Pixiepalace

Today’s runway collection is the fall 2006 show from Aquascutum. I have had no real exposure to them before, so this was all new to me.

The collection started out black and white, but it wasn’t at all oppressive like some of the others. Many of the pieces felt very light and airy. I like the pleats and movement in this dress. It’s cute and looks comfortable for a semi-dressy dress.

The coats in this collection were really interesting. They were very different. I love how this coat is just different from any other I think I’ve ever seen. I’m not sure about it’s practicality, but it’s interesting to look at would definately ensure that you are remembered! Many of the coats had something unique like this one. They were just about my favourite parts of the collection.

I am not entirely sure what’s going on here, but I like this look. I think it’s a trench coat inspired waist cincher (probably without any real cinching) over a blouse. It’s very unique. I have honestly never seen anything like it. And I think it looks cool! I would totally wear this!

The end of this collection was spring colours with flower patterns on skirts and coats. Overall I liked this collection. There were pieces that I wouldn’t wear (most of the pastel stuff), but there were a lot of pieces that I would wear. The best thing about this collection, though, was that it was actually *designed*. Nothing looked generic. There were creative touches and things that I’ve never seen anywhere else, like the trench cincher. I liked the creative force of the show. It really felt like something different, which is all too rare!

Today I’m looking at Ralph Lauren‘s fall collection. It’s classic chic, exactly what he is known for.

What I like about this outfit is the shape and how much fun it is. I doubt I would wear it, but it’s cute. I could see wearing the top with jeans or something. It’s just cute and feminine and fun! The shape is pretty typical of this collection, too.

This, again, is pretty typical Ralph Lauren. The jacket is wonderfully tailored to show off the model’s figure and she looks smart, attractive, and ready for business. The green color carried through much of the collection and looked very sharp, as well as different in a season full of black!

I love this coat! It has such a pretty, tailored shape and is so flattering. I could absolutely see wearing a coat like this nearly every day in winter. It’s just so pretty and feminine. I love the color, length, buttons, pockets, everything!

This is really elegant dress. I could see a femme fatale wearing it! It’s elegant and sophisticated. It’s not quite what I usually look for in gowns, but it is beautiful and flattering. I could absolutely see someone wearing it to an awards show or something.

This collection was pretty typical Ralph Lauren, but for a brand that has such lasting appeal, that isn’t a bad thing. The pieces were beautifully tailored and very flattering. I was quite impressed. I would absolutely buy many of the seperate pieces in this collection. The gowns weren’t quite to my taste, but the business and casual wear were!

I’m looking today at Matthew Williamson‘s fall 2006 collection. I’m not usually a big fan of his designs, but his dresses tend to be pretty.

Look! Color! I had almost forgotten what it looked like! I like the shape of this dress and the way the skirt swishes too. It’s a pretty design and looks like it should be comfortable.

And then there was this dress. And several like it. It’s just a bit too much for me. The metalic scale part of the dress is just so gaudy! There were some in gold too. And the ruffles. It’s just all so much! I can’t handle it!

Ok, I like the skirt on this dress, but I’m not sure about the bib top. I just can’t picture how it would work on a woman who actually had breasts and I can’t help but feel that it’s very baby-bib-ish. But I love the layered skirt, it looks really pretty.

Most of this collection was fairly unappealing to me, but it has elements that I like. I guess I just kind of felt “eh” about this collection. I can’t say I would buy any of it, but there are pieces that I might wear or take apart and modify to wear.

Today I’m going to look at the fall collection from Temperley. I liked this collection a lot. It was, again, largely black and white, but it was brimming with beautiful details that gave it variety and distinguished it from the crowd.

This top is fantastic. Look at the cool pattern! It just has so much drama. Everyone would notice if you wore this top! I think I’d want it lined in cream fabric or something, though. There were a number of showstopping pieces like this in the show.

Every piece in this show had great details. I love how this dress flows and the flowers are a wonderful touch. This dress is just so feminine and pretty, but not overly precious. It is something I could see a very strong woman wearing when she wants to feel extra pretty for an event!

Many of the gowns in this collection were beautiful goddess gowns like this one. It flows wonderfully and I love the simple trim. I know that goddess gowns are very trendy right now, but they are also pretty timeless and this dress shows exactly why. It’s classic and elegant.

I really liked this collection. It wasn’t quite my favourite of the season, but just about! The details were beautiful and the pieces were so elegant and detailed. Everything was just designed so beautifully. I would absolutely buy one of the gowns from this show if I had somewhere to wear them!

Today I’m going to look at the collection from Calvin Klein. I usually like the clean lines of Calvin Klein, but their clothes also usually have shape. I didn’t like this collection at all.

This dress shows two of the main themes in this collection – herringbone patterns and sheer fabric. Each of these things can be great, but together in completely shapeless dresses like this one they are a terrible combination! And what is with those shoulder straps? I just can’t figure out why someone would want to wear this!

Again, the shape thing. This dress makes the model look like something between a Japanese Lantern and an uninflated balloon. And the extra bit of fabric after the strange sinching around her legs just makes it look weirder. Ugh.

Um… this really is taking the sheer fabric theme to a place it didn’t need to go. I really don’t care what kind of underwear the model is wearing, thank you! And I care even less to show the rest of the world what kind of underwear I wear! Why would I ever buy this? Why would anyone (short of Paris Hilton or Bai Ling) wear this? I don’t understand!

Ok, they made a completely sheer halter dress. Great. So what’s with the black bra with regular shoulder straps under it? It makes it look completely weird to have the halter strap over shoulder straps (especially since it doesn’t even cover the bra cups either). And I really can’t say that I like the non-shape or design besides that either!

I really didn’t like this collection. I don’t think that there was a single thing in it that I would buy or wear. I like things that have shape, flatter me, and don’t draw attention to my panties or bra. And I don’t think I’m that unusual in those requests!

Today I’m looking at the fall 2006 collection from Balenciaga. I know that it’s a big fashion house, but I really can’t say that I know anything about them. I can’t remember anything that I know is Balenciaga. And I’m not wild about this show, so that may explain it (if their previous collections have been like this one, anyway).

The show opened with this suit in four different plaid fabrics. The idea of this suit is ok (I’m sure it looked good on paper), but the result leaves a lot to be desired. The skirt pleats are odd, the jacket falls in kind of an awkward way, and the proportions are strange. And I hate the shoes. Aren’t the models tall enough at 6 foot whatever? Why do they need freakish, nearly unwearable platform shoes? And I can’t help but wonder what she is doing with her hands.

Ok, there were a couple of versions of this dress in the show. It just doesn’t work somehow. I like the idea of it, the anchor being used almost like a tie and the slightly dropped waist both could be really good, but it just doesn’t look right! The pleats in the skirt make it stick out really strangely. The pleating issue you see here ran through the entire show. Many of the skirts and dresses and even tops had this problem. I do like the jacket. The curly-cue collar is very cute and unique and it looks comfortable and warm.

Oh, and the hats? I don’t get them either.

Ok, the ruffle on this dress is so weird. It looks strange and has the same pleating problems discussed above. How would you hold your arms down at your side? How would leaning back in a chair work? This is not only impractical, but also ugly! It’s so strange! And there were lots of times this weird little mini-ruffle thing appeared. It showed up on the bottom of skirts and dresses, the hems of tops, and some of the skirts were basically elongated mini-ruffles that stuck out from the waist to look like they had short farthingales under them!

I think that this was the only dress in the show that I really liked. I still think the mini-ruffle is a little odd, but it kind of works on this fitted dress. Too bad this was about the only one!

The show ended with this dress in four different presentations. Only one used different fabric (a black and white print). The others were all the same white dress. On had a white scarf like this pink one and one had a blue headscarf that tucked under the dress in the front. I think this dress could be pretty, but it’s so straight as to be unflattering. One of the models almost looks like she was stuffed into a pipe!

Overall, I really hated this show. It’s just so very strange. There are clearly a lot of sixties influences at work here (there was even a pantsuit with too-short pant legs and sleeves), but none of them really work to make attractive or flattering clothing. We know it can be done (Marc Jacob did it a few years ago), so why is this so off? I just can’t figure it out!

Today I’m going to look at the new fall 2006 collection from Vera Wang. I usually really like Vera Wang’s designs but I wasn’t really pleased with this collection. I found it very disappointing.

There were some really nice pieces. I love the detailing on the top of this dress. It is interesting and unusual. I really couldn’t say that about a lot in this collection, but at least I could say it about a couple pieces!

The biggest problem that I had with this collection was the awkward placement of the waistline on most of the designs. The height is just so unflattering. It’s between empire and true waist and the result is models who look very uncomfortable! There are other designers who play with this type of waistline (Santino Rice comes to mind), but somehow the ones in this collection look especially wrong. They just look uncomfortable and unflattering! On many of the models it made them look pregant. That’s not always a bad thing, but generally women who aren’t pregant don’t want to look like they are.

If there is one thing you can usually count on from Vera Wang it’s that her gowns will be beautiful. Unfortunately, even her gowns seemed odd. I don’t even know where to start with this one. The top is cut really strangely and it looks even more like the model has no breasts. The massive amounts of fabric on the shoulder straps dwarfs the bodice of the dress and just looks out of place. The whole thing looks ill-fitting, despite the fact that it fits the model perfectly, it was made for her. The whole this is just really strange and unelegant looking! I really don’t like this dress. And most of the others weren’t a whole lot better.

Overall I was pretty disappointed in this collection. Everything felt awkward and looked uncomfortable. I just don’t like the look of the clothes with their strange waistlines. I usually like Vera Wang’s designs, but I wouldn’t wear any of these.

Today’s runway collection is the very classy Luca Luca. The color palatte from this collection was much softer than most of the others with mostly tans and whites and comparatively little black.

Most of the dresses in this collection were nicely tailored to show of the woman’s figure. There were a lot of pencil skirts, like on this dress, and simple designs with few frills. The pencil skirts with blouses were very sharp and many created very elegant looks.

There were some wonderful touches, like the lace over this dress. They added some interest to the designs without making them feel overdone. The coats in this collection were mostly simple, with a few girly touches thrown in. The coats were fine, but none really caught my eye as anything particularly special.

I was totally not wowed by the gowns in this collection. They felt rather promish to me. This one even has a hint of bridesmaid to it. I just felt like they weren’t exciting or new.

Overall this was a nice collection, but it didn’t make me want to buy anything from it. It was a relaxing collection to look at, but without that spark that makes me sit up and take notice, it was fairly unmemorable. The clothes were pretty and flattering, but nothing really special.

Today I’m looking at the fall 2006 collection from Karl Lagerfeld.

This collection was overwhelmingly black. I know I’ve been saying this about quite a few collections this season, but this was really was almost so black that I gave up trying to see anything interesting by the twenty-fifth model. The one noticeable feature of this outfit is the feathery cuffs. This was a common feature in this collection, but I really don’t get it. I just kept wondering what it was supposed to be!

I can’t quite pin-point it, but something about this outfit is very appealing. Maybe it’s the shape, which is quite attractive and fairly different from the rest of the collection. Maybe it’s the pleating on the skirt or the buttoned jacket. I don’t know. I just know it’s a little bit different and I like it.

This and the one other similar design in the collection were probably the most interesting pieces in the collection. The knitted top is interesting and certainly different. I also like that it looks comfortable. I just thought that this was a cool design that was fairly original and definitely interesting.

Overall I wasn’t wowed by this collection. Everything was so black and most of the lines were boring and unflattering like the first design pictured here. The menswear was pretty typical and boring as well. If Lagerfeld designed things he would actually wear his menswear might be really and truely interesting, but he seems determined to stick to the boring standards. I guess I just expect a little more originality from high end designers. I need to see something that would give me a reason to buy their designs rather than just go to the mall to find something ok. Oh well.

Today’s runway show in our ongoing coverage of the fall 2006 fashion collections is Derek Lam! Sorry, I’m in a slightly goofy mood tonight. Anyway, I wasn’t terribly familiar with Derek Lam before looking at this collection, but I will pay more attention to him in the future!

Look! A cape! Several of Derek Lam’s coats (and, like most of the other shows, he had quite a few) were very cape-like and I think this one actually is a cape (if not, it does a very good imitation). I like capes and I like even more seeing some coats that are different from the norm. Again, the palatte is mostly black and white, but with far fewer solid black outfits it avoided being oppressive.

I like the pants on this outfit. They are not the typical pencil or flared pants that we have seen over and over. They have some great military-like details down the side and around the pockets. I really like how the look turned out. It is very original and interesting. It definately catches the eye. They are a little slouchy for my taste, but it works really well for the design. I noticed that these pants appeared on the runway twice, so the designer must like them a lot too!

There was a lot of elegance in the dresses and gowns in this collection. The details, like the ones on this bodice, added a lot of interesting and unique elements to the designs. The gowns were flowy and flattering. I was really pleased with how flattering many of the dresses in this collection were, they really acentuated the model’s figures (what figures they have) very well.

I liked this collection a lot. It was great to see something original and find so many great details. I will definately keep an eye on Derek Lam’s future collections!