Before buying any september issue; read this blogpost

By Neslihan
'September', that glorious month during which everything revolutionarily changes in 'the industry'. September in fashion world is like january amongst muggles. It's the time in a year during which you can start with a fresh conscience and it seems as if everything is possible. It's time to create new dreams and fantasies over which we bloggers, teenage girls and other well-dressed weirdoes obsess knowing we'll never own a Valentino dress or a pair of Chanel pumps. And 'the industry' feeds that fantasy. 'The industry' containing designers, PR, editors and their holy magazines --------> THE SEPTEMBER ISSUES. It's the kind of issue every fashion geek is waiting for after she has dumped her last sheer summer dress. She/he is delighted by the raw materials, big silhouettes and modest colours designers are showing her/him. And editors hype it like it's hot. Collection reviews, interviews, shoots, trend specials and a shit load of advertorials. All in all a heavy bible containig what's hot and what's not during the cold winter days. Since I'm a loyal buyer of those issues I thought it might be time to reveal 'the truth' behind the so-called 'September issue'.

DISCLAIMER: I am not actually revealing anything. So please skip if you were waiting for some groundbreaking, mind-shaking facts.

The first item that keeps on coming back in every editorial and/or trend special since Raf Simons' last collection for Jil Sander  is the statement coat. It's the kind of coat that will keep you warm during the harsh winter temperatures while adding a tat 'je ne sais quoi'. It's nonchalant yet classy but above all; it must be in cotton candy colours. And Elle Holland (SEPTEMBER ISSUE 2013, what did you expect?) shows us how varsatile it is. They style it in three different ways, showing you can be sweet or rather spicy in soft baby pinks. Don't be afraid and try to mix this piece with edgy prints, dusty browns and even with velvet. That's how -and I hate to use the word because it truly lacks glamour- functional this coat is. 

Those two models belong to the Carven RTW FW collection.

What I truly like about winter fashion is less colours and more greys, blacks and browns but that's not what this Hermès slash Alexander Wang collage is about. This one contains two and even three 'old' (read: past season) trends. The first trend is A-line skirting, the more volume underneath, the better. And the materials just don't matter: pleats, leather, velvet, silk. Movement is important though! Another thing that caught my eye in those two looks is the layering. I'm not talking about the blizzard kind of layering but about combining different items with each other while they first seem pretty unconventional. A classy skirt for example is an excellent match with a sporty sweater and trainers. Dress it up with heels at night and you got yourself a varsatile (yes, I'm going to over-use that one in this post) outfit.

 Another Item that keeps on re-appearing in every trend special is the biker jacket. It is edgy, boyish and very punky. It might look unflattering on first sight but you have to wear sheer and floaty fabrics underneath to create that feminine silhouette. Junya Watanabe (on the left) styles it with spicy red butcher pants and messy cake hair, while they create mystery at Givenchy (on the right) by pairing it up with black tones. Either way it looks sexy as hell and it is a timeless piece, you gotta trust me on that one.

You know the drill since the sixties. "WE ARE WOMEN. WE CAN WEAR PANTSUITS WHENEVER WE WANT AND WHEREVER WE WANT TO." But I guess we have past that stage so we have to keep on searching for our male side. In 2013 we do this by wearing oversized coats, pants and jumpers and if possible: all together. Stella McCartney (on the left) keeps it neutral by matching the royal coat with a pair of slim leg trousers in the same colour. That's how you keep the silhouette subtle, yet very powerful. Haider Ackermann chooses a more artsy aproach by pairing up the amazing blazer with flares.

Miranda Priestly would probably not agree on this one but florals are a classic. The season is irrelevant and they have my undying love. It's the only print that creates this instant summer vibe. And excess is the only answer for this one. Combine it with other florals or graphic prints, it creates this unseen dimension. It's an utterly girly print though so how do you keep it grown-up? Simple, you get your own bombastic floral coat and you style it up with a printed pair of trousers and a pair of classy brogues (Dries Van Noten on the left). You're good to go. For the Lolita vibe: enter Erdem FW RTW 2013-2014 (on the right)

'NEW' TRENDS new-new-new-new-new-new-new

There actually are new trends on the catwalks and therefore also in magazines. Grunge is that big thing this season. I've read countless articles about the 'REVIVAL OF GRUNGE' and 'GRUNGE IS NOT DEAD' and 'OMGEE KURT COMBAIN IS A STYLE ICON'. They're overdoing it (as usual) and they'll forget about it asap. But at this moment the next cool thing is grunge: that means florals and tartans mixed all together and ripped stockings with biker boots. Very predictable and teenagy but hey, a trend slut like you embraces everything.

Givenchy on the left and Yves Saint Laurent on the right. Eventhough I think this is too ordinary and too high street to be Saint Laurent.It captures the idea though.

This one is personally my favourite. It's unerwear meets pajamas. Soft silks and lacy bras that caress your skin during dark winter days. That's how being a woman feels like but this trend is more than that. It's about showing what you got underneath by wearing your sexy bra as top, which is quite scary because the amount of nudity is huge. So this trend is only for the Rachel Zoes and Nicole Richies amongst us. The picture on the left though shows us something completely different. It's about wearing your pajamas outdours and creating this relaxed vibe. It looks elegant yet laid back. Even though this looks as a simple concept, it asks for a shit load of guts to pull this one off because you don't wanna look like Bridget Jones.

Both looks are from the Louis Vuitton FW RTW 2013-2014 collection.

PS I'M NOT SORRY FOR THE AMOUNT OF LINKS IN THIS BLOGPOST

PPS I KNOW YOU HAVEN'T READ THE FULL ARTICLE WHICH IS A SHAME ON YOU

"Oh em gee, she's fooling around with paint!" part two

By Neslihan

The other day I got bored and played with paint again. It's this childish joy that makes me wanna play with it. And since I had stored fuckloads of pictures on my hard drive, I thought, why not? That's how I ended up writing things like 'pastel tears',  'you make my heart go boom, boom, boom' and something about pompons. Free time is dangerous and those pictures are the ultimate proof of that. Please do not mind my ugly hand writing. Just enjoy the pics and share your thoughts.

 I think Vogue Japan has the most amazing photoshoots. They just don't set boundaries but it never gets irrelevant, ugly, or stupid. This is the fashionable version of a goofy cat lady.

I am so in love with this transparency trend. You've seen Simone Rocha do it but a little more recent on this blog were MMM's transparent shoes. I don't know who these shorts belong to but they're freakin' awesome.

 When I first saw Azealia Banks in a magazine, I didn't know who she was. Was she a singer? Or was she a model? I still don't know who she is but I've heard that she's a singer. What I do know is that the dress on the picture is a total delight, the colour, the collar, the glitters, the pompons and the SHOES are amazing! Adoring this look.

 I hope you're listening (or reading in your case) attentively right now. I'd like to intoduce you an upcomming talent: Loza Maléombho. A NY based fashion designer who has created the most ethnic F/W 2013 collection of the year. The fabrics are rich and colourful. It's African culture splashed on dresses, skirts, tops and pants. And it's 100 % wearable.

 I've got a thing for masculine shoes and I cannot help it. This blue'ish pair, belonging to Marc Jacobs (F/W 2013) is just perfect but it's an impossible love story since this is is a part of the men's collection and they won't have a size 38 and even if they had, it probably costs hundreds upon hundreds of Euros.

 In the other post I had mentioned a pastel puke jumper, well this is it. Any one who hasn't done charity this year? You can invest in me by giving me this fabulous Stella McCartney jumper.

For once and for all: Riccardo Tisci is the whizzkid of fashion (along with some other favourites of mine). It doesn't matter what he does (haute couture/ prêt à porter) or when he does it (fall/winter, spring/summer, cruise), he nails it every friggin' time. And that counts for both the men's and women's line. Givenchy cruise 2013.

"Oh em gee, she's fooling around with paint!"

By Neslihan

Hello there crazies,

I felt a little bored yesterday and had the uncontrollable urge to play with paint. It's funny how something stupid can immediately beam you  to a certain phrase in your life. And yes, I'm talking about my years as a 10 or 11-year-old. You know, that period during which you think you know everything but the scariest things still have to come, along with puberty. You're exploring everything, clothing, music and even the internet. Dressing dolls and feeling like Tim Gunn. Oh, the good ol' times. Seeing a couple of pieces on the catwalk also evoked that nostalgic feeling. Christopher kane played with shiny metalics for his last s/s collection and also made some flower collages, which reminded me of my own fashion collages. When we moved to an unparticular middle of nowhere, I felt alone and bored. So, I had to find some kind of way to amuse myself. I started to collect gossip magazines (the only magazines in our house back then) and ripped the last style pages out of it and started to cut and paste images on a white sheet of paper. I'd write titles with coloured glitter pens and one day, those titles became full articles. One page became many and this way, I'd create my own fashion magazine without stupid advertisings. I'd give my magazines names but don't ask me which because the only name I can remember is 'Heirs'. Don't ask me why either. As I became older though, I discovered fashion magazines and started collecting them without ripping pages out of it. Because I knew every edition of Vogue or L'officiel was a holy beacon of inspiration that had cost its creators blood, sweat, tears and uncountable hours of overtime work. You don't start to cut in the bible, do you? One day making childish fashion magazines wasn't enough though, so I had to find some other way to temper my fashion hunger. That way was blogging. I started blogging on netlog and later on facebook. Then on weblog, to eventually start a blog on blogger. That's the little journey I've made so far. Coming back on the pictures below: they're from various collections. I've picked the ones of which I thought they'd be interesting to accompany my writing. Scroll down for more information.

I am so in love with this cute, little clutch. It looks like it's a picture from some biology textbook. Very nostalgia-proof. Christopher Kane (s/s 2012 RTW)

Riccardo Tisci really is one of the last masters of sheer haute couture. His s/s 2012 HC collection for Givenchy was memorable. Certainly the first two dresses. I wouldn't call it spring/summer though because the heavy colours and fabrics scream fall/winter. It were not the clothes though that held my attention. No, this time it were the accessories. What about this amazing nosering?

I thought this was a funny way to tell the person next to you to shut the hell up. Marc by Marc Jacobs

Two rules when buying a bag: 

1. Big enough to hide my junk.
2. Aesthetically interesting to look at.

Conclusion: this Lacoste bag has it all.

If I want to be amazed, repulsed or happy I turn to Martin. He knows how to awake those feelings all at once. Those shoes above really remind me of a friend's transparant raincoat from back then. Maison Martin Margiela s/s 2012 RTW

Do you remember yourself painting when you were little. You'd mingle the blues and the reds and the yellows, really thinking those colours went well together. You'd finish your painting and your mum or dad would call it an artwork and hang it on their wall or freezer. Well, that's what Junya Watanabe's model reminded me of. Green painted gummy hair + bitchy face = Junya Watanabe s/s 2012 RTW

Make up your mind

By Neslihan
Fashion is about extremes. You wake up and being a good girls is en vogue. You go to bed certainly noticing that bad is the new good. Fashion is constantly in motion and so is beauty. Lara Stone is being praised for her voluptuous body in 'Vogue Paris' while 'W' is screaming that Freja Beha Erichsen is the norm. Even fashion people do not agree on a certain level, which makes fashion a fickle industry. Fashion though is so much more than just an industry. It's a factory of handcrafted dreams. Note the contradiction. Yes, fashion is about mind blowing contradictions. That's also what I noticed when comparing the two pictures below. The first one is a shot from Anna Sui's f/w 2012-2013 show while the other one is from Givenchy's last s/s collection. Both have an incredible similarity: the make-up. The models have this cute little dot right under their lower lashes but they're both still very different. While Anna Sui's model looks like this amazing rock chick, Riccardo Tisci wanted his models to look like angels of the ocean. His models have this shiny, silver tear which makes the look  even more poetic. Which one do you prefere?

Pictures: Vogue.fr

"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!