Street style - Morning on the green...

Global street runways

So! Now that all the Fashion Weeks have been put to rest until the next season, I thought of moving the show to the 'other' catwalk. The streets. Starting from today, I'll be doing a daily 'street style' pic to see how women are translating the trends from runways, infusing them with their own personal style and creating daily looks to work, school, a coffee date etc.

From the effortless European style, trendy Italians, avant garde and unique looks from Japan and creative and interesting uptown/downtown New York chic - do enjoy!

Handbag Trends: Autumn/Winter '09-'10

Unlike the shoes, the handbags have me salivating this winter. There’s a huge varied spread to choose from but there are two clear macro trends ie.

The small bag

The bulk of bags this winter are small to medium sized. Louis Vuitton, Burberry Porsum and Prada’s are divine and medium sized. The school ma’am, duffel and medicine bag look is big (a match made in heaven with those square toe block heels and this season’s leather glove).

while houses like Jean Paul Gaultier and Fendi are showing cute small stunning ones.

Kelly bags (Grace Kelly’s signature bag ) have also made a strong come back.
The short handle bag

This bag is carried by a short strap, hooked over the forearm or carried in your hang with no strap at all. In place of a lot of ‘noise’, it is simply of the highest possible quality.

Think cute clutch with quiet but interesting detail. And we’re no longer just talking evening clutch bags here. I’m absolutely bonkers about the oversized day-wear ones.

Not very practical if you have a lot to carry but oh so worth it, in my humble opinion.
And if you’re thinking of going bigger with the short handle bag, think of a man's briefcase but give it softer curves (and make space to put more in it), and then stamp it subtly with a classic logo: Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Fendi, YSL and Moschino. Make it a Kelly shape and viola!

Again, the embellishment trend features strongly here. Chains, ruffles, fur, animal print, lace, bows, sequins, metallics etc

What’s that saying? No rule without exception? At Versace, Mulberry, Gucci (but of course!) Burberry and Prada, they said ‘to hell with it’ and went trademark big

with some of their bags.

My Dolce & Gabbana dress crush

I mean over all, the Dolce & Gabbana fall/winter 2009 line was gorgeous but,

I love LOVE the Marilyn Manroe homage dresses that they sent down the runway.

The dresses have been popping up everywhere. From editorials to magazine covers.

*Sighs*

Shoe Trends: Autumn/Winter ’09-’10 (Part 2)

For winter 2010, the ankle boot and the over the knee boot are the king and queen respectively, where shoe trends are concerned. The form of the shoe this winter is more conservative and practical. Couturiers chose quality, simplicity and style over last season’s experimental spirit. Yes, blame it on the recession.

As a shoe and handbag fiend, I was disappointed to see that there wasn’t anything ‘new’ to see. That said, there were definitely beautiful shoes that made me catch my breath. Let’s look at the main shapes and styles that walked down the ramp.
The colour: This season, the colours are in the lines of black, midnight blue, dark violet, petrol, dark green, asphalt and deep reds. I like the lovely purples, berries and earth tones that made a showing too.

There are also nude colours like beige, grey and taupe which are in contrast to these dark shades.

Metallic shoes translated well from clothes to bags to shoes.

The two-toned shoe has also made a come-back.

The heel – Continuing from Spring/Summer 2009, the hot favourites were 6-inch stilettos, (because I’m not a fan of the pain factor of stilettos, I’m glad to see that particular heel going the platform route (and I don’t mean the toe to heel 90’s version of a platform *shudder*). Yours truly can now partake fully! Love those Guccis.

square and trapezoid heels,

and the block heel - the higher the better.

Although the wedge heel was predominantly seen on boots, some designers showed it on shoes too.

The form – The hottest forms were iron tips,

the square toe style and

rounded oval shapes like mary-janes.

Taking cues from the dandy trend, brogues and oxfords were also visible on the catwalk.

The detail – Details were kept to a minimum, in contrast to spring/summer ’09. Fringe, studs, zippers, flowers, ruffles, feathers, lace and sequins made a lovely transition from clothing ranges to the shoes.

Though I’ve never been a big fan, this year’s animal prints/skin shoes 

won me over.