Cheap Monday - Featured Designer of Stockholm Fashion Week A/W 2013

Cheap Monday Logo

Stockholm Ready-To-Wear Fashion Show has one spotlight - Cheap Monday! I first noticed Cheap Monday on my favorite Korean Pop band, 2NE1. It is a Swedish brand that has weird quirky designs and funky shapes. I think all of the dresses and bottoms in the collection is super badass. The garments are all perfect for everyday wear. My favorite would be the jeans on the last look. The red and black and white blend created a very unique texture that will look great on anyone.

Their Spring/Summer 2013 Collection is on sale now, and do check it out, it is totally worth it. I will be putting together a huge list of what to get from there so, wait for a new post within a few days! Cheap Monday Shopping edition coming soon!

Visit their websites for more!

Academy of Art University - Featured Designer of New York Fashion Week A/W 2013

Fall 2013 RTW - Overview

Mercedez-Benz Fashion Week is a one of the biggest celebration for all fashion designers. Only with rare opportunity will a designer be able to be part of it. Fortunately for fashion students from Academy of Art University in San Francisco, CA were able to participate in this week-long celebration. I must say, I am very impressed with this group of students. Fashion designing students collaborating with textile students creating the perfect balance of style, beauty, and high-fashion. I thought it is so great that Mercedez-Benz gave them their chance to show their talent. 

Designers included are Chenxi Li, Heather McDonald, Heather Scholl, Janine M. Villa and Amanda Nervig, Qian Xie, Teresa Field, James Thai, and Leah Aripotch, Yuming Weng. They are all very talented students and each presented six to nine pieces during the show. All of their designs are displayed below, please look at them and more information about each collection may be explained in details later!

Check it out below, and stay tuned with the university's fashion communities, there are a lot of rising stars there and they may be the future of the fashion scene! 

Fall 2013 RTW - Janine M. Villa and Amanda Nervig

Designer(s): Janine Villa and Amanda Nervig 

Degree: M.F.A. Fashion Design; M.F.A. Knitwear Design
Inspiration: Vintage Welsh Rugs. 

Alexander McQueen - Featured Designer of PARIS Fashion Week A/W 2013

Sarah Burton, the creative director for Alexander McQueen, is pregnant and she did this collection while she's in the last stage of her pregnancy! In other news, the collection was mediocre! (Please don't hate me). 

However, let's talk about the positive before we move on to the negatives. There are a lot of beautiful and detailed craftsmanship, awesome runway show, and the theme of the show is very clear. Below are the detail shots of the show, and needless to say, it looks like it took a lot of hardwork. The head-cage itself are made of beads and combined together, presumably, by wire or those fishing threads. The result is beautiful. My favorite would be the corsets in the last set of the photo. The very traditional silhouette along with the complicated needlework (along with more beads), it's not hard to imagine how long it took. 

The details and craftsmanship are on par, just as usual.

The show was fantastical, unique, and emphasizes the show is just as important as the collection itself. Alexander McQueen's show has never fall short from a drama point of view, and today is the same. There are 10 looks in total, when actually its five themes with two variants. The theme was the Catholic church. The theme is divided into five different subgroups: Communion, nuns, cardinals, popes, and angels. If you really look at it, the inspiration is clear as day. This centraled inspiration helps the collection to be more grounded. 

The video below is the show itself. The music and how the models walk down the runway, interweaving into each door and synchronizing with each other, the show did not disappoint.

The McQueen signatured meticulous craftsmanship is still there, the out of the box thinking is still there, the signatured silhouette is still there, so what was missing?  I guess I was just expecting more.

Dolce & Gabbana - Featured Designer for MILAN Fashion Week A/W 2013

As you may remember, we did a highlight coverage and review for the New York Fashion Week that happened earlier this month. I wanted to do the same thing for the other 3 fashion capitol's fashion week, but I'm not sure if I want to make this place into completely fashion week packed. So I decided to only pick out some shows that are so awesome that it is a sin to not share.

Today, we will visit Dolce & Gabbana at Milan's Fashion Week!

Before we get into the designs, I must say that the presentation of this show is fantastic. The entire show. It was amazing, breathtaking even. The music and the collection and the atmosphere come together perfectly. Even the walk of the models are well coordinated that has layers and dimension. The style of the walk was required also because of how big the collection was, with 76 looks in total. The music started off with a beautiful orchestra piece that creates a peace and eerie tone of the show, and suddenly the tone of the music changed and it has become a bit more satirical and a bit circus like. The highlight was when the band of models walk out of the backstage in their striking red dresses. It is definitely something that anyone interested in art should watch.

Seriously. Click on the video. It is worth it.

To encourage you to read further, I am here to tease you with the glorious accessories D&G offered. The accessories are already this beautiful, are you sure you don't want to look more and check out the collection itself? Trust me, the awesomeness here is only a tiny fraction of how magnificent the collection is. I would read along more if I were you! 

Oh the mighty crown for the beautiful Zuzanna Bijoch

GORGEOUS clutch. Look at those intricate stitch work!

Rose-vine Heels - Adorable and Sexy.

Beautiful sets of cross earrings and
the details to see the bejewled dress.

Donna Karen - Featured Designer of New York Fashion Week A/W 2013 02/11

Donna Karen

Donna Karen's a/w collection goes with the extremely simplistic route. As she is not using any prints for the fabrics, they are all deliberately cut and put together. For Look 1 through 6, even she only uses black fabrics (which I am a huge fan for) they all look very chic and sharp. With the unique collage of the close color tone fabrics, she makes these a/w looks more avant-guard but in the same time very wearable.

In this collection, she uses many smooth and floating lines for the hem of the dresses. And clearly, Donna Karen really likes to play with asymmetrical lines. Her exquisite cutting skills reveals in how the lines of these designs make the models' body shape look even more beautiful. In conclusion, she successfully builds up the toughness and elegance elements into these ready-to-wear a/w collection.

To read about the other designers on this day (February 11th).

Jeremy Scott - Featured Designer of New York Fashion Week A/W 2013 02/13

Jeremy Scott

Jeremy Scott has always been the designer with crazy prints and extremely creative graphics, using cartoon characters (like the Simpson or Mickey Mouse) to spice up his collection. Today the carton character that starred his show is a green monster. I see it as the incredible hulk.

All of Jeremy Scott's garments are extremely wearable, and presumably comfortable because of the material he uses, cotton jersey and knit wear. However, that is to say if one has the guts to wear it. I mean, the last look with all of the fur is quite insane. Some pieces that are a bit more modest are look 2, look 5, 9,12, 13,14. However, with his stuff, I always felt that getting the crazier looks are better since it is what Jeremy Scott is all about.

To read about the other designers on the day (February 13th).

Vera Wang - Featured Designer of New York Fashion Week A/W 2013 02/12

Vera Wang

Vera Wang has always been the master of sophistication, elegance, and femininity, I mean, she is probably the best wedding dress designer out there (or at least the most renown). This collection has its high and lows, but mostly highs. There are just so many gorgeous pieces here that I am able to ignore the bad ones.

There's a progression with her collection here, starting with the more solid color ones, and then to a more black and white flower prints, lastly is the black, purple, silver, and bronze prints. The first 3 looks are the most simple and wearable of all. They are also personally my favorites. Take a look at the collection and maybe consider one of them to be what you wear to an interview or a cocktail party! Definitely will become the most eye-catching person. 

To read about the other designers on the day (February 12th).

Prabal Gurung - Featured Designer of New York Fashion Week A/W 2013 02/09

Prabal Gurung

He is probably one of my favorite designers now. After seeing his work from last season, and the limited collection for target LOVE, Prabal Gurung has set new ground with his military inspired Ready-to-wear collection this season. Using his own fashionable ways, he expressed his feeling toward's women in combat, and his own troop of women warriors trumped the runway. Stunning Collection.

Highlights include the segmented boots, long gown for the last look, the jacket for look1, and the shoulder belt embellishments for look 10. Prabal managed to create the perfect balance between femininity and toughness with his fabric choice and the accessories. Whenever there is a very feminine look, there will be a leather or something to "buff" it up a bit.

To read about the other designers on this day (February 9th).

Pierre Balmain - Featured Designer of New York Fashion Week A/W 2013 02/08

Pierre Balmain

When you looked through our highlight, did it feel like some awesome designers are missing from the line up? Well, you're instincts are right! We felt that these specific designers fits our taste the most, and so we decide to feature them separately to highlight their awesomeness.

This is the Day 2 Featured Designer, and it will go to ... Drumroll... Pierre Balmain!

The collection is high class and chic, ready-to-wear pieces that is able to simply communicate one's personality. The color scheme is mainly black and whit,e and a lot of biker jackets, studs, and zippers are involved as usual. He is great at making awesome jackets and coats, and for this collection, there are a lot of highlights on that specific field. My favorite jacket will be look 8 and 13s, because they are so simple and chic, which will be one of the perfect jackets for formal situations.

To read about the other designers on this day (February 8th).

Erin Fetherston - Featured Designer of New York Fashion Week A/W 2013 02/07

Designed by Rachel

It is simple. It is elegant. It is adorable. The hair-dress vine-thing on the girl's head fits perfectly into the outfit. Erin Fetherston came up with a great collection of ready-to-wear for young and sophisticated girls. Many ready-to-wear outfits today are very daring and something unique to the designer. Even though this collection may not be as particular as the others, but it is definitely the most easily likable. It is a romantic collection and the simple silhouette is simply gorgeous. The common look throughout the collection is the gathered skirt and pencil skirt shape along with the sweetheart necklines/outlines.

Most looks in this collection is my "favorite", but the ones that I will definitely buy (also consider how I am usually a quite monochromatic person), are look 1, 9, 10, 14, and 18. They are simple and sweet that would be perfect for almost any occasion: glam it up with make up and accessories to go to a party, tone it down with a simple jacket/cardigan to go to class or an interview, layer up with jackets and hats to shop. Just because these are the ones that I absolutely love, doesn't mean the other loos aren't gorgeous. I am a very petite person, so I cannot wear any long gown without looking like it's drowning me, but Look 17, 22, 23, and 24 are four very beautiful long gowns that one just cannot ignore. The wrapping quality of Look 19 and 20 is special so one can definitely stand out from the crowd. the skirt on Look 4 is unique and flirty that would be perfect on a date. All of the other looks has the sensible and playful character Erin Fetherson always has.