Milan Fall / Winter 2006 Wrapup I

Ooooh, this is so exciting! It's Milan Fashion Week, which has always been my favourite fashion week. And finally, there is more Gemma modelling.

Jil Sander

In case you haven't heard the news, Jil Sander is back -that is the true Jil Sander, the brand of pure minimalism and famous for its trousers and jackets. The new long anticipated designer Raf Simons managed to impress the fashion crowd with his debut collection of womenswear, and that is no easy task. Throughout the collection, Raf Simons' training in menswear is obvious. Many of the outfits, especially the black and white ones were very basic 'Jil Sander', but there were a few outfits that were more than meets the eye. Take the dresses as examples: From the front they were basic, flowing dresses, but the backs were cut low in an elegant way. Anyways, every single piece of this collection was monotonous with tailoring as the key focus. And to complete the minimalism look, makeup was barely traceable on the models' faces.

D&G

The theme of the D&G collection is one of the most obvious: this winter, the D&G girl is a snow-girl. This entails dressing in ALL white, from the top (wool, blob-looking hats,) right down to the toes (chunky boots.) There are many different variations of the snow-girl: There is the cute, pixie one; the womanly one; the sporty one; and of course, the sexy and somewhat slutty-looking one. There are a lot of great individual chunky knits and corcheted pieces. I esp loved the skirts and dresses. Socks and stockings continue to play a major role in the world of D&G. Overall, I thought this was an impractical but seriously cute cute cute collection. The only problem were those hideous, chunky moon boots, which were seen in made of fur and ugly pom-poms.

Gemma Ward sporting the chic Santa elf look -so adorable!

Giorgio Armani

This was quite an umm, unexpectedly colorful and embellished Armani collection. The theme looks to be the 40s, with key words being glamorously sleek, pencil skirts, hints of retro and many many dresses. Speaking of dresses, there are too many drool-worthy ones to mention so you must go to style.com to check them out yourselves. The dresses and other outfits I have chosen are only my absolute favourite ones.

Now there is no doubt that every piece in the collection is beautifully cut and perfect for the sophisticated woman. But the collection is not what I would have expected from Armani -where are the pantsuits, and strict colors? How are the amazing Armani-clad businesswomen expected to work through winter in only pencil skirts? And why oh why does this collection remind me a bit of the Christian Dior style?

London Fall / Winter 2006 Wrapup II

I've never really been much of a fan of London fashion because it is always very over the top crazy i.e compare project catwalk with project runway. But the one thing I can say about London fashion is that they are always innovative and never boring. Here's a few collections that caught my eye.

Aquascutum
I've never really expected that much from this brand, but I'm surprised. Pleasantly so. The collection was simple and tasteful with just the right amount of creativity. The main focus was those darling coats! Classically styled to flattered and yet never boring. The addition of the floral belt adds to the feminine quality of the coat. And the empire dress styled coat with the thin see-through (is it chiffon?) material is just genius if not the most practical against the weathers. But the last dress just looks kind of uncomfortable tight on the bust area. . .

Emma Cook

I simply adore the Emma Cook show. It was the definition of casual chic. And I think the rest is pretty self explanatory.. .

Giles Deacon

I have no idea who this designer is, but his innovative pieces just caught my attention. I adore the first picture, where the dull black slouchy outfit is brought to life with the simple addition of wool turtleneck and sleeves. And the second outfit is just sooo indescribibly cool. Although these first two outfits have been selectively picked out by me to reflect my subtle sense of style, the majority of the collection was actually really over the top-like the last picture shown with that piece of abstract metal work of art (i'm sure) on her head.

Manish Arora

Randomly skimming through the list of London Fashion week shows, I landed on the Manish Arora show as the vibrant colors, prints and rich materials popped out at me. At a glance, you would think that everything is way too out there and crazy. Bit on closer examination, the individual pieces are extremely wearable and gorgeous. The blue striped sweater for example, for once the heart prints do not look stupid. Love the second oufit. And the third is ready for the london streets!

Carnivale of the Couture VII Round One

Thanks to everyone who sent in their posts. People sure have been really enthusiastic about spending $10m!

Our question: "Surprise darling! You have just won the lottery! How will you, the super fabulous fashionable blogger, spend your US$10m winnings? Tell us all about your money-spending plan!"

Your answers:
The fabulous Susanna at The Bling Blog has a brilliant plan to spend the her money, and points out that after tax, we only have $6.5m left to spend!
Fellow student, Pink Mirage will be spending her money smartly, such as donating to charities and paying off her school tuitions.
The ever astute editor Lesley at Fashion Tribes has a detailed financial plan for her $10m, including using $1m to expand Fashiontribes.com.
Brillian makeup artist/ shopper Kim at I am Pretty NYC would spend $200,000 of the money alone on beauty products!
The creater of transparent shoeboxes, the Shoe Lover is going to put the 10 million to good use saving the world.
Super lawyer Susan at Counterfeit Chic plans to donate her money to the charity, Dress for Success. Such a lovely, charitable woman!
The fantastic Erin at A Dress A Day will start her own couture studio and make lots of dresses.
Designer Ella at Kiss Me Stace has a detailed plan for her lottery money, including buying many many bags.
Fashion student, Danielle at Final Fashion will hire professionals to manage her new overwhelming wealth.
The Fashionable Kiffen will generously treat her family to a shopping spree to end all sprees in oh-so-chic City of Light.
We were just in time to give S at Style Tribe a birthday fantasy. Hope she had fun with it.
San Francisco-based fashion designer, Verbal Croquis will not suprisingly start her own fashion line.
Maureen at Blog or Not will be buying and invest in making many well-tailored professional suits for women.
Canadian fashion blogista Isabel at Hipster Musings will convert her money into Candian dollars and spend it on her mum and clothes.

We would love to know how YOU (other bloggers and our readers,) would spend the $10m too. Bloggers, do continue to email us the links to your posts. The deadline is this Fri, and come back on Sat to check out Round Two! If you're our reader, we would still love to know what you would do with your lottery money -just comment! As a little reminder, you can read the brief in detail here.

Some Like it Haute

After a long day, one of my favourite things to do is to sit back and relax with a nice chick lit, becuase it is always light, fun and you are guaranteed a happy ending. Who needs more tragedy and deep thought when you can get all that on the news? Anyways, my latest read is Some Like it Haute by our fellow blogista, Julie K L Dam.

Frankly, I was expecting just another chick lit, cause face it, the recent offerings of chick lits have not been all that fascinating. But I was delightfully surprised. I found that I really loved and connected with Alex, the protagonist of the story, who very aptly described herself as "smart and shallow." She gives the life as a fashionista going from show to show, party to party from the perspective of an insider. I loved how she used intellectual metaphors to describe sacred fashionista experiences, comparing stepping into the house of Chanel with 'pilgrims to the Holy Land,' (ok so this might not be the best one-but it was the one that stuck with me after reading it). Ooo and I totally connected when she said that she had 'faith in Chanel to survive the number of years that it would take' her to get a grandaughter. My sentiments exactly!

And of course there is the romance. Nick is just perfect. And I thought that the 'thing' that keeps them apart (as all romances tend to have before the happy ending) was very innovative, modern and witty. The secondary characters were delightful. I ADORE the secondary characters: her mother, Lola her Dior publicist friend (O if only we can all come into close contact with the Dior Haute Couture collection) and her french teacher Jacques. Also the huge list of brand named cosmetics and desginers mentioned can make any fashionista drool!

Basically its just a wonderfully witty book written in the voice of a fashionista that we can actually connect with. Definitely a must read. You can get a copy from amazon starting February 22!

London Fall / Winter 2006 Wrapup I

It's not until I saw the London collections that I am reminded fashion is just as much of an art form as a business. Indeed, London shows are marked by their creative crafts, although some of them are somewhat impractical, (which could explain why the most brands don't grow huge.) But still, it's always inspiring to look at these shows:

Julien MacDonald
Everyone who is in anyway in touch with the fashion and gossip world will know of Peta dumping flour all over Paris Hilton and Julien MacDonald before even looking at the show's photos. So not suprisingly, there were a lot of serious fur on MacDonald's catwalk. Regardless, the show was one of London's bests, and one of the few glamourous English collections. A lot of wearable and gorgeous coats and dresses -all worn in a fabulous, sexy but typically British-imperfect way (as opposed to New York's perfectionist fits). I am no fan of Paris, but it is her who really made MacDonald's dresses come to life -a rare plus for Paris these days.

Preen
Ever since noticing them in the SS06 shows, I have been hooked. In my mind, Preen is sophisticatedly carefree, which may seem impossible but Preen has managed to once again awe it's audiences. All the outfits were monocolored. The color palette was very logical: progressing from white, silver to grey, a sudden splash of red, then to dark grey and black. The design? Preen used a lot of constrast of shapes, such as strict geometric shapes on top and softer bubbly shapes at the bottom. In the end, it's those two words again, sophisticatedly carefree. It's what the cool waif girls would throw on effortlessly but still look amazing.

Issa
On first glance, Issa is frankly a bit overwhelming, visually speaking. In the past, I would have brushed Issa as another one of those overly impractical British brands, but after seeing Issa dresses on the racks in Selfridges I was proved wrong. The key is to learn to look past all the fur and decorations on the models and concentrate on the dresses alone. Look carefully and you'll see a hint of Diane von Furstenburg here (great wrap dresses), and Cacheral there (African theme). The dresses are all fantasically colorful and the prints are made to flatter the blody. All in all, Issa pieces are unique and def worth the second glance.

Paul Smith Women
Named 'Men Only', the show was true to it's theme. There were a lot of gentlemen-looking outfits, in ladies' sizes of course. There was the occasional skirts and dresses, esp towards the end of the show, but this show was all about the stylish, smart (as exemplified by the glasses) woman. And while all this looked terrifically cool on the models on the catwalk, it is near impossible for normal women like us to wear this and not look sloppy.

A New Way to Layering

A variety of corsets filled high street stores before the Dior SS06 collection even hit the Dior boutiques, (for the non-British, high street stores refer to the cheaper brands.) So by now, all fashion-foward girls should own at least one. Now before any not-so-up-to-date readers say 'omg, corsets are so slutty', let me clarify that in 2005/06 there has been a lot of casual and tasteful corsets around, even in high street shops such as H&M, Oasis and Top Shop.

So while it was stylish to wear corsets as simply corsets alone at parties and evening events, it would be so much more fun, (not to mention economical) to be able to also wear them during daytime. So how to wear corsets during daytime and not look like a well, you know. The solution is to wear them over T-shirts!

I've heard quite a few of my friends say, errr that's a weird fashion trend. And it is a bit untraditional, but seriously, it's sooo cute and chic! The UK people have already started wearing it last summer, but this trend just started spreading over the US when Miu Miu showed it on the catwalk. Check out the Feb 06 issue of Teen Vogue for ideas (see above picture of Gemma Ward.) Get more ideas from SS06 Miu Miu:Wearing corsets, or camisoles over T-shirts can be a tricky business, here are some tips:

• T-shirt should be plain colored. Simplicity is the key.
• T-shirt should have a round neck. No V-necks allowed!
• The camisoles on top should be tight around the chest to give your outfit a more defined shape.

Simple Tee (Top Shop)...

...And possible camisoles/ corsets to go with it:

Top Shop

Forever 21

Bebe

Marc by Marc Jacobs

Marc by Marc Jacobs

Urban Outfitters. As seen from the left girl, it is possible to wear a tank top underneath instead of a Tee.

One last little note: For night, go for more neautral combination of colors. But for daytime, go for lots of colors this spring/ summer!

Carnivale of the Couture VII Topic

It is finally our turn here at I am Fashion this week starting tomorrow, to host the ever so fantastic Carnivale of the Couture. We are SO excited and honored. After much thought, we came up with the following if-only-it-were-true scenario:

Suprise darling! You have just won the lottery! How will you, the super fabulous fashionable blogger, spend your US$10m winnings? Tell us all about your money-spending plan!!

We can't wait to hear all your responds! After posting your plan, let us know by emailing us the link to that post so we can add you to the list of 'How millionaires spend their money'. And don't forget to link back to site of the carnivale. Ready, set, SPEND!