Fashion files: 2011

Friday, March 18, 2011

FASHION DIARY: PRADA SHOES

Colorful, feminine, stylish, simply amazing, simply PRADA! Spring 2011 shoes....

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Sun can be inspiring in many ways - it can make you feel better, spend more time outside, finally change your winter gear and enjoy the new season's pieces which are a real refreshment after winter's "heavy" clothes.

I have already selected my favorites in terms of ready to wear clothes & accessories for Spring 2011 and placed them in my online FASHION DIARY. Today, I am sharing with you the first page of that diary - one dedicated to eyewear, probably my favorite accessory for every season. These are the short listed pieces tough I had many more that I liked. I always look for some eye catching or funny twist especially when it comes to accessories and these models represent that. Still, the classics are inevitable for a sophisticated look and so I have chosen a Gucci pair which looks very simple yet elegant.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

CHANEL MAKE UP ANIMATION

A cool way of presenting the beautiful make-up products made by this brand. Peter Phillips animates the brushes, lip glosses, compacts...in a very innovative, energetic and stylish manner. Just as Chanel deserves!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

HAUTE COUTURE

Many of us have heard or use the term Haute Couture. There are several boutiques which I have noticed bearing this name, tough the items sold are far from what Haute Couture really represents. This term has become well connected to the fashion world because it sound very French, it sound chic, it sound expensive....But what is actually Haute Couture?

Translated literally it means high sewing, high dressmaking, high fashion. In practice, it is the impeccable art of making luxurious clothes. What makes them luxurious is the fact that they are fitted for each buyer's needs and body structure, are made by hand, out of unique and high quality materials, embroideries, and decorations. In some cases certain materials and patterns are reserved for one couture house only.

The process of creating a couture piece begins with the desired design of the garment made out of muslin or linen canvas - materials which are not expensive and which are used only to make the sample (or called toile). This is crucial as many of the couture designs are extravagant and with a complicated construction so the toile prevents loosing quantities of the the extremely expensive materials (some of them 120 eur/meter) used later on in the process. Once the toile is agreed to be working the seating starts. Each piece of clothes has a minimum of three fittings of the client. After each fitting the garment is "deconstructed" to pieces and put on a table and only then needed corrections are made. The finishing of a piece may take up 100-150 hours for a suit and 1000 hours for an embellished evening dress.

To get this perfectly made garment buyers pay incredible sums - ranging from 10.000 eur for a blouse, 20.000 eur for a Chanel suit to 50,000 eur and above for an evening dress. This high amounts payed to wear couture ensure that no one else will have the exactly same garment.

Tough couture has been used by many companies, in France, working couture clothes is protected by law. According to it, there is a certain criteria established in 1945 and revised in 1992 about what makes a company a haute couture maker. They include the possibility of ordering clothes, private fittings, having an atelier with at least 15 employees, and presenting a collection to the press each season (twice a year). In 2010, one of the official domestic members were Chanel, Givenchy, Jean Paul Gaultier, and international - Valentino, Elie Saab, Armani....

Several of the spring 2011 couture collections are already out and these are my daydreaming favorites so far...

Dior

Armani Privé

Alexis Mabille

Christoph Josse

Alexandre Vauhtier

Friday, January 14, 2011

PRADA YO-YO BAG

Not only is Prada known as one of the world 's most famous fashion brands, which surprises and delights us every season with its new designs, but they also have very clever, innovative and art supporting ways of promoting their new products.

Such is the case with the Yo-Yo bag, first shown on the Fall/Winter 2010/2011 show. It is a retro bag, inspired from the 1950s design and comes in many colors and materials. The bag was featured in Prada's ad campaign but was also central in the project called Yo video! which took place in Japan. The project gave the opportunity to eight film student to shoot a short movie related to this bag. The videos are really phenomenal! The young authors take different aspects of how they perceive the bag and create a story around that - some of them focus on playfulness, elegance, freedom, style, memories, uniqueness...My personal favourites are the videos Gravity and Handsome mask. You can see all of the on http://www.prada.com/en (under Projects/Yo Video!)

Monday, January 3, 2011

VOGUE PARIS

If you have ever flipped through the pages of Vogue Paris you will have noticed the extravagance that this magazine reflects and the surreal world that it takes you to. The French edition of Vogue magazine has the intellectual and forward looking core of Vogue as a brand, but it also has its own character that embodies the French (Parisian) woman as we all ('d like to) imagine her - elegant yet rebellious, simple yet profound, enjoying the moment, yet looking into the future...

It can be easily said that Vogue Paris wouldn't be what it is today without its editor in chief, Carine Roitfeld. The main reason why I am writing this post is the fact that Roitfeld has resigned and is leaving Vogue at the end of January 2011, after a decade of transformation and improvement of the magazine from every aspect. Not only has she changed the perception of Vogue Paris and has managed to differentiate it from other Vogue editions, but she also has increased the circulation and the number of advertisers.

I won't go further into the reasons why Roitfeld is leaving Vogue or what the rumors are about where she is heading; instead I would like to present some of my favorite Vogue Paris covers and editorials made during her editorship, many of which are styled by Roitfeld herself.

October 2010, 90th issue of Vogue Paris