Fashion and Beauty Book Recommendations :-)

Talking about books (which I love), there are four or five I have recently read that bear recommendation.
I cannot praise enough Christa Weil's Secondhand Chic: Finding Fabulous Fashion at Consignment, Vintage, and Thrift Shops :



Just the sections on "Taking Care of your clothes" (laundering etc) and on spotting quality with the different seam finishes etc... is worth the price of the book alone. Really if you are interested in fashion this book is a must have.

I have also read lately Danny Vosovic's Fashion Inside Out: Daniel V's Guide to How Style Happens from Inspiration to Runway and Beyond:




It is a great book if you are a new or aspiring fashion designer with great interviews with industry icons like Tim Gunn, Diane Von Furstenberg, Todd Oldham, Heidi "Frau Seal" Klum, pattern makers, model bookers, stylists, you name it...
It also has great tips and instruction of the basics of pattern making, sketching and draping (which is why I got the book). And on top of it, it is a beautiful book.

Speaking of my eternal crush (his posture, vocabulary and wit make me swoon. That and the gorge baby blues) Sir Tim Gunn, I have also recently read his book, Tim Gunn: A Guide to Quality, Taste and Style (Tim Gunn's Guide to Style)and it is delightful:


As far as style advice, his is very basic. Invest in quality pieces, stock great basics, etc. But what I loved were his views on personal style and shopping and closet cleaning philosophy and the narrative is a delicious peek into his intellect which is just effervescent ;-). He makes me wish I was a 6'2, gorgeous, 42 year old gay male architect who looks like an older and distinguished Jack McKenroth, so that I could propose and be reciprocated and we could live happily ever after in Frank Lloyd Wright's "Falling Water" and be served rumaki by our houseboys while we drink very dry martinis and watch old Joan Crawford and Gloria Swanson movies and attend brilliant charity balls. Here is the incomparable and Adonis-like Jack so you can see what I am talking about:



Well, personality-wise I am kind of exactly like a combination of that and Chris March.

I do not know if he would approve of my style though since I am more Vivienne Westwood and Franco Moschino than Diana Vreeland or Audrey Hepburn. But he would love the fact that like Coco Chanel and Kate Hepburn, I am one of those Masculin/Feminin women you have to lock up your men and womenfolk for. Which would be a very fair assessment and something that has been often said about me (I loathe false modesty, so Anglo-Saxon. I am very Gallic that way).

Another great fashion book I am in the process of reading is Fashion Conspiracy, The - The Dazzling Inside Story of the Glamorous World of International High Fashion by Nicholas Coleridge. It is a great book that gives an inside view of international high fashion straight from the mouth of legends like Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Bill Blass, Rei Kawakubo and Issey Miyake. It really tells it all. It is a great insight into how the major fashion players came to be and how a garment path can be traced from the runways of the fashion capitals to the sweatshops of Mumbai or El Salvador. It also speaks of famous feuds and the careers of people like Andre Leon Talley pre-Vogue, Grace Coddington etc...

It is an older book so a little harder to find but well worth the hunt.

Another great book that is legendary is Kevyn Aucoin's "Making Faces".



This book is the Bible of make-up really. It teaches you all the basics about applying makeup, techniques, fantasy make-overs, the works. I have copied so many of his make-up designs and they work like a charm. It should be on every woman's library.

Another great book I have found is Born-Again Vintage: 25 Ways to Deconstruct, Reinvent, and Recycle Your Wardrobe by Bridgett Artise and Jen Karetnick:


It has great ideas on how to de-construct and re-constitute new wardrobe pieces from stuff you can find at thrift shops or in your wardrobe and which you might have given up hope in. Incredibly creative and fun.

Try these books. They are all wonderful and amazing knowledge for those of us for whom fashion is a lifestyle.

Dove Soap-Good Soap :-)

For a few years now Dove soap has had marketing campaigns aimed at boosting women and girl's self esteem and has created the Dove self-esteem fund contributing to causes that help enhance the self image and self esteem of women.
The spokesperson is a great lady that I am very proud to be internet friends with, the fabulous Ms. Jessica Weiner, author of " A Very Hungry Girl" and "Do I Look Fat in This?".
Ok, when I was studying medicine and science in Canada and working at hospitals, all the gynecologists and dermatologists that crossed my path always swore by Dove White soap because it has the perfect PH balance for the skin and those sensitive female bits (how clinical ;-) ).
Since I have been using Dove white soap exclusively for those purposes, I stopped having any issues and have recommended it to everyone who crosses my path with likewise results. Well that and complete chastity and monogamy and safe sex of course, for those who are lucky enough to remember what that is all about.
Well, firstly , I have to recommend reading Jessica Weiner's "Do I look Fat in This" book. I am reading it right now and it is chock full of wisdom and good advice for women.
Last full time gig I had, There was this group of 2-3 chicks. One of them, she did not have the best personality, but I think that was her biggest problem, was one of the most weight obsessed individuals I have come across. I mean 97% of everything I heard her say was about weight ( hers and other peoples), calories, diets, what she ate, what she did not... It was incessant and sad and annoying. And she was not the only one. One of the women in executive management was talking about her upcoming vacation and how her husband's sisters were going with them and were thin and perfect and how she had special ordered a skirt to her knees to wear over her bathing suit. I told her I wear a freaking bikini and I am bigger than her. Thin does not equal beautiful and my big body is as beautiful to me as any skinny one. I am not going to waste any time in my life hating my body. Her poor self image, led me to discover that she was plagued with a myriad insecurities (fairly well founded) and instead of facing her real issues (she is under-qualified for her position which she maintains through office politics) she focused on her body insecurities.
And it goes on and on... "The Language of Fat" is something that as women we really need to unlearn and in her book Jessica shows us the way.
Right now the Dove self-esteem fund is donating a dollar to causes that enhance women self-esteem when you enter the UPC code from a bar of Dove at http://bit.ly/3aAvP8.

Here is Jessica Weiner's page on Simon and Schuster: http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Jessica-Weiner

And The Dove Self-Esteem Fund's Campaign for Real Beauty site: http://www.campaignforrealbeauty.com/

Here is a great video they produced:

RAGE-The Movie: Fashion, Izzard, Leguizamo and Judi Dench...

Sounds Divine!

Thin is not an ideal... it's a cop out.

I am a plus size designer and woman. Plus designer by choice, plus size woman by pure genetics.
I have been on every weight loss program imaginable including medically supervised, Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers, Human Growth Hormone shots, medically prescribed amphetamines, liposuction and tummy tuck and I am an eating disordered individual in recovery since the social and medical obsession with thinness led me to anorexic behavior for over 13 years. I never binged, but compulsively exercised (8-10 hours a day... I used to wake up in the middle of the night to do sit-ups), purged (vomited and abused laxatives) and abused ephedra to speed up my metabolism. The kick is that I am much healthier now that I live with my weight then when I was making all these attempts to satisfy an arbitrarily imposed beauty and health ideal. Not one day in my lifetime have I "emotionally" overeaten or binged. I was a dance major and an AFAA certified aerobics instructor. For years I did not have a car and my feet were my sole mean of transportation. So no, I do not sit and stuff my face with Big Macs and Twinkies.
I do not have high blood pressure. As a matter of fact I have really low blood pressure. Usually running around 100 or less/60. I have also low blood sugar. Could not be further from type 2 diabetes. My blood lipid profile is stellar. In short I am a beacon of shiny good health by any objective measure except for the sequella from attempting to lose weight (Barrett's esophagus). Yet, I am fat and a size 18. And nothing short of very unhealthy and self-destructive behavior can change that.
The saddest part is I never was unhappy about my appearance. Other people could not live with it and pushed the need to lose weight on me.
Being fat or being thin is nothing more than an arbitrary physical characteristic like height or eye color, yet it heavily determines how you feel about yourself and how people perceive you, and your chances in life even more at this point in history than I would venture to say, skin color.
The RTW and couture sample size is either a 0 or a 2. For no good reason. It takes only 1 more yard of fabric to produce a size 14 garment than a size 2 garment. So cost is not the issue.
It is MUCH harder to design and sew for a body with actual curves. You have to take into account the shape of actual breasts and hips and engineer the pattern pieces accordingly.
So the only reason I can see for extremely thin people being held up as an ideal in the fashion industry is laziness and lack of ability on the part of designers. The do it because it's easy.
I do not like looking at thin people better than at medium size or fat people. As a fat person I do not aspire to be a thin person nor do I think them to be more beautiful, sexy or morally superior. I do not envy the thin.
As a matter of fact, they are usually a lot less happy with their looks, always on diets and a lot more insecure than I am. So thank you, but no thank you.
I resent them a little. I would be lying if I did not. They get privileges I don't and they get treated better. Designers make for them the clothes that they refuse to make for me. For no good reason. Thin privilege is EXACTLY like being treated better because you are white or because you are a man or because you are heterosexual. So most designers should understand this.
By making beautiful, well-designed clothes in larger sizes NO ONE is promoting obesity. Like homosexuality, NO ONE would choose to be bigger. You just are. And like gay men say, how can anyone believe that I would purposefully put up with ostracism, discrimination, upturned noses, contempt and constant judgment? I really do not have a choice unless I want to be less healthy and miserable. I prefer to be healthy and happy and accept my genetics and the way that I am.
I do not see why fat people ( yes, we are fat, not overweight since no weight is the one we all should be and not obese since that is not a legitimate medical diagnoses or construct) should be constantly punished by the fashion industry too under any logic.
Even if it was a disease (which it is not. For SOME people higher weight MAY increase risk for certain conditions. But so does being a woman ex: breast and ovarian cancer, being a man ex:heart disease, prostate and testicular cancer, being older ex: everything, being Jewish ex: Gaucher and Tay-Sachs, Greek ex:CJD and B-thalassemia, African-American ex: sickle cell anemia, White ex: many cancers, Alzheimer's,cystic fibrosis, gay ex: HIV, you name it ... yet none of these "risk factors" are considered diseases or stigmatizing on their own, so where is the logic?), it is NOT the place of the fashion industry to judge. They would not refuse to make clothing for people with cancer or type 1 diabetes would they? I mean I do not see them sending Halle Berry or Sheryl Crowe or Kyle Minogue to the muumuu shack but yet they think it's ok to do that to ANYone over a size 4.
Discrimination and segregation are NEVER ok and most people in the fashion industry should know better.Specially when the root for it is to justify lack of ability or laziness.

FASHIONAIR

FASHIONAIR

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Sewing Project: Gothic Run Around Outfit Part Zwei-Herr Rolf

I have been working on my Arkivestry Gothic Run Around Outfit, but I have run into a big problem....Rolf, my Bernina 1010 sewing machine, is not working and is under the weather. It probably needs to be re-adjusted because of the move to Atlanta. I got sick when I got here too. Leaving San Diego is entirely too painful, so I understand.
I named my machine Rolf after Rolf Snoeren from the design duo Viktor and Rolf, being that the machine is Swiss, Germanic and about the approximate age of both Rolf and I.

Here are photos of Rolf in my studio/apartment in San Diego where we were very happy:



And now in my little house in Atlanta:




I called my design BFF Mardell back in Diego to see if it was the machine or me, because I was having an impossible time winding the spool.

Well I did everything right, so it's Rolf being depressed.

She told me that when you move, sewing machines sometimes need to be re-adjusted. The woman is a sewing goddess :-)

I am taking it into the repair shop to get re-adjusted in the morning.


So far I have pulled out all the notions that I am using, have cut the fabric for the tunic top, and have laid out and pinned the ribbon lattice on the front pieces of the garment:






Here is the skull organza for the contrast ruffles:



Stay tuned....

Interior Design: My "Tim Burton" Living Room and Car

I think that if you are a creative person, you kind of automatically use all of your surroundings and everything you come across as canvas for expression.
I "customized" my car (2006 Scion xB) and turned it into a rolling tribute to the life and work of my favorite fashion designer, Vivienne Westwood. Here are some photos:







The interiors are done in McQueen tartan (after Alexander McQueen) and I embellished with "Anarchy in the UK" and a Marx patch from her "Only Anarchists Are Pretty" collection. I added the chandelier and cherub fresco on the ceiling to emulate a t-shirt of hers I have with Renaissance art. She does a lot of skull jewelry so that is why my rims are skull-ish and her logo runs along the sides of my car, orb and all.

I live in an adorable little house in the Garden Hills part of the Buckhead neighbourhood of Atlanta. It's the part of Atlanta where the Real Housewives of Atlanta would not want to come because everything is kind of staid and forest like
and kind of European. Not shiny and huge and well, vulgar like New Money people like. New Money here lives in suburban subdivisions so they can have sprawling, obscenely large properties and make their wealth conspicuous.

Well, the space and the forest like surroundings reminded me a little of Snow White and a lot of Tim Burton's movies. When I first got here, it was the dead of winter and cold like a corpse's bum.

And all the Xmas decoration were on clearance. Which lead to my Gothic Ice, Tim Burton inspired living room with elements that speak to many of his movies: "Edward Scissorhands", "Batman", "The Nightmare Before Christmas", "Sweeney Todd", "The Corpse Bride".
My furniture is all the same one I have had for about 5 years now from Ikea and I just changed the pillows and slip covers. Got some lamps and a white, sparkly rug on clearance at Homegoods ( the TJ , TK for my British readers, Maxx for interiors)and some art that I have collected with my finds from the post-Xmas clearance sales (icicle lights, Xmas ornaments in vases, silver branches in arrangements).

The curtains are also home-made with about 12 dollars worth of fabric from Walmart.







Like Billy Shakespeare used to say "All world is a stage". I am out to be the set and costume designer of as much of it as I can be.

Sewing Project: Gothic Run Around Outfit

I seriously need sewing practice to review my basic skills since I have not sewn in over a year. See, I moved to London and put my sewing machine, patterns, and fabrics in storage and when I got back I moved to Atlanta, worked like a maniac , got really sick, had surgery and my machine was sitting there sad and lonely.
I have a learning disability kind of like dyslexia called dyscalculia. Most of my issues are with numbers to a lesser extent but mostly with visuospacial stuff, sequences, mechanical stuff and hand-eye coordination. And then I go and become a dancer and a scientist and a fashion designer...No one can tell me I am unwilling to take on a challenge.
When I sew (or drive or dance) I have to do it often or my brain "erases" the mechanics. My body has to know the motions by heart and tell my brain what comes next. And I have to be doubly careful when sewing straight seams and so on.
It's the same with algebra. I can do it. I just have to commit the process to muscle memory, like a dance routine.
That is why I am a slow sewer and why pattern making can be such a challenge for me and the reason why I cannot try out for Project Runway by myself.
So I am trying to get it back before I start sewing for other (actually paid, maybe) people.
So I am making a little "running around town" Gothic pant and tunic set.
Here is my pattern:


And here is the fashion fabric I am using for the the tunic:



I am adding ruffles with black and ecru crocheted lace and in a silk organza with skulls designer yardage from Thomas Wylde that I scored last year. I am also appliqueing ribbon lattices like Marc Jacobs did for the S/S '10 show... Like this:



Then I am doing the longest version of the bloomers in a black cotton twill with ruffles made from the fabric of the top, the skully organza and the laces.

For the drawstrings I am using black silk cording and little silver skull beads I got a while back....

I already cut the pattern pieces for the top. I will keep documenting my progress...

Styling: Me in Custo Barcelona

Just wanted to show another example of cool styling looks that I have worn lately...
One is me in a Custo Barcelona dress with Rainbow zipper leggings, vintage Gap classic denim jacket, Petit Bateau t-shirt, TOUS comic bag, black patent Converse, Forever 21 jewelry and Kangol hat:




And then me (completely make-up free) in a random trompe-l'oeuil t-shirt, Erin Fetherston for QVC boyfriend cardigan, the same Rainbow zipper leggings ( they were 2 pairs for $15.00 and a brilliant fit!) and the same Converse and bag...


I like those :-)

WWMD (What Would Milla Do) Project Runway : Avant Garde Surfwear

In a recent episode of Project Runway, the designers were challenged with designing an Avant Garde look inspired by surfwear.
I decided to take a stab at the challenge and this is what I came up with:



It was actually inspired by this photo:



I know that juxtaposing the ideas of fashion and whales is akin to blasphemy...LOL

But they said avant garde!

The look is a black and white neoprene dress with a hood and exaggerated cloche skirt with a visible YKK zipper, sequin leggings and blue ombre ankle boots.
What I took from the whales was the basic color blocking and the idea of a belly patch that follows the general shape of the body. Being literal without being too literal and actually adding depth to the optical illusion of a more pronounced waist line.
I am trying to "flesh out" my basic croqs (drawings of bodies on which I sketch the clothes) but it's hard... it's going to be a process....

Styling a boyfriend jacket...

I was reading my favouritest new blog "Fashion Preserve", by the super amazing Christa Weil, author of the second hand shopping Bible "Second Hand Chic".
This woman is a fashion encyclopedia and I have learned so much from her and reading her book and blog.
She is doing this amazing series on how to style a boyfriend jacket and she was trying to do it for different body types and sizes.
Well, I thought I would post this picture of me in the boyfriend jacket and the way I styled it for plus-hourglass since the likelihood of finding something that on-trend, for plus and hourglass is the same as that of finding a real Birkin bag at the Goodwill for 15.99 ( we keep dreaming and looking though).
But I did it. Like Joy Nash says, fatshion requires even more creativity and imagination that skinny girl couture.
So here is the photo of me in the boyfriend trend:



I am wearing a real vintage men's jacket that I got at the Junior League's thrift shop, my Ashley Stewart skinny black jeans, a great plaid shirt I found for 14.99 at Rainbow, enamel flower earrings and heart necklace from Forever 21 and my trusty Kangol grey flannel newsboy hat. I am also wearing my black patent Converse but you cannot see them in the photo next to my Vivienne Westwood tribute DanyCalifornia Scion xB (I pimped my own ride with the help of all of my boy cousins in Tijuana, B.C).
The make-up includes the most awesome dark purple lipstick called "Confession" by Urban Decay which is uber-flattering but requires lip lining with a reverse lip liner. A great one I just discovered is DuWop's reverse lipliner. My blush is NARS Super Orgasm, Some Kind of Gorgeous by Benefit foundation, Sephora brand mascara, and Sephora liquid eye liner in sparkly black.
So you can see that trends can be done on the cheap and in plus.
Please visit and read Fashion Preserve (http://fashionpreserve.blogspot.com/) . It's one of the best fashion blogs on the internet.

Blogging Project Runway: Girls on Film

So in this next challenge, the designers had to tackle movie costuming from several genres.
Yet again, the challenge was bit vague and disjointed. I mean there are so many crossovers!You can do period action adventure (as in The Time Machine), contemporary Science Fiction (how about "Outbreak"?), futuristic Science Fiction film noir ( BladeRunner, anyone?)... The sky is the limit really...
I would have preferred if the producers/judges would have taken the path of my sketching teacher in fashion school and made them pick a movie as inspiration and create a garment. We had to create a mini collection with at least 6 looks for our assignment.
Fashion history was my favorite subject in fashion school and I LOVE taking period costuming and modernizing it. Specially Victorian and Edwardian being that I am, well, a Goth freak.
As far as the people who picked Period Piece, only Gordana's was accurate to period. I was AMAZED they were so harsh and critical. Christopher's although a beautiful interpretation, was terribly anachronistic as Tim Gunn mentioned during his critique. His costume was Victorian-ish. But NO Victorian garment, not even a Victorian prostitute's, would have been sleeveless.He might as well have put her in platforms and a 'fro. Plus he used panniers in a Victorian garment????Those are 18th century babe...pick a period, ok? And an Obi sash in manner of a pseudo-corset... Really in a way his look was kind of Baz Lurhman-ish because he does anachronism too.
I mean I really find unacceptable that designers, even self-taught ones, act like it's ok not to know fashion history. It's NOT ok. It's something that is critical as a designer to know and it enriches your knowledge and craft as much as I guess pattern making or whatever.
I mean right now I am in the middle of projects with clients that want Egyptian-inspired garments, 1920's stuff, a myriad of things.
Althea's was great and well constructed but it was a very wearable, contemporary look. I did not see the essence of Film Noir though. It was not dark or smoldering. I just happened to be black. Not the same thing.
Carol Hannah's and Logan's were appropriately "Matrix-ish/Tomb Raider-ish". I bit too shiny though... I would have loved a little more leather and maybe some distressed elements.
I loved Epperson's. Although less costume-ish than the rest, his look had a lot of interest and soul. For a 1 day turnaround the amount of detail was incredible. All that gathering for ruffles in 1 day????
As I said, I thought Gordana's was the most true-to-period, and the one that looked most expensive actually.
I was not fond of Irina's. I did not understand the reason for the organza wrap and the lace insets were a bit sleepwear, a bit vulgar. Yet again, just because something is black, it does not necessarily feel "dark". You can make a garment in white or even baby pink and it can be tremendously dark and twisted.
I thought for sure this was going to be Louise's challenge and she was going to hit it out of the park.
But her design was not on track because of 1) design issues and more importantly fit issues and fabric choice. I have seen her stuff and she could have totally nailed this challenge. What happened? It's like she did not really try...
I thought the winning look, Nicholas', deserved the win. But I think he owed 55% of his win to Collier Strong and the bang up job they did on hair and make-up. As far as "dark" his look was darker than those who picked Film Noir even though it was white.It's about the feel and spirit, the soul of the garment, as much as about the color.
I feel so bad about Ra'mon. He is lovely and very talented. It is always bad to double guess yourself. He should have carried on with his initial jumpsuit design, I think. I feel that in this case the choice of colors was what hurt him most . Had he chosen a metallic or earth tone ( more python than frog) palette he could have pulled off that unitard look.
I designed lizard/reptilian inspired costumes when I choreographed a piece called "Reptilium" in college. I had three dancers in unitards with peeling reptilian skin at different spots but my palette was silver and gold.
I actually kind of loved Shirin's "Saloon girl" look. Although it was the most costumish of the bunch, the color choices were excellent and it looked more sophisticated and yet again darker than the "Film Noir" entried. It was kind of interesting how the designers who got a genre they did not really want actually did better with their designs that the ones who got their choices and actually stuff that would have been ideal for them. Maybe you need adversity in order to truly fuel creativity...
This was a great challenge, but as a I said in the beginning of the blog, I think more focus on direction would have led to much more interesting garments on the runway.
By the way, this is one of the pannels from the class project I did with the Victorian "Sweeney Todd" inspiration... As you can see, although the elements are very true to period, the fact that I used a lot of menswear silhouette's made it a lot more contemporary. And the general feeling of the sketches in unapologetically dark and goth.

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NY Fashion Week : Costello Tagliapietra, Erin Fetherston, L.A.M.B, Marc Jacobs

I am covering highlights of my favorite shows from New York, London, Paris and Milan Fashion Week. Why in a plus size blog would you ask? Don't those @#%^&*!!! hate ALL of us and think that we are less than roaches and they will not make clothes for us?
Well, a little. There is still a lot of stupid stigma in the fashion industry attached to not being alarmingly thin. Prejudice galore.But things are starting to turn around a little. For example, Erin Fetherston and Vivienne Tam recently made lines for QVC and yes, they went up to size 3X (and the quality is PRIMO... much better than the designer collections at Target, same price point). Plus... If they know that plus size women ARE indeed interested in on trend, well-designed clothing, designers are that much more likely to make it and buyers to stock it at stores.
As things are and I have it from the people who choose the vendors at major retialing outlets, they think that the "plus size woman" is afraid of taking on new trends and is not very interested in edgy, designer clothing.
I say NOT. I cannot be the only one who longs for Moschino and Comme and Marc Jacobs and L.A.M.B and House of Holland and Giles Deacon and who is completely revolted by the sight of shapeless Eileen Fisher clothing or another Nygard polyester business suit.
So here are some pictures and commentary of my favorite shows from NY Fashion Week...

Costello Tagliapietra's collection was happy, wearable and universally flattering. I can see these color trends influencing what women of any size will love to wear this upcoming Spring and Summer... Mango and Lemon :-)





I love L.A.M.B and I always have. Gwen Stefani's line always has that California Punk Edge that I so strongly respond to. I need rock and roll in my clothes and she gives it to me without failing but in a mature and grown up and refined way. It's Hot Topic for the grown woman and that is what my little black punk/goth heart so ardently desires...






Erin Fetherston makes clothes that are unfailingly adorable and romantic. Clothes for the 13 year old ballerina girl in me that lived for the beauty of her pointe shoes. Bows and rosettes. Exquisite pleating and gathering. Refined, Chanel-esque color palettes. Sometimes even the darkest of the Goths and the hardest punk of punk rockers wants to feel like a Parisian princess walking down the 16eme arrondissement.
I have personally checked out her QVC line and her plus sizes are very true to size (I took a 1X/18/20 and could be a fit model for that size if hourglass models were the standard ... I am 49-37-52) and they are BEAUTIFUL and the quality is divine.





Marc Jacobs can be hit or miss. Bu when he hits, he hits it out of the park. When I saw the outfit he did for the Costume Institute Gala for Madonna with the blue bunny ears I was mostly horrified.
The S/S 2010 collection was the opposite of that. With lingerie touches and a vintage, "artisanal" sensibility Marc won me back. These dresses and pants and jackets with their lace-like ruffling details remind me of a little shop I went to at the Rue du Temple in Paris many years ago called "A La Bonne Renommee" that made the most exquisite things. These clothes are truly confections and would be lovely on women of any size.









What I loved about Charlotte Ronson's collection are two things: One the fresh and romantic colour story. The second was that it is casual clothing well done. I love pale pink and black and I love the juxtaposition of a rock and roll sensibility with the softness of a ballerina.





These are all looks that with creativity and inspiration can all be adapted and worn by women of all sizes.

Stay tuned for coverage of my favourite collections from NY and London Fashion Weeks...