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2. Second place goes to YSL for the colours that just screamed "summer." I love the use of colour blocking for day and all black looks for night, all the while with high-waisted shorts to make the outfits even more chic and practical. One both for the tomboys and the girlie girls.
3. Last but not least- Erdem. You can always count on this label to deliver on the prints front and this collection was no exception. The cool digital prints infused with marine blues are gorgeous. And so wearable. Well, what did I tell you?
If only I could conjure up £300.
My favourite looks (above)
What do you think?
Do you agree with me and think that the whole collection was too girlie girl to appeal to the elite and extremely exclusive people who buy Haute Couture?
Or do you think that Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli managed to achieve a beautiful and youthful collection?
Beth Ruby xoxo
Now onto the clothes. It was much more regal and back to Chanel’s roots than the Neo Romantic theme of Spring Summer 2010 with none of the Barbie/Flintstones hair and makeup and instead a simple look with red stained lips the only statement. The hemlines just above or below the knee, fur trims, golden embellishments and an abundance of darker colours which will be perfect hues come autumn/winter with shades of plum, charcoal and deep royal blue appearing. All of which came to a sartorial climax near the end when Karl sprinkled a little bit more sparkle onto the runway with my favourite looks here:
Then came the spectacular finale where a model emerged from the giant pearl, hand in hand with a man in a tux wearing a fierce lion mask. Then in a breathtaking Beauty and the Beast moment the mask was whipped off to reveal Karl’s muse; Baptiste Giabiconi.
What did you think of Karl's latest creation?
Round of applause for Galliano everyone!
His new haute couture collection for Dior is incredible. Inspired by Christian Dior’s childhood garden he created a bouquet of fashion delights with gigantic corsages in Alice in Wonderland evoking scale, topped off with exotic colours, prints, dyes and textures.
The beauty aspects of the collection were even more breathtaking with neon bright stripes of colour which come the grey and bleak winter (sorry, I know I don’t want summer to end) will truly inspire as the eye makeup was injected with an array of bold colours. I predict the darker plum shaded lips will be a big hit and how could I forget the cellophane veils, reminiscent of the collages I would piece together in primary school, which make the models look even more like a bunch of flowers. Truly inspired.
Then there was the Dr Seuss-esque hair styling with gravity defying hair designs, echoing the stems of flowers.
It was just spectacular. Just looking at the collection on Style.com (the source for all the photos) gave me a marvellous colour induced headache.
Everything was so dramatic- but then what else would you expect from the man who created the ‘les incroyables’ collection?- that I can easily imagine a hyperactive Galliano raiding the Dior archive of prints and colours, similarly to a child in a colouring box who snatches every single Crayola crayon.
Check out the collages I have made of my favourite looks:
Dr Suess hair styling. I wish I could try this one out myself.
I am definitely going to try out my own verision of this bold blue look. I', a sucker for "cat flick" eyes anyway but this makeup look is fabulous.
Gorgeous use of colour. Loving the complete disregard for the "lips or eyes" rule.
Fairytale shoes
Queen of the flowers. These models look like they could have lept out of a fairy tale book with their fantastically flamboyant dresses and haughty expressions.
Ouch. "Undercooked meat." Really Jess?
But then surely enough I looked down at my newly clad feet and indeed they did.
The next day I went for a walk to the park in them. Mine have 5 straps across them and just as wise Jess predicted it gave the seemingly harmless sandals a gazillion opportunities to rub my now absolutely battered and bloodied feet.
I now can't wear the Gladiator without bandaging them up, not unlike a lady from Imperial China by covering them in plasters, which I think you'll agree isn't exactly the chic and on trend look I was aiming for.
Then I read last week on Lourdes' new blog (yep Madonnas daughter has a new blog and she actually sounds like a perfectly normal young teenager) said:
"OK but no joke gladiator sandals are OUT. They came out in summer 2008 and I was like, ok those are really cute. Then 2009 comes around and people are still wearing them so I’m like, ok whatever it’s just a phase. BUT NOOOOO. Because good old 2010 is now coming along and people are STILL wearing them, and then I was just like OK NO! It’s been three years people COME ON!!!!!!!!! I’m just like what????"
Now I don't know whether I can trust the opinion of a girl who apparently likes "My Chemical Romance... for realzzzz" and over uses punctuation marks but she may have a point.
So people of the blogging world, let me hear your thoughts!
Shall I put away my blood stained, uncomfortable Gladiator Sandals? Or continue to wear what may be a "fashion staple" but just by the pool with a bikini?
They have to be the ultimate "frenemy" of the summer sandal world. You don't know whether you love 'em or hate 'em (just like Simon Cowell and Marmite)
Beth Ruby xoxo
ps) I just have to dash off now and check on the numerous Nigella recipes I am making as part of my Summer Challenge 2010 list which includes "Cook 3 course meal."
I don't want it to burn like my epic fail batch of brownies earlier. Follow me on twitter here if you want to see my Summer Challenge updates (and also photos from the disaster that I now refer to as "Brownie Gate")
I know there are lots of people out there who want to make the leap from fashion blogging in their spare time to modelling.
It’s no doubt a tough business to break into but there is this brand new competition from Next, the British high street mega brand which could really help you on your way.
All you have to do is upload a photo of yourself onto their Facebook page here if you are 18 or over and live in the UK or Republic of Ireland and voila! You are entered in the competition!
It’s their second model competition they have launched and the top prize is a £2,000 shopping spree at NEXT and the chance the star in a photoshoot, plus a special introduction to leading model agency, Select.
Seeing as Emanuela de Paula, Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer and Uma Thurman have all graced the Next Directory pages it’s a great opportunity.
So you have until the 6th of July to be in with a chance- get entering!
Beth Ruby xoxo
Wahey I have just signed up up to do a National Life Guard award at my local pool this summer which I am very excited about (as well as a little bit nervous) so to get me into the swimming/summer/hopefully sunshine mood I thought I would do an image dump of a post with some lovely life guard related photos I have on my hard drive to share with you all.
Sources from top- Russh January 2010, Prada Lookbook Spring Summer 2010 and the gorgeously summery editorial from Vogue Nippon April 2010 issue which was photographed by Blaise Reutersward and was modelled by Marloes Horst. 