First of all be prepared to ditch the “cardigan plus T” combination. These are for common mortal.For wanna be style queens there are some basics to keep in mind,tested in time.Think Victorian B,think Princess Rania of Jordan,think Ava Gardner,etc. You got the point. Some ideas from Prada Resort 2012 designers’ collections might help.I actually considered it the epitome of stylish travelling outfits’ collection of the season and i trust you will also. Well,accessorize,embrace colors, pick some designer luggage, grab your jet-set style uber chic shades and ready to go. Btw,dont forget the tickets,i did once…

bright plus subtle colours is a must for this season.Dont foget the cardigan unless you are travelling to the Maldives,of course.

And you thought black cant be summery?One word:Accessorize!

Floral capri pants.A great alternative to dresses that oozes 50's glamour

Going for shorts instead?Monochrome or printed,Prada has the (stylish) combo.

Excellent 60's color match that captures the eye-ensuring true star quality

(image courtesy:style.com)

First of all, by underrated i mean not really underrated.After all, he’s still young,presenting in prestigious Paris Fashion Week and a member of the French Designers’ Council. But will all these flashing names showcasing each season i felt a sense of..aesthetic duty to point out that in his Fall 2011 Couture Collection,there’s again hidden potential for so much more,to the observing eye.

The collection was being inspired by french classical animal starred fables of LaFontaine,a risky idea when it comes to couture,since he opted to re-create the actual “characters” being mentioned in the myths. But i like such risks and in times where Mr Formichetti claimed that  fashion is currently  more than ever being defined by web, aka social networks,blogs,etc, i choose to give kudos for this creative interaction between fashion and classical literature.

So,going back to Alexis Mabille Fall 2011 Couture collection,we have to transform into high class,couture dresses, the Black Wolf, the Ant, the Magpie, the Horse,the Swan.Weird enough. Yet the idea worked brilliantly in most of the cases.As for the yellow tights,hec, fashion MUST be fun,even when dealing with couture! I’ll stay tuned to the whereabouts of Mr Mabille.Just an advice,be more daring and the stars are with you!

(Photos courtesy by Yannis Vlamos / GoRunway.com)

JULIEN D’YS,ONE OF MY FAVORITES AND A LIVING FASHION LEGEND IS AT LAST PRESENTING HIS WORK IN A FIRST ,MUST-SEE, EXHIBITION BEING HELD AT  COMME DES GARCONS 54, Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré 75008 Paris Monday to Saturday 11h-19h From Jun 23 to July 13.

JUST BE THERE_I WILL.

photos by Ilker Akyol, courtesy of Julien D’Y's.

International and multidisciplinary fashion event_______

fashion-procession

I have to admit i was impressed by the quality of the event that took place at 10, 11 and 12 June. This was the third edition of FASHIONCLASH Maastricht and most probably,the best till the next one!

 In the second weekend of June Maastricht was all about FASHIONCLASH event and i cant blame them!

As, dear talented Branko Popovic  informed me via the official press release, what began three years ago as a spontaneous dream of initiators to be able to show their own work has now has become an international platform for young talent. SAMdecorfabriek, the new location chosen,ended up being perfect for this edition. Audience and participants responded very surprised yet letting themselves indulge in the new and innovative concept.

The third edition of the international fashion event FASHIONCLASH Maastricht cannot be considered less than successful. Sold out shows, international audience, and plenty of talent in many reactions such as ‘inspiring’ and ‘surprising’.A promising fact for all fashion/art events that showcase innovation mixed with genuine creativity.

 The event opened Friday evening with the Fashion Procession project, which one-week in advance already walked through the streets of Maastricht, a direct reference to how fashion can harmonically collaborate with performance arts-and achieve fantastic results! Especially for the opening the Toni and Guy hairstylists created miters plus  M.A.C Cosmetics collaborated for another year,creating their usual  stunning looks. FASHIONCLASH looks back on three years successful partnership with the wonderful team at MAC Cosmetics and nothing shows that this is about to end nor,us,spectators would like it to,judging for the results!

Again, the Clash Project premiered with some spectacular moments such as the creation of Niek Pulles, Valentin Loellmann and closing “pie” outfit of Sue Doeksen.Note these names,I’m telling you..

More photos from Clash project: : http://fashionclash-maastricht.blogspot.com/2011/06/clash-project-2011.html

This year the exhibition was a strong unit that represented the soul of FASHIONCLASH a clash of different disciplines and concepts that merged in a one  unified,solid overall concept.. Apart from the fashion-wise part, this  year FASHIONCLASH also collaborated with successful architects Tim Prins and Nora Müller of P-EN-M architects.

Overview of the exhibition: : http://fashionclash-maastricht.blogspot.com/2011/06/this-was-fashionclash-maastricht-2011.html

The main exhibition showed works by Leonneke Derksen, Ellis Biemans, menswear by Musa Shah, Anneloes Ouwehand and a video installation by Ulrik Martin Larsen called “Choreographed garments” . Femke Agema joined the event for the third time, and again with both an object in the exhibition and a show collection.

In the fashion shows, there were collections by MEM Couture, Luciana Teixeira, Anna Dudzinska, Manon Boertien, Annemarije van Harten, beautiful menswear by Angelo van Mol and Lukasz Stepien. aand Luciana Teixeira and many more,names that re[resent the actual avant-garde in fashion wear and fashion creation.

Founders of FASHIONCLASH, Nawie Kuiper and Banko Popovic, also showed their new collections.

On the program at the opening night there was also a show of the collective from Berlin, The Offer Berlin, which included Tata Christiane and Von Bardonitz.

http://fashionclash-maastricht.blogspot.com/2011/06/offer-berlin-show-at-fashionclash.html

The last day of the event was mostly based on showcasing  the fashion textile department of the Academy of Fine Arts Maastricht, culminating with the graduation collectors of Anne-Kathrin Bannier, Jenny Kloszynski and Rebecca Fuchs presenting excellent projects.

May i add that one of the highlights of the FASHIONCLASH Maastricht was the performance 'Rash' of Karel van Laere, a student from Theatre Academy in Maastricht that made an big impact.

http://fashionclash-maastricht.blogspot.com/2011/06/rash-by-karel-van-laere.html

FASHIONCLASH Maastricht was a stage for more than 100 international designers and artists. Artistic directors, Branko Popovic, Nawie Kuiper and Laurens Hamacher are looking back with great pride on a very diverse and high quality program and me waiting impatiently for the forthcoming FASHIONCLASH Maastricht 2012 , seriously thinking to be present if my schedule allows me to.

Anna Dudzinska

Annemarije Vanharten

Moga E Mago

Leonneke Derksen

Franko Popovic finale

contact details:

www.fashionclash.nl

For more information:

Branko Popovic

branko@fashionclash.nl

Athens,

June21-December 29 2011

Paco Rabanne

I recently was very honored to be personally invited/informed that two,Private and, most of all, unique in their kind,greek museums dealing with decorative arts (and not only!) collaborate in showcasing pieces from the the fashion archives that cover most of the 20th century.And the magic begins! Carefully chosen from both Greek Jewelry Museum and Peloponesian Folklore Institute brilliant pieces of their fabulous collections are being showcased in an exhibition that deals with the everlasting “love affair” between jewelry and Haute Couture pieces. Almost 50 pieces from the Lalaounis Jewelry collection(from 1947 to 2008) visually“interact” with great plus rare fashion pieces,courtesy of the Peloponesian Folkore Museum,dated from late 19^th century till today.

The overall concept is indeed a very interesting one.As described by the curators, the main idea is to establish a visual “dialogue” both in theory and aesthetics themselves inviting the visitor to discover the common elements between material that used to be considered belonging on different sectors. And yet…When you phase the plethoric 1880 bustle dress combined with jewelry creations that draw inspiration from ancient (the collection “Achille’s Aspis,1978”), you have to think there’s an underlying connection between these two,which is nothing more than the 19^th century fashion trends,most of all, the “passion” about cameos and intaglios that characterize the whole Victorian era. The inluence of the greek aesthetics there, is more than obvious.

And lets not forget to mention the “Delphos”(1910), the innovative dress by M. Fortuny with the elegance of its pleats, that obvious draws inspiration-(and name!) by the greek statue showcased in Delphi.In this particular exhibition,its being exposed along with Jewelry by Lalaounis “Drops and Chitons” collection,from1975. The result is stunning.

This very interesting “dialogue” keeps on even with a clever “game” based in semiotics/liguistic terms aka words and meanings!

For example,the colorful G.P Gaultier jacket (work of the “L’Enfant Terrible” of the French fashion industry) is being excellently exposed with the adornment of “Silver Games (1973)” Lalaounis collection,a concept based on inspiration being derived by children ‘s designs filtered by the creative mind of Ilias Lalaounis. Brilliant semiotic connotations,indeed.

Sophia Kokosalaki

"Aravourgimata" Lalaounis collection

"palaiolithiko",Lalaounis collection

An exhibition not to be missed!

(Many thanks to Mrs A. Roumeliwth from Peloponesian Folkore Museum, and to Mrs A. Nomikou,PR Executive to Jewlery Museum,”Ilias Lalaounis”for providing the excellent material being featured in this post. Deeply grateful to both.)

Photo:Saurabh Dua

When first coming across with Bolly Bow’s world  i must admit i felt a bit sceptical,”can he possibly be involved in all those things himself?” .See,i had to overcome the general fashion sector bountaries that usually define roles during a fashion shooting both in reality-and thus in my mind. When i did that,i started to enjoy exactly that, i had made a certain progress over fashion cliches.And as far as i know,beauty was never produced on the basis of cliches. So welcome to the fabulous world of Billy Bow, allowing him to personally explain his magic-an yet after that,no piece of it seems lost..

Tell us a bit about your self and your world..in random order..

“Ignignificant”, Victo-Reel” and more recent ” VOGUE INDIA ‘s explosive fashion” are rated amongst my favorite series, regarding your work.Which are yours?;)

Indeed they do! Now,could you tell me some of your biggest visual infuences,let them be fashion photographers,other conceptual artists,painters?

Believe it or not, dont feel really influenced by anybody except my dreams and things/visions of images  in my mind,Visual images i come across, Stories , Cartoons,  for  example kids poems’ books and such stuff .Influences can actually be derived from every thing that surround me. Still if i had to mention some names i would end up with Manish Arora , Pablo Rovesi , Alexendra Mcqueen and Leigh Bowery as my biggest influences.

Final question’s about a passion we share.Music.Well?

{"Unusual Features" 
Vogue India january Beauty Issue 
Photographered by :- SURESH NATRAJAN Styled by :-LORNA MCGEE
Models :- Shruti Aggarwal, Rachel Bayros,Tara Kurian 

 Production :- IONA FERGUSSON}

Rosi Di Stefano,a photographer of the “chosen one’s” commented, regarding the overall project:  “Prada gave us a clean sheet. The only guideline was to create a pop-funny mood”.  Interesting…

Illustration by Marcela Gutierrez, Image Courtesy of Prada

Regarding the images,some where creatively interesting and even funny in a refreshing sense.

Federica Di Giovanni

Kuba Dabrowski

Of course, you cant avoid the typical modern uber effort to simply be… innovative,ending up meangless,in artistic terms but hec,that’s fashion life…

Tassili Calatroni

and a brilliant talent to watch…

Ciraudo Majola

and my fav part,behind the scenes…

20th May – 22nd October 2011, Fashion and Textile Museum,London

Tommy Nutter

20 May 2011 – 22 October 2011

Fashion and Textile Museum is currently closed for a good reason, staging the brillintly themed forthcoming exhibition on  Thomas Nutter,founder of the famous “Nutters” shop in Saville Row or otherwise, theman-epitome of great british bespoke tailoring, the one reiventing the Saville Row suit around the 60′s.  The influence of the Nutter style in fashion,celebrity,rock world of the time aided significally to the boost of the whole Saville Row tradition,an issue also to be analysed/exposed during the exhibition and various workshops,talks etc that will accompany the main event. So here’s the exhibition’s official announcement and for those with questions regarding Mr Nutter,we will be back shortly with more infos on the exciting subject of 60-70′s bespoke tailoring frenzy! A list of his clients included Sir Roy Strong, Mick Jagger,Bianca Jagger,Elton John as well as dressing  The Beatles in the cover of “Abbey Road” album in 1969. Yet Nutter continued to create new shapes influencing fashion,with his most famous latest work being Jack Nicholson’s full costume guardrobe for the role of “Jocker” in the 1989 Batman film.

Exhibition details-Press release

20th May – 22nd October 2011
The FTM is building up to the opening of  its new exhibitionwith great excitement as it is going to contain some really special items. The Nutter order books read like a roll call of the great names of the day; Mick Jagger, Elton John, The Beatles, Charlie Watts, Neil Sedaka, Cilla Black, and Twiggy were all clients and through their generosity we have some great items on display.

When Nutters opened in 1969 on Savile Row, the staid and traditional world of bespoke tailoring entered a new era. It all started when Thomas Nutter, working as a junior sales assistant, met Edward Sexton, a cutter who had trained with Kilgour, French and Stanbury – one of the great bespoke establishments on the Row. It was this meeting that would lead to the formation of Nutters of Savile Row.

Tommy Nutter’s personable and stylish attitude to the styling and selling of clothes would link with the exquisite tailoring andsculptural cutting of Sexton in a completely new way. With Sexton cutting to Nutter’s ideas the Nutter style was born.

This exhibition not only explores the Nutter style but will also analyse the contribution of this legendary individual in the marketing and branding of a Savile Row company. A range of suits takes the viewer through the changes that Nutter introduced and will place his work in the social and historical context of the late 1960s through to the 1990s.

As always, the FTM is hosting a range of exciting and interesting events to compliment the exhibition such as a talk with guest curator Timothy Everest – sharing his first hand stories of working with Tommy Nutter in his Savile Row shop and his thoughts on the exhibition plus a Masterclass in Pattern Cutting with pattern cutter Edward Sexton, and many more.  Diving into sartorial past  that still  shapes the present,its an exhibition not to be missed.

http://www.ftmlondon.org

got questions? find his profile listed at “The Fashion Model Directory”

http://www.fashionmodeldirectory.com

Despite the fact that she started her career as a model, presenter,even being a vj at some point,she later moved to London to study fashion design. She probably did it well that after producing a few collections in her native Russia,she was  invited by Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana to participate in Milan Fashion Week, where she accompanied her designs with hand-made italian accesories something that she continues to do.

Regarding her latest collection/project,The MuscoviteS, she credits her russian images and infuences along with her view of effortless chic. In her own words: “This collection has been inspired by my native city,the way i know it and love it. So Moscow comes undone in my collection. My Muscovites have inherited ingenious and ironic treasure of experience left by the brightest minds of the constructivism epoh,such as Kostantin Melnikov,Moisei Ginzburg, Vesnin,Eisestein.New MuscoviteS are challengin,bold,even audacious. But still,they are open-hearted,eager for knowledge and intelligent. So i am happy to intoduce these friends of mine,the MuscoviteS as i see them”

Sounds ambitious indeed.But in terms of pattern design and innovative look, we can safely say there’s one designer to watch,so we’ll stay tuned. After all,Italian’s cant be wrong by inviting Masha Kravtsova to Milan fashion Week.So we’ll also stay tuned.

and a view on her fabulous S/S 2011 collection