Irish Influences in Fashion

Just been having a look at some Irish dancing costumes - they would make an




interesting start to some design ideas. Dismissing the obvious decoration (which I know is a very strong statement), or this can be used subtly working around this for ideas for my designs. Lets see what happens? I'll be looking at shapes, textures, trims/embroidery and colours and see if anything else pops up.

Marant's Models

Isabel Murant states, she wears her clothes for the evening and if it's not comfortable it doesn't go in the collection. She does have a great ethic, to consider the female figure, although if a lot of models buy her clothes, (her comments) that doesn't account for the rest of the female population. She does make some lovely feminine twists in her collections but I think a lot of her work does cover the tall, slim, model-like figure saying that I haven't been in her shop to see how 'real the clothes are', ie., do they actually fit the less catwalk worthy? mmmmmhhh, I wonder! I've just seen her Spring/Summer collection skateboard and soccer influences, some nice stuff, especially if you're a 14 year old skateboarder or a 6' model.

spring tasters 2011 Rag and Bone and Pringle of Scotland

Just had a look at a taster for spring Rag and Bone website and the dastardly duo strike again! They show hints of warfare in strapping, strings and angular lines along side the peace and naturalness of the feminine flowing chiffon: The youthfulness of layering and their signature tailoring

of jackets. Bravely, they enter the realms of metallic and somehow make it cool by adding a white trim to some of their garments.

Pringle have there usually classy, experimental and individual look, mixing pinks and red so beautifully and the keeping the little black dress modern and fresh.

Pringle or Primark?

Well, do I really have to ask? Yes, that's why I'm writing this. Pringle's trousers, black, cashmere - just beautiful! the kind of garment that you put on and it wears well... always. I could have these trousers for years and they would always look beautiful. That's what fashion and identity is about not just following the next trend but reinventing something beautiful when you wear it. The pattern cutting is probably fitted to compliment the human form not to massacre your figure by outlining last night cheesecake or cutting the crutch area in two just to squeeze into your normal size: unlike Primark's which is always on the ungenerous side to save a bit more of the blended nylon fabrics they use. The materials Pringle uses are luscious and soft next to your skin. Ok, so now I'll tackle Primark. Of course it's fine for a few cheap tops, bedsocks and the odd thing. I will buy some cheap tee shirts from there so I have plenty of choice of colours but will want to save for at least one nice garment so my wardrobe won't look so full of tac. We can't always buy all expensive but the at least one garment a season or a year is well deserved it does make a difference. I'm usually shocked to see how many garments and how much money people spend in Primark and wonder why don't they just buy one good thing and still have plenty of money left over for lots of Primark basics? Fashion, to me, is not just about running out and buying the seasons trend but buying beautiful garments that suits you.
Maria xoxo

Pringle Autumn 2010

Pringle Autumn 2010- Not much makes me look forward to winter but this is very close.

Just looked at Clare Waight Keller’s Pringle Collection Autumn, 2010. Sooo imaginative and unusual. Mixing fabrics, hard and soft seemingly sitting together like they were made to be there. Shapes, angles of straight lines unevenly placed with pleats when it suits and turned back edges revealing the inside of the garment and the prominent zips with no apologies for the flaps shown this reminds me of the architecture of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, not so much transparent but showing the construction of the building revealing the workings of it – maybe used a decorative feature – I don’t know, but it works, it really works.

What I want to know is why Clare Waight Keller and the Pringle Collection isn’t even more renown for her/their work, it’s not only beautiful but functional. Pringle should be Proud!

Marc by Marc Jacobs fall 2010 collection

Eugh technology!!!! Finally got the blog sorted (I hope!).

On to more important issues like my obsession with Marc by Marc Jacobs. His fall 2010 collection was something that made me question why I really do like him. After reading a host of reviews, like The Times article by Luke Leitch, I understood the disappointment of the multitude of khaki and black on the runway. However, after a while I thought about it and realised the natural progression, as although not new and inventive, I think he has considered his customer and understood that the younger generation love to follow a certain fashion, so with the green parkas filling shops, a tribute to the end of Oasis maybe, it seems like a natural thing to move on and due to his recent love of celebrating the feminine form, move khaki from grunge to beautiful elegance and make the oh-so-Kate-Moss-I'm-at-a-festival-and-ridiculously-gorgeous-I can-throw-a-masculine-jacket-on-and-look-amazing-and-cool a thing of the past. Well this is certainly my interpretation, but admittedly I will always love the grunge look so marc's collection didn't excite me as much as I hoped or as much as it will probably excite Olivia Palermo (bleurghhhhh).

Anyway, on to the obvious trends that will be HUGE, yes HUGE, this autumn. One thing that is being consistently used is the thin brown belt, origin - the vintage indie look made incredibly popular with the new London IT girls like Alexa Chung. So this thin brown belt, I love the way it can travel from vintage to smart elegant reflecting the colours of the autumn atmosphere. Now I come to think of it the whole collection seemed very in touch with nature, sticking to traditional autumn colours.

Another thing I did pick up on were the dresses, which stemmed from his Louis Vuitton collection and Marc Jacobs show as they again were designed to accentuate a woman's form, unfortunately the super skinny, girls didn't accentuate the dresses enough. However, with the slightly and therefore elegant plunging necklines and floaty bottom half it was enough to bring the past in to the future. A few of the prints for the dresses did remind me of Christmas wrapping paper but his genius of shape and cute grey ankle socks made the look very high end.

A favourite dress of mine was definitely the lace one. With our eyes being constantly hurt by Primark's never ending racks of cheap lace nylon designs (if you can call them that), it was so refreshing to see this years essential lace dress reworked with a high neck and a unique lace pattern - BEAUTIFUL!!!!

All in all, what I love about Marc by Marc Jacobs is the way he sticks to his traditional preppy look but never fails to rework it in to young and trendy styles, usually with colour but this time he even managed to make black and khaki smart and strict lines cool and young, rather than Halifax banker uniform. So Marc, military, preppy, 50's, Victorian, Christmas wrapping paper, and one dodgy romper suit later, you always seem to make fashion a style and an attitude rather than another item to throw away come May.

Welcome fashionista's

Dear Fashionista's,

We'd like to say welcome to our amazing new blog!!!! We want to keep you up to date with the fashion industry and show you our latest clothes collections.

We all love fashion and no one can deny its importance in the world. An unfortunate label that comes with fashion, not the price tag, is the connontation that it is insipid and does nothing to contribute to the world, however, the simple fact alone, that it is the second biggest industry in society, proves it is a way of changing culture and values, as well as, the character and personality of each individual. Fashion is beautiful and practical as well as being a form of expression that can never die.

So lets continue fashion revolutions forever and ever!!!!!!!

Lots of love

Maria & Sophia

xoxo