While perusing The Cut (one of my favorite fashion blogs), I came across this fascinating article by Amy Odell that gives advice on how to increase your photo potential at Fashion Week. Amy herself was made-over as part of a journalistic experiment to see if she would get more attention if she was styled a certain way. It turns out, she absolutely did:

On the fifth day of New York Fashion Week, after a lot of careful research and planning, Team Cut turned me into a piece of street style bait with some very deliberate styling. The outfit worked, and over the following days my picture appeared on Marie Claire, StyleList, and Citizen Couture, among other sites. I have yet to find photos of myself from the other seven days I went to fashion shows in street style blog posts. But at least I mattered for a day, kind of! 

As someone who literally reads fashion blogs for a living, I can tell you that her advice is spot on. If you are lucky enough to go to Fashion Week, follow Amy’s advice on how to become a street style sensation:

More is more
Pile on accessories, layers, outerwear – whatever you can find.

Rock an iconic label
Being decked in a well-recognized piece is key – but don’t overdo it.

Brighten your pout
A statement lipstick makes you look very busy and important.

By Veronica Vandoloski, Social Media Guru

What are your street style secrets? Share it in the comments below or tweet us @ruelala.

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The second of a two-part series. Lauren David Peden recaps the top trends for Fall 2012, as seen at Fashion Week in Paris. Read her first post here.

Riccardo Tisci unveiled his fall Givenchy collection in a freezing cold schoolyard in the dead of night. Thankfully, the sexy, equestrian- and Guy Bourdin-inspired clothes – tailored patchwork riding jackets, silk jodhpurs, over-the-knee leather boots, pleated skirts, colorful furs, sensual silk dresses – set to the sound of galloping horses, warmed the audience (including Alicia Keys and Kanye West) right up.

Jean Paul Gaultier is French to his core, but his fall collection paid homage to an urban street scene that’s as prevalent in downtown New York as it is in the City of Lights. On the runway – with The Velvet Underground blasting from the speakers – were deconstructed motorcycle jackets and pencil skirts, graffiti-print dresses, leather sweatshirts, skeleton print leggings, neon fur chubbies, and skunk-striped punk rock hairdos, all offset by beautifully tailored, borrowed-from-the-boys suiting and outerwear.

Stella McCartney re-imagined country wardrobe staples for life in the big city by way of cozy cable knit sweater dresses, oversized coats in electric blue, roomy low-slung trousers, sporty miniskirts, and tweed suits with padded hips (exaggerated hips being a major trend next season).

Karl Lagerfeld’s collection for Chanel was inspired by the center of the earth. This translated to a soaring, stalagmite-strewn backdrop, distressed leather pants that recalled crumbling rocks, tweed jackets that sparkled like mica, coats with geodesic dome-like sleeves, crystal-strewn tunics, and incredibly cool crystal-heeled booties. Even the models’ eyebrows glistened, thanks to embellished appliqués from the house of Lesage.

At Valentino, design duo Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli elevated traditional folk costume to haute new heights, edging black leather pieces in macramé, tying the neck of a sheer-sleeved white blouse in an anything-but-prim chiffon bow, and using classic frog closures on a boxy beige jacket. Then there were the modernized folkloric prints on sleek maxi dresses, the passementerie-trimmed coats, laser-cut leather cocktail frocks, and dresses that took their multicolor motifs from antique carpets. All were rendered in sophisticated shades of black, ivory, taupe, and – of course! – Valentino red.

Lauren David Peden writes for Rue La La as a Contributing Editor.

Paris Fashion Week brought high-tech fabrics, graphic prints, bold colorblocking and lush jewel tones into the mix for fall, along with a pull-out-the-stops bash celebrating Alber Elbaz’s 10th anniversary at Lanvin and the final collection from YSL’s departing designer, Stefano Pilati.

Dries Van Noten opened the Paris shows in a stately salon at the Hôtel de Ville. His gorgeous collection featured menswear-inspired garments – wool blazers, silk button-downs, tailored trousers, double-breasted topcoats, sporty anoraks – embroidered with Chinese, Japanese, and Korean graphics (cranes, phoenix, golden dragons, and the like) sourced from artwork at the Victoria & Albert Museum. The serene proceedings were enlivened by lush kimono silks, beautiful patchwork prints, and judicious touches of fur.

Things got hot – literally – at Rick Owens, thanks to the flame-spewing metal backdrop. On the runway: billowy drop-crotch shorts with cropped leather jackets, draped turtleneck tunics, pilled-chiffon gowns, and long coats in cool shades of grey and ivory, inspired by brutalist architecture and Marlene Dietrich. On the models’ heads: lattice knit masks that served to both invite and deflect the viewer’s gaze.
Continue reading “Paris Fall 2012 Fashion Week, Part 1” »

The second of a two-part series. Lauren David Peden recaps the top trends for Fall 2012, as seen at New York Fashion Week.

CALF-LENGTH SKIRTS/FLIPPY MINIS
While the knee-length pencil skirt is still popular, the new skirt comes in two distinct lengths: either flippy, mid-thigh minis (as seen at DKNY, Chado Ralph Rucci, Jill Stuart, Proenza Schouler, and Nanette Lepore) or the more demure calf-length full skirts seen at Marc by Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors, BCBGMAXAZRIA, Tory Burch, Band of Outsiders, Stephen Burrows, Carolina Herrera, Theyskens’ Theory, Reed Krakoff, Christine Alcalay, and J.Crew.

OXBLOOD
Deep burgundy is fall’s new hue, and was spotted on the runway at DKNY, Jason Wu, Alexander Wang, Yigal Azrouel, Rebecca Taylor, Tory Burch, Nanette Lepore, Donna Karan, Proenza Schouler, and Cynthia Rowley.

FUR ACCESSORIES
Fur is everywhere next season, in pieces both large (as in full-length coats) or small (hats, scarves), from designers both emerging and established. Fashion Week newbie Brandon Sun did some beautiful raccoon, SAGA fox, chinchilla, shearling, and sable boleros, scarves, and collars. Chado Ralph Rucci lined a raincoat in coyote and offered a chinchilla-sleeved velvet coat and sheared mink tunic. Elizabeth and James designed knitted fox vests and fur-trimmed anoraks. Michael Kors did tail-trimmed fur vests and ponchos. Rachel Zoe and Skaist-Taylor were all about 70s-style fur stoles. Norma Kamali, M.PATMOS, and Juan Carlos Obando did some terrific-looking faux furs. And Yigal Azrouel and Marc Jacobs offered seriously OTT fur hats.
Continue reading “Top 10 NYFW Fall 2012 Trends, Part 2” »

New York Fashion Week introduced quite a few major trends for the upcoming Fall 2012 season. Here, some of my top 10:

SWEATER DRESSING
Knitwits, unite! Fall is always about sweaters, but this season has seen a resurgence of delicate, near-gossamer, hand-knit or crochet tops (at Sunhee and Tess Giberson), along with cozy cashmere at Michael Kors, TSE, Richard Chai, and Doo.Ri, sweater dresses at Rag & Bone and Hervé Léger, and colorful crewnecks at M.PATMOS, J.Crew, and Marc Jacobs.

BORROWED FROM THE BOYS
Menswear was one of the biggest trends, from oversized tweedy toppers at Rebecca Taylor, Elizabeth and James, and Rebecca Minkoff, to sleek suits and tuxedos at Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren, and Imitation (the latter of whom collaborated with NYC menswear tailor Doyle Mueser) to shrunken boy blazers at Karen Walker and on to slouchy grandpa cardigans at Richard Chai, VPL, and Yigal Azrouel.

LAYERING
The sartorial pile-on was also big news (think: skirts over pants under sweaters, coats, vests, and scarves) at Anna Sui, Chris Benz, Rag & Bone, Libertine, Michael Kors, Richard Chai LOVE, Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacobs, and Elizabeth and James, to name just a few. Tess Giberson’s collection, inspired by the wrapping of artist Christo, was devoted entirely to the layered look, while M.PATMOS fashioned her layered pieces from sustainable or eco-friendly wool and alpaca.
Continue reading “Top 10 NYFW Fall 2012 Trends, Part 1” »

While Fashion Week coverage tends to focus on the clothes, there’s always lots of great jewelry being previewed – and that’s certainly the case for Fall 2012. Overall, elements of nature snaked their way through statement-making pieces, fusing with precious metals in new-to-the-world ways.

[THE NATURAL ORDER]

Take Dezso by Sara Beltran, for instance (“dezso” is Latin for “desire”). The Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation-winning designer made her NYFW debut this season, showcasing a surf-inspired collection she called “Open Water” – a riff on the “Mex-India” mix that defines her haute hippie jewelry. Besides blending semi-precious stones (sourced in Jaipur then carved into the beachy shapes – shark’s teeth, shells, fins – prevalent in her native Mexico), she also utilizes Gorgonian coral, fossilized shark teeth, polki diamonds, opals, and “Flamingo Fluorescent” woven elements in the collection. Fittingly, she displayed her pieces on models wearing molded black wetsuits who lounged amid pieces of driftwood.

M.PATMOS has been designing clothing for many years now, but for Fall she collaborated with jewelers tenthousandthings on a series of gorgeous, one-of-a-kind pieces crafted from 300-year-old pine salvaged from a demolished warehouse in Brooklyn (in keeping with the designer’s eco-friendly leanings). The wood was treated as a gem and set in fine silver and enamel in the jewelers’ 14th Street studio.
Continue reading “What A Gem: NYFW Jewelry Trends” »

You may not know Pamela Skaist-Levy and Gela Nash-Taylor by name, but you’ve definitely heard of the fashion brand they founded back in the 90s: a little label called Juicy Couture.

The duo sold Juicy a few years back and just emerged after an 18-month “non-compete” hiatus with a brand-new collection called Skaist-Taylor and a debut presentation during New York Fashion Week.

The longtime BFFs opted to eschew the tents at Lincoln Center in favor of the parking garage beneath Lincoln Center, and guests were greeted by the words “Because the Sky is Blue” as they entered the subterranean lair – The Beatles song the lyric comes from also played on the soundtrack – followed by a maze-like corridor featuring backlit photos of California redwoods. This opened onto a concrete runway and more backlit photo cubes, several of which featured a dreamy film of the Skaist-Taylor collection worn by Theodora Richards (aka, Patti Hansen and Keith Richards’ daughter).
Continue reading “Skaist-Taylor Unveils Their New Collection” »

Between the after-parties and the runway soundtracks, New York Fashion Week is almost as much about music as it is about fashion, and this season is no exception.

Pillow-lipped chanteuse Lana Del Rey‘s been in the news a lot lately. Sure, her SNL performance was panned, but she looks great in clothes, and for the fashion flock, that’s all the matters. Her angsty pop songs have been the de acto soundtrack throughout the early part of Fashion Week, most notably at Doo.Ri’s show, where a remixed version of Born to Die played throughout.

Another newcomer is Harlem’s Azealia Banks, a witty, NC-17 rapper whose playful lyrics and street chic style have earned her editorial shoots with A-list photographers for V, GQ, and ELLE magazines. Thierry Mugler designer Nicola Formichetti directed the video of her upcoming single, “Liquorice,” and Terry Richardson shot her for the next issue of T. Banks played a private party at Karl Lagerfeld’s home in Paris during the couture shows last month and her song was in heavy rotation at the Rebecca Taylor and Tracy Reese shows this week.
Continue reading “Music, Maestro!” »