I’ve had a long standing obsession with Isabel Marant. Her shops are delightfully relaxed and her garments, jewelry, and footwear are all beautifully crafted. And to top it off her items are reasonably priced. I found myself drooling over many of her embroidered caftans and plaid tunics. Knowing how much I love anything Isabel, Leo picked out this necklace for me. XOXO

So after strolling into some of my favorite stores in Paris I started to see a unanimous direction for Spring handbags. As the Spring runways proved, bling hasn’t been this big in a long time. Normally I only like bling in small doses, but some of my favorite stores, mentioned below have managed to make me love it in large doses.

I do want to point out that I failed to see anyone on the streets actually sporting these bags on the street, as the Parisian ladies seem to be sticking to their red patent leather bags for now. But I think that once the weather changes I’m envisioning droves of fashionable women strolling around pairing these blingtastic bags with some sweet summer dresses.

The first of my affections was for Vanessa Bruno’s bling shopper-bags. It’s a bit hard to tell from the pic, but the handle is covered in sequins. I love that it’s such a simple shape, but totally fabulous. It reminds me a bit of some bags that were really popular that Old Navy brought to the masses a few summers ago, I’m totally kicking myself for not picking one up back then!

Here are two more Vanessa Bruno bags that I didn’t see in the stores, but I came accross them on her site and just had to put them up.

Next on the list are Zadig & Voltaire, who are known for their slinky luxury looks. I wasn’t super impressed by their normally cute slip-like dresses and ultra-light sweaters this time around, but these bags were really supple and gorgeous in person (I don’t think the pic really does them justice).

And lastly we have mama bling herself, Miu Miu.

Hi Everyone, Leo and I are in Paris for the next couple days. I’ll be back on Wednesday, and I’m hoping to have lots of wonderful finds to share with you!

I feel a little cheesy admitting how much I like 3.1 Phillip Lim. In the last year, his stuff has appeared in all the magazines and on many a starlet. Still, I love his dresses, slouchy fitting pants and billowy light cotton shirts and if I had a legal unlimited money source I would like to wear his stuff all the time. Last spring, for the first time, Lim staged his first runway show during fashion week and it was really critically acclaimed. He showed mostly white dresses, every one of them seeming more beautiful than the next. In some way, they almost seem too airy or pristine to actually wear on the street.

The collection I saw last week wasn’t as striking. Still, there were a lot of looks that I wish I could have in my closet and many I would like to try emulate.

The show was held in this long, dark building, near the water in Chelsea. The darkness of the whole place and the narrowness of the space and the runway, made for a sort of somber viewing experience. Apparently, it took almost two minutes to walk the complete runway.

The color pallet was neutral-ish like so many of the other Fall shows- camel, grey, white, black. In spite of all my attempts to wear more color, these are the colors I end up wearing so a lot of this appealed to me.

I have to admit that I used to really not like Vera Wang. It was mostly because of her bridal collection, over priced and over loved by the bridezillas I encountered when I was planning my wedding a few years ago. I just didn’t like the people who were buying Vera Wang gowns– they were too snooty, too frivolous, too b****y.

My opinion of Vera Wang wedding dress buyers has not changed, by my opinion of Vera Wang has. I really respond to her non-bridal pieces and those found in her fall collection are no exception.

In pre-show materials handed out at last week’s show, the clothes for Fall 2007 were described as being for the girl who spends her weekend shopping at outdoor markets, going to a friend’s art opening, or riding around town with her boyfriend on his Vespa.

Sounds pretty good, except for the vespa part. In general, the clothes that came down Twinkle’s runway last week were a little too fancy or skirty for the laid back activities described here. Still, a lot of the pieces were clothes you would actually want to wear.

When you hear Badgley Mischka, you think evening gowns. You think red carpet. That is why I was so surprised that it was their sportswear that I found to be most strong at last week’s show.

I really liked their first look (above), a bell sleeved dress over a camel turtleneck, even though it might be too dressed up or fussy or Saks Fifth Avenue for me to actually wear.

This season, the designers decided to show pieces from all of their collections, which include Couture (your Hollywood starlet dresses) Platinum (dresses that are supposed to be more affordable, but still set suburban ladies back 500 to 1000 bucks) and sportswear. I liked the below looks as well, mainly because of the sleeves.

It must be nice having beautiful, famous friends. Full disclosure– I have sort of a crush on Zooey Deschanel, mostly for her acting (if you haven’t seen All the Pretty Girls, you should), also for what seems to be her own style, AND because she is so darn beautiful. So, when earlier this week, designer Erin Fetherston began her show with the lovely Ms. Deschanel’s singing the standard, “Dream A Little Dream,” you know I was going to be predisposed to like it. (I think that was the point.) The song helped set the mood for a lovely, starry show filled with a lot of floating clothes.

This week Ann Marie (a frequent Seamsters reader and fashionable Philadelphian) is going to handle our Seamsters NY fashion show coverage.  Ann Marie left her regular job as a producer for national public radio to attend a handful of shows at fashion week. At NY Fashion week NPR credentials didn’t get her into the first few rows, or any seat really, but she can provide a regular person’s view of all the hub bub. She was hoping to be inspired by some of the shows, but she hasn’t really been. She has liked some of the shows a lot though, and will be posting about them in the next few days.