NY Fashion Week SS09 Wrap Up I

Who knew Victoria Beckham had a dress collection showing at Fashion Week? Where does the women get the time between her reality TV show, pedicures, designing jeans and sunglasses, whipping up a perfume and being a wife and a mom? But anyway, back to the collection. Despite her having graced Blackwell's Worst Dressed List many times and indeed having a questionable sense of style on occasions, I am still very much want to like her collection. At the back of my mind, I guess my love for the Spice Girl era still lingers, making me want to love everything about them. And Posh has always been my favourite Spice.

However, despite my best efforts to want to be wow-ed, I was not blown away. It was a small and simple collection, to put it nicely. The entire collection could be summed up by a few looks. It was basically a collection that contained a few versions of the same dresses. They were all slimming pencil skirts of the same slightly longer length (which I think is great for more sophistication and class). It was definitely cohesive!
There was the simple round neck dress in blue. The clean cut strapless dress in black (perhaps a reminiscent of the little black Gucci dress? Turns out it wasn't even by Gucci!). I believe they also showed this dress in white on the runway.There was the crochet (I think?) topped dress. They also have this in white. Then the dress shirt dress, which we've been seeing in the stores a lot lately. She has this in black with chiffon and silk, and of course, in white and black.
Finally there was this silhouette, which is my favourite. I think this silhouette is very clever and very flattering to the female body. It curves at all the right places. I can totally see Victoria in it. This was possibly the most inspiring thing about the whole collection and of course she has this silhouette in many different styles. In black, in white, a casual less emphatic version and a more dressed up version. Although personally I'm not sure it'll look very good on me, since I'm shorter (and definitely not as lithe as the models!), so the skirt will probably cut my legs exactly where it shouldn't!

All in all, it was not a very inspiring (besides that shape of course) nor wow-ing collection. To give Victoria her credit though, it was indeed a very simple and classic collection. They are definitely not dated, which was her aim. And I'm sure they are very well made and tailored given the $1500-$3600 price range. Plus, at 15 looks, she did not try to overdo the collection with more unnecessary looks. It is always quality over quantity after all. Though I think 4 looks would've suffice to get the creative message across. But then, that wouldn't be a very good show, would it?

Image Source: Style.com

Sally Potter's The Man Who Cried

The Man Who Cried (2000)
Seen: Wednesday, April 30, 2008

What's striking to me about director Sally Potter's work, which I admittedly know not that much about, is the tightness of her film's settings and the mood they convey. The Man Who Cried (2000) is the third Potter film I've seen and it couldn't be more different than the rest that came before it. To begin, we're transported to a different era and historical time period: war time France, and though it has a feeling distinctly separate from films made in that actual setting during that actual time period, the feeling of its setting is so cold and bleak it has an uncanny familiarity, or sense of reality. Its lead characters Susie, a Russian immigrant, her roomate, Lola, and Susie's love interest, Cesar, are played by ultra-modern actors, Christina Ricci, Cate Blanchette and Johnny Depp, respectively. All of which is to say that upon initially meeting these characters they are recognizable celebrities we find in ubiquity on the cover of magazines. Rather quickly, I think, however, this cast of celebrities melts away into the story, their survival in and escape from Nazi occupied Paris.

In fact, the entire cast and crew is an amazing combination of the latter half of the century's finest figures in film history. With the influence and artistic vision of the individuals physically crafting the film, it might not be that surprising to see how the actors' celebrity image so quickly sheds from the screen. Director of Photography, Sacha Vierny, the renowned cinematographer who worked with Luis Bunuel on Belle de jour (1967), Alain Resnais on Last Year at Marienbad (1961), Hiroshima mon amour (1959), and Night and Fog (1955) (to my mind the most devastating Holocaust film made to date); and with Agnes Varda on L'Opéra mouffe (1958), and later with Peter Greenaway on The Pillow Book (1996) and Prospero's Books (1991); this guy is a walking film history text, and here he is in our own age shooting what was to be the last film before his death, The Man Who Cried.

There's no shortage of talent in the editing room either, which was occupied on this film by Herve Schneid. His work has most widely been seen in the films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet (The City of Lost Children (1995) and Amelie (2001). In short, this is one of those films where it is worthwhile to pore over the credit sheet, find the connections of its contributors and trace back through films previous how the one before us came to be.

Before I typed up these loose thoughts and observations on Potter's film, I scanned its initial reviews online, which in sum didn't describe anything overwhelmingly great (Elvis Mitchell straight-up panned the thing). Even if her movie isn't my next Ghost Busters (1984)--which is to say a movie I'll pop in and watch again and again and again, ad nauseam--I found it far above the standards of most general releases, in terms of style, technique, story, and most interestingly to me, for the incredible cast of historical players.

Serious Rainboots

In the pass I've blogged about pretty, rainbow colored rainboots that you can play matchy, matchy with and have a lot of fun. But after a particularly bad day yesterday, braving the pouring rain for half a hour (even though it is usually only a 15 minute walk!), squeezing onto the bus and getting my jeans soaked even though I have an umbrella, I am thinking that I should really invest in a serious pair of rainboots. Something that will just keep my feet (and hopefully half my jeans) nice, dry and CLEAN. Something I can wear so then I would NOT have to avoid puddles or worry about slipping. Something that is simple, versatile but of good quality.
Something like the classic Hunter rainboots. I'm not sure how it warrants the $115 price tag, but I guess it is an assurance of quality? They are the rainboots of rainboots after all. If you want to buy a trench coat, you got to go to Burberry. If you must buy trunk-like sheepskin snow boots, you have to buy Uggs. And if you want to buy rainboots, then you should get Hunter rainboots.

The style itself is simple and as sleek as rainboots can get. It is sturdy and definitely slip-proof. While the buckle makes the boots not so plain looking, it is also functional. These are serious no nonsense rainboots. Just what I need. They also come in many different colors, to add a bit of color to a dreary day. I'm considering this iris color. Black is just a bit too dark and yellow reminds me too much of those yellow wellington boots that cartoon bear wore. Now the only thing is convincing myself to make the splurge. Just that it's hard when it is all I want on a rainy day, but the furthest thing in my mind on a sunny (good for shopping) day!

Image Source: Saks

Looking for short hairstyles?

Short Hair Styles

Last year we were talking about getting hair extensions for beautiful long hairstyles. This year we are talking about short hair styles.

Great things about short hairstyles

1. They are very easy to style and maintain

2. They are cooler to wear than long hairstyles

3. They are very stylish and trendy

If you want your hairstyle to be IN STYLE, then you need to start looking at short hairstyles for examples of how to cut your hair.

See Editor's pick for the HOTTEST Short hairstyles today

90210 Is Strangely High School

Tuesday night's premiere of CW's 90210 was... okay. It wasn't particularly boring but we didn't exactly love it. Throughout the show, something felt off to us, something we couldn't really name until it suddenly occured to us that the show felt SO high school!

The show is about high school, you say, so obviously it's supposed to feel high school. But the characters in the past few 'high school' dramas that I've watched have been so un-high-school, 90210's characters and enviornment seemed relatively young and teensy. Think back: While The OC was also about spoilt kids who go to a rich, Californian school, Marissa (Mischa Barton) and Summer (Rachel Bilson) seemed to deal with more non-school-related issues and the only time we see them at school was to see them talk by their lockers. Veronica Mars was so mature and smart that I never really thought of her as a dumb teenager. As for Gossip Girl, Blair, Serena and sometimes even Jenny seem so worldly and glamorous that it just doesn't seem like normal high school to us.

So watching the kids on 90210 actually doing high school things like playing lacrose, messing up the rival school, copying a friend's homework, being grounded, participating in school plays and boys beating each other up. Obviously high school's not supposed to be sophisticated but we're just not used to it! And yes, of course we noticed the clothes!

The main character whose name was so forgetable I had to look up, is Annie. In the first episode, she wore very basic high school clothes, like a camisole with denim skirt.

And look, jeans with basic tops. Nothing fancy!

Silver (yes, that's the character's name,) whose supposed to dress hipster/ hippie/ edgy is my favourite 'fashion character' on the show so far. (She looks way cooler in the show than in this photo. I couldn't find a better one.)

The popular girl, Naomi dresses only ok. As you can see from her ugly outfit here, she's no Marissa Cooper. And she's really into wearing designer-flashing things, like Chanel logo accessories.

As for the party outfit, Annie got to wear an expensive dress (because Naomi bought it for her.) Silver looks so cool with a simple ballerina-looking American Apparel dress with long necklaces. I'm looking foward to more of Silver's outfits!

So you can obviously tell I am not impressed with the girls' outfits -but that is one of the things that is making this show seem so 'high school' to me. Hopefully the drama will get more interesting in the next few episodes. How much did you like the new 90210?

Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles DVD

I was at a major electronics store recently getting a computer fixed, and while I was there I picked up the new DVD of TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES Season 1. As a big fan of the movies, I have been eagerly anticipating the new television series. It is AWESOME. It is truly a worthy follow-up to Terminator 1 and 2, and pretty much ignores T3 for the most part. The action in the pilot episode is mind-blowing, and does not disappoint. I highly recommend it!

FW08: Leather Jackets

It's finally September! I can't believe the clear blue skies and sunshine is about to come to an end so soon. On the bright side, we can now officially focus on our FW08 wardrobe! And the beauty of fall is that you can experiment with different FW outfits without worrying about the snow and freezing to death- yet. The first thing that caught my eye this season is the leather jacket.
No big surprise since it is one of the heaviest advertised looks by high street stores. Bebe went for the typical dark, cool leather jacket look.
While Express mixed the hardcore leather jacket with feminine flirty dresses and prints, creating a look which I absolutely ADORE! Thus I must now go and look out for the perfect leather jacket and floral dress to recreate this look.
First things first. I got to find that leather jacket. Urban Outfitters has this simple one (left) with ribbed trims and Vanessa Bruno Athe has this classic asymmetrical zippered one (right) which I especially love because it looks cute with this black dress (which I have a very very similar one of!) and it'll look very cool with just jeans. The fact that they're both brown makes them all the more interesting.
More ribbed leather jackets from Ted Baker (left) and Top Shop (right). The ribs make them less rock and more toned down and sporty, which is great if you want a softer look. Although I'm not sure about these two. It's usually hard to tell quality with leather until you feel it, but from the LOOKS of these... they don't look of very good quality. And you definitely don't want to look cheap with leather.
So for styles with higher quality, I think it's safe to say that at the >$600 price range these two from Marc by MJ (left) and Vince (right) is good. One is classic biker chic while the other is more toned down and ladylike.
Of course, not everyone can afford the >$600 price range and even though I believe that jackets are my best friends, even I'm not sure they're worth that much (I'd be REALLY sad if I bought a leather jacket of exquisite soft leather and it got SCRATCHED). Thus I have my eye on this Aqua leather jacket I tried on the other day. The quality is not bad and it fits quite snug and well, with a bit of a crop. For $298, I thought it was priced reasonably, in the mid range of the worst and the best. Leather jackets are expensive things after all. Unfortunately, my bargain hunting instincts wouldn't let me buy it until it is at least on some kind of tiny sale. Fingers cross there will still be one left by then!

Image Source: Bloomingdales, ShopBop, Bebe, UO, Vanessa Bruno, Ted Baker and Express