Jing's Fashion Review

New Home!

2012-01-02T12:48:00.001-05:00

I have been in hibernation for a long time. During the past months, I felt that my original fashion blog limited the content I share, so I decided to start a new blog to share all I love. Please visit the following link for my new posts. In the mean time, all old posts were imported, so we still have everything from the past years!

http://imcaffeine.blogspot.com/

Happy new year to all!

Finally, a bespoke suit for me?! (I)

2009-11-27T19:19:00.003-05:00

I took a hard look at my closet and determined that I was in urgent need of at least one suit that would fit me really well. After seeing so many beautifully made men's suits on wall street, I realized that the suit options for women are pathetic: The best we can do are off the rack suits from designers such as Jil Sander and Gucci. Worse yet, at price tags of $3,000 and up, they are fused (the wool fabric is essentially glued with the canvas lining, as opposed to stitched to the canvas lining).

I went so far as to register at Styleforum.net, a men's fashion forum, to learn the ins and the outs about a good suit. I understand that a good suit needs to be fully canvased and with the right fit, so obviously I, a French size 34, can never find anything in America that will fit me right. And I'm not even talking about the construction yet.

Then I paid a visit to Jil Sander where the sales associate assured me that I can order my made to measure suit from the men's MTM collection. Hmm......I like the idea, but I'm not sure how I will look in a men's jacket, albeit to my measurements. Can I handle the shoulder pads?

So now, Seize sur Vingt is my last chance.

To my surprise, the shirts at Seize sur Vingt almost fit me. The arm length is just right (first time in my career) and the collar actually comes with collar stays!

I went through their fabric swatches and liked some of the Super 130s. After being assured that they will make fully canvased jackets for women, I made an appointment for next Saturday. Let's see how the measurement process works. I'm excited.

Off topic, but I can't help - a review of our anniversary meal at Per Se

2009-11-01T20:23:00.003-05:00

Since we splurged so much on a meal (comparable to a pair of shoes), I might as well review it on my blog...huh?

We had a great time at Per Se for our wedding anniversary. They personalized the menus for us with "happy anniversary" on the top. Sweet.

It was a nine-course, three hour meal, but we didn’t feel particularly stuffed. What impressed us the most was actually the vegetable dishes, because we both dislike vegetables and we haven’t found any restaurants that prepare vegetables like Per Se does. The veggies were absolutely amazing and we, as veggie haters, loved them.

The meat courses were fine, but less impressive. I can point out at least one restaurant that could make meat dishes better than Per Se. For example, I think that the Foie Gras could have been cooked slightly more thorough (although it was not the standard preparation they offered in the menu). The “Caesar salad”(basically a slab of lobster) though, was incredible. The lobster was the most properly cooked and the sweetest among all lobsters I’ve ever had.

The bread was delicious. The Parker House rolls were served warm (again, best we’ve had), but the rest were served room temperature. DH believes that the “proper” way of servicing French bread is room temperature, and I agree.

The dessert was fine, but nothing blew us away. The cappuccino though, was the best I’ve had. They’ve got a fantastic barista.

I didn’t drink wine (allergies) and DH asked the waiter to pair three glasses for him. He enjoyed them. Per Se uses some very exclusive small wineries from California and the results seemed surprisingly good.

The attention to details is certainly first-class. There was a little stool for my purse which was convenient. They remembered all the diet restrictions and offered alternatives. They are very patient and the waiter could be talkative if you want to chat.

Overall it was a very satisfying meal. But I feel that for people like us who do not like every single edible thing on earth, a regular 3-course meal will serve us better. In addition, it seemed a little comical to me when I see a giant plate with only a tiny bit of food in the center. (I guess that we are just less cultured to appreciate such sophistication.) Having said that, Per Se is a must-try for any foodie. We liked certain dishes, so we’ll return to the saloon for a la carte. But I’m not sure if we’ll go back for the nine-course meal: A nine-course meal takes lots of energy and dedication. Perhaps it was due to my exhausting week of work, I fell asleep in the cab on the way home. If we decide to return for the 9-course meal again, I’ll certainly pick a Saturday instead.

To make it relevant to a fashion blog, here is my outfit for the big night: I wore my favorite Sophia Kokosalaki dress. The dress was paired with Wolford tights with flower patterns and Balenciaga heels from this season. I kept jewelry minimal as usual with my watch, wedding band and my Chanel 2.55 reissue.

Yohji Yamamoto, Alexander McQueen

2009-10-12T19:35:00.004-04:00

Paris fashion week ended with the inevitable failure of the Yohji Yamamoto brand and the theatrical (as always) Alexander McQueen show.

Yohji Yamamoto is one of those cult brands that only a small circle of customers follow. However, when every other brand is creating a niche to support its vision, Yohji has failed to do so. Balenciaga has used its Motocycle bags and the capsule collections to make profit, Givenchy remains THE place for evening dresses following "Breakfast at Tiffany's", Lanvin's evening dresses make women feel sexy and special, YSL has a loyal following among the 40+ socialites and its bags are selling well, and the list goes on. Yohji has nothing but Y-3 yet it took on Limi Feu to burn cash. The price point is also off although it isn't a problem unique to Yohji.

McQueen, on the other hand, has learned to be theatrical yet maintain its commercial success. No matter how shocking his runway presentation is.

McQueen is a Savile Row educated master in cutting fabrics. This show is an apex of his work in past seasons: All he has been working on is to cut a piece of fabric and make it visually striking. The computer generated prints are cut, draped and sewn to enhance the 3-D like images. He also attempted to create very structured looks with soft fabrics such as silk chiffon. As crazy as the runway outfits look, his showroom was filled with adapted looks ready for a commercial success. His formula works.

Alexander McQueen - Show of The Decade

2009-10-06T22:26:00.001-04:00

http://www5.streamingwizard.com/alexandermcqueen.html

I will comment on this later, but please reserve half an hour and watch. This will be THE show people talk about in the coming five years, if not ten.

Paris Fashion Week Hits and Misses – Luxurious Paris, Minus The Avant-Garde

2009-10-04T21:53:00.002-04:00

While Nicolas Ghesquiere of Balenciaga has returned to his roots, some avant-garde designers are cutting back amid their financial challenges. They want to SURVIVE.

Yohji Yamamoto is perhaps the best example. While the clothes are poetic as usual, the pieces are extremely commercial. It’s beautiful, but definitely uninspired. I later heard that Yohji has incurred some financial challenges, which explained the collection very well.

Junya Watanabe, whose collections usually raise eyebrows, is also playing it safe. Junya showed his (commercially) greatest hits: form fitting jackets and biased cut trousers. It’s another collection many retailers will be very happy with, but the hard core fans are hardly satisfied.

Comme des Garcons, Ann Demeulemeester and Hussein Chalayan also followed. There is nothing wrong with being commercial, but when the Belgians and the Japanese are playing it safe, Paris has lost half of its luster.

And here comes the other half: pure luxury.

Dries Van Noten showed his masterful skills mixing beautiful Southeast Asian prints and Ikat. All looks appeared to be styled perfectly with a unique Dries touch. His shoes have improved immensely in the past seasons and clearly that has brought more financial freedom.

Alber Elbaz wrapped all his girls with silk and leather, showing another ultra luxurious collection. It’s undeniable that Alber Elbaz spoils his clients to the max, yet the collection looks repetitive and I’m hungry for something new.

What blew me away is Haider Ackermann’s latest presentation. Haider has gained tremendous publicity after Tilda Swinton wore his clothes to award shows. Haider’s clothing is full of beautiful draping skills, yet it always comes with a bit of a dark mood. The only downside to me is that most of the outfits need a tall lady like Tilda to pull off, the clothes are emotional nonetheless.

The collection that moves me the most is actually Sophia Kokosalaki. She understands what a woman wants. A dress would beautifully drape around a model’s body, feminine, but not too soft. After wearing my Kokosalaki dress to a few special occasions, I’m ready to splurge on a cream color summer dress.

SS 2010, Balenciaga Brings Back The Street Warriors

2009-10-03T14:41:00.005-04:00

If nostalgia is Miucia Prada's prescription for a recession, Nicolas Ghesquiere is certainly looking forward and arming his girls with stripes of leather, bright colors and veggie dyed leather pants to fight the way out of it.

It was Nicolas' design in 2003 that brought me into fashion. I was attracted by his aesthetic of this lean yet energetic girl. It was natural for him to dive into the Balenciaga archives during an economic boom to study the old master’s work, but after the uber feminine drapy outfits shown for the FW09 season, it is about time for him to return to his true self.

Many (Americans) have argued that this collection reminds them of Rodarte. This makes me chuckle because the Rodarte sisters were perhaps still in school when Nicolas commanded the world with the tough chic image. I have always believed that Rodarte has copied Balenciaga way too much, but without the elegance or refinement.

One major difference between excellence (such as Nicolas Ghesqiere) and mediocrity (the Rodarte sisters, I’m afraid) is that the former keeps evolving and refining one idea with great attention to details. One can compare the SS2010 collection to Nicolas’ old designs presented for SS03 and FW03, and hardly ignore the difference in material, color and construction. The silhouette is the same, yet the technique has been significantly enhanced: Patience pays off.

The following tops are another good example:

(FW 2006, FW2008, Rst2009 and SS2010, pictures from style.com)

It is the Nicolas Ghesquiere aesthetic, with Cristobal Balenciaga’s sense of luxury. I have no doubt that it will be a very expensive collection, yet the spirit is so straight forward that the commercial lines will do extremely well.

SS 2010, Prada Gets Pretty

2009-09-26T21:32:00.005-04:00

After seasons of ugly cloak for the sake of being ugly (intellectual, inner beauty, whatever), Prada finally returns to prettiness.

On the surface, this collection reminds me of the FW2004 collection. (Hands down, FW04 is my all time favorite Prada collection, and I pray twice a year that Prada pulls it off again.) Some of the looks influenced me in a great deal and a look like the following became one of my “uniforms”:

Looking closely, however, the 1960s beach prints look tacky and will last one season and one season only. Unlikely the more abstract prints she used in FW04 (and many other collections), Mucia Prada chose the tacky, if not borderline cheap prints. Here, cheap doesn’t mean inexpensive. Ms. Prada explained that she was doing nostalgia and interpreting rich and poor. She went so far as to ask the mill to weave nylon (a symbol of being poor) threads into silk duchesse (a kind of rich fabric that is often times used in couture clothing) fabric. It turns out that the "synthetic" fabric actually costs more than pure silk. How ironic.

Some, represented by Cathy Horyn, have criticized this collection as not sophisticated or intellectual. Tack prints aside, I do find the change refreshing: women don’t need to dress ugly to look sophisticated. Sure, those tacky prints won’t make any one look sophisticated, but the solid colors do. I am certain that the Prada boutiques around the globe will be filled with variations of the short jackets, with unfinished fringes hanging on the bottom, but in solid color. I found them refreshing and borderline office appropriate. There are simple little jackets that will just pick up your mood in a humid Sunday morning. Why not?

Some douches silk ensembles also reminds me of Cristobal Balenciaga’s creations, although one can be sure that corsets are absent. By the way, we’ve just watched the movie Coco Before Chanel, and I thank Ms. Chanel for liberate women from corsets. It was a defining event that made women more equal.

Mucia Prada certainly shares the business minds of Coco Chanel’s. I’m certain that the new collection will be a commercial hit. This will only help after Prada just gave up an IPO, for perhaps the third time.

New York Fashion Week - They Didn't Give Up

2009-09-19T23:22:00.006-04:00

Everybody understands how difficult the retail environment is in the middle (end) of this recession. Some designers simply gave up. Their line ups looked as if the designers no longer cared; Others showed fewer looks but much better edited compared to previous seasons. In fact, some designers didn't give up and they shined!

Marc Jacobs

I've stopped guessing what he will do next many seasons ago. He always gives fashion a good spin and surprises us. Marc Jacobs has made his point: pretty ruffles are in and 80s shoulders are out. Take notes my friends: DON'T TOUCH THE STRONG SHOULDERS you see in stores this winter. They will be out before next spring.

Balenciaga

I know, I know. Balenciaga will only show in two weeks following London and Milan. What I am trying to say is that many designers were more or less inspired by Balenciaga's last end-of-recession looks from SS03 and SS04. There are many body-conscious and structured silhouettes. There are also printed A-line dresses. To me, they are all recycled Balenciaga looks. I like them and I can wear them all day long.

What does that mean? It means skinny jeans are still in and will stay. It also means that everybody needs to work hard to keep fit.

BCBG

BCBG showed many cute and wearable clothes on the runway. I was intrigued enough to search on their website, but I was disappointed by the disconnection between the runway looks and the final products. The FW09 clothes only looks 1/3 as good compared to their runway looks. I'm not certain what the causes are, but fabrics might be the reason. Or perhaps the models they used for their commercial website are somehow a little off?

Calvin Klein

The winner of the week. Francisco Costa has been playing with structure and volume for quite a few seasons. In the latest season, he also combined volume with some very interestingly crinkled fabrics. Fabrics were sewn in some exquisite method and that creates not only volumes but interesting moves when the models walked on runway. Models appeared to be sweaty but very fresh. This creates an interesting juxtaposition between sexiness and the futuristic nonchalance. The collection is mainly comprised of different versions of T-shirt dresses, but the volume and the construction interest me extremely. When is the trunk show?

Helmut Lang

Wearable, cool and affordable. I can see myself buying most of the clothes off their runway looks, and this is pretty rare. They actually use pretty decent fabrics, so that separates them from their competitors on the Barneys co-op floor. Yeah you'd better make nice clothes with that name!

The September Issue

2009-09-03T20:58:00.001-04:00

I’ve just seen the new film featuring Anna Wintour and the process of making the September 2007 issue of the US Vogue. While many discussions have been focused on Anna Wintour the editor, the movie, along with all the concerted efforts to promote fashion in recent months, has exposed fashion’s fragile status in the new deleveraging world.

Vogue has been extremely influential in the fashion world, and the movie showed us the behind the scene story. In one of the retailer breakfast events, Anna commented that they have talked to Mrs. Prada about making a lighter weight jacket so that it’s more wearable. I was a little surprised by the degree in which Vogue is involved in the commercial process and I was actually very impressed by Anna’s influence. In situations like this, Anna is a spokes person creating a win-win situation for both the consumer and designer.

Have you wondered about the release time of this film? This movie is about the making of the September 2007 issue. Why did they wait for two years to release the film? It’s clearly a carefully chosen time as the world experienced a financial earthquake late last year. We’ve all heard of the stories, the 75% off sale at Saks, the series of department stores getting liquidated, delinquent shopping malls and the drained home equity lines as financial resources. What Vogue is trying to do now is to push the market again, but in a stronger force and from a wider angle. This campaign is not about a jacket or fur, instead, it’s about sending people back to the stores again.

Indeed, Vogue is hosting a “Fashion’s Night Out” event on September 10^th and even the mayor is participating. (Anna stalkers, she will appear in a Macy’s event in Queens with mayor Bloomberg.) In addition to the release of the film, the September 2009 issue has just hit the magazine stands. As you might have noticed, this issue includes a lot more affordable pieces to make the magazine more relevant. Anna also appeared on the David Letterman show to promote fashion. (No, I don’t think that Anna accepted the invitation to promote herself.)

It’s nice to see all the events leading to the fall fashion scene. At the same time, I feel that Anna is worried and the fashion industry is worried. After laughing at Andre Leon Talley’s tennis moves and the camera man’s belly, I smelled desperation and little irony in the film. (Did I say I strongly recommend it?) After all, it is the consumers who feed the entire fashion industry including Vogue and Anna. Where is the money when people don’t shop?

No matter how hard they try, it’s going to be another tough season for the retailers before it gets better the next spring. I’m one of the pessimists who are convinced that the consumers are still deleveraging. With the rising saving rate, disposable income dedicated to fashion will continue to decrease. That means designers will have to edit further and produce less.

The fashion industry is lucky that there are magazines like Vogue actively involved in the commercial process. I’ve been spending the past year decorating our condo, and it’s my feeling that the same push by the magazine editors doesn’t exist in the home “fashion” industry. I thought that Domino would possibly become the “Vogue” of home magazines, but unfortunately it was closed. So who is going to take the role in the interior industry, possibly a bigger business?

I’m convinced that Anna is God in the fashion industry, like it or not.

To increase or not to increase? That's the question.

2008-11-02T20:46:00.003-05:00

Rumor has been circulating that Chanel will increase the price of their "classic" bags by 20% starting tomorrow. A bag priced at $2,850 will then be $3,420.

Does that mean that the Chanel bag I purchased in Feb.2008 appreciated in value, and so I need to buy one more before the price goes up again? Hardly.

At the same time, consider the following case:

If you invested in Oct.2007 at the peak of the S&P500 of 1,565, your investment has been down 38% as of October 31, 2008, when the S&P closed at 968.75.

Now, please compare the 38% stock market decline (interpretation - an average stock investor has lost 38% investments) with the 20% price increase by Chanel. Oh, by the way, did I mention that the Euro is depreciating? How disturbing is that?

Not only won't I purchase a Chanel bag now, I would argue that the price increase initiated by Chanel is silly. I had this conversation with our retail analyst the other day. I told him that Chanel was being silly. But his answer is that I'm one of those "aspirational" consumers who are not the core customers of Chanel's. That's fair. However, I would also argue that some of the uber rich who don't even blink before shedding $3,500 on a bag are probably sophisticated enough to realize that they are better off walking a few blocks up to the Hermes store instead. By spending a few thousands more, they can bring home something better made, more exclusive and possibly more recession proof than the mass-produced Chanel bags. Assuming that the non-core customers contribute to 30% of the bag sales (by numbers of bags sold), and 30% of the uber rich crowd are more investment savvy, Chanel will only sell approximately half of the numbers of bags they used to. That's more than sufficient to offset the price increase of 20%. Furthermore, I am afraid that the brand will be damaged by its relentless and greedy price increase without offering better quality, product innovations or service improvements.

CNBC just reported that Chanel has cancelled the plan of a price hike. But a peek at the Purse Forum proves that the Chanel sales force around the world haven't been informed about the final decision yet. To increase or not to increase? That's the question. If you find out what happens tomorrow, please post here and let us know.

Best news in the past months!

2008-10-22T07:59:00.003-04:00

EUR (Euro) to US Dollar now is trading at 1.2856:1

That means all fashion goods made in Italy and France will see falling prices! Remember when Sex & The City just started showing, Manolo Blahniks were merely $300+ a pair? Now I see hope! Let's just try very hard to keep our jobs during this ugly recession and then we'll be able to enjoy the fashion heaven for the years to come!
SS09, or FW09 will be priced better. Or at least I hope! Unless houses like Chanel still raise prices relentlessly without any reason. In that case, I might just travel to Paris to get Hermes instead! Businessmen in Europe be aware!

SS09, The Summary

2008-10-05T21:37:00.003-04:00

My favorites:

Ann Demeulemeester

Balenciaga

Chanel

Dries Van Noten

Hussein Chalayan

Louis Vuitton

Marc Jacobs

Undercover

Versace

Yves Saint Laurent

It's quite a challenging season. I think that most of the designers are aware of the financial situation around the globe; but few have offered clear visions. Maybe the buying managers have seen more commercial oriented choices in the show room, but a collection like Givenchy's seemed to be out of touch.

I think that the New York designers will be particularly challenged due to their reliance on private equity money and debt financing. Small businesses will be challenged and fashion is no exception. We'll see more consolidations.

It's a triumph for Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs. I really like what Marc Jacobs did this season. Contrary to many who think that the LV collection is too similar to the Marc Jacobs collection, I think that this latest LV collection is actually Marc Jacob's best for the house. Some have said that the LV collection is more YSL than YSL, and I don't disagree. Stefano Pilati looks too much of a minimalist in comparison. On the other hand, I like his vision and his precise presentation. There is no confusion or ambiguity.

Nicholas Ghesquiere has special eyes for the next new things. His designs are generally very current (except for the SS06 collection) and he's shown us some new fabrics along with some silhouettes and geometric shapes true to his roots. The venue completed the entire package.

Ann Demeulemeester and Undercover both did lots of gorgeous white designs. White is not a non-color. It's extremely colorful without distraction when it's done right. The two showed us exactly what that means.

Chanel showed only three colors: black, white and pink. The venue reminds me of the Coco Chanel movie I watched on TV while switching the channel to CNBC to get updates on the Lehman Brother bankruptcy news during the too many commercial breaks. I could have been watching CNBC all along, but Chanel is just too much mystery to me that I had to watch to know her more. The SS09 collection is Karl's better ones.

Moving on to the more colorful collections, Chalayan once again balanced extremely well between a creative mind and a businessman. Dries Van Noten, without trying too hard, showed a uber Parisian collection with delicious degrading colors and bold jewelry.

As to Versace, she showed what an Italian collection is supposed to be. She gave us glamour and energy when we were mourning. Bravo and a big thank-you.

What a crazy week......

2008-09-16T17:21:00.003-04:00

I didn't wear any colors Monday in mourning. Bless all the hard working people and the good souls at LEH.
London fashion week has been disappointing so far. I have seen Mac Women and animals from the jungle so far. But not a single beautiful dress in sight. It's been a long and depressing week for me. The worst part is that it's only Tuesday.

But I'm trying to keep my spirit up. We have the Milan fashion week next week and then the world-saving Paris fashion week the week after. Let's keep our fingers crossed that the financial market will stabilize by the time the Versace show starts. Then I will be able to go home before 9pm to browse the internet with you, my fellow fashion lovers.

Rodarte SS09 - The Easy Way Out

2008-09-11T17:22:00.007-04:00

I was blown away by the sisters' FW08 collection. They were the real deal. The SS09 collection is equally gorgeous, but it leaves me a little bit empty. I can see Anna Wintour whispering to the sisters after the previous show "......well, why don't you guys keep the direction and refine it a bit for the summer season......""......look at what Nicolas Ghesquiere has done so far......That's all." I understand that designers need to be consistent and keep their directions clear, but the latest design from Rodarte seem to be lazy to me: They have taken the easy way out to recycle their ideas from the previous season and even borrow ideas from the signature Balenciaga looks. It's not even a remix. It's a re-release!

Question: which dress is from FW08 and which one is from SS09?
If you chose the first look the spring look because of the colors, you are WRONG. Nope, they are not from the same collection. The first is from FW08 and second is from SS09, shown in NYC yesterday. What's the point of doing the same look twice? U2 doesn't record Sunday Bloody Sunday every time they have a new album. Why do you, Rodarte?

Don't get me wrong, the dress is beautiful. The hard metal accessories and the fragile chiffon balance each other so well and the drape is so well done. But isn't it a little dishonest?Those two pictures, from afar, without contact lenses, look 100% Balenciaga to me .(the regulars here know how much I love Balenciaga.) Nope, they are also Rodarte. The first will fit perfectly with the looks from Balenciaga SS07 and the second look is produced by Balenciaga every single season.

So what's the verdict? 10 for execution. 2 for originality.

Marc Jacobs for President!

2008-09-09T14:32:00.007-04:00

Some powerful fashion people please take note: never mess with Marc Jacobs. If Marc Jacobs leaves the New York Fashion Week, there won't be any point of putting up a whole week of events.

Marc Jacobs saved the New York Fashion Week, again.

Marc Jacobs for President. With all the politicians, business men and what not, Marc Jacobs is the only one who understands what America is all about.

I saw a mix of the "greatest hits" that work together beautifully and elegantly. There were metallic colors in deep red and blue with prints. There were also raised shoulders like what YSL did many years ago (but not those shoulders in the Seinfeld) and the silhouette was punctuated by wide belts. Skirts were kept long (mid-calf) but the entire outfits were fluid and lean. There was much oversized jewelry and large handbags were nonexistent. The espadrilles didn't do much for me, but the heels with a single stick of steel and a little heel pad extension look perfectly proportioned and they elongated the entire look.

Fashion designers always provide certain restraints during recessions. I was always wondering what designers would do for the coming season and here is how it’s done. The immigrants, the nostalgia and the mirrors. The beautiful women showed us what the great America is all about.

Marc Jacobs 2008!

Shopping report: Seize sur Vingt

2008-09-01T18:34:00.003-04:00

Our office dress code will go back to "Business Formal" after the Labor Day weekend and it's time to stock up shirts again.

I've been buying shirts from the Thomas Pink store across street from my office. My sales associate, James, even has my measurements handy and all I need to do is to tell him which kind of shirt styles I'm looking for. I love Thomas Pink: their fabics are the finest and the colors will remain vivid even after over ten washes, the service is always just right - never too pushy yet always provide help when needed, they have practically all styles one can think of, and it's the only shirt maker that stocks odd sizes such as my husband's, super tall, and mine, super petite.

If there is only one thing that Thomas Pink can potentially improve, it is providing made-to-measure shirts for women. Seize sur Vingt does it (as claimed by Lucky Magazine) and so here came Jing, looking for the next perfect shirt.

The store is tucked in a row of NYC local boutiques on Elizabeth Street, just off Prince Street. I was at first a bit surprised by how plain the shirts looked. Well, it's their aesthetic, I suppose. Then I noticed that the white shirt hanging on the rack is so loosely knitted that the bra is guaranteed to show. I tried on the xxs, the smallest size, and realized that it was too roomy on me. To be fair, the length is fine but the body and the sleeves look way too big.

Well, that's why they provide made-to-measure service. But I quickly learned that the first order has to be at least five shirts. Their tailored shirts are from $260 to $490. Five shirts will easily add up to $1,500, before I see a single shirt that fits. What if they don't?

"Well you can have the shirt altered", said the salesman. I liked his British accent, but the math he demonstrated wasn't equally appealing. They would charge for alteration and my final bill would be around what a tailor-made shirt costs. Did I mention that the shirt fabric didn't feel luxurious at all?

Seize sur Vingt also sells suits and made-to-measure suits. A three-piece suit will cost $3,400 and up and require three fittings. The downside is that it's only partially hand-made. I guess that it's worth trying as long as the fit is good. And I don't have to order at least five of them to place an order. The lead time is approximately 10 weeks, so I guess that they are made off-shore. It's a nice concept, and I might give it a try next year.

As for shirts, I guess that I will see James tomorrow.

FW08 - Have the shoe designers gone too far?

2008-08-01T16:17:00.007-04:00

The biggest let down from the FW08 collections is the shoe design. It looks like everybody has caught the disease "ugly". Just when you think that Prada has been doing ugliness for too long, others followed.

Yes, those are Pradas. Which kind of lettuce is it?
I've seen the short boots in person. They look very futuristic, but they weigh a ton. The big block of stone-like things on the heels are actually made of rubber. Each shoe probably weighs 10lbs. If you have skinny legs and need to built more muscles, get them.Those are Rick Owens. No more comments from me. The picture speaks for itself.
Yves Saint Laurent. I can tell that they are from the Tribute style, but they are not balanced. Clunky is an understatement.

So what do you think? Ugly or avant guard?

I'm back!

2008-07-16T19:57:00.003-04:00

I can't believe how long I have not updated my blog! My apologies!

A few updates from me...
First of all, the financial market has not been doing well and that explained my busy work schedule.

...and my husband and I just purchased our condo in North Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY!

I have not shopped much (if at all) in the past months due to the home purchase. But that doesn't mean I no longer care about fashion. Quite on the contrary, I have just had my custom closet built and started tring different styling with my existing pieces. That's actually a lot of fun.

So I'm back, and I'll keep updating. Stay tuned, my friends!

LA Confidential & Alexander McQueen SS08 Trunk Show

2007-11-20T17:24:00.000-05:00

The documentary Lagerfeld Confidential is extremely entertaining even if you know little about the designer. Karl’s brutal honesty is one of a kind and many words of his deserve to be written down and thought over. Without telling you too much about the documentary, let me just give you an extremely strong “must see” recommendation.

Film Forum was temporarily transformed to a fashion club because of the movie. My friend and I saw Lynn Jaeger, one of the very influential fashion journalists in this country. I actually saw Lynn a few times at Barneys New York on Madison Avenue, and I have been impressed by her personal style every time when I saw her.

An even more interesting fashion moment was the Alexander McQueen trunk show held in the meat packing district on the following Sunday.

Alexander McQueen is no doubt one of the best show masters among all designers. His design quality, to be totally honest, is not consistent, yet he never fails to deliver a grand show. When the design and the show are both strong, it will be an extremely gorgeous and touching collection. This SS08 collection is one of them.

The collection was to memorize the late Isabel Blow who discovered both Alexander McQueen (Lee, as a matter of fact) and Philip Treacy, and the clothes didn’t fail to show Isabel’s spirit and lots of Lee’s emotion.

The trunk show invitation is made of a piece of thick cardboard covered with feather prints, one of the motifs used in the collection. When I entered the showroom located in the meatpacking district overlooking the Hudson River, I was immediately energized by the crowd, the sunlight and the mini runway show setting. Aside from bumping into my old friends Alyssa (who used to work at the McQueen boutique) and Sara (who worked at the Balenciaga boutique and now Dior Homme), I noticed designer Philip Lim in his signature camel color wool coat and a navy color scarf, and the crowd was cool enough to leave him alone.

The show started with the original runway soundtrack. I remembered every single outfit from pictures online, yet looking at the clothes in real life was mind blowing. With the return of the shoulders, Lee was able to accentuate his sharp tailoring even further. The contrast between the sculptural shoulders and the tiny waist is fierce. If you remember Martin Margiela’s FW07 collection, you would be amazed by MMM’s vision. MMM is always a few seasons ahead of others, yet Lee is definitely not late in the game.

Based on my limited knowledge about McQueen’s recent collections, Lee doesn’t mess with his fabric like Miucia Prada does. (Thank God! We don’t need more toilet seats!) Lee knows his basic fabrics and he always develop his ideas around the fabric and utilize them well. Each season you would see the same silken light weight wool, wool crepe, Prince of Wales check fabric and tartan prints, although they came in different shapes and mood each season. They offer both a runway line and a commercial line each season which makes great sense. This time around, for instance, I fell in love with the short dress from the runway look, but I opted for the same style with a less dressy grey wool fabric. It’s a short dress, and I want the flexibility to wear it day and night.

The buying office at the McQueen store is very knowledgeable. Max, the business development manager at McQueen commented that they didn’t order dresses in a cotton fabric that were normally offered in spring seasons because they wrinkle. I am sure customers complained, and the team listened.

The colors are rich, the silhouettes are sharp yet the fabrics are soft. Lee depicted the perfect image of a strong yet fragile woman who probably lives in his fantasies secretly. Is it Isabel Blow?

______________

This is the dress I pre-ordered. I love a piece of garment with an interesting idea. This dress is a backward man’s blazer. The shoulders are padded and the waist is clinched.

The dress coat looks good. Why? Because it is heavily constructed with boning! The entire bodice embraces the body like a corset. It’s too beautiful.

It reminds me one of Isabel Blow’s outfits.

The jacket is SEXY. I see Cate Blanchett in it. It’s an unusual jacket due to the boning on waist and hips. It gives you curves.

The jacket is exquisite. I love the trims in patterned leather. The surprise is the feathers peaking out under the lapel.

One of the feather dresses with a leather cut bodice.

Can you tell that the skirt is made of laser cut leather?

How much clothes does one need?

2007-11-02T09:25:00.000-04:00

Okay. I know that I owe a new post about the Alexander McQueen trunk show, but life is really busy this week and I promise to do so this weekend.

I managed to organize my closet this week. I do that twice a year when season changes. To be honest with you, I was a litte surprised by how much clothes I had. I don't buy a lot (3-4 items per months, including socks) and I try to buy quality goods when I can but things add up. I never knew that I had about ten pairs of dress pants which would be in great use for this winter due to our dress code. I thought that I would have a crisis to get an army of suits for work...but apparently it didn't happen. Good news.
So how much does one need? Why do we keep buying? I've had a lot, and I am glad that I took the chance to figure out what I need and what are excessive. Saks just started their pre-sale (God they are bearish...they really expect a recession!?) but my goal is to stick with the basics including sweaters and some Ralph Lauren jackets. Let's see if I stick to my plan.

A few fashion moments this weekend

2007-10-28T21:29:00.000-04:00

Sorry, guys...I won't be able to update more until tomorrow or Tuesday. But there were a few moments over the weekend that I want to share with you:

1. I saw the Lagerfeld Confidential documentary.

2. I wore my Balenciaga FW07 jacket out to the Alexander McQueen trunk show. People seemed like my outfit.

3. The trunk show was AMAZING. Lee was at his best. I'll have to tell you more about it later. Not only I saw my old friends Alyssa and Sara, but a few others......I'm not telling you who yet!

Just one little picture to thank you for checking this page out before my update.

Balenciaga FW08 trunk show impression

2007-10-22T13:22:00.000-04:00

I arrived 15 minutes late due to a busy work day, and I found the entire crew waiting for me to wrap it up. No, not because I was special but because they didn't get as many requests for the trunk show and hence mine became the last appointment.

So now you know how "un-wearable" the collection is. For the record, the trunk show for FW07 was as crowded as Macy’s on the first day of a thanksgiving sale.

The clothes were breathtaking though. I was able to examine the laser cut radzimir dresses closely. There was a layer of foam material between the lining and the radzimir which gave the clothes a very sculptural look. Somebody on tFS earlier pointed out that the "dimples" on top of the darts looked cheap, but according to the SAs, it was part of the design. The dimples were actually quite difficult to be avoided given the thick foam fabric and the designer didn't even try to deal with it. They actually showed the volume and the thickness of the material well, aside from what Cathy Horyn guessed "reversed nipples".

The new techniques aside, it's a difficult collection to be worn in every day life. Jennifer Connelly wore it really well in a recent function and honestly that would be the only occasion the dresses might work.

Commercial offerings are extremely necessary in a season like this, and how could the Gucci Group forget about it. There were paired down versions of the dresses and tops made with soft and drapy black silk material as well as knee length skirts that had slight puffy hips. A black dress was designed with the signature puffy shoulders and draping on the back, yet the tight hips and the mini length added a bit of sexiness. I pre-ordered that dress. Another strong contender was a black mini dress with the same silhouette and structure as the runway dresses. It looked more like a piece of armor and the concept actually looked stronger in the solid black silk crepe and foam material. I didn't order it but I was curious to see how it would look on me. It had the "statement piece" potential.

The shoes were to die for. The details made them look more like art pieces displayed in a living room rather than stored on a shoe rack. The price was steep though as the cheapest version was approaching $2,000. The SAs didn’t seem worried. Given the fact that those $30,000 dresses from the FW07 collection were being snapped up by the uber rich within days, why would they be worried about the demand for the $50,000 jackets and the $3,000 shoes? The sub-prime crisis apparently has not had any impact on Gucci Group’s bottom line.

The models were the skinniest in the entire industry, but I could tell that they were just undeveloped girls. Many who argued that models were too skinny probably didn't realize that girls were built differently from women with curves……well, more on this topic later.

The trunk show was quite satisfying and so were the mango lobster skewers. I just wish there was a bigger crowed and more energy.

I'm back!

2007-10-14T13:18:00.000-04:00

I know, I know. I have not updated my blog for a while. What could be the reason other than my job? (Yes I DO love my job!) Well, I got a new job and I have been learning everyday. I now write a lot as a research analyst and I figured that writing a little more on fashion would do no harm. Besides, when I started the new job and worked in this "business formal" environment, my wardrobe was switched to a office-appropriate mode. The bad news is that no more crazy Junya dresses, but the good news is that buying nicely made jackets is now more than ever justified: that's my armor.
The jackets will deserve their own entries later on, and now let's take care of the Vuitton business first.
The Louis Vuitton show was brilliant. I just visited the Guggenheim yesterday to check out Richard Prince's work including the "nurses". The fashion show made complete sense. When I was in architecture school, my professors always said that we needed to implement a concept all the way even through the final presentation. Jacobs and Prince nailed it. Marc Jacobs has been good at collaborations in the past, but this time he was yet pushing the boundries again. Art appropriation...with three things different. It's a bit silly. It's contemporary art.
The bags are very grown up despite the color palettes, because the jokes on the bags will make any teenager girls who carry them look laughable. (Rich parents, please take note. Also review the prints before you hand in your credit cards.) Yes, I am old enough to buy one. (I'm not sure if I am wealthy enough to buy one though. Did you see the python handles?)
A few more fashion moments in the past weeks: Valentino's last RTW show; Marc Jacobs's broken heels and one-size-too-small-look shoes; Alexander McQueen's strong shoulders and his collaborateion with Philip Treacy; and Balenciaga's flower power.
I'm going to attend Balenciaga's trunk show, and maybe McQueen's trunk show. So more reports will follow.

Was Nicolas Ghesquiere Misunderstood?

2007-03-02T15:42:00.000-05:00

First of all, I have to give you an update on Nina Ricci. According to WWD, Nina Ricci had a handshake agreement with Reese Witherspoon to dress the actress in all media appearances exclusively. Good for Olivier Theyskens!

Now let's turn to another young and talented designer, Nicolas Ghesquiere. Many people didn't like the his FW07 collection. Some common reactions are, "it's not directional", "not Balenciaga", "big disappointment from the previous seasons". Is it?

My instinct told me that that was not the case but it needs prove. So I opened my Balenciaga book and did my homework. Not only did it confirm my thoughts, it showed me how consistent the FW07 collection is with his pre-SS06 collections.

Pictures from 1998 and 1999 collections are missing from style.com, but luckily a few are published in the Balenciaga book. Among journalists' reviews, surprisingly, the word futurism appeared many times. There was even one dress with huge padded shoulders that looks exactly like the SS07 "alien outfit". It was Ghesquiere's idea, or imagination, back in 1998, but better executed.

Then I saw pleats, patchworks, lean and mean pants, and cocoon dresses from the collections years before volume became a mainstream trend. Ghesquiere once commented that he was sure that his technique was different from Balenciaga's although he was trying to make some clothes with volume as Balenciaga did. That was before he accessed the archives. Collections from 1998 to 2005 were all based on his imagination, his view, and his interpretation on fashion especially street fashion.

Then here comes the SS06 collection. Ghesquiere studied the archives and learned Balenciaga's techniques to be able to replicate those stunning dresses. He also made those silk jackets with peeked shoulders which then became a Balenciaga signature.

He explored more on volume in FW06 before he returned to his nature and presented the "futurism" collection for SS07. It was the first time he disassociated himself from the history - don't get my wrong, apparently he learned the techniques he needed, and then he moved on.

Now let's look at the FW07 collection. Pants and jackets were still wonderful as usual. What truly amazed me were those dresses. They looked like a mess in the first second, and then it reminded me of the patchwork dresses he did years ago. The way the patterns worked together, the way the colors interacted, and the way the graphics made visual impact were extremely well thought and executed (minus the turquoise leggings). The styling is overdone and distracting, but when you look at the indivicual pieces closely and compare them with Ghesquiere's previous collections especially before SS06, it was a HUGE step forward. He has reinvented himself.

Olivier Theyskens once said that his collections were going to be like chapters in a book and they were going to develop gradually. This is exactly what Ghesquiere is doing. SS06 and FW06 were the necessary steps to learn techniques and the Balenciaga spirit (restrained structure and relaxed volume). Don't misunderstand him by those two collections. Ghesquiere is not going to sit on piles of archives but move forward.

My favorite Oscar red carpet gowns

2007-02-26T19:59:00.000-05:00

I normally don't get excited by the red carpet fashion scene, but this year is an exception. With my favorite two designers shining with the stars, I feel that I have to share my joy with you.

Here are my faovorite outfits:

3. Reese Witherspoon in Nina Ricci

It's Nina Ricci, and it is Nina Ricci by Olivier Theyskens! Olivier is born to make breathtaking gowns, and his talent is second to none.

My only complaint is that dark purple is not Reese's best color. The color also faded away with the Oscar stage background. A simple Olivier grey would have done the perfect job!

2. Cate Blanchett in Armani Prive

Cate can pull off anything, but this Armani Prive gown is the best color she could possibly choose. With the metallic shine, the gown looked very relavant to what is happening in the fashion world now. To be honest with you, I didn't even think that it could be an Armani gown because Armani was always boring to me, including the Prive couture line. (if you don't believe me, look at Zhang Ziyi's Armani gowns. Don't they all look the same?)

1. Nicole Kidman in Balenciaga

Nobody asked her whom that dress was by, but us fashion lovers knew it was Balenciaga. To me, the metallic red trims and the way it fits the body were 100% Balenciaga. The red color made her radiant, and the bow added a twist. It's a home run. Congratulations to both Nicole and Nicolas! (Good luck to the runway show Tuesday!)

An adventure in an icy world

2007-02-17T23:10:00.000-05:00

When I found out that there was a Balenciaga jacket for sale in Cambridge, I decided to make a trip there while I was in Boston for an appointment with my orthodontist.

Yes, I am talking about THE paisley jacket from the SS06 collection. I own a navy one and I loved it so much that I wanted to collect a grey one as well.

It was the day after the snow storm. JFK was so frozen that my plane couldn’t take off until we waited in the plane for an hour for the ice to melt. By the time my appointment was over, Boston was warm in the sun and the ice was melting. I took the bus and then walked to the apartment where I visited the seller and tried on the jacket.

The seller was a very friendly Asian girl, a fashion connoisseur and an anthropologist living in Cambridge as a visiting scholar. We were both amused by the fact that our lines of work were not related with fashion at all, yet we both constantly changed roles between the fashion world and the real world.

The jacket fit. I wrote her a check, she handed me the jacket and then she started showing me her closet. The Pandora’s box was open! In addition to at least ten pieces of Lanvin crystal and pearl necklace in different colors and styles, many Lanvin bags, numerous pairs of shoes, and countless miumiu suits, there were two collectors’ items (well there were three before I bought the jacket): a floral “parachute” dress from Junya Watanabe’s SS03 collection, and THE patchwork dress from Balenciaga’s SS02 collection!

I couldn’t believe my eyes. I asked her twice to open the cotton dust bag to admire the Belenciaga dress closely. It was a piece of art! The patchwork pieces appeared to be sewn together randomly, yet all the fabric and colors worked in a magical way that the entire dress formed a sleek silhouette and looked extremely figure snagging. Retailed for $8,000 Euro? No wonder! What a lucky girl she was!

We then talked about fashion and the clothes we love until I realized that I had to leave to catch my Limoliner to come back to NYC.

The sidewalks were completely frozen by the time I left. I tried to maneuver my walk to move as fast I could without falling, but I eventually fell on ice. I simply couldn’t walk fast enough. It was 4PM, the wind got stronger, my feet hurt, and my muscles got tense. I didn’t eat lunch and I was thirsty. I finally made my way to Massachusetts Avenue and I tried to catch a cab. Every single of the ten drivers I asked for waved and drove by. Nobody wanted to drive on icy roads.

I was desperate. I had thirty minutes to get to the Hilton Hotel where the bus would take off. I couldn’t find a cab, and my last choice was the bus. There wouldn’t be any problems had the weather been nice, but I sensed that luck was not on my side after I was lucky enough to own that jacket. I got in a bus but it couldn’t leave the stop because there was a handicapped person who had a mental break. The driver got scared and he couldn’t do anything about it. Eventually the bus started moving, but a few minutes later it slid towards the side walk when the driver tried to avoid a crash with a small car. People started screaming, but luckily we didn’t hit anything.

I missed my bus by twelve minutes. What should I do?

You are such a foolTo worry like you do.. OhI know it's toughAnd you can never get enoughOf what you don't really need nowMy, oh myYou've got to get yourself togetherYou've got stuck in a momentAnd you can't get out of itOh love, look at you nowYou've got yourself stuck in a momentAnd you can't get out of it

Okay, calm down and think. I had two choices. Choice A, taking the Chinatown bus and safety could be compromised; choice B, staying overnight with my mother in-law in Brookline.

“Good thing I married a guy from the town of Brookline AND my mother in-law wouldn’t fly out to Florida until the day after”, I thought. I couldn’t get out of it, but I had a home to stay.

The trip back to NYC the next day wasn’t easy. That night when I called to schedule a cab to drive me from Brookline to the Hilton to catch the 6am bus home, all the cab phone lines were busy. Eventually I got one but it didn’t show the next morning. Luckily I got a cab on my way out and I managed to catch my bus. So here I am, sitting at home typing my story. I am exhausted. I wish my fashion conversation with the seller was shorter. But would I do it again if I was in the same situation? I probably still would.

Proenza Schouler for Target turns to an insider trading case

2007-02-03T19:23:00.000-05:00

I work in the securities industry, and the Attorney General makes sure that every single of us follow the rules not to trade securities before financial information is released to the public. This is a fair market. It's not the case in the fashion industry though, at least in the case where the Proenza Schouler for Target collection was released.

Opening Ceremony has a three day special event to sell the entire collection in their Soho store. Having seen how many people line up outside of the H&M stores for the special collaborations, I arrived at the store at 11am on Friday, the opening time announced on the store's website. However, by the time I entered the store, almost all small sizes were gone. What happened? Didn't they say that they were going to have ALL styles and ALL sizes available?

Then I was informed that there was a special party the night before for "VIP"s to make purchase ahead of the crowd. In addition, the Parsons' students were allowed to arrive at 9am on Friday to make purchase. Then I knew where those size XS and size 1 clothes went.

Check on Ebay. Items are up and being marketed, at twice of the price.

What a perfect case of insider trading! While people such as me would face jail time if traded before the public does so, people in the fashion world does it as a standard practice. The Attorney General apparently overlooked this.

Feeling unfairly treated, I arrived at 9am on Saturday morning trying to be the first in store when it opens at 11am. According to Opening Ceremony, they would have restocked with the entire collection overnight.

I was the first customer inline shortly before a dozen of other girls arrived. We waited in this freezing winter morning hoping to be able to pick out the items we liked. However, while we struggled with our painful feet due to the low temperature, the "Proenza Schouler team", the friends of so and so, and the girl who claimed that she interned at the boys' company "last March" got their way in to shop early. As a result, there were very few small sizes or popular styles left when the store was open to public. Enough said. You judge.

Now let's talk about the clothes. It's no doubt the best GO collection. Being a customer on both ends of the ready to wear market though, I have to warn you that this collection is nowhere near designer quality. The cotton gaze feels too flimsy to hold the shape after one wash, and the stitching doesn't always line up. The silk material, however, is rich and vibrant to hold for long. The Jackie O coat is a pleasant surprise as the tailoring is precise. The bustiers have sizing issues so make sure try on several of them for each size (if you are in a store) to find the best fit for you.

Love it or hate it, it's a collection that excited me after a month of "fashion break" in January. I don't doubt that it's going to be a great success later in Target, so don't wait for the sale. If you missed certain items as I did, let's just wait for the Target release. Don't pay for double on Ebay because they are insiders who traded before the puclic, and they are no different from the criminals.

Nan Kempner's clothes

2007-01-08T16:16:00.000-05:00

My husband and I just visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the exhibition featuring Nan Kempner's clothing collection.

As many of you know, fashion is my hobby and I "collect" clothes that I love. As an ultimate collector and curator, Nan Kempner showed how much a woman could do with her closet. As many ladies especially ladies with strong financial resources, Mrs. Kempner owns an enormous closet. But the closet is only the background in the exhibition: what caught people's eyes are those couture pieces either custom made for her or showed on runway and sought after by numerous fashionistas.

Nan not only acquired some of the most exquisite pieces in fashion history, but often times put them together in the most unexpected way. She acquired one piece at a time to work with her existing collection so that the massive amount of clothes eventually offered countless of choices.
Many people find her outfits over the top and I heard people complaining in the Costume Institute about how "outrageous" some outfits look. But I just secretly laughed and enjoyed every single bit of it. This is not your typical weekend get away with jeans and tshirts. This is a woman (a rich woman) with unparralell fashion sense who expressed herself so well that she appeared to be too honest.

Nan definitely enjoyed herself until the last minute of her life. The exhibit features several outfits she wore in vacations the year when she passed away, and you could tell easily that this woman lived with style.

What striked me most were the pieces made before I was born. I didn't get into fashion until recent years when I started working, so fashion before year 2000 is even kind of blur to me. (not that I lived on Mars but strict school life didn't leave me any free time other than working out my brain and body.) Looking at Nan's clothing collection was like giving myself a fashion history class. All those amazing pleats and volume showed on runway that made me wow and sigh were actually done by the masters (especially Yves Saint Laurent) many many years ago. I realized that how little I know about fashion, and then I started buying books and reading more about fashion history.

It's an exhibition I highly recommend to go. Even if fashion is not your thing, it might show you a completely different kind of life. One last thing: my dear friend Gregory recently pointed out that the $20 cover is "recommended", so obviously you don't need to pay $20 to see less than one tenth of the Met.
Let me know how you like it after you're back.

Cloak to be closed

2006-12-18T15:14:00.000-05:00

I'm sure this news will upset my dear friend Faust very much. Although my experience with Cloak is only from a couple of pictures online, one visit to the boutique in Soho, and one conversation with the designer Alexandre Plokhov at Barneys, I feel deeply sad about what happened.
I bumped into Plokhov on a Sunday afternoon at the Barneys in NYC. I was in the shoe department, and I saw a familiar face from the "Seamless" DVD - Alexandre Plokhov. He was with his wife shopping.

His wife is a strong career woman with a big heart as far as I know. I remembered that my tears down when I watched Seamless when they went through difficult times with an ocean between them. The couple on that Sunday though, were relaxed and happy.

Alexandre's wife purchased a Balenciaga little black dress, and I happened to be around, too. (I was seriously like stalking them due to our similar shopping pace and I had to go to a different direction eventually trying to avoid bumping into them all the time. It was really awkward.) Alexandre made a comment on the fit, and then they decided to purchase it with Alexandre altering the dress for her. I felt so jealous of her having a designer husband at that moment.

We then had a brief chat. Alexandre was surprised at first that somebody would recognize him. Then I mentioned that I admired his wife very much for her full support. She blushed and leaned towards him. Then they mentioned that they were looking for a good financial backer. Alexandre wanted to do a women's line, but they needed money for it. I wish I had millions to do something, but apparently I don't. He sounded serious and concerned back then, but I was still surprised by the news today.

It's so sad that true designers like him can not keep the business for long. It's a fundamental conflict between being commercial and being creative. I just wish them the best.

Who is driving the SALE?

2006-11-29T14:12:00.000-05:00

You probably have sensed that the sale started very early this year. Almost all department stores started sale, or private sale, before Thanksgiving.

What happened? Who started first? What are the consequences?

It started with the Neiman Marcus private sale two weeks before Thanksgiving. There was a link to the department store's website with the entire Chloe and Alexander McQueen's ready-to-wear collection at 30% off. The private sale only lasted for one day, but many bag lovers grabbed the Chloe bags within hours.

When I visited Bergdorf Goodman at around the same time, I was informed by the sales people that they could put certain items on hold for me as pre-sale. I was surprised by how early it came, but went ahead to pick up some clothes without hesitation.

Then the domino fell. All department stores including Saks Fifth Avenue started "pre-sell" a week from the Thanksgiving fearing that the customers would be drawn to Neiman Marcus only.

Why did they start the sale so early this year? The economy is doing well, and the stock market is at historic high. They could have kept selling things at retail price hoping that the bankers buy those nice gifts before Christmas. But the stores didn't wait.

One related event was a comment made by Mr. Prada in a fashion award event. He called for early fashion show schedule and gained support from major department stores in the US to stock their pre-collection inventory months ahead of the normal time. It also seemed to me that the department stores increased their budget for cruise (pre-spring) collections and increased their inventory. If that was the case, then it totally made sense for the department stores to mark down the price early just so they made enough room for the cruise collection shipments.

As the last part of the sale chain, small business felt the pressure. All those boutiques selling contemporary clothing are now marking things down to 30% to 80% off the original price already. The Alexander McQueen boutique received customer's phone call right after the Neiman Marcus private sale requesting an earlier sale. The store started their private sale days before their normal schedule due to the customer requests they received.

I am very curious to see what happens next year. Is it a new practice now? Is it going to be sustainable? Well, the bottom line is that we consumers and fashion lovers gain. At least I've got my long-waited Alexander McQueen clothes and my Fendi skirt.

It is a shoe season......

2006-11-12T19:15:00.000-05:00

The winter sales are going to start. When I am prioritizing my purchases during the sale season, I realized that it's such a shoe season.

Do you remember the last winter? The whole winter was dominated by Balenciaga's military coats and Stella McCartney's bubble coats. I hesitated between a Balenciaga coat and a Yohji Yamamoto coat but ended up with a very fitted grey wool coat from Doo.Ri.

This year, however, nobody made any memorable coats. Instead, many designers sent models down the runway strutting in gorgeous shoes. There are platform shoes from Gucci, YSL, Christian Louboutin, and Fendi, beautiful heels from Alexander McQueen (what a season for Lee!), and the over-the-knee boots from Chanel. Together with the puffy jackets or skirts, The shoes completely changed our proportion. So when you are doing the same thing as I am, updating the wishlists, make sure you put down a couple of pairs of shoes on it. For the next winter season, I think, the designers will impress us with different things. Maybe bags, maybe coats, but not shoes. It's a shoe season, so cherish it.

I'm back from Paris!

2006-11-07T14:07:00.000-05:00

Hi guys,
I didn't forget about you. Rob and I visited Paris last week for our anniversary and we just returned. We had a wonderful time! I will update with my stories and some pictures later!

Best,

Jing

Review on the Marc Jacobs SS07 collection-post trunk show

2006-10-15T15:41:00.000-04:00

It's finally the right time to share my view on the Marc Jacobs collection after experiencing the clothes at the trunk show.

Marc always has great ideas, and he is not afraid of using the elements from other designers to complete his ideas. This time around, Marc wanted to present the lightness. He used fabrics such as gauze, muslin, and lightweight silk that look like candy wraps. To balance the sheer looks, he used metallic leather, metallic sequins, tweed, and cotton gabardine to form more structured looks.

There were three kinds of metallic shown on runway: a metallic shirt made of paper, metallic leather, and metallic sequins. The Japanese made clothes with durable paper many years ago, but Marc introduced the paper fabric with a metallic coating to create a worn yet shiny effect. It was priced at $300 range, and I won't be surprised if many young people fall in love with it: I tried the silver shirt on, and I saw an updated "boyfriend's shirt" look on me instantly. The dress with metallic sequins was gorgeous. Not only the sequins reflected the light with a metallic shine but created great draping looks. The beautiful dress full of sequins was priced at more than $7,000, expensive but it made sense. The metallic leather jackets, however, felt stiff and lifeless. I'd rather pay less and purchase a jacket made of synthetic fabric to get the same look.

Another group of clothes were the deconstructed pieces. There were shredded T-shirts, shredded T-shirt dresses as well as deconstructed knit wear. They reminded me Martin Margiela, Comme des Garcons' "broken bride" collection, and Cristobal Balenciaga. Marc was not afraid of using bold reference to complete his concepts, but the dress on Stam showed so much reference that I felt slightly uncomfortable.

The prices on the T-shirt dreses were not sensible at all: the printed T-shirts with the simplest construction and the most common cotton fabric were priced at around $860 each. When a nicely made tweed jacket was priced at $1,500, it looked like a problem to me.

The dresses impressed me very much. I put on several size 4 dresses (the one worn by the model but two sizes bigger on me) and yet I was amazed by the beauty of them. One dress made me feel like wrapped in a beautiful flower yet it looked so abstract and well constructed. Another dress worn by Chanel on the show was the most amazing piece to me. It was a highly "Cristobal" looking little black dress with a great deal of volume, but Marc made two poufs on it with a sash belted between the two to define the waist. The brilliant design made it a statement piece without overwhelming the girl in it. If I had the courage to shed $3,900 on it, I would definitely do so. It is going to be a LBD never goes out of style and follows me for the years to come. (I should start buying lottery tickets, seriously!)

The "Arabian nights" looking pants were interesting but they looked hard to sell. The good news is that they are being perfected, and by the time they reach the stores, you'll see the slimmed down version. I expect them to be very flattering.

(all pictures were from style.com unless noted)

SS07, The best collections

2006-10-08T20:06:00.000-04:00

Instead of listing the best and the worst, I figured that it might not be a bad idea to do an "Academy Award" style list:

Perfection
-they lead the trend and they satisfy our fantasies. They have the best clothes for day and for evening. They have perfect presentation with beautiful settings. They have the most consistent spirit and execution.

Alexander McQueen
Yves Saint Laurent

Runner up
-trend makers but with less "wow" effects

Louis Vuitton
Marc Jacobs

Execution
-for the consistent concept and execution

Yohji Yamamoto
Junya Watanabe

Daywear

Marni
Max Mara
Fendi

Special events wear

Balmain

Best shoes
-in a season with countless beautiful clothes, most of the designers forgot to make shoes that look nice and feel comfy. The special shoes award shows my appreciation to the designers who designed beautiful and practical shoes for us modern women.

Alexander McQueen
Chloe

Heels and a whole new perspective

2006-10-01T19:00:00.000-04:00

Have you ever tried doing housework in heels?

It's probably routine for you, but it's totally new experience to me. I just purchased a pair of Alexander McQueen heels I was eyeing on for a long time (that's a totally different story, and I promise to tell you later), and I decided to break them in before their debut in public due to the heel height: four and half inches with a half inch of built-in platform.

I felt nice and tall the second I put them on. Then I walked around to do my routine. Things looked different. With my 5' 8.5" new height, I saw everything in our living room from a higher perspective. The chairs were low, the shoe boxes on the top shelf were easier to reach, the further away the door knobs were, and I found the sink so low that I had to bend over very hard to wash off the facial mask on my face. Were the furniture made for migits?

I felt like living in a different life. I suddenly wondered how my husband felt everyday. The skirts falling on my knee probably looked like falling on mid calf. My hair maybe looked totally different from high above. We're preparing our daily looks from our own perspective, but what do other people see from different angles? Growing up, I adjusted my own perspective to this world gradually and I never felt any changes. Now that I am in my four and half inches of heels, the world seems different.

So if you have not tried wearing heels around the house, give it a try, and let me know how you feel. It's different, isn't it?

Bubble trouble

2006-09-23T12:28:00.000-04:00

After seasons of bubble looks, the WSJ (www.wsj.com) suddenly announced that "the bubble is back" in the latest weekend journal. Then the article went on to talk about how difficult it is to make the bubble look flattering or to make it work for office outfits. Are you kidding me?

It was not the first time the Style page on the WSJ shocked me. The bubble skirt article looks so outdated that I thought that I got an old newspaper (then the H-P article on page one confirmed that the paper was current). The column on the WSJ style page is simply too conservative and too fashion backwards.

How does that happen?

Apparently, the writer of the column looked at the wrong sources. Diane Von Furstenberg, Rachel Roy, and Adam+Eve are all so called contemporary designers who do not create trends but are trend followers. They normally capitalize the successful styles from the high end designers a couple of seasons after the trends are around. Marc by Marc Jacobs' look was used in the article as well, but if the writer looked at the Marc collection from last year, she would have realized that the bubble looks had been around for so long. To make it worse, most of the quotes from "experts" and "stylists" are from women in Des Moines and Denver where the majority of the women still wear "mom jeans". How could it not be fashion backwards?

In addition, the writer consistently looks at trends from an "average" woman's perspective. The fact is that there is no "average" woman. Macy's "regular" women don't buy bubble skirts because those bubble skirts sold at Macy's are not well-made, not because women refuse to take volume. If the writer visits the Marc store or Neiman Marcus' contemporary department to look at the sales, or takes a walk down on Madison Avenue, she would realize how mainstream this look has become. Did she just ignore the fact, or forget to do a little bit of fashion research?

The article ended with with a quote from a 29-year-old female New Yorker who refused to wear the look to the office. Come on, I work at downtown financial district, and I wear bubble skirts all the time and I saw bubble skirts all the time. How could you use such a biased quote to end an article with such a large audience? The only principle the readers need to know is to balance the look instead of refusing a trend without thinking. I have been wearing bubble skirts to work for at least five seasons, and nobody said it was inappropriate. In fact, I get positive comments all the time regarding my bubble skirts (the record is six times a day on my Marni skirt, with four in the elevators in my office building).

The WSJ is always forward looking on the financial markets. Unfortunately, the style page failed to do the same and even became a victim of a male dominated industry. Women working on Wall Street should have our own agenda and fashion sense instead of following the "normal" and "average". To empower the female on Wall Street, the style page should look at the fashion forward designers (Marc Jacobs in NYC and most of designers in Paris) , and help people to incorporate the latest looks to everyday outfits. Articles such as the bubble skirt one, only ridicules itself as a style page on a major newspaper. WSJ, it's time to change. Either the theme of the style page, or your columist.

TGIF, I saw Nicolas Ghesquiere!

2006-09-08T22:53:00.000-04:00

After trying many belts with the Balenciaga pants I own, I realized that the belts shown on runway was the only perfect choice. The only place that sells them after the spring season is Barneys New York. I called two days ago to put one on hold, but I was stuck at work every single day and I never made my way to the store. Today was the day, no matter how much more work I had to do over the weekend, I HAD TO MAKE IT.

The train was extremely slow today, it took 30 minutes for the "express" train to drive from Bowling Green to 59th street. I started running with my three-inch heels and a messenger bag full of documents on the dark 60th street.

I entered the store and asked for help. My SA was not there, and the lady who helped me couldn't find the belt on hold. I was so disappointed but wandering around the display case looking at those beautiful belts (which I had looked at for many times). I wasn't really watching my way, and then I bumped into a belt rack - with my Balenciaga belt hanging in front of me.

The lovely lady turned on the register to run the belt for me. (Thank you!)

I got a call earlier today that my alteration was ready, so I asked the SA if it's too late to catch it. "Well, it's closed, but you can give it a try." Why not, I've run that far.

The elevator stopped at the fourth floor, and then I saw "Balenciaga" letters everywhere. It was the party for Balenciaga! I saw Nicolas Ghesquiere himself with his charming and lovely smile. Apparently he was signing the book "Balenciaga Paris". It was a very large book with very detailed history about Balenciaga. Talking about impulsive purchase...then you know what happened; I got my book, signed by Nicolas Ghesquiere, and chatted with him briefly.

The room was full of models and fashion celebrities. Julie Gilhart was one of them. She was surprisingly tall and thin. I had never seen so many Balenciaga outfits. They were from different seasons, in different silhouette and worn by different people. It was a very interesting party to look at. I also spotted a guy who had the standard Dior Homme boy figure. He was wearing a breathtaking beret with feather on!

All those beautiful people and beautiful clothes made me happy. After a whole day of discussion on real estate and fixed income (which is interesting, but work has been stressful lately), I ran to a completely different world. All it took was a little run in heels and a little extra effort to make my way to the fourth floor.

Case closed

2006-09-04T15:37:00.000-04:00

I was looking for the Ann Demeulemeester boots for months last winter. Ann's sizes run large, so I need to find size 5. I visited Alan Bilzerian, Barneys New York in Manhattan and Neiman Marcus, but no luck. One year later, while the memory started to fade, I saw the pair on the last day of the Barneys Warehouse sale with hundreds of women and men fighting for bargains.

My heart almost skipped a beat when I saw a piece of leather hanging down the shoe rack yards away. Is it the one?

I ran to the rack and picked up the boots within a second as if somebody was running after me. Yes, it was the one. The one I was looking for a long time, the Ann Demeulemeester boots, in size 5.

Eventually, I stepped out of the warehouse sale with three pairs of Ann's shoes in hands. The other two pairs were from the Spring '06 collection with very comfortable padded soles and almost 4" heels. The total bill came to $235, and my boots only cost me $105. It still felt like a dream to me.

The following are the boots' pictures from Elle.com

That piece of rubbish to you is treasure to me

2006-08-23T19:40:00.000-04:00

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?

Can you make a dress with 28 scarves?

2006-08-13T21:03:00.000-04:00

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.

A little knowledge about fabric

2006-08-11T11:27:00.000-04:00

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:)

The new miu miu

2006-07-30T00:31:00.000-04:00

Shown in Paris, with better quality and higher price point, miu miu has evolved. In addition to the traditional wool felt coats, jackets, and pants, miu miu played with volume and bold prints in the FW06 season. Intrigued by a picture in the August issue of the British Vogue, I paid a visit to the Soho shop.

In the Vogue picture, the model wore a similar outfit to the one shown on runway: a stripe shirt, a cardigan with a strap closure, and a print puffy skirt. I loved how everything worked together, and I figured that I really needed that cardigan to update my traditional cardigan plus cute skirt looks.

I picked up more than ten items off the racks including some items featured on the runway show. The strip shirt was very sexy with the back splitting to two pieces (deconstruction, plus point) but it was so awfully oversized that I had to pass. The print skirt, on the other hand, was made of heavy silk with a great deal of volume (think Balenciaga). The skirt was way more puffy in real life than it looked on pictures. "I'd wear either the print or the volume, but not both." I told my SA, and she nodded.

The skirt's price was $1,060. A new high for miu miu, I guess.

The grey cardigan with a strap was also unfortunately oversized. It was designed for the puffy skirt, so the bottom of the cardigan would be stretched apart to show the strap. It was a brilliant idea, but it was useless without pairing with the puffy skirt because the bottom would look too generous.

A red cocktail dress became the new "it" dress in the store. A handful of girls tried it on within an hour. I put it on, too. It was really cute. I liked the idea of the shape although it had to be tailored here and there. The price? More than $2,200 – for this Polyester dress. The SA told me that there were three people on the waiting list already, and she could guarantee that I'd receive mine as long as I leave my credit card number. "No thanks". I was talking to myself: there was no way for me to justify it.

Eventually a cardigan with a built-in knit scarf caught my eye. The cardigan fell on my body in a flattering way yet with a twist. An oversized golden pin also dressed it up. If my budget allowed, I would have also got a black wool felt skirt, a pair of straight leg wool pants, and a pair of ankle length boots. After all, summer will last for another month, and I still have plenty of time to figure out what the most crucial items I need to update my fall wardrobe. With more interesting design and the free tailoring service, I will definitely go back. At the same time, if you happen to visit miu miu, be prepared, don't be shocked by the Prada level price.

Competitive shopping

2006-07-10T14:58:00.000-04:00

Shopping can be a very competitive activity. Excited by the new Balenciaga website (www.balenciaga.com), I visited the store located on W. 22nd street on Friday. I was hopeful that I could find some leg lengthening pants from the Pants capsule collection, but the trip turned out to be very disappointing. The selection was so little that the store looked like an interior design display with some nice clothes as background: most of the pre-fall items featured in the look books were reserved long time ago and therefore never made the way to the floor.

My SA also informed me that for small sizes, such as French 36, they only bought one for each style. With a city full of stylish and slender women, how is it going to work?

It's is exactly what Balenciaga wants. It makes the individual who pays big bucks to buy the cloak feel somewhat special. But for the unfortunate second place, Ouch.

I was kicking myself for taking too much time thinking before I tried to place an "early" order. Too bad, the SA said, there are three people ahead of you.

I've learned my lesson. I'll call the boutique the morning right after the Paris show in September and put my name down. I might not be able to buy and afford everything, but at least I need to place my name on the waiting list early enough to make sure I have a chance.

There is a game, and let's play.

Value stock - Fendi

2006-06-27T21:56:00.000-04:00

Value stocks are the under priced stocks, and investors normally purchase value stocks with the expectation that the price will eventually go up. Believe it or not, the first time when I browsed the Fendi collection in the boutique, my reaction was that Fendi's ready-to-wear is indeed a value "stock".

Starting as a fur salon, Fendi didn't generate much buzz from its ready-to-wear collections, in my opinion, until spring '06. For some reason, Chanel's shows were no longer breathtaking to me; in stead, Fendi's collections were getting stronger and stronger. I'm not sure if anything changed at Lagerfeld's studios, but it's was a complete shift between the two brands' design quality. Chanel got a little boring and sometimes overdone while Fendi looked sharp, classic, yet with a little twist. After looking at the collections online, I was very curious to look at them closely.

We moved to NYC right in time when the spring collection's sale started. My husband Rob and I only planned to stop by for a minute, but my Fendi Spy flat sandals caught John's eyes (John is a very good looking sales associate at Fendi). That resulted in a guided tour in the beautiful boutique. Once we reached the clothing racks, I was almost "forced" by the Italian hospitality to try on different outfits. For the first time in the past months, I saw sparkles in Rob's eyes. He was sitting in the Fendi arm chair chatting with John and looking at different looks on me giving out "yay or nay" like a connoisseur. I was in great joy: the craftsmanship was superb and the details were brilliant. Most of the clothes were simple, but they could be combined to different looks and often time, with a twist. Better yet, the price was so much cheaper than brands such as Chanel. For instance, I bought a wool shell with detailed puffy look at the bottom. It cost me about $270 after discount. It was not cheap, but I guarantee you that the price would be at least double at Marc Jacobs and triple at Chanel. I also bought an A-line silk skirt with similar price. The two items, together with my YSL wide black belt, created a sophisticated yet effortless look. I was impressed.

Looking at the fall collection look book, classic men's trousers and puffy skirts were presented with Fendi's new wide belts. The grey puffy skirt featured on magazines for many times looked amazing in person: the fabric was very thick and rich, perfect for the winter, and the construction was perfect. The skirt and the wide belt combo was $720, which would be at least $2,000 if the label says Marc Jacobs or Chanel. What can I say? I just found the value stock I've been looking for.

A new home on the Upper East

2006-06-13T18:01:00.000-04:00

My husband Rob and I finally moved and settled down in our new place. It's a lovely duplex with a small yard, and we love the neighborhood. We got a chance to walk around the shopping area in midtown, and Rob bought a few shirts for his new job.

My new discovery though, is Fendi. I never got a chance to look at their clothes closely because nobody sells Fendi in Boston. Now that I looked at them and tried them on, I found that Fendi's ready-to-wear is actually fairly priced compared with other major fashion brands. I consider it a "value stock/brand". I picked up a few thing there, and I'm very happy with them.

I have to run now, but I promise to update my shopping experience at Fendi ASAP. I just want to thank everybody who are so supportive to our move. Also thank you for leaving the warm messages on the blog. I'm back to my normal schedule now, and the new stories are coming. Stay tuned:)

Hello New York!

2006-05-11T10:18:00.000-04:00

My husband and I are moving to NYC. It's exciting. I guess that I will change my profile after we move there, and I am sure that I'll have more to write about. Stay tuned:)

WAIST DOWN - SKIRTS BY MIUCCIA PRADA

2006-04-22T12:46:00.000-04:00

I just went to NYC to check out the Prada exhibition in their epicenter - the soho boutique designed by Rem Koolhaas.

In my mind, Miuccia Prada designs the most interesting and beautiful skirts among all fashion designers despite the fact that Prada is a highly commercial brand. She is so consistent that you can count on her every single season to come up with new ideas and new prints.

The exhibition showcases Miuccia's best skirt designs from1988 to 2006. Some skirts are hung in store spinning to accentuate the shadow prints, and some are attached to the same piece of material like a camouflage. The collection includes the lip print skirt from 2000 as well as several popular skirts from the successful FW04 season (my favorite Prada season).

Most of the skirts are going to be reproduced for sale, but the amount is limited to three per style (the lip print skirt is not reproduced though). Part of the proceeds will be donated to charity, but $6,000 per skirt appears to be very steep to a regular consumer like me.Like all exhibitions in museums, this skirt event also hands out brochures and pins. The brochures have all skirts printed chronologically with a store floor plan and section at the back. The pin collection, at the same time, includes the most famous Prada skirt designs printed. Both items are free.There are also three styles of Tshirts with skirt prints on sale ($75 each): the green shadow skirt from FW04 season, the lip print skirt from 2000, and the blue/red print skirt from SS05 season. Another interesting item is a book with all skirt designs, inspirations, and material information. It's a must have piece for a design book junkie like me.

Overall, it is a cute exhibition. My only complaints is that all skirts are blended with the current spring collection through the store, so it’s not very easy to follow if your only objective is to look at the skirts. All the goodies coming with the collection are great add-ons, and I appreciate those details.

Dior Gaucho pumps & tips to make heels comfy

2006-04-16T19:48:00.000-04:00

I was so amazed by the details on the pumps when I saw them on runway. Months later, here they are on my coffee table.

They are comfortable shoes, but it takes some tricks to make them the shoes to wear shopping for hours. Those are the things I always add on:

1. Power soles. Leather sole can't take much walking, and a layer of rubber takes them long way. Most of the shoe repair shops do that for you, but you need to ask for beige rubber sole if the shoes are in lighter shades.

2. Pads on forefeet. They reduce the impact on the ball of the feet. You can find them pharmacies such as CVS.

3. Pads on the back of the pumps. Pumps tend to slip on your heels, especially when they are slightly large. The little pads at the back of the pumps will secure the heels and avoid blisters.

All those "add ons" will cost about $30, but the return is priceless.

The only jacket in this world

2006-04-01T20:15:00.000-05:00

Yes, my jacket is the ONLY one, which surprises me and amazes me so much.

After months of waiting, my Balenciaga jacket finally arrived.

I fell in love with this jacket right away when it was shown on Balenciaga's '06 spring runway show. It was such an amazing collection which melts Baroque and Rock & Roll together in an extremely architectural way. I knew that it was THE jacket people see once a life time, and I had to have it.

I even put deposit to order the jacket I wanted. They only produced a couple of the variations showed on runway, but I wanted different combination of colors and details. The special order service got me the exact jacket I wanted, just for me:)

I didn't pose. Imagine Jing as a clothes rack in those pictures. I want you to see how the jacket fits and how the details look. I guess that I would wear that outfit to a nice dinner, or to a nice Rock & Roll concert. That is an evening look, and indeed it is so me, the single Jing with all those rebellious ideas and the Jing who rarely followed norms.

I wore the jacket out shopping today. I dressed it down with white corduroy(my husband got eliminated in a spelling bee contest because of this word) pants and a light grey tissue T-shirt under. I also tried a look last night with the Balenciaga tank under but pairing with a flowy schiffon skirt and killer heels. That would be the outfit worn at my birthday dinner with Mr. Jing, and maybe a dance after.

Life changes, but a jacket like this will follow me for the years to come.

Devil in Balenciaga

2006-03-28T16:08:00.000-05:00

I just received a phone call that my Balenciaga jacket arrived! I can't wait to put it on me! It's been 5 months sinced I ordered it...and I hope that it's worth the wait. I'll also go to Louis Boston on my way home to pick up the black tank with the print:"Devil in Balenciaga".
Wait for my updates;-)

Balenciaga FW '06 - Skyrocketing price v.s. a semi-couture collection

2006-03-20T13:52:00.000-05:00

Nicholas Ghesquiere is officially my favorite designer after another solid collection showed in Paris a couple of weeks ago. The Balenciaga FW 06 collection is the fruit of his research on Cristobal Balenciaga's archives, and it showed Nicholas' modern interpretation of Balenciaga women.

After appreciating the looks for weeks, now it's time for us to face the reality and see how much those semi-couture pieces cost. I will list some looks and the prices below...honestly I am itchy on some of them but I am not sure if the prices are justified compared with the spring '06 collection. Let me know what you think.

Look #11

Jacket $2,995 (double sided); Top $2,675; Skirt $1,285

Look #14

Top $1,160; Pants $890 (Satin lined wool pants)

Look #15 $1,650 (one piece)

Look #18

Jacket $1,975

top $1,685

Look #23 $15,000 (!!!) - the material is specially made for Balenciaga

Look #24 $2,919

Look #25 $4,700

Look #32 $990

Look #35 $4,375

Look #37 $4,695

Barneys New York's Boston store is open!

2006-03-10T14:12:00.000-05:00

The store is renovated from an old movie theatre and they take advantage of the existing structure to introduce sky light to the two-floor space. The entire store was full of sun light on this sunny Friday.

I checked out the store during lunch hour. I am very impressed. For the past years I have shopped in the New York store for many times (including calling them for certain items that I couldn't find elsewhere). Now, the store in Boston will totally save my to New York. The first floor looks like a fashion museum. It features Rochas, Alaia (!!!), Ann Demeulemeester, Lanvin, Rick Owens, Martin Margiela (line 1 and line 4), Yohji Yamamoto, Junya Watanabe, Tao, Comme des Garcons, and so on. They are the most original designers in this world but not covered by adjacent Saks or Neiman Marcus for a long period of time (what a shame!). I also have to say that Barney's buyers did a great job to pick the most gorgeous pieces from the spring collections.

The men's department and Co-op are located on the second floor. Only a few designers are featured in the Co-op department, but they are the best ones in that tier.

Service is very nice. My SA was very helpful looking for sizes for me, and customers can put things on hold for up to 72 hours. Sales are not pushy, which is consistent with their culture in the New York store.

All in all, I give it 4.5 out of 5. The half point deduction is from the lack of Balenciaga ready-to-wear. I understand that there might be distribution restrictions on that brand, but for a department store like Barneys, the selection is not complete without it.

FW'06 New York Fashion Show - All About Marc Jacobs

2006-02-19T23:33:00.000-05:00

After looking at all the collections on http://www.style.com/, my only feeling is that I would no longer care about the New York fashion week if Marc Jacobs stopped showing his designs in New York.

There were lots of nice clothes shown in the Fashion Week, but they were rarely directional. Oscar de la Renta and Carolina Herrera looked more and more alike. Others presented nice clothes but appeared to be confused. At the same time, Marc Jacobs kept exploring new looks. In this season, Marc Jacobs offered cover up looks and showed us real life outfits for the winter: skirts over pants, leggings above boots, and coats over dresses. The looks were beautiful yet practical. The colors were mostly dark grey with sparkles. It continued the soft hues in spring 06 and it made me very comfortable to get used to the gentle color transition. I found many highly desirable pieces although it was a little overwhelming to figure out what Marc had to offer through the layers.

The Marc by Marc Jacobs collection was well made as well. Being a customer of both collections for three years, I have already noticed that Marc always brings ideas and details from the collection line to the Marc line to offer affordable designer looks. They normally come in the Marc line one season later, but nothing is better than a bargain design. I remember a top from three or four seasons ago in the collection line: it had this pleated details on collars and the delicate look eventually became one of his signature details. Then the same details appeared on a couple of tops in the Marc line one season later, and it became one of the hottest items in the boutique. In this season, Marc used the coat over long dress look from the FW '05 collection in the Marc line, and the silhouette showed a grown up Marc girl. Layering still comes into play in this collection, but this time around, the Marc girl is growing up. Not a girl, not yet a woman.

Marc Jacobs Collection (photo courtesy of style.com)

Marc by Marc Jacobs Collection (photo courtesy of style.com)

Designer Agendas

2006-02-05T12:22:00.000-05:00

I had thought about getting a designer agenda for a long time but never bought one. With the Outlook in my computer at work keeping track of everything, a designer agenda seemed unecessary. When I recently changed my job, however, I realized how important it is to keep my personal contacts and activities in a personal book that will follow me forever. Digital technology brought us all the efficiency and convenience, but when it comes to unexpected changes or a system crash, the old fashioned paper and pen system appears to work better. So I decided to get an agenda and return to the old fashion.

I always used agendas to organize my life since I was a kid. My parents always gave me those free agendas from conferences and business gifts. They normally only worked for only a couple of months and then were replaced by new free agendas. This time though, I need a really nice agenda that I plan to use for the years to come.

There are a few designers who offer nice agendas: Coach, Kate Spade, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Smythson, and Hermes.

Coach, Smythson, and Hermes don't use ring agendas. Instead, they offer agenda covers and secure the refills by the pockets inside of the covers. I was told that Hermes agendas start from $1,800, so it was out of consideration. Maybe I will get one when I am one of those C_Os.

I prefer something classy and I always think that showing a logo product in public is embarrasing. I failed to find a logo free agenda at Chanel, and I was told that the agenda market was shrinking so they only produced agendas in selected product lines. Kate Spade agendas are mostly colorful from the tabs to agenda covers. I would have loved to get one if I was in college, but apparently it's not something appropriate if I need to bring it to conference rooms.

I saw the most variety of agendas at Louis Vuitton and some of them are very decent. Epi, Suhali, and Taiga agendas are all good choices to me. I am especially fond of the Suhali agenda because of the details and the lack of logos, so I ordered one with plum color. Although the LV refills were sold out, I was able to find a set of Franklin Covey refill with pastel lanvender flowers. The lanvender and the plum work perfectly together.

Louis Vuitton Suhali Agenda

Louis Vuitton Taiga Agenda

Coach Agendas (www.coach.com)

Kate Spade Agndas (www.katespade.com)

This winter is not over yet, and the FW06 shows is getting started

2006-01-31T18:19:00.000-05:00

I just realized that the FW 06 show would start this Friday. It's always awkward time to me, as I will be wearing FW 05 winter clothes for three more months while the new trends for the next winter are shown to the public. So no dramatic changes, please! (Just kidding:-) )

I bet that some fashion forward people will incorporate the new trends in the last days of this winter yet I am curious to see what the designers come up with for the next year. The following link will bring you to the schedule for the New York Fashion Week. I hope that you can watch closely to the online pictures during the Week and let's discuss afterwards.

http://www.newyorkmetro.com/fashion/fashionshows/schedule/3.html

Spring 2006, two trends will cover all

2006-01-18T20:05:00.000-05:00

It's been almost four months since the spring 2006 ready-to-wear collections were shown. It's enough time for us to digest and memorize all the beautiful outfits, right? Before we receive the overwhelming trend information and get confused from the generous March magazines, let's look at the most important two trends for spring: the new proportion and the soft grey colors.

The new proportion

The new proportion is the best news to the girls (including me!) who are sick of the bohemian looks. In the coming season, the waistline is high from the true waist to the empire line. Even when you wear a pair of low-rise jeans, remember to pair with an empire waist long camisole to modify the proportion. Belts are heavily used in all the major runway shows, and we will definitely see them around in the coming seasons. The belts are wide and powerful. Think about Lanvin and YSL, a belt can change the entire look.

There are a couple of things I would like to purchase for the new proportion, and you might be interested as well:

* High-waisted pants and skirts
* Silk or silk blend blouses
* Wide and sleek belts, cummerbunds, or ribbons
* Fitted cardigans

I also found the following tips to avoid the bulky material around the belt.

* Wear thin and fitted cardigan
* Wear silk shirt instead of cotton shirt
* Keep the waist of the pants or skirts simple. No belt loops or oversized waist. I found a pair of Martin Margiela pants with the minimum design on the waist, and it looks great with the new proportion.

Soft grey colors

Words like flesh tones, pastel colors, and soft grey colors will be all over the places in fashion magazines this spring, but they all mean the same thing: less saturated yet sophisticated colors. A couple of pictures from the runway will give us a better idea than words.

I am sure there will be more trends in magazines, and the editors will all list "ten most important things" to buy. With the sky rocketing prices in the fashion world, who can afford all the trends? But calm down, and let's think it over. Most of items are related to the two major trends. That means we can buy less but the most efficient pieces to update our wardrobes. Things get easy this time, right?

Tough cookie or addicted shopoholic

2006-01-07T21:55:00.000-05:00

I went to the semi-annual Louis Boston sale today, fifteen hours after five of my teeth were pulled out. I know, I know. It's a lot of teeth. I always believe that short pain is not as bad as long pain, so if they need to remove five teeth, I prefer doing them altogether. Unfortunately I had a history of passing out whenever I got a shot or had my blood drawn, so my kind dentist had to use extra Novocain on me and took his time. After more than three hours of struggle with the tough teeth, I couldn't speak but wrote down one question to my dentist: Can I go shopping tomorrow?

The answer was yes. And I had a big grin with my numb mouth. Even if it was a no, I would still go. Look, sale, especially the Louis Boston sale, has been like a ritual to me. Twice every year, I will be lined up with thirty to forty men and women in front of the store entrance waiting for the opening.

I was in equally tough situation last year. I had just had surgery on both of my pinky toes before the sale. I took a cab and went shopping in the middle of a snow storm. People said that I was a tough cookie. The truth is that I would regret so much if I was too late to grab that fabulous item I've been waiting for months. In this case, shopping always takes priority.

It turned out to be a good day. I got a pair of Neil Barrett ankle boots and a Mansharey washed leather jacket despite the dizziness from the pain killers. Don't worry, I brought hubbie just in case I made any insane decisions. Luckily he liked both.

New year gift - my long waited Chanel sweater

2006-01-01T14:21:00.000-05:00

I wrote an article back in October about an Elle-Chanel styling event I attended. I ordered a sweater at the event, but I didn't receive it until last Friday.

The sweater actually came in a couple of weeks ago, but I never received a call from my SA. I went to the store to inquire about the Paris-New York collection. Accidentally, I saw the top, in my size, hanging in the sales section.

Here it is, my long waited sweater.

Sweaters with stripes are such classic must-haves. Although we see them everywhere, Karl Lagerfeld brought the classic look to a whole new level. The sweater has extra long sleeves to be bunched up, the flower pins add classic Chanel charm, and the pockets on the front are quilted like a classic Chanel bag. The stripes are not pure black. They are charcoal grey stripes with brown stripes under to create a little shadow effect and make the color contrast less sharp and more sophisticated. A sweater with stripes is such a classic, but the little details make this sweater stand out.

Some random thoughts about architects and fashion designers

2005-12-27T22:20:00.000-05:00

I recently had a walk with an old friend and instructor of mine, L. Being an architect herself, she is the wife of a world renowned architect Y and THE woman behind a successful design atelier. I helped the L and Y on some little projects in my junior year at college when they had just returned to China to start their own studio. We had some interactions now and then, including Y's instruction on a design competition I participated in and his recommendation letter supporting my study at MIT. We didn't get a chance to talk after I came to Boston, however, due to our busy schedules and the time difference.

We finally met again in Boston. This time around, they are back to America to develop their careers further. I was so excited once I heard that they were moving over. Years after our first project together, I still respect their work and I am so glad that we are now closer.

Here we are, walking down Newbury Street on a sunny Saturday afternoon. L was in her signature comfortable yet poetic outfit and I was in my combat boots and Doo. Ri coat. I never talked about fashion with Y or L before, but surprisingly, our little walk was all about fashion. Maybe she was too tired at work to talk about it, or maybe it's a common interest we never discovered before. Going through racks of clothes at Alan Bilzerian, we both were excited talking about our favorite designers and designs.

I saw a couple of Y's pictures in publications recently, and I was always curious about what he wore in those pictures. He was once in this wrinkled jacket made of cotton or linen that seemed to be some exquisite designer work. I asked L about it, and she laughed and told me that she only knew one more person who was into fashion as much as Y does. As a matter of fact, the couple is big fans of Yohji Yamamoto and Issey Miyake.

Somebody on theFashionspot made a comment on Yohji Yamamoto's work: they look like those outfits that 1980s architects would wear. They are things that architects love to wear, but not only the 1980s architects. There is beauty in the designs that only certain people can grasp and understand. Architects are sensitive to the beauty and respect it. Today's Y and L look so similar to the Y and L from eight years ago. Their styles didn't change much over eight years. At the same time, looking at Yohji Yamamoto's work, it didn't change much over the years either. There is certain eternity in it.

There are people who do not follow the trends but develop their ideas over the course of their life. Le Corbusier fully used the new technology to develop a column and beam structure and set the walls free. Frank Gehry was inspired by the system and fully utilized it: getting rid of the wild surface, what people will see is still the simple system. Why do walls have to be perpendicular? Why do the turns have to be ninety degrees? Ideas start from there. Same process showed in Rei Kawakubo's work. Why can't clothes be twisted? Why can't clothes be asymmetric? Designers challenge the conventions and break the rules. They have to be brave or powerful enough to design things like that, and sometimes it takes their entire life to be fully understood.

Luckily Y and L's work are understood and recognized by most people already. They no longer need to struggle. But looking back, who didn't have those difficult days developing ideas and empowering themselves? I quit from design because of my impatience to deal with the reality, but I am so glad that there are people who stick to it, and make it shine.

Prioritize purchase and the magical drawstrings

2005-12-18T20:18:00.000-05:00

I normally look at what the designers offer twice every season. The first time is when they present the collections in the runway shows and sometimes trunk shows. I memorize the pieces I like and save pictures in my computer. I purchase a couple of them during the season, and then I look at the pictures again right before the big sale starts to prioritize purchase.

I just did my work for the FW05 collections. I'm always amazed by how much my list can change during a couple of months, and there is no exception this season. I fell in love with the controversial Marc Jacobs' collection because of its darkness. I tried a couple of balloon skirts and the cashmere jacket with lace overlays, and I thought that I would buy them when they were on the 70% sale. I didn't do that, however, when I hit the store last Friday for the sale.

Here is why: the jacket alone is cute, but if it is not worn with one of the dark looking bottoms, the jacket will look too sweet. The jacket alone costs $900 at sale, and I can't really wear it with most of my clothes in my closet. So I passed.

My interest switched to something more experimental instead - Junya Watanabe. The collection is too avant-garde at first sight, but months later, I found it versatile yet fresh.

A major element in the collection is the drawstrings. The tightened drawstrings create volume, and when they are loosened, the clothes can go back to the regular shape. Junya Watanabe experimented with drawstrings on jackets and skirts to play with proportion and volume. I ordered a white cotton jacket and a black wool dress, both with drawstrings. I found them even more playful when I put them on. There are drawstrings vertically on the front, under the collar, and horizontally on the back. By loosening and tightening different drawstrings, I created different proportion and volumes. It's a game, and the jacket is a toy.

The dress is also cut in a novel way to accentuate curves. The seams are not stitched together; instead, they are melted together with strings of rubber. The drawstrings are more like decoration in this case, and it makes the body like a corset. I can't imagine how Junya created the dress. It's just so brilliant.

It's not the first time Junya used drawstrings. Similar looks were seen in the spring '03 parachute collection although the mood was completely different. The '03 collection is combat trend in spring and the light fabric looks drifty. The fall '05 collection, however, is in a dark mood and the thicker material apparently helps to create volume. The girls look dark yet innocent. Junya wasnt afraid to use the same language, but the stories he told were totally different.

Remote control

2005-12-08T17:30:00.000-05:00

I had a very nice plan last weekend to go down to NYC for my Christmas shopping. I made my own maps with dots indicating the shops and I also organized the shops to three different groups based on the locations with detailed transportation directions. I put maps, cereal bars, a bottle of water, and disinfecting wipes in my bag. I even had my combat boots ready for the hours of walking. After getting ready for the trip, however, the weatherman said that it would snow in New England area on Sunday. Even worse, I got sick after a party on Saturday.

No trip to NYC.

It is my life after marriage: my weekends are filled with family parties, and as a result, I have no time shopping!

Plan B: remote control it is. Although I can't go to the shopping paradise physically, my cell phone can help. I am so fond of a couple of items from the Comme des Garcons collection and the Junya Watanabe collection that I decided to get them NOW. These collections are so beautiful and wearable that they will be gone within the first week of the initial mark down in department stores. It is indeed difficult to order clothes through phone calls especially something from the Rei and Junya. Their works are never conventional so are the shapes. How do you describe Frank Gehry's buildings? It's easy to describe them in general, but it is a mission impossible if there are a couple of them and every single item is "deconstructed". Both the SA and I tried very hard to communicate, but eventually we both just laughed. Finally, the SA was nice enough to find a couple of items in my size and she sent them over for me to try on (I don't even know two of them items…just imagined). I hope that all the pieces work out and I'll report back.

This is how my wardrobe grows...how does yours?

2005-11-27T21:17:00.000-05:00

I recently purchased an adorable Viktor&Rolf skirt from Aloharag.com. It's a satin blue skirt with polka dots. I knew that it was not an easy piece to work with, but I couldn't say no to the cute details and the attractive price, so I purchased it with the confidence that I am going to make it work.

I posted on the Fashion Spot (tFS) and I received very helpful advice on what to wear with it. The only problem is that I don't own anything that compliments the skirt yet. One girl said that I shouldn't make such impulsive purchase before I have sufficient basics to work with. It made me think. Why don't I have enough basic pieces? How did my wardrobe grow through the recent years? Should I start buying more basics?

I didn't start building up my wardrobe until I started working two and half years ago. Having been a student living on a tight budget, I was, and I am still very cheap on basics. Why does a "basic" white shirt cost $200? Why does a "basic" wool sweater cost $600? I never get it. I only buy basics whenever necessary. For example, I used to own exactly four pairs of dress pants to cover the pant needs from Monday to Thursday and one pair of jeans for Friday. (I mostly wore skirts during weekends.) At the same time, I can never resist a piece of nicely designed clothes and I would like to pay big bucks for them. I then look for the right basics to compliment my statement pieces to make sure I wear them often. This is how my wardrobe grew over the past two and half years, and that's why I don’t have enough basics: I simply work backwards when it comes to building up my wardrobe.

Should I buy more basics then? Yes I should, especially in this sales season. But how should I prioritize, for instance, what sweater should I buy? Vneck or scoop neck? Grey or camel? Navy or royal blue? Fitted or loose fitting? I find the options overwhelming and I can't prioritize. When I went to Saks to go through racks of basics, I realized that I'd rather purchase basics for complimenting my statement pieces than buy basics and let them sit in my closet waiting for the right item to work with. I'm a collector. If I am a director in a gallery, I am not going to purchase all kinds of frames and store them in the basement. Instead, I am going to gather the art works, and then looking for the frames.

Back to the Viktor&Rolf skirt. I eventually found a picture from the runway, and it seems to me that the best way to make it work is to wear a white shirt under a grey scoop neck sweater. To be specific, the shirt has to be silk or silk blend and the sweater has to be light weight, cold grey with similar shade to the skirt's blue, the waist has to be fitted, and it has to fall right on the waist of the skirt. You see, there are too many specifics. I would not know which grey sweater to buy if I didn't make my impulsive purchase of the skirt. So I guess I will keep working backwards on my wardrobe.

Are we being judged?

2005-11-20T18:12:00.000-05:00

My experience in the past week proved again that fashion is very subjective and even judgmental. I posted my daily outfits on two different fashion forums where I participate actively. The members on the two forums have totally different cultural backgrounds: most of the members in the first forum have more conservative or classic taste; the second group of people is adventurous and lots of them are fashion insiders. (Okay, let me tell you, the second forum is http://www.thefashionspot.com/ (tFS).

I posted seven days of outfits on both forums and they are consists of conservative office outfits and bold looks worn on weekends. While the reactions on my office outfits were similar, tFSers were very fond of the more adventurous pieces and the other forum was exactly the opposite. For instance, I recently got this asymmetric red Ann Demeulemeester jacket. The jacket doesn't fit as a traditional jacket with the fabric snagging and draping on different parts of the body. I paired the jacket with a pair of mud color Stella McCartney drain pipes. The entire outfit was just exciting and amazing for the folks on tFS, but it was just wrong for some people on the first forum with one guy even asking me why my jacket was off-center and one girl feeling so bad for me wasting my money. Reading the opposite comments from people with different tastes, especially reading the mean words, I suddenly felt I was being judged.

I am not alone. There are lots of fashionistas on tFS such as the beautiful guys whom I can only see on Dior Homme's runway show or in the fashionable cities such as NYC or Brussels. Are they going to be judged if they live in, say, Boston? Sure they are. Maybe it is the price we have to pay to make different fashion choices.

Ms. Maureen Dowd wrote about how women were judged too much on what we wore in her book "Are Men Necessary? When Sexes Collide", but I found the judgment towards both sexes. Men seem to be judged less because most of them are more afraid of being judged and so they dress more conservatively. Men and women are all judged based on our appearance and our fashion preference.

Luckily, there are still people such as the tFSers who enjoy the coat from Yohji Yamamoto, the jacket from Martin Margiela, and the belt from Ann Demeulemeester despite the potential judgment. TFS is like a cult with the people who enjoy looking at each other's unique outfits and encouraging each other to be even more adventurous. When we are off the internet and face our city or simply a different fashion forum, we are judged, sometimes in a bad way. It's good to know, but it doesn't affect how we dress and express ourselves.

Skinny pants

2005-11-13T12:55:00.000-05:00

Skinny pants have been in the fashion scene for years. From Kate Moss to Sienna Miller, from mail delivery guys to rock stars, skinny pants gained an important seat in the fashion world and are frequently featured in fashion magazines.

I just went through the process of finding my perfect skinny pants. Most of the preppy brands such as JCrew or Banana Republic don't produce skinny pants, so the best places to go are the European designer brands and designer denims. When you shop for the perfect skinny pants, don't forget to wear a pair of high heels. Most of the girls don't have models' legs to look good in skinny jeans, and so the mirrors in the shops can be very discouraging if you don’t have a pair of heels to elongate the legs.

My first pair of skinny jeans is from Martin Margiela's line 6. It is made of 100% cotton, low waist, and with grayish blue color. I never thought that Martin Margiela made skinny jeans, but apparently the basic line 6 considers it one of the must haves.

My latest purchase is a pair of Stella McCartney corduroy skinny pants. In fact, I ordered eight pairs of pants from http://www.yoox.com/ but only that pair fit me perfectly. Among the six pairs of pants, the MiuMiu pair was the most disappointing pants. The material felt cheap and it was a shapeless Italian size 38. Balenciaga is the king of pant makers, but I didn't realize that I needed to wear French size 34 nowadays after a brutal summer in Boston. All the Balenciagas I ordered were size 36, so apparently they didn't work. It's not Nicolas Ghesquiere's fault though. Same thing happened to the Costume National pants. They are good looking but slightly loose on me. The Stella McCartney pants are stretchy, and the corduroy is as soft as a thin layer of silk. The details are amazing and the "Stella" on the pocket just makes them look delicious.

When looking for styling tips, I often refer to Stella McCartney's runway pictures for inspiration. Stella herself showed up on the runway with a chunky knit sweater and the drain pipes look gorgeous on her. When the pants are this tight, a loose top will balance out. At the same time, make sure the top is long enough to cover the middle part. Very long top will cover the entire bum and leave only the legs shown, which create an illusion of super long legs. Lots of models wear ankle length skinny jeans, but I believe that most of the people will look better with pants covering the heels. One exception is to wear a YSL look with ankle length pants and platform shoes. The ankles can be very sexy, and the platform shoes will balance the look and elongate legs.

To summarize the styling tips, let me use a couple of pictures to demonstrate:

Picture #1
Stella McCartney on runway (picture courtesy of http://www.style.com/)
Chucky sweater balances the entire outfit and creates a leggy look. Long pants (with zippers open) cover the heels and it makes the proportion right.

Picture #2
Kate Moss candid picture (Picture courtesy of Getty Imiges)
Skinny jeans tucked in round toe boots. The boots are the Marc Jacobs round toe boots with four inches of heels. It gives her a Rock & Roll look instantly.
Picture #3
Imitation of Christ runway picture (picture courtesy of http://www.style.com/)
High waist skinny jeans elongate the torso. To balance the look, a pair of red stiletto attracts the focus and gives the body a great proportion. Avoid too many embellishments on jeans and keep the silhouette clean.

Runway to Real Way - Balenciaga Spring '06 Collection

2005-11-06T17:41:00.000-05:00

Many of my friends were speculating on the prices and the real life looks of Nicolas Ghesquiere's semi-couture collection showed in Paris a month ago. The collection hit the stores in the past weeks for the trunk shows where consumers were able to place orders in advance. Some of my friends were able to attend the trunk shows, and I also talked to the sales associate at the Balenciaga boutique about the collection specifics.

The more managable pieces in the collection are the T-shirts and pant suits. There are tanks and turtleneck T-shirts shown on the runway, but only the tanks will be in production. The graphic consists of pearl and metal embellishments and the price is $975 each.

The jackets are priced from $2,000 to $4,000 depending on the details. All the jackets are made of a kind of silk fabric called cashemire. Balenciaga purchased the fabric from a French mill for the coming three years so that people will not see the same fabric in any other brands. The jackets are not lined while the immaculate cut provides an extremely structured look. From the chain closure to the laser cut lace overlay, the details are breathtaking.

The pants are sold separately and the price is from $900+ to $1,300 which is inline with the pants in other Balenciaga collections.

The dresses are the most amazing pieces in the collection as Nicolas Ghesquiere used Cristobal Balenciaga’s construction techniques and the light-faded fabrics originally produced in 1960s. The dresses are made by hand, and with almost five digit price tags, we will not see them often in real life. The good news is that Balenciaga also provides two capsule collections including the Balenciaga clothes from the archives called Edition and the less expensive Balenciaga basics such as pant suits. I am sure that Balenciaga fans like me will have plenty of choice this year.

*The new production v.s. the dresses from Balenciaga's archives. Can you tell the difference?

(Picture courtesy of Showstudio.com)

*Kate Moss in Edition (Picture Courtesy of W magazine)

How to find a good tailor?

2005-10-31T18:47:00.000-05:00

You probably recall from the previous article that I bought a Roland Mouret dress from Net-a-porter.com. It was a little big on me, so I had it altered by my tailor Richard. One of my friends said that I was so lucky to find a good tailor, and the dress turned out perfect. The truth is that finding a good tailor is not only about luck.

I tried a couple of tailors including the ones in Louis Boston. The work they did was indeed not satisfying because they didn't understand how my skirt was constructed, nor did I explained. I learned a lesson from that experience: to find a good tailor especially for complex jobs, we have to do our own research and communicate with the tailor very well.

I believe that good tailors are everywhere. We find them by word of the mouth, by citysearch.com, or by the recommendations from the stores where our garments are purchased. Those tailors normally have very good skills which is the key to good alteration.

Most of the designer items are constructed differently from the way the mass-produced clothes are made in order to achieve better fit or express certain design concepts. Unfortunately, most of the jobs taken by the tailors are for mass-produced clothes, so we need to do our homework to find out if the clothes can be tailored and even how. For instance, I looked at the dress closely to find out where the seams were and how it could be taken in. It was not wasting time because some lazy tailors tend to take the easy way out with the sacrifice of the quality. In the case of a skirt, a tailor might just add two darts on the waist to take it in, but chances are, the darts will change the shape of the skirt dramatically. If you want to see a good result, do your homework.

Communication is equally important. Tailors like to know what the customers want. If I tell a tailor I want a skirt to be taken in, the tailor doesn't know how small is too small. By sitting on a chair to try the fit, I am able to tell the tailor the exact fit. Tailors like that because they don't want to risk their work. To make sure the tailor understood the way I wanted the dress to be altered, I showed Richard how the dress was constructed, then I asked him if it made sense to take in from the seam on the center. Richard appreciated what I thought and agreed with me. I also asked him to move the belt higher and added two little strapes inside of the should strap to hold the bra, and he adjusted accordingly. Good communication helped.

Those are my secrets to work with my tailor for the best fit. Of course, the best case is that we never need to have anything tailored and everything fits perfectly. But just incase you want to make the fits perfect, I hope that my tips help a little.

Roland Mouret quits

2005-10-28T20:08:00.000-04:00

Only one week after I purchased my first Roland Mouret dress, the designer quit from his company, and his name.

As a self-taught designer, Roland Mouret is famous for the drapes on garments and by the process he designs clothes. Instead of drawing 2D pictures on paper, Roland designs clothes by hanging fabric on women's bodies and letting the fabric drape. Looking at my own dress closely, I realized that it was made of one piece of cloth with folds and drapes. "It was like in the movies, when you would see a couple in bed after making love, and there would be the woman, with just a sheet wrapped around her." Roland explained his concept in an interview with Telegraph Fashion. It is exactly how I feel wearing the dress. It's quiet yet very sexy.

Roland Mouret received financial support from Sharai Meyers five years ago to produce clothes under his own name. As return, Roland Mouret essentially sold his name to his business partner. Once Roland Mouret quits from the company six months later, as the consequence, he will not be able to design clothes under his own name again. It is an extremely sad situation especially for such a talented designer like Roland Mouret. According to Telegraph Fashion, Roland is currently on sick leave suffering from stress.

One of my friends said that she never realized how tough it was to be a fashion designer. The truth is that it is an extremely competitive industry, and often times, the designers who have true talent have to sacrifice to gain financial support. We saw Jil Sander leave, we saw Helmut Lang leave, and now we saw Roland Mouret leave. All of them are talented designers, yet all of them gave up their own names.

Sharai Meyers made a comment that Roland Mouret was always part of a team, and she hoped that the team could continue. Does it work? Will the team able to develop the designer's ideas after the designer departs?

Roland answered, "I was the only designer. If there's something I'm proud of, it's my technique. I do not sketch on paper or think in 2D, I drape on the body, and I evolved that in the studio with technical people, who then made the patterns. Yes, they own the patterns. They can make re-editions. But I do not believe that when women are spending £800-£1,000 on a dress, that they want to buy a copy - of the past." Mrs. Meyers apparently forgot the difference between a designer and a technician.

Feeling very sad about Roland's departure, here I am sharing my favorite Roland Mouret designs with you. I went through all his past collections on style.com, and it was quite a journey to look at how Roland evolved over the past five years. I am sure that Roland Mouret will continue, and no matter where he goes, I will follow.

********************

FW '00

SS '01

FW '01

SS '02

FW '02

SS '03

FW '03

SS '04

FW '04

SS '05

FW '05

SS '06

The year of dresses

2005-10-25T21:17:00.000-04:00

I have never been into dresses as I am right now. The spring 2006 runway show offered more dress options than ever. After looking at most of the collections, the strongest impression in my mind is the dresses. With my wedding ceremony on the way, I also get more excuses to purchase nice dresses for events like my bridal shower and the rehearsal dinner.

The first dress I purchased this year is a Marc by Marc Jacobs bubble dress. I like the volume and the rose print, and I was lucky to secure the last piece available in the boutique.

Roland Mouret is a designer whom I always respect very much. He was famous for the draping looks and the couturish details on the garments. I recently purchased a cotton tweed dress from his spring '05 collection that I was not able to secure from the past Louis Boston sale. In fact, I ran to the rest room in my office to try it on right after I received it, and I loved every single stitch of it. The signature collar is so elegant with just the right opening to show off my collar bone. The open back revealed a little skin yet a wide band on the back hides the bra inside. (What a caring detail!) A self belt also defines the curves. I spend ten minutes to study how it was made. It was indeed very simple: the only seam on the dress was on the center of the back, and the only thing the tailor needs to do is to adjust the back seam if any alteration is needed. Brilliant.

Enjoying my new dress, I am thinking ahead for the coming year. To freshen up my look, I will be wearing more dresses for work, for the dinners out, for the weekend shopping spree, and for my bachelorette party. I've picked a couple of dresses from the resort collections as well as the spring runway shows. I will share with you as I believe that year 2006 is the year of dresses.

This Hussein Chalayan dress is a cute yet unique day dress. Nude and sand tone colors are going to be very popular in the coming spring. A little details will definitely make you stand out.

This Louis Vuitton dress is from the resort collection. It reminds me the sea, the spring air, and the beach. Effortless chic.

A perfect dress to carry you from day to night. Alberta Ferretti

If you happen to have a tiny waist, this dress will make you look ultra feminine. I love how the fabric reflects the light. Lanvin by Alber Elbaz

I won't be surprised if the following dresses show on one of the red carpet events. Rochas

The blues are just magical. Roland Mouret

*Picture courtesy of Style.com

Here comes my new coat

2005-10-22T22:53:00.000-04:00

As you could tell from the last article, I was quite frustrated by my coat-searching this winter. When I was wandering in Louis Boston on this rainy Saturday, surprisingly, I found my new coat.

First of all, I was totally impressed by Louis Boston's winter collection this year. The buyer seemed to be more aggressive to me as collections by new designers such as Doo. Ri and Bon & Ging were featured on floor. I also found a couple of coats in my size, which rarely happened to me. As my last effort to find a new coat, I tried on a Bon & Ging coat, three Balenciaga coats, a Roland Mouret coat, and a Doo. Ri coat.

The Bon & Ging coat was loose on me and the material seemed limp. As much as I respect the new design duo, the quality of the coat does not justify the $1,000 + price tag.

While the entire Balenciaga coat collection is breathtaking, only a few people are able to pull it off. The problem for all the military style coats is that they are all boxy. The boxy shape looked cool on runway, but it totally covers the curves women are proud of.

The details on the Roland Mouret coat give it a distinctive couture look. An extra piece on the back drapes from the collar and elongates the entire silhouette. The smallest size available was a British size 8 (American size 2), but the shoulders were too wide on me; the draped piece was also so heavy that it pulled me down. Although that coat was not suitable for me, I highly recommend it to anybody who is above 5'10" because of the tailored body and the fine material.

Compared with all the above coats, the Doo. Ri coat got everything right. The size 2 is true to size, the belt defines my waist, the pure wool material is tightly knitted, and the signature Doo. Ri cape provides extra dimension to the coat and keeps me warm. The sleeves were a little long on me, but Louis Boston offers free tailoring service. The retail price is $1,125, which is quite reasonable for such a nicely made coat. At the moment when I almost gave up my coat search, here came my perfect coat.

The opportunity cost of waiting

2005-10-18T16:05:00.000-04:00

There was an article in the weekend Wall Street Journal, Escaping the Fashion Trap. The author suggested, "hold off on shopping at the beginning of a season". According to the author, waiting will improve consumers' odds of buying something that will have staying power and waiting can also help consumers to take advantage of the sales and pay less. She stated, "items sold out in boutiques can often still be found online".

My experience was completely the opposite, however. If you follow my blog, you might have read the article THE sale is only two months away. Let me give you an early update on my shopping luck.

The Yohji Yamamoto coat. I went to NYC in the past weekend and I tried the coat on at Barney's New York. It was gorgeous but I decided to wait for the sale. Waiting will save me $1,000. Two days later, however, I was informed that the coat was sold.

I also tried the same coat in the Yohji Yamamoto boutique. For some reason, that coat was bigger than the coat I tried on at Barney’s although both were size 1. I received a phone call today that the tailor was not able to adjust the shoulders due to the complicated construction of the coat. Therefore, I will have to pass because I don't want to pay for $3,000 buying a coat that doesn't fit.

I called a couple of stores. Alan Bilzerian in Boston also sells the same coat, but it was gone months ago and Bergdorf Goodman doesn't carry this specific coat. I am screwed.

I was also fond of the Balenciaga military coats. By the time I visited NYC, all the size 36 coats were sold. Louis Boston didn't even buy size 36. Those designer clothes are rarely available online.

I am paying the price of waiting. I have been dreaming about my statement coat for months and I've got nothing.

Anther important item in my wish list is a Lanvin skirt. First of all, Lanvin has very exclusive distribution; secondly, stores rarely purchase small sizes for somebody like me. The Lanvin racks at Barneys was almost empty when I visited.

I'm not sure if I am able to find the Marc Jacobs short jacket with Peter Pan collar when the sale starts. Frustrated by my shopping luck, I don't even care about that jacket any longer.

I also ordered a top from Chanel. A month has past, and I received nothing. The boutique needed to order the top from the Paris headquarter but the production and shipping have been delayed due to European vacations. I should have ordered it in the trunk show back in May.

If I am lucky, I will be able to find my Ann Demeulemeester clothes, Balenciaga slim pants, and something from Roland Mouret. However, my major acquisition goal is not achieved.

Not being able to purchase your dream clothes is the opportunity cost of waiting. The WSJ author might have a point of waiting for the sale, but for the hot items, you have to place the order right after the runway show. We need to have either sharp eyes to identify the hot items or a sufficient shopping budget to purchase clothes early in the season. I've decided to change my shopping strategy and place my order in trunk shows for the spring '06 season. Considering the opportunity cost of waiting, it is worth it to pay the full price for my dream items.

Paris Fashion Show (Finale)

2005-10-11T18:38:00.000-04:00

Are the last the best?

Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche
Lanvin
Louis Vuitton

Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche

Stefano Pilati just offered us another perfect show. The waist was accentuated again by wide woven belts and the waistline remained high. Ruffles and pompoms embellished the clothes and the details were breathtaking. The only problem to me was that they were not very wearable to people like you and me. Who can take that much ruffles during daytime? At the same time, if you are looking for outfits to make you shine in parties, YSL gives you plenty of choice.

Lanvin

Designer Alber Elbaz’s creation was inspired by the “perfect” Geisha. The shoulders were sharper and the neckties added mannish feeling. The collection somewhat reminded me YSL. Suzy Menkes used the word “hard-edged” to describe some of the clothes. However, Geisha means stiff instead of “heard-edged” to me, and this show gave me the stiff feeling instead. I wish that Alber made more womanly and beautiful dresses in this collection.

Louis Vuitton
Marc Jacobs turned to a completely different direction after his successful FW05 Louis Vuitton show. The clothes are mostly loud and young. Beautiful pieces are here and there, but some of the outfits and bags are too tacky. I am curious to see if they will make any adjustments to the collection before the clothes hit the store. After all, the Vuitton women are elegant and looking for perfection.

Paris Fashion Show (Part V)

2005-10-09T17:33:00.000-04:00

Chanel
Alexander McQueen
Hermes
John Galliano

Chanel
Karl Lagerfeld is an extremely smart designer and businessman. He has managed to reinvent the traditional Chanel look without losing the Chanel root, and as a result, Chanel has attracted more young clientele than people could imagine yet maintained its classic image.

Karl Lagerfeld introduced denim with tweed trims shown with traditional tweed jackets and jackets with bold colors such as red and purple. In my opinion, though, the classic black, white, and gray combination is still the best in the show. Karl especially designed an outfit with prints inspired by the steel work in the Grand Palais. It was also said that Karl gave out books about de Grand Palais to all the attendees of the show. To me, it is a brilliant idea to tie the classic Chanel with such classic architecture.

Hermes
Jean Paul Gaultier had a great season. He showed fresh yet classic clothes for the Hermes collection and he integrated the Jean Paul Gaultier details with Hermes’s accessories and signature orange well. Outfits were shown with the Kelly bags coming with different sizes and colors, mostly yellow and orange. Kelly style belts are also used in numerous outfits to accentuate the waist line. Lots of people have doubts about red, burgundy, and orange, but the combination just looked stunning in the Hermes show. After years of the Birkin hype, here comes the Kelly era.

John Galliano

John Galliano’s fashion belongs to ordinary people. Instead of sending an army of skinny models, John Galliano showed us from the midgets to the overweight and from the happy to the depressed that we see in our daily life. His fashion shined because of his concerns and the emotion brought by the figures in his clothes.

Alexander McQueen
That show was the biggest disappointment in the entire Paris Fashion Week. After the past outstanding collections, Mr. McQueen showed so many tacky short dresses and too much sexuality on stage. We can easily tell how hard he is trying to make his brand profitable. Unfortunately, Alexander McQueen is no Tom Ford, and he was running against what he was good at.

Paris Fashion Show (Part IV)

2005-10-07T17:12:00.000-04:00

Ann Demeulemeester
Hussein Chalayan
Stella McCartney

1.Ann Demeulemeester

Honestly speaking, I didn't follow Ann's work until my friend Faust talked about her (a lot). Ann doesn't design cookie cutter fashion and she has her own thoughts. She thinks that people should make clothes with the movement in mind. It's somewhat like Yohji's thought that the asymmetric clothes will look different once people wear them and put things in the pockets and it's a way to carry/express your personality. Both of them are so dynamic.

Ann rarely makes colorful clothes, but the first outfit is my favorite. Just look at how the clothes flows with body and how the material drapes. It's quiet yet beautiful. I recommend watching the video if it is available. I believe that the clothes look different when they move.

2. Hussein Chalayan
Another "new" designer to me. (what a shame!) The cut is superior yet the clothes are cut differently. Often times, the inner layer is figure snugging but the outter layer adds curves. The day wears are classic with a modern twist. The evening dresses could be experimental and crazy. Remember disco parties? Here you go.

3. Stella McCartney
She is definitely more mature as a designer. The clothes are more understated yet beautiful. Her normal sharp pant suits are more breezy in this season, and she offers little dresses for day. There are watercolor shades of gowns shown at the end of the show and I am sure that they will be extremely popular among the Hollywood stars.

Paris Fashion Show (Part III)

2005-10-06T22:12:00.000-04:00

I will not be sleeping well if I do not share those pictures tonight. Those are from my favorite show Balenciaga.

Nicolas Ghesquiere delivered the most powerful collection since he started working for Balenciaga. He combined the Balenciaga classic clean and sharp lines with massive amount of hand work to produce couture level fashion on the ready-to-wear show. The show started with rather safe egg shape dresses (one of Balenciaga's classic shapes) followed by more and more complicated clothes covered by embellishment. The jackets and pants are sharp as usual, while the details made me speechless. My favorite pieces are the black Tshirt with beads and the blue color pant suit. Few people might be able to pull off the entire "baroque rock star" look, but one item or two will upgrade your spring look instantly.

Pick up your phone, and call the boutique now. Trust me, those clothes are going to be in fashion history books.

Paris Fashion Show (Part II)

2005-10-06T21:53:00.000-04:00

A tiny little more disappointments and then let's move on to look at all the good stuff.

Viktor & Rolf seemed losing all of their good ideas. Consistant with their new store design, everything in the show was backwards: the decorations were upside down, the designers greeted first, and the evening gowns were shown first. Besides that, I didn't see anything interesting there. They probably tried to hard to be avant-guard.

The Rochas show gained absolutely positive feedback from the editors, but I don't like it. The designer continued the elongated shapes from the FW'05 colleciton, but the skirts looked too long for spring and summer. To me, spring and summer are about short skirts and breezy outfits. The Rochas girls are too covered up. The good news is that the designer offered pants. The shapes are beautiful.

The following pictures are from Rochas. Picture courtesy of Style.com

Paris Fashion Show (Part I)

2005-10-06T21:32:00.000-04:00

I would have been depressed hadn't there been a Paris Fashion Show. I knew the best are here, and they just raised the bar of "good fashion".

I guarantee you that there are shows you just hate, not because of the quality of the design or the style, but because of the concept that you never get. I am a huge fan of Yohji Yamamoto's FW05 show, but the SS06 show disappointed me. I didn't get the whole camouflage theme. Some said that he had war in mind, but I thought that a master like him would not use such physical language. The good news is that everything else are standard Yohji style, and that made me feel better. Later, when Rei and Junya showed their latest design, I realized that Yohji was the best performer among the Japanese designers in Paris Fashion Show. To me, the Japanese designers are avant-guard and experimental, but they seem to have the same ideas over and over again without further developing them. They normally look "different", which is a good thing, but I wonder how many people on earth will be able to wear them. Fancy design without functioning. That is what I hate.

The following pictures are from the Yohji Yamamoto show. Picture courtesy of Style.com

A story of a pair of Balenciaga pants

2005-10-04T18:18:00.000-04:00

A pair of Balenciaga pants moved in Louis Boston in Feb. 05 as part of the spring/summer '05 collection. It was a pair of military green tapered skinny pants. The cut was not very forgiving and the $525 price pissed off a lot of buyers.

It was July, and the store put the pants along with other items on sale. It was 50% off the retail price, but there was no lady who loved them enough to hand over her credit card for them. The pants were sad.

A month later, the unfortunate pants were sent to Filene's Basement in Boston to give it the last try. A girl tried them on and they were not bad. However, she didn't want to pay $200 for a pair of cotton pants. Besides, she never wore green. She left, with the pants haunting her in her dreams for a couple of nights, and the pants missed her as well.

Time passed by. It turned to October. The girl hoped to get the pants to wear with her new tops for the fall. "That green should work with the gray scheme," thought the girl, entering Filene’s Basement. Going through racks of clothes coming from different department stores, the pants and the girl met again. The pants hugged the girls legs and didn't let her go. The girl handed over her credit card but she was informed that the pants stayed in the Basement for too long to be sold. Big disappointment!

But instead, the sales associate went on that the pants would be considered a "charitable donation". The girl never experienced this before, and she was excited but didn't know what to do. The pants were so anxious and worried. Guided by the sweet sales lady, the girl eventually wrote a fifty-dollar check to the American Cancer Society, and the pants went home with her.

That lucky girl happens to be me, and I am so happy with my pants and my donation.

Finding my ultimate Chanel outfit (Part 2)

2005-10-03T08:20:00.000-04:00

My stylist Sarah greeted me right after I entered the store. Sarah was about thirty years old with a cute black and white outfit highlighted by a pair of green flats. The outfit was flawless. I told S that I was trying to avoid the "cute" outfits because of my baby face. We agreed on a "no bow" policy, and the game started. I put on her favorite black tweed jacket with angora, wool, and chiffon. It was meant to be worn without the buttons closed although it was indeed a double breasted style. It draped nicely on my body and the double breast design looked a thousand times better than a single breast style would have achieved. The only problem is that the jacket looked a little boxy on me. While I was puzzled by the sizing, store manager Barbara explained that the size was cut a little bigger this winter.

Barbara was a very sweet lady without any attitude that you might see in Neiman Marcus or Saks Fifth Avenue. She had a great sense of style and she taught me so much knowledge about Chanel. More importantly, she never pushes people to purchase the more expensive items. I was hesitating between a lined classic Chanel tweed jacket and the more youthful cardigan jacket, and she recommended the latter one which turned out to be a jacket that I would like to wear in the years to come.

Dressed perfectly for the event, Barbara was in a gray/silver jacket, a silk gray/black layered tulle top, a pair of dark gray cropped pants, and a sparkling cross crystal necklace. "You should try this top, Jing!" Barbara recommended her baby doll top. I put it on, and I loved it. The cut was small and it would be perfect worn under any jackets. I could wear it with a suit jacket for work and be party ready just by taking off the jacket or opening the buttons. The only problem was that the tulle feels extremely delicate, and the four-digit price was intimidating. I would have a heart attack if I broke a single thread of it.

My most wanted Chanel number in this season was a turtleneck with gray/black stripes and a flower pin. Other items in my wish list include a gray/black A-line skirt, and a short sleeve jacket to wear with the turtleneck. The event was a perfect opportunity to pull the entire outfit together without being pushed to make purchase. With Sarah and Barbara's help, I got all the items I want and started the experiment. Different from what I imagined, the turtleneck had super long sleeves and I needed to pull it all up to my arms to create that slouchy look shown on runway. That process reminded me of wearing my dad's sweater when I was a little kid. Years later, I was doing exactly the same thing but in a Chanel fitting room. I smiled to myself in the mirror, and checked out the outfit: the turtleneck was almost perfect but a size or two too big, the skirt fit perfectly, and they were the perfect match. After adding on the short sleeve jacket, I was ready for the winter. I felt like accessorizing the turtleneck with necklace, but I was never good at pulling off jewelry. I needed professional guidance.

Sarah brought me a pearl necklace and a pearl belt. I always adored them but never got one because I was a little afraid of pearls. Pearls are hard to pull off because they could make you look old or even ridiculous if you didn't wear them with the right outfit or they were not the right length. I wouldn't believe how well the pearls would go with the turtleneck until Sarah put it on. The magical Chanel details on the pearls gave it a totally different look and the necklace became the highlight of the outfit instantly. "Let's layer it." Said Barbara. She made the belt a funky black and white pearl necklace. For the first time, the pearls didn't add any weird "old lady" look on me but added just enough edge to the outfit.

We kept adding things on. Boots, bags, and even more jewelry. Once I was under layers of Chanel like the models on the runway show, I realized that we over did it. We cut it back and I returned to my black sling backs. Carrying my slouchy Balenciaga Bordeaux bag to add a little color, it became my ultimate Chanel outfit.

Finding my ultimate Chanel outfit (Part 1)

2005-10-02T11:13:00.000-04:00

Within thirty minutes, my world changed completely from never-ending spreadsheets and deals to ultimate glamour and joy.

Here I am. Greeted by the doorman at the Chanel boutique, I entered with the most elegant steps that I could manage. It was a Chanel-Elle event that provided Chanel customers with the latest trend and style consultation. Although I remembered every single outfit shown in the trunk show, I had never worked with a stylist before. I wanted to push my limit, experiment with the countless possibilities, and find my ultimate Chanel outfit.

I did my homework before the event. I browsed the runway pictures again to memorize the items that I would like to try on. Then I started thinking of my outfit for the event. I was planning to wear my black and white Chanel cardigan jacket (my only Chanel jacket) to the event paired with a Benetton black chiffon A-line skirt and a pair of Prada stretchy boots. When I put on the entire outfit on Thursday morning, however, I realized that I couldn't go to work with my "party" outfit. I was so frustrated and I wished the event were on the weekend.

Luckily I had a plan B and I budgeted extra time in the morning: I switched to a white Prada stretchy shirt and a Prada print pencil skirt from a couple of seasons back. A pair of black Bruno Magli black sling backs completed the hourglass look.

My hard work in front of the mirror paid off. I blended in the office despite a few compliments from the girls. More importantly, my grand entrance was wowed in the boutique. A customer even touched my skirt because she thought that it was cut out instead of prints. Great job Miuccia!

Versace is back!!

2005-10-01T10:47:00.000-04:00

I felt bad for Donatella and the house of Versace when Saturday Night Live made jokes about her in one of the shows in the past season. I seriously thought that Versace was going down, and soon they will be gone.
I was wrong. I didn't even think about checking out their latest show until somebody posted the pictures on the Fashion Spot. I was shocked. Versace is back! It was a powerful show. Very Italian, and very Versace. Donatella kept the classic Versace shapes yet used more sand tone colors and a watercolor palette. The show started with day dresses and skinny pants:

I liked how she used navy in the two dresses and the contrast in the fabric of the second dress:

The following navy dress is my favorite. The shape is classic yet the twist at the hem makes the dress less restrained. I also like how she used the earth tone colors in Gemma's dress. How flattering are the shoulders and the legs !
The evening gowns come. Looks at how the dresses flow with the body. The watercolor palette just reminds me of water, sky, trees, and flowers.
The beautiful blue and the golden divas!
Do you see the "red carpet" dresses here?
Look at how the dress moves when the model turned:
Versace knows what stage is the best for her design. Four models strolling down the T-stage with the reflection on the floor. Think about the rhythm. Can anybody get more powerful than that?
This is my last picture for the show. Welcome back Versace!

Pictures courtesy of style.com and Gettyimages.

Milan Fashion Week - Review Part I

2005-09-28T18:40:00.000-04:00

I'm going to write the comments after the pictures. In that way you can make your own judgment before getting influenced.

Alberta Ferretti

Alberta Ferretti deserves a couple of large pictures. With lots of satin and chiffon, Alberta Ferretti is the ultimate place to go for lovely yet sophisticated dresses. The colors are mostly quiet, but the details just look amazing.

Marni

We can always count on Marni to wear vibrant outfits in the summer. In this season, Marni used highly saturated blue and lemon colors. The accesorries are still very Marnish and girls just love them. There is nothing new in this collection, but it is well made and it makes you look forward to the hot summer.

Prada

I know what you are going to ask. What's the point of dragging the luggage on the runway? "I wanted to go forward by trying to cancel out nostalgia. By canceling out the body," said Miuccia Prada. Does carrying luggage mean leaving for the future? The whole point of nice clothes is to enhance the body not to cancel out the body. Hello! The only legitimate reason of carrying bags in that way is to train the triceps instead of the biceps or the bags are too heavy. Is that what you are trying to do, Miuccia?

I have to admit that there are a few nice pieces though. The outfits shown in the second group remind me Prada's FW '04 collection. That collection is my favorite Prada collection so far, and I am glad that she is making more of the gorgeous skirts. (Although some might argue that she lost the creativity.)

How do you like those collections?

When High Fashion Starts Making Goods Overseas

2005-09-27T19:31:00.000-04:00

There was an article in the WSJ about how the European luxury-goods firms have started making products in developing countries such as China. The author talked about how significant it was for the companies to reduce the cost amid the rising Euro and the price resistance outside of the Euro zone, and how consumers react to the "Made in Egypt" Valentino suits. After reading the article, I can't help but asking two questions:

How sensitive are the consumers to the tags?
Will and should the European luxury-goods companies reduce their price?

The first question is straightforward and personal. As long as it is well-designed and well-made, I don't care where it was from.

The second question is not that easy to answer, however. Let's look at Furla, the example used in the WSJ article. Furla cut costs by 30% after moving production to China, which means their profit margin goes up by slightly less than 30% assuming other things remain. Did Furla cut their price by 30%? No they didn't. Instead, they increased the price due to the appreciating Euros. You filthy greedy bastards! Some said.

Where does the money go? To better marketing, (hopefully) better design, to the banks that financed the companies, and eventually to the bottom line of their books. Why don’t they reduce the price? Why should they? A $6,000 Kelly bag will no longer be special if it’s only $1,000. Those companies are smart. The luxury-good market is so price inelastic that the demand will not decrease much when the price increases. Plus, the luxury goods will no longer be called “luxury” goods once the price is moderate.

In short, assuming that the companies are good at quality control and they are willing to teach the Chinese seamstress the best technique in clothes making, the profit margin will be increased significantly yet the quality remains. At the same time, the last thing the luxury-goods makers would like to do is to reduce the price. Therefore, the following things will happen:

The profit margin of the company will be higher.
There will be more Dolce & Gabbanas and Ferragamos entering the market due to the lucrative business and the rising demand in the developing countries.
The European seamstress will lose their jobs. The EU is trying to protect their economy but it's doomed to happen as it did in North Carolina's fabric industry. The Chinese seamstress will lose the jobs some day as well once there are even cheaper labors to use.
The consumers keep paying the high price.

As the price stays high, my only hope is that companies such as Prada goes to IPO soon so that I can benefit from the lower cost by becoming a shareholder.

Our evolving personal styles

2005-09-25T19:57:00.000-04:00

My friend S wrote me an email about her style change over the years: she has been more drawn to simple looks and she can no longer take much pinks and pastels. It's funny how the designers have returned to minimalism at the same time, and so my lucky friend S is right at the front of the new trend. Is it just a coincidence? What exactly causes our personal styles to evolve over time?

I rarely wore any colors but black when I was in college studying architecture design. Black is cool, sophisticated, and more durable in a studio full of glue, knives, and water colors. My years in graduate school were the low point of my style: when I had only four to six hours of sleep every day, jeans and t-shirts were the only outfit I could think of.

I, like every other twenty something girl, faced a personal style crisis once I started working: I panicked and I filled my closet with Banana Republic and J. Crew. Looking exactly like everybody else riding the subway, I was bored of the preppy style soon after I gained better knowledge about fashion. Armed with all the major fashion magazines, I started my fashion adventure. I mixed Marc by Marc Jacobs with my pretty outfits to introduce a little twist in my working outfits, and I also wore some pinks and pastels occasionally influenced by the ladylike outfits shown on the runway. I found myself shopping for better made clothes to match with my J Crew basics recently, and I shop all over the places from H&M to Chanel and from Ann Demeulemeester to Hermes. My personal style is now highly mixed with cheap and expensive, avant-guard and classic. My outfits are also so moody that people see a rebellious Jing today and a lady like Jing tomorrow. For me, fashion is emotional and fashion expresses my feelings; the designers, at the same time, bring me new tools season after season.

Some designers express their social concerns with their clothes, and others look forward trying to provide new looks. Designers don't necessarily control our personal styles but provide choices for us to make the outfits "us". Designers set the trends in certain degree yet it is us who decide what to wear and how to wear them. At the end of the day, no matter if we are trend followers, classic chics, or the moody dressers, we all need designers to provide us with new elements to assemble our looks. Our personal styles then constantly evolve with the trends, with our life changes, and with our knowledge on fashion.

I can't help but wonder how my beloved readers' styles have been evolving. Let me know and leave your comments.

THE sale is only two months away

2005-09-23T15:45:00.000-04:00

In this winter, I have to face the fact that fashion prices have gone way up and I cannot afford designer pieces at full price. I have to shop strategically.

In fact, I don't plan to make any major purchases before the sale starts. It doesn't mean, however, I stop shopping. I go to stores to complete my "wish list", and I will wait until the price is reduced. At the same time, my dear sales associates have to wait for a little longer to receive their commission. (Sorry!)

I have been shopping for a coat for a while. A coat is my most important purchase for the winter, and it has to be gorgeous. I mean really gorgeous. I tried on a fitted A-line coat at the Louis Vuitton store, and I instantly fell in love with it. But no thanks. I have a mortgage to pay and I want to live decent life after I retire. Louis Vuitton never has price reductions, so the coat will be just living in my dream.

Half of the Yohji Yamamoto Fall '05 runway show was filled with coats. With Yohjiss architectural approach to clothing making, it is almost the best bet to find THE coat. I called the boutique and Megumi, a sweet Japanese sales girl, offered me a service called "on approval". She will send me a couple of coats by overnight mail, and I then I'll simply keep the one I want and return the ones I pass. It is a very considerate service for the people who do not live in New York, and the $35 shipping fee is less than the tax on any of the coats. I was so tempted to buy one of the coats from the collection, but $3,000 is a lot of money, and I will hate myself if the one still exists when the sale starts. After all, the sale is only two months away.

With so much hope on the sale, I listed the following major items in my wish list ordered by priority:

THE coat from one of the coolest designers such as Yohji Yamamoto, Alexander McQueen, Roland Mouret, and Rick Owens.
Anything from Ann Demeulemeester (my friend Faust has made me addicted to her clothes. They are just so me)
One of the Marc Jacobs short jackets with a Peter Pan collar
Slim pants from Balenciaga
Anything from Roland Mouret
A dress or skirt from Lanvin
A skirt or something lovely from Chanel

Let's see how my strategy works out, and we'll revisit my list in December.

People news

2005-09-23T15:29:00.000-04:00

People news:
My boyfriend, Rob, and I got engaged last Friday. Rob has been very supportive on my fashion addiction and he takes care of all the technical issues for this webpage. If you want to know more about Rob, please visit his website http://www.robharrington.com/.
I apologize for not being able to announce our engagement earlier but we both have drunk lots of wine since then and the hang over is quite long:-)

Form follows function?

2005-09-20T19:34:00.000-04:00

I saw a pair of COMME DES GARCONS boots on www.yoox.com with a price tag of $129. The boots looked uber cool and the last pair was just my size. I ordered it right away after my friend Faust told me that it was a "collectors' item".

The bad news is that they don't fit. To be accurate, the leather and the "decorations" are so stiff that I can't walk in them in my natural way and the top of the toe box hurts me every time I bend my feet. No matter how cool the boots are, I will not be able to wear them and show people the look. I am sure that there are other customers who purchased the boots and wore them, but I can't help wondering if and how they could wear the boots without suffering and if the "form follows function" rule ever applies to fashion.

A good example of the "form follows function" is my Burberry trench coat. From the belt to the protected pockets, every single detail is designed to prevent water from leaking in. I was caught in a thunder storm on a summer day a couple of months ago and I managed to keep my entire outfit dry, thanks to my Burberry trench coat.

Another good example is the crooked heel design shown on some of the designer shoes. I tried a pair of Louis Vuitton heels on the other day and they are extremely comfortable despite the 3.5" heel. Why? The crooked heels indeed support my heel from a perpendicular direction which is the most efficient angle from a physics perspective.

Don't make any conclusions yet. As I received a Jean Paul Gaultier cardigan from my beloved www.yoox.com today, I found that I need to think about that rule a little more. I ordered that cardigan because it looks different. I couldn't tell exactly what it was from the pictures online, but I decided to give it a try because the shipping was free. It came in, and I was in shock.

It is in fact a plain gray cardigan attached with a plain gray short-sleeve crewneck back to back. Yes, I can wear either side yet I have to wear both sweaters together no matter which side I choose. It's an interesting concept, and it is very architectural. The form doesn't really follow the function, but I am going to keep it because I will wear it. I like how Jean Paul Gaultier played with a simple but naughty idea. Therefore, when it comes to fashion, form doesn't have to follow function. However, if the definition of function is simply "wearability", then the rule still applies. In my case, the Jean Paul Gaultier cardigan stays and the COMME DES GARÇONS boots have to go.

What suits you?

2005-09-18T14:38:00.000-04:00

I received lots of requests to write an article about suits. It is recruiting season again, so I will talk about interview suits specifically in the article.

You need to look "put together" in an interview, so forget about the idea of wearing a black jacket and a pair of navy pants. The suit has to be one set with the same style and same material. There are so many kinds of black and different material shows different grades of black, therefore, going to one vendor and buying the same batch of suits will save you time to match the colors.

A good suit has to satisfy the following requirements:

1. General rules

Choose conservative colors such as navy or black. Black is my favorite as it looks sophisticated and the separates are easy to match. You should avoid wearing light color suits to interviews. Light weight wool or wool blend is the most versatile material. Polyester and Lycra are normally used with wool to help the suit stay in shape and fit you better. Check for wrinkling before you make the purchase: clutch a handful of the material from the sleeves or pants and release it. There shouldn't be any wrinkles left.

2. Suit jacket

The shoulders must be structured but not over-padded. There shouldn't be much room left in the shoulders when you wear a button down shirt underneath.
The armholes should be the right size for your arms. They shouldn't be too baggy or too tight. Raise your hands to see if the back gives you sufficient room to move freely and stay comfortable.
The hem normally falls to the bottom of the hips. The jacket of a pant suit is normally longer than the jacket of a skirt suit, but make sure the jacket is not too long to look overwhelming on you.
The sleeves should fall at the base of your thumbs.
There should be some room left at the hips and waist so that the jacket will remain smooth when you sit down.

3. Suit pants

Fit. The pants shouldn't be too baggy or too tight. It's normally too tight at the hips if you see crease around that area. Check your rear and you shouldn’t see extra material hanging under hips. Sit down and make sure you feel comfortable.
Length. The hem should cover most of the heels without touching the floor.
Details. The lining of the pockets should be seamed smoothly. The tailor can take out the side pockets for you if you need extra room there and the hips will look smoother after the pockets are removed.

4. Suit skirt

Fit. Fit through hips but not too tight. Avoid a "sexy" look.
Shape. Straight skirts look more professional than an A line skirt.
Length. The hem should fall to the knee or slightly below the knee.

J Crew is a popular store to buy suits. Their "Super 110" suits are of good quality and conservative enough to pass any dress code test in an investment bank. I also heard very nice feedback on their Gabardine pants. Their sizing is a little awkward to me as the size 0 pants are too baggy and the petite 0 pants are too short.

Theory makes great suits and their cut is better than J Crew suits, but they are way more expensive. Theory's sizing is smart. They provide size 00 with slimmer cut and the same length as other pants. In that way the petite girls can find pants that fit by simply having pants shortened and customers like me can still be satisfied.

After making a phone call to the Theory store located in the Premium Outlet in Wrentham, I knew it would be worth a trip. The store in the Outlet was well organized. There was a suit section with different styles of suits but made of the same material of 60% of wool and 40% of polyester. They provide all sizes including size 00. I picked four styles of pants, two skirts, and three jackets to try on and ended up getting one jacket, one skirt, and one pair of pants. The skirt and the pants fit me perfectly, and the jacket needs to be tailored slightly: the waist and the back need to be taken in a little. The total bill comes to $461.

J Crew: http://www.jcrew.com/
Jackets $228
Pants $118
Skirts $88

Theory: http://www.saks.com/ and http://www.neimanmarcus.com/
Jackets $360
Pants $230
Skirts about $200

Theory outlets: http://www.premiumoutlets.com/centers/index.asp
Jackets $216
Pants $138
Skirts $105

My favorite looks from NY Fashion Week

2005-09-14T20:35:00.000-04:00

While the designers in the "thumbs up" article surprised me by their talent, the following pictures are from my favorite collections and those designers consistently impress me from season to season. (Pictures courtesy of Style.com)

Roland Mouret.
His beautiful cut makes me speechless. The bright orange, pink, blue, and gray helped Mr. Mouret transition from winter to summer smoothly with his consistent hourglass shape. Aren't they divine?

Marc by Marc Jacobs.
Playful as usual.

Marc Jacobs

An extremely wearable collection. I am amazed by the details and I am looking forward to his Louis Vuitton RTW collection.

American Marc Jacobs

2005-09-13T08:34:00.000-04:00

I felt nervous since yesterday before the Marc Jacobs’ show. He surprised me in the FW05 runway, and I wonder what I will get for the new season. As a loyal Marc Jacobs customer, I will defend him no matter what he does. At the same time, I was begging in my mind for no more bright colors in the show and don’t make it too dark.

I visited Marc Jacobs website for the video right after I got up this morning. His show is always integrated with his music, and this time, a marching band and Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit".

Nirvana is not surprising to me, but a marching band? Brilliant! The spring collection surprised me as the marching band did. Young, energetic, yet sophisticated.

I see lots of details and shapes that he has been experimenting over the years, but they came with a fresh look. There are pea jackets and pleated skirts, high-waist skirts with white shirts, laidback bows, and his signature cashmere. He didn’t play volume on skirts but he did volumize the trousers and shorts. He brought the lace from winter to summer but came with chiffon instead of cashmere. The shapes are American with a Marc Jacobs twist.

Some of my friends commented that an outfit or two looked like Lanvin. I am not arguing with them, but please look at the back of the dresses and look closely when the trunk show begins to feel the pieces, and I guarantee you they look different. Everytime when I go to the Marc Jacobs trunk show, I am surprised by the details and the cut.

I am not posting any pictures here because you have to look at the complete show. Please go to http://www.marcjacobs.com/ to look at the video and pay extra attention to the back of the clothes as you will not see them in runway pictures. There are detail shots for the Marc Jacobs shoe and bag lovers on style.com as well. Have a good time, and enjoy the American Marc Jacobs.

Quality control in NY Fashion Week?

2005-09-12T19:38:00.000-04:00

My first reaction after looking at the latest runway pictures is "so commercial". Let's face it, a fashion show is not a trade show, and when you make the fashion show that commercial, there will be a problem. I was excited for the new designers before the show, but I feel bad for them now: it seems to me that lots of their ideas are not fully expressed. I can even feel the designers compromising to the market as I did in my architecture design (I could no longer take it so I finally quit. I was not good at it). I was expecting creativity and some fresh ideas, but I didn't even see any "must have" pieces from the shows so far.

I also saw some walmart looking pieces shown on runway...is it necessary? Why don't those brands just save the money and print some nice catalogues instead? I would rather see less designers in the Fashion Week with more creative ideas.

With that being said, there are still some lovely shows that made my day, and the following pictures will show you some of the nice pieces and disappointment.
Pictures are from http://www.elle.com/ and www.style.com

Thumbs up:
Brian Reyes. Clean and beautiful.

Costello Tagliapietra. Beautiful draping.

Doo Ri. She made my day. The collection is consistant and beautiful. Great details.

Diane Von Furstenberg. Beautiful and wearable clothes. Apparently she is giving her wrap dress a new look.

Nicole Miller. I love how she used blue and gold colors. She might be a little late on the bubble skirt trend, but girls will love to wear these:

Thumbs down:
Tuleh. A very inconsistent show.

Project Alabama. Is it worth the couture price? I appreciate the handwork, but you should at least get the fit right and make them look well designed before thinking about hand work. We need designers, not craftsmen in Fashion Week.

Imitation Of Christ. Don't they look like something we can find in Walmart? Scarlett Johanson didn't save the show.

Shirt Searching II

2005-09-10T13:22:00.000-04:00

As I wrote in the last article, it was quite difficult for me to find a nice and inexpensive blouse. When it comes to dress shirt shopping, it only gets harder.

My first dress shirt was bought in an Ann Taylor winter sale a couple of years ago. At the $19.99 price, the shirt helped me get an internship which eventually became my first job after graduate school. No, the shirt didn’t fit. My dirty little secret was hiding the baggy white shirt in my suit jacket hoping the shirttail wouldn’t come up. My look was not fashionable or professional, and I needed a change.

My first “nice shirt” was from PINK. The British maker offers a wide selection of styles and they have two sales every year where you can buy the shirts at about $70 each. The problem is that you can not try on the exact shirt you want. When the fits vary from style to style, you have to wonder if your guess is correct. I never feel comfortable making a purchase without trying the clothes on. I even had a bad experience in their downtown crossing store in Boston. A male sales assistant knocked the door of my fitting room so rudely asking me to hurry up when there was only one customer waiting and I just put on the second sample shirt. I never go back to PINK since then.

I got a very nice Prada sleeveless shirt during the Saks summer sale. At size 38, it fits me like a sock (shown in the picture). I really appreciate the amazing tailoring and craftsmanship. I paid more than two hundred dollars for that shirt (on sale price), and it’s worth every single cent of it. Months later, I saw a couple of knockoffs in the contemporary department at Saks, but the details are no where close. I wish I could fill my closet with Prada shirts, but I have to save money for the Chanel jacket and the Yohji Yamamoto coat I fall in love with. Back to reality, I still need some inexpensive shirts to wear from Monday to Friday. I simply feel ashamed when our CEO wears an Adrienne Vittadini and I wear a Prada.

One of my colleagues looks so womanly yet professional in her Brooks Brothers non-iron shirt, so I decided to give it a try. The sales girl was very friendly and she handed me a petite size 2 shirt (their smallest size for women). The sleeves were in good length, but they were extremely puffy. With the stiff non-iron material, they looked exactly like two lanterns hanging from my shoulders. I looked ridiculous! The good news was, though, Brooks Brothers would offer tailoring service for women soon. I left my phone number for the sales assistant to call me when it starts.

My last hope was Jcrew. I accidentally got a nice shirt on sale in last year, so I went to the store again. I am so desperate that I don’t even think about waiting for the sale. My professional image is more important (or it is simply an excuse?).

There are Laura shirts ($88 each), Kathryn shirts ($68 each), Kelley shirts ($58 each, 3/4 sleeves), solid oxford shirts ($59 each), and slim stretch shirts ($59.50 each) available. All the styles but Laura shirts come with petite sizes. All the shirts are long enough to be tucked in.

I found Laura shirts extremely flattering in the catalogue. The models looked crisp and professional, full of energy. However, the sleeves were longer than normal and apparently I could not roll the French cuffs on. I am borderline petite (5’4”) and I wear regular pants, but the sleeves fell below my knuckles. The body was also too roomy to be tucked in without looking bulky. I bet girls with long arms would like this fit. I felt a little frustrated and I could not help wondering how they took the slim and flattering pictures for the catalogue. Maybe a couple of pins helped.

Some of the Kathryn shirts are stretchy and some are made of pure cotton. I found the stretchy shirts fit better and the sleeves slightly shorter than the pure cotton shirts. The stretchy shirts fit nicely on me and I eventually got the same style in two different colors (shown in the pictures). I was finally satisfied.

Jcrew’s oxford shirts were surprisingly soft. The sleeves were about the same length as the cotton Kathryn shirts.

The slim stretch shirts were slimmer but I found the size bigger than the Kathryn shirts. The shoulders of the Kathryn shirts were perfect for me but my shoulders couldn’t fill the room in the slim stretch shirt that I tried on. I ordered a petite version through the catalogue instead.

The sales assistants at Jcrew are always friendly and helpful. The shipping is free if you order through the stores. It was my best shirt shopping experience so far. Jcrew does a good job offering great styles, quality, and service in such price range.

*******************************************
Shirts that I tried on (and worth mentioning):
Ann Taylor: inexpensive yet well made shirts. Good for women with curves. Some of the shirttails are not long enough to be tucked in.
Banana Republic: inexpensive shirts with younger looks. The material is not the best and you will see the difference after a couple of washes. Styles and colors are limited.
Brooks Brothers: Roomy sleeves are extremely comfortable but too baggy for slim people. The good news is that they will offer tailored shirts to women soon. Call your local stores for details.
Dolce & Gabbana: sexy shirts for you if you have the curves. Sizing is a little bigger than Prada.
Jcrew: the perfect brand if you have a boyish figure. They offer a decent selection of styles and colors.
PINK: widest selection among shirt makers but the service is not very good. Check out the two semiannual sales that are held in June/July and December/January. The drawback: you can not try on most of the shirts in store.
Prada: best fit. The material and the cut justify their three digit price.
Theory: limited colors and styles but fit well. I found their prices awkward as I would rather pay a tiny little more to buy the perfect fit Prada shirt on sale.

Shirt Searching

2005-09-09T15:50:00.000-04:00

I have a “thing” about shirts. I normally buy a couple of them to kick off a new season, and I think they are the perfect items for work. I guarantee that I will buy every single shirt that I like if it fits, but fortunately I have very slim body so most of them don’t fit. Great. Good for my budget.

Now I am on my seasonal shirt-searching journey again. I want one Victorian blouse that compliments my body. I don’t want to buy the ultra expensive Chloe blouse as it is way over priced. No matter how beautiful it is, how soft the silk feels, and how well it is made, I am not going to pay more than $700 for a shirt. I just can't justify that. (For the people who like Chloe shirts such as the one shown in the picture, http://www.net-a-porter.com/ sells them. Major department stores carry them as well).

For a trendy shirt, maybe a one-season shirt, my budget is less than $100. I went to Zara in San Francisco to look for it. The store was new and filled with trendy outfits and sunlight. For this season, Zara came up with a series of Victorian style shirts and it seemed to be the perfect place for me. After searching through the entire store though, I only found two extra-small Victorian blouses: one was a black silk/cotton blend shirt with ruffles priced at $79, and the other was a Zara Basic cotton shirt with ruffles priced at $35.

They fit. For a Victorian blouse, I need to keep it loose fitting and breezy. I am on my way to check out.

Suddenly I noticed something wrong on the shoulders and the collar of the black shirt. The seams were not aligned and there were extra thread intertwined together to a chunky thread ball. It looked disgusting. For a $79 shirt I expect at least decent quality. The sales girl offered alteration but it would take two days. I would return to Boston on the next day. “Can you mail it to me?” I asked. “No, unfortunately Zara does not offer mail orders.”

The white shirt had a serious problem as well. The material at the hem was almost broken . It looked like the material was torn in a machine so there was not even a way to fix it.

I was disappointed. I wish they had more items for each style and I wish they could offer mail orders. I returned to Boston hoping to have better luck at H&M.

H&M is a place where you can find well-made and inexpensive trendy pieces. They have everything. I found a couple of Victorian style shirts and they fit but they didn’t have any silk shirts. Cotton shirts are simply too stiff for this style. I had no luck there, but I found a 100% wool charcoal color turtleneck that fits like a designer piece with very soft material. With a bargain price of $19.99, how could I say no?!

As of today, my mission is not accomplished yet. I am still searching for my Victorian blouse. The good news is that I had better luck with my dress shirts, so I will write about women’s dress shirts in the next article. Stay tuned.

*Picture courtesy of www.Net-a-porter.com

Fall/Winter 2005 Fashion Must-haves

2005-09-08T22:48:00.000-04:00

What are the must-haves in the coming fall and winter? How can I wear them? Where can I find the trendy pieces without breaking my budget? How can I make a good plan before I rush into the shops making lots of impulsive purchases? You will find the answers here.

There is also a table at the end of the article with the ten must-haves along with the web links to help you shopping. The web links will bring you either to the exact items or the designers’ website in case they do not offer online shopping. The table is also organized by price range so that you can pick and choose based on your budget. There are rooms on the right hand side of the table for you to fill in the number of the items and the price of them, and you can use it as your little budget book.
One last thing: remember to leave some room for the impulsive shopping! We girls do that all the time, don't we? Enjoy!

Black
As seen in Prada
Style tips: Everybody is saying “Black is the new black”, but don’t interpret it literally. In this winter you need to wear something somber but not sad. If you have to wear black head to toe, try to reveal a little skin or change the texture of the material. Feel free to pair black with brown, navy, or other rich and dark colors for a more relaxed look. No new purchase required if you already have lots of black in your wardrobe.
Boots
· Lace up boots
As seen in Michael Kors and Dior
Style tips: They are always the “trend’ in every winter, so everybody needs them. If you got a pair from the past seasons, congratulations. Watch out your whole outfit to make sure it is not too much – you might end up looking like the actress in the Matrix!
· Slouchy boots
As seen in Marc by Marc Jacobs and Chloe
Style tips: Most of the slouchy boots come with very high heels (at least four inches). Make sure you can walk in them before you hand in your credit card! Look at the Marc by Marc Jacobs runway pictures - how important the tights are! Slouchy boots are nice for the day and relaxed events, but they are not polished enough for a nice party. Try to wear croc boots or velvet boots instead.
Chain bags
As seen in Chanel 2.55 reissue and Marc Jacobs
Style tips: Don’t buy cheap chain bags as the cheap chain will destroy your whole outfit. Chain bags are normally heavier; so make sure you are comfortable with it.
Coats
· Loose fitting
As seen in Marc Jacobs
Style Tips: Avoid it if you are petite. Definitely clinch your waist to avoid a boxy look.
· Military style coats
As seen in Balenciaga and Michael Kors
Style tips: Make sure the shoulders fit. You might not be able to move freely if the armholes are too high. Wear with skinny pants to give it a leggy look. Check the whole outfit and make sure you don’t look too tough.
· English style
As seen in Burberry.
Style Tips: Some people tend to be overwhelmed in tweedy English plaids. For petite girls, the length is the key. The hem should fall above the knee. For curvy girls, the contrast between the shoulder line and the waistline will show your feminine curves.
Lady like suits
As seen in Alexander McQueen and Roland Mouret
Style tips: The suits in this season are a lot more constructed. If you don’t want to look too serious, wear separates and mix & match with other pieces. Definitely wear the lady like items from last year, but don’t look too sweet: even Marc Jacobs gave up the candy pink! When you shop for pencil skirt, make sure it fits yet comfortable. Try to sit down to make sure it gives you room on your stomach and butt. Walk for a while to make sure you can walk in your natural speed. A well-constructed designer suit will last for years, and the fit definitely looks superior to mass-produced brands.
Pants
· Skinny pants
As seen in Balenciaga
Style tips: Wear with your highest pumps.
· Slouchy pants
As seen in Chloe and Proenza Schouler.
Style Tips: Avoid it if you are petite. Call for fitted tops such as a shirt, a turtleneck, or a sharp v-neck sweater. Wearing matching jacket will give you a Hepburn look, but make sure to wear a pretty scarf or a Victorian style shirt to add a little feminine feeling.
Flats
As seen in Marc Jacobs
Style Tips: The new flats have more sophisticated looks. Marc Jacobs used Python skin in the latest flats with extra padding as insole. The new flats are more comfortable than ever. Besides wearing with skirts and dresses, skinny jeans & flats are the new trendy combo as well.
Velvet.
As seen in Peter Som
Style tips: Velvet has been popular in last winter because the jewel tone helps you to look polished and refined. A velvet suit or dress will make you stand out in your evening events. Pay attention to the material when you shop for velvet. Silk velvet with good quality is a lot more expensive than cotton velvet but it feels softer, looks richer, and lasts longer.
Victorian style blouse
As seen in Chloe.
Style tips: You can wear it with a blazer, a waistcoat, or just the blouse. The silk or silk & cotton shirts are more breezy and they tend to fit better. Pure cotton shirts might be too stiff for this style. If the blouse is see-through, add a nude or creme color camisole underneath.
Wide belts
As seen in Yves Saint Laurent and Proenza Schouler.
Style tips: The belts in this season are wide to make a stronger definition and add more power in your lady like looks. Some designers also showed sashes, but it is not that easy to pull off for the day.

I made a table to help you shopping. The table will help you locate your must-haves and work as a budget book for you. Click here for the Excel table (with hyperlinks) or click here for the PDF table.