Owls in fashion

Owls are in everything these days. The interesting bird has left the obscurity of the night to come to light in jewelry designs, accessories, ornaments and even wrapping paper.

I remember Kelly Bensimon the former model-turned-editor-turned reality star in The Real Housewife of New York presenting her owl inspired jewelry line. Later on I saw “very similar” designs in Forever 21.

Owls are now in a lot of beautiful objects. I love the wrapping paper, that I saw in Decor8, it is different and cute. The hair band in the picture is by Marc Jacobs. I wonder for how long the owls are going to enjoy the light before going back to darkness.

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Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen in JC Penney

The Olsen sisters’ empire keeps growing. The sisters will have a new line for juniors in J.C. Penney Co. Inc. called Olsenboye. JC Penney has an aggressive and interesting marketing campaign to launch the brand.

The marketing kicks off today with an Olsenboye truck cruising around New York selling merchandise and giving out cupcakes, balloons and pins, and empty racks in 50 high-profile stores will be covered in Olsenboye shrouds. The collection will be available in 600 Penney’s stores in February and it is starting to be promoted online right now.

Olsenboye is a casual sportswear and accessories collection that includes denim, bottoms, tops, dresses, skirts, shorts, jackets, handbags and shoes. The line will retail from $20 to $50 and is being designed to be mixed to create different looks.

Beginning Nov. 6, Olsenboye will be available on jcp.com and in 50 stores, including the Manhattan flagship, for a limited time.



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Jane Aldridge of Sea of shoes in Urban Outfitters

The talented and gorgeous blogger Jane Aldridge of Seaofshoes designed a
small collection of shoes for Urban Outfitter. The shoes are now available
online and they are really cool.

I love Jane’s blog; it is original and Jane and her mom are very creative and
have beautiful photography on their blogs. I wish Jane lots of luck with
her collection.


Photos: seaofshoes
Urban Outfitters


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Ralph Lauren wants skinnier models

According to Shine (the yahoo site) Ralph Lauren has fired model Filippa Hamilton for being too fat. After the controversial photo where she looks weird with a head bigger than her hips, RL apologized, but after that they fired Filippa.

Filippa weights 120 pounds, at 5’10 she is underweight with a BMI of 17. She needs to gain another 9 pounds to have normal weight. I always thought that she looked beautiful in pictures and in previous RL ads. If she is fat, how do we call women with normal weight?


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Marchesa’s Georgina Chapman

Since Jennifer Lopez started to wear Marchesa I fell in love with the line. Marchesa, as you may know was co-founded by Georgina Chapman and her friend Keren Craig back in 2004. In such a short time the line has become a symbol of elegance and grandeur.

While I love Marchesa’s designs it is difficult for me to imagine where a normal person can wear them. The dresses are ideal for the red carpet or for a Hollywood diva. Georgina studied costume design, and her training is reflected in her dresses.

I am also fascinated with Georgina herself. She is like a modern-day princess, she was born in a rich family in London, and during her college years she modeled and acted in movies. Eventually she co-founded the line and in no time became a respectable and rich designer. Georgina is beautiful, she has striking high cheeks and very fine bones making her look very slim.

Every princess needs a prince. Her prince is not precisely handsome, but he is very talented, successful and very rich. He is Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. Their wedding was a fairytale event in the beautiful town of Westport, Ct. The guest list included the likes of Rupert Murdocch and Jennifer Lopez.

Georgina and Harvey have three residences, a divine town-home in the West Village in NYC, a waterfront mansion in Westport, Ct and another one in Hollywood. What a charming life, gorgeous, talented, smart and lucky in love.

The pictures are from Bazaar Magazine. They show Georgina’s dressing room in Manhattan. In the article she shares some of her style “secrets;” these are some of them:

She likes 60s vintage
She likes unique pieces
She loves high heels
She loves anything that sparkles
She told Bazaar “I'm obsessed with John Galliano, and Alexander McQueen is a gee-nee-us," "I like to wear a vintage dress with a Topshop biker jacket and high-heel boots. Or a pair of jeans with a Pucci blouse, or a Chanel jacket and a T-shirt. I like Acne or 7 for All Mankind jeans the best. For T-shirts, I love James Perse." In other words the girl knows how to mix expensive (extravagantly expensive) and not so expensive to create her looks.


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Monique Lhuillier Spring 2010

Monique Lhuillier has fierce eyes and light lips for the new collection for Spring 2010. The makeup is interesting and highlights the colors and shapes for spring 2010. The pictures show two of my favorite looks from that fashion show.

Photos WWD

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Ana Sui for Target

Following the steps of Alexander McQueen and other designers Ana Sui will create a special low priced collection for the mass retailer Target. The collection will be inspired by the characters of Gossip Girl and it will come out this fall.

Target is my favorite mass retailer. As much as I like to shop in Target, I am disappointed by Target’s designers’ collections. They are great publicity, but in person the clothes look nothing like the pictures. Probably the latest collection from Alexander McQueen has been the best of the GO International line and it was sold only in a few shops.

In any case I look forward to Ana Sui for Target, because I like her designs specially her accessories.

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Preston Bailey Gorgeous flowers

Preston Bailey is a Panamanian flower designer who creates the most wonderful floral decorations. Among his clients are celebrities such as Oprah and Donald Trump and the cream of the cream of New York.

His work is breathtaking. He mixes colors and textures creating vibrant and beautiful ornaments. The pictures show some of his work. He also has written 3 books with beautiful photography. You can visit his website to see more of his work: Preston Bailey

Photos: Preston Bailey website and Brides.com

Valentino fashion show at Rodin Museum

For anyone like me who follows fashion, Valentino is the master. He has been around for so long and it is amazing that as times have changed, his fashion has evolved to keep some things unchanged while changing the others. He is retiring now and put on a spectacular show at the Rodin Museum in Paris. Of course in this video you will see many of his elegant dresses but also towards the end take a look at his lipstick red dresses, that clearly has his signature.

Michael Kors designer

Most designers rarely say much in public. If you have seen a fashion show, the designer will merely appear towards the end and rarely say anything more than thanks. Occasionally, you will hear bits and pieces of what they say in a fashion magazine like Vogue. There is an exception, however. Michael Kors, who is one of the judges on Project Runway with Heidi Klum and Nina Garcia, has been on the program for so long that I have come to know him rather well. And my conclusion is that he is indeed a great designer and that is reflected not just in his work (particularly his handbags that I have seen at his boutique in the Natick Collection) but also in how he looks at things. Here is a great video that will tell you a little more about Kors' collection and what items of his you can buy.

Coats for the fall and the cold

During the cold months the coats are only indispensable to keep warm, but they also are the first piece of clothes people see. For that reason it is important to have a good coat. While some people go for utilitarian coats, other make a fashion statement with them. I like to have a nice warm coat that flatters my figure. This season I have done my window-shopping and these are some of my findings:

I loved the coats that Spaniard store Zara has for this season. They are mainly inspired in the 50s and in many colors. I want to get one of each, but I know that’s is not a good idea, I think I will get a red or off-white coat to look fashionable during the season. Zara’s prices are moderate from $69 to close to $200, but most of them are low one hundred.

I also saw a great coat in Neiman Marcus it was a lot pricier than the coats in Zara at $650.00 or so. It was a classical coat that exudes quality and style. This type of coats can be used for many years and they always look fashionable.

I also saw some coats in Marshals. Even though they were from well-known designers they did not look good. The cut was not right and I am not sure about the material. In TJ Max I saw some great coats from Via Spiga and other brands, these were good and stylish coats that will flatter most figures.