Wednesday, August 23, 2006

That piece of rubbish to you is treasure to me

I like to go to sales, especially the big, competitive ones. Apparently I need to be in the right mood to go, but it's always interesting experience to look at how different people pick out clothes based on their first instinct. It means shopping is dependent on personal style and one has to make a decision within a second. In this kind of extreme situation, a piece of rubbish to you might be treasure to me, and vis versa.
I went to the Barneys Warehouse sale last night. It was crowded, but not as bad as I expected. Still, girls were changing in front of guys and people were looking at the clothes on other people's bodies. Some girls wouldn't look at anything above $100, some ran straight to pick whatever Marc by Marc Jacobs items they could see, and others looked at those amazing Lanvin pieces then grabbed them without hesitation. Girls go to those sales with their own missions.
I was looking for THE Rochas suit that the talented Olivier presented on the Spring 2006 runway show. Unfortunately my size was not available, but I saw a Rochas A-line skirt at a little forgotten corner. The shape is simple yet the fabric is so different. It's a mix of linen, silk, and a kind of material I've never heard of. It's very muted yet beautiful. With all the respect to the designer I got the skirt. It belongs to me.
Then I thought about it. How many people tried it on before? How many people saw it at the Warehouse Sale? It eventually ended up coming to my wardrobe. Isn't it like a kind of unknown connection between us? I really want to share my experience with you, because I am sure that kind of joy, like how you feel at the moment you found the one in your life, hits you once a while, too. Right?

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Can you make a dress with 28 scarves?

Can you make a dress with twenty-eight scarves? The sales people at the Alexander McQueen boutique can.
When my husband and I stepped into the McQueen boutique in the meat packing district, our eyes were caught by a black silk dress made of twenty-eight skull scarves that many fashionistas are to die for. I asked the SA how they came up with the idea, he just said that it was a quiet morning so they just did it to kill time.
I wish I could come up with a brilliant idea like that! Yes, just to kill time.
Isn't it amazing? A beautiful evening gown made of twenty-eight scarves. If I'm one of the celebrities, I will seriously consider wearing such a gown for an evening out. The cost? Six thousand dollars. The creativity? Priceless.

Friday, August 11, 2006

A little knowledge about fabric

Remember the overpriced miu miu dress I mentioned in the previous entry? I was wondering why they couldn't use silk but polyester. An expert at the Fashion Spot explained to me:

The skirt has a certain kind of embossed texture on it--you need heat to make this permanent and so polyester is the way to go! It just doesn't work like this with natural fabrics, unless you do a different way... like maybe embroidery to create embossed prints.

So now I know why. It's probably very difficult to make the pattern...but I still think that the dress is overpriced. I've seen similar dresses before, and they were not THAT expensive. The point here is though, I've just learned something:)