New York Fall Fashion Week 2007: Vol. 1

While millions will be sitting in a recliner, balancing a plate of cheesy casserole and a remote control on their lap, their eyes transfixed by the glow of the television screen as the Colts play the Bears in the biggest football game of the year, I will be watching a Super Bowl of another kind: Fall Fashion Week. This is one of only two times a year that the big-league designers pull out all the stops. Which collection will make the biggest touchdown?

This will be one of a few posts about Fall Fashion Week. As the new pictures are being added on the internet, I will be posting updates. Even though it is not even spring yet, I hope you find inspiration and begin thinking, or in my case dreaming, about all of the fabulous styles of fall!

BCBG Max Azria

When I first saw this collection, I imagined that this was a story about a Russian princess who goes turns away from the throne to become a glamorous hippie. The dark tones of the clothing were embellished with metallic accents, and the luxurious fabrics draped beautifully. A very luxe take on boho.

Rag & Bone

Rag & Bone is known for their chic approach to menswear. This season they pulled out all the stops with classics that were tough yet somehow pretty. A mix between adrogynous rocker, Oliver Twist, and Brit socialite. A key trend in this collection? Leather. The legging trend was continued with the newest leather verision, as well as leather legwarmers. A very interesting collection for the bold.

YIGAL AZROUëL

I had never hear of YIGAL AZROUëL, yet I was very impressed with this collection. There is an intellectual-chic that is a very fresh approach to cold-weather dressing. Loose, drapey layers looked beautiful in muted hues. I am especially coveting the off-white dress; it looks so comfortable yet so cool over black tights. This is a great collection for the girl who is both brainy and fashionable.

All pictures courtesy of http://www.style.com/fashionshows/

Love: Tanks

Everyone hates a broken heart. Yuck. Whether it is because of a break-up, rejection, or any other dispicable reason, we all despise that sickening, sinking-stomach feeling. Usually broken hearts require massive amounts of sobbing, hugs from friends, ripped-in-half pictures, and pints of ice cream to cure.

Who knew that a broken heart could be cute? The name for C&C California Broken Heart Print Tank demonstrates a new twist on the heart print. From afar it appears to be a basic heart print tank, yet up close you can see broken hearts scattered about the traditional hearts.

This tank keeps your availability status a mystery, adding a touch of irony and intrigue to your wardrobe. This shirt is the picture of Valentines Day cute, whether you are single or not.

So now you can take your heart and wear it on your sleeve, err, I mean tank.

Love: The Series

When did Valentine's Day become so stressful? Anxiety arises around this time every year, and people worry about whether or not they will have somebody to celebrate the holiday with, or if there will be someone there to hand you a box of candies and buy you a really cheesy Hallmark card. There seems to be this thought that, if you are single, that there is something missing. This belief is completely untrue. Relationships are great, but they shouldn't affect self esteem. Everyone in the world is good enough that they don't need someone to make them better.

Why not spread the love around this Valentine's Day? Take some time for TLC, show your friends and family how much you care about them, and reach out to those in your community who just aren't feelin' the love. This series of posts will be dedicated to helping you celebrate Cupid's day without a box of tissues and a gallon of Chunky Monkey, balling your eyes out while watching a sappy movie marathon. Love your life. Love yourself. Love the world.

Speaking of love, who doesn't love a pretty, rosy lip? Depending on the shade, pink can go from sweet and demure to outgoing and extroverted. CARGO PlantLove™ Botanical Lipstick is a collection that includes every shade of pink imaginable, along with a few other colors. Some of the shades were even designed by some very chic celebrities. What makes PlantLove so unique is that these lipsticks not only complement your beauty, but also the environment. The tube may look like plastic, but it is in fact made out of corn, and the boxes are actually made of tiny wildflower seeds. Ironically, even if you litter you are helping out the environment.You could hypothetically plant a garden of flowers if you bought enough shades of this lipstick!

So why not plant kisses when you can also plant flowers?

Couture Concentrate: Christian Dior Spring 2007

Couture. Its what fashion editors wait every season for. Magazines try to analyze it. But for most of us, its what we cock our head at, desperately trying to understand. Couture is the purest form of design creativity. It is the time for designers to exercise their imagination and explore new realms of fashion. Couture defies our perception of clothing from a necessity into an art form. Christian Dior Couture Spring 2007 was quite a spectacle. The resonating theme was the idea of a geisha, and taking that image to newer and greater heights. Among some of the styles, the masterful John Galliano added new volume to the kimono. Layers of flirty ruffles deconstructed beautiful dresses, their trains taking on the appearance of a luxurious river of ruby lava flowing behind them, as seen in the first picture. He also experimented with origami-style pleating, which is one of the most unique techniques I have ever seen. The last gown featured seems to defy gravity and morph from a dress into a delicate paper crane. If couture is like a passport to new worlds, then I'm hitching a ride on the Orient Express.

All runway images courtesy of

http://www.style.com/fashionshows/collections/S2007CTR/review/CDIOR

Not Just Another Pretty Face

Anyone who has enough time in her life to write a fashion blog must obviously love to read magazines. In fact, I find them to be almost required reading! I am like a sponge, a sticky one at that. Every check-out line is fair game for me.

Which is why I have become quite the connoisseur of glossies. I read the "classics," VOGUE, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, Seventeen, Teen Vogue, InStyle, Lucky, and countless others. I love them, but eventually all of the wonderful advice begins to meld together, making it hard to differentiate one from the other.

My discovery of Nylon was completely by a fortuitous chance. It was the week before midterms, and I was at one of my main haunts, Barnes & Noble, studying. After hours of angular launch, the Roman Empire, Spanish irregular conjugations, and absolute value graphs, needless to say I was in desperate need of a break. I walked over to the magazine stand and perused the selection. A bunch of pretty but vapid faces stared back at me, lifeless and uninteresting. Not satisfied, I sifted through the rows, until a title leaped out at me. Its bright, neon words emblazoned across it read NYLON. Curious, I flipped through it, and after hours of reading I was in love.

This magazine is the essence of cool. Not only is the fashion unique and creative, but also the articles are poignant and funny, to say the least. The magazine's main focus is what is cool, hip, and underground; everything on the verge of popularity. The articles range from makeup to music to culture and back, all accompanied with NYLON's signature smart, intellectual humor and wit. Being an artist, I find the photography and the layouts to be very inspiring. My amazingly talented photographer friend, Kelsey, and I both love to read it in order to get inspiration for our own projects. Time reading this mag is time well spent. Needless to say, the day that my subscription arrives in the mail is a very happy day for me.

If you want to read a real gem of a periodical, then pick up the February 2007 edition of NYLON at your local bookstore. The article with the elusive Sienna Miller is very fascinating, and it gets me even more excited for her upcoming role as Edie Sedgwick in Factory Girl. The editorial is quite fun too, with some of the most quirky-chic styling I've seen in a long time.

Because even die-hard fashionistas need a break from VOGUE once in a while.

Check more of Nylon out at http://nylonmag.com/

take good CARE of yourself

I have become quite the skincare geek. I am constantly flipping through my newest copy of VOGUE right to the beauty news section, where I ingest each and every article about the newest, trendiest complexion solutions available. It has become quite an obsession.

I recently became interested in organic beauty products, yet I never had the courage to try them. They just seemed too "crunchy" to me. I mean, a crushed almond scrub sounds amazing, yet does it really work? Is it just like slathering food on my face?

Before I was about to rule out all natural mystery products, I stumbled upon CARE by Stella McCartney. I am a huge fan of Miss McCartney; her runway collections are beautiful, her Adidas by Stella McCartney line actually makes me want to work out, and her perfume, Stella, is like meandering through a garden of English roses. And on top of that, her products are animal-cruelty-free, which makes me love them even more.

So when I heard that she was on the verge of pioneering a new outlook on natural skincare, I couldn't wait to try it. I recently read an article on McCartney, and in it she described the intensive process that her team of scientists went through to perfect the line. All of her products are Ecocert-certified, and according to Sephora:

"Ecocert, an internationally recognized certification program, takes into account not only the composition and the origin of the product's ingredients, but also covers the entire development process from conception to packaging. The Ecocert label can assure consumers of both the quality and sincerity of Care by Stella McCartney, making it one entirely trustworthy assortment."

This the real deal, a sophisticated skincare line that is both natural and beneficial to the skin. And did I mention the gorgeous packaging? McCartney's fresh aesthetic is evident through the beautifully simplistic design of the bottles, which would no doubtfully elicit "oooo"s and "aweeeee"s when gracing a bathroom counter.

Even though I try not to spend too much money on skincare, I will be saving up my money to try the Discovery Kit, which is a great way to find a powerful elixir to brighten your complexion.

Thank you, Stella McCartney, for satisfying skincare geeks everywhere.

GET YOUR NE-ON

Christian Dior Couture Spring 2007

Costume International Spring 2007

Thakoon Spring 2007

Fendi Spring 2007

Emanuel Ungaro Spring 2007

Neon. That one word conjures up a million different connotations. For those who lived in the 80's, it was all the rage to see just how many stretchy, bright, spandex-y clothing one could wear, in the gym and out. In a deserted landscape, a blinking neon sign welcomes visitors to Sin City. Punky teens mix and match snappy neon rubber bracelets with their chunky black combat boots and meander around the city looking for the next emo/indie/punk band to rock out to.

This past Spring Fashion Week, designers gave neon a new connotation. The creativity surged from the new concepts and forms that neon was incorporated into. They were all unexpected, yet somehow fit together perfectly. Whether streamlined or ornate, many shows abounded with flashy color, offering a wake-up call from the somber clothing of fall. Bright, futuristic mesh was layered over basic black at Fendi. Emanuel Ungaro turned the goddess gown upside down by designing his in a fluorescent spectrum. The Christian Dior Spring Couture show included a gorgeously layered, ruffled gown that faded from pastel seafoam to almost glaring chartreuse, like watercolor on an acid trip.

So how do you wear neon without looking like a Las Vegas casino sign? Even though designers went to the extreme, it doesn't mean that you have to. You can integrate neon into your wardrobe in small doses, whether that be a chunky bracelet, cool ring, or punchy shoes. If you find fluorescent to be too harsh, then you can ease into some highly-pigmented standard hues, like Cerulean Blue.

Remember, this trend is to be worn with confidence and humor, so have fun with it!

All runway pictures courtesy of http://www.style.com/