Donna Karan Collection – Fall 2009 Ready-to-Wear – Accessoires

 Fashion Accessories, Fashion Trends  2 Responses »
Jul 232009
 
 

If Donna Karan didn’t invent uniform dressing in the eighties, she went
a very long way toward making the idea a sexy one. Now, with the economy
in a nosedive, she’s brought the clever, potentially budget-saving concept
back for Fall, and the result is one of her strongest-looking collections
in seasons. It starts with a jacket or a draped jersey top—all exaggerated,
sculpted shoulders with a wrapped or belted waist. On the bottom, it’s
either a long, lean skirt or tapered trousers. That powerful, triangular
silhouette came down the runway in all sorts of arrangements, each ready
to be pulled apart and reconfigured with any number of different pieces.
A caramel calfskin trench jacket, a white poplin button-down shirt, or
a black silk parka might be paired with a stretchy, below-the-knee jersey
skirt, while a portrait-collar alpaca jacket or turtleneck bodysuit might
top cropped pants.

But it wasn’t all about separates. Dresses, whether they came long-sleeved
or in a drapey goddess style, followed the same commanding lines. Karan
only abandoned the bold shoulder to reproduce on the runway a look that
she herself has been wearing for years. Made from satin jersey suspended
from a necklace of leather-wrapped rings, the halter-style “cold
shoulder” dress—as she calls it—has been battle-tested
not only for sex appeal, but also for ease. Who wouldn’t want to slip
into a uniform like that?

 
       
       
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Marc Jacobs – Fall 2009 Ready-to-Wear – Accessoires

 Fashion Accessories, Fashion Trends  Comments Off on Marc Jacobs – Fall 2009 Ready-to-Wear – Accessoires
Jul 232009
 
 

Leave it to Marc Jacobs to deliver a neon-hued, big-shouldered, crimpy-haired
eighties antidote to the gloom and doom of 2009. “I was thinking
about the good old days in New York,” he said after the show, “when
getting dressed up was such a joy.” By the good old days, Jacobs
means the nights he spent at clubs like Area, the Palladium, and Paradise
Garage. Maybe it was the recent Stephen Sprouse project he completed at
Louis Vuitton, or perhaps it’s the fact that he now lives in Paris full
time, but his Fall show was a big, juicy nostalgic kiss to a city that
doesn’t really exist anymore.

The show started simply enough, with a gray cardigan sweater and charcoal
trousers, but when the model walked past, you saw the back half of a kilt
and braces—Jacobs’ new uniform—and knew it was going to get
personal. He worked his way through little silver-and-black A-line shifts;
party dresses in metallic leathers and floral brocades with flaring, full
skirts and monster shoulders; velvet bustier tops and high-waisted over-dyed
jeans; and Crayola-bright jackets, capes, and hooded coats. The only filter
that separated these clothes from their East Village forebears was the
expensive, luxury fabrics they came in. Every girl had a different hairdo,
shellacked into Mohawks, flips, and bouffants, and the makeup was straight
off the album cover of Duran Duran’s Rio. The cumulative effect of all
that color, volume, and optimism? One editor called it “A Flock of
Seagulls meets Alexis Carrington.”

Will fashion as outrageously ebullient as this—in some cases, make
that just plain outrageous—sell in the harsh reality of the late
aughts? (And talking about harsh: More than 1,000 people were nixed from
the invitation list this season in a cost-cutting slash and burn.) Jacobs
insists that he wasn’t thinking about the economy when he was working
on the collection, and maybe he wasn’t. These days, wagering that women
will splash out on feel-good clothes is as good a bet as any.

 
       
       
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Louis Vuitton – Fall 2009 Ready-to-Wear – Accessories

 Fashion Accessories, Fashion Trends  Comments Off on Louis Vuitton – Fall 2009 Ready-to-Wear – Accessories
Jul 172009
 
  

Marc Jacobs ended the season at Louis Vuitton
in Paris as he began it with his own show in New York: with the eighties.
Different city, different accent, though, and this slice of the late eighties—ruffled,
ruched, and poufed as it was—looked as if Jacobs had pulled out his
1987 magazines and worked up a playful homage to Christian Lacroix. He didn’t
quite put it that way backstage, however. Jacobs said that, partly in preparation
for the Model as Muse exhibition at the Met and his role as honorary chair
of the opening gala, he was thinking of “all those great French muses
of the late eighties.” Specifically, he cited Marie Seznec (who modeled
for Lacroix), Victoire de Castellane (who worked for Chanel), and Inès
de la Fressange (who was virtually French fashion mascot in chief at the
time).Looking back on those days of chichi fashion extremes brought out a lot
of jeune Parisienne frivolity in the clothes, if not the staging, which
was done, pseudo-salon style, without a runway (albeit in a large transparent
tent parked, as usual, in a courtyard of the Louvre). The chance of a
close inspection revealed lots of puffy peplum jackets, tons of shirring
and ruching (in print or leather), bubble skirts, bejeweled satin leggings,
and a mini lace Marie Antoinette pannier dress with a saucy sheer balconette.
Jacobs’ take on big shoulders ran from grosgrain bow-smothered balloon
puffs to the widest short coats (in camel or red) on any runway—almost
as broad as they were long.

It was also a rich accessory fest for the leather goods company. Leather
necklaces and belts came fashioned like paper chains, and thigh boots
were topped with ruffles and balanced on pearl and glitter-covered heels.
The all-important bags had also acquired eighties pie-crust frills and
gilded monograms. If it wasn’t quite the fashion tour de force of Vuitton’s
Spring collection, this penultimate show of an often dour and cautious
season read as a welcome interlude of cheerful, flirty confidence in a
post-crash depression.

 
       
       
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New Swarovski 5328 Bicone Bead

 Jewelry Trends, Kenem Bijoux News  Comments Off on New Swarovski 5328 Bicone Bead
Jul 082009
 
Create Your Style / Crystallized Swaroski

New Swarovski 5328 bicone bead

CRYSTALLIZED™ – Swarovski Eements is continuing its policy of innovation
and launches the new Xilion 5328 bicone bead, replacing the former reference
5301.

The new innovative XILION faceting, alternating irregular facets, offers an unique
brilliance and an intense refraction of light.

Reference 5301

old 5301 shape
old 5301 shape picture

Reference 5328

new 5328 shape
news 5328 shape picture

In addition, the new 5328 bicone beads comporte a drilling zone with softened
borders and which protects the thread. 

The sides of the beads remaining in general identical, the new reference
5328 rests perfectly compatible with the designs elaborated with the reference
5301. The 2 references can be used used together in a same design.

Eventually, the new reference 5328 will replace the entire range of the
5301 bicones. 

Note : the current bicone 2,5 mm will not benefit from the new Xilion
faceting, due to it’s small size, but will still be classified under the
new reference 5328.

Commercialized without additional cost compared to the former 5301 reference,
the new 5328 bicone will be progressively introduced, after depletion
of the stocks of 5301.

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My New Toy for Precious Metal Clays

 Jewelry Trends, Kenem Bijoux News, Silver Metal Clay  Comments Off on My New Toy for Precious Metal Clays
Jul 012009
 

Here’s my latest “toy” for firing my silver clay, bronze clay, copper clay, as well as my enamel works. No more approximitive torch firing! The kiln is a Paragon kiln with a Sentry 4.0 controller with the possibility to setup 8 different firing programs. I have to say that available kils here in France are limited and the prices are outrageous. So, I took advantage of the declining British pound to order my kiln, and even with the shipping charges, I made a kill! So many more possibilites from my old butane torch…

Paragon Kiln with Sentry 4.0 Controller

Paragon Kiln with Sentry 4.0 Controller

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