Where in the World Are Designers Looking for Trends?

Ok, so that may have a few too many syllables to fit into Carmen San Diego’s theme song, but if you try hard enough you can kind of force it.

We’re halfway through London Fashion Week now, and I’m still looking for a distinct trend for geographical influences. Across the board there have been many collections with obvious references – India at Neem Khan, China at Jason Wu, Japan at Proenza Schouler – but nothing has really stood out  as a repeating trend. I’ll continue to keep my eye out, but for now here are two other countries to draw inspiration from.

Christian Cota showed a small collection with rich textures, patterns, and colors inspired by Mexico back in New York Fashion Week:

Temperley London showed a Russian collection that struck an interesting balance between folkloric references and the details of a soldiers’ uniform. I need one of those hats!

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

In the wake of NYFW Fall ’12, I wanted to include some of my favorite shows that didn’t get to be featured (or, at least, not enough) in my trends posts.

Jill Stuart:

Behnaz Sarafpour:

Chris Benz:

Naeem Khan:

and Ralph Lauren:

 

How to Keep Warm This Fall

Every Fall season, there’s one question on everyone’s minds. What about the coats? Well, for 2012 there are two huge trends gracing the runways. Meet the leather shearling coat and the blanket coat.

Shearling:

at Helmut Lang

at Rodarte

and blanket coats

at Michael Kors:

Vivienne tam:

and Rag and Bone:

Interior Decorating

So, it hasn’t even been a week yet and already we have trends for textiles and colors, but what about prints? Prints have had huge trends these past few years (especially when it comes to mixing them), so of course I’ve been keeping an eye out for which direction they’re headed in now. It seems to be – and I may be making up a fashion term here, but I’m going to go with it – wallpaper prints. You know the kind. It’s a small, repetitive pattern, like what you’d find in upholstery fabric or covering your walls. Maybe I should just let the pictures do the talking from three of my favorite collections to showcase it so far:

Jill Stuart:

Chris Benz (who showed another stunning collection and will probably have his own post in the near future):

Derek Lam:

Now all we need is a decade (I guess I’m feeling a general sense of 40s sophistication, but no obvious references to silhouettes or styles) and a geographical location (but if we’re trusting Jason Wu and Zac Posen, that seems to be the Far East) to complete our bullet points. It’s definitely an exciting start…

Berries and Plums

Another big trend that I’ve spotted so far in the Fall ’12 fashion season (along with new and exciting ways to wear leather) comes in the way of color. Nearly every designer has shown an outfit or two (or twelve) in a dark shade of red, ranging from raspberry all the way to plum. It is, without a doubt, The Color for Fall, and since that is my favorite color group I am a very happy camper.

Rag and Bone:

Christian Siriano:

Thakoon:

Jason Wu:

Wes Gordon (and the most amazing coat ever):

Charlotte Ronson, head to toe:

Peter Som:

Loving Leather

The Fall 2012 shows are in full swing with NY Fashion Week beginning last Thursday. While it’s unusual for trends to emerge this early in the season, I am already seeing some huge consistencies between the shows. My favorite? So far, leather is as ubiquitous as fur was for the past two Fall seasons, and designers are going above and beyond reinventing the leather jacket. They have been showing some impressive and inventive ways on how to wear leather this year, and it’s all in the details.

Up first: Hervé Léger by Max Azria. I cannot get enough of his incredible leather harnesses effortlessly incorporated into his designs. It was difficult narrowing it down to just a few highlights:

Theyksens’ Theory showed leather midi skirts:

Derek Lam infused his sweet secretary looks with a more sensual edge by adding leather pieces:

Alexander Wang sent disarming highly structured leather pieces down the runway in a sharp turn away from his usual sportswear aesthetic – a change amplified by the eerie surgeon-mask-like collars that accompanied many of the looks

Others took a more classic approach – DKNY’s, for example, showed jackets and dresses that you could easily spot on the city’s streets for years – but these collections have so far stood out among the leather-heavy showings so far. I’m looking forward to seeing if the trend will spread, and especially how it could be interpreted overseas.

Viva La Moda in Brazil

Most people consider New York Fashion Week the start of the fashion season, but actually the mayhem has already  begun. Redheaded step-children of the fashion world are already showing their goods, and Men’s Fashion Week and Sao Paulo Fashion Week are currently on deck. I’ve been surprised to find some gems in the Brazilian collections (people wear clothes in Brazil other than bikinis?), including two standout shows from Samuel Cirnansk and FH for Fause Haten.

Cirnansk’s show was a flutter of plumage in a theatrical swan-inspired event. In contrast to the standard of a stark runway in Sao Paulo, Cirnansk seems to be the McQueen of Brazil with his dramatic presentations. (Check out the beginning of his last show, where he sent models that were bound and gagged out in bridal gowns.) Most of these looks are a bit derivative of more established designers like McQueen, Chanel, and de la Renta (not to mention Rodarte’s costume design for Black Swan) but the creations were nonetheless exquisite.

FH for Fausten combined tropical prints and colors and Brazilian sensuality with a slinky Italian silhouette. The most surprising aspect of the collection was the abundance of fur in wraps, stoles, and cowls, but it’s pulled off so flawlessly you’d think it was from the depths of Siberia. The sophistication of the draping and tailoring present in the show hints that Fausten may be poised to become a more globally recognized name.

Can it be February 5th, Please?

We’ve been teased with sneak peaks and drawings of the highly-anticipated Jason Wu collection for Target for weeks now, but today we finally have access to the entire look-book. I haven’t been this excited for a GO collection since Rodarte, and his designs do not disappoint. They perfectly translate his aesthetic into something for the mass market without pandering to cheap trends or insulting us with veering so far away from his runway looks. The collection mostly consists of dresses and bags that are all perfectly pretty, and it’s difficult to choose which are my favorites. Here are a few highlights, but the full collection can be found on Refinery 29.

Thank god I have until February 5th to decide.

Pin It.

So, even though I don’t think this is something you’re supposed to admit or acknowledge, I’m going to put it out there that I’ve been pretty blocked when it comes to post ideas lately, as you may have noticed.  But, I’m always updating Audrey Monroe’s Twitter, and now I’d like to add another way to follow me during my off-times: Pinterest. The site is my current obsession, and if you’re at all artistically inclined, I guarantee that it’ll quickly change the way you’ll see the world. Like how whenever I see a text or email I find pleasing but don’t feel like responding to and find myself immediately thinking I should “like” it, now whenever I find an image I enjoy outside of the internet, I keep wishing I could simply “pin it.” I’ve expressed my love for inspiration boards in the past, but they’re a bit time-consuming and not always practical. I’ve kept a few folders in my Pictures file for inspiring images under different themes for a few years now, but I have trouble keeping up with them, and when they’re so hidden away they tend not to quite do the job of inspiring.

Enter: Pinterest. It’s a genius concept that combines social bookmarking and mood boards into a site where you can save and organize images that you enjoy or inspire you. You can separate them into different boards or themes (mine include pictures of my dream house, fashion shots, art and design, food porn, craft inspiration, cute animals, and a space for random finds), and either gaze at a particular topic one at a time or scroll through your collection organized in a timeline. Right now I’m just using it for fun, but many have found more practical uses for it, like gathering ideas for redecorating their homes or planning their weddings.  Find your friends or personalities and websites that you admire (ahem) and follow them so you can see their pins in a collage on your homepage as a way to discover even more awesome things around the web. You can repin, like, or comment on others’ finds as well to boost the social aspect of the site. All in all, it’s a lot of fun.

Pinterest is still in beta testing and requires an invitation to join, so get yourself on the waitlist, or contact me for an invite at the link in the sidebar. And don’t forget to follow me! Here’s my profile.

How to Make Your Own Fascinator

The holiday season is officially here and with it come the parties. Being even more financially strapped this year, a new party dress isn’t in the cards for me, so I’ve been focusing my strategies on accessories to make my (totally expansive) collection of dresses feel new again.  I figured a couple of statement-making pieces would get me through the season, and lately my attention has been completely drawn to fascinators. The craze this year was brought on by the royal wedding, and perfectly ties in to the old Hollywood glamour that I love to emulate. But I was having trouble finding one that felt right for me. Many went way over the top, or came as a headband or full-on hat. I wanted something simple, small, and tasteful. And it definitely had to have a veil – not a full birdcage, but something that ended right below the eyes to really push a femme fatale vibe.

But besides being stuck on the styles that were on offer, they tended to be way out of my price range costing anywhere between $30 and over $100. I might as well buy a new dress! But it hit me the other day that if all I want is something akin to a hairclip, that this could be done myself, and for cheap to boot. So I scoured my favorite sewing store in the city, PS Fabrics at 359 Broadway, and $5 (yes, five dollars) and an hour and a half later I had my very own fascinator:

Simple enough that it wouldn’t take that much guts to wear it, yet it would add so much more style to your everyday party dress. Here’s what you need:

1 piece of black felt ($.30)

What amounts to I’m estimating an 1/8 of a yard of black tulle with wide netting (a yard for $1.30)

1 hair clip (pack of 12 or $2)

A small piece of thin cardboard (I raided my recycling and used the box of a twelve pack of soda)

Embellishments (I chose black sequins – $.75 – but rhinestones or feathers would also be good)

Needle, thread, and pins (I assumed I had black thread, so I used silver, which wasn’t awful, but the whole thing would’ve been better with black)

Fabric scissors

A guide for your shapes: I used a can of cat food for the base of my fascinator, since I wanted the focus to be more on the netting than the piece itself. It was a good size for a hair clip, too. (Note: Using a can of cat food will make your cat go crazy, thinking it’s dinnertime even though he ate an hour ago, and then he’ll spend the whole time sniffing around, chasing your thread, and chewing on your tulle. But the can is still a good size.)

I actually never used the measuring tape that’s shown, but it could come in handy.

And here’s what you need to do:

• First, cut out your shapes. Trace the can (or whatever your guide is) on the cardboard and cut it out. Then trace about a half inch larger around the can on the felt while folded in half, so you end up with two felt circles. (Note: My original idea was to just make one felt piece slightly larger and turn it down over to hide the cardboard and stitching, but that didn’t work out as planned. As I was finishing, I realized it would’ve been better to just conceal the cardboard between two slightly larger felt circles. So, the photos don’t show this.)

• Next, make two small slits in one of the felt pieces the same width as the hair clip. Fit the clip through and close it, so it’s snapped over the felt. Pin this into place over the cardboard (it will be hard to get the pins through the felt and cardboard, and you will stab yourself) and then sew around the outer edge. This is the inside of your fascinator.

• Now it’s time to figure out your embellishments. Play around with your design on the other piece of felt (I chose a starburst pattern) and once you’re decided on it, sew it in place. (Note: Sewing sequins is tedious.)

• Next is the trickiest part: dealing with the tulle. It’s also tricky to take pictures of tulle, so hopefully this step will be described clearly. Cut a piece of tulle that’s a bit larger than you’ll end up needing. I did this by basically wrapping it around my face and cutting an inch or two larger than the width and height of that piece. Now, cut off the top two corners. Cut a long piece of thread, and loosely sew along the top half, starting from the bottom of the cutoff corner. Be sure to leave a tail of thread at the starting point that’s at least an inch long. Do not tie off at either end. Once this is done, pull the two ends of the thread to scrunch up the top half, creating a rounded piece of tulle that will frame your face. Tie each end off tightly, so the tulle won’t fall flat while you’re working with it. Pin in place around the front side of your base, and sew around the edge, making sure not to get the tulle caught in the needle as you go.

Sierra Mist did not sponsor this post.

• Now take your other piece of embellished felt, pin it in place, and sew around the edge. Test out your fascinator, and trim the tulle to the desired size and shape. And just like that, your fascinator is complete!

Be sure to keep your eye makeup strong so they shine through the veil, and a red lip is a natural way to complete the look.