Christian Siriano for Payless

We all know Christian Siriano, the winner of Project Runway and that he has been working on his line of clothing under the name Christian Siriano, but who saw this coming. He is designing shoes and handbags for none other than Payless. I personally do not shop at Payless because the shoes never fit me properly but I do see the excitment in this partnership. You are able to get designer shoes and handbags at a lower more affordable price. Any team of a designer and a big company is exciting because of this reason. The shoes and handbags won't appear until New York Fashion Week in Feburary 2009 and then in the stores and online in the fall of that year. The price range for both is between $25 - $45 which is not too shabby. Of this partnership Christian Siriano says, "I'm so excited to design and create with such an amazing brand that is all about fashion and trend but, most importantly, is also about affordability. I've already been working with the Payless Design Team in New York, and I can't wait to see how they will take the high- end shoes and bags I'm designing for the runway and turn them into pieces that everyone can buy. I'm all about the runway and the sidewalks!" I must say I'm pretty excited too and I'm hoping that the shoes are cute and the bags are practical. If so they will be a hit!

Easy Switch

If I told you that there were shoes that you could change the heel height, the color, the size and other features without having to go buy another shoe would you believe me? Well believe it! These shoes by Camileon can do all that and more. The heel can go from 3¼ to 1½ inches by pulling down on the heel, then pushing it forward and tucking it under the arch of the shoe. Now this doesn't sound too attractive to me. Just imagine, you see a person walking around in some heels and then you notice this little black thing sticking out under the heel. I don't know about you but it looks pretty weird to me. But the whole concept sounds pretty good especially for the working woman. She can wear the short heel on her way to work if she's walking and then pop out the high heel at work and switch it again when she leaves. Not only is there a shoe that you can change the heel height of, there are shoes that you can change the color of and the size. From SkinsFootwear comes a shoe that has interchangable skin colors. This sounds strange to me because I'm not sure how it works or how it would look but hopefully they made it look fashionable. As for the shoe that changes size, it is for 3 to 9 year olds which is smart I think because kids feet grow like weeds. So apparently the shoe industry is coming up with new technologically advanced shoes to not only save us money but also save us time in the shoe store...although I don't know of any girl who minds staying in a shoe store for too long.

Back to Basics

Due to the financial crisis our country is facing right now, people are cutting back on their spending (I know I am). Unfortunately that means less clothes and fashionable accesssories. But there is a solution. Rag & Bone has debuted for its women footwear line three no fail styles: a tailored loafer, a slipper-esque oxford, and brogue-detailed ballerina flats. These three styles can easily be worn with all of the outfits in your closet. The only down side is the price. Ranging from $330 to $515 these shoes can put a slight dent in your wallet. But on the up side, they are made extremely well. “We focused on classic silhouettes and used all-natural materials and custom lasts and made sure all the shoes are flexible and breathable," says Tull Price, the ex-Royal Elastics director who is collaborating with Rag & Bone designers Marcus Wainwright and David Neville on the shoes. This means that they will last a long long time. Sounds good to me if I really wanted to throw $515 out for a pair of shoes.

"American Fashion Accessories"

A new book is out. A book with tons of pictures and accessories from different fashion decades. I don't know about you but this book sounds very intriguing. Pictures, accessories, fashion...what more could a person ask for in a book?? The book is called "American Fashion Accessories" and is written by Candy Pratts Price, Jessica Glasscock, and Art Tevve. Candy Pratts Price works for Style.com as the executive fashion director and is promoting her book on their website. On style.com there is a fun interactive slideshow that gives you some pictures from the book. It has pictures of Geoffrey Beene's gloves, Carlos Falchi's patchwork handbags, Bonnie Cashin for Coach, Marc Jacobs beret and a few others. This book is definitely a coffee table book that anyone who loves fashion would sit for hours flipping through the pages taking everything in...or at least I know I would!
http://www.style.com/trendsshopping/stylenotes/111008NOTES/

A Tribute to YSL

Yves Saint Laurent first started designing for Christian Dior in 1958. At his first fashion show he blew everyone away with his new take on woman's clothing. He wanted women to feel not only beautiful but powerful and strong. This past weekend Yves Saint Laurent was given what all designers hope to achieve after they've past: an exhibit of their greatest works from their life. At San Francisco's DeYoung Museum YSL's greatest creations were put on display as a tribute to his genius. It included creations from his Dior days to his own line. Some of the pieces shown were the famous Dior trapeze dress, tuxedos, safari jackets and jumpsuits. He was considered a "bridge between the golden age of haute couture and the new modernity". He changed the face of couture and fashion forever.

"Easy" and "Breezy"

When you hear the words "Easy" and "Breezy" what comes to mind? For me it is spring time with the wind blowing and the sun shining and you don't have a care in the world. But in times like these, with the economy collapsing and stocks dropping, nobody feels that their life is easy and breezy. But Banana Republic had a different approach to the situation. For their Spring 2009 line they added touches of bright blues and greens to offset the tans and neutral colors. Creative director for Banana Republic said, "I think you need something positive and colorful when things are tough outside, The last thing we need is to add to the doom and gloom." He's right. Fashion doesn't have to go dull and gloomy because the economy and Wall Street are on the fritz. We can still have our splash of color to bring happiness to people. Just because our lives aren't as easy and breezy as we would like them to be right now doesn't mean we can't have that feeling through our clothing.

Christian Lacroix

When asked who my favorite designer is I am never sure who to say. There are too many. But one of them is so amazing and blows my mind when I look at his clothes. Christian Lacroix. His couture lines are amazing. The clothes have so much detail and they range from short skirts with frills on them to long elegant dresses with folds and gathers and fabric just floating away from the body. If I could pull it off it public i would so wear some of those clothes. They are amazing. These are pictures of some of the clothes that were in his Fall 2008 Couture Line that were presented on July 1st, 2008. Even though it's not recent news I still felt the need to express how talented he is and how amazing his clothes and designs are. He is quite the genius when it comes to couture designing.

From Top Model to Fabulous

Everyone who is everyone watches America's Next Top Model...or at least most fashion oriented people do. But we love the show; everything from the try outs to the makeovers to the crazy things Tyra and the panel say. But a major part of the show is leaving. J. Alexander and Jay Manuel are leaving Top Model to pursue a spinoff show that the CW is making just for them. The show, "Operation Fabulous", is going to be a show that takes "Jay and J." on a trip across the country in search for helpless women who have trouble dressing themselves correctly. They will travel town to town choosing five women to make over, Top Model style, and, with the help of fafmily and friends, give them the confidence they always knew they had. This show will probably be like any other makeover show but with Jay and J. as the stars it should be a good one.

Why Fashion Design?

To share a little about myself I am going to post the very first assignment I had to do for my writing class. The class is Fashion Research and Communication so we write press releases and news articles and other forms of fashion writing. But for the first assignment we had to write why we chose fashion as a major. So here it is and I hope you enjoy.

When people ask me why I chose to major in fashion design I have to stop and think about it because I’ve never really thought about it before. I just always wanted to. So since this question has been asked to me and I have to write it out I can really put some thought into it. There are a few reasons that pop into my mind right away. One, I love clothes, two, I love the idea of putting together an outfit for the day, three, shopping is one of my favorite activities to do because I get to see what is out there and get ideas from everything I see, and four, I love color especially bright ones and I would love to design clothes that show that.

When I was younger I was sort of like a tom boy. My best friend was a guy and because of that I would play basketball, football, play in the mud, pick up bugs, and all that. So my clothing choices during that period of my life were probably not the best. Usually it was just shorts and a t-shirt during the summer and an occasional tank but it was nothing special. At least it matched. But then around 7th grade things changed. I started to love going to the mall and was beginning to notice all these colors and different fabrics and textures and was amazed by it. I began to pay attention to what I would wear outside of school and on the weekends since I went to a private school and had a uniform. That also could have been part of it. Since I was told what to wear I became fascinated with all the clothes and combinations out there since I couldn’t wear them everyday like other people. This fascination just progressed through out high school and I decided around freshman year that I just loved clothes and thought it would be so much fun to design them myself. I also loved drawing so I took tons of art classes or at least as many as my schedule would allow.

Around the end of my sophomore year I began to realize that I had this love for tennis. So I took lessons all through the summer and tried out for my team at school. It was a new thing at my high school, it started my sophomore year, but the girls that joined it had all been playing forever. So I didn’t make it. But that didn’t stop me. I took lessons throughout my junior year and through the summer and then tried again. I made it. I was so excited; especially when we got our uniforms. I was so proud to wear that uniform; it was the cutest thing I had ever seen. Don’t get me wrong, I loved playing tennis but I think I was a bit more excited to wear that uniform. So when college started everybody talked about what they wanted to do with their fashion design degree and it got me thinking.

I could design tennis wear and work for Nike or Adidas or even Lacoste since he was the one who started the whole tennis wear as a fashion statement. So that’s where I’ve decided to go once college is over. Mix two of my favorite things together; Fashion and Tennis.

What is a Fashion Blog?

A Fashion Blog. What makes a good fashion blog? I’m not exactly sure what even makes a good blog for that matter. This is my first one. But there has to be a few important details into making a good blog. So here’s what I think some would be.

Maybe a blog should first off have some very catchy and interesting subject. Well I think I’ve got that covered; Fashion. So what could go into it that would make people stop and look at my blog over someone else? Good question. Well I think a good blog should have some tempting and fascinating pictures that draw in the blog surfer. For fashion these pictures, to me at least, should be full of color and brightness that should attract the eye. For the subject of these pictures, again for me at least, would be something from a simple bright colored dress with an interesting detail to something extravagant and loaded with baubles. I love color and things that pop so I have a feeling I know where this blog might be going. But color can’t be the only important subject of a fashion blog. It has to have a little more substance than that. So I will have to have stories and articles about different happenings in the fashion world. This could be anything from someone taking over a company to a style or color coming back in fashion.

So basically anything goes on this blog, as long as it is related to fashion in some way or another. I hope this will be fun considering I have never done anything like this before. So lets hope that the blogging experience will be a good one and educational but fun and interesting for anyone that reads what I have to say.