Twenty8Twelve Autumn/Winter 11

Twenty8Twelve Autumn/Winter 2011-12


"Really elegant and classy - the perfect winter wardrobe," says Sienna Miller about the autumn/winter 2011-12 collection from Twenty8Twelve. Watch Sienna and her sister Savannah as they pick out their favourite pieces from the new range, and talk through the challenges of staying true to their design aesthetic.

http://www.vogue.co.uk/celebrity-photos/090909-style-file--sienna-miller/gallery.aspx
http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/daily/110315-twenty8twelve-designers-sienna-and-.aspx

“I THINK our last show was misinterpreted as trying to be high fashion, which was never what we intended,” said Sienna Miller of last season’s Twenty8Twleve catwalk show. It was this that made the sisters want to try out a presentation format to showcase their autumn/winter 2010-11 collection.
The location, Two Temple Place, offered a welcoming and luxurious atmosphere with its intricately carved wooden rooms and rich tapestries. Guests were led into drawing room, where a film of Sienna in pieces from the collection was projected onto a wall and, later, up a vast staircase to a grand room where the models - perched on two stages - lounged on chaises longues and antique chairs, chatting to one another.
The duo’s inspiration was admittedly vast, citing glam-rock-meets-Adam-Ant, the Blitz Kids and peace protester Johanna Lawrenson as just a few of their points of reference. Models were young and fresh with mussed-up, centre-parted hair and the look was, in Savannah’s words, “multi-textural and multi-dimensional”.
Devoré velvet and jersey mini dresses were accompanied by chunky black leather platforms, courtesy of Camilla Skovgard, and ribbed tights. A grey jersey maxi was dressed down with a khaki parka and high-waisted slim tartan trousers looked cool with a black fur-lined drop-pocket coat.

Denim was acid-washed and skinny and chunky heart pendants by Pamela Love finished off almost every look giving the ever-present Sienna rock-chick vibe. Eclecticism was certainly the theme as velvet scarves, tied as turbans, and cosy wool cardigans that effused countryside chic sat side-by-side to create wearable looks that will appeal to many.
It’s clear that the Miller sisters are extremely aware that their brand is a commercial one, and as Savannah herself pointed out, with the likes of Christopher Kane around, they would be hard pushed to compete with high fashion names. But this a quality they strive to highlight. They create clothes that they would wear and, to be honest, who wouldn’t want a piece of the Sienna and Savannah magic?


For those of you who don’t know, Sienna Miller and her fashion designer sister, Savannah are behind label Twenty8Twelve. I have some issues with this label, first, you don’t name any kind of company after four numbers and then mix up the spelling with letters and numbers. Secondly, the new Fall 2010 line looks like something I can see on any street corner in the Mission, worn by a lady who paid a fraction of the price for a similar outfit. I understand that Sienna says she doesn’t claim to be a designer and feels she’s been misinterpreted, but when you own a clothing line with someone who has had formal training in fashion design, like her sister…I’m sorry, like it or not, you are a designer.




Back to the Fall 2010 collection, it’s not high-end, and the clothes, while doubtless fun for a certain kind of British girl to wear, don’t display the kind of skill that have won critical acclaim. In this collection, there were some neat pieces, such as the trippy colored giant cardigan, lovely black tops and dresses with fringed shoulders, and a red minidress.