Take a closer look

By Neslihan
Hi there fashion lover,
Sometimes fashion is about mixing the craziest things together. Brands of which you think, no I won't ever be able to combine this with another brand or prints that are just too fickle to wear with other prints. I somehow think that fashion isn't about dos and don'ts because these little rules truly make you unhappy. And they also limit your artistic fashion spirit which is- excusez le mot- a huge don't when it comes to expressing yourself through your outfits. You should know what goes great on you or what you really like and go for it. Of course this has to happen in some kind of sane way because without guidance we are savages in this enormous fashion jungle. The most horrible things could happen if you don't respect your body structure and above all your personal style. Yes, personal style to me is very important. It's an identity one should never desert or fake. You have to stick to your guts even though you get strange looks in the streets for the pair of shoes you wear or for your exentric glasses. Don't give a damn. Feel like everything is possible when you're standing in front of your wardrobe. It's such a liberating thought but it's of course more easilly said than done. Go for a couple of signature pieces like earrings or a scarf and try to put them together with those amazing pair of pants you bought earlier or the most incredible tee you ordered on the net. Don't wear what you're told to wear because that would be like changing your name because your friend doesn't like it. If there's one lesson I've learned up to now (read: my still juvenile age of 17) it's sticking to your style in whatever situation you are. Let that be a wise thought on this Sunday noon.
As for this blog post I assembled two of the most outspoken and controversial designers of our era. Those two names do not fit together, they're just too different for that. They're like water and fire, that's how dissimilar they are. The first detail pics are from Rei Kawakubo's (Comme des Garçons) RTW show for this season and the second group of pics belong to Roberto Cavalli's show. I know, I know, relax those eyebrows. Mister Cavalli is to be found one of the most tacky designers of all times if you group him up with Versace and Guess (is Guess a high fashion brand?) but Versace for H&M showed us that it's ok to be tacky once in awhile. And looking at his pictures it's the most mouth watering tackiness I've ever seen. I mean look at those animal prints mixed up with florals and goldy glitters. It's bombastic but I adore it! And let's not froget Kawakubo's Comme des Garçons show, pretty please! It was one hell of a collection. So sculptural, rough but also poetic at the same time. Kawakubo is one of those designers who doesn't give a flying f*ck about wearability. She puts the F to fashion and creates art with her collections. The crispy white dresses and those big flowers sewn onto the dresses were just memorable and will be used in lots of editorials of trendsetting magazines, that's for sure. The whole collection also reminded me of the edgier version of Marie Antoinette. It was a delightful freak show. Cheers to that!

Comme des Garçons

Roberto Cavalli

Veni, vidi, vici - London Vintage

By Neslihan
Hello to you all,
I'm back in my beloved Ghent and I must admit I'm very happy to be back. Even though London is an amazing, energetic and very inspiring city, it feels good to be back somewhere less busy. The city truly makes you go in overdrive but visiting Camden was the most amazing part of the whole trip. It's so alternative and you can find lots of original and great pieces there. It's also such a difference with the other places in the city. It feld like a haven of peace. My friends and I visited the vintage shops and also the accessory stalls that were there to find. I had this list of all the things I'd like to have and this list was long but I had to set my priorities so I've shortened the list to a maximum of 5 goods with shoes on top. You probably know already that I'm a sucker for a great pair of Dr. Martens and that was also what was on top of my list but the thing was I already had a pair. So, I had to go for some other pair and since I wanted to have creepers too, I bought creepers from Dr. Martens. The best of both worlds, innit? Another thing on this list was a great pair of vintage denim, 80's-inspired, high-waist shorts and I found them at Berty and Gery, the most amazing vintage shop I've visited so far. And the sales staff was also very friendly and helpful! A must go!
I've taken some pictures but they are not that sharp because there not taken with a fancy camera since I don't have one. So you'll have to stick to this.

Vintage galore

My buys

How is your Easter Break so far?

Love.

Oh Camden, we'll meet, we'll meet soon

By Neslihan

Hi there fashion freak,

tomorrow at this exact time of the day I'll be chilling in London. So, I won't post for a couple days but I will take pictures there and shop my ass off. I am so ready for three amazing, stylish and inspiring days. Oh, Camden, oh Camden. I hope we'll go to Brick Lane as well.  *sigh*

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LADY GAGA

by Simon

26 years ago today, in New York city, Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta was born. Who? You all know her. She's a 5-time Grammy Award winner, has more than 21 MILLION followers and was named the world's most influential woman by TIME Magazine. If you still don't know who I'm talking about, read the title or check the pictures. Yes, this is indeed my birthday-fashion-higlight-tribute to Lady Gaga. This is a rather short overview, it doesn't start in the earliest days of Gaga's existence and there's some big gaps in time here and there, but I tried my best to make an interesting selection of her most iconic looks. Enjoy!

Back in 2008, Gaga spent most of her budget on this outfit: a sculptural dress inspired by cocaïne, revealing a bodysuit when the skirt is removed. Always paired with her platinum blonde weave (yes, weave, a wig was too expensive!), long white gloves, tons of bronzer and signature Louboutin shoes (until they were stolen prior to a performance on the Jay Leno show.) The Lady wore this outfit and some variations of it (including a black and gold version and a semi-transparent interpretations of it) on countless occasions. The two main reasons were: she couldn't afford to buy different outfits every time and also because she believed that repeating an image would make her more memorable and easy to recognize. 

Opening her very first headlining tour, the Fame Ball, Gaga wore this triangle dress by Haus of Gaga (her creative team) every single night. At Glastonbury, she first showed a revamped, fully sequined version. Gaga would appear out of a collection of shields scattered with mirror shards to perform Paparazzi. She wore the outfit for three songs in total: Lovegame and Beautiful, Dirty, Rich followed Paparazzi. Most of the shows, Gaga wore a matching mask.

THIS WAS PART ONE, CHECK BACK SOON FOR MORE!!

"Florals? For spring? Ground breaking. "

By Neslihan
Hello there beloved reader,
There hasn't been a blog post for seven days and spring is already in our little country (read Belgium). So, welcome, welcome, welcome dear Spring! And yes, the capital was needed. People wearing dresses and sandals, ain't those things the best part about good weather? I already love it! So, wake your spring/summer closet up from its winter sleep and go nuts with colours, prints and fabrics. As for myself: I still have to find some summery shoes to wear but then again, Doc. Martens don't have a specific season, so why the hell would I bother? Enough about my 'personal issues' let's get on track.
Those of you who really follow this blog might already have noticed that I'm a major sucker for florals. And it's not a shock to tell you that it will be the trend of the season. It won't be the farm girl version though, we'll go for bold prints and even digitalised florals are huge this spring/summer. Make sure you go over the top with it and look like a life size painting. What really was a surprise though was Givenchy's s/s collection for the dudes. I mean it's common knowledge that boys just do not like flowers. Wait, I'm creating stereotypes. I should say the boys I know don't. So Riccardo Tisci pretty much knocked my socks off with his last male colection. He came up with the idea of creating a print that was inspired by (carnivorous) plants. He kept the colours simple though. Tisci used crisp white, mint green (wanna have) and khaki. He found the perfect balance between laid backness and elegance by working with layers. Riccardo chose also a couple of minimalistic outfits but worked with a lot of different lengths and fits. I can imagine that his printed blazers and caps will be spotted in the streets this season. What an amazing collection!

"Vogue Nederland is coming..."

By Neslihan

Het is zowat surreëel, die eerste Nederlandse Vogue. Een versie waarvan ik, als 14-jarige betweterige puber, dacht dat die er nooit van zou komen. Nederland of België zijn Frankrijk of Amerika niet. Hier is het modeplatform niet zo groot, zeker niet in vergelijking met Parijs of Milaan, dacht ik dan. De laatste jaren echter zijn de Nederlanders en Belgen heel goed bezig in modeland, zowel de modeontwerpers als de modellen zelf. We hebben al heel wat geniale couturiers in onze Lage Landen, zo denk ik dan bijvoorbeeld aan Dries van Noten, Viktor en Rolf en Iris Van Herpen, eentje van de jongste generatie. De Belgische make-upartiest, Peter Philips, is artistiek directeur in de afdeling make-up van Chanel. Toch niet zomaar het eerste, beste merk. Inez van Lamsweerde en Vinoodh Matadin, het Nederlands fotografenduo dat telkens weer de grens tussen mode en kunst opzoekt, zijn ondertussen al de lievelingetjes van Emmanuelle Alt (hoofdredactrice van Vogue Paris). En die namen zijn niet de enige talenten in onze gebieden, laat dat vooral duidelijk zijn. Ze zijn met zoveel meer, en nog belangrijker, er zijn nog superveel talenten die niet ontdekt zijn. We moeten koesteren wat we hebben. We moeten voor naambekendheid zorgen, want talenten hebben we al. De boodschap is die talenten hier, in België en Nederland, te houden. Daar loopt het vaak mis. We moeten nog groeien in onze editorials. De Vlaamse/Nederlandse versies van wereldvermaarde tijdschriften zoals Elle en L'Officiel hebben we al en het zijn vaak die magazines die het goed doen, omdat het concept geen uitleg nodig heeft. Men weet waarvoor die namen staan, dat zegt ook Karin Swerink, de hoofdredactrice van Vogue Nederland. Ze zegt ook dat het modelandschap in Nederland klaar is voor de Nederlandse versie van de modebijbel bij uitstek, maar dat wil niet zeggen dat er alleen maar gefocust wordt op de Nederlandse modeïndustrie, neen, ook de Belgen krijgen een plaats in het tijdschrift. Ze zegt dat ze er vooral een blad van wil maken dat goed weergeeft wat er reilt en zeilt op vlak van mode in de Lage Landen. Zo wil ze voor haar eerste nummers alles zelf doen, geen interviews of editorials overnemen van andere edities. "Laat ons eerst alles maar lekker zelf doen", zegt ze. En dat, die nuchtere en ijverige aanpak, siert haar. Voor het allereerste nummer werkte ze samen met drie oerhollandse modellen, Romee Strijd, Ymre Stiekema en Josefien Rodermans gefotografeerd door uiteraard een Nederlandse fotograaf, Marc de Groot. Wat ben ik blij dat het voor dit eerste nummer niet Daphne Groeneveld of Lara Stone is geworden. De drie dames werden in kleurrijke tenues gestopt en met die eenvoudige achtergrond springen de kleuren zo van de cover. Een prachtige eerste omslag. Nu nog benieuwd naar de inhoud. Hopelijk wordt het het wachten waard. Nog twee keer slapen en het is zo ver!

De eerste cover
© G+J Uitgevers