza East, décor is modern with luxurious leather finishes, a pewter bar and a colour palette of orange and teal. It’s the glowing ceiling panels that will be the talk of the town though. Those will definitely come into their own when the resident DJs get going.
In addition to the cocktails (more on those later!), the venue will serve Japanese style yakitori dishes cooked on a shiny new central robata grill. Group executive chef, Neil Witney, has created robata style takes on Ricker favourites including tiger prawns and black salmon with sweet miso and Szechuan courgette – all of which can be cooked to order.
Mixologist Hannah Lanfear has developed a list into which only premium spirits and the highest quality ingredients have made it. Expect twists on the classics including the Sherry Cobbler, Roosevelt Martini and Beginner’s Negroni and then Tokyo inspired newcomers such as the Yokohama Sour and the Bullet Train. The latter is made with smoked Chase vodka and served with a pancetta stuffed smoked olive. Chase is the artisan brand from Tyrrels Crisps founder, William Chase and is made from the potatoes grown on his Herefordshire farm!
The latest convert to the trend is Hermes, who, against all odds, will couple next month’s West End pop-up boutique with a counterpart in the Shoreditch area.
Focusing on scarves , East end shoppers will be able to take advantage of experts in store to show them how to tie their new purchase the Hermes way.
Launching their exclusive scarf collection J’aime Mon Carre (or I Love My Scarf!) for a limited time only, the pop up stores will coincide with the launch of the label’s new website showcasing their collaboration with photographer Matt Irwin, who traveled around four capitals with four models, to document street chic ways to style the Hermes scarf!
The first opening is set to be at the Rochelle School of Art in London’s trendy Shoreditch, meanwhile the second store will be at 79-81 Ledbury Road in the West End.
And offering us in-store expert advice on the most stylish ways to tie your scarves, along with the opportunity to be papped by one of the label’s leading photographers, the pop up stores are the must-go-to shopping experience of the season!Brick Lane is about to become riddled with luxury neckerchiefs. You have been warned.
The Shoreditch branch will be opening from 18 - 25 November, while the west London store opens on 25 November.
Emily Faulstich and Kimberly Gordon, the girl power behind Wildfox Couture, are making fun t-shirts for the masses. In the past year, the Santa Barbara natives have seen their shirts, sweats, and long beach-friendly jersey dresses on everyone from Ashley Greene to Beyonce - and even on the cover of Glamour, as worn by Victoria Beckham.
It’s so nice to meet you! But wait, Kimberly - your name is “Kim Gordon”?!
Kim: It is. I don’t remember when I realized it was Sonic Youth. I think I was quite young. I like it in a sense, but it’s frustrating having a famous name. I told a guy that I was her in a bar, and he was like, “It’s so nice to meet you!” I was like, “Wait, she’s awesome, but do I look 45?”
Emily: I met Kimberly because I was in Sonic Youth also, but nobody knows me.
How did you actually meet?
Emily: We met at theater camp in summer when we were 12.
Kim: Over a mutual love of Jonathan Taylor Thomas.
Emily: We would draw JTT together at her house.
K: We were artists since we were little kids. So we grew up together, in Santa Barbara, and became best friends.
Emily: Then we moved to LA.
Kim: She went to USC, and I designed a line for Johnny Was, and then she came on board too. We were giving it more of a youthful look, we were brought in to help revamp it. And they taught me everything, but after work one day, we went to her house and we were like, “We can do this!”
Emily: We had a really good feeling about it, so we kind of quit our job without any knowledge about what was going to happen, which was probably a bad idea. But we approached our current investor, waited two weeks, and then we just started!
What was your goal in the beginning?
Kim: We wanted to do simple stuff. Big hearts and big smiley faces. They used to do them in the ’60s all the time but it was so hard to find them, and we were like, “We should do that!” We started really simple - 12 shirts, two colors. And we took it to an independent trade show called United in Las Vegas. We got all of our girls to come and help us, they were standing around wearing the shirts and hula-hooping. It was so fun but it was so stressful - there was a lot of crying that day. But that day turned into something so good.
Emily: It was so stressful. But Kitson was the first boutique to come to us at the trade show! It was a good sign. They walked in and we were like, “Who are you guys?” They said “Kitson” and we were literally shaking.
Kim: I was shaking writing the order. I couldn’t even hear what they were saying because it was so exciting.
Emily: So yeah, that was a good start!
Do you remember the first time you saw your shirts in the tabloids? They’re in there, like, every week now.
Emily: Alessandra Ambrosio wore our sweatshirt first, with a big White Horse on the bag. She’s a friend of the brand.
Kim: And then Lindsay Lohan wore our stuff and I was so excited.
Emily: Kim’s a big Lindsay Lohan fan.
Kim: I think she’s great. I think people are really hard on her, and mean to her, and it makes me sad.
Emily: Kim’s a fan. I’m respectfully going to remain silent.
Kim: She wore it so well. I was so happy. Lindsay Lohan is so nice. And then Alicia Silverstone wore one.
What happens next? More t-shirts?
Emily: I can definitely see ourselves having our own boutique.
Kim: Like Juicy. We pray we’re that big.
Emily: We can have a sneaker line like Reebok pumps, but when you pump them, glitter will fill the shoe!
Kim: Whoa, that’s a good idea.
What music is in your studio?
Emily: Pop, Paul Simon, and Disney singalongs.
Kim: We’re very nostalgic too, so we listen to a lot of ’90s.
Emily: We listen to Gin Blossoms.
Kim: But we try and listen to whatever our collection is about. So we’re into the Beatles now because we’re doing lots of hippie designs. For the Spring 2011 collection, we watched Marie Antoinette over and over.
Emily: This entire collection is based on Sofia Coppola.
What’s it like working with your best friend? Would you recommend it?
Emily: The beginning is scary. You have no help and there’s so much pressure.
Kim: You’ll fight. You’ll break up as friends, temporarily. You have to be ready.
Emily: But then you get through it and it’s great!
—FARAN KRENTCIL
Leggings have become increasingly fashionable in recent years, but right now they’re particularly essential for women trying to ease their wardrobes into winter. Savannah Miller, creative director of Twenty8Twelve, a clothing label launched with her sister, the actress Sienna Miller, sees leggings as a key fall accessory that “can make a look unique.”
Ms. Miller, whose London-based label is known for a funky, light-hearted style, likes to pair her leggings with a short summer dress or a tunic plus a fall jacket.
Another fall look Ms. Miller likes with leggings is a long, chunky knit sweater with a lacy T-shirt underneath.
Leggings are more fun than tights right now, she says, because they show a peek of skin at the ankle, “the thinnest part of the leg.”
But Ms. Miller has a few rules when working leggings into an outfit. For starters, she says it’s important to wear a blouse or other top that’s long enough to cover your bottom, because leggings are “so tight and unforgiving.”
She also believes it’s best to wear leggings in a dark color such as black, dark blue or plum, which will have a visually slimming effect.
“The paler you go the more unflattering they will become,” she says. “Steer away from crazy prints and bright colors or you’ll look like you’re wearing ’80s gym clothes.”
To give her ensemble some edge, Ms. Miller seeks out leggings that have texture or are made of interesting materials like a tight, stretchy denim or velvet, which she calls “really key” in fashion this winter.
With denim leggings, she likes to wear a long checked shirt, a short army-style parka and heeled boots or a long tunic top, a cropped leather jacket and heels.
For evening events, she sometimes pairs leggings with a long black blazer and a white T-shirt that’s made of a silk jersey material. “It’s got to look sophisticated,” she says, but if it works, it looks “rich without being expensive.”
Whether it’s day or night, Ms. Miller wears her leggings with heels. “I wouldn’t wear them with a flat shoe unless you have the most incredible legs,” she says, because leggings are basically skintight trousers.
To elongate the leg and add height, she often chooses sexy pumps for the evening and a pair of shearling boots for daytime.
With all legging ensembles, it’s important to keep the top less form-fitting. “You need some balance—just like if you’re wearing a loose trouser you should wear a more fitted top,” she says.
Ms. Miller believes that a common mistake that women make is to wear leggings that are too small. “When you get ripples on your legs because they’re too tight for you, that’s not flattering,” she says.
“Also, make sure that the elastic on the waistband isn’t so tight that it digs into you and creates a bulge on your hips.”
