Fred hits the Wine (Bottle)

On perusing the lovely new section of Fred Perry online, my eyes rest upon an interesting pastel pink and black theme chosen by some web designer to surround a posed Winehouse, who is frankly, looking a bit of alright. Highlighted are her words:

‘I’m really excited about doing this collection with Fred Perry, we’ve been working on it for a while and it’s great to finally see it come to fruition.’

It is, for one, hard to not attribute the accent exhaling from the Winehouse while reading the quote, but even more so, I am left marveling at how this must have been most intelligible, relevant sentence strung together by the pop Queen to have it featured slap bang on the top of the page. Hm. On looking through the seventeen piece collection, I would like to say I was greatly enthused to see the pink and black HTML was not just a web design flaw, but a recurring colour scheme throughout- featuring key items like the pastel pink or black waist belt (RRP £65) a nipping grey pencil skirt (RRP £80) which stylists have matched with Perry/Winehouse’s pink and black polo’s, golf style jumpers and outerwear. But since I have eyes, it didn’t quite work for me. The collection ranges from £60 to £275, so is aimed at the usual market, and so it is refreshing to see an Amy Winehouse label hasn’t bumped up the economics here. Recently Fred Perry has been bridging the gap to their younger market, and sprucing up their ‘down with the kids’ image, what with festival sponsorship and musical participations, so it seems a branding with the Winehouse was an obvious step.

Winehouse’s appearance often left little to be desired in the woeful years, but now we know a cleaner, happier jazz voice, whose quirky style is starting to show through without the beer can in hand. Her retro glam style ties in perfectly with Fred Perry- it is undeniably a good pairing. But are the threads up to scratch? To be perfectly honest, the collections smacks of ‘Fred Perry does Fred Perry’ with added publicity, but as usual, he (or, sorry, Amy) can’t be faulted on clothing quality, flattering lines and smart casual assortment with a few gems amongst the usual polo dresses. The standout piece would have to be the iconic Perry polo top which finds itself in spun silk for this collection. For a while, Fred Perry took on a rich chav status, but are doing a U turn, finding themselves on male skinny jean pack- but the ones who won’t quite commit to full on ‘hipster’ couture- and instead go a little bit ‘Cook from Skins’ in keeping with the ‘lad’ who’s on trend. All of Fred Perry’s line caters well for masculine and feminine silhouettes but the Amy collection is aimed primarily at women, and the previously mentioned standout silk polo comes in a flattering peach hue, which takes a retro flavor, drawing inspiration from the Teddy Boy and girl trend of 80’s Brits, like the Winehouse herself.

Aside from the business of the clothes, (which frankly, are a tad passé) the idea of Amy as designer makes for an interesting choice. Three time Wimbledon winner Perry was famed for his bold brash outlook on life, and never succumbed to the social etiquette of his 1940’s Wimbledon audience. He was perceived as a chancer, a working class boy done good, one who never let the condescending tennis fans get him down, so much so that his business mind surpassed his talent on the courts to find us buying his styles in 2010. Winehouse gives off the same sort of charm: the broken soulster who so easily could chuck away her talent for living in the now, swamped by the media every time she goes on a bender, isn’t seen as the classiest of birds (bloodied ballet pumps, anyone?) But when she isn’t injecting heroin into her toes, the world wishes her well with her quirky styling, and entertaining mannerisms- Winehouse on Never Mind the Buzzcocks- absolute genius (Youtube it!). Like Perry she may have the headlines against her, but hell she keeps coming back, bouffant and tattoos in perfect positioning, so the best of luck to her line.