Breakfast at Tiffany’s Not-So-Happy Story

Ever since I watched Breakfast at Tiffany’s one month ago I can't forget this fashion show for Givenchy, who designed Audrey Hepburn's costumes.  He was the first high fashion designer to break into film. I understand why this movie appeals to so many generations of girls. Myself, I preferred to watch Roman Holiday, a fantasy story of a princess who escapes from her life for a day - escape from responsibility and societal expectations. Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany’s is more down to earth, a wanna-be socialite who is trying to move ahead in life. While escaping from her past, ignoring lack of founds, she aspires to becoming one of the fabulous New York ladies. In fact, Holly is a high class escort, if not a call girl. I understand her aspirations, but I'm far from understanding the way that she chose to fulfil them.  The fact is the fabulous Audrey Hepburn represents the ideal of young women -  beautiful, feminine, and fun loving. 

The King’s Speech starring Van Cleef & Arpels

The King’s Speech won 4 Academy Awards 2011. It’s a British historical drama directed by Tom Hooper and written by David Seidler It is a wonderful movie and I enjoyed watching it a lot. There is however a scene that increased my enthusiasm more than others: it was during a party where Wallis Simpson (performed by Eve Best) appeared wearing the unforgettable aubergine dress. I literally hold my breath when I saw it! The draping around her neck and the fabric draped from shoulder to shoulder in a low scoop revealing her bare back and a gorgious Van Cleef & Arpel's Zip Pompom necklace. 'King's Speech' costume designer Jenny Beavan, a nine-time Oscar nominee, did a great job. The whole outfit including accesories (especially gold and diamond set Cadenas watch, and already mentioned diamond Zip necklace) represented the sophisticated, chic and timeles style… and timeless is why I truly enjoy fashion.

Givenchy Spring 2011 at the Oscar Night

Although I am not the biggest fan of the Oscar Night, what I truly enjoy is the red carpet celebrity arrivals. It's a glamorous night designed for gossiping, fashion commenting and showing off! I always have my own best dress winner. This year Cate Blanchett's dress was definitely my favorite. She was wearing Givenchy Spring 2011 Couture and looked sensational. I googeled the Givenchy collection and learnt that one dress,  with hand-dyed and hand-cut matte sequins, took 4,000 hours of handwork to assemble! The dress was made of lilac chiffon with pearls details and with shocks of bright yellow in the back. Sensational combination!
The collection’s designer, Riccardo Tisci, was inspired by Japanese robot toys and Kazuo Ohno, the legendary Japanese Butoh Dancer. It’s goes beyond fashion. It’s a masterpiece!

Victoria Beckham fall 2011 collection at NYFW

 Victoria Beckham proves she's more than a celebrity trendsetter. Now she's also a designer. Her fall 2011 collection presented at New York Fashion Week is sophisticated and chic. Classy cocktail dresses look modern and comfortable to wear. Some of them I would even wear to work. Gorgeous long boots are the result of Beckham's collaboration with Christian Louboutin. Victoria Beckham obviously improved on her style since the Spice Girls. It’s not another revolutionary high fashion she makes but it’s a reflection on what contemporary women want to wear to feel confident and sexy.

More photos on: victoriabeckham.com

Inspired me: Neo Patch Bag by Kate Moss

Everybody has some hobby. I make bags. This Saturday I hope to buy leather to make shoulder bags that I designed myself. The design was inspired by an old vintage bag I own. It's spacious, functional, comfortable and it goes well with everything. It's my favourite travel bag and my festival bag, and my everyday bag... It's simply the bag one loves. The second bag collection by Kate Moss for Longchamp inspired me to match different colours and textures... Neo Patch is a vintage, patchwork style bag designed in Kate's favourite colors including graphite gray, jade green and cherry red.

It's wonderful and I love the edgy colour combination! It's truth the design calls attention, but most important it's practical as the colours mach most shoes and clothes - there is no need to change the bag before you leave home; it's light - made of lambskin, lizard and other lighter weight leather pieces. I'm excited to go leather hunting!

And that's the bag that inspired my design:

Pantone Universe

I simply love Pantone colours! I can never decide which one is my favourite. Pantone is a colour guru, a platform that provides standard color systems to almost all industries, including manufacturing, fashion and design. Pantone is growing and strenghtening it's position in a smart and organic way. It makes me think of how many oportunities the Polaroid waisted.

The Pantone brand is happily expanding its family and now the Pantone Universe also includes:

A cheerfull Pantone Hotel on Brussels’ Louise Avenue - the building features 59 rooms celebrating the brand’s iconic colors. On a rooftop lounge Pantone-colored cocktails are served, and you also can find a  store selling trademark company products.  

Seavees 09/63 PANTONE Sneaker Collection available in seven vintage colors from the original Pantone color guide - epitomizes the cool, casual style of California in 1963.

 Sonia Spencer Accessories Collection - Stainless Steel and Enamel Cufflinks and Key Rings Based on the Iconic PANTONE Chip Design.

Kitchenware Collection by Typhoon - include textiles, shopping trolleys, storage jars, mugs and salt and pepper mills.

Pantone Mugs by W2

Design items by Seletti

 

Photos from the websites: Pantone.com and Seletti.it

Made in Poland - INGLOT Cosmetics

With today blog I want to start a series MADE IN POLAND about Polish brands and products that I miss the most while my travelling and living abroad. About brands with Polish origins that are expanding on the international markets and Polish brands with a great potential to once become successful abroad.

Just like Polish make-up brand INGLOT Cosmetics. I never leave the Warsaw Frederik Chopin airport without INGLOT’s nail enamels (my favourite no 082) and a bunch of sleeks lip glosses packed in a funny lab-like vials or samplers. And they smell really good! Nail treatment products is a must too. And there’s probably not even one Polish woman without INGLOT eye shadows. INGLOT has one of the most extensive color ranges of  make-up cosmetic  in the world and can easly compete with such known brands as MAC cosmetics. When being on a budget you can fill up your MAC eyeshadow palette with INGLOT pans.

What I find important is INGLOT products are high quality, safe, not tasted on animals and reasonably priced (really good value). What's more, all of them are produced in the European Union and over 95% of them in INGLOT’s own manufacturing facilities in Poland - they are all Fair Trade products than.

INGLOT store in NY; Photo: Tom McCavera

INGLOT is a Polish-based cosmetics company established 20 years ago with over 250 stores in Europe, Canada, Australia, Dubai, and Asia. Last year INGLOT opened their first store in New York City’s Times Square.

INGLOT offers a rainbow of hues of lipsticks and gloss, shadows, blushes, cover-up, mascara and pencils that are mesmerizing. Probably INGLOT’s flagship product is the “Freedom System”, a collection of more than three billion color combinations, allowing happy clients to assemble a palette of their own color preferences. This encurages mixing and matching and customizing to your make-up preferences, including palette sizes and shapes, choosing between round, rectangular or square pans in a compact. It's a Make-up Heaven!

Source: http://inglotcosmetics.com/

Sex Sells !!!

Diesel latest campaign for Spring 2010 is tagged "Sex Sells *Unfortunately We Sell Jeans". Maybe Diesel don’t, but someone else in the fashion industry does sell sex indeed. Designer and movie director Tom Ford is a man. He’s quite a brand building genius I must admit. He’s not just selling cloths, cosmetics and sunglasses, he’s representing and promoting a hedonistic lifestyle. His brand's modern design with sharp, sleek suits, appeals even to my boyfriend. He knows best how to shout for attention using sex and eroticism as an explosive marketing tool. Ford become one of most talked about designers of our times, his biography is impressive. He gave Gucci that famous eternal youth and the mysterious sexuality called the „Gucci sex factor”. In 2005 he created his own brand TOM FORD that became famous for stirring some controversy each time when releasing new ad campaign. His collaboration with a provocative photographer Terry Richardson resulted in “various fashion-forward, decadently deviant photographs”. And in 2008, Tom Ford outfitted gorgious Daniel Craig as James Bond in Quantum of Solace! Who can resist hot, steamy eroticism?! Sex truly Sells?

Polyvore - playing paper dolls or Vogue's fashion editor?

Last week I had a paper dolls story. Today - Polyvore, internet fashion and shopping platform, IS a lot like playing paper dolls but with pictures of real clothes. Or better, playing Vogue's fashion editor with so much more fun! You can spend hours working on your unique fashion collage, flicking through images of millions of clothing items, shoes, bags and accessories. You drag and drop items until you decide your set is ready, than you can e-mail it to a friend, post it on your Facebook, Twitter, blog or share it with the Polyvore fashion community and let them judge your personal style and taste. Feel free to judge mine. My set is here beneath:

Walking on a beach by Cashewnut featuring JLo accessories

Within 3 years, the site grew from 0 to 1.4 million registered users. Over 6 million unique visitors makes Polyvore the largest fashion community site consisting of trendsetters, shoppers and amateur stylists who put together thirty thousand sets a day and post them on all sorts of social networking sites. That buzz helps to score 140 million page views per month.
So what is Polyvore? It’s an innovating online shopping experience that facilitates mixing and matching products from any online store to create fashion collections. In fact it’s an outstanding e-commerce, merchandising and marketing tool that inspires millions of enthusiastic people like me:) It opens new ways of communicating with global fashion-oriented and fashion-forward consumers. It’s an excellent tool for monitoring fashion trends and spotting new talents. As a prove, in 2009 Polyvore entered partnerships with brands including Calvin Klein, Marc by Marc Jacobs,Gap, Lancome and Nike among others. Nike, for example, frequently host fashion contests for best fashion sets that include one particular Nike clothing item. It usually generates 2000 - 6000 contest entries. The prizes are worth $100 gift card.
Here I posted few rndom communty members' sets. Check them out:

Head over heels by Jozefien featuring Balenciaga bags

Silk charmeuse top, $767
Knotted suede trench coat, $3,995
Stella mccartney skirts KHAKI, 345 GBP
Buckle Slingback Sandal, $695
Arena Giant Covered Velo - Sahara, $1,795
BVLGARI Chains & Leather Cords | Chains & Leather Cords | Yellow Gold..., $1,150
Limited-Edition Spring Look Palette, $65
Morning Beauty | Lily Donaldson by Sølve Sundsbø | Fashion Gone Rogue

this is so me by Anquetta featuring Gucci shoes

chic and effortless by lisaLockhart featuring French Connection shoes