Stella McCartney Lingerie SS 12/13

My lovely photographer friend Meagan invited me to a collection preview at Bendon tonight and I had a great time (not to mention coming home laden with a goodie bag, a purchase and a freebie set of Stella McCartney briefs to commemorate the Olympics!).
I didn't end up taking any photos as I was running late and forgot my camera so I'm looking forward to the lookbook coming out. Meanwhile I borrowed the below shots from Bendon.

The colour palette is a lovely range of colours from blush pink, grey, black, cherise and a gorgeous emerald green set I was dying to have (but they're not available until November!). Also there are subtle leopard prints, snake skin prints and gold foil polka dots. Some of the laces used are designed from vintage lace reproduced, which makes it not only beautiful but unique.

I guess what I was most impressed by was the range of different styles and colours making the collection interesting and multifaceted. Each style is named after one of 13 of Stella McCartney's girlfriends and I think basing each style on a person has injected the variety.

There were a number of racer backed bras which I loved and bras with no underwire and the softest and lightest fabrics to make them invisible under clothing. Another favourite was the pairing of black with dark blue lace, just gorgeous.

So all in all a great collection and I had a lovely time, I'm quietly looking forward to November for some of the styles but there are loads of pieces in store at Bendon now.


xx

Why buy when you can DIY?

Though this is a bold statement and you should always support designers themselves, when it's a widely used trend, why not have a go yourself?
I had a big look for some lovely projects (googled random things I covet and added DIY) and came up with the gems below, just click on the links below each picture for the DIY:

First these from Honestly... WTF and there were so many lovely things you should honestly just check the site out for yourself!

Felted elbow patch

Miu Miu inspired sneakers

Collar Tips

From Studs and Pearls - again there is loads more gorgeousness so get over to her site too! I can definitely see myself wanting to use the galaxy bleach/paint effect on other things!

Alexander McQueen inspired knuckle duster clutch

Galaxy turban headband

And here are some assorted ones from different blogs:

Bow tie by Tinker Finca 

Studded bow tie by Steve and co

Envelope clutch by Swellmayde

That's it for now, though I'm on the look out for more and I'm looking forward to giving these ones a try too!



xx

Wing it

I have been trying for a while to get a good winged eye and have loads of different eyeliners from pencil to liquid to powder to gel all claiming to be super easy, but I've always had trouble because I wasn't too sure how to actually make it look nice.

So, I've trawled the internet and found a few different tutorials but this one from tinamarieonline seems to be the clearest and easiest step by step guide. It seems best to follow the angle of your lower lash line then flick up if you want it to be more dramatic and blend back to your upper lash line.

If you're a video tutorial kinda girl then beautycrush has a cute tutorial showing both liquid eyeliner and a gel eyeliner so you can see the difference:

Please choose cruelty free!

It's important to note that many large cosmetic companies are still involved with animal testing so it is important to refer to a list like Peta's Companies that Don't Test on Animals for an enormous list of cruelty free companies. Kreayshawn (pictured below) says she uses Wet n Wild and I was pleased to find out they do not test on animals.

 Pictured: Kreayshawn in  her Gucci Gucci vid, Bridget Bardot, Linda Evangelista, 

Tura Satana in Faster Pussycat Kill Kill Kill, Tavi Gevinson, Amy Winehouse, Lisa Cant for Blanco

xx

Karl Lagerfeld

I spent last night trawling through videos and interviews of Karl Lagerfeld, enjoying myself thoroughly. To be honest I didn't think much of him until I saw Lagerfeld Confidential when it came out with Vogue, I guess I just thought of him as a caricature of a person without much substance. How wrong I was! he is a very real, very interesting person, one who is very private but has a huge public persona. And he is very humble, acknowledging he is where he is because of how hard he has worked. Here is his first TV appearance in 1955 where he came second to Yves Saint Laurent in a competition for coat design.

And this, the favourite find of last night's video marathon

His range KARL by Karl Lagerfeld is surprisingly affordable and very cool, you can see a lot of his personal style over each garment. Basically a brilliant mishmash of tuxedo glamour and biker chic (swoon!).

See the full Kollection at www.karl.com

xx

Unisex

My favourite thing in fashion right now is unisex, the idea of this uniform dressing which is both flattering and cool for both sexes. There are a number of brilliant designers doing it and doing it extremely well. Here are a few of my favourites and I've included images from a number of seasons/years for each one:

Rad Hourani

www.radhourani.com

Rad Hourani calls his collections asexual, aseasonal and having no boundaries of culture or time. The clothes are so current yet timeless, tricky yet simple. The unisex vibe is mainly presented in his RAD by Rad Hourani collections and more experimental shapes and concepts within Rad Hourani. He has made history today by presenting the first ever unisex collection at Paris Haute Couture Week which is on right now! exciting stuff! Check out this article from Real Style Network complete with interview from the man himself and source of the image above.

NOM*d

www.nomd.co.nz

Though not technically unisex I do feel the vibe is there with the ovesized layers and tom boy aesthetic. NOM*d are a huge favourite of mine among kiwi designers, each new season they bring out makes me swoon. I love the shapes and complete cool of their designs and I have to say they are the main label I first got really excited about and the main reason that got me into fashion to start with.

see? swoon!

Lela Jacobs

lelajacobs.co.nz

Image: Four Eyes - see full style post here

For some reason she is only a recent discovery of mine found on a slow day at work. Needless to say I was completely thrilled when I found out this formerly Wellington based designer has her own space on Krd in Auckland! Interestingly she is self taught which is certainly not visible in the polished and well thought out collections she has produced over the last few years. The most intriguing thing though is she collaborates with an artist or crafts person each time she begins to build a collection which means although her aesthetic is clearly evident in each collection, the collections take on a different flavour each time. I have yet to visit her studio space The Keep but I'm certainly looking forward to it.

sigh!

xx