Whether you loved it, hated it, or was simply confused by it; there’s no denying that the late Amy Winehouse had a sense of style that that made heads turn.

Before her death, the singer collaborated with the preppy British label, Fred Perry for a retro-inspired collection that was released last Fall (which she is seen wearing above). According to a Perry marketing rep, “Amy gave crucial input on proportion color and fit, and the range clearly has Amy’s handwriting [written all over it].” However, with the singer’s sudden passing, it was unclear if any further collections would be released, even though Amy told Harper’s Bazaar that they’d “pretty much done like up to autumn/winter 2012.”

Well, the collection has indeed arrived via a new Fall Lookbook, and it is comprised of 27  pieces including accessories, which (unsurprisingly) is full of houndstooth & plaid, & no color at all (typical Amy style). The Amy Winehouse x Fred Perry clothing collection will be sold with the blessing of Amy’s family and to the benefit of the soon to be established Amy Winehouse Foundation. Check out a few of the pieces below.

There’s something really powerful and attractive to me about a female vocalist owning their very personal heartbreak and displaying it for the universe. There’s a level of steadfast honesty there, a level of stark, unadorned beauty that is unconventionally gorgeous. In mourning the death of Amy Winehouse, I realize that in loving women whose grief is their gift to the world, that that the kind of women I love, I’ll never get to love for very long.

I was 16 when I fell in love with Amy Winehouse. I’m a big believer in the inherent connectivity in all of life’s moments, so, it’s safe to say that I couldn’t have fallen in love with Amy Winehouse if I had never listened to Janis Joplin. I always tell people that I feel like I was married to Janis in a previous existence. I can say this because hearing her voice still reminds me of the first time that I could literally feel the tenuous emotional connection between body and soul. I can remember a rainy Friday night at home at 16, listening to a cassette mix that was accidentally given to me by a friend of mine. In between tons of typical 90s alt radio fare, there was a woman in severe emotional pain screaming at me that love “grabs a hold of you like a ball and chain.” I listened to what I later realized was Janis Joplin’s performance of “Ball and Chain” from 1967′s Monterrey Pop Festival about ten times that night, and every time I heard it, my adoration for the beauty in the strength of this woman deepened. Saturday morning, I excitedly went to the local oldies shop to crate dig for her albums, thinking that she was still alive, with an incredible collection. However, the salesman glumly told me to stop digging, quickly gave me four studio albums, told me her story, and told me how she died. At that moment, I felt like someone had indeed, taken a piece of my heart.

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When Amy Winehouse released Back to Black in 2006, I heard it again and it felt like my heart leaped out of my chest. It was like someone had transplanted Janis’ soul into this artist I really needed to love, a woman I desperately wanted to care about. Someone I felt like, as I always have with Janis, that if you cared enough about her sadness, that it would inevitably create the joy to keep them alive. On tracks like “Rehab,” “Tears Dry On Their Own” and “You Know I’m No Good,” there’s a self-defeating prophecy built of heartbreak and depression, emotions that create an emotional hole that appears to never be able to filled again. The best part of listening to Amy Winehouse was the worst part of listening to Amy Winehouse. Winehouse’s lyrics about love gone wrong made me as a male listener want to give her love gone right. But you can’t. What separated Joplin from Winehouse was that I had to watch Amy slip away. Learning that Janis Joplin died 24 hours after meeting her made her heartbreak hit me like a sledgehammer, but not pound me into the dirt. Every time Amy lapsed, relapsed, made an ass of herself in public, or performed poorly, it only made the pain of her songs more intense. By yesterday, hearing “You Know I’m No Good” is a sledgehammer to my chest, crushing all the bones. Upon her demise sinking in, it didn’t break a piece of my heart, it shattered my heart into pieces.

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Both Janis and Amy fatally filled the plummeting holes in their souls that made them superstars with drugs and alcohol. Singing soulful dirges of personal heartbreak for money seems like a really hollow existence. Constantly dredging up soul destroying horror and living to tell the tale requires the kind of strength that if you mortgaged your ability to live peacefully for the ability to sing beautifully certainly could lead to death. As someone who loved both Joplin and Winehouse intensely, knowing that they’re both dead, both at 27, really hurts. Loving someone who was mortally wounded by wanting to be loved can’t lead to anywhere positive. I once watched Janis Joplin’s posthumously released Janis documentary and felt so moved that I wanted to reach through the screen and give her a hug. Last night, I listened to Back to Black and felt hands aimlessly grasping for help through a speaker, but unable to touch mine. Pain is love.

It is somewhat difficult to do a post on Amy Winehouse without throwing in some sort of joke. I mean if you’ve seen any of the latest pictures of her on the blogs, it’s easy to speculate that Amy is perhaps still very much into her crackish ways.  She is usually spotted  somewhere –anywhere just looking straight blown out and unmotivated, and it’s very hard to fathom that she will soon be seriously back in the studio to make new music. So it’s good to have an album like Frank on hand, to be reminded of just how talented the kooky Brit is was and why music fans appreciate her music so much.

Frank, Amy’s debut album was released in the UK in 2003 and largely produced by the awesome Salaam Remi, who is known for lacing artists like The Fugees, Nas, and Jazmine Sullivan. The album which did well overseas and earned Amy wide recognition wasn’t released in the US until 2007 and that was only due to the extreme success of her sophomore LP, Back to Black, which has moved over two million units here in the states. Even after all of the hoopla over Amy’s second album, Frank still pretty much went unnoticed and has yet to sell even 500,000 copies in the US.

Everything about Frank is opposite of what you see of Amy 2010; from the album cover, which shows Amy (pre beehive & missing tooth) genuinely smiling in a cute (and clean) pink top, walking a dog looking relatively normal – to the music, which was predominately co-written by Amy herself. Her voice is refreshingly crisp and strong but at the same time sweet and youthful –a reminder that she was only 19 years old while recording this. The production is a blend of hip hop, jazz and R&B which Amy handles surprisingly well with some of the standout tracks being Take the Box,  What Is It About Men, Mr. Magic, F**k Me Pumps, Brother (which was a US only release) and, Stronger Than Me, which was her first single.

I can’t front, I too ignored this album for a long time; that is until my homegirl put me on to it sometime last year, and I’m glad she did. Although I thought Back to Black was decent, I wasn’t like super stoked over it and I’m thinking it was because it was 2006 and faux soulful- street talking white girls were everywhere (wait… they still are), and I just wasn’t in the mood for more; so although I was able to recognize Amy’s talent I just wasn’t ‘buying’ it.

But I really like Frank, and maybe it’s the cult feeling of the album that makes me appreciate it, or perhaps it’s because given Amy’s current state who knows if we’ll ever get to compare it to much else. Whatever the reason, Frank is a (sad) reminder that at some point in time Amy took her craft seriously and before the booze, drugs and wackiness took over she had immense probability  to succeed in the game. She is mad talented and able to creatively work well with diverse sounds and producers – which in a lot of cases could be a great advantage for an artist.

But damn… when you look at the pics (below) you can’t help but wonder if Amy is just going to remain in that ‘Lindsay Lohan realm of celebrity’ and rather being known for skill and solid work you’re better recognized as just another whack-out druggie who just couldn’t handle all that comes with success.  Only time will tell but for now (in case you missed it, or just need ro revist it) check out a few of the highlights from Frank after the break.

Amy Winehouse: The good, the Bad and the Blown Out

F___ Me Pumps

What Is It About Men

Whoa? Seriously what’s going on here? A cracked out Amy Winehouse on guitar singing with her 12 year old god-daughter Dionne D at known crackhead friend Pete Doherty’s house? I did not see this coming.

Aside from the cracked out and ametureish nature of the whole clip, I’m actually enjoying this. Even though my girl Amy is struggling on guitar, I’m a huge sucker for acoustic soul, and whoever this Dionne D kid is, I’m really digging her voice. I know that soulful voices are a dime a dozen these days. but she’s going to go far if she stays away from the drugs. (Remember Kids: Crack is Wack!)

And I’ll leave y’all with this money quote from Butta of SoulBounce

And by a show of hands, would you leave your preteen with Amy and Pete? If you raised your hand, then please smack yourself with it as you lower it.