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Posted by Melanie Rickey, Fashion Editor at Large

Oh, yesterday morning was fabulous. Woke up to find the newspapers pushed through the letterbox, made coffee, spotted a a few daffodils from my window, smiled, then settled down to read The Observer. The first story I turned to was the one promoting Alexa Chung as the face of the British Designer Collective at Bicester Village, which launches this Wednesday morning.

In it, the journalist and brilliant columnist Eva Wiseman attempts to discover what makes fashion work by visiting St Martins School of Art with Alexa Chung. I approve of this detective like approach to finding out the great mystery of fashion. However, Eva hasn't been around long enough to know that the mystery of fashion changes with the shifting sands season after season. But in her attempt to find out, she did stop by and visit The Great Oracle of Fashion. The Truth Teller herself, Professor Louise Wilson, and what Louise told her, which she printed verbatim, thrilled me and made me howl. Below is the exchange.

Louise in a still from a Showstudio.com film

"How can Wilson, the person behind the clothes we wear, explain the process to me? She locks me in a look. I lean forward to hear her secret. "There aren't 10 easy fucking rules, OK?" OK. "You wouldn't ask Freud: 'Can you show me how to make a painting?', would you? You wouldn't dream of asking an F1 driver to show you quickly how to build a car. How does it work? How do you lick a cock! Listen, it's a life experience. It's about skills, education. Sorry, mate, not everyone can be in the club." Again, a sigh. "The problem with British fashion," she says, "is that it's got too fashionable."

Read Eva Wiseman's article here

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

I say "Socks and Sandals", you think...

Giving a bad name to the socks and sandals combination (from www.sandalandsoxer.co.uk)

right? Well, perhaps not THAT bad but this particular sartorial combination has a universally poor reputation, and quite rightly so really when the classic look involves camper friendly velcro straps and crusty old M&S calf hugging socks.

But here at FEAL, we've started to think that it's time to freshen up our perspective. And this week is the perfect time. If you're anything like me (and are in the UK!), you'll have been woken by blindingly bright rays of sunshine each morning. This leads you to don summer skirts and dresses and eschew a coat. Then, you leave the house and realise that the sunshine doesn't quite translate to temperatures balmy enough for your attire. I have made this mistake every day so far this week. But moving back into winter clothes is too depressing a thought to entertain. So our solution? Wear your summer shoes with socks to save your tootsies from freezing.

Here are some inspirational street style pictures to get us going...

From www.thesartorialist.co.uk

(From www.thesartorialist.com)

From www.vogue.co.uk

From www.style.com

I haven't yet seen a good photo of FLAT sandals and socks. I reckon at the very least the look requires a low block heel to get from Nanna to Fashion. It can go very girlish and cute if it's executed with a flatform and frill- anyone else remember the white frilly socks which you wore with school summer dresses? Going to John Lewis to buy them signalled the start of Summer when I was little.

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I'm going to attempt a more grown-up version with a proper heel and perhaps a sleeker sock, though I have fallen a little bit in love with the lace ones below. Right now though, something a little bit toastier is required I think.

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