When Selfridges wanted to celebrate its biggest womenswear inventment in history the launch of its new Denim Studio they came to ELLE.
Which is why, last night, over 300 people (busting our original guestlist) came through its doors to meet our Fashion Team, try out the super-techie new Fit Studio, get Instagrammed with their blue candyfloss and, of course, nab themselves their dream jean from our expert edit.
At the centre of it all, in a locked glass case, sat the jean thats quickly become the stuff of fashion legend: the much-feted £11,000 design by Paige, in collaboration with the jeweller Susan Foster.
Not that youd know to look at it. The black denim skinny style looks positively wearable, with just the merest hint of bling at the pocket. But then, if youre dropping a five-figure sum, youd kind of expect to be able to do that, right?
Its all in the diamonds, the eponymous Paige, whod flown in especially from LA for the evening, told us.
I started fantasising about what would I want, she said of the design process. And, Im like, all women love jewellery. How can we do this as classily as possible? Without doing something overdone, and over-decorated and gaudy something you could actually wear as a special occasion jean, a black tie jean, and have it feel like something precious at the same time?
I met Susan and I fell in love with her jewellery. She had this amazing version of an angel wing, in sliced black diamond: really beautiful and abstract. And I thought, were both from Los Angeles, the city of angels how fun would it be to take that classic angel twist, take a jean that Paige is known for, with zipper details, and combine the two?
So you have an angel wing with a little inscription on the back that means to fly meaning to fly as in a zipper, and fly like an angel put together with a rocker, grunge chain in 18-carat gold.
That way, in the future, if you were tired of wearing the jean, you could do something with the jewellery as well.
Apparently, its a hard-to-resist offer: Paige has had already had four enquiries about the design via Selfridges personal shopping team.
I think theyre princesses, she confides.
Figures.
Selfridges Denim Studio is open now. Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate it with us last night!
