Just so the guys don’t feel left out, I thought I’d share with you what I have been buying for myself and for my male clients so we can look oh so cool as the weather (finally) warms up.

1. The off white blazer. It’s the transformational piece of the summer. It has the formality of a dinner jacket, but it’s made of cotton and, ideally, it’s a bit cropped and tight to the body. Dress it down with jeans and wear it everywhere you want to look “oh so cool.” Think Ashton Kutcher on the cover of Details.

Buy the Gucci one he’s wearing if your budget allows. I bought the version from Philip Lim 3.1 (shown here) for $695 at Jake on Oak Street. It feels amazing on! Banana Republic makes a shawl collared version from their Heritage Collection for $375.

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During Paris Fashion Week, there were outfit gaps due to Tommy and I not running into each other and my half-show/half-appointment schedule. 

However, on day 5 outside Dries Van Noten, as I was rushing in because I was heinously late, the lovely Garance snapped this outfit.  I doth protested because this was my ’slummin’ it’ outfit, the outfit I was wearing to run errands and do appointments in. 

Still, despite the fact that I was going casual with a well-worn checked shirt and comfy wedges (courtesy of Acne…. wins the prize for MOST comfy height-giving shoes ever…), I had to still assert the fact that I’m a shiny black magpie, as in I’m the sort of magpie that will always be an eternal lover of shiny black. 

In this instance my Topshop PVC trews get an airing and despite the slum, I could not help but add a jewelled leather neckpiece.  Black sequins, jet, jewels/gems, vinyl/pvc/leather, if it’s black and it glints, I’m onto it.  Somehow, through a majority of my outfits, I manage to work some form of shiny black into it… me thinks a restraining order is needed soon.

• Born: Flamersheim, Germany, 3 January 1962.
• Education: Studied fashion at the Royal Academy of Arts, Antwerp.
• Military Service: Served with Royal Belgian Army, in Germany.
• Career: Freelance designer for Nero, Bassetti, Gruno and Chardin, Tiktiner, Gaffa, K, and Jaco Petti, 1982-87; launched Dirk Bikkembergs-Homme Co., with DB shoe line for men, 1985; introduced knitwear, 1986; first complete menswear collection, 1988; presented first womenswear line, Dirk Bikkembergs-Homme Pour La Femme, in Paris, 1993; moved to more luxe styling, 1998; participated in Mode 2001 Landed-Geland, Antwerp, 2001.

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