Trends ss2010: sunglasses

When it comes to sunglasses every possible shape, size and color was presented on the runway.

We saw a crazy pair at the Ungaro fashion show which had diamonds all over the glasses. At Alexander Wang they were very pointy. At Hussein Chalayan they were pentagonal. In the Moschino show a few pairs had the shape of a flower.

Karl Lagerfeld put guitars on the side of his glasses. At Jenden they had all kinds of sparkling colorful rocks on the frame. And Louis Vuitton made them look like diving-glasses.
If there was a trend to be recognized among all those sunglasses it might be the one of the small circular Beatle glasses. They were there at the fashion shows of Erdem, Carolina Herrera, House of Holland, Iceberg and Schwab.

Another variant that stood out were the sunglasses with the pointy Fifties-inspired sides, which give someone the angry schoolteacher’s look. Jenny Packham, Rochas, Sonia Rykiel, Alexander Wang and Giles had them in their fashion show.

So, no specific look stood out for SS2010. Yet it might be time for the Beatle-glasses to return.

Groupielove # 7

Turning out refined day looks and eveningwear since 1981, the house of Herrera specializes in classic shapes (lean trousers, pencil skirts, A-line ball dresses, and nipped-waist jackets) stitched up in soigné silk faille and jacquard, luxurious taffeta and mink. In recent seasons, Oscar regulars like Renée Zellweger have splashed this most Park Avenue of labels with a starry dash of Hollywood Boulevard.

Carolina Herrera made a name for herself by dressing well before she began designing well. (And she is still recognized for her chic uniform of crisp white shirts and tailored black trousers.) She was born in 1939 to a family of Venezuelan aristocrats and, with her second husband, Reinaldo Herrera, partied with a coterie of 1970’s jet-setters that included Mick Jagger and Andy Warhol. Herrera landed on the International Best-Dressed List time and again during those years, and was named to its Hall of Fame in 1980. The same yearHerrera designed her first line of ready-to-wear as a “test.” She aced it.

Herrera was named the CFDA Womenswear Designer of the Year in 2004, and in 2008 the organization gave her the Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award.

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Trey Speegle’s giant paint-by-number canvas spelling out the word YES at the back of Stella McCartney’s runway summed up the mood of her collection quite succinctly. These were uncomplicated, upbeat, and above all colorful clothes for women who prefer not to think too hard about getting dressed but still want to look young, sexy, and chic. It’s a sentiment that McCartney, a mother of three young children and the head of a growing fashion empire, understands intimately—as do her loyal customers, including front-row pal Gwyneth Paltrow.

Make-up trends ss2010: bright eyes

No smokey eyes next season, but bright colorful ones that really stand out and give you that summer-feeling.

The models’ eyes were painted in every color of the rainbow. At Dior they were purple, blue and green. At Fahri they came in a pastel green and purple combination. Galliano’s girls had pink eyes. Luella Bartley gave her models a thick layer of blue eye shadow, which even crossed their eyebrows.

At Issa the eyes were metallic green and at the Derek Lam fashion show they looked like little rainbows in orange, purple and green. Viktor & Rolf gave their models a mix of pastel-colored eye shadow as well; we saw pink, blue, purple and green. Those colors matched with the outfits from their SS2010 collection.

The combinations of many bright colors looked great on each of the models. So for next summer I think we can spice up our make up and try to create the same pastel-colored eye shadow look for ourselves. If you dare, use green and purple; they seem to be the main colors for 2010.

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After a couple of seasons of citified dressing, collectors of Dries may well be pining for his more eclectic, decorative pieces. If so, they’ll find plenty of them: coats, soft boxy jackets, wrapped dresses, and sarong skirts in a plethora of fabrics and embroideries that looked as if they’d been sourced from a trip around the markets of China and Southeast Asia.

In among them, there were items—like the silver lamé tank with a sheer back, the khaki shorts, and the sparkly jackets—that will also allow fans to dip into trend without going overboard. The incredible necklaces—rich-looking pearl chokers dangling geometric pendants set with large semiprecious stones and crystal—made gorgeous viewing.

Trends ss2010: lace details

Although lace is usually only seen in lingerie or underwear, we were now confronted with  lace in all kinds of daywear  in many shows. The largest  fashionbrands like Chanel, Dior, D&G, Oscar de la Renta, Cavalli, Valentino and Galliano introduced their clothing for the summer of 2010 with loads of lace.

The lace mostly came in neutral shades like black, white or beige. Yet in the Dior show we saw some black mixed with bright colors, like purple or pink. Erdem showed a combination of blue and black. At the fashion show of Antonio Marras  lace was mintgreen. And the models at Nina Ricci wore it in nudes and navy blue.

Jenny Packham designed some great feminine dresses in white lace. Paola Frani came up with a stunning jumpsuit in black lace. Barbara Bui made a few wonderful black lace jackets and Jasper Conran’s lace dresses felt a little bit like wedingdresses. At the Chanel fashion show the models wore many layers, topped with lace.

The most outstanding lace designs were a white mini dress with puffy shoulders from Jill Stuart and an elegant lace dress and jacket from Oscar de la Renta.

Introducing lace as a new trend for summer seems perfect. The fabric is airy and comfortable and makes women feel and look very ladylike.

Christopher Bailey: Designer of the Year at BFA

Christopher Bailey, the creative whirlwind who has helped turn the heritage brand, Burberry, into a global luxury label, was wednesdaynight named ‘Designer of the Year’ 2009, at the British Fashion Awards. It is the second win for Bailey who previously was awarded the title in 2005.

Last night’s fashion “oscar” capped a remarkable year for Bailey, the 38-year-old Yorkshireman, who received the MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours earlier this year, and whose spring/summer 2010 Burberry Prorsum collection was the highlight of London Fashion Week, in September.

In addition, Burberry took home the Designer Brand award. In his acceptance speech, Bailey, who is chief creative officer, announced that Burberry Prorsum would continue to show at London Fashion Week in February.

You want to know why we like Christopher?

Bailey knows how to mix classic and modern and his particular skill is to cleverly update the brand stalwarts, like the trench, with enough fashion flair to make them seem fresh and wantable, season after season. The figures speak for themselves: while other brands languish in the recession, Burberry saw its revenue rise by 21% in the last financial year.  That translates into a lot of product sold — and Bailey is in control of it all. Everything you see ath Burberry’s headquarters has been passed by Bailey, not just the building, but the website and the furniture, right down to the bottles of water. He micromanages some areas, such as a new store concept, and macromanages the rest.

So is Bailey a scary control freak, unable to let go of even the smallest detail? “I’m so lucky,” he told Colin McDowell at The Sunday Times. “My role is challenging. It is so multifaceted, but that enables me to absorb many things that really interest me: the music for the shows, the website, the ad campaigns, the fragrances — and the clothes, of course.”

Bailey was brought up in Yorkshire; his father was a carpenter and his mother worked as a window-dresser for Marks & Spencer. Direct, natural and always articulate, he is a true Yorkshireman and no pushover. He trained in a tough school, working with Donna Karan, then as chief womenswear designer for Tom Ford at Gucci, before being chosen by Rose Marie Bravo, the chief executive at the time, to design for Burberry.

Despite all appearances — he is always in jeans and a T-shirt, but rarely without a jacket — Bailey is a fashion businessman as well as a designer. “The power that my job gives me is huge,” he says. “It would be so easy to be overwhelmed by the pressure. The deadlines, the budgets, the fact that my life at Burberry is so scheduled, and my days are full from 8.30am until late, usually well after 8pm. And the meetings. I’m always conscious that Burberry is much bigger than I am. It’s 153 years old. My life here hasn’t even reached 10 years yet, but I have been here long enough to say that Burberry flows in my veins. I love its values. I respond to its strong foundations and, of course, its history is a constant inspiration.”

According to Bailey, there is a knack to being a fashion polymath. “I can compartmentalise different aspects of my life in my head, so that, on one side, I have work and all the different projects we are involved in at any one moment, and on the other, my personal life. Keeping them in separate boxes contains them so they can both be made manageable. At work, I need order: cool, clean spaces that really help me to think clearly. But at home, I want that order to be scrambled.”

He has learnt how to go into performance mode in public, but he likes his private life to be private. “You know, I often think I could easily become a hermit,” he says. “I certainly know I can live by myself, although I would always choose to live in a loving relationship.” He is in one now, having recovered from an earlier relationship that ended in tragedy when his lover died. Maybe that’s why he claims: “The most wonderful thing is being happy with someone. Someone who can give you mental stimulation as well as emotional support.”

And he is very loyal. “My best friend is Rebecca. She was my best friend at school and she is still the person I ring more often than anybody, apart from my family. I go to Yorkshire whenever I can, have Sunday dinner with my parents, talk to Mum in the kitchen while she’s making the gravy. That’s when I feel totally happy and content.” He has a house not far from his parents; it’s an old farm, and he loves driving up there from his flat in Chelsea in what he claims is “a really clapped-out old Mini”.

Once he’s there, he has his way of unwinding. “I put on my wellies — I love my wellies — get the wheelbarrow out of the shed and bring in the logs and the coals. My great luxury is that I have a fire in the bedroom. Then I go to see the cows. I usually have friends to stay. We often end up at the local in the evening, having a few drinks.” It’s the same with holidays. “Nothing glamorous,” he says. “I just don’t need it.”

“It’s not looks, it’s character that counts with me. And really, I suppose, I like people in the same way that I like houses: a bit rambly and slouchy. People I can put my feet up with.”

See, that’s why we like him.

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Karl Lagerfeld is still going strong and he can’t get enough of fashion yet. “I like imagination — and the way I think things could be, had been, or should be — better than reality”, is one of hist latest oneliners at Twitter. Well, hios collection for Fendi was better than reality: wispy fabric, ivory and ecru, off-pastels, and fraying edges with a little touch of Parisian lingerie. It looked as if Karl Lagerfeld had drawn from his French vocabulary to make a cream silk high-necked playsuit (part classic blouse, part romper) and a dotted tulle shirt with a frilled triangle bra beneath. Thankfully, it didn’t slip completely into the clichés of boudoir (hypersexy is not the mood). That’s because of the more rough-hewn elements—say, a pale blue linen sarong, wrapped like a simple piece of raw-edged fabric around the body—and the incredibly luxurious Fendi craftsmanship.

Trends ss2010: colorful kisses

In many shows the models had a very natural look. The make-up made them look pretty and fresh but it was not exaggerated. Sometimes it was as if the models had no make-up on at all.

Of course there were exceptions. We could see dark smokey eyes, white-painted faces and strange-looking eyebrows. We also noticed some colorful lips passing by. Altogether nearly every possible shade of red was used for the models’ lips. Some bright colors like blue (Paul Smith, Doo Ri), green (Iceberg) and orange (Loewe, Prada) were shown as well.

At John Galliano’s show the models had ultra-thin eyebrows and small dark-purple pursed lips. The models at Viktor & Rolf had bright red lips with an extra gloss. Vivienne Westwood’s models had red lips that ended halfway their chin, looking somewhat like a bird’s bill. It made perfect sense, since all models had the looks of a tropical bird.

There is no specific trend when it comes to the color of the lips. It seems next summer any shape or color will do.

Tess van Daelen

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Christopher Bailey, chief creative officer of Burberry, and one of Great Britains best-known designers, collected last monday his MBE from Buckingham Palace. Bailey, 38, was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire  in June this year, for his services to the fashion industry “This award also recognises the incredible team that I work with and it is a privilege to be a part of Burberry, a great British brand” Bailey said.

The recognitions are the latest in a long list of awards for the talented Yorkshireman. In 2004, Bailey received an honorary fellowship from the Royal College of Art, from where he graduated with an MA in 1994. He also holds honorary doctorates from the University of Westminster and the University of Huddersfield.

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