Can You Hack It?

Kate Moss for Topshop is arriving any day now, so naturally the press is all a twitter and her pieces are everywhere in the media. Well, I say 'her' pieces but as we've all seen, they're not really 'her' pieces at all...

Anyhoo, the collection's Look Book / press release / catalogue / whatever dropped on my desk this morning. The clothes can best be summed up as 'um' and 'what was she smoking?' and 'oh, Topshop. Why hast thou forsaken me?'.

The clothes are not quite as um, however, as the introduction to the lookbook. (Really! Since when does a glorified catalogue need an introduction?!) Which is written by one Jefferson Hack.

Luckily for TFFF readers, I love you like I love kittens and rainbows and Nintendo, so I painstakingly copy-typed it for your edification:

"Let’s look at the collection; a life long obsession with costume and clothing, distressed elegance and finely tuned decadence. These are more than just hand-picked pieces from Kate’s wardrobe, sourced from impossible-to-find boutiques and bazaars scattered around the world. It’s a mercurial touch that restructures a vintage dress so it looks modern and cutting edge. It’s a cunning eye that holds original prints and fabrics in elegant proportion.

The muses – women like Anita Pallenberg, Marianne Faithful and Edie Sedgwick. Iconic night birds who fill our daydreams with rock ‘n’ roll chic. Excess all areas, but always impeccably dressed. Their sartorial romance is still a blue print for independence and personal freedom. They are strong women who changed the way men dressed and changed the way girls carried themselves, who inspired directors to make movies, musicians to write anthems and photographers to create archetypes.

Kate & Irina, it was a kinship that bound them together first. Work always came second. They are from different chapters of fashion history, but share the same lineage. The outsiders. Their rebel spirits bound by a passion for music and a love of life.

Kate Moss’s collection blurs the distinction* between night and day, between high class and street smart, the possible and the impossible in style and dress.

Jefferson Hack"

*Kate's collection blurs the distinction between plagiarism, copying and homage, says I.

Oh, Jefferson. Remember the good ol' days, when Mossie's crew used to refer to you as "the babysitter" and you were basically totally pussywhipped? What's it like now you've broken up, and you're totally an independent man, throwing your hands up at me, buying your own diamonds and paying your own bills....oh, wait.

Why is Jefferson Hack doing the intro? Why's it so obsequious? Why doesn't it make any sense? Photographers create photographs, not archetypes. And surely "life long" should be hyphenated?

Whatever. Hack is quite obviously still in thrall to La Moss, for reasons that elude me. (I've read the gossip on Holy Moly about how and why the collection samples had to be thrown away repeatedly and remade, thanks to Moss's questionable hygiene...)

Those who have had the misfortune to see Kate's collection...what do you think?

Kate Moss for Topshop is available at Topshop, London; Corso Como, Milan; Colette, Paris; and Barneys, New York.**

**TFFF holds no responsibility for the massive disappointment you will feel should you be fool enough to be excited about it.