Finally an update..

Hello everyone. I am so sorry that I have been so terrible with keeping up with my blog! I know that it is so rude to leave you all hanging and so I apologize. I am currently busy with fashion school, which is absolutely incredible! Here are a few pictures that never cease to inspire me for designing. I am going to try my very hardest to start keeping up with my blog! Thank you all for reading.

Fall 2009 Elie Saab Couture

Lebanese designer Elie Saab has long been a leading name in haute couture in the Middle East, where his romantic, crystal-encrusted gowns attracted princesses to his Beirut atelier, opened in 1982 when he was just 18 years old. His ready-to-wear line, which launched in 1998 in Milan, heralds the same feminine aesthetic as his couture dresses, with brightly colored silks, chiffons, pearl beading, and embroidered lace. With their Middle Eastern detailing and European sensibility, Saab gowns are also at home on the Hollywood red carpet; Halle Berry famously wore one to pick up her Academy Award in 2002.

For this Fall 2009 runway show, he took the designs by the reins and came up with brilliant crisp white gowns. Every model in the show walked down the way looking like an edgy ice princess.

 

Björk: Fashion Icon

Björk (pronounced bee-york) is most commonly known for her quirky songs and crazy music videos, but did anyone know that she was also a fashion model (and icon)? Well, since I am loving Katy Perry and her songs right now, I have been listening to her Celebrity Playlist Podcast on itunes. She lists all of the songs that she is obsessed right now and one of the songs just happened to be “Oh So Quiet” by Björk! Katy explained how Björk has a fabulously crazy style and how her music videos were just out of this world. So, of course, I had to go look Björk up to see what this was all about. I found out so many interesting and really weird things about her, one of them being her fashion sense. I seem to have a strong interest for people who aren’t afraid to wear what they want (even if it does make it on the worst dressed list). For example Betsy Johnson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Cher, Heidi Klum, Katy Perry and now Björk!

Fashion in Kenya

Near the end of April, the nonprofit group Festival for African Fashion and Arts held the Fashion for Peace show inside the Nairobi National Park in Kenya. The show featured designers from Kenya, as well as from other African nations, including South Africa, Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda and Tanzania. Though widespread food shortages and ethic tensions persist, Kenya enjoys a relative peace. In response to the country’s changing political climate, this year’s event focused more on promoting Kenyan fashion beyond the country’s borders than on a clarion call for peace.

 

Of course, the high-end outfits stayed well above the purchasing power of the average Kenyan. The runway show was actually for international consumption and to mainly catch people’s attention. Lara Mastropasqua, one of the organizers, said that establishing a fashion industry in Kenya could create local jobs that would service the global fashion market. “From the textile workers, to the women who bead, to the small cottage industry people who have amazing craftsmanship, if Africans were to reinvest in their culture, there could actually be an entire industry that could develop,” she stated. “You will rarely have an African designer have the opportunity to show his or her talent internationally,” she said. For now, high-end fashion remains a luxury in the developing nation. Diana Libiso, a television producer who attended the show, said that price will always keep Kenyans away from designer clothes. “Your typical, average Kenyan would not spend above 25 dollars on an outfit,” she said.

 

 

 

 

A Favorite…

Right now, I’m all over the “Katy Perry pin-up girl” look. The new look for this spring/summer is all about the onesies and sweetheart necklines. Along with the influx of breezy dresses and jumpers in stores, I’ve been spotting the arrival of a warm-weather essential both anticipated and dreaded: the bathing suit. But despite what’s strutting down the runway in New York, the trend this spring isn’t about the “squint-and-you’ll-miss-it” bikinis, for once. Designers like Michael Kors, Diane Von Furstenberg, and Dolce & Gabbana all flaunted retro, pinup-girl-inspired swimwear: high-waisted bikinis, demure one-pieces, and skirted silhouettes.

No, not Vera Wang…

Vera Neumann! Mention vintage scarves and the name “Vera” immediately pops up into my head. My grandmother gave me countless Vera scarfs, each one of them a little different. The designer behind the name was Vera Neumann, an artist turned textile designer. Vera began designing textiles in the 40s after she and her husband founded Printex. She is known for her optimistic patters and bold color in her scarves. She chose the ladybug as her trademark to bring good luck, long life, and happiness to everyone! Now, anthropologie is introducing an exclusive line of apperal and home decor featuring prints by Vera Neumann.

Dangerous Shoes on the Runway

 

There is an undeniable thing happening with shoes right now in the fashion world. They’re going insane. This is not new–shoes have been getting bigger and weirder for a few years now. But this season, they reached some sort of (ankle) breaking point. They are clunky and spiky and outrageous, studded up like dog collars or all out with inverted heels. At Rodarte, Prada, and Miu Miu, models stumbled and tripped and wiped out completely. It was impossible not to wonder: If professional models can’t make it down twenty feet of flat plywood while glued into their shoes—yes, designers have tried to resort to glue and tape—how in the world am I going to make it to my car? And what about the poor clothes? Sometimes the shoes are so fantastic that the clothes were merely an afterthought. They are lovely little sculptures, these shoes, worth admiring and puzzling over the physics. But for traipsing around in the real world: not so much.

 

Here are some of Spring’s Most Dangerous Shoes:

 

John Galliano

Dolce & Gabbana

Christian Dior

Rodarte

Marc Jacobs

Michelle Obama on the Cover of O

Michelle Obama appeared on the cover of O with Oprah Winfrey, in the April publication. Michelle wears Michael Kors, which marks her second big Kors moment of the week after she chose one of his dresses for her official White House portrait.

 

It is the first time in nine years that Oprah has shared the cover with another human being. As you can see from the official seal in the upper-right-hand corner, this is Michelle’s first interview from the White House, which must be why Oprah’s drooling and rubbing her hands together like Michelle is one of those delicious White House cakes. Michelle looks absolutely astonishing in yellow and orange while Oprah looks splendid in magenta. (The bright new Spring colors!)

Here is Michelle Obama’s official First Lady Portrait. She is wearing a stunning black Michael Kors dress.

Grunge to Grime?

After the largely dark, recession-tinged array of clothes shown during New York Fashion Week, we’ve been eager to bask in the dramatic, fanciful quirk of Milan’s collections — the searing-hot pinks at Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci’s polka dots, and the baguette hats and handlebar-mustache dress that only Agatha Ruiz de la Prada could hallucinate. So it dismayed us to discover that the Dsquared2 collection — the same boys currently putting the touring Britney Spears in headdresses and feathered epaulets — looked more like a Walk of Shame than a runway show. Is it possible that the pervasive, sloppy-starlet style we’re most accustomed to seeing in Us Weekly’s “Stars: They’re Just Like Us” section (“They look hung-over!”) actually is crossing over to the catwalks? I mean, look at the pictures above. Models are actually holding Starbucks drinks and even cell phones. Last time I checked, Starbucks wasn’t runway related.

For years, we’ve been perplexed by adorable actresses embracing their inner slob grunge. Homeless “chic” made for a brilliant parody in Zoolander, but that movie also theorized that you could brainwash someone into committing murder by playing “Frankie Goes to Hollywood.” It was never meant to be taken seriously. When the satire became celebrity street attire, we threw up our hands. An untidy aesthetic can be excused when you’re popping out for some groceries, and sometimes, the unpolished thing can be very sexy. But there’s carelessly cute, and then there’s looking like “it’s-been-laundry-day-for-the-past-eighteen-months”: Mary-Kate famously pioneered ripped hose paired with mountains of heavy layers (and $2,500 shoes). Lindsay Lohan spent the last two years in leggings and unwashed-looking concert tees. And despite Blair Waldorf’s testimony that tights are not pants, Mischa Barton actually did treat a mangy old pair of brown hosiery as if they were real trousers. Grunge was one thing; what these girls did seemed more like grime.

Which is why it’s alarming to see the ensembles celebrities wear for morning-after coffee runs actually appear, in some form, on the allegedly sophisticated European catwalks — in Dsquared2’s case, complete with real Starbucks cups, in case the point had not been made finely enough.

I, for one, hope this is merely an artistic statement on how our collective economic woes may make us all a tiny bit less self-obsessed. Because if Mary-Kate Olsen’s castoffs are hot for fall, then by spring 2010, there may be nowhere left to go but Pamela Anderson–style track pants, tank tops, and Ugg boots. At a time when we’re seriously considering stuffing all our money under a floorboard, fashion should be our escape. Who wants to bankrupt herself in order to look … well, bankrupt?

Guess Who?

Can you guess who designed these beautiful modern dresses?