Temporary Tattoos High Fashion?

I have been noticing out in the fashion world a new trend that I am really in love with, temporary tattoos. Unlike the kind you grab from vending machines in grocery stores and such, high fashion temp tats are very sexy and designed beautifully. They are also a lot more pricey. The Chanel Spring 2010 runways show was displayed with this line of tattoos.

 

Also Beyonce Knowles new fashion line Dereon ads have Ms. Knowles covered in these faux tats. She named the line after her biggest inspiration, her mother Tina Knowles,  Dereon is her mother maiden name. Tina has been inspring her daughter fashion wise since the days of Destiny's Child and designed all the outfits for the band.

Beyonce said of the the ad photo shoot that she kept putting more and more tattoos on herself and loving it. She is well known for up with sort of alter egos (Sasha Fierce) and I think that these hott temp tats are an easy and fun way for peopel to do that with themselves. Fashion is a form of playing dress up and tattoos are a way of decortaiong your skin.

I myself have two tattoos and am utterly terrified of getting more. Not just because of the pain but like fashion, tattoos designs trends can easily look dated, and you end up stuck with them. 

This new trend seems to be a reincarnated trend that exploded in the mid nighties, henna tattoo's.

 

Granted you can go into any new age shop and get a kit now even still. Henna is gorgeous and fun. It lasts longer than most temp tats and the practice of henna use can be dated back to 1200 BC to the ancient Egyptians who used henna on their nails and hair. Henna was also used to dye animal skins, textiles, and men's beards. Once the henna plant's cooling properties were discovered, painting the skin became a way for the desert people of India to cool down their body temperatures. In the states before the henna trend blew up in 1996, it was used mainly as a temporary hair dye.

Maybe this trend will pass again like it did once in the 90's but I for one love it and thinks its a way to be creative and a way to play dress up with fashion. Its unique, yet an ancient practice. Its also I lot cheaper than getting the real thing and maybe a good way to see if you are really in love with a design before marking your skin permanently, a trial run so to speak.

*I realize its been several months since I've made a post and will try to do more

Why I won't Buy Coach anymore...

It was only this year that i was even really aware of what Coach was and what sort of products they carried. I vaguely remember Coach as a leather goods store when I was younger, leather briefcases belts and such that my mom would stop at to grab my dad something every once in a great while.

I had owned a pair of purple leather gloves with mink trim that my mother got me last winter. They were gorgeous and stylish and I loved them. They were bought on sale but originally something like $300.

this is them

Coach began as a family run business in 1941 in New York's Garment district in Manhattan. It was run by six leather workers whose expertise was wallets made by hand. Now Coach is a well known name, you see every girl and their mother carrying one these days.

I will not deny that Coach purses are well made and estically pleasing to the eye and touch...alas I find it difficult to get that high I once had for it. Granted it was less than a year ago my interest was sparked but this is just an example of the disposbale nature of fashion. I own three coach bags, two that I will admit (gulp) are fake or...Faux-ch.

For fake bags the one's I have are okay, perhaps a grade B. Not Quite third shift factory workers pumping out basically the same thing, (that would be a grade A in fakes) but still quite nice.

Authetic Coach bags even at outlet stores can cost between $130-$300.

The reason for my dislike for Coach happened this recent Black Friday.

It was my very first Black Friday and I wanted to see the craziness of shopaholics and crazed mother nabbing gifts.

 

3AM shopping

Not only were the sales not very good, but the line outside of the Coach Outlet was unbearably long, consider the coupons they gave out were the same you could print out on your own every other day of the week. This is not what really troubled me. What really got me was seeing that literally every young girl and their mother had a Coach purse. Some were really nice, others generic and I'm sure some were even fake. Then I thought, why am i shelling out a few hundred bucks for a purse with some C's on them if litterally everyone has one?

Coach has become the Abrocrombie and Fitch of Purses. Its a mall purse. Still nice but doesn't have much substance or depth. Not to say that fashion does...but the fun about fashion is the expression of it, the hunt for deals and discovering or embellished your aesthetic style.

Coach is good to have one of...one that screams you, it will last forever with the design, but get something classic not trendy unless you can really see yourself still loving it next year and even the year after that. Okay maybe having two doesn't hurt, one for spring/summer and one fro fall/winter.

But know that it doesn't make you a fashonista. Its a beginner bag or and forever bag. Know that you are not original and that you will see 20 other girls....and their mothers with on as well.

Alligator

I found these in the Dec issue of Elle Magazine

 

and bought these this summer at The Garment District in Cambridge MA

Lady Gaga January Cover of Elle

I am a lover of Elle magazine and of Lady Gaga. I have read the magazine for years now but I find that this year they have outdone themselves with staying on top of trends as well as their shoots looking just aesthetically pleasing. This could be a result of Nina Garcia (Elle Magazines former fashion director and judge to Bravo's Project Runway) stepping down from her position and handing the torch to new fashion director Alexis Bryan in April this year. Garcia has moved on to Marie Claire.

I was pleased to see that this month that the amazing Lady Gaga will be appearing on the January cover of Elle. Perhaps a great way to begin a a new year in fashion. Lady Gaga's career skyrocketed immensely in just one year. She was essentially an unknown until her single "Just Dance" hit radio.

She has become the new Queen of Pop music and is changing the face of fashion, often compared to David Bowie. I was pleased to see her in the May Issue of Rolling Stone this year and read the article maybe 20 times. In the article she had said in the interview, "I don’t feel like I look like the other perfect little pop singers. I think I’m changing what people think is sexy." Also in the article she admitted that after dropping out of NYU, she would order bags of cocaine and spend ours perfecting her hair and makeup. She admitted that it was craziness but in turn probably helped her create an image for herself.

Gaga said in recent interview with Ellen DeGeneres , "I want to create a space for my fans where they can feel free and they can celebrate, because I didn't fit in, in high school, I felt like a freak. So I like to create this atmosphere for my fans where they feel like they have a freak in me to hang out with."


Bad Romance video is oozing with fashion from Alexander McQueen to Haus of Gaga.

The Elle magazine website has posted a behind the scenes video of Lady Gaga's fashion shoot for the January issue. I'm am stoked to see it, Gaga certainly deserves a cover of a high end fashion magizine and I'm sure will continue to be a music and fashion icon for well into 2010.

          

In the issue she will be talking about stress sexuality and her romantic future.

Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2010

*I am by no means an expert or a student of fashion, its a passion of mine, one I want to share with others



I'm beginning my first blog by reviewing this coming spring/summer fashion line of Louis Vuitton. I've have been following fashion closely this year and have been blown away by what's being put on the runway for this fall.

The fall fashion shows tend to be louder and more extravagant usually, perhaps why the September issue of American Vogue tends to be so large and usually puts the matriach/editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, known for her icy demeanor, into a realm of foreign stress and insecurity. She is mostly recognized as Meryl Streep's portrayal of Miranda Preistly in The Devil Wears Prada , loosely based on the fashion vixen herself.

I have to say that spring fashion for 2010, although with some gems, brings me only sheer confusion. The big theme this fall is very avant-garde, especially with a number of designers pumping out insanely high shoes that architects and physicists could have designed. Marc Jacobs really missed the...well...mark in the Paris Fashion week runway show. In the shoe category most particularly. Most of the shoes worn were completely bizarre and not in a good way. The only way I can think to describe them is as if Birkenstock made love to those tacky feather shoes usually seen in a Fredrick's of Hollywood combined with a mirkin

See what I mean?

Most designers make the big money from assessories, not usually from the clothing itself. Not even celebrities are seeming to want to wear high fashion 24/7 let alone buy it. Perhaps then it was smart of Jacobs to then emphasize the purses in this show. I immediately recognized them for their sherbet colored fox tail, remembering Victoria Beckham owns one.

I'm not necessarily one of those, "I'd Rather be naked than wear fur" PETA extremists, but I did find the fox tail odd and kind of trashy much like J Lo's Fall 2005 runway show. The Bags themselves were quite exciting, more colorful and unqie in shape and dimension than the traditional LV bag. I myself am a bag queen and I found myself almost forgiving Jacobs for the crack show he put on the runway.

What I found to be truly wrong was there seemed to be no strong theme, or if there was one, it made little to no aesthetic sense to me. Between the Models all in Afros and the mirkin shoes, the outfits themselves looked...too much of too much. Too much layering, pleats, mismatched fabrics, tassels, strong angles and cuts. I can see him attempting to be....different?



The only theme I got from him was "Sun Burned Child Prostitutes From The Seventies." And the only sense I got of spring were the usual sherbet colors and the short cut of the shorts/skirts. Other colors look wrong, like something you'd reupholster a Victorian style couch with, or find at your local second hand furniture shop.

I'm sure many of these pieces individually may look stunning! I could see Winona Ryder, (inspiration to Jacobs epescially after being charged with theft, one item being a Marc Jacobs jumper), pairing one his items with big sunglasses and rocking it, or at least see her in an US Weekly's "Who Wore It Better" section and winning.


Really, its the purses that steal the show. I said it before but it was probably a smart move on Jacobs part knowing that people have been more spendthrift, even the more wealthy shoppers. Also, runway's main purpose for designers is not necessarily to have their clothes appeal to the average shopper, but appeal to the big magazines. One of the most important things to designers is to become a household name , that the average person will want to spend the extra money on accessories, because they cost considerably less than a gown that could easily go out of style next season.

Looking at the comparison to the 2009 spring/summer to the 2010, is a stark difference. 2009 was filled with sharp Joan Crawford-like shoulders, powerful business lady suits with a sexy edge by pairing the coats with short skirts. The shoes also sexy, nothing mirkin like about them. The purses also very nice but not as exciting as this year. I also recommending looking at the difference between the spring 2010 to his fall 2009/2010. A very glmorous and classy line with some edge in the use of bright colors thrown into it as well as an occasional bunny ear. Athough quiky, it somehow worked, it didn't deter from teh clothing if anything gave it that avant-garde the fall line from most designers have perfected this year.

I understand runway is a form of art and that what you see on the runway half the time is not what you will see worn the same way on the street. It's part of the enchantment of runway, but I found this springs/summers line messy and upsetting. I think I may actually be offended, but its just my personal taste, others may find his show fun and young, or see a piece they must have.




Thank you for reading my "humble" opinions, I hope to put out more of these soon, varying in topics mostly about fashion but probably other hot topics.