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What’s In Your Bag? – vol.2

Qing — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 01:45:46 +0000

It took me a while to find the next person to interview since the last ‘what’s in your bag’ post in April. Though it’s only the second, I am very intrigued to see what people have inside their bags. It tells so much about their personality. This time, I’ve interviewed another colleague of mine, Amelia.

‘so where is your bag from?’

- ‘Topshop. My favourite ‘wang-esque’ bag broke which was also from Topshop. So went to replace it but found Topshop stopped stocking it. Bought this one which has now taken over as my favourite! I’m loving it!’

very casually mixed and matched with bleach denim, worn-looking vintage tan belt and the vibrant rubber band by Marc Jacobs.

In Amelia’s bag she’s carrying at the moment – new Vogue Paris (special guest edited by Tom Ford), her YSL ring, Evian water, perfume by Paco Rabanne 020, iPhone 4, Sunglasses by Marc Jacobs, car key for MINI, little pony, rubber wristband by Marc Jacobs, cigarettes.

Chanel wallet was an 18th birthday wallet from her generous mum. Amelia is definitely keeping it for a few more years as it’s such a classic piece… She also refers her beloved MINI car as a female ‘She’ as ‘She’ has a personality in her eyes.

I think this corner tells quite a lot about Amelia. She’s fun, bubbling like freshest champaign. When asked about the little pony, she replied that was only 1 of 3 ponies from her. Colourful rubber band with tiny bells were cleverly sourced by herself from Shopbop.com (£10 for a set of 4), a terrific present for any friends.

Special edition of Vogue Paris is a hot topic on every fashion person’s lips as they are guest edited by Tom Ford. Very artistic and controversial which I’m going to blog about in a separate entry. YSL ring was a gorgeous amethyst, a well deserved real treat for herself.

I am sure you could guess by now that she is young, fun, full of energy and bubbly which was all her contents showing about. Oh and her plan for next handbag? It will be a Balenciaga CITY.

if you can’t afford a Chanel…then…

Qing — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 23:46:06 +0000

then share a laugh with us here…..

image sourced from Jakandjil.com/blog re-edited by QueenYoung

Welcome Back – Amber Valletta

Qing — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:10:12 +0000

Amber Valletta has always been one of my favourate models from 90s. She looks boyish with the super-wide forehead, however, she could look so womanly with her full lips. I’m pleased to see her acting in 2 AW2010 campaigns in UK Vogue September Issue.

One is with Jimmy Choo

Another is with Joseph

Have to admit that both companies are with that sharp, sexy and strong feminine styles and Amber is just so perfect for that sort of look. And this signature look of hers has barely changed since 90s. Here’re a couple of images from my early memory about Valletta. She looks clean and gentle in those classic Chanel Resorts.

是不是有点超低龄？Chanel resort campaign 2011

Qing — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:32:45 +0000

It was back in May when Chanel launched their Resort 2011 lookbook in Saint-Tropez. I have really been hesitating to post this entry. Does Georgia Jagger look a bit too young there? Feels a bit like a little girl stealing from her mum’s wardrobe and showing off…

Then later in a discussion with a fashion fellow, she shrugged—’isn’t that a Chanel thing?!’

‘What?’ I was confused.

‘Back in the 80s when my boss had to entertain Karl in HongKong, he particularly requested some young boys.’

‘How young?’

‘Like 12, 13.’

view full post after this jump

虽然Georgia Jagger过了法定年龄，但是看起来真的有点超低龄。这其中的奥妙可真是“只可意会，不可言传”也。

Another Chanel

Qing — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 23:58:30 +0000

Last week I went for screening of the other Chanel movie —- ‘Coco & Igor’. Indeed a powerful movie that I felt even more powerful than ‘Coco Avant Chanel’, which was wide released last year in UK. 2 Chanel movies were actually being film around similar time. But both team were really supportive to each other like one family. They would stand up for each other when unnecessary comments attacked both movies.

This movie opened up with moving snow-flake-and-arabian-like patterns and Coco was rushing to theatre after meeting her long-term lover ‘boy’. This scene was captured in ‘Coco Avant Chanel’ towards the end. She was about to experience the issonance of the score and the shocking choreography of ‘The Rite of Spring’ by Igor Stravinsky. It takes 7 years before they meet again in Paris – now Chanel is both rich and respected (and moaning for ‘boy’s accidental death), whereas Stravinsky is living in exile as a penniless refugee. There is an immediate powerful attraction and she decides to shelter Stravinsky, offering him her villa ‘Bel Respiro’ as a sanctuary for his composing, as Chanel herself begins creating the revolutionary iconic perfume No.5. Stravinsky moves in straight away, with his children and consumptive wife. And so a passionate, fiery love affair between two creative giants commence…

I felt the script and dialogue was very well considered and composed, they were short but full of psychological tricks. Here’re a few moments I’ve memorized and would like to share.

Moment 1:

After Coco and Igor re-met each other 7 years later, she made an appointment with him to meet in a museum and of course she was fashionably late… (don’t know how long) However, she walked in and laid her steady eye-attention on him. Nothing apologetic, she simply said ‘I Am Late’.

Moment 2:

She walked downstairs in the middle of night in a gorgeous silk night gown, floor length, embellished, with tiny button fastening around neck. She stared into Igor’s eyes quietly and unbuttoned gracefully and stood naked in front him…(only physical dialogue)

Moment 3:

Igor was playing piano in a ground-floor room and Chanel returned. She sat on him with her back against piano. Her skirt was lifted up showing white crochet stockings. The poor wife sitting in bed upstairs clearly noticed the piano has stopped, but could not come down to stop anything. I felt her pain, because she couldn’t do anything there. It would be even more painful situation if she physically saw. (again…only physical dialogue.)

Moment 4:

The poor wife decided to leave Igor and took all 4 children with her. At the door step of Chanel’s villa, her last word to Igor was ‘I love you’. The man didn’t return any word.

Moment 5:

After the wife’s departure, Igor saw Chanel in the garden and followed her into the woods. He wanted to kiss her and she pushed her out, once and twice…She had to refuse it. I know the woman must feel that she could predict everything from Igor and he became less interesting. He had eventually finished a masterpiece and felt exhausted and fell in bed in his dirty clothes. It was Chanel who called him up and put him into bath and later left a kiss on his forehead. I know, by that time, all Chanel could feel for Igor was caring and understanding. However the passion of love has not only slowly disappearing but also had to be forced to burry down after she read the last letter left on her bed by the wife. By this stage, it was actually the quiet wife who was seemingly weak and depended and a character completely opposite of Chanel, has finally won this moral fight. Yes, she is weak, ugly and unattractive and depended, but it somehow reminds me of a famous saying—-sometimes, the weakest power could be the strongest.

If Audrey Tautou has successfully portrayed a younger Chanel from beginning of her grand career, Anna Mouglalis in the movie, has completely sculpted up a closest image of Chanel from later stage—–who is confident, cold, passionate and graceful. She has got a most smokey French voice. Mads Mikkelsen as Igor was also a very strong character. I’ve always loved him ever since the Bond Movie ‘Casino Royale’.

Overall, it’s a very artistic movie which has a perfect flow on language using. It has started in English but slowly changed into French and Russion with english subtitle. However you could barely feel tiring from reading the lines, because as I said above, all dialogue are considerably short and well composed. I couldn’t help but put a short a comments on Facebook that night—–a very French movie, lots of shagging and little conversation.

Ready to be Beige for AW10?

Qing — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:12:54 +0000

Actually it seems like the word ‘beige’ is being completely avoided in the entire magazine world. Instead they are using the word ‘caramel’ to describe one of the hottest trends for AW2010.

Coat by Oasis…on UK Vogue August…

Wool Cardigan by Surface to Air in UK Vogue August…

Akris campaign for AW2010…UK Vogue August…

And here comes some images from my vintage magazine collection…

absolutely loving her long limps…black body-con hot-pants makes this ‘Caramel’ long-line Chanel cardigan so young and energetic! And this image is from Elle 1995, more than a decade agao!!

Then here is the gorgeous Lavin caramel man suit mixing with leopard print velvet trousers.

and love the red lipstick and car with caramel…

What’s in your bag? — vol.1

Qing — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 21:33:34 +0000

Right, so you could see from title when I set ‘vol.1′, you might sense that this would be/could be another regular feature. I had this idea many years ago when I read an article saying ‘handbag reflects women’s insecurity’. I think I sneered the topic then and it’s definitely difficult for me, an eleven year-old back then to understand how much women rely on their handbags. The article described a perfect example of a woman attending a dinner party (kind of more upper class social event type) carrying her hand bag with a book inside due to boredom may appear. And the second book in her bag is because she thought she might finish the first book at the Appetizer. Funny part is here, the third book she carried in her bag is due to —- ‘I might not enjoy the second one!!’

Now growing up I realize that I, like many female, without a handbag, feel absolutely naked! Still with the curiosity from childhood, I would like to dig in the scene of what handbag people would carry and their very own contents. Here I thank my colleague showing me her bag and to help me creating the very first entry of this topic.

I fell in love straight away with her bag since we first time met in January. She found her bag at Zara Sales on boxing day 2009 and had since held on it tight. It’s in a mid grey soft leather with wooden handle and a practical shoulder strap.

Most interesting thing caught my attention is a set of 3D playing card with different cats images. She’s a cat lover and enjoys playing card in the old man pub near where she lives. The cards are part of Christmas presents from her boyfriend (how sweet and thoughtful, all boyfriends take note here!)——-Rose Drops, random sweet given by BoyF for no reason because she loves rose.——-Prada Perfume No.3 Cuir Ambre 30ml——-Wallet by Amy Morris for Sara Berman.

Pink Mac Lipstick amplified / Elizabeth Arden 8 hours cream / Chanel Pressed Powder, she got from Selfridges because it was a shit day and needed something special to cheer up!

White 16G iPhone. She loves blogging and eBaying, but confessed to be a lazy iPhone user as only downloaded 1 App so far (which she hopes it’s growing slowly). But she got lots of music and currently listening to Florence + Machine and The History of Blues.

Luella CatsEye Sunglasses / Pens & 2GB USB Keys, she’s a designer as you could guess now / Turban for rainy day as she doesn’t like umbrella and hat. / Paracetamol, her quotes ‘need it’ just in case!!

Alexander McQueen Scarf, a birthday present from BoyF and surprisingly selected by himself after McQueen’s tragic news as he wants her to have something collectable of McQueen’s (all BoyF take note here again!!)——-’The Book of Other People’ edited by Zadie Smith——-Red Moleskine Notebook in which she got lots of random beads (a total designer thing)

And of course she got house keys plus bike lock keys, a little lucky cat from a Tokyo trip and this little metal house charm which turns out to be a tape measure!

–’How long do you intend to use this bag?’

‘I’m going to use it not until I’m bored of it, but until it breaks and falls apart!’

That’s how much she loves it.

And so do I !

Fashion windows: Barcelona March 2010

awais — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 11:35:06 +0000

A few days back Qing and I were talking about adding some regular features here – one of the ideas we both agreed on was posting pictures of interesting shop windows. I’ve always been fascinated by visual merchandising and how designers present their creations to customers – both in the shop and in the shop windows. As a fashion student I used to go on excursions to New Bond Street, Selfridges and Sloane Street to snap pictures of the shop windows. The pictures I would save in my sketch books for inspiration.

A couple of weeks ago I was in Barcelona, and here’s a few snaps I took of some of the designer shop windows around Passeig de Gràcia.

Trussardi

More pictures after the cut

Chanel

Louis Vuitton

Burberry

Hugo Boss

Marchesa Casati – A dash of eccentricity

awais — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 04:45:22 +0000

Earlier we’ve blogged about how art inspires fashion, but how about when the artistic inspiration is a person – a muse? One such person, the Marchesa Luisa Casati, has inspired many writers, painters and also fashion designers .

The Marchesa was born into a wealthy Austrian-Italian family in Milan in 1881. A patron of coutouriers such as Paul Poiret, Mariano Fortuny and Erté and jewellers like Lalique, Casati astonished European society for the first three decades of the 20th century with her eccentric personality and outrageous style. In his autobiography Erté described her as the “the most extravagantly odd woman I have ever met”. She would wear living snakes as jewellery, throw parties where her servants were covered in leafed gold from top to toe and parade her pet cheetahs around in Venice on leashes covered with gold and diamonds whilst wearing nothing but a fur coat. Her hair was a dyed a deep henna red, her skin powdered pale white and her eyes heavily kohled.

The Marchesa painted by Augustus John to the left. Carina Roitfeld as Casati, photographed by Karl Lagerfeld.

More after the jump

She wasn’t only an inspiration to her contemporaries, more than 50 years after her death she still continues to inspires artists and fashion designers alike. In 2003 the New Yorker wrote an article about the Marchesa. The photograph of Vogue Paris editor Carine Roitfeld dressed as Casati was taken by none other than Karl Lagerfeld. The article also featured sketches by Lagerfeld inspired by Luisa Casati.

Chanel resort collection 2010

The Marchesa also seems to have been one of the main inspirations for Lagerfeld’s resort collection for Chanel 2010. The show was held in Venice, a place which was home to Casati for a large part of her life. The models’ hair and makeup was clearly inspired by her signature look.

Another designer who cites the Marchesa as a major influence is John Galliano. His extravagant haute couture show for Dior in 1998 was inspired by her and cost 2 million dollars to stage. The show was held at Opéra Garnier in Paris and the setting was inspired by the Marchesa’s lavish soirées.

Galliano for Dior Couture 1998

Galliano was also inspired by Casati when he launched his debut fragrance in 2008. The design of the flasque is inspired by this portrait of Casati, painted by Giovanni Baldini.

For his autumn/winter 2004/05 collection, which was named ”a dash of eccentricity”, Armani named Visconti’s movie The Damned, La Belle Époque and the Marchesa as his main influences.

Armani autumn/winter 2004/05

She was also the main inspiration behind Tom Ford’s spring/summer 2004 collection for Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche.

Yves Saint Laurent, spring/summer 2004

The Marchesa is also the theme of a recent editorial shoot in Acne Paper’s fall/winter issue. The shoot features Tilda Swinton and was shot by Paolo Roversi.

Tilda Swinton as the Marchesa in the autumn/winter 2009 number of Acne Paper

Casati was once quoted saying “I want to be a living work of art”. Throughout her life, she tried to commision her own immortality by patronizing some of the biggest artists of her time. When looking back at how she still manages to inspire people to this day, I would say that her quest was successful.

Photo sources: Vogue/Style.com, Acne Paper, Chanel, The New Yorker

Favourite Part of a Female

Qing — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:08:15 +0000

No…not a question from Dr.Hannibal, but when you look at a female, which part would you notice first.

Many people would say eyes as they are said ‘the window to heart’, how much can you see a person from looking into the eyes. Christian Dior’s least favourtie part on a femal is actual the knees. And that is the reason he always had all his skirt length to be ‘just over the knee’. He obviously quite prefer the female waist and therefore invent the ‘new look’ with cinched in waistline. However, Coco Chanel thinks that was a backwards move since she freed women’s body from corset by dressing them in cotton jersey which is at the time a common material for mens underwear.

I personally favour John Galliano’s choice, the back view of a female. It could speak so much attitude with a simple back view. Johnny Depp admits when he first time saw that beautiful female back in a Paris hotel lobby, he knew he had found the one—Vanessa Paradis.

And that’s why so many designers are focusing details on the back. Australian designer Willow had this quite cleverly done on a ready-to-wear day & night dress.

It’s romantic, yes it’s powerful too.