Lucy B Vintage Inspired Lingerie has taken my love for vintage lace and 1950s styled swimsuits and has meshed them together in the Ava Swimsuit. The glorious swimsuit has removable straps, supportive boning, and a padded sweetheart bust line. Whether you’re lounging by the pool or sunbathing at the beach, this suit will make you feel and look like a Hollywood starlet.
The Ava Swimsuit by Lucy B Vintage Inspired Lingerie is available online at www.lucyb.com.
Alexandra De Francesco showed a new Asphyxia collection at the first night of FAT this year. There was lot of lace, black, and white as seen in past collections. Sheer fabrics revealing skin and mid-drifts were a theme throughout. As well as a more flowing and loose fit. The strong point of Asphyxia designs remains the use of fabrics and textures.
This year’s fall collections seem to have had a darker vibe. The runway show for Lanvin’s fall 2011 collection shown at Paris fashion week featured an eerie weeping willow as it’s backdrop. Southern witches walked the runway with large brimmed black hats. Majority of the ensembles were all black and paired with amulet-esq jewelry and detailing and those hats it had a darker than typical feel. Mostly the designs are too boxy or simple for my tastes but I enjoyed the aesthetic of this collection.
At NY fashion week, with so many casual ready-to-wear collections this season I feel as though it was tough for many designers to really shine through, I saw a lot of repeats in trends and mediocre collections. I understand that this is not couture week, but Marchesa’s fall 2011 collection certainly is and far outshines most of what I saw on the runways. The perfect embroidery paired with meticulous draping has always been their signature and was no less in this collection, but what was more was a new perspective on Victorian. Marchesa is very good at showing modern elegance but to blend modern with the kind of nostalgic beauty of the 19th century is a new endeavor well achieved.
The helpless romantic in me always tends towards nostalgia; Marchesa’s new couture dress collection epitomizes romanticism through what they call “Decaying Opulence”. The design duo displayed an intuition into how women want to see themselves as beautiful. It takes a certain kind of confidence and personal identity to wear a Marchesa dress, and this collection embodies an alter ego that many women feel akin to but it is at risk to portray.
It’s easy to look at Anna Sui’s fall 2011 collection shown at NY fashion week or Anna Sui’s designs in general and get overwhelmed by all the bold colored bohemian 60s prints. But there is a ton going on in this collection and in her design style in general that is worth taking cues from. As I see it Sui is inspired by a whole many decades, periods, and subcultural styles and it’s just a matter of picking the pieces where she blends the styles you enjoy together. And sometimes discovering you enjoy periods or styles you didn’t think you did.
There are many 60s/bohemian prints and cuts in this collection that I just can’t get into. But there are some cases where the color and prints come together in a way that catches my eye. Side stepping this look that was the meat of the collection, there were four main aspects I enjoyed in this collection. First, animal cosplay hats and designer fashion, perfect! Cosplay hats have been popping up all over for the past couple years, but this is one of the best ways I’ve seen them done. Second, glasses on the runway. There were a few bookworm inspired outfits pushed further in that direction with a pair of frames, very cute. Mainly, were the all black ensembles pulling from many decades to create a dark, lush, and just plain beautiful effect. Sui can do sweet and super chic all black ensembles drawing from Victorian, flapper, mod, goth, and boho all at once amazingly. And lastly, she does this look in all white and I am inspired!
A behind the scenes look at the photoshoot for the February/March 2011 Issue fashion editorial Harlequin Valentine. Styled by Auxiliary’s Pretty Deadly Stylz, shot by Stephanie Bell of Emerging Design, and featuring designers Betty Monroe, Ego Assassin, Karen von Oppen for KvO Designs, Purrfect Pineapples Lingerie, and more! See the end result in our February/March Issue out in just a couple days!
Asphyxia is the fashion creations of designer Alexandra De Francesco of Toronto. It does not appear to be a fully developed brand but more a fashion collection by an artist. I would guess however that the designs seen in this runway show are available as custom pieces by request through the email found on Asphyxia’s website. It was a beautiful collection of white and black textures, lace and satin that was in line with De Francesco’s focus on textiles. The long flowing dresses were the backbone of the collection, but I personally really enjoyed the short dresses for the stripes and sections made through the stitching together of different textured fabrics. I do wish the collection had been shown with a more diverse range of footwear. Each look was shown with stack platform boots and I would have rather seen the dresses paired with heels and boots that better fit the mood of the collection. The platform boots did fit quite nicely with the short dresses as a contrast to the detailed lace, but they were a distraction with the long dresses. It does point to the fact that new styles, trends, and takes on alternative fashion are emerging much faster in clothing than footwear. It is always a struggle to find good footwear to compliment newer looks and this was a collection of fresh looks and dresses. I hope to see more develop from De Francesco and Asphyxia soon!
Just like the New York chill in February, the set design echoed this theme with a carpeted runway of black fallen leaves for Tony Cohen’s Fall/Winter 2010 collection. Born and bred in Netherlands, Amsterdam, Tony Cohen first designed clothes in Italy after going to school in the United States. Cohen attributes his father’s 40 years of woman’s fashion experience that helped him to become a fashion designer.
Cohen takes inspiration in designing from curtain draping, art, and fabric, which is prevalent in his sleek Fall/Winter 2010 collection. The mostly monochromatic collection had a neutral palette of gray, black, and burgundy, featuring draping fabrics and asymmetrical cuts combined to make each piece dramatic. The simplicity of color was overshadowed by the incorporation of rich textiles of fur, leather, and wool. The garments were complimented by seasonal accessories of; gloves, black leather belts, fish net gloves, and silver waist chains. The overall feel of Tony Cohen’s Fall/Winter 2010 collection is easy-to-wear, edgy and sexy, nothing too innovative, but definitely functional and memorable.
