Trend report for Fall: Mini-bags

WhoWhatWear

Fashion Forecast for Pre-fall 2011

Here's a round-up of all the pre-fall trends that will be taking effect next month!

Sartorialist



Fashionologie



Style.com

For the Boys

Money Clips, Suspenders, Colored Pants?
do it with the right swag. and trust the GQ

Are you in or...Out?

Klum's New Venture: Website

"The German one-woman show now has her own lifestyle web destination, sharing her tips on all things beauty, fashion, and health."

Read more on what its like to step into Heidi's world, here.

And to actually see it for yourself, click here.



Fashion Showdown!: YSL and Louboutin go to court

Saw this post on Style.com and it really is quite interesting.
Does Louboutin actually have the red sole trademark all to himself?

enjoy.

You don't have sole right to red soles, YSL tells Louboutin

By Susannah Frankel, Fashion Editor

Wednesday, 25 May 2011

When Christian Louboutin sued Yves Saint Laurent for trademark infringement last month in a legal tussle over a pair of shoes, it was clear the accused, one of the grandest labels in France, would not take the slur lying down.

Now YSL is fighting back in a dispute which started with a collection of pumps. The best-selling styles, including the Tribute, the Palais and the Woodstock, came with coloured soles which perfectly matched their leather uppers. It was the red shoes Louboutin and his legal advisors took exception to.

Louboutin's designs have been spotted on the feet of celebrities from Oprah Winfrey and Carla Bruni to Victoria Beckham and Beyoncé Knowles. The designer is among the most prolific on the international catwalks and, in his case, the prized instant recognition which is fashion's life blood comes with his poppy-red lacquered soles.

Louboutin claims to have introduced his trademark in the early Nineties while studying a prototype. "There was this big, black sole," he told The New Yorker recently, "and then, thank God, there was this girl painting her nails." He swiftly used the enamel in question to cover the shoe and one of fashion's status symbols was born.

Or so he thought. YSL argues that Louboutin has no monopoly on the colour – on the soles of his shoes or indeed elsewhere – and that its shoes have sported red soles since the Seventies. "Red outsoles are a commonly used ornamental design feature in footwear, dating as far back as the red shoes worn by King Louis XIV in the 1600s and the ruby-red shoes that carried Dorothy home in The Wizard of Oz," said court papers filed by Yves Saint Laurent and released this week.

"As an industry leader who has devoted his entire professional life to women's footwear, Mr Louboutin either knew or should have known about some or all of the dozens of footwear models that rendered his sworn statement false."

Louboutin, 47, is seeking damages of $1m (£620,000) from YSL which, he argues, has copied his signature sole on "virtually identical" shoes. According to court documents, Louboutin, which sells more than 500,000 pairs of shoes in more than 40 countries, was awarded a registered trademark for its red sole by the US Patent and Trademark Office in 2008.

"The shiny red colour has no function other than to identify to the public that they are mine," the designer told a court in his application. With this in mind, Louboutin has, in the past, obtained injunctions against several companies attempting to replicate it, including, last February, Kimera International, which was found to have "engaged in acts of trademark counterfeiting and trademark dilution." Taking on a name with the clout of Yves Saint Laurent, today owned by PPR (Pinault-Printemps-Redoute), among the largest luxury goods conglomerates in the world, is another matter.

Charles Colman, a New York-based intellectual property rights lawyer told trade paper Women's Wear Daily that any litigation was likely to prove a long, drawn-out affair. "When you're dealing with two large parties, both of which have large and skilled law firms working for them, you don't have that leverage differential that you may have in other situations," he said, going on to point out that it was also less likely that inflated legal fees would run either party into the ground.

While the sunshine lasts

 

 

As all good things must come to end (and in our desperate attempt to get as much sun before the rainy season begins), its about time to start spending on stuff that can last us year 'round.

 

So keeping that train of thought, here's a list of buys that will love you even when it starts to rain:

• YSL Volupte Sheer Candy

How can you seriously go wrong with having an all-in-one?

Lipbalm + gloss + sheer color

Besides lipstick/color are always the best accessory to even the darkest fall 2011 outfit.

• Neon Cambridge Satchel Bags

Well, as neon is the most obvious Spring/summer 2011 trend, I still think itll compliment your outfit til the end of the year. Use it as your color-block. Let the neon make your LBD blacker or let it pop your nudest outfit this October. Cant. go. wrong.

and either way, it really is lovely.

• Tokidoki Beach Club Makeup

• Devil Girl Cromatico Palette  and Prisma Lipgloss Set

Lipsticks, check. Eye Palettes? Yes. Browns and purple (subtly) are also great go-to's when you're at your palest.

Seeing double?: Prada or Zara

Is it right for fast-fashion retailers to copy designer wear?


Where do you think we should draw the line? Is this a growing problem of lack of creativity?
Although we looooove Zara, is it right that we support their tendency to copy off the designs previewed in Prada's runway?

Runway pictures are from the Prada runway, while the clothes are spotted on Zara clothing racks

thing is, its also not the first time (or designer):

Fashionista.com reports their side of the story.

How do they do it?

How do you wear $2,000

using a 50 dollar bill?

Your first response would possibly be: "yeah right". 

But really and fact is: Yeah (you actually can do it), right.

Lending a memory and if memory serves right, this has happened to many of us more than once. You skim through the most recent Vogue issue and there's this beautiful, perfectly hemmed, looks-like-the-right-kind-of-fit dress thats just staring back at you.

Kind of like this:

WELL, good news. That fresh-off the runway dress is yours for $50. Catch? One night.

Before listing down all the reasons why you wouldn't want to rent a dress, here's why maybe you should:

We keep buying from "fast-fashion" chains that sell decent looking dresses that can be worn for 1 ocassion (and one ocassion only). Say, if you buy a Zara version of the dress above, you'd spend around $60-$80 on it, good news is you'll own it.

But the truth is, the fit, fabric, and fabulous feeling wont be the same. Besides, it saves you the worry of running into someone who picked out the same dress from the same retailer in another branch.

In essence, this is how RENT THE RUNWAY was conceptualized and its also the same reason why this NY-based web company is doing so well. How they do it? "Rent the Runway buys designer clothes wholesale and rents them out, charging between $50 and $200 for two days. That may not sound cheap for a rental, but these are current and recent-season dresses that mostly cost between $400 and $2,000 at retail. Generally, rentals are priced in the neighborhood of 10% of the retail price." (read more here)

It literally is "dressing for less"- 'dressing' here being the operative word and in other words, STYLISH.

and in the lack of a better analogy- its a cinderella story. Wear it for the night, return it. But remember, you dont always buy clothes to own them, you buy them because you think they make you look good. and for an important social event, looking good is 50% bulk of your reasons to even be at an event.

Need another angle? Why would you prefer to buy a Apple laptop over a Toshiba or Acer?

think about it.

Wish upon a brand a day

Being a brand just by himself, Justin Bieber totally deserves to be our "J".


Not only does he sing, play various instruments, have nice hair, his own nail polish line for the ladies, and a platinum album- he's so lovely that even David Beckham will pose next to our man's cut-out.

ANYWAY, the real reason why he's here though is because even the gods of the Fashion Industry are waiting on the wings to throw Biebs a party.

Yes, cute... but who might they be? No other than D&G.
read:
"We are fascinated by his capability of communicating with his music to a wide variety of audiences, from the teenagers to a more adult public," Stefano Gabbana says. "We do love Justin's music," Domenico Dolce adds. "We have been listening to his last album during our fashion show preparation and in our freetime[;] it's in our playlist! He belongs to the new generation, he cares about fashion. We are very happy to dress him and we admire him a lot." 


How can you not loooove.