TGIF: Fall Couture Edition

(Pictures via Style.com)

Marko's Lady Macbeth

Marko Mitanovski is one of the most exciting up and coming young designers, in my opinion. Since his debut collection entitled Lady Macbeth in 2008, this Belgrade designer has been compared to the likes of l'enfant terrible- Alexander McQueen and the ever so theatrical Gareth Pugh. It is clear from the title of his first collection that Marko is heavily influenced by historical costumes. Lady Macbeth was inspired by the Renaissance and Elizabethan eras taking into consideration their silhouettes, accessories, structure, and embellishments. However, Marko definitely made them his own, for instance he added punk and S&M elements that created a stunning 'dark glamourous' look. He also interpreted and played with different historical elements in his own way, such as the Elizabethan ruff which he enlarged to the extent that it almost covered the whole body. His silhouettes beautifully emphasize the female form and his attention to detail is immaculate- he even designed the shoes to ensure that they would correctly depict his theme. I really love this collection- one of my favorite classes was Fashion History, so I find it fascinating to see how designers are influenced by the past and how they translate it into their designs.




(Pictures via Ftape.com)

Model Of The Moment: Liu Wen

I think Liu Wen is flawless! She looks stunning whether she's all made up and glamorous in Chanel or just casually chic in Gap. Love her!


(Pictures via Style.com)

Tight Knits

I'm loving up and coming Canadian designer Mark Fast's knitted body-con pieces! His designs are so well made and beautifully show off his talent- Fast hand knits everything on a domestic knitting machine. I really appreciate his unique approach to knitwear, but I also simply love how sultry his clothes are! He creates such great shapes with his knitting and I am crazy about the fringe made of combed viscose- it is so gorgeous that you can almost feel how soft it is. Graduating from Central Saint Martins, Fast recently showed in London's Fall 2009 fashion week with a collection inspired by thunderstorms. I think it's such an interesting influence, which he explained to Style.com- "That moment of fear and negativity, mixed with something that also feels beautiful". The models actually looked like they had just been through a storm with their hair wet, messy, and slicked back and clothes falling off their shoulders. Also, some of the pieces had such great movement that it appeared as if they were being blown away by the wind. His Spring 2009 collection was just as stunning and if possible even sexier with sheer dresses and a million cut outs. I am not sure how wearable these pieces are to those of us without a model's body, but in this case I don't mind just merely appreciating their beauty! Check out more of his work at Fast's site HERE.

Fall 2009:
Spring 2009:

(Pictures via Markfast.net)

Mermaid Dolly Partons

I looked through most of the shows from the recent Rosemount Australian Fashion Week and with out a doubt the funnest, most interesting, and most creative show was Romance Was Born! Set at a wharf the models walked out in front of huge display of undersea creatures and treasures, mirroring the ocean inspired theme of the designs. There is no way I can properly describe their crazy spectacular pieces, but so you can get some sort of an idea there were men with doily beards, tops with eyes, glamorous mermaids, and even a purple crocheted squid headpiece! What I particularly loved was the attention to detail from head to toe- the shoes were covered in shells and the nails encrusted with pearls. (Click to enlarge)
Also the hair and make-up was fantastic, each look matched the colors of the clothes perfectly- I especially loved the coral eyebrows!
It was just such a fun collection, and the designers offered a lot of cute wearable pieces without giving up their creativity. And the more I saw of the collection the more it reminded me of an episode of the Mighty Boosh where they meet a fisherman who is obsessed with putting shells on everything from his shoes to his wife, I loved it!


(Runway and backstage pictures from Vogue.com.au)

Rockers in Pearls

I recently discovered Sinha-Stanic this year, but the successful design duo of Fiona Sinha and Aleksandar Stanic created their label back in 2004. I really loved their Fall 2009 collection(shown above). They scaled back and only showed 20 pieces, and this seemed to work in their favor as all 20 pieces were very strong. They presented a distinct style throughout the collection and I adored how they tied all the looks together with the same brown 'Doc Marten' style boots. I also liked their use of feathers and pearls to add a softer side to their rocker chic style. My favorite piece is definitely the black long sleeve dress adorned with pearls that spell out 'Rocker' on the midriff- I want it! I want it! I want it! -Sorry for my childish tantrum, I'm done now. I seriously love how Sinha-Stanic's clothes seem so easy to wear, just effortless, and could easily be taken from day to night- simply throw on a leather jacket and Doc Martens for day and for night take off the jacket, trade in the boots for heels, add some jewelry and you are good to go!
So my new found love for this duo made me take a look through their past seasons and I loved them all- their clothes are so wearable and chic, yet always have a little edge to them, whether its through the use of strategically placed zippers or the addition of a cropped motorcycle jacket. I was especially drawn to their Spring 2007 collection(shown below), and thought it actually was still really appropriate for this season- checkout the cut outs, one shoulder dresses, high platform heels, and body con dresses. Oh and I just love Sinha's long trench-like motorcycle jacket in the last pic!



(Pictures via Style.com)

Do the D.A.N.C.E

I am currently saving up money for NYC by teaching dance (hip-hop & jazz) in Bangkok. Since I have been doing this for about 4 years now I am sick and tired of wearing sweat pants and tank tops everyday to work. So over the years I have been getting more interested in sports fashion and trying to find different ways to look fashionable while at the same time being able to dance in the clothes comfortably.

Nowadays sports brands are much more aware of and affected by fashion and trends, which has led them to not only offer more stylish pieces but also to collaborate with designers (Puma w/McQueen, Adidas w/Stella McCartney and Yamamoto, Nike w/Comme des Garcons). I would love to be able to afford Adidas by Stella McCartney (shown above), and I really love how she creates unique runway shows for this line with trampolines, treadmills, and often real athletes.

Above is the result of my searching through all the sports and dance wear brands to find fashionable and interesting pieces. Looking through all their clothes the influence that the brands take from current trends was very apparent. Nike actually has their own dance line which I love and I was actually lucky enough to receive a free pair of those white Nike dance shoes shown below (except mine have a gold swoosh!). I love them because they look like normal shoes, much unlike my old black clunky dance shoes, and yet they are very functional and comfortable to dance in. Nike dance wear offers a lot of basics that I just passed right by, but their colorful and patterned pieces drew me in. I like the pink and black hoodie and the black and white 'urban' leggings, the colors and patterns are very M.I.A. One dance brand I found, called Balera(shown inset on the right hand side), had some intriguing options that had similarities to the Fall 2009's runway including Preen's sheer geometric cutouts and Alexander Wang's slashed dress. Another vital trend that has been picked up by the sports wear industry is eco-conscious fashion. Adidas SLVR is a new line launched in February that uses sustainable materials like organic cotton and soybean fabric. They also try to reduce the amount of material they use, for example the 'zero waste tee' is made with only one piece of fabric that is cut and sewn with just one seam.

It is also going the other way around with sports wear inspiring the clothes we see on the runway. My favorite example of this is Alexander Wang who made sweat pants so sexy and chic (see above). I only wear my sweat pants to dance class or to bed, but Mr. Wang is making me rethink all this. His grey and black cropped, slouchy sweat pants look so good with his heels and loose tops. This is how I want to look at work, effortlessly cool, except I dunno if I could dance in those heels!

(*Click pictures to enlarge-runway pictures from Style.com, sports wear pictures from Nike.com, Adidas.com, & Dancewearsolutions.com)

The Palette for Fall

Pantone released their fashion color report at the beginning of New York fashion week, above I compiled their top 10 Fall 2009 colors for women with looks from this season's runways:

Top: American Beauty from Louis Vuitton, Purple Heart from Stella McCartney, Honey Yellow from Chloe, Iron from Nina Ricci, Burnt Sienna from Prada
Bottom: Nomad from Boy by Band of Outsiders, Rapture Rose from Marc Jacobs, Warm Olive from Moschino Cheap&Chic, Majolica Blue from Thakoon, Creme Brulee from Rodarte

To see Pantone's full color report click HERE
(Colors via Pantone.com, Pictures via Style.com)

My Top 10 for Fall 09

Top:Preen, Alexander Wang, Johnathan Saunders, Marc Jacobs,
Stella McCartney
Bottom:Emilio Pucci, Louise Goldin, Christopher Kane, Erin Fetherston, Proenza Schouler

(pictures via Style.com)

The Opptimists vs The Pessimists

Fashion is often a reflection of the times, and with such a huge economic downturn everyone looked to the Fall 2009 runways to see how the designers would react and adapt to the current situation. Looking through all the shows this season it seemed to me that they were generally taking a negative or positive standpoint.

The optimists (above:House of Holland,Galliano,Erin Fetherston,Betsey Johnson,Preen,LV,Blumarine,Marc Jacobs) showed a range of brighter colors and more fun, flirty styles. Their aim was to offer beautiful clothes to make women feel better and cheer them up through this hard time. For example in Marc Jacobs' signature line he went back to the 1980's because he missed just the pure joy of dressing up. These designers also created more fantasy on the runway with whimsical designs like Galliano's fairytale folk princesses.

The pessimists (above:Calvin Klein,Michael Kors,YSL,Givenchy,Chanel,Fendi,Rag&Bone,Chanel) offered more restrained collections with sensible options for working women. Mostly grays and black were used and designers went back to basics showing well-tailored skirt suits. Many designers even opted to forgo sending luxurious evening gowns down the runway-Michael Kors showed a few knee-length cocktail dresses and at YSL the last look was a black tuxedo coat-dress.

In my opinion both sides offered good viewpoints and in the end they all showed beautiful clothes, whether they were understated or lavish. I understand the necessity for sensible clothing today and many of these pieces were elegant and timeless allowing them to be worn for years. However dressing up does always makes me feel better so I loved the fun and up beat collections as well. I think the two sides end up balancing each other very well.
(Pictures via Style.com)

The Platform is Set High

Chanel, Louis Vuitton, John Galliano, Dior, Nina Ricci, and Alexander McQueen
(Pictures via Stlye.com)

Shoes are probably one of my most favorite things in the world. They are just so beautiful, so beautiful in fact that I threw away my couch to make room for a huge shoe closet, which still doesn't hold all of my shoes.

For Fall 2009 platform shoes were abundant and kept getting higher and higher-here are some of my favorites: Chanel's simple black peep toe sandals were given a twist with a unique heel-Lagerfeld has been doing this a lot lately, remember the light bulb heel and the gun heel. John Galliano's wooden platforms for his signature line seemed to be supported even higher with a 2nd platform under the toe connected with a metal rod, and I like the shapes created by the straps- one of my friends described the look as very "bondage folk".

Ricci's and McQueen's beat out the rest though for the highest platforms this season. Olivier Theyskens' last collection for Nina Ricci was magnificent all the way down to the boots. Theyskens used these buzzwords for his collection- nocturnal, moonlit, and magical, and the boots were certainly magical as it seemed almost an impossibilty to walk in them. They reached up about 11 inches high and most incredibly they had no heel! I just love how the lack of a heel created this beautiful sickle shape at the back of the shoe. They definitely win my vote for most amazing shoe of Fall 2009, but probably also the most unwearable.

L'Enfant Terrible is Back in Full Force

(Pictures via Style.com)

I have loved Alexander McQueen for a long time and his Fall 2009 collection just reinforced my adoration for him. There are so many things I loved about his collection so I am going to have to organize my thoughts in list format:

1. The derelict factor- Zoolander is deifinitely in my top 10 movies so I thought it was great how he used this to showcase the theme of reinvention. The runway was covered in shattered glass and in the middle was a heap of 'trash' which was actually a pile of discarded props from McQueen's past shows. This theme carried onto the clothes as well with voluminously tiered cocktail dresses that appeared to be made of trash bags and headpieces constructed out of aluminum cans.
2. The combination of design elements- I loved the main color scheme of red, black and white, it led well to the severity of the collection. The patterns were also magnificent. Most were over-sized and cartoonish, from the houndstooth, to stripes to my absolute fave-the MC Escher inspired prints of birds that morphed into houndstooth. McQueen also utilized a range of textures from hard to soft. There was leather, hardware, and chainmail emphasize his tough egde, but he also went to other extreme by bringing in one of his favorite more gentle textures, with the use of feathers.
   
3. Reinvention- this was the reigning theme of the show and it went beyond just reinventing past trends. McQueen commented on the speed of the ever-changing fashion industry which expects designers to reinvent every few months. We saw him rework many aspects from his past (chainmail, feathers, biker look, well-tailored coats) and from others designers including, the Chanel tweed suit, Dior's New Look, Givenchy's LBD, and YSL's wrap dress. This theme emphasized that nothing is truly new as it is always connected to the past in some way. So though McQueen might not have shown anything 'new' this appears to be his point, as Sarah Mower from Style.com brilliantly explains, "This was a McQueen collection that didn't push fashion anywhere new. Yet that seemed to be exactly one of the things he was pointing to: the state of a collapsed economy that doesn't know how to move forward".
4. The rebellious showman- this is definitely one of the main reasons I have always loved McQueen-I am always attracted to the bad boy. And this season he really returned to his roots and reinforced why he got his name-l'enfant terrible. The clothes were severe yet had a hint of comedy and twisted beauty (pretty ugly is one of my new fave things). And though in the end they were not very wearable, as I'm sure McQueen didn't intend them to be, they are art that is meant to inspire. Personally that is what I look for in McQueen's collections, I can't afford high-end designers so I look to them more for captivation, awe, and inspiration, and perhaps in this economic recession where many can't afford luxuries, McQueen aimed to do just this. With other designers this season cutting back to basics and sensible styles, McQueen gave us a breathtaking show that made us think. And though severe and harsh at times, the collection also gave us that little bit of hope that in dark times there can still be dreams and fantasy!