STYLE – Page 28 – Girl Who Would be KING on Life, Style and INSPIRATION.

Timeless style – what you might not know

About the World’s Most Popular Handbags

The Bag: Chanel 2.55

What You Might Not Know: People often focus on the bag’s quilted leather material, but what was really revolutionary about the 2.55 was the chain strap. Back when Coco Chanel invented it, women used to carry their bags in their hands all the time. What a hassle!

The Bag: Hermès Birkin

Kris Kardashian - Getty Images — Kris Jenner with her Birkin – Getty Images

What You Might Not Know: Lots of people refer to the bags as coming in two different hardware options: gold and silver. But that’s not silver! It’s actually palladium, a metal Hermès uses expressly because it never tarnishes. Good thing, considering what an investment one of these bags is.

The Bag: Fendi Baguette

Sarah Jessica Parker – Celebrity Street Style

What You Might Not Know: Released in the late 1990s, the Baguette’s the brainchild of the brand’s creative director Karl Lagerfeld (of Chanel fame). How can we forget SJP’s many baguettes on several episodes of Sex & the City. Remember when a guy stole her bag & she yelled after him correcting him that “it’s not a bag…..it’s a baguette!”

The Bag: Louis Vuitton Speedy

What You Might Not Know: It’s easy to associate the Speedy with in-your-face logos, but some of the most timeless, elegantly cool women have loved it through the decades, like Audrey Hepburn. She was a huge fan. This is just a timeless piece that reminds me a bit of a doctors bag.

The Bag: Longchamp

What You Might Not Know: If you’re not a French speaker, you may not have connected that “pliage” is the French word for fold. (Makes sense, because the most celebrated aspect of the bag is that it folds up, making it beyond ideal for traveling.) A fashionable friend of mine told me it helped her with bringing back extra outfits from Paris & so on an Air France flight I bought the same bag right on the plane (since it was in their duty free magazine & saved me a trip to the store) and I’ve been using it ever since. So light & convenient plus you can fold it tiny & store it in your suitcase (in case you need it). You will!

The Bag: Balenciaga City

Nicole Ritchie - Balenciaga. Getty Images — Nicole Ritchie – Balenciaga. Getty Images

What You Might Not Know: Originally, Balenciaga executives didn’t like the City bag all that much, and decided not to produce it—crazy, right?—until the designer, Nicolas Ghesquière, pleaded with them to make a few of the City bags as a trial. One just needs to look at the Fashionistas carrying it to know it was indeed the right decision, although personally it was never my favorite.

The Bag: Mulberry Bayswater

Kate Moss with her Mulberry. Getty Images

What You Might Not Know: Mulberry may be all about naming their recent bags after pop culture icons—the Del Rey for Lana Del Rey, the Alexa for Alexa Chung— ~~the King for me~~ but the Bayswater has a different genesis. True to the brand’s British roots, Bayswater’s the name of a West London neighborhood known for leafy streets and Georgian houses.

The anti-Bag: Anya Hindmarch “I’m Not a Plastic Bag” Tote

What You Might Not Know: while people were lining up to buy the cheeky, eco-friendly tote at a New York Whole Foods in 2007, the bag was massively popular everywhere around the globe. Especially in Taiwan, where the $7.50 tote created a riot (a legitimate riot!) upon its release.

*Every person in the country was using an average of 167 plastic bags each year, totalling around 10 billion bags. The company wanted to do something that repositioned bringing your own bag to the supermarket as something a little more stylish. Back in 2007, the general public, let alone the fashion elite, wouldn’t be seen dead pulling out a pocket full of old carrier bags at the till.

Confession: I paid about $20 for an eco-friendly grocery bag at Dean & Deluca in Napa because I liked the interesting foodie quotes scribbled all over which made carrying around my groceries more fun & fashionable. A sampling of….What You Might Not Know:

Cacao, means “food of the gods” and “cacao” is a Mayan word meaning ‘God Food’.

Honey is believed to be the only food that does not spoil. It was found in the tombs of the Egyptian pharaohs, tasted by archaeologists and found to still be edible.

The term ‘barista‘ is thrown around very lightly nowadays. In definition, you are not classed as a barista until you have made coffee on a full time basis for 5 years.

Now can the Louis Vuitton’s & the Chanel’s compete with that?

STYLE

style & substance: the Cardigan

Ahhh the cardigan – the perfect light cover up! I can never have enough cardigans.

Best Looks: From left to right, Michael Kors, No. 21, Alexander Wang, Pringle of Scotland and Burberry. — **Best Looks**: From left to right, **Michael Kors**, No. 21, **Alexander Wang**, **Pringle of** **Scotland** and **Burberry**. **Photo**: Garance Doré

A great part of any womans wardrobe. The practicality and convenience a cardigan provides is endless. Long or short, buttoned or unbuttoned, belted or not, without a doubt, classic cardigans are always in style….but some of the newer collections feature large knits with decorative fur & unusual asymmetry – some have no buttons or zippers.

You can choose to belt them or close them with a large safety pin (some would) or large broach.

They’re work appropriate but cardigans can also look sexy on top of light layers and soft fabrics.

There’s a style for every body type. Which is your favorite?

Images: fashionstyle.us

STYLE

Art/Culture/Dresses

If you’re in PARIS make sure to see Azzedine Alaïa’s timeless designs.

Alaïa, short draped dress, white silk jersey. Monsieur Alaïa personal archives © Ilvio Gallo, 1996

Fashion week may be over in Paris, but one of its highlights carries on through January 26, 2014. The Palais Galliera—a.k.a. the Museum of Fashion—re-opened its doors last Tuesday, after four years of dusty renovation. In between shows, crowds have been rushing to admire its successful facelift and the city’s first retrospective of the legendary couturier Azzedine Alaïa.

Azzedine Alaïa’s body-con designs defined the aesthetic of Paris in the 80’s

Olivier Saillard, the museum’s director and curator of the exhibit describes Alaïa as one of the last living designers who actually knows how to draw, sew, and model. He is a true artisan of over 30 years. The famous Azzedine technique, which is to sculpt the dresses directly on the models, aims to celebrate women’s bodies, accentuating their assets and hiding their flaws.

photo – Garance Doré

Alaïa, Palais Galliéra, 10 Avenue Pierre ler de Serbie, 75116, September 28, 2013 – January 26, 2014

FUN

Trending now (again) – once in a BLUE mood

I’ve been feeling kind of blue lately – Cobalt to be specific. The shade creeps up from time to time and last year we started seeing more of this bright color.

Crazy for Cobalt: his season the intense blue made a statement on everything from cozy sweaters to swingy dresses. It seems to have edged out olive and rust as this fall’s most prominent hue.

How many shades of blue are there exactly? I don’t know but some editors seem to have a handle on it:

Meryl Streep to Anne Hathaway in “The Devil Wears Prada” – “You go to your closet and you select that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you’re trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don’t know is that that sweater is not just blue, it’s not turquoise, it’s not lapis. It’s actually cerulean. And you’re also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves Saint Laurent wasn’t it, who showed cerulean military jackets? And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers.” …………………on and on she goes

With its cool undertones, cobalt complements every complexion from porcelain to dark chocolate.

Best colors to pair cobalt with: neutrals like grey, black, white or a combo of either.

FUN

personally speaking – since when did a bad haircut become CHIC?

I DON’T UNDERSTAND why some women pay good money to look like she gave herself a BAD HAIRCUT!

Eva Herzigova in Prada Ad from last Spring. — **Eva Herzigova** in **Prada** Ad from last Spring.

I don’t know about everyone else but I’m thinking that when you go to the hairdresser you should leave feeling better than when you first walked in. For me that means taking off an inch or two to help tidy up split ends, some layers that fall nicely around the face and a blow dry that lasts for a minimum of three days. A good haircut should make you feel sexier don’t you agree? Well as it so happens not everyone’s idea of sexy is the same….

THE BAD BANG THEORY:

Herzigova is beautiful but maybe she wants to distract people with bangs that look like they were cut with safety scissors in the dark.

Weirdly enough, there seems to be a lot of deliberately bad hair around these days. Uneven bangs, lopsided looks, scissor marks & seemingly haphazard haircuts. Case in point: a stylist who created a cut for a story in W magazine of a model wearing a Dior Haute Couture dress. She may have been wearing haute couture but the effect the hair stylist (Malcolm Edwards) was going for with his zigzag coif was that of a kid who cut her hair with the kitchen scissors. But of course for that shoot, the model wore a wig. However the idea is for the reader to deliberately witness a crazy cut. As if Dior needs something to distract you from a beautiful dress?

Lena Durham in Girls - season finale — Lena Durham in Girls – season finale

Also, in the dramatic season finale of Girls, Lena Dunham hacks away recklessly at her tresses but in the end miraculously ends up with a sassy, cute little pixie cut – which suits her quirky style.

Lena Durham's cute pixie cut. — Lena Durham’s cute pixie cut.

No longer is cutting your own hair considered a desperate cry for help (Britney??)

Erin Anderson has handled the hair of Mila Jovovich and Chloë Sevigny. She works out of Woodley & Bunny in the Williamsburg neighbourhood of Brooklyn (a part of town where the girls who look like they cut their hair themselves probably live). “The DIY haircut has been around for some time,” insists Anderson. She recalls a time when a client of hers went so far as to ask her to cut his hair with her eyes closed. Anderson’s strict rule: Never cut your own hair while under the influence of alcohol or marijuana. “Everything tends to look good if you’re drunk or stoned,” she says.

A hairdresser who goes by the name of Duffy (he’s also a classically trained stylist from the Vidal Sassoon school) has a request for a bad haircut…..he understands exactly what the customer is asking for. “We have a painting at home by an artist called Alistair Frost – a canvas with a squiggle in it,” he says. “The kid was 26 and had the confidence to make this gesture and turn around and say, ‘This is my work.’ That’s what this haircut is about. The uninfluenced gesture.” Still, it’s a hell of a lot easier said than done. “For me to forget all I’ve learned and cut your hair like a kid did it is 10 times harder than if I were just to simply give you a graduated bob,” Duffy says. He tells this customer that if she had fine blonde hair, he could make her hair look like it was chewed by a rat in six minutes but with her curly hair even if he hacked the crap out of it, it would be hard to see the damage. So the good & bad news for this customer is that it would be difficult to give her a bad haircut.

As seen in W Magazine

Lesson – a GOOD STYLIST trying to give you a bad haircut is different from a BAD STYLIST trying to give you a good haircut.

What do you think? Is the Hatchet Haircut for you?

FUN

Timeless Trends – the MOTO Jacket

What can we say about the Motorcycle jacket that’s new?

Hardly a trend but the Fall runway introduced fresh colors and feminine touches. This season’s versions haven’t lost an ounce of coolness with their intricate network of zippers, still keeping the bad-ass vibe.

Even though, the look is more deliberate than in the past. You can toss one over a silky dress, casual denim or even pair them with coordinating bottoms (often made of leather) for a dressier feel. Jackets were also worn zipped, functioning more as a top.

Olivia Wilde

A big trend this Fall is contrasting sleeves and to mix it with luxurious fabrics like brocade or velvet for a different take.

Kate the great

Gwyneth, Angelina, Jessica

Which style is your favorite?

FUN

Style – putting the Passion back into Fashion

fun & flirty

With ROMANTIC DRESSES

Some of the new selections offer easy volume, nipped-in waists and are covered in things we all love to receive…..flowers + baubles!

haute couture

Jenny Packham

The dresses may be feminine and fanciful but the footwear is surprisingly utilitarian. If Mary Janes or Ballet Flats are not your thing, opt for wearing heels or ankle booties.

Kate Spade

To enhance the glamour, try wearing your hair off the face or pulled back into a chignon. Hopefully these dresses will sweep you off your feet!

Gwyneth Paltrow wears Isabel Marant - look at the shoes! — Gwyneth Paltrow wears Isabel Marant – look at the shoes!

FUN

Timeless Trends – it’s a PLAID, PLAID World!

Alexander Mcqueen bias cut fit/flare plaid dress. Elle.com — Alexander McQueen bias cut fit/flare plaid dress – elle.com

Call it schoolgirl chic if you want to, but Real Women do wear Plaid.

How can we ever tire of throwing on a plaid shirt over a pair of leggings or jeans as soon as the weather starts to cool. It’s such a cozy staple.

Photo – Garance Doré

An obvious call for weekend wear or casual engagements, although cute skirts, and a bit of pattern on shoes or bags can offer a new chicness that’s hard to ignore.

Stella McCartney Bag

Gryphon pant – elle.com

But is plaid too prim? Hardly. Not with the modern take on tartan cropped jackets and separates. There might be something irresistibly naughty about a tartan

Reem Acra Dress – elle.com

baby-doll dress that skims the body in a quietly seductive way.

There’s nothing old-school about that!

Even the scotty dogs are looking

pretty good now!

Current-Elliott Jeans. Elle.com

boucle jacket – elle.com

Phillip Lim Sweater – elle.com

marc by Marc Jacobs – elle.com

FUN

On the Storefront – Lace Embrace Atelier

One should never rush when putting on a corset Dita von Teese, the queen of burlesque, adores her exclusive creations…. Cathie Jung, the Guinness World Record holder for the smallest waist, flies in to be fitted by her… Little wonder that the Tyra Banks Show recently invited Canadian Melanie Talkington to talk about her meteoric rise as one of fashion’s leading corsetières. I’ve met Melanie on a handful of occasions. From tango, to a corset fashion show put on by a friend and a photography exhibit showcasing local fashion talent. I was mesmerized by her designs and the way the models looked & behaved wearing them.

You only need to wear a Lace Embrace corset once to appreciate the true experience they offer.

Exquisite Corsetry, Superlative Quality, Sophisticated Workmanship

At Lace Embrace, they strive to ensure their corsets are an experience that will thrill you and embody your fantasies with a fit that is uniquely your own.

Each Lace Embrace corset begins with an inspiration from an antique corset. All patterns are verified with a sample product to ensure the correct historical shape is achieved. Upon attaining an authentic shape, a graded pattern is created to your measurements. Extra care is taken to ensure the corset moulds to your figure. All construction and placement of boning corresponds with the original corset. This precise method provides you with a corset made to support and shape your body in the same manner as the original.

Lace Embrace corsets combine the highest skill known to the art of corset making, actively working with historical and modern designs. With over 12 years of training and experience, they thrive on challenging designs of historical beauty and distinction.

BIO: Canadian-based Melanie Talkington’s unique, awe-inspiring corsets are wooing the world.

Vancouver, B.C. – With burlesque successfully crossing from fetish to mainstream and corsets becoming de rigueur, the world has gravitated to Ms. Talkington’s business, Lace Embrace Atelier. Her reputation as a corsetière developed through focusing her education on the art of corset making and reviving the lost art of foundation garments. Ten years later myriad people covet Talkington’s designs – often direct inspirations drawn from her antique corset collection, one of the largest in North America.

“I create reproductions of corsets that can withstand wear and allow people to have fun and feel beautiful,” she explains. “I intend to preserve my antique corset collection to one day open my own museum.” The Vancouver Museum has already featured her corsets for the 2003, unmentionables exhibition, as well as the Delta Museum in 2002.

Melanie is bringing back a lost art – and as women we should embrace that.

http://www.laceembrace.com/

FUN

style & substance – hold me close, hold me tight

bra by 'blush lingerie' available at http://www.intrigueimports.com — ‘**Sweet Promise**‘ by **blush** lingerie Fall/Winter 2013 available in all sizes (large & small) at http://www.intrigueimports.com

“A good bra is like a good man: he’s gotta be good looking, supportive and he’ll never let you down.”

These are the kind of truths that Rebecca, the owner of La Petite Coquette (located in the heart of Greenwich Village, New York City) can throw at you in an everyday conversation. Re-blogged from Garance Doré.

And the thing is after talking, and mostly, trying bras with her, I kind of realized that in spite of all my efforts, my bra knowledge was very limited. It was time to take a lesson in bra fitting, and to ask her a few of the essential questions…

How do you figure out your size? I don’t believe in tape measures because they are not tried and true, it’s basically a gimmick. The most important thing is to go to your local lingerie store and try on bras. You need to give yourself 20-30 minutes to try on a few different styles. There is no standardization in bra sizing. Each manufacturer makes a different size. A C-cup in an American size is very different from a C-cup in a European size. You have to know how the bras fit.

jesus fernandez – ‘Camille’

What to wear when bra shopping? Wear a simple a t-shirt or tank top. If you’re looking for a t-shirt bra, it should look like you’re not wearing anything at all, it should be smooth, round and high. You don’t need to bring multiple tops. You know when it fits, when it’s comfortable.

How do you know the bra fits? The middle part of the bra should go flat against your sternum and the band should be in the middle of the back. You shouldn’t have spillage coming out. Always have your bra on the first hook, it should fit snug on your back so you’ll have places to go when it stretches out. The straps should not dig into your shoulder and they should fit snug.

How often should you be buying new bras? Bras always wear out but it’s the way you take care of them. If you hand wash and air dry them, they will always last much longer. Most women, I find, wear the same bra every single day. You have to rotate your bras. Don’t wear the same bra twice in a row– you sweat and the sides, back and straps stretch out.

What should you have in your bra wardrobe? Four to five bras for during the week, when you wear your work clothing, when you want your clothes to be smooth and fitting you well. You should have 3 or 4 sexy ones for when you want to go out at night or you are entertaining your man for seduction. Two strapless bras, one black and one nude (when you buy a strapless bra it should fit very, very snug, you can even go one size down sometimes).

jesus fernandez – ‘chica’ mujeres collection.

*Shopping online for a bra or bra/panty set can sometimes be a challenge but plenty of women do. There’s even a ‘panties by post’ website. The trick is that you either know your standard size & place the order or spend a few extra minutes checking out your size from the sizing chart for each manufacturer on the website you’re placing the order from (as each company is different). The difference in shopping for a bra online is that many times you’ll come across something extra special (artisan or vintage details) that you won’t be able to find in a department store or a lingerie boutique because they’re not your standard design.

Best brands for…
Small or Average size Chests: Timpa, Eberjey, Chantelle, jesus fernandez, Simone Perele, blush.
Large Chests: Freya, Chantelle, Simone Perele, Prima Donna, blush.
Petite: Wacoal, Lula Lu Petites, jesus fernandez

jesus fernandez – (made by passionate artisans in Buenos Aires is very special). Available in North America online at – http://www.IntrigueImports.com

Have a peek at the lingerie boards for blush & jesus fernandez on Intrigue Imports at: http://pinterest.com/intrigueimports/