Good riddance, 2009

Happy New Year, everyone!

I'm rather excited to punt this old year far far away and see what's around the next corner. Looking back, this year has been a tad too harsh on me, but hopefully that means I'm better prepared now for whatever surprises are coming up. I don't really do the New Years resolutions thing, so I'll save myself some future chagrin by not recording fruitless plans here. I would love to do a 'best of' post, but as this blog hasn't been around for a full year yet, I'll save that for next December 31st (if kOs is still around that is!). So, let's just leave it at 'Happy New Year'! Stay tuned in 2010 for more lovely photos, incredible designers, and interesting interviews, posted here as long and as often as I deem fit.

Thank you ever so much for stopping by, reading, and leaving comments - you all make blogging very enjoyable!

Cheers!

Frock

Perhaps I should post less often, because now when I miss a day of posting, it seems like I deserve a bad grade for the day. Ah well. I was off enjoying a most lovely evening, seeing off a very good friend who has gotten some sense and is moving far far away from this arctic tundra to Australia. I am rather jealous to say the least. Although, if I were somewhere very hot, I couldn't partake in the winter-friendly creations of Tiina. This newest Attila Design dress is...I truly can't think of the right word here. I don't know how Tiina continues to come up with the freshest designs, mixing a smidgeon of classic with a ton of avant garde, topped with utter wearability. And say, who's that gorgeous blonde?

And, because I can, here's some more pictures of the perfect dress, modeled by that lovely faceless woman.

Spring...

If our small apartment had not just been inundated with coats in the last few days, I would be sorely tempted to snatch up this twill Maria Severyna coat in preparation for the spring. Sure, spring is about 4 months away, but a girl can dream. I suppose I shall be happy for now in my cozy Maria Severyna wrap.

(Coat available only at the Designer Dream Closet.)

Oh, how I long for a bungalow.

In such a fantastical place, this would be my lounging wear...

and this would be my nightgown. (Both pieces from Abnit Nijjar's graduate collection.)

I grow tired of the one bedroom apartment. Sure it's cozy, but it's rather cluttered with the accoutrements of our favorite pastimes. Such as a mountain of beautiful clothing, each piece awaiting its time to shine. Funny how I feel like I have nothing to wear to a friend's going away party tomorrow after work. I guess laundry day plus soggy streets limit the wearable wardrobe quite a bit. Although I'm sure I'd be able to visualize a larger variety of outfits with more space. Again, how I long for a bungalow.

Norwegian Wood Wood

Now here's the perfect statement necklace if I'm in the mood for doing jewelry. Angie previously sold this Norwegian Wood piece only at Topshop, but it is now available in her Etsy shop. I am very, very tempted...

Oversized Overall

I think this may be one of my absolute favorite dresses I've seen on my daily Internet travels (at least I'd call it a dress). This is the Oversized Overall by Einat Burg's label, FROG (remember those gorgeous neckpieces?), and is available in The Shop. If it wasn't this time of the year, I would definitely snatch it up. First of all, it's one size. Second, it features that billowy leg I've been after lately. Third, it can be machine washed. And fourth, and most obviously, it's incredibly beautiful. I would have a hard time picking the colour though, as it's available in black, grey, or blue...Sigh.

There are also some more pieces from the FROG 09 collection that have this lovely versatile/convertible/layering style (some of which are also available here). Just perfect. They would all be right at home in my wardrobe.

Inbar Spector

As Inbar Spector is a favorite designer of Queen Michelle, I've likely seen something of this young London-based designer before. However, it was not until today that I did some extra clicking, and thus it is not until now that I have also fallen in love with Inbar's gorgeous creations. I simply have a soft spot in my heart for anything that channels Björk (especially the first dress at the top centre) and, of course, for anything that I could see myself easily wearing any day.

The last collection posted on her website is the S/S 09 collection (above), which "is a technical tour de force, combining exquisite detailing with a ready to wear aesthetic that’s now Spector’s trademark style. Twisting and rouching feature heavily in her light and organic collection. Large swathes of fabric are used skilfully to create volumous, elegant, neo-classical structures, playing with Inbar’s typically feminine yet practical silhouette."

Here are also some pieces from her A/W 08 debut catwalk collection (above), and her graduate collection (below). Aren't they all absolutely breathtaking? Sigh.

According to Inbar's new blog, she is working on a new collection. I simply cannot wait to see what new beautiful pieces of wearable art she creates.

Esther Perbandt

Having been tipped off by Fashion Platz, I've been looking through photos of the last eight collections by German designer Esther Perbandt, and I can find at least two or three pieces from each collection that would definitely fit into my wardrobe quite well. I especially love the new A/W 09/10 Rosskur collection. Such a great combination of simple pieces with textures, layering, draping, and unexpected details. The piece I've instantly gravitated towards, however, are these 'extravagante stoffhose', available here in a less leather-like fabric (below). Why layer a skirt over pants when you can have both in one? Just lovely.

My present

Forget that Comme des Garçons/Tavi jacket. My Christmas present to myself was the ArtLab Oversized Revolutionary Jacket. And it's perfect. I might not get too much wear out of it during the cold winter months as it won't fit under my winter jacket, but I'm sure I'll be wearing it quite regularly in the warmer winter days with a few layers underneath, and during our spring and fall weeks. I especially love the shoulder detailing, which are kind of modified puffed sleeves created by the bottoms of the outer pockets of the military pants used to create this jacket (below). Patricia, you've outdone yourself yet again.

(Photos via ArtLab Etsy shop)

Climate Dress

Now here would be a useful dress if you're ever caught in a tight situation at a party. Talking to someone who just spouts too much hot air? Excuse yourself by saying your dress lights indicate that the quality of air around you is just too poor to remain in that conversation. This would likely be most needed whilst conversing with party guests of the bovine persuasion.

Confused by my post-Christmas gibberish? Here's the description from Ecouterre's article:

Dressing for your climate gets literal with Diffus’s Climate Dress, which the Danish design company has laced with hundreds of tiny LEDs that respond to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Powered by an Arduino Lilypad microprocessor and a carbon dioxide detector, the haute-tech frock uses conductive embroidery to transmit information to the hand-stitched lights, resulting in patterns that range from slow pulses to rapid flashes depending on the concentration of the greenhouse gas.

Now that's a smart dress.

(Photos via Ecouterre)

Links à la Mode, Happy Holidays Edition

I didn't get the chance to post this on Christmas Eve, but here's the Happy Holidays edition of the Top 20 IFB members' posts from last week, including mine on SHOWstudio's Design_download. Enjoy!

The Happy Holidays Edition

Edited by Retrochick

Well, I suppose I shall start this week's Links à la Mode with this:

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

It’s Christmas Eve and I’m sure visions of sugar plums are dancing in everyone’s heads as they trim the tree and sip mulled wine in preparation for tomorrow's frivolities. All too soon it’ll all be over and brain power sapped from too many TV Christmas Specials, you’ll be wanting some mental sustenance, and that’s where we come in.

Essentially that’s a long winded way of me saying that what follows are some lovely links to keep you busy over the Christmas period.

M.I.S.S and JeweleryWhore have D.I.Y ideas to keep your mind and body occupied, ID Style and Little Miss Make Up show you how to ramp up the glamour in your make up bag, whilst Daily Diva Dish and The Working Wardrobe will help you plan what to wear for New Years Eve and that dreaded day you return to work.

If you run out of entertainment here then you should always check out the full Links à la Mode thread for more yummy fashion goodness.

I hope you all have a fantastic holiday and that Santa brings you everything you asked for!

Links à la Mode : December 24th

• Alice in Stilettos – Don’t Be Victimized By Fashion
• DailyDivaDish – New Year’s Eve Fashion: Make an entrance without breaking the bank. Includes 2 looks + DIY ideas.
• Fashion X K8 – Bringing attention to an essay of literary criticism that provides the proper vocabulary with which we can converse about a new fashion paradigm.
• Fasshonaburu – An interview with Liu Wen, the first Asian model to strut her stuff on the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show catwalk.
• Idiosyncratic Style – Wham GLAM Thank You Ma’am – Indulge in a little glamour for the holidays.
• Jewelry Whore – HUGE Roundup of DIY Christmas Present Ideas! It’s not too late to make some fabulous jewelry for Christmas presents!
• kaKofonie Of si(gh)lenS – You’re only a couple clicks and a few stitches away from owning your own one-of-a-kind designer piece with free patterns from SHOWstudio.
• La Société de Mode – A scream of an interview with stylist Brett Bailey.
• Little Miss Makeup – Bold lips: This season’s hottest makeup trend.
• M.I.S.S. – Another simple yet attractive necklace by Pandora from Acessory Source in this week’s She’s Crafty.
• Previously Owned – To celebrate the [almost there] opening of the ONLINE store, Previously Owned BLOG is giving away a Royal Blue hobo!
• Retro Chick – Vintage Hair Styling with Flamingo Amy
• Style on a String – Harem Pants: Yay or Nay? And some quick tips on how to buy and wear them.
• Sugar and spice and all things nice – 10 things I like…. no, LOVE… about FANTASY SHOPPING!!
• sweetarchivia – Review of the much anticipated launch of the Rodarte for Target line by the Mulleavy sisters.
• THE COVETED – Versace Pre-Fall returns to color
• The Demoiselles – Wing Tips: Your First Time…at the Tailor
• The Fashion Planner – The Fashion Planner is excited to announce the publication of The Fashion Planner’s Guide!
• The Style PA – I review the comfy, Cable Cosy by Isabella Oliver.
• The Working Wardrobe – Learning the art of layering that is both fashion-forward and office-appropriate.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Wishing you the Merriest of Christmases, the Happiest of Holidays, and the Coziest of Winters. And Santa, if you're still stuck on a present for me, please buy me this perfect Comme des Garçons coat. I love it to pieces, and I've been a good girl this year.

See you all back on the 26th-ish.

In This Corner...Last Christmas

I am a retail worker from way back and during the holidays this means that I was stuck in a shop for 40+ hours a week listening to Christmas tunes beginning on the day after Thanksgiving. It is enough to make even the most celebratory person despise any sort of holiday music, but especially George Michael’s ‘Last Christmas’. Don’t get me wrong, I am a Wham! lover from way back. Really, I am. I think George Michael is awesome, it’s just that having worked retail for the majority of my adult holidays I was conditioned to hate this song. Thankfully, I have been out of the field just long enough to recover and Christmas music is actually starting to sound good. Even ‘Last Christmas’ which my friend Jessie Williams (www.edgeofurge.com) just covered with Gordon Merrick, under the pseudonym Cilla Danone. Here is the link (Last Christmas is the new track). There is hope for me yet. Maybe next year I will mull some wine and go caroling. I am sure I will be able to find some place that is doing ‘Christmas Karaoke’ at least!

(Photo I took of a bizarre Christmas light sculpture that showed up in my neighborhood inexplicably. It is apparently the season to celebrate Tiny Tim - and I mean TINY Tim.)

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This Holiday Corner was brought to you by the lovely Lauren Jones. I'm really feeling this one today, as 'Last Christmas' has quickly become my least favorite song this year. But I really do love Christmas music! Lauren's Etsy shop is closed for the holidays, but make sure you check out the photos of her collection here and here so you know what to buy with your holiday cash when she returns on the 26th!

Jealousy in the blogosphere

This afternoon it dawned on me that jealousy and the fashion blogosphere go hand in hand, whether this is the writers' and readers' intention or not. When I began this blog, I had 3 reasons for doing so: a) to improve my writing, as I'd been out of school for 2 years and had noticed my grammar quickly deteriorating; b) to showcase indie designers and provide some free 'press' for them, as I would love the same attention if I were to finally get off my keister and do some designing; and c) to curb my spending, with the thought that having a permanent place to collect pictures of all the pretty things I loved would provide a cheaper outlet for me to look at these things whenever I wanted, rather than having to purchase them to see them first hand. I think I'm at least on the way to attaining the first goal already, as practice makes perfect. And the second goal I've proved to be quite good at, as I know I've at least indirectly steered a couple of sales towards my favorite designers. The third goal is a lost cause though, as keeping up a blog requires finding new things, and finding new things inevitably leads to buying new things.

However, keeping up a blog also leads to reading other blogs. In the beginning, I think I was only reading one blog regularly (Style Bubble). Now, however, I can easily spend a solid couple of hours perusing my blog roll and bookmarks every day. This in turn has led to me comparing my blog and style to others. Also, every once in a while, I compare my wardrobe to that of others'...and I get jealous.

Now, I know how product placement works, and it only makes sense if we must live in a capitalist society. And I wholly agree with matching, say, a free Maria Severyna wrap coat with Jennine of The Coveted, or a free Patricia Ayres artisanal coat with Queen Michelle. Both of these instances made me frantically type and click my way to getting myself one of each, at least eventually, meaning those product placements worked their magic. But today's blogosphere stop has me a tad baffled. If you know your way around fashion websites, you've likely heard of Tavi, the 13-year-old fashion blogger. I think it's great that this girl already knows and is comfortable with her sense of style at such a young age. And I think it's great that she gets media attention and what not.

However, having browsed her blog today, I was immediately jealous to find out that she had been given six free Comme des Garcons pieces of her choice. And one of them was that coat that I loved, before I decided to allow myself to blog about Comme des Garçons and the like (pictured to the left). Why on earth should she get that coat? Just because she's 13?!! I made the exact same connection with Lindsay Weir's coat in a previous post...may I have one too please?

But then, after the green hue of my eyesight faded a bit, I thought...First of all, I think it's not very effective product placement to give free high end clothing to a 13-year-old. Sure, you may recognize what label an item of clothing is, but have you ever seen something on a 13-year-old and wanted immediately to go out and buy it? Perhaps if you were the Cruises or Jolie-Pitts, needing to make your child the most fashionable child in recent memory. Which brings me to the next point: what is Tavi going to do with all these beautiful expensive clothes when she hits puberty? Perhaps it doesn't matter to her since she didn't have to pay for them, but I was brought up to not buy expensive pieces until I had stopped growing. Although, I guess Tavi simply has to sell her wardrobe to procure herself a college fund.

So what am I saying? Perhaps that I'm dead tired from my evening shifts after 2 weeks of being sick. But also that I don't like product placement, at least in it's current form. I didn't start my blog to get free stuff, and I don't want to continue it to get free stuff, which is why I don't charge for ads and I don't take pictures of myself wearing so-and-so's label. Not that I won't take a beautiful gift here and there, but I'm quite happy to pay for clothing that is expressly made for me by a not quite so recognizable designer who can't afford to give hundreds or thousands of dollars of clothing away, and which will inspire or brighten other peoples' days just by seeing their photos. Furthermore, there's a certain feeling of accomplishment with being able to buy yourself something expensive. And, I can't help but think that, if something expensive ends up on someone half my age first, I might think twice about wanting it for myself.

In This Corner...Christmas Enchiladas

I'm staying in London for Xmas, along with some other expats mostly from US, Canada, and Australia (basically anyone who lives more than 10 hours away from home!), and we're going to have a big feast in which everyone brings their favorite dish from their home country - so of course it will be Mexican food for me, since I am from Southern California and it is so hard to get good legit Mexican food over here!

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Yum! Today's Holiday Corner is brought to you by Alexandra Groover. If you get some spending cash for Christmas, perhaps you should check out her online boutique. That's what I would do anyway...Ooo, and check out my interview with Alexandra here.

Forget all dresses before this one...

Okay, I think I posted too soon. This may be the most beautiful dress ever. Credit card, you're lucky I'm an inch too big for this beauty. In case you don't recognize the signature convertibleness and altogether genius design, this is by Attila Design. Sigh times infinity. Tiina was right to name this "Speechless". Oh, and the tulle layer is removable.

I'm in love. It is now in my Top 3 Want List.