New York Fall / Winter 2006 Wrapup IV

So I've been avoiding fashion week. As much as I love it, after all the work spent last season on fashion week, I'd developed a sort of phobia towards it. So from now on, as hard as it is going to be choosing just a few collections and a few pieces to showcase, I am going to be selective. So I'm just going to skip those that are not worth mentioning or just not interesting. Plus, I'm just super tired from my first ever ski trip today. My muscles are hurting (they don't get used very often) and my bottom hurts. But def a lot of fun.

Karl Lagerfeld
I was surprised at first seeing it on the NY runway, because I could have sworn that last season it was on the Paris one! I nearly thought I was going out of my mind until Harrods Girl assured me that I wasn't and that it was only on the NY runway this season because some American company bought it. I'm babbling. Anyway, the Lagerfeld runway was very. . black. Luckily that was the only bit that resembles dear Karl (remember last season with the white shirts and all?) The collection was bold and strong-as you can see in the structured coat and the bold black and white dress- but offset with a hint of girliness with floral patterns, soft flowy materials.

Temperley

I adore Temperley. Everything is just always so pretty! The intricate embroidery on each outfit is exquisite and the dresses are of course-oh so ladylike. I love the white dress with black details because it looks so bold, fun and flirty. The second dress is just classic. And the last two, too gorgeous for words.

Matthew Williamson

Finally, some COLOR! As easy as it will be dealing with the monotonic nuetral color palette of the coming seasons, it is GOOD to see some color. I love how he blended the preppy with glam, as evident in the first 2 photos, pairing the preppy (delightfully striped) v necked sweater and tweed jacket with glamorous shimmery skirts. That cutely collared tweed jacket was also presented in many variations, from long, short to yellow bow. The dresses were just darling. Worn on top of long sleeved shirts, we will definitely not get a chill come fall 06.

Ralph Lauren

If you've been reading this blog, you know I LOVE Ralph Lauren. But this time, I seriously LOVE LOVE LOVE it. I have no idea what private hunting involves, but it definitely works. The signature RL olive green ruled the runway- as you can see on the shawl/cape in the first picture. Imagine, the cape can just cover your whole outfit-worn with narrow pants and you are ready to go! Plaid prints were prominently used from daywear to evening wear- which is good to know since I recently purchased a very cute plaid grey/pink blazer. I love how they put the big hat on her to make the dress more hunting-like. Again, love the glam factor. The shimmery gold skirts spicing up the plain olive outfit and the absolutely heavenly gold dress.

New York Fall / Winter 2006 Wrapup III

The NY shows are almost over! To be honest, I'm quite glad because I always thought European shows were more interesting. But anyways, trends are starting to emerge more obviously now. The color palettes are in the region of black, grey, white and navy, with a hint of dark purple and red. And yes, lots of interesting shapes.

Vera Wang
There werw a lot of wearable serpeate pieces, and a lot of pieces tightened around the waist area. Most of the collection was pretty, but I didn't like the cutting of some of them. Overall it wasn't a very remarkable NY collection. Though one thing about Vera Wang you can always depend on is that the dresses are guarenteed to be gorgeous.

Anna Sui
Even though Sui's palette was also pretty much in that black and navy region, her collection was still one of the most colorful so far. There are hints of SS06 Marc Jacobs and Balenciaga in the marching band-looking parts of the collection, and hints of SS06 Miu Miu in the white shift parts. Despite all these similarities, I suprisingly liked this collection, (I'm usually not all too enthusiastic about Sui's shows). For once, Sui's collection manages to look colorful and girly without sickenly sweet and flowery. I loooved the way Sui incorporated gold into some of the pieces at the beginning of the collection, and especially loved these ones:

Calvin Klein
The thing I really like about this collection is that the clothes actually have a very united theme. Costa used a lot of that arrow-like pattern, (don't know how to describe this but check out the first photo below.) Also, he used lots of chiffon for the dresses. The collection was Calvin Klein-y simple, down to earth, but still relatively more 'complicated' than previous collections.

Proenza Schouler
Some very cute pieces, but the whole collection wasn't all too special. I do love the outfits below though. They used a lot of thick lines to accentuate designs and some were done quite well, (see second picture below.) And again, there was an emphasis of cinching the waist in a structured manner. After looking through the whole collection, I still can't tell what age range the duo are designing for, oh well.

Grammys Award 2006 Fashion

Admittedly, the Grammys have never exactly been the most fashionable and glam event of the year, but this year I must say, I'm impressed. Especially when compared to last year. Most of the stars played it safe with classic one piece dresses-which was really quite boring, but a few did make an effort to be creative and the result was stunning.

My favourite outfits were from Beyonce and Alicia Keys. Both were very slinky and glam, but I think I'm going to hand the prize of best dressed to Alicia Keys in her Armani Prive dress, because she made the most improvement since last year.

And then there are Teri Hatcher and Christina Milian. The headlines have all admired Teri Hatcher's Jean Paul Gaultier dress as the best one in the whole show, but I beg to differ. Its nice, but its not that irresistible. And I just find Christina's Max Azria Atelier dress very interesting. Its a thin line between looking skanky or sexy, but I think she has managed to look elegant here.

I also thought that Kelly Clarkson's Max Azria Atelier (wow they must be sponsoring a LOT of starlets this event) black dress was quite flattering. Different from the usual punk rock star image I somehow see her in. And Eva carried this blue dress well-it can potentially be a fashion disaster.

Next season's white also seemed to be a very popular color, as seen on Mary J Blige and Ciara in her Alberta Ferretti dress. Mary looks like she's playing tennis the glam way. But Ciara looks godess like.

For all those pregnant celebs out there, it is definitely a good thing that the empire waist has been so popular recently, because they are so completely flattering on pregnant women. They barely look like they're pregnant. This is very well demonstrated by Gwen here. I'm not that much a fan of this leopard printed dress, but it is very Gwen.

I have no idea what Madonna is trying to achieve here. And from the looks of her expression, she doesn't know either.

New York Fall / Winter 2006 Wrapup II

Second wrapup and my feeling towards the collections so far still hasn't changed for the better. I mean, a few individual collections are cute, but the collections in general seem a bit direction-less to me. In model news, after missing last season's shows, Daria has been making a special effort to walk as many catwalks as she can. And I must complain, Gemma on the other hand hasn't appeared in enough shows. Last year's new comers, Russian heroin-chick Sasha Pivovarova and Russian sweetheart Vlada Roslyakova are making serious presence at the shows.

Marc by Marc Jacobs
This is one of the small number of shows that I really look foward to each season. For this show, Marc continues the dark, gloomy feel with black, navy and gray. I liked some bits of the collection but didn't like the bits where the clothes were so-ninties. A less dramatic version (as compared to the Jacobs line) of the urchin hats were sported also. But similar to what I said yesterday, its the fun, girly and casual way Marc mixes the garments together that make his clothes all in all so fantastic.

Narciso Rodriguez
An absolutely brilliant black and white collection. It's so mind-stimulating the way Rodriguez used black and white in the collection -he managed to incoporate stiff geometic designs into figure-hugging, tulip style dresses/ skirts. So smart and tasteful looking! Oh, and I especially love the first outfit shown below:

Thakoon
Cute and Parisian chic are I think, good words to describe the collection. The clothes are sophisticated and age-flexible: some outfits are totally school-girlish, and others for the more mature customers. All in all, great collection for Thakoon's second try on the catwalk.