My New York picks

New York Fall 2010 is officially over and I finally had the time to go over most of the collections to choose my favourite looks.

NY Fashion Week for me is always synonymous with one man: Marc Jacobs. An invite to his show is one of the most sought-after items of the week thanks in large part to his beautiful, sometimes quirky and always fun collections.

For this collection, he brought it back to the basics; classic lines, elegant suits, beautiful furs, long flowing dresses; it Old Hollywood glamour with a modern edge. Gone were the layers, the trashed-up motifs and the multiple references to different eras. Instead it was a very streamlined, elegant collection that I'm sure many women would love to wear.



And if you can't get into Marc Jacobs, Calvin Klein would be next on your list of must-see shows.
Designer Francisco Costa experimented with silhouettes. Arms and shoulders were emphasized, giving coats and dresses a bit of a futuristic military feel. Waistlines were either moved up or dropped below, giving dresses new shapes. I am always impressed with Costa's technique and construction. He can mold material into strange new shapes that have never been seen before.



Here are my other favourite looks:

Derek Lam


Vera Wang


Zac Posen

Naeem Khan

Oscar de la Renta


3.1 Phillip Lim
Marchesa

To me, NY Fashion Week was going back to what they do best; sportswear, subtle elegance and wearable clothes. We saw a lot of new shapes, specifically emphasis on shoulders and arms as well as new waistlines. Leggings were nowhere to be seen (thank God!) and looser but tailored clothes were back. All in all, a great week of beautiful clothes.

Food for thought

As you can tell by the title of this post, I am really hungry. Not just for any ol' food but for macarons (not to be confused with macaroons but I would take those too.)

I started looking up pictures of them to ease the hunger pains and came across some wonderful photos. I think that macarons are some of the most colourful foods. They come in all sorts of vibrant colours: indigo, neon yellow, bright pink and shocking orange.

The more I looked at the photos, the more they reminded me of the Louis Vuitton Fall 09 collection.

The LV collection uses a lot of the same colours as macaroons.

See all the colours here:


And then notice the same colours in the LV collection:



And here:




And here:



Macarons were also used in comparison to Marc Jacobs' LV inspiration in the documentary Marc Jacobs et Louis Vuitton.

Check out the clip:



So how much does food influence fashion? I don't know but I'm sure when designers get hungry, a bit of that hunger seeps into their clothing.

Inside the Met ball

Style.com posted this great video of the "Model as Muse" party at the Met. They interview everyone from Marc Jacobs, Kate Moss, Anne Hathaway, Gisele Bundchen, Victoria Beckham, Leighton Meester and tons more. The most common question asked is "Who was your model muse growing up?" and many of them chose Kate as their inspirations but others named Lauren Hutton, Stephanie Seymour (who was apparently the inspiration for Anne Hathway's poofy hair), Twiggy and Cindy Crawford.

Great moments:

- Seeing the dresses up close. It made me fall even more in love with Kate's Marc Jacobs dress and turban.

- Kate Hudson's husky voice.

- Kiefer Sutherland and Brooke Shields interviewed (separately) hours before the story broke that Sutherland allegedly head-butted Proenza Schouler designer Jack McCollough over Shields. I tried to see whether Kiefer was drunk but I couldn't tell.

- Victoria Beckham posing her ass off hoping that Anna Wintour will see and give her a Vogue cover.

- Josh Hartnett declaring his boyhood crush on Heidi Klum.

- Anne Hathaway trying to justify her ugly big hair.

Louis Vuitton Spring 2009 part one: Bags

The first images of the Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 09 show are just coming in now. Most of the photos are of the bags, which is what most of us really care about, right?

I can't wait to see which ones I'm going to be aching for come Spring. It's also fun to pick out which ones I think will be manufactured for the stores, which ones will become limited editions and which ones won't make it off the runway.

This collection reminds me a bit of Marc Jacobs's eponymous line this season; lots of colours from different spectres of the rainbow, a mix of unlikely fabrics and patterns, a multitude of shapes and plenty of influences from other countries and eras.

The bags are a mish-mash of classic monogram with feathers, beads, embossed leather, leopard (again), chain-linked handles, tassles and other embellishments.

But check them out for yourself. See any you like?








I think this one is going to be a best seller. It has lots of monogram, an easy-to-wear handle and a cute round shape. Very marketable.




Glad to see clutches are still huge this season. Love the soft material.

Everyone will want a piece of this leopard beauty.



(Photos: Getty Images)

Model.Live girl seen on NY runway

Yes, that is Cato Van Ee, one of the Model.Live girls walking the Marc by Marc Jacobs runway at New York Fashion Week. She looks gorgeous. Love her face. Haven't seen the other girls yet, but I'm not looking too carefully. Will she walk in Paris and Milan too?

New York Fashion Week S/S 09: Marc Jacobs

What I would like to know is who is the model who opened Marc's show? I love that she looked so quirky and well, old. She fit perfectly with the kooky collection- a mish-mash of Victorian skirts and jackets, , multi-coloured sashes, granny vests, Brideshead Revisited hats and tons of big accessories from massive bangles to wacky necklaces.

Jacobs is known to like to mess things up and to destroy conventional beauty and femininity and this collection shows this philisophy perfectly.

But one of the biggest attractions of the collection was the crazy colours; colours you would normally find hideous but when Jacobs puts them together, they make sense.

The clothes came from different eras; Victorian, the 1960s and from different continents; Asia and Europe.
How wonderful to be able to put together this collage of inspirations and make it beautiful and wearable.

Here are my favorite looks:






(Photos: Style.com)