Mood Board: March 2011

March 2011

Chloe leather shorts and smiley ads

Nerdy glasses

Kiera's Tom Ford jumpsuit

Kate Moss kisses

The closet I wish I had

Flowers, teapots, reading, and bicycles

(all things spring)

And a red ticket to ride

Kate's Royal Restrictions

As the royal wedding is only months away, the details of Kate’s wedding attire have remained under wraps. However, this has not kept fashion journalists and industry leaders from buzzing about what she will wear, whom she will wear, or how her hair will look.

Many have taken a royal stance in speaking of the modesty of her dress and hair as she walks down the aisle of Westminster Abbey. It has been determined that her dress “must have sleeves,” and her hair must be cut in order to keep the “internet from uproar.”

Bruce Oldfield, the designer who created Diana’s wedding gown and rumored to be designing Kate’s, gave his opinion on the matter of modesty that Kate’s dress must uphold. He explained that the coverage must be modest, including sleeves and a veil. The dress must also suit the aisle of Westminster Abbey, which is quite large. This could mean a train similar to the grandeur of Diana’s.

The talk over Kate’s long hair has also been circulating in the fashion and beauty industries since the announcement of the engagement. Can the future Queen of England have long brown locks? Will she have to cut it short as Diana did, or will she and Prince William make another statement against the royal family’s unwritten rules?

Another point of discussion has been over the two wedding dresses that Kate is supposedly wearing on her wedding day. It is not clear whether they will be by the same designer. Perhaps the grandeur of the gown she will wear to Westminster Abbey will have a similar match that is easier to move in. This would be the first royal bride to wear two dresses on her wedding.

The final decisions will only be revealed to the world on the day the many have been waiting for years. You can be sure that Kate will look appropriately modest for her entrance into the royal family, but also show a bit of her own sparkle.

Erin Fetherston's New Project

Erin Fetherston is taking her ready-to-wear style to a new, contemporary line called Erin. It is said to debut at New York Fashion Week for Fall 2011. After collaborating with Target in 2007 and designing for Juicy Couture, she has decided to take another route from her ready-to-wear line. Her girlie signature style will be applied to her new contemporary line, hopefully including some princess frocks, embellished tees, parkas, and skinny trousers with edge.

I am hoping that her line will pull from the Erin Fetherston ready-to-wear line archive.

The New Queen of Paris

At a time when fashion editors become icons of the industry, it is a dynamic change when a leader steps down and a new queen of the world’s fashion capital must emerge. 

The queen of French fashion and artistic controversy, Carine Roitfeld, has moved on from her ten-year position as Editor-in-Chief of Vogue Paris. She is known as the inventor of porno chic, which covered the pages of her Vogue career. She pushed fashion into a new arena of violence, provocation, and artistic darkness. Her influence in eye-catching and controversial ideas was also present on catwalks throughout the past decade. 

Although some questioned her work, her iconic eroticism bridged the gap between art and fashion, increasing sales by hundreds of thousands each month.  Even with her pushing of fashion boundaries, Conde Nast, the owner of Vogue, decided to keep Roitfeld’s style, due to its success.

Roitfeld is often considered the head of Royal Family of Fashion, and many have been mulling over who would become her successor and take the reigns of Vogue Paris. 

Emmanuelle Alt has been chosen to take Roitfeld's place as Editor-in-Chief, after being the magazine's fashion editor. She has  reputation of rock and roll chic, often seen in Balmain jackets, Marant boots, and lots of black. Her work will continue to create merge the gap between art and fashion for which Roitfeld was admired; more rock chic, less porno chic possibly.

It has been announced that Gisele Bundchen will be the first cover girl for Alt. This is quite a statement considering that Gisele is the face of Balenciaga and Roitfeld's long time battle with the label. However, this is a great start for the sales department. 

Inspiration Board

Late January Inspiration Board:

-Chloe SS11

-Pleats

-Jil Sander silhouettes

-Bold colors

-Freja Beha Erichsen

-Arizona Muse

Range Review

Today, French Connection had their spring/summer 2011 range review day for womenswear and menswear. Last night, I spent a quite a long time arranging the racks of menswear into packs and store grade for Rob's presentation. Rob, the stylists, and I had to transfer everything to the showroom (which was a lot of clothes) and set it up according to the French Connection line an FCUK line. I helped the stylists pulled some things for the mannequins and show outfits of the presentation! That was an absolute dream!

This is my sample outfit for range review:

Vanilla Fair dress

Scalloped embroidered hem

Babydoll fit

The presentations went really well for both mens and womenswear. The feedback from the UK retail managers was also really good for visual merchandising, marketing, and the collections. All stores are changing the style of visual merchandising to a more "boutique" look. If you check out the new lines in stores, they will be arranged in outfits, which makes the floor much more interested and gives customers different pairing ideas for each piece. It felt like a new shopping experience when I went in the store today. Very innovative!

After presentations were finished, there was a runway show with both collections for each of the season's packs. It ended lovely with "are you man?" and "are you woman?" on the underwear bottoms of the models... surprise!!!

This is the last week that FC and FCUK stores will be having the 75% of deals. Next week the stores will be revamped for spring. You can also find awesome discounts for winterwear at Gilt.com.

Mr. Adorable

A StyleList cheer -up this morning

"Women don't have to be seven and a half feet tall and weigh 3 kilograms." -Alber Elbaz

Not only do we love his genius creations, but his wonderful view of beauty (which are present in his designs). Although, sometimes it is hard not to feel like we must adhere to these high standards. Hoping I see beauty through his wise eyes some day.