Remembering McQueen #3

Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief, Vogue: “We are devastated to learn of the death of Alexander McQueen, one of the greatest talents of his generation. He brought a uniquely British sense of daring and aesthetic fearlessness to the global stage of fashion. In such a short career, Alexander McQueen’s influence was astonishing—from street style to music culture and the world’s museums. His passing marks an insurmountable loss.” (Source: E!)

Remembering McQueen #2

Anne Christensen, Fashion Director NYT: “Walking into whatever venue McQueen staged his show in, there was always a sense of excitement. His shows were always about beautiful clothes with incredible tailoring and details, but also about the thrill of astonishing his audience. (Source: The Moment-blog)

Remembering McQueen #1

John Galliano: “McQueen was daring, original, exciting. He shook up the establishment with his creativity and understood what it takes to be a great British ambassador for fashion. I admired him very much. He was a fashion revolutionary that, like me, made the journey from [Central] Saint Martins to Paris where he put his own unique mark on the industry. He will not be forgotten.” (Source: WWD)

One more time Alexander McQueen

No more dark, romantic fairytales.

No more beautiful tailored clothes.

No more amazing runway productions.

No more fighting for invitations.

No more stunning strong women on ultra high heels.

No more imagination without limits.

Alexander McQueen (1969-2010)

Ready to fish fashion show fw2010

On the afternoon of 9 February designer Ilja Visser presented her Ready to fish fall/winter collection for 2010/2011. For the fashion show a small fashion audience gathered at a location in the center of Amsterdam. The great building has since a few months become Ilja Visser’s office and within a month a Ilja Visser shop will be opened there too.

At the fashion show we met with Mrs. Forester, a nice well-dressed lady, who protects the forest. Mrs. Forester wears the prettiest clothes, takes care of the trees and the flowers and is always happy. For her the presentation of new collection, which was inspired by this lady, Ilja took us deep into the woods.

While a forest-inspired video was played at the back of the room Mrs. Forester was represented in many woolen outfits like a catsuit and a long buttoned cardigan. Heavy and light fabrics combined together in several outfits formed a great aspect of the collection.

Pants were pleated and draped. A few jackets had the shiny print of hanging leaves all over them. Other pants and tops had moss prints in different natural colors. The models carried clutches with them and wore large hats, which looked splendid.

Ilja held a great show. The materials looked amazing and the location made the show feel extra special. And we…we just got carried away by the whole forest-story.

Haute Couture 2010: Oscar Potentials

With the 82^nd edition of the Academy Awards just one month away, we thought it was about time to have a dress-room talk….

A lot has to be arranged before a famous actress wears a designer gown to the Oscars. Stylists first have to order several dresses. Those have to fit or else be altered. Then the search starts for the right shoes and accessories. Finally, the whole look has to be approved and if a celebrity decides it just isn’t the right dress, there needs to be time to find another one. So one month is not that long of a period.

The Haute Couture collections shown in Paris had a lot of potential dresses for the Oscars. While watching the shows we could already vision Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz and Angelina Jolie in the beautiful gowns that were presented.

At the Armani Prive show three dresses seemed ready to battle for the Oscars. The best one was a strapless black dress with a small part of the dress covering one shoulder.

The Chanel collection had quite a few dresses that just belong at the Oscar-show. Lagerfeld’s gorgeous silver and pastel combinations with exquisite embroideries are sure to look swell on almost any Hollywood star. And the yellow pastel strapless gown with the classical silver adornment needs to be shown on the red carpet, if you ask us.

For Dior, John Galliano created a lot of voluptuous white gowns. Last year white was a huge hit at the Ocars. But maybe this year it’s time for a little more color. Dior’s deep red gown with pastel colored top and back might just be the real thing for Oscar nominee Sandra Bullock.

At the Jean Paul Gaultier show one blue and silver dress had some nice elements. Yet it could be a bit over the top for the red carpet. The rest of JPG’s dresses didn’t seem very appropriate for the Oscars either. JPG had used many different themes in his collection, so his dresses were a bit too playful.

Elie Saab’s mind-blowing dresses on the other hand simply earn a spot on the red carpet.  Their washed out colors, chiffon frills and sparkling silver beading just looked so graceful, feminine and seriously chic. A minty green Elie Saab dress stood for perfection.

The Valentino collection had many youthful color combinations and therefore not a lot of Valentino gowns looked appropriate for the Oscars. Still we think the red and bright yellow gowns might stand a good chance on the big night.

The closer we get to the Oscars, the more exciting it will become. Which dresses will celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe get a hold of? And which stars will pull off a fifties dress, like Penelope Cruz did last year? Will there be any huge fashion flunks? What color trend will we see this year? And which of our Oscar Potentials will we meet on the red carpet on 7 March.

One thing’s for sure: all A-listers want the best-looking, most lengthening, figure-narrowing gown on the planet, so the competition is on!

Bibi wins our goodiebag contest!

With a fashionable key ring, a book about modeling by Yfke Sturm, a scarf from the Percy Irausquin collection and a Redken tube, we chose Bibi van der Velden’s goodiebag as the best of the Amsterdam Fashion Week.

Just as much as we loved Bibi’s show, we loved her goodiebag. We estimated its value at € 25 and gave the goodiebag an excellent 7,5.

Though the Bibi van der Velden key ring will be a little bit too big for our pockets, we thought it looked pretty cool. And as our whole team dreams of becoming a top model we also liked getting Yfke Sturm’s book about how to look like a top model. Besides, the scarf from the Collection PRC (Percy Irausquin) will surely match one of our outfits. And the Redken tube will be added to the rest of our Redken collection, which we gathered during this Amsterdam Fashion Week.

We want to congratulate Bibi van der Velden on winning our goodiebag contest.

Yet we have two remarks to make:

1.      After comparing all goodiebags from this Amsterdam Fashion Week, it was obvious the Supertrash goodiebag had the best content of all bags.
It came close to winning our contest. However, as none of these bags ended up in our hands, it didn’t.
We think it’s only fair to give all first two rows at a fashion show a goodiebag and not make a distinction between the sections. Moreover, since we have officially started a goodiebag contest, we think we should always get one, no matter what section or row we sit. (We also don’t want to have to goodie-beg for it).

2.      We accidently discussed one of the goodies in the Non by Kim goodiebag wrong. We described one of the items as a folder, but it actually was a handmade screen print, worth about 50 euros.
We want to apologize for this mistake. Yet we think its value wasn’t clear to a lot of people, especially since it was printed on the back of the press review, which most people throw away shortly after the show.
Maybe it should have been handed out in a different way or maybe it was just bit of a baddie to give away at a fashion show. Anyway, we are sorry for our misinterpretation.

Looking back on all the goodiebags we received last week, we think there is some pimping to be done. Some of the bags seemed worth more than their contents and after a few shows we were almost buried in Redken products. There was also a huge gap between the Supertrash goodiebag and all the other bags. So there’s a job for the other brands if they want to equalize.

We will continue on rating the goodiebags we receive at different fashion events, so we hope all brands will take the challenge and put some extra effort in arranging some new goodies for next fashion season.

Wanna take a hint?
Scarfs, books, accessories, make-up or food and drinks will do just fine!

team peter stigter

The 12th edition of Amsterdam Fashion Week is over, it just went too fast this time. We want to thank everybody for their support, their cooperation and wonderful fashion. See you next time or in New York !

Laser lights at fashion show Bibi van der Velden

Ado Les Scents by Hyun Yeu Amsterdan Fashion Week fw2010

Fashion designer Hyun Yeu presented his second menswear collection for fw2010. He named it Rain, while the clothes in this collection were meant to be worn (with a smile) on a rainy day.

The main character in the collection was a coat. We saw a fur coat, trench coats and some shiny silver and blue coats. A cashmere pea coat was so popular that couturier Frans Molenaar already bought it right after the show.

Hyun Yeu also showed some suits in orange black and some long woolly sweaters. We spotted them already the menswear collections in Milan and Paris, but Hyun Yeu presented some old fashion long Johns as well. They were worn with short tight jackets (with only one button) and blouses.

When we asked Hyun Yeu which item was his favorite he said: ‘All the outfits are my babies. I cannot pick one favorite, that’s like choosing between your children. I love them all.’

Besides the trench coat, we loved the pleated silk wool pants in his collection. They fit perfectly and were very well executed.
Actually they look too good to wear on a rainy day, if you ask us.

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