There are few words for how much I hate the hair at Jen Kao (and I'm a fan of a short fringe usually), but I did enjoy the collection itself so I guess the bad hair is forgiven.



As a general rule I always think the Brits do knitwear better than anyone else. It's probably something historical -- we have more experience of sheep/dark satanic mills etc.than most, after all. There are so many brilliant British knitwear designers that I quite often discount the rest of the world with regard to wool but more fool me because American designers like Jen Kao are really fucking good at it. I have to admit that I'm not too familiar with Jen, but if she's good enough for fangirl Julia Restoin-Roitfeld then I suppose that's good enough for the rest of us. I really like the textural quality of her sexy/tough cable knits, apparently inspired by Moby Dick?? Hmm. I also am obsessed with the little rabbit fur (sorry) and leather/mesh flippy dress. I guess it's a little awkward around the hips but I'm still pretty physced on it. The other stand out look for me, in terms of textural interest at least, is the fine knit top and trousers, above. If it was an all in one it would be off the hook: if you squint, you can pretend it is. Like a sexier version of the AA long johns. I don't have much time for the trousers because they remind me of something from Dash (not that one) but the top is really nice and I love the combination of leather-trim zip with the fine knit. The strapwork on the crochet bralet is really neat too.

This is one of those shows where I suggest you look it up on Vogue.co.uk where you can zoom in really closely, because for me it's all the about the details that you can't really see on these full-lengths. Here's a link straight to it.