Streetstyle vs. Catwalk fashion

Each fashion season we all get very much inspired by the collections presented on the catwalk. After New York, London, Milan and Paris we have new creative ideas and we have picked up the trends we will probably be wearing a season later. So there’s no doubt fashion designers create trends or at least a certain style.

Yet it’s also true that a big part of  fashion starts on the street. What people wear in their daily lives is a starting point for fashion too. Whether it’s your grandma walking her dog in a floral printed skirt, your father in one of his suits or your neighbour is a pair of old school jeans. Every kind of streetwear can be the beginning of a fashion trend.

During the fashion weeks our team always spots the most fashionable people outside the fashion shows. They wear clothes not everyone dares to wear. Their streetstyle is often bright-colored, crazy-shaped and remarkably printed. Not to mention their shoes and accessories.

To show you that streetwear can be an inspiration for fashion designers we selected six outfits that were seen in the streets as well as on the runway.

Anna dello Russo worked a golden dress that could just have walked out of the Gianfranco Ferre show. The lollipop pink she chose for another dress was Lindsay Lohna’s color-choice for Ungaro too. The red leopard print Dolce & Gabbana introduced, was seen on a pair of streetstyle pants. And of course the style of a tweed Chanel suit can always be seen on a chic lady somewhere in the streets.

Topmodel of the week: Natasha Poly

This week we’d like to focus on one of our favourite models: Natasha Poly.

Name: Natalia Polevshchikova (shortened to Poly)

Age: 24

Date of Birth: July 12, 1985

Place of Birth: Perm, Russia, two hours from Moscow (by plain)

Discovered: ‘When I was fifteen I went to Moscow for a model competition and I kind of won’ (Natasha)

Runway debute: Emanuel Ungaro

Breakthrough: 2004

Family: Still lives in Russia and is very proud. They all love Natasha’s pictures.

City: Natasha lives in New York

Fashion shows: Lanvin, Chloé, Stella McCartney, Louis Vuitton, Hermès, D&G, Louis Vuitton, Roberto Cavalli, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Chanel, Gucci, and Sonia Rykiel, Kenzo, Givenchy…. Just all the big fashion brands.
Last season (fall/winter 2010/2011) she opened the shows for Kenzo, Roland Mouret and Rick Owens.

Photographers: Any big shot photographer has taken Nathasa’s picture. Patrick Demarchelier, Mario Testino, Annie Leibovitz, Terry Richardson, Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, Emma Summerton, Steven Meisel, Craig McDean, Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott, Mario Sorrenti and Solve Sundsbo to name a few….

Covers: Natasha has appeared on covers of many Vogue issues. For example we saw her on Vogue Australia (Dec 2004), Germany (Jun 2006), Japan (Jan 2005), Paris (May & Sep 2004, march 2007), Russia (Aug 2008, Mar 2009), Paris (Apr 2010). Plus:

• Vogue Russia dedicated a whole issue to Natasha Poly in July 2008.
• Vogue America named her one of the faces of the moment in 2009
• Vogue Paris declared her one of the top 30 models in the 2000s.

Ad campaigns:  Gucci, Lanvin, Louis Vuitton, Robeto Cavalli, Sonia Rykiel, Nine West, Dolce Gabbana, Calvin Klein Jeans, D&G, Epoca, Philosophy by Alberta Ferretti, Fabrizio Corsi, Fornarina, Jimmy Choo, Krizia jeans, La Perla, Louis Vuitton, Massimo Rebecchi, Marc’O Polo, Max Mara, Ralph Lauren, Nina Ricci, Jil Sander, Blumarine, Givenchy.

We also recently spotted Natasha in the campaign for the H&M Garden collection.
Gucci is one of the biggest deals for Natasha, she has worked with the brand for several years now.

TV Commercial: Gucci by Gucci fragrance (2007)

Agencies:  Women management (NY, Paris, Milan), Select Model Management (London), Mega Model Agency (Hamburg) Traffic Models in Barcelona.

Quotes:

• ‘I hate it when they say that models are like mannequins, and not the people in the flesh.’
• ‘You’re never fully dressed without a smile.’
• ‘A driver is a must during fashion week. Having a car means you have somewhere to nap during shows, a place to leave your bags, and a trunk to stock up with generous gifts from designers, like shoes and handbags.’
  (yet we saw her arriving at a Paris Week fashion show on a motorcycle last season)
• ‘Besides my iPod, during show week I carry make-up remover, some money, lip balm, gloves, my ID, face cream, and my Sony Cybershot in my bag.’

Extra:

• Natasha has walked the Victoria’s Secret fashion show twice.
• Paris is her favourite city
• Natasha had long dark blond hair before, now her hair is very light blond and it’s shorter too.
• Natasha thinks Karl Lagerfeld is a genius.

Dreams: Natasha dreams of opening a shop in her city with fashionable, yet affordable clothes.

Forty years of Roberto Cavalli

This year fashion label Roberto Cavalli celebrates it’s fortieth birthday. 2010 also happens to be the year in which designer Roberto Cavalli himself, like many of his first customers, turns seventy. Time to take a look back on Cavalli’s work from over the years.

Roberto Cavalli, who started working in fashion just to make some money, became first known for his printing techniques. After he had been hired by great fashion labels he decided he could just as well do it on his own. He set up his own fashion label.

Cavalli’s first collections were best described as boho- and hippie-chic. He knew innovative techniques to use silk and leather. His designs were ultra-feminine and heavily decorated and they were loved by the wealthy people in Saint-Tropez (his first boutique was also opened there).

After a small downfall Cavalli makes a comeback in de nineties, by that time assisted by his – much younger – wife Eva Duringer. His clothes, best known for their outstanding animal prints, embroideries and other embellishments are worn by the rich and the famous. All of those women confident, sexy and super glamorous. (The reason Cavalli women are so often referred to as glamazones).

Celebrities proved to be a great way of promoting the brand. Victoria Beckham, Jade Jagger, Hally Berry, El Macferson and Jennifer Lopez were often spotted in Roberto Cavalli’s designs. They were the ideal women to promote Cavalli’s clothes, cause with their sex appeal and confidence they can perfectly show off Cavalli’s fearless designs.

After years of glamorous collections Roberto Cavalli decided to move in a new direction. The past few years he has slightly changed his designs away from the limelight. Cavalli’s so well-known animal prints sometimes were not used at all or, like in his latest collection, were used in a faded variant. His colors have become less outspoken and his heels – from time to time – even turned to flats. Cavalli introduced suits and overalls and with his boyish designs he showed a more subtle sexy. The new Cavalli woman proved to be less of a show-off, but Cavalli has kept his customers satisfied.

Judging from how Roberto Cavalli is doing now we think he’ll have no problem celebrating the brands fiftieth anniversary in ten years. Cause although he admitted he’s less of a party animal, Cavalli (thanks to his wife Eva) is still going strong. But let’s first just celebrate the clothes he made over the past forty years. We selected the most eye-catching, showstopping pieces out of Cavalli’s last ten collections. Enjoy!

Cavalli has big plans for his label’s fortieth anniversary and is working on a book about his career in fashion. We’ll keep you posted!

The most Gaga-worthy outfits for SS2010

There’s no doubt Lady Gaga’s success has something to do with the way she dresses. From day one she has looked out of the ordinary with her structured creations, body-exposing outfits and crazy headgear. She has been wearing those extreme designer outfits no one dares to wear in public and therefore she’s always in the news…

We’ve seen Lady Gaga in Armani prive, Gareth Pugh, Jeremy Scott, Chanel and Hussein Chalayan to name a few. The pop-diva has also worn some Viktor & Rolf creations before. The Dutch designers even got to make an outfit for Gaga’s video Telephone. But apart from all those designs, we think there are many more looks that would get Lady Gaga’s approval.

Out of all the spring/summer fashion shows we selected the most Gaga-worthy outfits. Those pieces mostly have crazy shapes, they show a lot of skin and several times they go with an eye-catching headpiece.

We selected multiple black body-revealing dresses with cut-outs, wholes and tears all over them (Asish, Byblos, Julian Macdonald, Mark Fast).

We picked out over the top hats from Aguggini (large with zebra-print), Jean Paul Gaultier (blue with Napoleon shape), Givenchy (shape of a lamp shade) and Watanabe (strange kind of turban).

We chose for two designs with accentuated shoulders. At Ilincic the shoulders were huge and made out of feathers, at Todd Lynn they resembled shark fins.

The opted for the Giles dress because of the big spiders and we picked Julian Macdonald’s dress because of the scales. Alexander McQueen’s outfits need no explanation; Gaga has already worn one of those (incl. the crazy shoes) in her video Bad Romance and we think Gaga would actually love to wear all of his designs.

Unfortunately Gaga’s on-and-off boyfriend Matthew Williamson didn’t design anything kinky that that would suit her. Yet we think there’s more than enough to choose from for the 23-year old singer. And if she doesn’t find the right outfit, she can always ask a designer to make one for her. Cause designers understand that Lady Gaga wearing one of your outfits is good publicity and they’ll do anything to make that happen.

Spring is in the air #7

Something white and something beige make a great mix. Especially in the cowboy-inspired collection of D&G, with skirts in broderie anglaise and tops in buttersoft suede.

Spring is in the air #6

Time to get your BIG sunglasses out. Like these from Giambattista Valli, made of wood and metallic-colored plastic. So glamorous.

Catwalktrends SS2010: yellow-inspiration

Still suffering from a small winter depression? Just looking through the photos from this trend report will brighten up your day!

The trend for this spring/summer we’re discussing is the color yellow. From pastel to ochre to gold, it was there in many SS2010 fashion shows. It proved to be a good color to combine with other shades like blue, purple, green and red. Yet a completely yellow outfit can be very inspiring as well.

Emilio Pucci, Salvatore Ferragamo and Bottega Veneta used yellow in it’s brightest variant and showed blondes and brunettes can look equally sexy in this summery shade.

Which yellow item will you add to your wardrobe? The Dsquared jacket, the Jean Paul Gaultier bangles, the Marc Jacobs top or the Tartan Anna Sui skirt?

In any case, it won’t matter if the sun is shining this summer as long as you’re working your yellow fashion!

Spring is in the air #5

A bold color and a nice jacket or big shirt are all you need to spice up your spring-wardrobe. Here at Isabel Marant.

Top 5 Beauty Trends SS2010

If you want to look stunning this summer not only stylish clothes are required, your make-up needs to follow the trends too. Overall the beauty-rule for ss2010 seems to be: keep it simple. In many shows the hair and make-up looked natural and effortless. If you do want to go highlight your best assets and get a little crazy we have five beauty trends for you…

1. A healthy blush
We must say blush is not for everyone. Your skin has to be in a very good condition and if you already have natural red cheeks you should not put any extra blush on. Blush looks the most natural on a slightly tanned face and can variate from light pink to bronze to red. The make-up at Derek Lam looked extraordinary and although the models all wore blush their faces looked very natural.

2. Between the lines
A little bit of eyeliner is almost always used to accentuate the model’s eyes. Yet for spring/summer the eyeliner was very outspoken. The lines were thicker and longer than normally and created mysterious-looking models. If you want to work the eyeliner like Marc Jacobs and Roberto Cavalli, it’s best if you wear it to some party. Cause at the office people will think you’ve lost your mind.

3. Disco-colors
For this trend you have to be some sort of make-up expert. While not everyone can create the magic we saw on the eyes of Viktor & Rolf and Derek Lam’s models. Beautiful rainbows of colors were placed around the models’ eyes, each color fluently changing into another. The pastel shades (purple, green and orange) made their eyes look extra bright and matched very well with the clothes from the spring/summer collection. Once again, you’d have to be a make-up maestro for it, but if you can make this look work you’ll be the belle of the ball.

4. The looser the better
In case of a bad hair day a braid can be a good solution. And since braids are the hair-trend this summer that’s good news. On the catwalk loose braids, mainly worn to the side (Alexander Wang), were a big hit. Other nice braid examples were braids which had pieces of fabric braided into them (Oscar de la Renta) and French and Fishtail braids. And the more complicated the braid, the more classy the look.

5. Lovely lips
Apart from a light lipgloss, bright, red-colored lips will be seen a lot this summer. Rodarte, Viktor & Rolf and Dior showed the mostly lovely lips in the bunch, perfectly shaped and pretty colored. Some brands promoted green (Iceberg), orange (Loewe) and blue (Paul Smith) lips as well, but we think it’s better to save those for Halloween.

Overall we were most excited about the make-up at Dior, Viktor & Rolf and Derek Lam. The models looked fresh, playful and sexy at the same time. Since the make-up on the runway is always exagerated we might not copy the complete looks, but we’ll take some inspiration from it and we’ll do our best to create a subtle version of the looks presented above.

Streetfashion: celebrate color

Who’s afraid of yellow, purple and red? We’re definitely not.  And so are the people we spotted in the streets of Milan and Paris. Color adds flavor to your outfit and it sure makes  the sun shine on a rainy day. Red is favorite, but also the soft shades Dries van Noten introduced in his 2009 fall-collection.

Next Page »