A PEARLfect Dress

Black and White is a MAJOR trend this season. I ALWAYS love to see what the house of CHANEL puts down their elaborate runways. Every season Karl Lagerfeld realizes a different fashion fantasy dream. Spring/Summer 2013 showed a lot of black and white and the fabulous signature CHANEL faux-pearl accessories.

These two PEARLfect pieces in particular caught my eye:

Total PEARLfection! I love the "pearls" are the embellishment on the dress and top, not just the accessory.

At EvolutionVintage you can acquire a PEARLfect Vintage Givenchy dress in black velvet with the same PEARLfect embelishment! An amazing piece of Fashion History.

Dress Details: Vintage Givenchy Cocktail Dress (80's) ~ Velvet with faux pearl embellishments. "Givenchy Nouvelle Boutique" Label - Made in Paris France. Size 38/8. Style: G 72 R, color: 02 - 65% Rayon 35% Cupro. Dry Clean. Tiny zippers at cuffs. Back Zip Metal (Swiss). neck/hem/cuff trimmed in "satin" (black). Slight shoulder pad. EXCELLENT!

Bust=36"

Waist=34"

Hip=41"

Length (shoulder to Hem)=39.5"

Sleeve Length=21"

Purchase ~ $600

Inspired: Chanel S/S 1994

It is no secret that I am in LOVE with the house of CHANEL. I have always loved the classic CoCo LBD, Suits and costume jewelry. I personally think Karl Lagerfeld is a BEYOND a fashion icon and is a creative genius.

I could really flash back to EVERY collection and site elements to become inspired by.  Yes it is fall but I'm looking at Spring/Summer .. 1994.

I adore the colours and textures of this collection, the nude/black shoes, the short skirt suits, the suspenders and of course the roller skates. The brooches are amazing as usual and nice to see the pops of colour styled on the runway in the models hair. It looks like people's love today for the contemporary coloured coiffure's, hair pieces and dipped ends.

The handbags and accessories took a really interesting direction as well; bold colours, plastic colourful chains replacing the traditional gold tone hardware on both belt and bags and whip stitching and trims in bright contrasting hues. 

Editorial from American VOGUE, MARCH 1994 - Photographer: Steven Meisel

Want a piece from this adorable collection???
Pieces like this are becoming more rare to find. If you are a CHANEL collector this is a fabulous piece!

BUY IT HERE

Watch the entire show and take a stroll down catwalk memory lane.

RIP Anna Piaggi: Queen of Eclecticism

© David Downton, 2000

This morning in Milan, fashion icon, writer and front row fixture passed away at the age of 81.  The fashion world gained another angel and the physical world has lost it's Queen of Eclecticism. 

Not very often are we as a society blessed with an individual that TRULY defies trends and dresses in a truly authentic way. A genuine reflection of their inner self which defies all "rules" and traditional taste. 

Anna Piaggi has been a fashion fixture since the 1970's. She started working for an Italian publishing company (Mondadori) and then onto Vogue Italia. She was known there for her D.P's - doppie pagine, Her Double Page Spreads in Italian VOGUE where she was given creative free reign and released her inner stylist and creative fierceness. She has been a stylist, muse, editor, writer, collector, style icon and front row regular.

She was a friend and muse to Karl Lagerfeld since the 1970's and Manolo Blahnik. He has been quoted as saying she is "modern beyond belief." and created many of the shoes she wore.  

She was also the muse of British milliner Stephen Jones and she had a life long love for unique hats and head pieces.

She was a fashion and accessories collector and constantly mixed Vintage and contemporary, textures and prints.  She loved a fabulous hat and will be remembered for her iconic blue hair that she had up until her death today. She was honored with an exhibition in called "Fashion-ology" at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London (2006)

It featured: 265 pairs of shoes, 29 fans, 932 hats, 2,865 dresses, 24 aprons and 31 feather boas.

FUN FACT: She used a RED 1969 Olivetti typewriter daily.

Her style was the definition of eclectic. She mixed prints and  piled on the accessories: Hats, Gloves, Decorative Cains, Purses, Fans, Jewels and Scarves. She mixed old with new, the avant guard with the conservative, and pushed the fashion envelope right off the table. Although some could call her aesthetic silly or costume, I think it is unique, bold and fabulous!   

Anna's life was a vivid textured illustration and lesson to all of us that style knows no bounds except the ones we impose on ourselves. 

Anna and the original supermodels. All wearing Gianni Versace. 1990's

One of MY Living Style Icons Dita Von Teese Sum's it up via her Twitter.

So Glovely

I am totally in love with the Patricia Field Half gloves ($48) I purchased as a Pre-Christmas gift to myself. I love to go to her website for a treat now and then. 

So for Spring/Summer I have to say the most GLOVELY thing is fingerless gloves.

Any fashionsita knows that as of late design genius Karl Lagerfeld has been King of the gloves and been rocking them down the runway since about 2002/2003. Post dramatic weight loss he changed his signature look and added the gloves.

I am in LOVE with the CHANEL fingerless gloves in black and white!

And even thumbless they are super CHIC!

Rianna is SO GLOVELY in these too

Can afford the CC pair? Don't worry once again Pat Field has something for all you GLOVERs out there.

MINI-Fingerless Gloves $34

SPY Fingerless Gloves $42

Kimora's Kollection - A Fashion Archive

Many of you know Kimora Lee Simmons for various reasons. She was the creative force behind the Baby Phat brand which she developed and grew for over 10 years. While there she diversified herself into fragrances, cosmetics, KLS collection, Kouture By Kimora, Fabulosity Jr. Line, Hello Kitty Jewelry, Books and still continues her evolution. She is now living a PHAT free life and is focused on the KLS brand and all it's fabulous products; "Onward and Upward" as she put's it. A new skin care line to come this spring as well as the launch of her new fragrance "Love Me" (which is her 6th). This blog was inspired by the re-launch of her website www.KLS.com. It got me thinking about her evolution within the world of fashion and her celebration of fashion as an art form.

I have read that there are people who feel much of her success can be attributed to her ex husband Hip Hop Mogul Russell Simmons. From where I sit he has been a great mentor, friend, creative partner and inspiration for her but NOT the reason for her continues success or her break into the fashion industry. She was part of the high fashion business as a model long before she became Mrs. Simmons.

Kimora started her career in fashion at the tender age of 13, in true Kimora style. She did not start in a catalogue, or doing local modelling jobs in her home town of St. Louis, Missouri - she went straight to the runways of Paris courtesy of fashion designer and creative genius Karl Lagerfeld. Right out of the gate the biggest honor a model can receive was bestowed on her by the house of CHANEL, she was the finale bride in the 1989 Haute Couture show in Paris. She went on to model for Valentino, Yves St. Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld (his own label), Fendi, Mary McFadden, Susan Lazar, Anna Sui and others.

Fashion has always been part of Kimora's life and over the years she has collected an amazing archive of clothing, accessories and treasures that would make The Metropolitan Museum of Art's costume institute consider an exhibit!

My favorite and in my opinion one of the most impressive fashion treasures is the late Gianni Versace's BED. Not a bed and linens from his home signature collection but HIS bed from the master bedroom from his Miami home (Casa Casuarina). I could not even imagine the energy this piece would bring into one's home. To lay your head where one of histories GREATEST fashion designers slept, worked and possibly cultivated some of his designs is AMAZING.

She also has the largest private collection of Louis Vuitton purses, bags and luggage second only to the house of Louis Vuitton. Not all of it is contemporary either.

She has a large collection of Vintage items such as steamer trunks and the BEST piece: A LV hat box that belonged to the late Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis, complete with hair strands left behind; if that box could talk.

I think her signature bag has to be the Hermes Birkin!

Kimora pictured with a small fraction of her Hermes Birkin bag collection - YES she has one in MAUVE (I LOVE IT) ... and yellow, white, pink, black, orange, green, blue and various shades of brown/tan. It is my personal belief that Hermes should create a custom Birkin named "Kimora": in bright LIME!

I am also aware that her collection of Chanel clothing and accessories is vast, spanning the decades. She has vintage pieces, pieces given to her by Karl Lagerfeld personally and those she has accumulated through purchase. I love the patchwork head band from the Fall 1990/1991 show (As seen on Kimora on the runway). It reminds me of my youth spend watching fashion.

She also loves her classic patchwork bags. She even has a bag that she says “Chanel didn’t even know they had”

(Photo posted by Kimora via Twitter of her closet recently)

She has expressed to me via Twitter her love for Vintage clothing and the history of fashion. Her closet is full of both contemporary and Vintage designer pieces. Her collection is so vast she houses it in two seperate locations, in 2 states! Her "satellite closet" as she calls it is in her house in LA and I suppose the mother ship resides in her New Jersey boudoir.

Then there is her love of shoes! She has 2 closets stuffed with the most sought after, designer shoes. The majority being 4", another not so subtle expression of her "go big or go home" attitude! BRAVO KLS! My favorite item: Custom made and Custom designed pairs Manolo Blahnik's

Can you imagine having a closet like this?

NJ

LA

The 'mother ship' Closet in NJ (shot for InStyle Feature 2007, Life and Home

The 'satellite' closet LA (from her Bluefly Closet Confession)

See Kimora's Closet Confession Here:

Next time Kimora take the camera's to the mother ship and call LisaG when you feel like purging, we wear the same size shoe!