FW08 - Have the shoe designers gone too far?

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!

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

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?

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

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

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!

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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......

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!

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

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

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

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

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.