When you are on vacation, you always meet interesting people: in my case I usually forget their names or what they do exactly or never really caught it in the first place. Luckily, in LA, when my friend Heather introduced us to her friend Ophir Tanz, I already knew what he did: he’s a co-founder of the awesome wallpaper company, Cavern home. I’ve long coveted their blackbird wallpaper since I had seen it last year. Ophir was super nice and let us in on the fact that he and partner, Carly Margolis, will be moving into more homegoods soon! On route to our Sunset boulevard hotel that night, we passed the jewelry store, Kaviar and Kind, who’s kitschy storefront was perfected with one of their new designs.
San Francisco was gorgeous while I was there, but the street style left a little to be desired. Having gone to a top-ten liberal arts school, I’ve had quite enough of insert jeans, tie-dye and outdoor gear wore casually. However, the House of Hengst was a welcome relief. Although the line is carried by over twenty stores, this was the first time I had seen it. The simply and well-cut shapes were thoughtful and a great balance of new shapes and trend awareness. If you visit San Francisco you can stop by the storefront at 924 Valencia and possibly see designer Susan Hengst in the back, where she maintains her studio.
I’m pleased to announce that we have a new opening page on our Moonblood t-shirt site. It’s complete with moving ponies!
Feel free to check it out here, moonblood.net
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.
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.
As far as those gowns go, I have to say that I was disappointed. There was really only one dress that I thought was great- this empire waisted
lacey concoction:
The rest were all too fussy, or ornate for no reason. There was a lot of metallic here and although its a trend seen in other shows as well, I don’t think it works. These dresses were high end metallic and they still managed to look lackluster and shabby in person.
In general, I think your average Hollywood actress, like the pretty Rachel Bilson who front row at the show, is more likely to grab something from their sportswear collection then their couture one.
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.