Tomorrow Alexander Wang x H&M, the 10th H&M designer collaboration, is going to hit the H&M online store as well as selected retail stores in an annual event of queueing and website crashes. I already gave my opinion on the topic about a year ago but after a fierce discussion with some friends over lunch today I want to go a little further into details.
Rhianna wearing an Alexander Wang x H&M cropped top leggins combo in the street, pic elleuk.com
… H&M celebrates the launch of its designer collaboration – this season Alexander Wang H&M. Its 10th anniversary right now, which is celebrated with the release of a nice coffee table book. In a post around a year ago at the time Isabel Marant pour H&M hit stores I already stated my concerns about the way these high street x high end collaborations are blurring the lines and somehow further contribute to luxury loosing its luster!!!
H&M designer collaborations 10 years anniversary book, pic vogue.fr
Strolling through Frieze Sculpture Park on a sunny Wednesday morning with two bored children on hand there was nothing around that seemed to make the hours until opening of the fair shorter. But at a time I had almost given up there it was. A giant wooden Pinocchio, Mickey Mouse or Simpsonesque clown? Whatever it was my children were immediately delighted. While they started exploring the, OK lets call its sculpture, I somehow couldn’t help but wonder. I would consider myself as a person with quite some interest in contemporary art, but I would really have allocated this piece more to a theme park than a contemporary art fair.
KAWS “Small lie”, (2013) at Frieze Sculpture Park, London Oct 2014
Besides handbags, shoes are without doubt almost every woman’s favorite fashion purchase. This doesn’t come without some good reasons. No matter which shape you are – a shoe shopping never disappoints as they always fit irrespective of your waist and hip measurements. More than bags shoes are a key factor to pull an outfit together. A great shoe can spice up an otherwise boring look in the same way an unflattering shoe ruins a great outfit! And surely it doesn’t hurt that much to purchase a shoe as it does to invest in a great handbag. That said let’s sum up what to keep in mind while shoe shopping this fall season!
shoe sketch from http://www.piecesoflisi.com/2010/06/manolo-blahnik-his-sketches-initiated.html
Yes its already some time ago that the “Boulevard Chanel” show with a feminist riot theme hit the Grand Palais in Paris (for all, who haven’t yet seen the show video its online here!). Thinking about the bags, the shoes, the accessories, jackets and even the makeup and nail polish there was really a lot going on on the runway. I can’t even remember one Chanel show that showed as many different styles as this one did! While Chanel previously used to be heavily focused on bags, jackets, pearl jewelry and to some extend shoes there was something within that show that suggested to me that the brand starts to broaden its spectrum …
With Gisele Buendchen on the Chanel runway in a knitwear ensemble it really seems like the brand wants to focus on this part of its portfolio, pics style.com
Oh yes I know I am really late to finish my fall trend coverage. Some department stores already offer mid-season sale and the cruise collections are about to arrive in store within the next week. So its high time to hurry and finish my fall trend report. After reflecting on headgear, scarfs, coats, sweaters, lots of denim, dresses and skirts its finally time to come to one of the most important wardrobe departments – HANDBAGS … In contrast to the aforementioned wardrobe departments, where everything seems to be about general trends and tendencies, I feel that in the field of bags its more about brand specific timeless or seasonal “It Bags”.
So let’s start with Chanel. Sure the brand has its classic flap bag, reissue 2.55 and the boy bag. But besides that the Chanel shows are as much about what models wear as they are about what models carry! So which bags are the bags of the fall winter 2014 season? I feel its the bandana bag from Métiers d’Art Paris Dallas. Somehow a descrete bag as it was neither featured in the Kristen Stewart campaign nor is it presented on the brands web page for everyone to see.
The Chanel bandana bag had a loyal group of followers during fashion month, pics vogue.fr, style.com, harpers bazaar.com
So we are back from almost one week London art trip and there is really so much to talk about. Let’s start with one of my first impressions from Frieze Artfair London. For all, who haven’t yet visited an art fair here comes a short explanation: Art fairs are actually supposed to be trade shows, where private collectors can purchase pieces. However, according to New York Times about 80 percent of Frieze visitors are just spectators. The idea of art fairs isn’t new! It originated in the 20ies in Germany and constantly grew in line with the growth of the global art market, particularly in the major art buying countries, USA, China and UK. The biggest art fair in the world is Art Basel, which is hosted at 3 different locations Basel, Miami Beach and Hong Kong. Frieze, which originated in the UK in October 2003, is the second biggest fair…
Carsten Holler’s installation “Gartenkinder” at Gagosian Gallery booth at Frieze London. pic http://thecreatorsproject.vice.com/en_uk/blog/carsten-hller-giant-playground-frieze-london
So we took a closer look on what is going to hit the Chanel stores next March in the field of bags, shoes, jackets – Let’s concentrate on the costume jewelry for spring 2015 now! As the topic of the show was the imaginative Parisian street “Boulevard Chanel” diversity, like we see everyday in the street, was a major component of the show. All the models wore different shades of nail polish, different makeup and yes a huge amount of different jewelry …
A reinterpretation of Chanel’s fall 2014 chain link necklace will hit store next spring, pic style.com
We had a big Chanel chain link necklace for fall on the grocery runway (view it here). And yes it was something that stimulated some brands to follow among them Zara and Dior, who introduced their versions of the style. Despite of that Chanel is going to launch a new version of its chain link necklace for spring 2015. It is inspired by the tie dye pattern from the collection and was presented in a pink-orange as well as green-blue alteration on the runway. And for all those, who can’t get enough of the chain – belts and bracelets will be launched as well! Continue reading
After introducing midi and mini trends I feel its time to sum up the skirt trends for fall 2014. What is classy? What is trendy? And where to look for the best styles? Here comes my summary!
fashion sketch comes from http://www.shutupilovethatshirtonyou.com/2011/03/adventures-of-that-prada-skirt.html#_is=1c4rdu8tjacuxzba24vf23q8pi
Let’s continue the makeover of the skirts department of our wardrobe for the upcoming fall. As we already discussed in a previous post midi surely was the major skirt length that was snapped by street style photographers during the most recent fashion month! But somehow major online stores didn’t feel that this skirt length is going to become a mainstream favorite any time soon and continued to strongly focus on mini skirts. So how to wear them and which ones are the best this fall?
Linda Tol wore the Isabel Marant Adelaide skirt in combination with the matching sweater from the brands fall 2014 runway, picture marieclaire.com