Is   dressing up dead? The most stylish women I know of the moment wear basics and turn them into something suited to more formal events; by teaming rolled-up lounge pants with sky-scraping heels, soft blazers pushed up at the sleeves with a glittering necklace or a soft grey marle maxi with simple bronzed skin. Skin tight, synthetic glitz is out in favour of drape and ease. And, as one current ice-cream advert expounds, “cocktail dresses during the daytime are stupid”.

The key is making sure these classic “basics” are, in fact, really luxurious. The fit, cut, finish and materials must be of the highest quality; something Skin and Thread designers Penny Cohen and Emma Gathercole apply to their designs. Skin and Threads is part of the new wave of eco-friendly fashion labels who are not defined by that status. The label’s “green-ness” is almost irrelevant as pieces are made simply to be what feels right and what looks good. It’s more about a philosophy or a lifestyle, a move I hope the majority of labels will make in my lifetime.

They only use natural or organic fabrics; cotton, merino wool, snuggly cashmere. This makes their new flagship boutique a particularly tactile experience as the desire to run your hands along the racks of latest Autumn Winter 2010 pieces takes over. The design of the store itself reflects an easiness and a streamline homeliness too. Pale Tasmanian Oak timber (sustainably grown) lines the store, a corner holds a worn-in leather club chair to recline in and happy snaps of the designers as kids pepper the change room walls. Peer inside the new store and see my selection of favourite pieces from the Skin and Threads A/W 2010 range below.

Visit the simple luxury of Skin and Threads at 1104 High Street Armadale.

 

Pretty pictures by Paul Broomfield

Additional images courtesy label