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Contradiction Resolution – Dries Van Noten!

Since Kenzo’s show swallowed my mind after SS2010, I’ve been completely convinced this smart-mixing-casual, glitter-mixing-matt concept. It suits someone like me—-casual, laid back, occasionally want to dress up a bit but not too dressy and still with comfiness.

He started the show with Camel, Navy and Light Khaki and that light khaki reminds me a washed old Chinese army uniform, which I used to wear in school during summer training camp. The colours are very conservative. The shapes, not! They’ve been very womanly cut and with a dash of leopard print thrown over, it looks like, if Communist Party could let loose a little bit, that would be how people dressed during Culture Revolution.

Slowly, he introduced more colours and prints. The Navi Blue…rich purple…washed olive…dash of pink….. All colours are mixed in with a bit of other colours: Blue with tiny strokes of orange and green; Purple with some smudged deep navy. He even mixes colours in that contradicted point of view, which is visually challenging our usual colour mix logic again and again.

While watching his show, I felt so inspired and literally wrote down 8 outfit ideas drawn from my own wardrobe…yeah…I can’t afford to buy all the original looks just yet… …so watch this place…ehhrrr…with my own mix-n-match in Van Noten style.

Tags: Chinese Army, Culture Revolution, Dries Van Noten

Favourites of London

Weather during London Fashion Week was horrible. But some of the big names still made London FW quite sizzling. My opinion is, without those big names returned in London stage, it would just be a freak show. (I know this sounds cruel, but why did Galliano, McQueen, Westwood, McCartney all left for Paris?) It’s definitely good to see Burberry Prosum returned here from Milan a few seasons ago, same as Matthew Williamson’s return from New York Fashion Week.

Burberry created some hot-waiting moment on line this season. We were waiting on line with passion to see the live stream and all those shearling details is definitely a genius idea. Christopher Bailey said in the interview that he would like to bring something different, another key piece for Burberry just like trench coat. And he certainly has done so by digging into the archive and  english heritage. Mixing hard and soft materials together like sheered chiffon dresses, thigh-high leather boots and the aviator jackets is so clever. Bailey has certainly done it again! I am eager to see who he will name as the new face of AW10 campaign as personally opinion here, Emma Watson is not so suitable for all these looks.

Another Christopher, the scots, Mr. Kane has also massively used leather throughout his show. Leather seems to be his favourite choice for a Fall collection. This time, he mixes lace and embroidery with leather. Even the little oriental ‘QiPao’ look is done so carefully without looking too ethnic like a Chinese traditional dress.

Julien Macdonald brought back his root and did what he’s best known of—-complicated chunky knits and fine lace paneled floaty dress. His collection looks so strong and commercial and is one of our most favourite in our design office.

Another favourite is Jonathan Saunders. I absolutely love the colour palettes with black, white and duck egg. X-ray rose print looks very broad but chic. Also love love the parkas mixed with shiny and mat-surface fabric.

On the other side, certain designers should do more homework than just having publicity stuns such as using plus size model, which feels like ‘do you have any more than just that’?!  Fashion is a beauty to watch but not horror like Mark Fast. Surely Fast created lots of rows and gossips during London FW, but putting size 12 models into a size 6 dress and not even giving them decent size knickers is just so unprofessional. I have no problem of using plus size model by recalling a seriously beautiful Sophie Dahl sent down by Jean Paul Gaultier in the past. Certain Fast models were looking so grim while walking down the catwalk. I’m sure they knew themselves looking like an Italian salami.

Big names’ support to London FW is appreciated. While maintaining their reputation within industry, designers like Saunders are also taking off their careers to a more global stage. Yes, London got that punk history and casual streety feel. But with hard effort and less short-cut stuns, I’m sure that London will soon be looking more interesting and professional again, otherwise, it’ll just become an unpleasant Fast food chain.

Tags: burberry prorsum, Christopher Bailey, Christopher Kane, Jean Paul Gaultier, Jonathan Saunders, Julien Macdonald, mark fast, Sophie Dahl

Coolest Boys in town – NY fashion week vol.4

Now NY Fashion Week has finished and I have to admit that the coolest boys in town should be Proenza Schouler and Alexander Wang.

It was Proenza Schouler made scuba-diving cool in the fashion market and mixing a bit of futurism into those tropical colours during their SS10 collection. Again, their AW10 is making leather so much more wearable and approachable, make this way…nothing meat-market type. They also mix cool geo print with sweet flavour florals in fit n’ flare shapes, which is now their signature shape and also up-coming No.1 shape in dresses.

Alexander Wang took his scissors to wall street bankers’ suits. No one could fill the catwalk with so much pin stripes and still so stylish. Velvet and mesh mixed dresses are so divine and I”m sure his tailored city shorts will be seen on women as a cool day-wear stable too. His energy and the full understanding of women’s modern taste also reflexed by the action of broadcasting live on New York Time Square.

Not only his clothes are widely copied among high street, but also the hair style and detail styling too. I can already see lots of girls playing the messy fish tail plaits from his SS10 catwalk show. I can’t wait to see if there’s any greasy sweep-to-one-side look showing around in the fashion world in AW10.

Tags: Alexander Wang, proenza schouler

Sweets! Flash! Fashion!

Last week I discovered an east london show room called Robinson Pfeffer. The show room itself locates just off columbia road and its owner showed lots of TLC towards guest and their carefully selected range. My friend Nuvonova and I was actually a bit lost due to the slow reaction of my iPhone map and we eventually followed some really up-beat music leading to the show room.

Atmosphere was great throughout the show room. DJ is flicking all newest cool tunes, loud but still in a gentle level for conversations.

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Brava Sophia!! – NY Fashion Week Vol.3

This is probably my favourite Diesel show ever in the history definitely due to one of my favourite female designer Sophia Kokosalaki as creative director since a season ago. Since the announcement 2 season ago and last season’s absence I’ve been wondering what Sophia will be delivering and she certainly has done a bravo job!!

Denim industry has been experiencing a difficult time due to the rise of popularity of  leggings and jeggings. However, denim is going to come back!! But not in form of jeans. Last season we’ve seen lots of ‘Double Denim’ and denim shirts come out. For this show, there’re plenty of new technique infused into the clothes.

Mixing leather with denim and bleached denim…having embroidery on nude mesh…the red brick colour of acid wash…all of which helps Diesel Black Gold looking so refreshing and less usual ‘try-hard’ look.

Well done, Sophia, I salute you!!!

Tags: Diesel Black Gold, Sophia Kokosalaki

NY fashion week Vol.2

I’ve been running around since Monday this week and entries are being stacked up in piles. After chatting with Awais on Skype, both of us agreed that NY fashion week is just so much better these days. There’re so many new names to catch up and those familiar ones seem also being injected with new blood as well, which fits this city’s energy completely.

To start with, Canadian designer Jeremy Laing caught my eyes last season by reading SusieBubble’s. And this season he’s certainly no failing. Earthy colours mixed within vast of textures from fur to chunky knits to fine jersey.

Preen is continuously being strong, artisic and commercial. Review at Style.com stated that ‘a good show can be sensed from people without discussions to each other’. Pale nude, creme and black are being mixed into all kinds of shapes and forms which is just wonderful.

I also very much enjoy the mini-collection of Lutz & Patmos. Layers of fine knits teamed with silver metallic cigarette pants are looking american-ish ‘tres chic’.

Most commercial collection would be Rag & Bones. To be honest, no ground-braking.  Stylist’s job is definitely more praised there. But I can tell, at the end it’ll be followed by high-street religiously. 

Tags: Jeremy Laing, Lutz & Patmos, New York Fashion Week, Preen, Rag & Bones, Susie Bubble

Long live McQueen

We spoke on the phone just moments after the Daily Mail broke the sad news of Lee Alexander McQueen’s passing. The news came as a huge shock to the both of us. We’re both huge fans of his work and it was hard to describe what we were feeling. He was such an inspiration and it’s hard to believe that he is now gone.

For the past couple of days we’ve been reminiscing by digging through old scrapbooks, old magazines and looking at pictures from his past collections. In this blog post (which also happens to be the first one we’ve ever co-written) we would like to pay tribute to Lee by sharing some of our favourite Alexander McQueen moments.

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Tags: Alexander McQueen, Devon Aoki, kate moss, nick knight, Shalom Harlow

NY Fashion Week Vol.1

Here’s a little overview of the first day of NY fashion week. There’re certainly highs and lows. It is also the longest fashion week among all 4 cities and elements of styles are just over everything. I have to say NY designers’ majority styles are getting more and more interesting in the past years. I remember 2 decades ago I was not too bothered to check out NY Fashion Week as it was either sporty or minimal. But now, it’s full of elegance, creativity and more important—-wearability.

My most favourite of the first day is BCBG Max Azria. ‘Geometric-Gracefully’ presented is the key words. It feels modern, neutrally feminine, and a dash of hidden glamour in there. I especially love the detail of chiffon-over-sequin detail & asymmetric hem-line.

Secondly, I like Richard Chai Love. No fuss about what he’s like—straight into practical ability. I love the colour combination with choc, mocha, olive, navy, light neutrals and of course my favourite greys. Layered styling reminds me Tokyo street-dressing around 90s. Boxy jackets-over layers of jumpers and tops-then over winter texture long skirts is going to be my winter new look. I can’t wait to pull out some similar stuff from my wardrobe and give it a go.

Very disappointing show or maybe I should have known already is Gwen Stefani’s L.A.M.B.. Review on style.com is certainly being polite. Mash-up is just Mash-up, but calls it a ‘last minute creativity spank’ is just a pile of shit under spot light. It’s difficult to address any identity from it and I feel sorry at the same time thinking about other real talented designers who could not afford catwalk shows. This is just a waste of time and money for everybody. But again, it’s just my and certain groups’ opinion. Overall, the world is big, there could have been someone who’d appreciate those ‘design’. (here’s selection of ‘I think look-able ones’…lol)

Tags: BCBG Max Azria, L.A.M.B., NY Fashion Week, Richard Chai Love

OUTFIT – intake of a Balmain

I thought to try out this casual-smart city-G.I.Jane-esque look channeling by Balmain’s warzone disco-baby collection by selecting what I’ve got in hand. So I’ve got here…H&M silver metallic draped long T…Bershka wet-look zip legging…Portobello Market oversized army shirt…Gerard Darel camel coat…Bess grey merino & silver lurex mixed knit scarf…Bershka chain-mail necklace…and finally H&M mens silver leather zippy cuff.

Well…I’ve tried…and I don’t mind any feedbacks. xx

Tags: Balmain, Bershka, Bess, G.I.Jane, Gerard Darel, H&M, Portobello Market, SS10 army look

Happy Blues

Well…it’s not that I’m still soaked within Avatar’s wage. But I really admire all these blues for SS10. And these different mood of blues look the best if a dash of LIME mixing in. Hope you agree…?

Clockwise from top left—-Kenzo…Proenza Schoeler…Stella McCartney for Adidas—Alexander McQueen—Proenza Schouler—denim overall—Yohji Yamamoto(with hands)

Tags: Adidas, Alexander McQueen, Avatar, Kenzo, proenza schouler, stella mccartney, Yohji Yamamoto