New York Fall / Winter 2006 Wrapup I

OK first of all, thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday. I had a fabulous time in Cambridge -my friends and I had dinner at a Spanish restaurant and partied at the student club. The six of us managed to fit into my friend's dorm room, and we ended up talking about religion and environment at 4am! Must have been the intellectual environment at Cambridge!

Anyways, I've been a bit behind with Fashion Week. I've looked through most of the photos, and must say I'm so far disappointed. Many of the collections were unflattering, or of murky colors and unappealing fabrics -totally uninspiring.

Badgley Mischka
This is one collection I can honestly say I like so far. The cuttings and shapes are beautiful. And the dresses are just gorgeous. It seemed like the collection was an extension to last FW's Russian trend, so I'm not sure if this collection was fashion-foward at all, but at least it was pretty to look at.

Diane von Furstenberg
I really liked last season's collection, but this collection was just blah. I mean, I love the theme of Working Girl, but the clothes reminded me more of starting secretaries of the fifties, from the days when it was just ok for women to work. And is it just me or do the models all look sort of weird, like not as pretty as they usually look in other shows?

Marc Jacobs
On first glance, the collection is seriously unflattering and just ugly. But give it another chance, and you'll find yourself starting to get into the atmsphere. The color palette continues to be neautral, but darker, murky neautrals. Lots of the clothes had the fabric gather into a knot or just seemingly tucked together. Another top trend is the checker patterns -can't say I'm very enthusiastic about this pattern but will wait to see Europe's take on it before I make up my mind. Sometimes it's the way Jacobs layers the garments that make the show interesting.

Oscar de la Renta
Beautiful darling! I can totally picture the rich people of New York walking around in this collection. The daywear looks expensive (which it is of course) and practical. The evening gowns are gorgeous as usual.

Luella Bartley for Target

So the latest designer collection at an affordable price, Luella for Target just came out last week. And compared to this trends predecessors, I don't think it is fairing very well. To begin with of course, Target is very different from H&M. One is a high street trendy fashion chain store and one is well. . Target. Secondly, it always helps that something is "limited edition." which this collection isn't. Lastly, looking at the collection, despite being designed by a designer, it is just not very inspiring. So lets take a look.

Please do not wear this dress out in public. It may look cool right now in this picture, because its been plastered all over the place. But absolutely everyone will know where its from. And isn't the purpose of this collection to look like a million bucks at an affordable price? Also because I simply do not like this dress. It seems like it is trying to be punk and girly at the same time.

This outfit is without a doubt Luella Bartley. The fruity skirt and the printed shirt. But again, if someone wore that on the streets, I would recognize it instantly as Luella for Target, because as we know. And the skirt on its own would just look. . very candy girl cheap. Maybe the shirt though. . .

I don't know what this is. It looks like the mannequin is wearing diapers.

This is by far my one favourite piece, which I think actually achieves the purpose of the collection. Its interesting, wearable, perfect for the coming season AND ony $14.99!

Happy Birthday Harrods Girl!

Happy Birthday Darling!!! Well. . it is actually tomorrow-Feb 5, but the weekend of celebration starts today. How you manage to coordinate your birthdays with fabulous weekends away with friends I'll never know. Last year it was Oxford and this year its partying it up at Cambridge! What next? I'm just sorry I'll be missing out on all the fun-I will be there mentally. . along with these presents:

First, to prepare you for the coming season, I present you with these ss06 staples: an awesome white blouse from Marc by Marc Jacobs-your absolutely favourite.

And this white floral summer dress by Rebecca Taylor.

A big white Miu Miu bag- a favourite of Gemma's.

Fabulous gold Miu Miu sandals.

And classic gold Shaesby gold earrings to match-and your all set!

Every girl should own the famous Nars blush/bronzer duo in orgasm. It is THE color to own.

The new Stila rain and shine eye shadow palette in Rain Showers. I just got it and its awesome because the colors are so nuetral and subtle that you can use it for daily use without going over the top.

The first season of your new favourite tv series- Grey's Anatomy.

Physically speaking, the dvd of The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants is on its way. I feel thats kind of how we are. Maybe we should get a pair of travelling pants too. Oh and it is the widescreen edition too, so it will fit perfectly with the plasma widescreen tv you will have in your future apartment!

Have an amazing birthday!

The Kate Moss SS06 Update

It seems like I blog about Kate Moss almost every month, but it's hard not to. Following her one month drug scandal last year, she's been working harder than anyone remembers and now she's everywhere -and I mean this literally.
On news stands now is Kate on the cover of the March issue of British Vogue. However, this doesn't necessarily mean there are editorials of her inside, (British Vogue has been known to put her on the cover but not in the editorials.) This British Vogue has four new Kate Moss ads in: Longchamp (only Kate can make Longchamps look somewhat fashionable,) Rimmel (the usual,) Roberto Cavalli and Stella McCartney.In terms of photography and airbrushing, this ad is excellent. But in general, I just really don't like it. It's definitely not Moss. Maybe I just don't really feel much for the brand.

I love this Stella McCartney ad. It's artistic and tasteful. You can really feel the Stella vibe from this photos. And it's so cool how the new photos are basically of Kate looking downwards -put into a horizontal way.

On the more paparazzi-ish aspect of Kate news, it's amazing how she can even look stylish going to the police station to get questioned. Picture Kate getting out of her chauffered Mercedes, wearing a silk faille trenchcoat (US$1,595) and crocodile bag (US$6,300), from the Prada resort and spring 2006 collections, respectively. Vogue also guesses that those sunglasses are by Paul Smith. Sigh, if only we can all look like that.

Look out for Kate in the March issue of W:

I am Fashion Featured in About.com

About.com just wrote a lovely little profile about us! Read about the What, Who, Who, Where and more of I am Fashion here: http://fashion.about.com/od/fashionblogs/p/iamfashion.htm

For the curious, there's even a little picture of us! (Like finally, you get to see how we look like!)

Thanks to Casey for interviewing us. Finally one decent writer who didn't twist our words around to suit ones own
purpose.

Have fun reading darlings!

PS. We also want to apologise to anyone who has emailed us recently and not gotten a reply yet. We try our best, but work and life really do pile up, esp during school time!

The State of Fashion Union - Barneys Girl's PoV

What Fashion means to me. . .

Abstractly speaking, fashion is society's constantly changing aesthetics as deemed by fashion mavens and the media. Its interesting how one minute, they look so old fashion that we would never be caught dead in skinny jeans and the next minute, they are so slimming and fabulous that we can't go without it. The power and influence of fashion and the media is truly amazing. And of course, for some, fashion is an art. A medium to express and demonstrate skill and finesse. This is especially true for Mr. Galliano.

But more simply, fashion is something I enjoy observing and being part of.

Why is Fashion important?

The first reason that comes to mind is that it is something that makes me happy that I turn to when life gets too complicated and Plato gets boring (which is about all the time). Plus, looking aesthetically pleasing gives one an incredible boost of confidence. Most of all, fashion is a way of life. As Harrods Girl said, the Prada and Chloe way of life definitely gives one something to work for-especially when you are wondering why you are spending hours and hours of your life doing economics homework that is clearly impossible to do. And of course, there is all the other social and economic reasons as well. But that is a story for class.

The bottom line:

Just enjoy fashion for the sake of fashion.

Ps. Just wanted to thanks the darlings at Fashion Tribe and Julie at Almost Girl for hosting such an awesome carnivale.

Screen Actors Guild Awards 2006 Fashion

So many awards all at once. All the dresses are starting to overwhelm me! I wasn't going to write about the fashion from the Screen Actors Guild Awards since I just wrote about the Golden Globes last week, but there were a few dresses I loved so much I can't possibly not ooh and ahh over here.

I LOVE love love this dress!! Ziyi Zhang looks absolutely amazing and just so so pretty! Another excellent fashion choice.

Hmm, I'm not so sure this YSL dress suits Reese Witherspoon really well, but she looks mega adorbale. Her smile is seriously the only genuine-looking one out of all the red carpet stars. But then again, she is the one who won the Best Actress Award and has a cute husband.

This is another dress I like. It's so simple, but the cutting is gorgeous. And as usual, Hilary Swank fits well in it, (although maybe she should cut out too much arm toning exercises.)

Sandra Oh... I love her as an actress. If any of you have watched her in Grey's Anatomy, then you'll know she's an amazing actress. This Versace dress looks really unique and suprisingly not slutty-looking! Sandra pulls it off well. And she must have got instructions how to pose because these photos are way better than the Golden Globes' ones!

Speaking of Sandra Oh, we must take a look at Ellen Pompeo. Her dress is well, sort of boring but the color suits her.

And finally, we have the cast of Desperate Housewives:

Aww... so sweet. Doesn't Andrea Bowen remind you of prom?

Teri Hatcher looks great in that dress. The shape of the dress is so interesting and definitely not everyone can pull it off.

Individually speaking, Felicity Huffman's Nicole Miller dress is sort of boring; Eva Longoria's dress color is NOT her best color; Marcia Cross looks gorgeous as usual; and Nicollette Sheridan's horrific green totally clashes with her blonde. And finally for once, their colors don't match -their stylists must have forgot to consult each other!