Trends ss2010: pastel perfection

When it comes to color,  next season will be very tame. There’s the nude trend and there will be lots of black & white. Yet there’s a third trend that we need to discuss colorwise: pastels.

The trend fits perfectly with the overall vibe we’re getting for spring/summer, in which everything seems very romantic and feminine. Yellow, purple, blue, pink, green, orange: all these colors came in a pastel version in any kind of material.

When comparing all collections we can consider Donatella Versace as the queen of the pastels. Her Barbiedoll models wore tight sexy pastel outfits. She even had a few printed pastels. The color in this case added to the Barbie doll feeling.

Michael Kors used some elegant blue, purple and green pastels for his feminine outfits. Other brands that made the pastel look work are Burberry, Matthew Williamson, Tommy Hilfiger, Mila Schon, Blumarine and of course our very own Viktor & Rolf. V&R’s multiple layered designs mainly were a combination of black and pastels.

If you want to go for that summery, romantic and feminine touch, add a little pastel.

Tess van Daelen

Trends ss2010: shine on!

Putting on an extra sparkle won’t hurt next summer. It’s become obvious that shiny sequins and sparkling details are no longer exclusively used for special events like New Year’s Eve. You can put on a sparkling outfit any day of the week.

Past fashion season the sequins were carefully introduced, yet this season they’re all over the place. Many fashion designers (Oscar de la Renta, Dior, Issa, Lanvin) used sequins and other shiny little details like studs or beads all over their clothing. They made the designs look super expensive and the models looked like princesses or movie stars.

The shiny details mostly came in silver, gold or bronze. Vivienne Tam, Pucci, Blugirl, Ungaro, Matthew Williamson and Asish made theirs in all kinds of colors and patterns. For example Asish had his colored sequins placed in the shape of Mona Lisa and at Ungaro they were heartshaped.

Elie Saab presented a showstopping evening gown sequined from the bottom to the top. Burberry showed us a glittery coat with sparkles looking as sharp as glass. At Aquilano Rimondi we could see several shiny outfits that had sparkling flowers in different shapes and sizes in gold and silver.

Making those items must have taken hours and hours of crafting. So next July when it’s steaming hot outside we will all be walking around with heavy, stiff, fragile, unwashable but oh so glamorous outfits. Shine on you crazy sequin!

Tess van Daelen

Trends ss2010: bathing in luxury

Of course when the spring/summercollections are presented, bathingsuits are shown. Several designers came up with some splendid beachwear. The only comment we have on these gorgeous bathing suits… they often looked too delicate to swim in. So it might be better to use them to lounge about and stroll on the beach.
The collection of Emporio Armani had a lot of beachwear. Unfortunately this was mostly black and wasn’t all that exciting.

Pucci did have several elegant beach items in its collection; some bathing suits in shades of nude and an ocean-blue version with a matching jacket.

Gucci showed us a nice grey-colored version decorated with studs.

We saw a muscular Naomi Campbell in a black & white, animalistic, one-shouldered bathing suit at  Issa. It was one of the few shows for next spring where we could see the British topmodel.

Together with the bathing suits some designers (Etro, Pucci, Issa) created airy colorful tops. Those tops are great to wear at the beach especially over a fabulous bathing suit or bikini.

Tess van Daelen

Trends ss2010: the overall opinion

They might seem quite unflattering and we usually think of them as most suitable for gardening or working on the field, but overalls are becoming more and more fashionable.

Ralph Lauren and Jean Paul Gaultier designed a few comfortable and stylish ones for spring. Of course they gave them their own twist.

Some of Ralph Lauren’s overall had stains and tears and some were made out of shiny satin.

JPG added his iconic cone-bra. There were overalls with and without sleeves. Most were made out of denim, yet Roberto Cavalli made one out of a transparent airy fabric and Hannah MacGibbon introduced a leather one for Chloé.

We have to admit those overalls do look very wearable and they combine perfectly with almost anything (t-shirts, blouses, tops). They might become a huge hit.  What’s your overall-opinion?

Tess van Daelen

Esquire’s Best Dressed Man 2009

The winner of the Esquire Best Dressed Man Award 2009 is guitar player Dennis van Leeuwen.

The international jury chose Dennis because of his very own style and because his clothes stress his personality. Yet shortly after Dennis came on stage it became clear that he was not the only one responsible for his good looks. When he accepted his award he immediately gave all the credits for his clothing style to his wife Karen.  ‘Karen always tells me what to wear and gives me great advice.’

There were six nominees for the Esquire award, all with their very own style. One of them, Chris Zegers, told us he loves to wear second hand clothing. Another one, Theo Hiddema, always has his clothes handmade in a boutique in Belgium.

A third nominee, Waylon, admitted he always wears a jacket to finish every outfit.

Tess van Daelen

Backstage atmosphere ss2010

We will have our backstage-material online soon. It’s always a pleasure to flip through those images, because the give a totally different view of the collections, models and sometimes designers. We’ll be back with more asap!

Trends ss2010: fantastic plastic

How can you protect yourself from the rain and still look sexy?

Zac Posen, Sonia Rykiel, Frankie Morello, D Squared and others gave us the answer: you just wear a transparent plastic raincoat. In this way you’re still showing the great outfit you’re wearing underneath and your silhouette stays visible too.

For next spring transparent plastic was used by several different designers. Isn’t it typical that at least four designers came up with a see-through raincoat, independently of each other? At all four shows these raincoats also popped up out of nowhere and didn’t really connect to the rest of the clothes in the collections.
But the raincoat wasn’t the only transparent plastic item; there were bags and shoes as well, for example at Prada. D Squared and Charles Anastase both had transparent bags too.

Michael Kors used the plastic for his bathing suits and bracelets. Out of everything we saw the most fantastic plastic was made by Frankie Morello. He came up with a chique Chanel-looking plastic jacket, which had collar and cuffs made out of fabric.

Tess van Daelen

Trends ss2010: streetwise

Most women love to dress up like classic, elegant ladies when they go out. Therefore international topdesigners create the most luxurious clothes made of expensive fabrics like silk, satin, chiffon and lace. But what do you wear on any given day when you haven’t planned anything special? Exactly, you mix and match your clothes into your best streetstyle.

We found out Marc Jacobs was all about the young streetmix for next summerseason, as well for Louis Vuitton as for his own brand. His LV models showed short skirts with jackets made in every possible shape and print.

The girls in the Marc Jacobs show wore a mix of many wearable items. This resulted in strange combinations (girls wearing their underwear on top of their clothing?!).

Balenciaga, G-Star and D Squared presented some easy-going, funky outfits for streetwise girls too. The designers often added a bag to make the outfit look more like streetwear. We can actually picture some girls working these streetmix-outfits on their day off in the city.

Tess van Daelen

Trends ss2010: slim silhouettes

Although models usually  have a slim silhouette already, for ss2010 a few designers made their models look even taller and thinner than they normally are.

At Missoni’s fashion show the clothes with maximum lengths accentuated the models’ slim figures. The girls were wrapped in lots of layers as well. They wore long cardigans on top of long dresses, that only left a small part of their legs uncovered. The fact that Angela Missoni mostly used one shade per outfit added  the feeling of the girls looking slimmer than ever.

Besides Missoni, many other brands had long slim pieces in their collections. Etro, Calvin Klein, Blumarine, Roberto Cavalli, Alberta Ferretti and Oscar de la Renta showed some great examples. Most of these were long feminine dresses, made of ultra-light and airy fabrics to make the outfit look less stiff.

Flowers or sequins were the finishing touch on many of these silhouette-accentuating outfits.

Tess van Daelen

Peter Stigter aan de Muur: first images are sold!

The first images of Peter Stigters latest charity-project are sold. Fans of Peter’s work and fashion couldn’t hardly wait for the photogallery to come online. The friday after the launch we already had an order of three (!) pictures from one collector, and there was more to come during the week-end and monday. The dogs at KNGF will be very grateful. They also payed a visit at the launch, last friday.

You can still see the pictures at:

Peter Stigter aan de muur @ Fashionmania by Rollan Didier
2e Laurierdwarsstraat 64
1016 RC Amsterdam

13/11 – 20/12 2009
Openinghours: thursday – sunday.
thu & fr: 16.00 – 19.00 uur
sa & su: 14.00 – 19.00 uur
www.peterstigteraandemuur.nl

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