Fashion Blog

I always admired this beautiful and clever woman with a degree in Political Sciences who had managed to turn her grandfather’s little business into a huge multi-million corporation. This woman is Miuccia Prada.

She is clever enough to separate politics from fashion and clever enough to combine them when needed. She is a sort of woman who can rule the world not directly but in her own wise way.

Miuccia once said:

“Fashion is an important part of a woman’s life. It’s a question of aesthetics and that is in no way stupid or superficial.”

This is the point. About women, fashion and how they do communicate. Fashion is clever, that’s why women reflect to it.

D.K.

This video presents Marc Jacobs’s and Louis Vuitton company’s vision on what Louis Vuitton Spring-Summer 2010 AD campaign is. What emotions and attitude to things lies in there, what Marc wanted this whole imagine to be.

The thing is that I don’t know so many people who were impressed by this supposedly glamorous campaign. Many people really think that grass and doves remind of garbage and the the whole view is a bit dirty, so it doesn’t actually say about fresh, young things right a way. I like Lara Stone though, she is stunning and she by herself in front of the white wall would sell clothes, so who cares about the place where she lies.

The campaign may be not so fabulous as Louis Vuitton company together with Steven Meisel think, but it takes a lot to make such a campaign. I do realize that a huge job has been done by many professionals to create those images. I do respect Path and Marc and Steven because these guys really stand out from the fashion crowd. But as much as I do respect them I do want to see something amazing from LV, especially when I think about their Core Values campaigns.

D.K.

Today early morning I ran into an article “Why do I hate fashion” by Tanya Gold in Guardian. To clear everything up from the beginning – this woman is one to hate fashion, I’m not. I love fashion and I can separate commercials and business from art which is obviously a huge part of fashion that makes it incredible all in all.

Going through her memories and different situations Tanya Gold makes just awfully unlogical conclusions, so narrow-minded. First of all she points out that there were one 16-year old woman who had fallen between two carriages in West Sussex because of her high-heeled shoes. Point taken – high-heeled shoes are bad. Are they? What about the statement that the night was icy? What about this girl could fall wearing flats as well? What about if one has to die there is no way to blame the SHOE? I suppose grownup person has to have some logic. How much did this 16-year old girl pay for her shoes? – Tanya Gold asks. Come on, some hundred pounds, but not her life, definately. One falls between the carriages not because of the shoes but because of ones fate and circumstances working on it all together.

The other thing is that Tanya Gold probably was never, ever fashionable enough to realize the real value of fashion. Once changing her look for better she started to enjoy, but later than her look has changed for worse she started to laugh at runway shows because she can’t wear anything from the runway. I can be too snobby here, but why does famous designer has to care about you being fat, while making his collection of inspirational looks? Do you want to wear it? Than get thin. If you can’t than just don’t blame fashion for that.

A big part of my text is written under the emotion being terrified by people who just don’t get the world of fashion, who never contributes to it – their blaming articles don’t count, but it still has some point, at least to those who love fashion as much as I do. How someone can say that high-heeled shoes are bad? I’m wearing them the whole time and I’m comfortable in them, and many women are. Of course not every woman has the right feet for the shoe, but at the same time that’s also her problem because such as Sergio Rossi does shoes for all types of legs, they’re universal in a way.

To blame shoes and fashion for one’s death or weight or whatever one has to be a total psycho. I’m not saying that Tanya is, but I’m certain that she is not a person from a fashion pool, than why she hast to blame it. She reminds me of those american girls who eat lots of sandwiches during the day and in the evening cry over Vogue that there is nothing for them in there. Maybe it’s not Vogue, may be it’s you, who has to be blamed for being out of fashion standards?

The one to hate fashion is the one without any sense of it and the one non-existent for me. Sorry, Tanya. I still will be reading Guadian, but not your column.

You can understand fashion or not, but you can’t blame fashion for you being oversized! At the beginning of The September Issue Anna Wintour (one highly appreciated women in fashion world, I hope you know that, Mrs. Gold) says that some people mock fashion because they’re intimidated by it. Anna Wintour is absolutely right in that. For one more reason I do respect the woman who makes one of the greatest magazines about fashion in the world, which Tanya Gold unfortunately torns into pieces.

D.K.

Turns out Versace is going to launch its mobile phone on the basis of ModeLabs – a French company which produces phones for Dior and Tag Heuer. Point taken – Versace wants to broaden its product range to almost everything that can be considered as luxury or fashion.

But here comes the disappointment. None of the phones produced by fashion houses together with mobile manufacturers can be considered as luxury or fashion. There’s just a brand name working out for these phones. Ok, let’s be honest, some of the such-named fashion phones have pretty designs but technically they are some years far from what is considered a modern phone nowadays. So why to produce an oldie one? And speaking about design I do remember Nokia 7270 phone in official Versace design which was a bit too much of Versace. Golden prints and medouse.. Who needs this on the phone?!

If fashion phone is technically approved it looks awful, simple awful, as last Giorgio Armani phone. To make money  is the only reason why those phones are produced. But may be at the point when fashion houses decide that they need to launch a mobile phone they need to have sort of respect and thinking about their permanent customer? Does Mr. Giorgio Armani really believes that the one who purchases his dresses and bags will want that phone? Do Dolce&Gabbana think that if I do have plenty of their really gorgeous clothes I will buy this silly Jalou phone? Am I supposed to be a 5 year old mentally? I don’t think so.

So, hopefully Versace phone will be a whole different story, but I have my doubts there. Fingers crossed.

D.K.

There’s been a while since my previous post here and there’s been a lot happening in fashion during my long winter holidays. SJP for Halston, new Spring-Summer AD campaigns, creative directors changing in some of the brands, Jimmy Choo collaboration with UGG Australia have been all talked about, so I decided to focus in this post on one collaboration which seems a bit of a fresh air, but at the same time takes a bit of the concern.

For quite a long time there were rumors about Emma Watson creating her own clothing line under creative control by Karl Lagerfeld. Now rumors are blown and everybody is aware that Emma actually has collaborated with the british brand People Tree, definately without Lagerfeld’s hand.

Emma worked with PT’s CEO Safia Minney  and design team to create capsule lifestyle collection. As the result there is a beautiful range of jersey t-shirts, dresses, woven skirts, trousers, shorts and knitwear for both men and women. The ecological issue together with the poverty issue make all the campaign and collaboration important in a way. The collection is totally created from organic cotton and wool by Fair Trade groups by hand, using hand weaving, hand knitting and hand embroidery to create livelihoods for some of the most disadvantaged people in India, Bangladesh and Nepal.

While journalist writing for site of Vogue Russia have their doubts why did Emma Watson decide to take her part in People Tree collection while she said earlier last year that she was not interested in designing her clothing line, there is an accurate explanation for this such as poverty issue and connection of fashion and social working. If fashion can help poor people than certainly other industries can make it too, here I do agree with Emma.

But here is the concern part. Whether Emma is going to be one of celebrities who make one appearance as a creative someone and than just forget about it, making it clear for themselves that they are not that creative, or she takes it seriously as her other beginnings in life such as Brown and we will see many outstanding and helpfull (which is sometimes more imposrtant) creations some time?

I have my hopes with her.

D.K.

Fashion is one of the largest businesses in the world. More people are involved in the buying, selling and production of clothing than any other business in the world, including people working in fashion magazines, department stores, clothes production factories and so on. It seems that fashion industry has everything it needs. Maybe fashion industry does have everything, but people don’t. People don’t have a day to celebrate.

Searching and googling I realized that there is a day of shoemakers and even a day of graphic deigners but there is no a tailor day or a day of fashion at all. So, a Fashion Day has to be created. There is only one question what date have we to choose? According to simple logic it has to be a date when something important in fashion has happened. In fact all important events in fashion date only to a year but not the exact day. We could probably choose one of the greatest designers and make his birth date the day of fashion, but it would be unfair to others who were great designers aa well.

So it seems fair that everybody will propose their dates for the day of fashion and then we will choose one. The ideas for logo will be appreciated as well.

I’ve posted the same thing at my russian blog, twitter and facebook page, so you can join the idea at any place. It will be great if editors, designers and other people from fashion industry will appreciate the idea and join the movement.

If you’ve found it interesting, please repost it in your blogs. All your ideas please send to daria@lamodetribune.com

We’ve erarned the right for such a day!

D.K.

No matter how far one fashionista is concerned with modern politics her wardrobe however is always politically fashionable. As Anna Wintour said, looking at runway models you can always understand what is happening in the world. And that is true.

So, Kali Arulprgasam’s Super Fertile Cra$h Spring-Summer 2010 collection doesn’t surprise. It is inspired by financial crisis. Is it? I thought it is inspired by the US military politics. Nevermind. We have to listen to the designer.

One walking be the Printemps department store in Paris will be admired by Chanel dolls installed at the displays. Lovely dolls were inspired by Chanel Paris-Moscou collection and really represent the russian spirit.

Princess Nadejda and Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich – the two marionettes are wearing miniature pieces frm Paris-Moscou collection.

The installation is continued by hand-painted matryoshka dolls, 5 meters tall each.

To see matryoshkas by Chanel is a very exclusive opportunity and it happends once in a lifetime. I like them so much!

D.K.

Merry Christmas and everything fashionable to all of you!

Scandinavian artists have always had a special view which defined them as totally different from anyone else in art and fashion world. Being totally different they put their accents on some other things that are not always mentioned by other European designers. This time I got impressed with designs of Swedish designer and artist Emma Lundgren whose works show a new angle on theme of folklore.

As Emma says she has created a hand-crafted folklore collection for the future, by combining time-honoured Swedish tradition, with contemporary East London flavour. You can clearly see Lego motifs as one of major swedish inventions of all times. Emma redesigns them by mixing old wall hangings and tablecloths with shiny plastic materials, strong colours and oversized accessories, so the feeling of past and future works together. She calls it a new generation fashion puzzle. I suppose it really is.

I had no opportunity to touch those creations but I think that if they are comfortable and soft I’d like to own of those. Way to colour! And nobody is bored with 21st century fashion.

photos DazedDigital

Earlier this day I was going through AD campaigns SS 2010 season. Once again I caught myself staring at Gucci AD with Natasha Poly as I did a week before with their Cruise 2010 campaign also with Natasha Poly.

There is nothing wrong about Natasha, she’s stunning and Gucci made a perfect step forward making her the face of their ADs. Concerning the fact that she is one of top 10 models today (if not include iconic models such as Naomi), Gucci had the right pick.

Why was I staring at campaigns? It is only because of retouching with all my respect to such great people as Pascal Dangin (I actually doubt that he did this) Gucci SS 2010 AD is a retouching disaster. When almost the whole fashion world has finally realised the value of a real perfectly shot photo Gucci has decided to retouch a bit. A bit too much I would say. Fake sky and the sea, and even the water at the pool and Natsha with a polished skin.

When most of modern photographers prefer to make their shooting naturally and in some cases on films instead of digital cameras Mert Atlas & Marcus Pigott probably are not following photo classics. It seems that photos were made paused and with some unnecessary filters.

It’s all like too perfect too bad. Too much of retoucheee, Gucci!

I doubt that if the founder of the world most popular fashion house was still living he was impressed by what his successors are doing. Countless collaborations with Murakami, Marc Jacobs who is definately becoming way to crazy and some other stuff that just pieces off. Of course, when we speak about fashion markets we can’t count on Asia, but look at other brands such as Chanel, which makes its Asian invasion wisely and without pushing. Plush toys and ridiculous paintings! Come on, even the Japanese don’t need that anymore. What all fashionable people do really need is a sophistication and a notice of even little beauty in what famous brands are doing today.

Why do I need to even talk about such unprecious things? Well, I saw a picture today, that just showed me once again how far does LV with all its crazy collaborations go. May be at some point they really do need to stop and continue making their classy things as travel tranks.

You really need to be stupid enough to sleep in such a bedroom. But if it was made even for an exhibition they might think that there are such people who’d like to have such a bedroom. Oh, what am I thinking about? Of course there are such people! And that’s a pitty not even for modern fashion, but for a modern society.

Oh, that is so cute! This AD is funny and nice. You do already want such a helmet, don’t you?

The helmet company is joining forces with the Karl Lagerfeld brand to inaugurate its “Multiples” collectors helmets in editions of 12. The coming together of Les Ateliers Ruby founder Jerome Coste and Karl Lagerfeld led to the creation of the motorcycle helmets featured in the Karl Lagerfeld Autumn/Winter 2009-10 Collection.

Remember the show? It was great and futuristic. Karl always thinks about the future, but never about the past.

When Katie Grand started to make the new magazine with a sensed name LOVE under patronage of Conde Nast everybody has already known that this magazine is going to be provocative, fresh new and very stylish. As the first issue of LOVE with naked Beth Ditto on the cover popped out almost everyone was shocked. Being a perfect stylist and trendhunter, I would say, Katie Grand knew exactly what public needs – some disproportional person on the cover to catch their eye. By disproportional I only mean Beth’s outstanding personality and her screaming music, that obviously not everyone will love to listen. But as we speak about LOVE’s love – Beth is one of the top beloved.

When the second issue covered with 13 years old blogger Tavi has appeared in the stores it was impressive, it was fashionable according to the last time attention to Tavi, but it was a bit weird to see on Katie’s cover someone who has already appeared on Dasha Zhukova’s POP magazine cover, the exact magazine Katie was editing before LOVE.

At some point it semed that Katie was just joking trying to make her first two issues as imressive as she could, but when the third issue with naked Lara Stone on the cover has appeared there were no doubt left that she wasn’t joking, she wasn’t even a bit of joking. She was that damn serious to shake the whole industry. She actually did.

LOVE is one of the most prominent magazines that Conde Nast publishes, oh, not just Conde Nast. It is one of the most prominent magazines in general. Speaking of creativity, I suppose that Grand will never rich that point when she can actually stop.

While she’s not stopping, I’m enjoying the whole beauty of LOVE.

Sometines I can’t think of something more feminine and sophisticated than bows. When I do think about bows in fashion first of all I see Chanel’s spring-summer 2008 show with a huge black bow on the runway. It was stunning, it was like a miracle and staying one of my favorites shows ever it makes its point in love for bows.

Flowing or hardly fixed they look gorgeous. You can put them the way you like and make a belt or a pin, put a really big one on your dress or hide it by transforming one of the parts into the dress as it has been made at Moschino and Lanvin shows.

If you think about it deeply you’ll realize that a bow was never out of fashion. At some point there were obviously too much of a bow, that some women looked ridiculous in outfits covered with huge and tiny bows. Still they remain fashionable and even this season with its big-shoulder jackets, platform heels and lots of leather clothes.

You can find bows in D&G, Louis Vuitton, Lanvin, Moschino, Moschino Cheadp&Chic, Chanel and some other designers’ collections.