Spring Overview 2014 RTW

Even with small upticks in the economy we can't seem to shake the stale silhouettes that show no interesting or exciting design elements.  

For my Spring RTW 2014 overview, I  randomly chose a selection of  five designers to sample the season. My picks here are TSE, Chloe, Brandon Sun, Just Cravalli, and Victoria Beckham. It was my hope that something would pop as the next trend from these runway shows. Like eating empty calories, I was left unfulfilled and craving something delicious.

  TSE

 For the TSE house, the color palette was white, and more white. The color white can be used as a money and empowerment color. However these designs didn't reflect either for me. The sack look (photo left), for the most part doesn't look good on anyone, including the runway models. The outfit on the right was my favorite for this TSE show. Not original or exciting , but classic and very wearable. C +

                                                                       

Chloe 

The Dumpy Pieces

This collection was a plethora of incredibly dull colored sack combinations. A sad mess. D-

Chloe - 

The Few Good

 These were my favorite pieces from the Chloe show. They were sharp interesting and actually flattering. B+

Brandon Sun 

Frumpy and Poorly Fit

Once again a designer with an attachment to the sack look. Clearly this look doesn't even flatter a skinny model. The orange stripe skirt has great potential, but it gets lost under the black leather sack top. On the right, the black leather dress landed on my banish list because it wasn't fitted properly to the model.  The dress hangs so low it appears that the models breasts  are sagging. Poor fit seems to be a continuing trend with many shows on the runway.  D+

Brandon Sun 

The better pieces

I chose these two outfits from his collection because of the interesting pop colors and a marginally better fit. The orange dress needs to have the waist positioned better. It's not a defined drop waist, just droopy .  B-

Just Cravalli 

The Bad

 Looks like a mess culled from fabric scraps with no design thought whatsoever.  D-

Just Cravalli 

Almost -but not quite

 Here is an example of how combining different fabrics can work and be fun. I really wanted to like these dresses, however the fit is horrible. None of these dresses fit the model in the chest area and need a step alteration. This poor fit, creates that droopy, saggy breast look. Is this the design trend of the season?  D

For those wondering what does a correct fit look like, here are examples from four different eras, 1950's - 2013 . 

      Victoria Beckham

 One dress that barely made the cut 

This was the only dress from her collection I liked albeit marginally.  Not exciting, but very wearable. Ditch the wide ugly white belt, it does not compliment this tall model's boyish shape.  B-

Victoria Beckham 

The Bad

 Boring sacks  and uninteresting  80's flashback looks. 

D-

Retro-Modern Wedding

Dolce&Gabbana runway for Winter 2013-14 was clearly influenced by the budget conscience festivities of the Vatican for the new Pope Francis. True to his priestly vows, this Pope has proven to be more humble and frugal than past Pontiffs.  

In my opinion, if the Pope can cut back for the biggest celebration of his life, no bride should shy away from  saving a few dollars for her nuptials. Creating your own beautiful dress that can be worn again for other occasions, is a good place to start. 

The D&G Winter collection is a great look to use as a direction for a retro modern wedding. To my eye the collection was very Byzantine religious icon meets 1950's-'60's styling.  For this blog, I selected two chic and sophisticated white lace dresses that would be easy to re-create for your own wedding. 

These dresses lend themselves to a second life in your closet and can easily be worn again with some added accessories. That's smart and modern thinking. Ironically it's also retro thinking  from the pre-Victorian era.  Years ago women would wear their Sunday best dress to get married in, and then would continue to wear it.  They did not put the dress in a sealed box  , and store it in the back of the closet.

After the wedding over, the short lace dress on the left  could

 be worn with  black leather pants underneath and a black obi at the waist . The dress on the right could be worn with a red leather belt  or a great chunky necklace to any cocktail party.

 I found this white cotton lace on Etsy under "crochet lace".  However don't hesitate to hunt vintage or thrift shop  for  old wedding dresses and repurpose the lace from them. Some beautiful expensive lace can be found at a bargain.

The best selection of vintage patterns can be found the internet.  It's easy to see how these patterns  above and below can translate to the D&G  looks.

Remember go by your bust size when buying patterns as all the companies use American standardized sizing.  Store bought clothing sizes  are vanity sized, and not accurate to patterns. 

As for the bridesmaids why not polish off the whole sophisticated wedding look with D&G influenced red brocade or lace dresses ?  

Just a little note I would like to point out, the model  in the middle wearing the red dolman sleeve style dress, needs alterations over the bust. Perhaps she wasn't the original model intended for that dress. Either way,  I would recommend using a set in sleeve style for a better fit when using brocade, because of the thickness of the fabric.

The lace fabrics above here are from Etsy and 

the brocades below are an example of random searches. 

FASHION NOIR for LOST SOULS

For this post I am writing about the dark side of fashion.  Truthfully the Fall RTW 2013 has left me underwhelmed.  In my opinion it is a mixed bag of desperate attempts to grasp at a new fashion direction in our flat economy.

That said, I selected a few outfits from the runway that had some promise in the most unusual way.  Using photos of criminals from a bygone era, I coupled those runway looks for these past fallen angels pictured below.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$  MURDER $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Murderess Barbara Graham

When lost souls fall, sometimes it's into a bottomless pit of no return. For murderess Barbara Graham she started her pitfall at a young age.  She had a sad life growing up, and by the time she was a teen she was in reform school. Shortly thereafter Barbara  got married, had two kids, divorced and lost custody of her kids to her ex-husband.  By 22 she was working in a  brothal.   

Her desire to acquire the finer things in life often led her to criminal actions.  She was finally executed in 1955 for robbing an elderly woman, then pistol whipping and smothering her with a pillow.

There was some confusion as to whether Barbara was fully guilty of this murder as there were three other accomplices. Her lover turned states witness to save himself from the gas chamber.  At the end of the day, all involved with this deadly robbery were executed, except for Barbara's lover.  

Perhaps If her court appearance was today,  Barbara would have used her crime money to find a better lawyer and  buy this Band of Outsiders RTW 2013 dress below for her court date.  Even the makeup on the runway model seemed to be reminiscent of her mug shot photo which shows her with a black eye.

Band of Outsiders Fall 2013

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ ROBBERY $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Sixty two years ago, bad boys Kenneth Christiansen, John Schultz, and John Debellis were arrrested for robbery. Quite stylish for thieves, we can see here from their fedoras to their suede buckskin shoes and penny loafers,  the boys were clearly into fashion. 

If they were plying their trade today, perhaps Prada, Burberry Prorsum, and Calvin Klein might be found in their closet. Below are updated versions that any bad boy would would want .

Fall RTW 2013

Prada Black leather jacket ; Burberry Prorsum olive wool coat;  Calvin Klein grey wool zip jacket

Stetson Longshoreman cap ** Stetson Stratoliner 1940's fedora ** Stetson Inwood Fedora

Vintage 2011 Comme Des Garcon pants cuffed up  to show off the shoes

Clarks Vexation Casual * Lloyds Hectors suede lace ups * Timberlands Earthkeeper Penny loafer

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ PROSTITUTION $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Madam Brenda Allen

Madam Brenda Allen was famous for her discreet approach to running a call girl service. She had started as a teenage streetwalker and moved up from there. Eventually she  took over a call girl service from the madam she worked for. Under Brenda's management the business became extremely profitable. She payed off both the mob and the police for protection.  In addition Ms. Allen had  an ongoing affair with Sergeant Elmer V. Jackson which helped to keep her business dealings above the law. Their relationship was eventually discovered,  revealed  to the public, and Brenda  landed in jail.

For Brenda's court appearance , I thought she might appreciate the 3.1 Phillip Lim pant suit shown her on the runway with the type of sunglasses she had an affinity for.

Although sans make-up in prison, Brenda still wore her heels as seen in the photo on the left.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ MORE PROSTITUTION $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Sheila McDonald and Gloria Jaffee were both hard working girls who enjoyed their furs. If they were working today I could see them wearing the Marc Jacobs or Christopher Kane furs (photo below). However working their trade in California, these gals would need to keep those furs hidden under the covers of their bed . Wearing furs in public today could prove to be more scandalous than hooking. 

Read more on Barbara Graham- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Graham

For more about Brenda Allen-  http://articles.latimes.com/1997/nov/30/local/me-59191/2