You can only wear so much black and white

Some random pictures of dresses that caught my attention enough for me to decide to save them on my laptop. I think it was the colours. I can't say no to colour.

Erdem fall 08, Kylie Minogue in YSL ss 08, Rosie Hungtington-Whiteley photographed by Kai Zi Feng, Michelle Monaghan in I-don't-know-but-it's-gorgeous, Lula magazine

Best look from NY Spring 09

New York fashion week can't compare to Paris or Milan, we all know that. Even Marc Jacob's takes some getting used to. I am however, LOVING The Sart's photos of the extremely creative fashion-goers. The weather in New York looks perfect for hanging onto the last of your Summer wardrobe, or maybe introducing ideas for next Spring, i.e., jumpsuits!

Giverny

Yves Saint Laurent once said fashion isn't art but needs art to exist. Rochas and Missoni needed a little Monet and the results were breathtaking.

Source: Style.com, google images, fabsugar

Running with Scissors

This is that very cult-ish looking long floral dress I showed you before. I still haven't worn it out and I'm afraid I never will because in my attempt to shorten it, (it came down to my ankles originally) I lopped off a bit too much and I didn't even cut straight. But still much more wearable than before.

Broke but Happy

It seems like nowdays whenever I go shopping I ALWAYS come back with more clothes. I tried on this very very white dress yesterday...

I didn't want to get it because it made me look about 3 years old, but my friends said I looked Amish. And then I saw this floral top. I bought it, but got rid of the blue ribbon thing and am going to wear it as a dress, but its too short, so I'll wear tights underneath and a long cardigan over.

So now that is the last floral thing I'm going to buy... and I'll move on to another trend. not sure which one though, any suggestions? btw, I got the top from Valley Girl, its this cheap Australian shop that we used to buy clothes from when we were about 14, but my friends still shop there now, although no one likes to admit it.

Orient Express

Allessandro Dell'Acqua, Prada, Prada Resort, Balenciaga, 6267, Prada (style.com)

Remember when silky kimono tops were really in? Aaaages ago. I noticed a teeny tiny little trend going on from the Spring shows, with Chinese collars. High necks, button details and puffy cap sleeves. I think it will still be a while before Asian is in again.

Why do models have such long names?

source: Rosie HW's tfs page, red carpet fashion awards

So by now everyone knows this is the girl who made Aggyness very angry by taking her nice old Burberry contract, but he fashion sense isn't bad either. Rosie Hungtington-Whiteley'a not edgy like Freja or anyone, but I like the way she wears her full length dresses.

He's a Lumberjack and he's okay...

lulu (everybody is ugly), Topshop autumn/winter, LiLo and SJP in buffalo plaid

Recently I've been lusting after red and black lumberjack plaid... partly because the amazing jacket above is Alexander Wang. I didn't think I could pull off plaid, but I've been trying to get out of overly girly dressing, and almost died when I saw this really cheap plaid shirtdress from a really really cheap store.

Sorry for the Lack of Posts

I went to Sydney for the weekend and my friend took me to a ginormous shopping centre. I got a cream crochet dress, but we didn't go to the city because it would have been crazy with all the people visiting for world youth day. More posts coming soon!

What a lucky dog, getting a backstage pass to a fashion show and meeting Iekeliene Stange. Unfortunately I can't remember where I got the photo from, and don't know what show it is.

Designers for Target

I don't know what I'd do if Target Australia didn't have designer collaborations, since we don't have anything like Topshop, Zara or H&M. The latest collection is Collette Dinnigan's lingerie line. I'm not exactly a fan of her overly feminine designs and wouldn't drool over any of her evening gowns, so a friend and I both thought the collection was a bit too stale and lacy, with weird colours like dark brown. But when I was in Target today the lingerie was advertised as half price, so I couldn't resist! I ended up buying three bras, the one in the picture below looks a lot better in real life.

“The collection features some of my signature lace, embroidery and silk printed fabrics which have been intricately designed to make women feel they can experience the exclusiveness of one of my garments” - Collette Dinnigan.

Hmmm, don't really agree with this as I couldn't compare a nice bra to a $10,000 evening gown...

Next up is Zac Posen. Now this was a collection that really DID NOT improve after looking at the dresses and trying them on. I really do like Zac Posen, he always brings some drama to New York Fashion Week, and the Target dresses were similar to some older runway looks, but they did not fit me at all!

I tried on the black and my friend wore the crazy hot pink one. The dress had alot of folds and ruffles, but it kind of drowned our bodies, and there was this long sash thing which we tied around our waists, but apparently it should be thrown over the shoulder *shudder*.

The main problem was that the shoulders were extremely high, and the bust huge even in the smallest size... even makes the models bust bigger. This is not nessecarily a good thing.

It looks way better worn as a top, I think!

The other dress I tried on. This was even more annoying because the backless back was too large and couldnt fit around my back, and then the zip got stuck. My friend and I couldn't decide if the beaded stones were tacky or cool in a sort of ancient Roman way.

So argh, very annoying. It's a bit strange, because clothes usually fit me pretty well in the torso, and they didn't fit my friend either. That's the problem with diffusion lines... they're cheaper but they don't fit as well as a ready to wear piece!

Spring Trends Trickling Down the Chain

Witchery is an extremely overpriced chain store in Australia that is vastly overrated in my opinion. I bought a grandpa-y long grey cardigan recently and it cost $90! I think they make their clothes look expensive and fashion forward in their ad campaigns, but when you have a look round the shop, the clothes are very ordinary.
Their spring/summer collection looks like a mix of the ss08 collections from Rag &Bone, Proenza Schouler and Chloe (note the Chloe shoes in the bottom right).

The Most Aesthetically Pleasing Tag Ever!

Thanks to Blonde hair, Blue jeans for tagging me! I made a flickr account just for this... now I wish I'd done it ages ago because I found so many lovely photos.

Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr search,
Using only the first page, pick an image,
Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into mosaic maker (the mosaic maker didn't work for me, so I just took a screenshot of my favourites gallery).

1. What is your first name? Annabel
2. What is your favorite food? Peking Duck
3. What high school did you go to? An Anglican all-girls one
4. What is your favorite color? Blue
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Kiera Knightley
6. Favorite drink? Blackcurrant juice
7. Dream vacation? New York
8. Favorite dessert? Lemon meringue pie
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
Artist/fashion designer/film director writer extrodinaire
10. What do you love most in life? Fashion, art and food
11. One word to describe you. obsessive
12. Your flickr name? frauda chanal (I had to search 'prada chanel to actually get a result)

I tag: Lydia, bostonista, S, and Bunny Bisous and anyone else who wants to do it!

Would you Convince the Shop Assistant?

Daul Kim gives hilariously good advice on buying designer goods:

"Convince them to give you a discount because no one
will buy a crazy black fur ball looking alaia coat or stupid looking margiela camel toe shoes except for me."

her blog - iliketoforkmyself.blogspot.com

Heehee, those Maison Martin Margiela shoes are sort of the platform peep toe Louboutin's arch enemy. Rachel Bilson tried them out and looked gorgeous, but some thought otherwise and likened them to Paris Hilton's long, webby feet.

Paris Hilton's new shoe line - galleryoftheabsurd.typepad.com

Feeling Unproductive

Things have been pretty stressful and busy lately and I have been neglecting my blog, so here are some photos from an editorial in a Chinese magazine Modern Weekly. The set is like an old antique shop in Shanghai... if only Vogue China could blend good styling and Asian elements as well as this.

Fashion Starved Times

For the past few months I've been competing in a Deviant Art fashion illustration competition a la Project Runway. Very very addictive. But now its down to the final round, I've run out of ideas and motivation.

So please HELP ME! I need ideas for a 9 piece collection that has a theme and is also detail oriented and doesn't stray too far into minimalism nor ridiculous extravagance. phew.

Here are some of the ones I've dont so far that are ok, I dont think I would wear most of the outfits, but they were the first things that popped into my mind for the various themes.

For the second challenge we had to do a minimalist collection. I said my theme was 'menswear' but I think all I did was think of all the outfits the Olsen twins would wear.... and rip off Miu Miu ss/08 in the middle outfit.

If you want to see some of the submissions and how I nearly got kicked out for drawing a pretty tacky dress, click here

my deviantArt user name is Theyskens. Yes, chosen at the height of my Rochas obsession. I hope he doesn't sue me for that. www.theyskens.deviantart.com

please dont use my drawings without crediting! thanks!

Coffee with Gaspard

I had no knowledge of this gaspard-kate pairing previously. I think I began hyperventilating when i saw it because it is so perfect. Anything with Gaspard Ulliel in it is perfect.

photos: Just Jared

Ulysses, the butterfly

I don't care if people say JPG 'was inspired by' Alexander McQueen s/s for his couture show, he perfected the whole Bug's Life/Creature Comforts thing. Black and blue is genius, that dress was like wearable a ulysses butterfly and Coco does a great praying mantis!

Mirror, Mirror

Dressing tables have been so essential for me since I was fifteen. Now I have two in my room because my mum had no room for her mirror one.

Perfume is great. It's like owning a designer piece, but so much cheaper. My Miss Dior Cherie perfume was around $100 whereas a RTW dress would render me homeless.

This dressing table is way bigger than my other one so I dump all my ornaments, jewelry, makeup and perfume. I love my blue chair. I think I have a chair fetish.

And the dress!! I bought it last week at a thrift store and cut a big chunk off the skirt, it even looks vaguely Balenciagaesque now because of the freaky shoulders, and that's without the shoulder pads in! More pics of the dress to come soon!

Foux Du Fa Fa

Since you can't really love fashion without loving the French, I had to share this hilarious Flight of the Conchords song. Unfortunately I only started watching their tv show yesterday (they're a band and do a show). Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement describle themselves as "Formerly New Zealand's fourth most popular guitar-based digi-bongo acapella-rap-funk-comedy folk duo". It reminded me of how Aggyness once described herself "a hip hop granny who can hip hop, be-bop, dance till ya drop, and make a yoyo wicka cuppa cocoa" (does that not seem like a more fitting description of Mrs Doubtfire though?!).

Their song 'Foux Du Fa Fa' in the style of a 60s Scopitone music video. Hilariously cliched French nostalgia. If you have a decent internet connection and 2:46 minutes to spare, please watch it!


Being rather obviously indie, they also wear great clothes such as skinny jeans, fitted leather jackets and vintagey/tacky black tracksuit jumpers with eagles on them which you can see here around 8:00 In another song, Bret calls it his 'favourite jersey'. love. I also love Bret too.

Flight of the Conchords, Episode 8 'Girlfriend'

Bret: Do you think I dress too provocatively?

Random Plumber Guy: If I may be so bold, I think you're showing a little too much arm... you look a little cheap.

Bret then proceeds to put on his favourite black eagle jumper

Winter Shoes, Summer Dress

The whole hard vs soft thing Rodarte has going on is my current obsession. When I first laid eyes on this pink dress with vines and buds entwined down the back, I wanted it so badly it hurt. I have a lot of various photos of this dress in different contexts runway, celebrity, backstage etc.. but no collage worked and sort of detracted from the uniqueness.

Charlotte Does Casual

The fut collar, the Chanel pearls, the equestrian outfit, the Chloe wedges...

It's All About Me

My first outfit post! I'm copying a typical Christopher Bailey Burberry look - quilted, belted coat and black socks with heels. I really cannot walk in heels, you can see my ankles going all crazy if you look closely. My very photogenic cavoodle jumped in too, in that photo on the bottom left, he just decided to lie down beside me and rest his paw on my leg!

I really like socks + heels. It's suprising how much more edgy the outfit becomes.

Burberry Prorsum ss08 (style.com)

A Princess and Chanel is a Match Made in Heaven

If I could have anyone's life, it would definitely be Charlotte Casiraghi. Firstly, she's a princess (of Monaco). Simply just being a princess would be enough, but theres more. She also has a fabulous jet-set lifesyle and appears to spend most of her time on Monaco's beaches or partying with friends such as Julia Roitfeld in Paris. Thirdly, she and her mother and good friends with Karl Lagerfeld... so take a look at my collage of her various Chanel looks. And yes, she's sitting in the front row *sigh*

The only thing I don't get is how she can possibly look like Bridget Bardot. That's who Karl likened her to. Claudia Schiffer looks like Bridget Bardot, not Charlotte Casiraghi.

More Carlotte Casiraghi collages to come soon! (sources: tfs, google images, charlottemaripomeline.web-log.nl/)

Gaspard + Sonia Rykiel Feather Boa = Heaven

wow what a treat! Gaspard Ulliel on a motorbike with Clemence Poesy wearing some very covetable pieces (Balenciaga gladiators, Sonia Rykiel boa). The moody green setting is a bonus! From Boom Spring 08, via tfs. I assume this is because they're promoting their new film La Troiseme Partie du Monde. It seems I love Gaspard so much I multiplied his face three times.