river island autumn winter a/w 2012 press day

river island a/w 2012 collection, hitting stores from august onwards

HAI I'll take one of everything in size 10 or shoe size 5 plz! KTHANX xoxo! Seriously how awesome is the River Island Autumn Winter Collection! I don't think I've ever been so in love with a collection of pieces before. I literally can't wait for it to start hitting stores! I can tell that most of my money will be going straight to River Island pockets come the winter!

The collections for A/W are called Downtown, Blogger, Prim, Scandi, Baroque and Futuristic Goth. The collections are full of embellishment, studs, patches of leather, tweed and all sorts of wonderful prints and textures. I've always been a winter girl, I love dressing for the cold rather than the warm. There is something about layers that I find incredibly irresistible. My favourite pieces were the tweed duffle coat with the fur trim, It looked so cosy and warm I wanted to try it on right there and then! There was this gorgeous pink dusty tweedy type jacket with leather panels which was to die for. I adored the studded loafers and the Lita inspired shoes (these are everywhere at AW press days!) I loved all the chunky knitted bobble hats, especially a bright pink one with a massive pom pom. The jewellery was also really lovely as well but I didn't get many snaps of that in the end as I was too busy coo-ing over multicoloured fur trimmed jackets with matching bags!

Although I think the same trends are always done for A/W (luxe grunge, boho traveller inspired, country classics) just like the same trends are always done for S/S (tropical, nautical, boho) I think River Island have put a fun twist on it. The blogger collection sounds interesting as I know a few select bloggers have collaborated with River Island for an accessories line which should be out around the same time. It made me chuckle when I saw that the collection was called Blogger, so weird how the High Street is now being inspired by bloggers rather than the other way around. Although I have noticed in recent years the high street does tend to keep a closer eye on blogger trends than they used to!

Will be very interesting to see if some of the highly decorated garments will make it in to store (I'm looking at you spiked vest!) But for the most part it's a massive two thumbs up and well done for creating such an interesting and varied take on the autumn winter trends!

What are your thoughts on the collection? Yes, or No? Or is it just too soon to be thinking about A/W!