I am a Wanderette. If you like unadulterated glamour, the spirit of Studio 54, lipstick over lipgloss, and dream of living in a lush shag-piled art-filled duplex with red floral walls like the one Diana Vreeland had, you’re probably one too and just didn’t know it. Do you think women need to wear more turbans? Are you fed up of those Legoland shoes we’ve had forced upon us over the last number of years? Do you wear a shade of fuchsia unseen since the heady days of Christian Lacroix? Or primary colored taffeta frills that recall Yves Saint Laurent’s opulent catwalks? (Hedi’s Californian boardwalk urchins would have nowhere to go in clothes like that.)
If you’ve answered yes to any of the above, read on, you enchanting glamour puss. The spirit of Bianca Jagger, Tina Chow, Paloma Picasso, Jerry hall and Grace Jones is alive and well and beats within your stylish breast.
David Wyatt, designer
Wanderettes are devotees of The Wandering Collective, a Barcelona/Milan-based trio of ready-to-wear, shoe and jewellery designers. One of the founders, David Wyatt, is a friend from my Milan days. Kick off your sapphire-hued satin stilettos and run a red lacquered talon down this list of resume names: Dolce & Gabbana, Marc Jacobs, Fendi, Kenzo, Giorgio Armani–he can also boast of having worked in all four major fashion capitals. A modern day English dandy with a booming laugh and saucy sense of humor, he designs the clothes, sharing billing with Valentina Brugnatelli who creates the exquisite jewellery, and Gianluca Soldi the traffic-stopping shoes.
Their name encapsulates for me the nomadic life of an international designer blown along by the constant quest for new opportunities to express creativity.
Here are outtakes from their upcoming lookbook as well as mood boards and gorgeous stand outs from previous collections. You can catch it all at http://thewanderingcollective.com
So pick up your clutch, slide your stockinged feet back into those heels and let’s collectively wander down to Indochine for a cocktail. There’ll surely be a photographer or artist there who needs captivating…
Thought I’d end with this cute drawing that David did of me when we were working together in Milan that hangs in my apartment. He obviously caught me on one of my less glamourous days!
My novel set in the international fashion industry is now available. You can buy Silk for the Feed Dogs here.
Jackie Mallon 
Amazing, amazing colors…love the coats! but please don’t touch me Hedi. I covet his clothes
Well I guess I went there with your Donna Tartt reading so I won’t pursue the Hedi matter…THIS time 🙂
Those coats on the site are fabulous! And the drawing of you is fabulous, too. XO
Yeah, their coats are quite unique. Statements even with jeans. I feel the need to shop! Love the little drawing too 🙂
I’m in love – the coats, the shoes, the jumpsuit. Swoon 😉
Oh, me too. Those shoes would certainly fit 😉 I can only buy online at the moment as most of their stockists are in Europe or Asia but I think I need to invest in a statement piece. Hmm jumpsuit or mortgage, jumpsuit or mortgage…it’s a toughie…
Can I say that I LOVE turbans..though I think if I wore one to school pick up I would be shot… xxx
Boy, those London mothers are tough! I think you’d look a tad zany but then you’re not average and they know that already, Kate 🙂 Plus they’ll envy your solution to bad hair days. Think of it, your toddler’s smeared jelly in your locks…squeeze into a turban. Instant glama mama!
Oh jeez! And here’s me thinking I hated the 80s! These are so gorgeous I think I’ll change my mind! To be honest, 10 years ago I hated the 70s and now it’s all I ever buy, it seems! 🙂
The 80s is the decade that just keeps on giving so you’ve got plenty of time to adapt. Me, I can’t get enough. Makes me smile (or sometimes howl!) But it’s the last time clothes really made a statement in terms of the whole look: hair, shoulders, silhouette, pattern, color. The 70s too. So there’s plenty of fun to be had from both, I think! The 90s is a different thing: all ironed out and monochrome and straight-you have to be in a different mood. And as for the 00s, I don’t think anyone’s quite worked out what all that was about!
I am a Wanderette and I didn’t know! However I loved the shoes, tthe black and white in particular. Lovely. 🙂
Great post, I love these colorful prints! The shoes are so cool!
Viky — MySecretFashionPoison
Thanks Viky. Stand aside, I’ve got my eye on those shoes too! 🙂
Oh my! Only just found this…deep joy….the shoes….the bangles…the coats! My mind is a Wanderin!!
I don’t think I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Wanderette…
but I would looove to strut down street in last coat…
sporting my {keeper} black Vuarnet sunnies…
and wearing lipstick over lip gloss!! ~xo
PS Adore the cute drawing–a definite real keeper! 😉
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Love the blocks of colours and that first pair of shoes (though my feet will not love me for putting them in stilettos)!
But wear a drawing of that shoe and your feet won’t mind a bit! 🙂