London Fashion Week in 10 photos

BYEEE LONDON FASHION WEEK. Here 10 pics of each best/most important show!

My Fave is Simone Rocha, can I have all those clothes/shoes??? 

Simone Rocha inspired by her granny

Animal print Burberry Prorsum

FUUUUURRRY Christopher Kane

Flower Power, like always, Erdem

Religios looking outfits at J. W. Anderson

Exotic Mary Katrantzou

Doggies on catwalk at Mulberry!!

Asymmetric and clean Osman

Girly Roksanda Ilincic

BOOOORINGGGG Temperley London

HELLO MILAN!!!

Designer clothes for less

I know it's London Fashion Week and I should be posting on it, but I'm extremely busy with my uni work that I can't put together the images and write my opinion on every catwalk show, I will do everything at the weekend.

I decided to suggest a few places where to get designer clothes for less. There are three very good websites that are 100% reliable, two of them sell past seasons clothes, the other one is second hand and vintage clothing. 

YOOX

yoox.com

These guys have a LOT there, and some really good pieces of clothing that could be considered as classics, there is some stuff which is quite old fashioned without being vintage, just old, but if you look well, they get last season's clothes pretty quickly and in several sizes as well. Handbags aren't their strongpoint, since I think they must fly as soon as they get on the website.

Moschino Cheap & Chic Jacket £319, Just Cavalli trousers £135, Michael Kors top £195, Raoul handbag £135, Vivienne Westwood purse £180

The Outnet
theoutnet.com

This is Net-a-Porter's child, and like parents with children, Net-a-Porter gives the outnet what it's not using (or selling) anymore. The clothing is not too old but because it arrives on the website pretty soon after the sales, everything is sold pretty quickly and you're left with the not-so-good stuff. The good thing about this website is that they also hold a sale, so prices get really low.

Marni jacquard coat £445, Carven print shirt £120, Dolce & Gabbana £330, Anya Hindmarch tote £297.50, Alexander Wang shoes £298, Valentino brooch £197.50, Linda Farrow Luxe £189

Vestiaire Collective

uk.vestiairecollective.com/

This is a great website to find vintage designer clothes, and unlike ebay and those dodgy websites, the pieces you purchase go through a sort of "quality control" in which they determine if the condition of the piece matches the condition in the description, and, most importantly, they check that whatever you buy is authentic, that's what makes it reliable. There is a great load of Chanel and Hermés bags (although always pricy, you can't get that for cheap!). Anyway, I am in love with that Chanel dress below.

Chanel earrings £215, Chanel dress £560, Chanel flats £172, D&G leather Jacket £239, Kenzo bag £370, Hermés beret £215, Sonia Rykiel sunnies £86

 There is another good website which I checked but didn't have the time to put images together called Covetique, similar to Vestiaire Collective, but they are based in England, not in France, the website looks slightly more professional too.

http://www.covetique.com/


Enjoy!

Salud!!

Alexander Wang Fall 2013

Oh man, OH OH OH OH! This was crazy, stunning, breathtaking, shocking, amazing! I think that watching this 10 minute thing as a fashion/design student you learn a LOT. This was a lesson on design, construction, and architecture of clothing. I felt like crying cause I honestly think that it must be pretty tough to achieve such a brilliant mind.

 Alexander Wang created a collection very strong in the construction details, with loads of pieces put together, darts, pleats, drapery. The show opened with Rocky's soundtrack so we already knew there was going to be some sort of boxing inspiration which came in form of fur boxing globes and turtle neck jumpers turned into hood (which resembles the boxing helmets). Cocoon shoulders as seen pretty much everywhere, waists dropped to the hips. A blend of leather with blush wool and fur.

For the evening, some glittery tops with cutout backs and camouflage print in see-through silk.

Double envelope bags and pointed shoes and sandals worn with ankle warmers.

Light grey, black and indigo with hints of tan and white

 Here some close-ups!

HOW COOL IS THIS BAGGGG!!!!!!!

I'm in love with this! Can I marry it??


Full show here:

SALUD!

New York Fashion Week: 2nd Review

The weather is horrible in London (not surprised there) so I decided to stay at home all day, perfect excuse to watch every possible show and keep myself up to date with all the pictures and reviews and stuff. I was one of the many who watch Alexander Wang show live, got myself a beer, watch the discussion panel at showstudio.com and did the warm up for the show. But before talking about the great Alexander and his BREATHTAKING collection I'm gonna talk about Altuzarra, Band of Outsiders, Prabal Gurung and Rebecca Minkoff for a bit.

My favourite of these was Band of Outsiders.

Antazurra. Sexy señoritas on the catwalk wearing bodycon dresses and pencil skirts with thigh splits. Fur oversized globes (also seen in Alexander Wang and in the mens collection of Sibling in LFW). Leather trench coats with fur collars and jackets sharp in the waist. A few asymmetric dresses and also lovely tailoring. Colour wise: winter white, navy, black and tan.

Band of Outsiders. I like the medieval working class feeling of this collection. Clean tailoring opened the show in long cotton and wool dresses then moving onto two piece suits (jacket and trousers and jacket and skirt) with fur sleeves and fur cowls. Oversized coats and knitwear in cocoon shapes. Light grey and blue from baby to navy, bordeaux and pink here and there. The beautiful heavy and big woolen hats gave each outfit a great finish. Loving it

Prabal Gurung. This collection was all about asymmetry. There are two side of the garments in pretty much every outfit. Asymmetric hem skirts, asymmetric sleeves, asymmetric shoulders. Giving accent to the female figure there were peplum jackets and shift dresses. Front panels embroidered it a sort of russian pattern in red.
Military green, navy, blood red and winter white in sating dresses and organza tops. Multi buckled knee high boots.

Rebecca Minkoff. I'm not a fan of this collection, there was too much going on and the catwalk lacked a bit of flow from my point of view. There was a grungy feeling mixed with some futuristic graphic prints. Colour block dresses and tops mixed with all sorts of prints, from dogtooth to stripes, checks and camouflage. Lots of colours, from cold to warm and fur, leather and tweed in terms of textures. Oversized cocoon sleeves and and some sharp tailored jackets. 

Salud!

New York Fashion Week: 1st Review

It's a very exciting time of the year for the fashion world, the action began and social media are collapsed with comments, reviews, reports, catwalk photos, street photos, interviews and quite too much of female histeria. New York opened its doors to the first fall/winter 2013-2014 fashion collections, and although the most awaited designers of all have not yet presented their masterpieces, there has been a lot of interesting creations so far.

My favourite so far was Creatures of the Wind, preppy 70s looks. Here some of the best pics and some reviews from: Helmut Lang, Creatures of the Wind, Jason Wu, Kate Spade, Rachel Comey and Charlotte Ronson.

Rachel Comey: Very interesting use of leather in tailored jackets and tops, light blue denim in dresses and shirts, high waisted pleated trousers both in denim and silk. With regards outwear, oversized coats and bomber jackets. Colour wise: Black and charcoal with hints of cherry and orange. 

Jason Wu. The so acclaimed Michelle Obama designer went for the safe, sexy and very feminine silhouette. 80's looking shoulders and high waist trousers. Shift dresses accentuating the female figure with waist belts. Interesting use of fur in trims and exaggerated dresses. Colours: black and white with vivid red and klein blue. I'm loving that PVC coat.

Helmut Lang. Not my cup of tea androgynous stuff but the use of cubist, Picasso inspired patterns are pretty cool. Clean sharp lines and edges. Wise use of silk, sheer, leather and fur. Beautifully tailored pieces. Pretty monochromatic palette, black and white and unexpected bits of blue and yellow.

Creatures of the Wind. GIMME MORE OF THIS! I found this a sort of fusion between 70s preppy and very modern styles with its clean, cocconish characteristics. There are some lovely 70s 'socialist' looking checks in shirts together with geometric prints. Pleated knee length skirt and boxy tops. Dry earthly browns contrasting with tangerine and metallic purple.

Charlotte Ronson. There was a clear influence and inspiration in terms of colour here, forestal pine green, dry brown and a bit of purple and pale pink, but design wise there was a lot going on; A line mini skirts and dresses, pencil and some irregular hem skirts, cut out dresses, floral prints, geometric prints, checks, and tweed. I think that what put everything together was more the colour palette than the design. Still pretty though! 

Kate Spade. Although it wasn't a proper catwalk, I got excited about this, I like the styling a lot and that feeling of New York City in the 50s. I would totally wear the shirts with oversized bows and the gold brocade coat. Bright colours as you can see, pink, yellow predominantly, the last coat of the picture has a lovely texture, the use of fabrics I find it fascinating here.

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Cool Nail Varnishes

We all love nail art but it's just too hard to do it yourself, let's face it, especially when it comes to working on your right hand when you're right-handed and viceversa.

The nail market has grown at incredible rates last year, WWD (Women's Wear Daily) stated that only in America women spent $786 million on nail polish. So clothing brands are launching a nail varnish range and well established brands like Nails Inc and O.P.I. are presenting really interesting and different stuff so you can play at home. 

On the British Fashion Awards, Alexa Chung (who won the style of the year award) was wearing the un-launched Nail Effect polish from Nails Inc that you could pre-order online, it literally sold out within minutes it was available on the Internet. 

So, I have decided to put together a few images of what I consider it's cool out there to get. I also tried to add an image that sort of shows what the polish actually looks like when you apply it, since with photoshop brand tend to cheat with the effect. A lot of them come in other colours, so it's worth looking at the other options too. My fave is the first one, the Illamasqua one. 

I hope you like it.

Just click on the caption to redirect you to the websites where you can get them from

Illamasqua Speckled Lilac £14.50 at Illamasqua

Ciaté Sequined Manicure £14 at Asos

Nails inc. Peach York Feather £14 at Nails Inc.

MAC Marilyn Monroe Nail Polish £11 at Selfridges

Nails inc. Leather Effect £19 at Selfridges

O.P.I. Nicki Minaj Save Me £7.16 at Demon's Beauty

Topshop 3D Nails Wraps £7.50 at Topshop

Salud!!

Charlotte Olympia pre-fall 2013: Hollywood

I think that she totally deserved that Designer of the Year award at the BFA. She blows everyone's mind with her STUNNING designs. Let's face it, I think Britain has the greatest shoe designers (think of Nicholas Kirkwood, Manolo Blahnik, Jimmy Choo). This woman's creations are completely innovative yet we get a bit of nostalgia from her designs that have a bit of 50's Marilyn Monroe's glamour.

And her pre-fall collection for 2013 has a lot to do with that since her inspiration comes from Hollywood. Film roll as ankle straps, glamourous sparks, 50s stars pictures on in rhinestone-encrusted broches (Rita Hayworth, Bette Davis, Louise Brooks etc), a lot of gold, and her signature island platform.

I totally want the pink flats below, prices are high so we better save. I think this is a fantastic super duper collection worth the money (big money)

If you're from the Americas you can pre-order from Moda Operandi, in the UK we'll have to wait. :(


Here some designs...

Salud!