Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Best Accessories of Spring 07

The accessories of this upcoming spring, is frankly, pathetic. So many wedges, so many platforms, so many ugly things. There are a handful of nice things, though. Here are my picks.
YSL and Alexander McQueen have the best shoes as shown on the runway. The socialite and celebrity favorite, Christian Louboutin, put out a very weak collection in my opinion. However, because I have a weakness for very very high stilettos heels, I want these.
This season, I absolutely loved LV's collection. In my opinion, Marc Jacobs designs very nice bags. He just ruins them with his ugly, tacky monograms. This bag did not have any monograms, and it's supercute at the same time.

Monday, October 30, 2006

Karl Lagerfeld 1973

Sunday, October 29, 2006

What's with the Photoshopping???

I think last August, Germany's issue of Vogue had a horribly photoshopped picture of Gisele on the cover. Many Many magazines do very very bad photoshopping jobs, but usually Vogue is very good with their pictures, so I wasn't too worried... until I saw this. Vogue Australia Dec 06 with Kylie Minogue. I respect their using Kylie, because she's such a fighter, but this picture is horrible!!! It looks so fake, and Kylie looks so much better in candids. It's sad, because this is one of the few times Vogue uses a celebrity and I don't throw a fit about their choice, and now they wreck it with this horrible touching.

The Girl who will save Prada???

Our newest Canadian import is 14 year olf Johanna Stickland. The reason why I'm blogging about her, rather than the many other new models, is that rumor has it see snagged the Spring 07 campaign for Prada!!! She already has Jil Sander, but Prada would be much more impressive because it means that Suvi isn't doing Prada!!! I never like Suvi, and in my opinion this season would have been the death of Prada if they used Suvi (horrible collection with horrible face is not a good combination).
She looks so much like Sophie Ward, Gemma's older sister. They have nearly the same face and very similar bodies (although I think Sophie is a little taller). I was always surprised Sophie never made it big anywhere except in Austrailia. But I digress. She's so young, freshly 14. Good luck Johanna!!!

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Sex in Fashion Ads

Alexander McQueen Kingdom:
Valentino:
Jean Paul Gaultier (some perfume: )
Versace Jeans Couture:
Yves Saint Laurent Opium:
Some are good, some are bad, some are ridiculous. Personally, I don't see how this helps sales. I'd much rather see something like this, and I don't even like Oscar de la Renta that much. Doesn't this make you want to go shopping much more than the sexed up ads?

Why We Love Hedi

Some people love him, some hate him, but I think Hedi Slimane is amazing. I'm very tempted to go visit Dior Homme right now...

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Peter Ceurtes

I've known of Peter Ceurtes for awhile, and he definately deserves more attention. He's from Belgium (just like Dries and Olivier, two of my faves!!!) and designs very interesting, creative, and original pieces. Not exactly my cup of tea, but this goddess dress is amazing!
These pieces, on the other hand, I am more the willing to wear. I love the draping on that dress. This reminds me a little of Sophia Kokosalaki. I can also swear that there was a dress from 07 spring fashion week that looked very very similar to this dress but I can't quite remember which show.

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Designer Airplane Wear

For the past 2 years, my school made "designer sweatshirts" a la LV and Burberry (London). Tommy Hilfiger or Giorgio Armani (i'm not sure which one) is designing uniforms for McDonalds, and Balenciaga makes uniforms for some bus (i think) company in Japan. Of course, Marc Jacobs, Christopher Bailey, Tommy, Giorgio, and Nicolas Ghesquiere do not design these outfits, and most of them look horrible (the sweatshirts at my school are chav galore). However, while looking at designer designed airplane uniforms, I thought some were actually kind of cute.
Christian Lacroix makes these uniforms for Air France. Very straight forward and nicely done. I think Christian Lacroix actually designed these himself. Here's his sketch:

Pucci designed these outfits for Braniff Air. These scream out Pucci, but they are still a little cute. Here's another variation of the Pucci airwear.
Here is the Zambesi uniforms for New Zealand airlines (thanks Tiffany!)

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Who wants to get married in Viktor & Rolf?

I must say, I am quite disappointed with Viktor & Rolf's collection for H&M. However, they did add in this little treat.
A Wedding Dress.
Getting a wedding dress from H&M does seem a little weird, but from this picture the dress looks nice. It's hard to find a good wedding dress, and at only 299 euro, I would definately consider it. However, there are only 1000 pieces made, so if you're interested, act fast!

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Sex and Fashion: Part 1

I've been VERY busy the past few days, so I haven't posted for awhile.
Anyways, a friend of mine was reading a book by Candace Bushnell novel. I've never read her novels, but I do love Sex and the City, which she wrote.
Thanks to Ms. Bushnell, my friend now thinks everyone involved in fashion is a whore. This made me think...
On one hand, fashion is considered a very glamorous industry, and sex has been trendy one in a while. Tom Ford, in my opinion, revolutionalized sex in fashion. In spring 03, Dolce & Gabbana had these lovely necklaces.
In addition, John Galliano, who is one of my favorites, makes clothes to make men want to "f***" the people wearing it.
On the other hand, fashion = clothing, and clothing in essense does not promote sex. The fashion industry is also mostly by homosexual men and women. It doesn't seem to make sense that fashion promotes sex.
I was having a discussion with a male friend a few days ago. He said that fashion makes women subservient to men, because women wear what they wear to impress men. I would beg to differ. We dress the way we do because we have a strong aesthetic sense. We're hardly as sex-obsessed as men (there are exceptions).

to be continued (when i have more time)...

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Linda Evangelista Has a Boy!!!

Linda Evangelista's baby is finally here!!!
I'm sure the baby boy will be absolutely gorgeous!
Congrats to Linda!!!

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Deck the Halls with Gucci!

Gucci's creative designer Frida Gianini has designed 15 holiday items. These items will be available from Nov 21 to Dec 31 in Gucci stores. The best part about this is that 20% of the proceeds will be donated for UNICEF! This is such a wonderful and nice thing to do! Everyone should go out and buy something Gucci to support this!!!

Vanessa Paradis the Bride, Possibly

Rumor has it that Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis are getting married, after 8 years together!!! I don't know whether or not this is true, but I absolutely LOVE Vanessa and her style, and this is a perfect time to write about her. She's a French actress/model/singer. She modeled for Chanel, and also wears a lot of Chanel, too. This is her in one of her Chanel ads. She was the face of Coco way back when (the honor currently belongs to Kiera Knightly).
Vanessa wearing Chanel and with Johnny Depp. That pink dress is tres cute, and Vanessa's hair style goes perfectly with it. A little Bohemian, but still totally chic. Looking very pretty in a photoshoot. Vanessa has a gap in her teeth, so she looks much better with her mouth closed!At the Oscars with Johnny Depp. When she wore this dress, everyone in the media said it was vintage Chanel. This is not vintage chanel, its from a chanel collection a few seasons ago (2002 earliest). It just looks a little vintage inspired. It's hard to pull off, in my opinion, but Vanessa looks good. Vanessa with her and Johnny's daughter! The girls is so cute, although this is an absolutely horrible picture of Vanessa. You can see a little bit of Johnny in little girl.

Anyways, I don't know if the wedding rumors are true, but if they are congrats!!!

Monday, October 09, 2006

Spring 07 Wrapup

Fashion week spring 07 has ended, and now it's time to determine what we love and what we hate. Because sometimes it's hard to compare collections and rank them, I've decided to have categories instead. They are...

Most Romantic Alexander Mcqueen and Yves Saint Laurent had the most romantic collections for spring. The flowers, the vibrant, powerful colors, the elaborateness of their clothing, and the sheer beauty of their work set them apart. Honorable mention to John Galliano.
Most Classic Christian Dior and Chanel. A lot of people didn't like Dior's collection, and although I didn't like the suits, I completely fell in love with the dresses. The draping is perfect! With Chanel, this isn't the best collection, but it was still very cute and classic. Honorable mention to Narciso Rodriguez.
Most Creative Givenchy wins by a long shot!!! I loved the shapes that Tisci did, and his dresses were amazing! Balenciaga was also very creative, although this is definately not my favorite Ghesquiere collection.
Most Effortlessly Chic These in my opinion are the most fun, wearable, and chic looks. There's a three way tie between Chloe, Marni, and Dries van Noten. Dries Van Noten usually wouldn't fall under this category, but this season's collection was so easy and wearable.
Most Surprisingly Good I usually hate Versace. I didn't completely love this collection, but I liked it. The shorts were amazing, and the dresses (some of them) were good. La Perla's past collection weren't necessarily bad, they were just uninteresting, and this collection was really cute!
Most Disappointing Dolce & Gabbana's last two collections were really good, so when I saw this collection I wanted to cry. Horrible fabrics, horrible shapes. I expect Prada to be good, and although some will argue that this collection was good, just different (by theory is that they're too scared to say anything bad about the Queen of trends, which Prada is) I expect much much better from Prada.
Best Breakthrough Balmain's breakthrough collection, im my opinion, was last season. However, it got absolutely no attention. This season's collection, which is also very good, has everyone now talking about Balmain. It was very easy, very Parisian, very pretty. I've seen a few of Yigal Azrouel's previous season works, and they were not very impressive. However, this season, Yigal showed tremendous potential, making a very Helmut Lang-esque collection. Everyone loves Helmut, everyone misses Helmut, so Yigal did the right thing. This is Sabyasachi's first collection is New York, and it was very nice. A little bit Dries, very ethic, and the fabrics are heavenly.

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Top New Models for Spring

In addition to clothing and accessories, fashionistas everywhere watch for new, notable faces. My votes for the best new models of this season are...

1) Bruna Tenorio Bruna is the newest Brazilian import. In my opinion, she's not beautiful in the traditional sense, but she has this stunning, fierce look, amazing body, and great walk.

2) Cecilia Mendez 21 year old Argentinian. She's so cute, and has the pixie look down like no other.

3) Alana Zimmer When I first saw this girl, I thought she Raquel's sister. It turns out she's not, and she's actually from Canada. She's already doing a lot of editorials, so I'm sure she'll be huge.

4) Suvi Koponen Finnish reality TV model that was a Prada and Miu Miu exclusive. Honestly, I think she has a plain, boring look and one of the worst catwalks I've seen so I don't know why Miuccia choose her. However, she was the Prada model this season so that automatically means she's on top.

5) Iekeliene Stange This girl has GREAT bone structure and looks slightly like Audrey Hepburn in my opinion. She also has the cutest personality.

Coco Rocha, Anna Mariya Urazhevskaya, Tanya Dziahileva, and Irina Lazareneau (breakout models of last season) had a HUGE presence this season.

Friday, October 06, 2006

Breakfast at Bazaar

The November edition of US Harper's Bazaar features Natalie Portman in none other but Audrey Hepburn black dress!!! This little black dress by Givenchy is impossibly chic. It will be auctioned off on December 5 at Christie's Auction House in London, and is expected to fetch about $130,000.
If only I had that kind of money...

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Madeleine Vionnet

I was surprised that so many people do not know who Madeleine Vionnet is. She was a designer from the early to 20th century. She absolutely revolutionalized dressmaking.
Here is one of her dresses:
To give you an idea about her influence, here are a few quotes from other very notable designers...
Alaia: "Vionnet is the source of everything, the mother of all of us."
Cristobal Balenciaga: "Madame Vionnet is my master."
Karl Lagerfeld: "Everybody, whether he likes it or not, is under the influence of Vionnet."
Christian Dior: "No one has ever carried the art dressmaking further than Vionnet."
John Galliano: "Her tailoring has inspired generations of designers."
Here is the cutest little dress (from 1929)
The reason why I'm writing about her is because this season, the House of Vionnet will be revived by Sophia Kokosalaki. Although I don't think the fit is perfect, Sophia makes very interesting and original dresses, so I think she will do a good job. In addition, there is also a book about Vionnet due out soon. It's time to get to know one of the best and most influential dress makers and fashion designers of all time.

Monday, October 02, 2006

Milano Shoes Roundup

First and Foremost, I would like to congradulate Prada for making the UGLIEST SHOE OF THIS SEASON!!! The shows aren't even over, but I'm sure nothing can compete with these hideous sandles. These are so gross and look so cheap!!! Ok, the rest of Prada's shoes weren't that bad... but they aren't good enough to redeem Prada this season.

Moving on, I absolutely LOVE these Alessandro Dell'Aqua flats. They look elegant and casual at the same time.

The wedges trend is continuing, a la Ferreti. Wedges makes me want to cry.

I can't figure out why, but I like these Burberry shoes. They aren't amazing or extraordinary in any way, but I can totally picture myself with these on walking down the streets of London.

Cavalli's entire collection was very Spanish influenced. This included the shoes. They look ethnic, but the colors remind me of Christmas in a way.

These Gucci shoes look like they're made out of lego. But these aren't that bad: Although I usually do hate lace up shoes.

Here's an example of lace up shoes I hate, curtesy of Moschino. They look clunky and tacky.

Marni's shoes aren't exactly my style, but they look fun. New take of classic pumps.

Missoni's shoes match their clothes perfectly! Not exactly my style, but they are very summery, and cute in a way.

I really liked some of the shoes at Salvatore Ferragamo Croc skin stilettos! It looks like someone has been copying Christian Lacroix. Sorry, Graeme Black, but the Lacroix's original chandillier shoes (from one of his couture collections a few seasons ago) looked sooo much better than your look alikes.

Unfortunately, La Perla's shoes weren't as pretty as their clothes. These do look very casual, if anyone needs casual heels.

And finally, Versace. I'm actually not familiar with Versace shoes. These don't exactly leave a good impression, either. They're high, but they look too bulky.