Haute Couture F/W08 II

Christian Dior
After a few of you mentioned how much you loved the Dior haute couture collection in your comments from the last post, I checked it out and agreed with you all -the Dior F/W08 haute couture collection is indeed fabulous! For the past few seasons, the collections have all sort of blended together and all I could remember about them are huge, colourful, extravagant dresses.

But this season, the silhouettes and use of different fabrics have really added something extra to the outfits. I LOVE the juxtaposition of the textures: strong, structured and solid on top, and soft, feminine and flowing at the bottom.

These are such a modern and gorgeous twist to the typical dress-suit and lunch suit.

And even more dress suits for the ladies-who-lunch. I don't believe I've like lunch suits this much before!

This is one of the few times I can actually say I like the use of animal prints -it's so elegant and untrashy. And even though I imagine it wouldn't be comfortable wearing a see through skirt, I love this interpretation of the LBD.

Such ladylike dresses. Imagine riding and getting off horse carriages in these dresses -ok, maybe I've just been visiting too many palaces in my recent travelling.

Gorgeous, GORGEOUS party dresses. In my dreams of attending formal parties, I will be wearing these dresses this season.

There were a few really extravagant big white dresses (-presumably wedding gowns for the rich and fabulous) and this one was my favourite. It's like a fusion of the long, slim dress and the big, puffy dress. Loves it!

It's not Dior haute couture by John Galliano without an art piece-looking dress.

Valentino

OK, I was going to write more about Valentino, but the fabulousness of the Dior collection totally distracted me and used up my enthusiasm for this season's haute couture collection. That said, the new eggy and space age shapes used by Alessandra Facchinetti really added a dose of youth to Valentino's feminine, romantic dresses.

Image Credit: http://www.style.com/

Haute Couture F/W08 I

With the travelling I've been doing in the past two weeks, I've been so out of touch with the real world (ie. the Internet) that I didn't even know it was Haute Couture week until I logged into style.com! I've only looked through three collections but they have already surprised me as they were certainly different from what I've come to expect from those desginers.

Chanel

Karl Lagerfeld usually sends out pretty, mostly black & white and commercial dresses so I was surprised when many of the dresses had such structured and artistic silhouettes! I have mixed reactions with the dresses though, and some of the dresses looked like a continuation of the silver Chanel dress that Anna Wintour wore to the Superheroes party.

The show started with dresses that were very sophisticated, very Chanel.

And ended with very romantic and elegant evening dresses.

In between, there were the more structured dresses. I especially liked these two. The dress on the left reminds me of a flower (with a model in the middle.) And even though I have no idea what the frame around her model's head (on the right) does, it just looks really cool -sort of makes the model look like a haute couture robot.

Although I wouldn't call these dresses ugly, I'm just not too fond of them. The one on the right especially does not look flattering. To be fair, all these dresses must look so much more impressive in real life.

Givenchy

Before looking at the collection, I was expecting lots of rock chic, black and white again, but this collection was definitely more colourful than the previous ones. The clothes also seemed less structured.

These looks remind me of high fashion soldiers marching to somewhere cold.

And these make me think of glamorous Parisian parties. I like this neutral palette of colours so much more than that khaki green.

Christian Lacroix

Lacroix's collection is always one of the most fun to look at because it always takes you into a colourful, overly luxurious world of chiffon and laces -and this collection did just that.

Just wow! I love the high fashion gothic look, and this was all done with mini skirts or dresses, making the looks very youthful and put together.

The girly looks -although noticeably not as sweet-looking than his previous collections. This ones feels much darker. Notice all the ornaments and laces and details each look has!

How did everyone like these three collections?

Image Credit: www.style.com

The Pink Miu Miu Bag

Imagine this lovely white patchwork Miu Miu tote below (left) in the pink of plastic ring bag, and you get what I've been carrying (almost everyday) for almost three weeks now.
It is absolutely the perfect bag for the SS08. It's summery, feminine and fun, with the pink being just light enough that it does not clash with any color I wear. I was getting bored of the standard black and classic prints in my collection. The style is also very casual and big enough for absolutely everything I need- though it gets difficult sometimes to find stuff in this black hole. It also fits on the shoulder just fine! And if you want, they also have a longer side strap. Oh and did I mention that the leather is absolutely DIVINE? Because it is. Like a baby.

The ONLY downside though is the durability. Now I know that this is a trend bag and it will probably not last beyond a season or two anyway (and thus, me using it everyday since I got it to get the most mileage out of it while I can), so durability isn't a top priority. But the durability of this bag is seriously low. After 3 weeks of use, I fear that my bag is turning color. And not even to a color one would expect, like dirty pink or black, but blue. Yes. BLUE. The edges of the patchwork, especially towards the bottom and the bottom of the shoulder straps, are showing serious signs of blueness. I'd show you a picture, but I lost the adapter to my memory card, stupid Sony memory cards........Anyway, I suspect it might be my denim (even though I usually wear black jeans......) and thus it is all my fault. But denim is like my standard daily uniform. What would I wear without my denim? I guess I should try to desperate the two from now on........ though where would I put my bag when I'm sitting down if not on my lap or behind my back? On the floor? And besides, on the first day of wear, it drizzled a bit and I got some rain on the super soft leather and afterwards, there were blue stains on my bag! I was worried I'd gotten some chemicals on my bag while I was walking around (I mean, shouldn't simple water stains just be a shade darker than the pale pink leather?), but then, when it dried and the stain disappeared, so I didn't think much of it. Thinking back now though, MAYBE it is not entirely my denim's fault but also the leather's........... Anyone else having this problem?

Regardless, if you have something similar or plan to get something similar and want to maximize it's lifespan, remember to use it with care. Keep it away from denim, water and humidity. Because it is a MUCH too pretty bag to become weird and blue.

Image Source: Saks

Are Big Bows Too Cutesy?

Lately I've been seeing bows, big and small on clothes everywhere. (All the shirts below are from Top Shop simple because I'm too lazy to look through another website.) Sometimes a bow really adds some much needed adornment and girliness to a shirt or dress. But sometimes I feel like it's just too much. As with nautical-inspired clothes, the design could become overly cutesy and costume-looking.

For instance, I first saw this shirt online I thought the bow was way too big. It totally reminded me of the sailor or school uniforms that we see in Japanese anime. But then I saw my friend wear it and it looked simple and cute, but not overly cute on her. Maybe the key is to keep everything else around the shirt (ie. your jeans and hair) simple?

Moving onto more bows... I am not a fan of a bow graphic tee, or any prints that have little bows all over them. I thought the point of a bow was to add something extra, sort of like another layer or texture to the shirt.

I can't decide what to think of this bow. On one hand the top would look simpler but plainer without the bow. On the other hand, it makes a potentially versatile top into something more frilly and girly.

The silhouette (kind of Miu Miu S/S08-esque) caught my eye. The fake buttons are a nice touch, but what do you think of the bows? They seem to suit the shirt.

This is my favourite out of the shirts here. For some odd reason, I really like the huge bow in the middle -maybe it's because the bow doesn't look completely like a big puffy bow. It's very flat and the colours of the shirt (nude and white) make the top seem more sophisticated than cutesy. It looks like a nice top for work (provided you work in a casual business office.)

Anyway, I think I will stop here. I have used the word 'cutesy' way too many times within the past fifteen minutes for my own comfort!

Image Credit: http://www.topshop.com/