Welcoming Fall

This is my first official Fall outfit. Weather can get a little tricky here. One day it feels like summer and sundresses and sandals are pretty much all you can bear to wear and then one day it gets a bit chillier and a cardigan or a longer sleeve is much appreciated. This was one of these days. I love me some autmn-y burgundies and forest greens, and I was more than happy to wear my new shoes from ZARA and that leather skirt I got when I was NYC.

Spring 2014 Review: LFW: Hits & Misses

London has always been the fashion capital where everything new and hip and out-of-the-box comes out. London-based designers despite the dullness of the weather always dream in color. They come up with new quirky styles, fun prints, crazy shapes. It's true that English people are weird - but in a good way. And this good weirdness comes off on the runway as innovative and fresh.

No one can deny though the other side that exists in England: the appropriate, pulled-together, let's-have-tea-and-crumpets, conservative side. This one translates as well.

The mixture of both, well, that's the big bang. And what makes London Fashion Week so appealing in the first place.

Let's start this recap then:

THE GOOD:

Burberry Prorsum

There you have it. The double identity within every woman. The elegance and the appropriateness of a real lady and the sexiness of a vamp (almost). Burberry was subtle but sexy at the same time. Christopher Bailey never fails me. His clothes always make me feel like I wanna wear them, like I wanna be that woman. It validates my beliefs that a woman doesn't have to dress masculine in order to feel powerful, but she can use her femininity and the weapons that nature has given her to be a poised, motivated, strong individual.

Spring 2014 Review: NYFW: Hits & Misses

I meant to publish this post earlier but it took me some more time to put it together because I wanted to make one really really good NYFW overview. I've never done anything like this before but since I got lots of free time right now I was able to stay updated with all the news from the New York catwalks. The funny thing is as soon as I left NYC, fashion week kicked off so keeping up with the new collections (thanks to style.com) was a way for me to still feel like I'm being up to date with the city's flow.

I've never experienced fashion week up close, but it always gave me this impression that it is one big celebration of the "inexhaustible variety of life", as Fitzgerald eloquently puts it, and what better city to host this variety other than New York.

Overall, I thought this fashion week was a hit. My list of favorite collections for Spring 2014 is far longer than my list for my least favorite collections. I believe many designers managed to maintain a steady progress, a great deal of them presented some exceptional pieces, some underwhelmed but didn't particularly disappoint and a few were just really bad.

Let's start, shall we:

THE GOOD:

Victoria Beckham



Okay, leave it to Victoria Beckham to present a perfectly put together collection with modern accents. What I love about Mrs. Beckham is her ability to create clothes that people are gonna wear. I love an artsy, complicated, mysterious collection BUT I think there is a certain art in making practical, flattering, wearable clothes that still make heads turn. I loved the geometry in this collection, the simplicity, the pleats, the flares. You could see this was a collection for the girly type of girl who is maturing and growing into a confident young woman. And there's nothing that I love more than a collection that conveys female empowerment.

How To Wear It: Plaid

Plaid has been for most of the time a familiar and a rather safe choice for Fall and Winter. However designers took it to a new level this season. Wearing plaid can be challenging now. You risk looking like a prep school student and this autumn plaid is going beyond looking preppy and put together. I guess in the fall collections there were more tamed, high-end versions of punk looks rather than comme-il-faut plaid skirts like the ones we were used to.

I tried to create 3 versatile outfits- each featuring a different plaid item. Each look corresponds to a different style, age and personality.

How To Wear It: Plaid by fashionistalooks featuring black wedge ankle booties

Wal G peplum mini dress, €18 / Topshop rib shirt, €52 / Sea, New York peplum top, €285 / Ganni coat, €340 / Rag & Bone mid-rise jeans, €170 / Moschino green tartan skirt, €800 / Zara black wedge ankle booties, €46 / Repetto round toe flat, €215 / Casadei brown sandals, €820 / Michael Kors gold tone bangle, €150 / Mawi spiked collar necklace, €585 / Cateye glasses, €7,62

The first item is a cute, girly, preppy shirt that you would imagine a classy urban girl in her late 20s- early 30s wear. To balance out the girliness of the top, I chose a pair of boyfriend jeans and bright flats to make this look practical for a multi-tasking, busy woman that spends here whole day out.

 The second item I chose is a pleated mini skirt, the one that a very young girl will pull off. This girl is fun, but kinda hipster, she doesn't take fashion seriously and she doesn't think through her outfits entirely. She loves dark colors and these wedge boots make her legs look good and give that "rock chick" edge.

 The last item is an oversized coat. This outfit is ultra ladylike, chic and has an uptown vibe to it. It's a about the classy woman that shops at Bergdorf's and invites her girlfriends to tea. It's basically an outfit that is very classic and can work for every woman, whether she's 25 or 45.

New Attitude, New Perspective

Tan lines might fade and the weather might get chillier as the new season kicks in but for the first time Fall isn't sad or depressing as it was for me every year before. I found myself a new confidence to contemplate the future with, since this year is definitely something unknown yet intriguing. Finishing high school was the most refreshing thing ever. So from now on, we can pretend that we can start a new life - from scratch.

Now is the time to do things. 5 days ago I was in New York - my dream city - and it was magical. New York has given me a new attitude and reason to wanna do good. New York is my future and I'll do anything to get there.

First thing on my list is updating this otherwise neglected blog of mine. Brace yourselves, dear readers, because there's a storm of fresh posts coming!

This one was just a little update and a peak into what things are gonna be like from now on.


Until next time (which won't be long),
xoxo

A.

PS. For starters, I changed the look of the blog and created a new header for the title! Tell me what you think!