Denim Trends FW05 II: Studded Jeans

Today has been a terrible day -my laptop broke down just two days before I have to fly back to London! The horror I felt when I realised my hard drive could not be saved. I am still panicking about all my lost data. I am now using my mum's laptop to blog -thank goodness for wireless broadband at home!

Anyways, it seems like ornated jeans are really 'the' denim to have this season. Apart from embroidered jeans, studded jeans are also prominent. 7 For All Mankind, which stuck Swarovski crystals to its jeans' pockets in the past seasons has now launched a wide range of jeans featuring studded pockets (and other parts of jeans.) And of course, we all know that studded things are just so fashionable this season, such as studded shoes and bags at Miu Miu, Prada......

Studded A-Pocket Jeans -They look just as classical as the original A-Pockets, but I just think such classicals are meant to remain original, ie. unstudded.

Studded Jeans -I LOVE this pocket design! The studs really bring out the design. Maybe I just like it because it's symmetrical. (I have a thing for symmetry.)

NY Studded Jeans -Err... are those studs meant to represent a sun? Or is it simply a random blob on top of the classical Sevens swiggly line?

'Havana' Studded Flare Jeans -I was absolutely shocked when I saw the price: $695! I mean, I do see all the craftmanship that must have been involved to stick so many pieces of studs on, but seriously, when has the craze for lux denim gone so high that Sevens can actual demand that much? And strangely enough, I found this pair at the Nordstrom website instead of the upper-end department stores. I don't know whether to love or hate these jeans...

London Spring/Summer 2006 Wrap Up II

London never ceases to intrigue me. It is always so different and english compared to the preppy American runway. Here are a few that intrigued me this season. .

Frost French
Following Sienna's most stylish post Jude Law fashion, Sadie Frost also thrives most stylishly after finalising her divorce with Jude. Her Spring/Summer collection with design partner Jemima French was most elegant and for lack of a better word, english.

I can actually see Sienna walking on the streets wearing this very casual yet elegant yellow outfit. And that grey dress is purrfect for a cup of tea at the Ritz.

I love how update these very old english styled pieces. Matching the edwardian blouse with shocking (for that period) short shorts. Using old english floral prints on this loose flirty dress. Absolute genius!

Giving the little black dress a different edge with sparkles, trims and thigh high socks.

Roksanda Ilincic
I have never heard of her. But having came across her collection, I must say, I am loving her. Her collection is luxurious and elegant. Though not elegant in the usual slim fitting Armani way. But in the voluminous, rich, russian princess way. It is simply divine.

The blue bubble dress is like candy wrapped in shiny paper. And the beige one is like toffee. Yum!

The black and gold dress reminds me a lot of Chanel. . except in a more bulky kind of way. And the black dress on the right with the rosettes, it is oscar worthy!

Betty Jackson

Three words: chic, lux and sweet.

This loosely tailored short and cropped jacket combo and red button up dress is both very office chic.

I just adore these shiny structured boxy jackets. The volume and the shiny material makes it all feel so rich and lux.

And these two are pretty self explanatory. They are just downright sweet!

London Spring/Summer 2006 Wrap Up I

Paul Smith
To me, Paul Smith was always about a mix of English preppiness and practical elegance. Whenever window-shopping at Selfriges, I always drool over their pretty chiffon tops. But this collection left me a bit dissappointed -it seemed to lack a strong sense of direction. There were a few pretty creations here and there, but the others I would expect an unfashionable lady-who-country-clubs to wear. I did manage to find a few outfits I liked to show here:

Basso & Brooke
The show named "Vanity Affair" is certainly an unexpected suprise in London Fashion Week -it is not often that you find such an alarmingly bright and costume-like collection in the usually more quiet London fashion scene. My first reaction (as many others I'm sure,) was shock -it this really ready-to-wear? But if you bother looking through the whole collection slowly like I did, then the craziness will start growing on you and you'll actually start to admire the creativity put into the collection. But of course, whether you would actually wear the clothes is another story...

This very first outfit was my favourite out of the collection: so pretty, creative and undeniably cool.

You got to notice the artistic hats and shape of the dresses.

Emma Cook
Emma Cook, always one for subtle and casual elegance once again showed us what a quiet, fashionable English girl would dress like. There were a few outfits I really didn't like, but all in all, it was just a nice, typical London collection.

Preen
To be honest, I haven't noticed this brand until now, but I was blown away by a large part of Preen's collection. What impressed me the most is how the outfits while having a feminine cutting and coloring (lots of dusty pink and grey) still looked so cool. It's like when you see a head-turning, effortlessly cool girl wearing something so simple walking past you and you undoubtly turn to gawk at. Here are my favourites:

Wish I had them in my wardrobe...

The Complimentary Eye Make-Over

The other day while shopping at Lane Crawford (the local department store equivalent to Barneys) I came across the beauty concierge promoting complimentary eye make-overs. And me being the make-up lover that I am, couldn't pass up a chance to get my eyes done to "perfection" by a professional for free now can I? So I immediately signed up and had a lovely 30 minutes discussing make-up, make-up and make-up.

The great thing about the beauty concierge make-over in a department store is that you are not limited to one brand with the cosmetics lady trying to sell you every product in their line (don't you just hate that?). At the beauty concierge, they actually know which brand is good for what and would recommend accordingly.

And then, she showed me how to do this very simple eye make-up that works for almost all eye shapes. I'm sure its nothing new to a lot of you make-up professionals out there, but since I've never thought to do it myself I thought it was brilliant and bought more colors so I can do the look myself at home. Purple (and green) apparently are my color, and she basically just outlined the rim of my eyes with the darker color, covered the rest of the lid with a lighter shade and highlighted the arched area with this beige-ish color since she thought white was too dramatic for day time.

She then finished the look with Dior Snow mascara (which she claims to be better than the Lancome one) and curled with this Shu Uemura eye lash curler. I'd always known these were good products, but I seriously never knew that my eye lashes could be THAT long and curled. Now I'm a convert. Although I suspect that this may be due to her superior technique. I noticed how she inched the eye lash curler up bit by bit while curling it. And I remembered my friend (who has been experimenting with make-up for much longer) telling me how happy she was to have finally mastered this inching technique the other day. So i'm guessing this is one and the same.

Anyway, I LOVED the consultation. Afterwards, she gave me a diagram of all the stuff she used, and then took me around the various counters showing me the products in detail. It was like having my very own personal shopper, except for cosmetics! And she was sooo knowledgeable about the art of beauty too, showing me good exfoliators, eye creams and how I shouldn't drink water half a hour before bed cause it makes your eyes puffy. All great fun! All department stores should have this service. It really does help boost sales-because even if it does say its complimentary, one would at least buy something just for such excellent service!

2005 Emmy's Fashion

Ahh, it's the Emmy's! Time for all the beautiful TV stars to shine, well mostly the actresses but that's even more fun! Most of them looked amazing this year:

The Desperate Housewives cast minus Teri Hatcher. From left, Marcia Cross looking AMAZING in a dark green Elie Saab creation. Nicollette Sheridan's dusty rose colored dress by Giorgio Armarni makes her look more classy than usual. While Felicity Huffman, in bright pink dressed up better than usual, I just think it sort of clashes with the red carpet -not exactly photogenic material. But who cares what she wore now that she won an Emmy's? And finally, Eva Longoria looking extremely elegant and pretty in the coral dress -it's a nice change to her normally err, more revealing style.

Even though Marcia Cross is the only older 'housewife' who has yet to win any awards, she in her Elie Saab gown is my absolute favourite so she gets her own photo!

Teri Hatcher with her TV-daughter, Andrea Bowen. Again, Teri Hatcher looked stunning in this blue, J. Mendel dress. The diamonds really add lots of glamour to the her simple look. And for a teenager, Andrea Bowen (and her stylist) really knows what looks good on her. They really do look like mother and daughter -and wait, their shoes actually match!

Ugh, why is Charlise Theron here, again? And wait, is she not wearing Vuitton? To be honest, I think she looks gorgeous -her face and hair, but I really don't think this Chanel gown is the one for her.

Ouch! Debra Messing is wearing a gown also by Elie Saab, but she looks horrendous in it. I think she needs to get a new personal stylist.

For a pregnant woman, Jennifer Garner still looks absoultely marvelous in a black, strapless Badgley Mischka dress. She certainly is daring for wearing such a tight-fitted dress even with her bump!

Another fashion mistake I think: Jennifer Love Heweitt in a black, strapless Dolce & Gabanna ruffle dress. The ruffles are just a bit too much and ruined the A-line slimming effect.

While I with everyone else (critics, the Gilmore Girls production team and Lauren Graham herself,) are furious that Lauren Graham was once again not nominated for the Emmy's, which we all know she deserves for her fantastic performance in Gilmore Girls, she still showed up in her normal humorous self and shone in this red silk ruffle gown fresh from Pamella Roland's SS06 show at NY fashion week.

OC star Rachel Bilson looking fabulous and adorable in this strapless (anyone see a trend here?) bronze dress. It's the subtle prints on the dress that really makes it stand out.

And of course, OC star Mischa Barton never fails to impress and even shines out more than the people who were actually nominated for an Emmy! Another one of my favourites, Mischa wore a nude colored slip covered with eye-catching gold sequins. Such a simple dress cut yet still creates a young, stunning look.

I just couldn't resist adding this last bit. Is it just me or does Peter Gallagher at the Emmy's look exactly the same as he does onscreen in the OC?

New York Spring/Summer 2006 Wrap Up IV

Wow, it has been quite a week trying to do all the things I "meant" to do this summer all at once. But I've finally managed to stop and catch my breath to feast my eyes on the NY runway this week. And I know that 4 wrap ups for one week is a bit excessive of us, but we cannot not pay tribute to these last few labels to grace the runway now can we?

Michael Kors
I'm usually not a big fan of the safari, which seems to be the case here what with the neutral palette and all, but I'm loving this collection anyway. Kors has done an amazing job combining the safari with feminine grace using a balance of soft and structured materials. Here are a few prime pieces, and trust me, it was a difficult choice.

This is an excellent example of the safari and feminine grace I was talking about. The tiered swish of the skirt softens the edge of the otherwise structured safari get up.

It looks so deceptively loose and unstructured, but if you look closely at the folds of the skirt you can tell that a lot of skillful tailoring was involved to create such a casual flow.

This is actually very similar to the first outfit I showed, but I ADORE the color coordination of this outift.

I imagine thats what a safari princess would wear around her domain. The skirt is so structured, and yet the soft material just flows so gracefully around the ankle.

I just LOVE this skirt. If you look closely the hem line is cut in accordance with the flower print. How cute is that??

Ralph Lauren
Of course, the NY Fashion week cannot end without me gushing about the Ralph Lauren collection. This time around, the color palette varied a little from the stark monotonicity of the previous seasons and was distinctively nautical in a very sophisticated way.

The epitome of the sophisticated sailor, which is at the same time, oh-so-ralph-lauren.

Ah, one has got to love flarey white skirts. It instantly makes an otherwise military sailor uniform look fun and girly.

I just adore how the thick stripes contrasts with the thinner stripes without any outright clashes! It gives the whole outfit such dimension.

Aw. . I just love this flarey blue skirt.

And as usual the evening wear is just divinely elegant and sleek. I adore how the models have their hairs pulled back and sport outfit matching dangly earrings. That is just SO (for lack of a better word) elegant.

Donna Karan
I absolutely LOVED the Donna Karan collection. The elegant draping of the material, the prints, it is all just so fabulously artistic and masterfully made!

The skillfully arranged twist and flare of the skirt is just so subtley exquisite.

Ditto for this very cleverly done shirt, which goes perfectly with the pencil skirt look.

These ribbon bow belts over dresses seems to be a key feature of this show. And it works beautifully to define the female curves. And I can definitely the elements of "Pollock" that had inspired this collection in that red dress.

There is also a bit of an early Pollock in the prints here too.

And these very artistic necklaces are also very prominent in this show. Although I fail to see how these can be worn in real life. . I mean, the long big hoops is just not very practical.

L.A.M.B
And we end our wrap up of the NY Fashion week with LAMB, the very much anticipated runway debut of Gwen Stefani's-the only celeb-turn-designer who actually has a talent. And Style.com has got it right, it is definitely a very "wide-ranging" collection, so wide ranging in fact that I cannot pinpoint any particular direction this collection is aiming for.

There is the rasta influenced look.

The military look.

The nautical navy look.

The weird completely unwearable I don't know what they're thinking look.

The very LAMB look we're all used to from her bags. I love this one. For one thing, I can actually see someone in the street wearing this outfit.

The sporty look (which I guess goes along with the outfit above) and wow, I WANT this tracksuit!!!!

The very elegant and sophisticated look. This is pretty. Although I guess the one uniting thing is that they're all very edgy in their own Gwen Stefani way. I must say, I am slightly disappointed though with the lack of direction of this collection-besides the last 3 outfits above that is, I LOVE those.

Well, this wraps up the New York week! Can't wait to see what London has in store for us. It is always very interesting and refreshing.