I Spy: Elsa Peretti for Halston at Rodarte

There was a definite very Elsa Peretti for Halston moment at Rodarte today with Peretti's famous horseshoe buckle belt making an inspired visit.  

and the original:

Otherwise, I think this was one of the strongest Rodarte shows in quite a while with the Mulleavy sisters doing what they do best: layers of yarn, net, sequins...

love and kisses, Juliana

NYFW: Snow, Sleet and Socks

New York Fashion Week, I hardly knew you... with all of the snow, the difficulty getting around town and the thought of having to wear socks or not, NYFW has come and gone to London...

and on the last day when Marc Jacobs showed during a blizzard, everyone dressed winter ready:

Street style photos from NYFW 2014.  Style.com

I guess what I used to love about street style photography is that it was seeing the way real people put together a look - because most of us do not dress the way clothes are presented in magazines: in a head to toe runway look.  

We buy something new, something vintage : ) and mix it all up.  Fashion then becomes style.  

But suddenly street style photography became an orgy of color, caricature and over accessorizing - once again not the real way anyone dresses and certainly not style.

So what of the fashion on the runway?  I admit my heart is more in Paris, sometimes in Milan and more and more in London... and I really don't have enough time to look through endless shows on Style.com so I may very well have missed something amazing.  

I always look forward to Marc Jacobs and I thought this show which was going to herald a new focus on the Marc Jacobs line, without the commitment to Louis Vuitton, was a huge disappointment.  Vaguely Courreges, the styling drew more attention then the clothes...  Nothing there I had to have and with the cost of clothes these days you have to really want it.

The show I absolutely loved was Francisco Costa for Calvin Klein.  He showed real clothes but different then anything else we have in our closets - and clothes that made you feel really excited to go out and buy.  And with the weather we are having I would love to have those combat boots he showed with every look right now but alas we have to wait until August... : (

"It felt like the clothes needed to be cooler, urban; there was this idea of a gypsy."

Francisco Costa

Fuzzy, wuzzy was a Costa this collection.  He estimated that 85% of the collection was a cozy knit.

and I love the homespun but really refined feel of the collection.  If you look closely, you will see that many of the jackets and coats closed with oversized safety pins with big plastic baubles on them...

Calvin Klein fall 2014.  Photos from Style.com

and just one last note on socks... I loved the socks at Rodarte!  Hope they are produced!!

Rodarte fall 2014.  Photos from Style.com

Givenchy In Van Gogh's Garden

In Van Gogh's garden there are sunflowers

and also in Van Gogh's garden is Hubert de Givenchy creating an enchanting party frock from those sunflowers

Van Gogh's sunflowers flutter in the wind on ruffled silk.

For a summer garden party, a 1980s Hubert de Givenchy haute couture silk ruffled 'sunflower' print wrap dress.  There is a shorter column dress underneath the tea length layers of ruffled organza.

The dress beckons like the Mulleavy sisters dreamy sunflower dress for Rodarte...

Will you sow seeds of sunflowers in your wardrobe this summer?  

PURCHASE

INQUIRY

Hand Me Down: Rodarte Fall 2012

Hands down (or hands all over ; ) best future vintage and one of the best dresses from NYFW from the two girls, Laura and Kate Mulleavy, with a fashion dream for Rodarte.

Best of New York Fashion Week

Fashion has a very short gestation period.  We are in the midst of the Spring 2012 shows and before we know it, Resort will be here, then pre-Fall and then Fall 2013 and then before we are dreaming of what will we be wearing next summer, for the next Fall, designers will be dreaming up the Resort collection.  Whew!  I get exhausted just thinking about it!  

Here are my favorite shows from the New York fashion week:

The Row.  The ladies know how to turn out a good collection of very wearable clothing.  

I always feel like I have 'no middle'.  I love glamour and romance for the evening (an evening out that is, evening at home is the most glamorous, the comfiest pajama I can find) and for everyday I love a good soft shirt usually from The Row or Proenza Schouler or a vintage blouse from YSL.  You can never be too rich, too thin or have too many YSL blouses!  But then there are days when you have, oh, I don't know, a lunch honoring Valentino - just another day in vintage store owner land:) and you need something more 'in the middle'.   You know something that will make Mr. Valentino proud.  I may love my ever growing collection of Proenza tees but I just somehow suspect, Mr Valentino would not.  I am a firm believer in wearing whatever you want, whenever you want but I am also a firm believer in dressing appropriately to the occassion.  Rachel Roy recently caused a ruckus when she wore her pajamas out for a screening in New York.  

Now I LOVE my pajamas but no way am I going out in them.  I am no Julian Schanbel.  But I will wear a YSL pajama inspired ensemble or a Dolce & Gabbana pajama inspired outfit out.  But actual pajamas?  No.  Only Julian can pull off that look.  I'm sorry Rachel.  Besides I am feeling very confused by the heels, the semi brief case clutch.  It's almost as if she thought she was 

A. Going to a party (the strappy high heeled sandals)

B. Going to bed (the pajamas)

C. Going to a meeting at a corporate office (the brief case clutch)

or D. All of the above

I think it is safe to say, Rachel went for D.

But getting back to The Row.  The collection was beautiful, ethereal, wearable and practical.  Gorgeous practical.  Mary-Kate said that they "wanted everything to float and breathe."

The Row.  Spring/Summer 2012

Love all this light layering.

OMG!  Pajamas!!

Coming soon on a celebrity...

Sisters are doin' it for themselves!  Rodarte Spring/Summer 2012

If Hitchcock was hiring a costume designer for a new film, he would hire the Mulleavy sisters and use their Spring 2012 Rodarte collection.  The Mulleavys were inspired by the colors of the 1959 Disney film, Sleeping Beauty and the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh.  

The evil Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty

Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night 

And the Mulleavys Starry Night

Rodarte's Hitchcock heroines

And my other favorite show was Prabal Gurung.  If the stylish, chic and goofy Carole Lombard was alive, I think she would choose to wear Prabal Gurung.  And since I inspire to be as stylish, chic and goofy as Carole Lombard, I will be ordering from the Spring collection.  There is a very definite 1930s  mad cap heiress feeling to the dresses with their fluttering sheer panels.  

Prabal Gurung.  Spring/Summer 2012

Prabal Gurung was inspired by the artist Araki's Sensual Flowers series.  Nobuyoshi Araki is most well known for his photographs of women bound by kinbaku (Japanese rope-tying art) and his lush photographs of flowers.

One of Araki's sensual flowers.

One of Prabal's sensual flower dresses

And this is the dress that I must have.  And if you read our RARE vintage blog, you now how determined I can be:)  So beautiful don't you think?