Made To Measure Hoot

Nathan Kostechko

Project Runway Cycle 4

Spoiler Alert: For those Project Runway fans who have still not watched the finale yet, STOP scrolling, because today I am going to ramble on and on about it. So don't say I didn't warn you!
I felt that the talent this season was definitely unprecedented. Most of the designers from the beginning have been good at what they do and stayed pretty consistent throughout. I bet the judges had a hard time each challenge trying to decide the winner- I know I did! The one little glitch for me was that the entertainment value this season was a bit low, a few times, I admit, I even dosed off while watching it on my bed. I think it is because the challenges are starting to get a bit dull and more importantly as Tim pointed out in an interview, the designers this season were all very focused with their work and had a healthy dose of respect for each other and therefore there was not a lot of drama. Oh well, put that way, I guess it cannot be helped.

And the winner this season is... Christian! No surprise there really. He's always been my favourite designer (and the audiences as well!). He consistently produced fierce outfits that were innovative, refreshing, stylish and very flattering to the body. Plus, he was the most vibrant, energetic and confident character in the show. His overconfidence and bitchy blunt comments actually endeared him to me more! Besides, underneath that facade, we can all see his fierce passion for fashion, which he obviously has a talent for. And isn't that what counts?

So, lets start the show!

Christian
Christian's collection was inspired by the romantic gothic. I thought the collection was chic, powerful, innovative and dramatic. Just what one would expect from Christian! Every piece was a very strong look. The dramatic overflowing top cinched at the wrists and waist, paired with skinny pants created a strong silhouette. The only thing was that I thought he repeated this silhouette a bit too much and it got slightly repetitive, especially with the monotonous black color scheme going on.

That is why it was good to see some beige here. It went really well with the look. And the beige overflowing neck piece Tim was worrying about before turned out great (right)!
I thought this outfit (left) looked exactly what I imagined the three musketeers would wear (down to the hat!). But I can appreciate the workmanship here. And the contrast created here (right) by pairing this soft flowing chiffon skirt with this structured (is it leather?) shirt is striking.

I love this two toned dress here (left). But I'm not so sure about this second piece..... she looks like a very elegantly shaped vulture......I guess feathers is an acquired taste.

All in all I thought Christian put on a great show. It had flare and drama, which I appreciated. Wearability-wise though, this collection is definitely not something that makes me want to reach into my screen and grab these outfits off the models for myself. As Victoria Beckham said, these clothes were very her. And I'm afraid that my taste of clothing does not run paraellel to her's.

Jillian
My taste definitely runs alongside Jillian's taste though. Besides a few pieces which I thought were a bit disjointed, I really liked her collection inspired by the Master of Argonauts. It was very detailed oriented, feminine and very wearable.
I wear these straight off the runway!

She just does trench coats SO well! And I love how she always puts a colorful lining inside.
And these dresses are just GORGEOUS. I want them! The blue velvet is elegant, slinky and sexy. And the black one is innovative, fun and flirty.

These two were the anomalies that I didn't like. Maybe if she took those gauzy sleeves from the gold dress.....But yes, if it was against last season's Jeffrey and Jillian, I think she'd definitely had won.

Personality wise, I thought Jillian was nice. Just that she seems to be in a cloud most of the time and it always came to the last minute. (Another point in favor of Christian- he was always quick AND good at his work).

Rami

Rami's collection was inspired by Joan of Arc and I thought it was very sophisticated and feminine. I was great to see him step out of his draping mode. I was getting bored of seeing Greek goddese after another.

But yes, I can see what the judges mean by color scheme.
Though I LOVED these two looks. Very power woman.

His evening dresses were just divine. Love the criss cross weaving detail. And you should see that dress (right), jacket off!

Genius!

Character-wise, I thought Rami was a really nice, wise and mature guy. He was very focused with his work and really listened to suggestions.

Overall looking at the final runway shows alone, I felt that the winner is still a tough call. All three shows blew me away, but in very different ways. And at the end of the day, I think it just depended on what taste one was looking for. If they wanted fierce, innovative designs: Christian is the obvious winner. But if they wanted details, femininity and something all girls would just love to wear right up: then Jillian is the winner. And if they wanted sophisticated and flattering on women: then Rami is the guy. --- I guess they were looking for someone fierce!

Random Thoughts I was surprised to see Victoria Beckham as the guest judge for the finale. For one thing, I wouldn't describe her as a Style & Pop icon. Pop icon yes, but style... I think it depends. She has a very unique taste that walks a thin line between a hit or miss. Also, I thought that for the finale, it was more appropriate to simply have the regular judges since they knew the contestants best (a la ANTM). Lucky for Christian though, the two of them definitely clicked!
Chris's final pieces was very dramatic and very Chris. I thought it was very clever of him to use human hair and made it not even LOOK like human hair. But at the end of the day.... that is just too creepy *shiver*!

I could not BELIEVE that Ricky and especially Sweet Pea lasted that long. With a few rare exceptions by Sweet Pea, they were both just consistently weak! There were so many more talented designers in the bunch that should've been there instead of them.

Like Victorya for example. She was brilliant and I totally thought that she'd make it to the final 3! I loved her sense of aesthetics. I'd have even bought that outfit she designed for Steve and Barry's (right) if it was not sold out so quickly! Just ONE small mistake with a denim trench coat......

Incidentally, according to an interview with Tim Gunn (which is very interesting and you should check it out), she was very sour and temperamental throughout the show. Once she even demanded that he count the money in each envelop he was giving out when they were buying fabric in Mood! Its interesting for someone to so publicly lash out at someone like that. Victorya even posted a reply to this where she said that she didn't feel that Tim was qualified to give all the suggestions that he did. *gasp* And we thought this was a drama-less season.....

Image Source: Bravo TV

Life is the Dancer you are the Dance

This man is everywhere I turn, and so he absolutely should be.

"Truth" is a highly talked about, sought after, confused "thing". What I know to be the truth is that our purpose here in this human form is a very simple and glorious one, a purpose that we often get tangled up with so much other STUFF. My true purpose as a human BEING is to BE! Sounds too airy fairy? Ask Eckhart about it, he has it sorted. If there were ever a human being in this consciousness that I call "my life" that had the ability to verbalise the "truth" it is Tolle San.



I ordered New Earth after reading on the blog We Like It Raw, about a global webcast event that was in the making. I must admit that I was skeptical when I read that Eckhart Tolle had teamed up with Oprah for the event. The very little I knew about Oprah was that she often filled my afternoon laziness while I was in university. At that stage I thought her shows were filled with Jerry Springer esque couples complaining to Dr Phil about their inability to get their shit together, the answers seemed so simple I couldn't work out why they needed to go on global TV to air their weaknesses. I always thought Oprah was extremely generous, giving and positive but I suspected a 'doing it for the money' motive. Ouch how nasty I was.

As soon as my book arrived in the mail, along side others such as Green For Life and Living Cuisine both super scrumptious and highly recommended resources, I flung it open with highlighter in hand and began to devour. To be honest the first few pages were a little hard to chew. I am the kind that never reads the instructions preferring to simply rip into things and learn from on the job training, so I was searching for "the answer", the juice right there on page 2. I had heard so many striking things about the shift in thinking and consciousness that this book would nurture that by page 7 when Tolle said "This book is about you. It will change your consciousness or it will be meaningless. It can only awaken those who are ready" I was thinking "Oh honey I am more than ready, just give it to me already". My impatience, which I have come to know was/is my ego eager for the answer to build into my repertoire of superiority, was palpable. In truth, I wanted to know it all, understand it completely and confirm to myself that it is what I (my ego) already knew - oh yeah I was down with the whole enlightenment thing! I soon realized it was about giving up "the search", funnily enough something I thought I had done ages ago.

I enrolled in the online, 10 week workshop based on the teachings and checked out the Oprah site for the first time, realizing that what I had created in my mind about Oprah was incorrect. Strip away her material surroundings, her expensive shoes, corporate alliances and what you have is an amazing woman who is in tune with her purpose and sharing her truth with the world. A positive truth.

Eckhart held my hand everywhere I roamed. On the train, before going to bed, walking down the street, lounging around. I was and still am wrapped up in every word he had consciously scribed. Masao asked me this morning, "Is that your bible?" as I skipped through the house clutching it close to me. I have never had a bible but this is as close as it gets I assume. I guess Eckhart is still holding my hand, but his words and truth have most certainly initiated a journey to a new space, a new earth, a new consciousness, taking place right now.



The words between the covers of this book are ones that every human being should read, luckily it has been translated into 35 languages. The words are not going to resonate with everyone. My recommendation: Read it now! You will love it and yourself for it!


I love his giggle!

A Work or Cocktail Dress?

When I look at images of dresses such as the one above (left) from the YSL S/S08 show, my usual reaction is probably', 'oooh, that looks nice and structured.' But since it's not like I can actually afford YSL, my thoughts just stop there. It was until I saw similar highstreet designs that I started wondering where do people actually wear dresses like this to? The YSL dress looks thick (material-wise,) grey and structured like YSL's suitskirts, so I just assumed it was a work dress. But now that I think of it, who would actually wear a strapless, low-cut dress to work? No one right? So is it a cocktail dress? Actually, Victoria Beckham is the only person I can think of who would walk around in something like that during daytime.

The highstreet dress that I mentioned was this grey dress from Miss Selfridge, (which is a UK chain store for those of you who aren't familiar with UK highstreet stores.) My first thought was that it looked cute, thanks to the bubbly-tulip skirt bit. It's a great way (and a very affordable way -28 pounds,) to add a structured item into my wardrobe. But then it occured to me that it has the same problem as the YSL dress -it looks very 9-to5-workclothes-y, especially with that black patent belt. And I certainly don't want to wear a business-like dress casually because it'll just make me uncomfortable -kind of like when I see certain celebrities wearing this kind of dresses around casually, or just for something not work-related. (I think Lauren Conrad did so before.)

But wait, can one actaully wear this dress back to the office? It's pretty low-cut and I'm not sure it actually goes past the knees. Hmm, I suppose it's ok wearing to work if you work somewhere that's semi-business-formal, and you can just wear layers to make it suitable, like wearing a turtleneck-top underneath or just a plain, long-sleeve white tee underneath. Where would you wear this sort of dresses to?

Image credits: http://www.style.com/, http://www.missselfridge.com/

SS08 Prada: Nappa Stripes Multicolor

Since I have been dressed in dull safe colors for a few months now (with the exception of Chinese New Year, but that's another story), it was completely refreshing when I stepped into the Prada store the other day and was immediately struck by a vibrant bold rainbow of colors coming at me!
I immediately rushed (very dignified-ly of course) to get a better look at them. My first reaction? LOVE. They are the perfect vibrant eye candies to brighten up my wardrobe this SS!
My second reaction was: Which COLOR?? They're all soo darling! I just want to gobble them up like candy!

Then I qualified: Most of them anyway, with the exception of this lime green and maroon color combo here (left). Or maybe its just too murky compared to the rest. Style-wise, I think the regular size hobos in this multicolor print is just a bit too much, too loud. You'd have to match it with a REALLY plain monotonous outfit for it to look decent. The smaller bags, like the small/mini hobos (right) on the other hand strike the perfect balance, bring in a just the right amount of WHAM without being too loud. Plus, since the clash will be less, you'll have a wider wardrobe choice.But the thing about the small/mini hobos is that they're a bit too small. First the strap is so short that one cannot carry it comfortably on the shoulder. Even with the longer extra strap, it takes away from the hobo look. But then, if you carry it, its just so small that it looks like you are carrying a little girl's bag (especially with the bright colors). And so I personally think that the clutch (left) is the best way to carry this multicolor pattern. Its small enough not to be too loud but still have the WHAM effect, and the style is just right to carry. Its just perfect!
And after THAT in depth analysis I of course started seeing these gorgeous ads everywhere. I love how they just pop out at you!
And I really like the gold/black combination as well. They are sharp and bold, but unlike the other ones which are very pretty and girly, these ones are edgy and cool! This combo works as a regular size hobo too.
But alas, my mom sensibly pointed out that these bags will be very dated in a few months and is totally not worth it. So another stylish option would be this plain purple version of the Nappa Stripes bag, which still has the vibrant color effect, albeit in a more sophisticated way. This one, you can even very comfortably carry on your shoulders- I tried! Its stunning! If only it wasn't so pricey! Another very cute bag at Prada I'd like to point to is this Botegga Venetta-esque weave tote. Its cute!

Image Source: Saks Fifth

Drawing Jam: Miranda Kerr

I did this for drawingboard.org 's March Drawing Jam. The model is Miranda Kerr of Victoria's Secret.

Mrs.Mary Hoover

In March 1903, Rev James Mathew Hoover (Pensylvannia, USA) was appointed by Bishop Warne of Singapore Methodist Mission to be the first Methodist Missionary to Sibu. This was because the Methodist Mission saw the need of a missionary to help with a fast developing church and the great needs of the Foochow migrants. In the spirit of Methodism, the harvest was plentiful and men and women must be sent out by the board.

The Methodist Mission had already built an attap assembly hall in Sungei Merah for church meetings. This hall was also partly partitioned to accomodate the home of the Rev Hoover, a school, and a hostel. As can be seen from the pages of the Methodist Mission histories all over the world, this was a typical model for Church or evangelical development. It can be viewed that the mission was a three prong mission: spiritual, social and economic.

The first Church built in Sungei Merah was named Sing Ang Tong or the Church of New Peace. The school was named Anglo Chinese School (which was later renamed Kwong Ang or Bright Peace). In this way, Kwong Ang Primary School became the first school established by the Foochows in Sarawak.

In 1904, Rev Hoover who was a very disciplined and proper Methodist decided to take a wife. He probably had exactly what kind of wife he should have to help him run the new settlement. So after a lot of prayers, thought and deliberation,he went to Penang, crosing the South China Sea and then sail up the Straits of Malacca to propose to Mary Hoover, the daughter of Methodist missionaries in Penang, whom he had met in 1899. She was 22 and he was 32. At the beginning of their marriage, the couple lived in the attap house in Sungei Merah. Life was not easy but with Christian fervour and determination, the couple worked very hard to help shape the settlement and make it very viable.

Perhaps unknown to many readers, Mrs. Mary Hoover. who was brought up in Penang, was very fluent in Bahasa Malaysia. When she started the Yuk Ing School in Sibu , she wrote the Bahasa texts for her students! Thus this school was indeed a pioneer in the teaching of Bahasa Malaysia.

A year later, Rev and Mrs.Hoover moved to Sibu and lived in the house built for Wong Nai Siong. This Methodist House was multipurpose as it was used for church services, the Anglo Chinese School and Yuk Ing Girls School.

Later in 1913,the couple built another home for themselves. This later became the Hoover Memorial Building, which was next to the Methodist Primary School. today it is no longer standing in its original place.

Mrs. Mary Hoover served the Yuk Ing Girls school as Head Mistress from 1912 to 1935, a period of 22 years. She taught a large number of girls in those years. At the same time, she learned to speak Foochow with a Ming Ching accent, and her husband Rev. Hoover spoke with a Kutien accent. This created a lot of humourous incidents amongst the foochows at that time.

while Rev Hoover was busy preaching, developing Sibu and introduce machinery to the farmers, Mrs. Hoover continued to teach well and looked after the girls students.She was a strict disciplinarian and a good manager. She instilled all the good Christian values in her charges who were extremely bright and resourceful.

Sadly,in 1935 Rev Hoover passed away and was buried in Kuching. But Mrs. Hoover carried on the good work stoically, and continued to teach in Sibu for another six months. Finally she left to teach in Singapore where she remained until 1941 when Singapore fell.

She was immediately taken to Perth, Australia where she had a brother. Thus she spent a quiet Second World War.

In 1946, she came back to visit Sibu and her god son, Ting Lik Kiew. she and the other missionaries who came with her, wanted to serve in Sibu again. However when she went back to Perth in 1947 she was already 65 years old.

Her needs were taken care of by her brother in Perth. But in 1957, the Sarawak methodist Church sent her a sum of money for her 75th birthday. She said that it was the biggest sum of money she ever received! And was moved to tears.

in her life, many of her former Yuk Ing students repaid her in different ways. Her students all remember her with much love and gratitude. According to my Third Aunt Pearl,Mrs. Hoover had a big heart and she loved every one, even though she appeared very strict. What ever she said was taken very seriously.

One of the ways was in the form of a young man who looked after her for two years in Perth. His mother was Mrs. Hoover's student and she insisted that this son of hers must visit Mrs. Hoover in Perth and help her in as many ways as possible. He was Lau Tieng Sing, who later became the Principal of the Methodist Secondary School for many years. Lau tieng Sing looked after her health, did her laundry, cooked for her and bought groceries for her twuce a week. He kept her little flat clean. He was like a son to her.

It was fortunately that Lau Tieng Sing was there at that time, because Mrs. Hoover's brother broke his leg and could not come to see her.

When Lau Tieng Sing left Perth upon the completion of his studies, Mrs. Hoover was getting on so she went to live in a nursing home. The Sibu church at this time also sent some money to her to assist her. She passed away on 3rd August, 1962 at the age of 80.

As the Hoovers were childless, the people of Sibu were considered their children. Their success made her extremely happy. Furthermore,those who were educated by them are eternally grateful.

(Please write in to fill up the many gaps I have in this write up. My apologies to those who have associated and made great contributions to Mr and Mrs. Hoover's lives.)

Sources : Tiong Yuk Ging , my great aunt(Oral History)and my other aunts who were students of Mrs. Hoover.
Lau Tze Cheng, my cousin from his various books which documented the development of Sibu.

Paris Fashion Week SS08 Wrapup III

This is the last S/S08 Fashion Week wrapup! Fashion Week at Paris is over. Thankfully, the collections shown in Paris proved to be much more loveable than the ones in New York.

Yves Saint Laurent

I love this collection. The clothes are structured and looks have very definite shapes. Even the shiny, cap-like dark wigs add structure to the whole look. Everything just looked seriously chic.

The show starts off with inspiring work-clothes. The jackets on the left and right models look like fantastic new work jackets (as opposed to the normal blazers.)

Pilati showed both pencil skirts and A-line skirts, which is great for women with different body shapes. I love the sleekness and colour blocks of the whole-grey outfit on the left. And the blue in the underside of the skirt and jacket provides great contrast to the dark grey look.

And finally, the party dresses. I love the contrasting colours on the yellow and black dress. And the two dresses on the left make such fabulous cocktail dresses. Sigh, just imagine wearing them to a uber-glam party...

Miu Miu

All I can say is, I need some time to digest this collection. It must be so far into the future that I can't completely comprehend these looks. Although I can say for sure now that I am not a fan of those swimming-cap-looking hairwraps.

Lanvin

A pretty, sensual tough chic collection. The outfits look surprisingly wearable (if you have the budget and event for the dresses of course.) Bulky jewelry, especially necklaces, seems to be a theme, as well as extremely smoky eyes.

The show started off with a gorgeous range of LBDs. Note the one-shouldered tops/dresses.

Elbaz uses silk tops with pleats to add sensuality to the otherwise structured looks. Apart from the jewelry, shiny threads and crystals were used in the dresses to make them look dark in a brilliant way.

And even more dresses. Perhaps Lanvin's customers need more dresses than other types of clothing?

Image credits: www.vogue.co.uk

Creamsicle the Rabbit

for a swap I'm doing with another artist. her fave color is orange, can you tell? and based off of this one, someone else commissioned me to do another one for a little boy for easter- yay!

Fun and Games?

So I don't know if any of you have had a chance to see the trailer for the new horror film Funny Games, but Brandon and I saw it last night prior to watching Michael Clayton on DVD. The film looks interesting to say the least and the poster for the film is interesting. I am torn on my initial reaction to the films trailer (which is below), which is a blatant rip-off of Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange and Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs. What's interesting is when I looked the film up, I found that it was a remake of director Michael Haneke's (who made the brilliant Cache) original 1997 Austrian film.

I don't know how I feel about remakes by the same filmmakers. I know this has been done before (I think with a Spanish horror film, but I can't remember the name) but watching the original trailer and seeing the trailer for the new film with Tim Roth and Naomi Watts, I couldn't help but feel this will be a shot-for-shot version of his Austrian film. Which is fine, I haven't seen that version, so I won't notice the difference. There are just a few things I want to tackle here:

1. The trailer is a lot like what Paul Thomas Anderson did with There Will Be Blood. Just one look at the trailer and you can see Kubrick written all over it. Even the all white outfits (Michael Pitt has a golf club instead of the cane that Malcolm McDowell carried around) evoke the imagery of A Clockwork Orange. The big red letters in the trailer with the classical music also seem like they were lifted right out of a Kubrick films promotional campaign.

2. The "horror" of this movie. I really don't know how I will react to the film. The preview definitely has a Straw Dogs feel to it, and I hated Straw Dogs. There seem to be glimpses of rape, violence, and Naomi Watts giving her body up to save her family all in the two minute trailer. The imagery is enough to make me think twice about wanting to sit through a film like this, and the films promotional poster of Naomi Watts crying is a tough image to swallow. The film will be hard to take, but in what manner will it present its horror? That will be the key to whether or not it is horrifying, or merely exploitation.

3. I really hope that the psychological aspect of this film outweighs the need to shock with rape and violence. Michael Pitt looks real creepy, and his character seems to be having fun doing what he does. That is not where the problem could be. This could be a Last House on the Left type of film, but it could also go completely off track and just be an excuse to show an hour of a poor woman being raped and humiliated in front of her husband and child.

4. This type of horror film can be done well because it relies on our fear intrusion and our safe little bubbles we occupy being burst with shocking violence and nihilism. The trailer makes me think of Ian McEwan's novel Saturday or the French film Irreversible where there are moments of shock and horror and unease, but they are done in a way that don't seem exploited. Irreversible succeeded because it chose to show its most horrifying imagery (a brutal rape and murder) at the very beginning of the film, and then it worked its way backwards revealing what the lives of the couple was like before that horrible day. The time-altering gimmick gave a certain amount of poignancy towards an otherwise ugly film, as we see how happy the couple was, and wish to hell that we could stop the unstoppable events of the future.

I am hoping that Funny Games doesn't fall into the "cute" horror category where they think they are being clever and referential to other revered filmmakers, therefore elevating the content of their film. The films tagline really bothers me too: "You must admit you brought this upon yourself." Ugh. To me that just gives me the sense that this is going to be that kind of smug horror film where the wealthy and happy family is punished for being a wealthy and happy family. Unless there is some major swerve where we learn that they really did deserve this, than okay, I could maybe see that, but if it is just a Straw Dogs type situation where the woman is raped because she is American and good looking, and then we have to linger on that scene forever, well count me out. I am conflicted on the film, covering up horror with comedy is fine, but it's all in the execution, and one wrong move could turn this into I Spit On Your Grave territory, and all these thoughts are just from the trailer, so they are doing something right in promoting this film, because even though I am unsure whether I will run out and see the film, one thing is certain: the trailer has me talking about it.

Paris Fashion Week F/W08 Wrapup II

Chanel
The Chanel collection was as usual, very standard. Besides a few exceptions, none of the looks made me think, "Wow, I really really want that!" It was more like, "Hmm... they're ok, I guess I'd wear them if someone gave it to me..... maybe"
I thought the whole collection had a little bit of something for every age. The few outfits at the beginning, above, were clearly for more sophisticated ladies than I. Maybe the Cashmere Mafia gang age or older.
I feel like I've seen this look on the left before- minus the glasses, which are interesting. And this outfit here on the right is one of the few looks that reminds me of why I love Chanel. Its just so perfectly prim, elegant and chic!
These are the perfect example of the "Hmm... they're ok, I guess I'd wear them if someone gave it to me.... maybe."
The whole overly laced and designed lingerie look is simply not my thing... maybe without the train..... Now to the other pieces I liked. Loved this soft grey feminine dress (left). And this satin grey dress (right) just blasted me away. The almost fishnet stockings, which I'd usually find trampy, totally works here.
The use of the classic Chanel contrast, beige and black is genius here. The focus on the beige gives our eyes something else to feast on besides the standard black, but at the same time it maintains the timeless quality of black. These dresses are just to-die-for!
The runway was apparently circular and the models ended up on a merry go around thing in the center so the audience can have a better look at the outfits. Very innovative. And as for the accessories:

a) I KNEW I should've kept those contrasting chunky Marc by MJ mary janes I bought on sale this season. Now they're coming back to haunt me!
b) The fishnet-like stockings and beige/black contrasting stockings are AWESOME. The contrasting beige/black has the added benefit of elongating the legs and making it appear slimmer!
c) I wonder how those head wear would look on me. The embroidered brooch on the hat is especially darling.
d) What is with Karl and UFOs lately? First he has a mobile exhibit in the shape of a UFO, and now he has mini UFOs floating down the runway.

Chloe
I don't think Melim Andersson is understanding Chloe very well, because I do NOT feel Chloe here. What happened to the effortlessly cool Chloe girl who we all aspired to be?
In fact, this girl is the antithesis of Chloe. She is clearly trying too hard. And what is with the short sleeves winter coat (left)? Creative? Yes. But practical? I think not. Though I'm sure some enterprising member of the team will come up with a long sleeved version for in store purchase. It IS a business after all, and besides the sleeves, the design in the middle is cute!Maybe Melim Andersson is trying to expand into the single season climate markets, like Singapore. Because that is the only reason I can come up with to explain crazy mix of FW and SS elements all over the runway. The result is.......... not optimal.
Many find hidden jewels digging through their grandma's wardrobe, but these were clearly meant to STAY inside her wardrobe. No matter how I look at it the dress on the left cannot in anyway be considered flattering. The outfit on the right.... has hopes, if the two prints would just go their separate ways.
One of the things I DID liked though was his play softness and structure, making the look both feminine and strong.
This dress was also OK. The only problem with it is that this is supposed to be the FINAL look of the collection. Its cute, but final look of a collection it does not make.
I loved the loose braid hairstyle on this runway- now that is casual chic! As for the rest of the accessories, I thought they were really young, innovative, vibrant and rockin'- especially the footwear. The patterned stockings were also genius, they give just the right amount of edge to the boring ol' black tights we've been seeing everywhere. Now the million dollar question is, while the footwear worked on the runway, will it translate to sales? Personally, while I think they're awesome, I wouldn't spent a small fortune on footwear that looks more like art work.

Image Source: Elle