Trendology: Ground Zero Autumn/Winter 2011 Collection

Designers always get inspirations from around their lives and things that they like, however, the inspirations usually are translated into another form.  The London based designers Eri and David Chu of Ground Zero put the inspirational items and elements in an evident form, creating this very interesting collection for the fall season.  How many themes/elements can you name from this collection? (Gonna look close.)

Trendology: White Mountaineering x Porter Fall Winter 2010 Bags

Porter has enough collaboration with others to make us run around to get them.  Here is another that one we would love to have in our collection.  White Mountaineering continued to work with Porter, producing bags include pouches, totes, waist bags and shoulder bags.  The essence of this collection is the strong colours which accent with the white details. But of course, there's the white mountain print.  Pick yours now, and put all your needs in and look awesome!

Trendology: The Fall Lace

What do we know about the Fall trend in the year of 2010? Getting yourself a couple of lace pieces will not be a wrong decision to make.  The light and thin sexy lace is going to be contrasting with the rather thick and heavy jacket in fall, as well as it would go well with the boots (or even the hot over-the-knee boots). Any item that can be put on our bodies are offering in lace.  Let's look at our favourite lace items of the season!

Roberto Cavalli Sheer Lace Leggings matches perfectly with bold colour coat or top.

Valentino has their lace collection earlier this year since this pair of pumps, they're continuing it to the fall with trench, handbag and rain boots.

We cannot miss our beloved Alexander McQueen.  This simple pump has demonstrate the ladies' elegant but does not lack of a punk style from the brand.

Lace does not necessarily have to be in black.  Miu Miu has showed a very good example here with this cute purple lace dress.

What's more evident than this Lash Queen Mascara Sexy Blacks by Helena Rubinstein on showed us how important lace is in this fall?

Courtesy: Neiman Marcus, bybloom, saks on fifth, net-a-porter, style

Ray of Inspirology: Hermès F/W 2010 Promotion Campaign - Full

As we mentioned earlier, we were waiting for the full set of Hermès F/W promotion campaign as we are stunned by the preview.  And it is true that the campaign is amazingly done by Paolo Roversi.  After the fairy tale inspiration, we now have Zorro.  This dark mood of Zorro is contrasting with Hermès' elegance, yet creating a new fantastic chemistry for the brand.  Let's look at the great campaign below.

Trendology: Prada Fantasy Lookbook Fall/Winter 2010

Prada and OMA had once again created arts with fashion.  They introduced us a new way of viewing fashion through combining real photographs and illustrations; a new trend of creating lookbook in the fashion industry.  Last time it was the camouflage idea, we are taking our imagination to the higher level with 2D colours and patterns.

Trendology: McQ by Alexander McQueen Fall 2010

The McQ Fall 2010 collection, designed by the late Alexander McQueen, is inspired by the 90's grunge age.  Patchworks, floral, denim, stripes, plaid and layering are all featured in this collection.  Even though some of the fabrics and styles are very feminine, the collection also showed a rather masculine side of fashion.

Even with these conventional patterns and fabrics, McQueen never disappoint us with his creativity.

Trendology: Yuma Koshino Autumn/Winter Collection 2010

Yuma Koshino has a very solid concept in fashion - Spiritual Luxury.  She targets independent women in Japan, offering them fashion with highly-selected fabrics and couture techniques.  She designs a varieties of clothing for all occasions, while currently she concentrates on kimono and uniforms for luxury hotels.  As it showed in the A/W Collection in Japan Fashion Week, some of the pieces looked similar to uniforms but with designs such as ruffles and layers presented.  With the tailoring technique, choice of fabrics and complicated prints, these outfits stood out as luxury clothing instead of ordinary uniforms.

Trendology: Mintdesigns Autumn/Winter Collection 2010

Mintdesigns, the brand that loves geometric and graphical patterns once again showed their creativity in digital prints during Japan Fashion Week.  Without doubt, the geometric prints, along with the matching head piece, voiced a very strong statement in the collection. However, the oversized coats and dresses in wool and cotton are the styles of this season.

Trendology: Eri Matsui Autumn/Winter Collection 2010

This collection by Japanese fashion designer Eri Matsui, reminds me of Kate Moss hologram during Alexander McQueen Fall/Winter 2006 runway show.  She used white as her name colour and created a very dreamy and light weighted dresses.  Some of them look like wedding gowns that fight gravity. She also experimented on digital prints and unusual cuts on the dress, giving it an asymmetrical and bold shape.

Trendology: Satoru Matsuda Autumn/Winter Collection 2010

Japanese Fashion designer, Satoru Matsuda, presented his Autumn/Winter collection in Japan Fashioin Week in Tokyo.  Material wise, he used a lot of knitwear and fur.  However, the emphasis of the collection is on the prints, which I believe it's experimental.  He printed the wood pattern in various type of fabric ,including leather.  Here are some of the looks.

Trendology: KTZ A/W 2010 Collection

Sasko Besovski (Sasha B), a Macedonian fashion pioneer, had brought up the uber-hip retail concept Kokon to Zai to the streets of London and Paris.  This former construction engineer who ran away to become a DJ and fashion designer certainly is just as good as any of those whom originated from a design background.  (Source: Diptrics)

This Autumn/Winter Collection is as wild as it can be.  The use of leather and fur are giving this collection a lot of shapes and volume, exaggerating on the shoulders and putting patterns on the leather make the materials and textures very standout. Beside the leather and the fur, other outstanding designs are the prints and the ruffles.  Forgive me for not talking about the amazing prints, but skip to the ruffles.  Huge ruffles with various metallic colours are truly making a statement here. And what about ruffles on a men's pants? It's certainly something different.

Trendology: Hard-Boiled Wonderland by Breeyn McCarney F/W 2010/2011 Collection

Tonight we got invited to Breeyn McCarney F/W show, it was our first fashion show to attend for this year's Toronto Fashion Shows and we had a really great time and met some great people.

Talking about the collection, it was inspired by the novel, Hard-boiled Wonderland by Haruki Murakami.  Personally I haven't read the novel, however I have the knowledge that it's a strange and dreamlike novel.  I have this dreamy and imaginary mood by looking at Breeyn's design tonight.

The used of materials are very soft in this collection; distressed cotton, silk and wool, mohair, cotton/bamboo jersey all gave a very soft touch to all the pieces.  In addition to these materials, Breeyn put a lot of details to make the pieces more than delicate, including hand-beading with vintage pearls, hand-embroidered detail, leather leaf applique, hand-knited silk/wool/mohair, and hand-painted flowers and lace detail.  Adding onto these amazing combinations, the floral accessories, may be very small in comparison,  added a final touch to the dreamlike mood.

We loved all the pieces of this collection, but if we have to pick one, it has to be the beaded dress with 15oz of black seed beads! The beads are hanging down loose from the chest and swings along with the motion.  The beads give a lot of movement to the pieces, yet having this mysterious feeling when it's put together with this very dreamy collection.  Fabulous work!

Breeyn, if you are reading this, we just have to say you have done an amazing job in this collection. We are looking forward to see your next show!

Trendology: Christian Dior Fall 2010 Boots Collection

We mentioned about Christian Dior Fall 2010 RTW collection earlier, let's take a closer look at the collection, focusing on the boots. As we mentioned in the earlier post, the thigh-high boots are rocking this collection, ankle boots are not something we should miss either.  Both thigh-high and ankle boots are laced up at the back, have the bold buckles or the feminine lace.  Towering at about 5 inches high at the heels with the front platform showing some edgy style.

It'd be nice if I can have a pair in the closet! 

Trendology: Miu Miu RTW Fall 2010

This year, Miu Miu is to conclude the 1-month fashion week. Miuccia Prada did not disappoint us and drew a very beautiful ending to the event.

Miu Miu is always about youthful and always styled with the signature bow.  In Fall 2010 Ready-To-Wear collection, Miuccia added more bows and used one obvious colour palette - black, orange, purple for a more playful style.  A narrow, thin bow collar is one main style in this collection. Added to the bows, floral appliques are also used to show youth and innocence.  But being a brand that's cute and provocative, skirts and dresses are always short to show more thighs as the ruffles flow with the movement, U-front dresses that showed the flesh under the breasts, a low-cut dress with a thin bow placing in front of the breasts.

I am not positive if Miu Miu is a detail-oriented brand, however a lot of detail works are done around the feet. Legs are elongated by the double-bows squared pumps.  Around the ankles there are always a hood-like accessories with plain fabric or floral appliques.

Trendology: Alexander McQueen RTW Fall 2010

Ever since I knew Alexander McQueen's last collection will be shown during the Paris Fashion Week, I have been waiting for the show to come. To have a last look of his creativity, of his inspiration, of his spirit to fashion, of his very unique style.  It doesn't matter if the world say military is the look of the season, nor cultural/heritage inspiration is good to have.  He followed no rules or trends, but to create his own. 

Going back to handcraft, Alexander McQueen himself hand cut and draped all 16 pieces of work that are inspired by the Dark Age and Medieval time.  Translated Dark Age into romantic and poetic fashion, the draped dresses are accompanied by golden brocade, high-church angel paintings were digitally printed on a fabric, floor-lenth black dress, caped gown with gold rococo swirls. With McQueen signature play of head pieces, a bronze Mohawk helmet is topped on the models' heads.  Though only 16 pieces of work, they all showed McQueen's skillful hands, imagination and the knowledge to history.  

The show ended with a grand coat of gold feather with embroidered tulle at the bottom, drawing a grand and emotional period to his fashion career, and to leave a shine in his loved ones and everyone whom inspired by him. 

Trendology: Kenzo RTW Fall 2010

This season we see a lot vintages and hippie style, interplay between feminine and masculine is also something we find familiar with these days.  Antonio Marras from Kenzo decided to put the two together in his collection - fabrics with floral pattern are sewed together with plaid, animal prints with pinstripe.  Even with a feminine dresses of floral and fur, models are topped with a man's fedora.  Marras is having his feet into the world of oversized as well.  Oversized trench coat and oversized floral-print dress are two stunning pieces.  Another key to this collection is layering, one piece on top of another to create one, covering with one jacket and wrapping with a long scarf. The loosest, easiest of shapes here is what Marras called Freedom in his fashion world.

Trendology: John Galliano RTW Fall 2010

This fall collection by John Galliano was said to compared with the collection from last March.  Though the two collections certainly have some similarities, you cannot have doubt of his imagination because of that.  Design another fabulous collection using a similar theme is not easy.  Stunning oversized coats and dresses, decorative and colourful patterns, all these are evidences of Galliano's creativity. Wearing the belt around the thighs also gave a new meaning to this significant accessory in fashion.  The giant hat and the wig also reflected how Galliano always love to go beyond the boundary.

Trendology: Sonia Rykiel RTW Fall 2010

Sonia Rykiel is showing (and having) a load of fun after returning to the runway from her Boulevard Saint-Germain boutique. This collection is full of knits: knitted cardigan, knitted dresses. Some of these knits are fastened by a giant safety pin that makes another accessories to the collection.  To add some more fun to the knits, Sonia Rykiel is also going boyish. These oversize suit and trench coat must remind u of some menswear.  Colourful stripes are here to remind us about their H&M collection awhile before.  To conclude the show, all the models are to walk down the runway together in the ostrich-feather dresses, all smiling and clapping.  This show just sent out some positive mood to the world.

Trendology: Vivienne Westwood RTW Fall 2010

The fashion industry should be thankful to have designers like Vivienne Westwood.  Her creativity always fascinate viewers.  This season, Westwood has her inspiration on pirates.  Blanket coats created this sloppy image of pirates, but the glittery knits shows a stylish and glamourous side of the collection.  One thing that cannot be missed in all Vivienne Westwood collection is her floral dress. One thing that I found very different here is the makeup.  The heavy eyeliner and the smeared lipsticks showed a very dark image of the pirates.  But the giant coloured crown showed a contracting mood. Vivienne Westwood, she always shows us complexity in her beauty design.

Trendology: A.F. Vandevorst RTW Fall 2010

The designers obsessions this fall - blackboard and cardboards.  With these two odd inspirations, the collection could only go monochrome.  Though without the use of different colours, this collection is more than interesting.  The cardboard vest, trench coat and belt that looked like they made from cardboard, chalkboard prints, sweater covered with chalk dust. You would only know how chalk and cardboard look like as clothing when you see the images from below.