As somebody who wore body con before it became a major trend, Mark Fast's exquisite knitwear creations are extremely desirable. He is a Central Saint Martins alumni (yay!) and has revived the knitted dress manipulating wool in a unique and fresh way. I settle for highstreet fashion at the moment due to my limited funds, therefore I was very excited when Topshop announced their collaboration with Mark Fast to be launched on 7/7/2010. On the 7th I was up earlier, checking topshop.com for the pieces but they weren't there. I went into Topshop the day after and they still hadn't arrived. All this delay and prolonged suspense simply added to the anticipation of how great I expected this capsule collection to be. However, whilst I knew that the pieces would be less luxurious than his main collection, I was quite unprepared for how cheap they looked.
Made of 100% Viscose, I feel that these dresses slightly spoil the Mark Fast aesthetic of sexy clingy luxurious knitwear. The dress below is the perfect example. It is Faster by Mark Fast and is £475 as opposed to the £180 for the dress on the model above. The knit is seamless and smooth with Fast's signature intricate holey pattern in comparison to the visibly knitted and textured surface of the cheaper versions. That is the difference £165 makes.
The best piece of the Topshop collection is the grey dress but only because Fast's signature pattern is most recognisable in it.These types of collaborations can only work if the garments can be created at a cheaper price point to almost the same high standard and that is definitely not the case here. If models and skinny celebrities can't pull these pieces off, what hope is there for anyone else.
Looks like I'll keep on saving my pennies for the real deal.
