New Shoes

Tags

collab, Fashion, neon, Parabal Gurung, shoes, Spring 2013, Target

Like most other girls, I’m pretty much obsessed with shoes. Although I don’t like the term ‘obsessed’; it has negative connotations (kinda like ‘fashionista’.) Ok, I just love shoes (not obsessed) for no explicable reason.

Or actually, maybe I can explain. They make you look better. Period.

Last year, I bought so many shoes and only wore half of them (typical). Mainly because they were so uncomfortable. I mean they looked good.. to sit in. So now they’re in my closet for only one purpose: to be looked at.

And you know what? As good as it may feel to collect cool-looking shoes, shoes are meant to be worn. So screw 6-inch heels and heel-less heels. I can be smarter than that.

And I am. After noticing the fact that half of my shoe closet (or dare I say.. collection?) wasn’t being worn, I decided to invest wisely. So in came the chunky heel. And I was infatuated (thesaurus suggested I use that word instead of ‘obsessed’).

I bought so many shoes with chunky heels, wedges, and even somehow justified buying 3 different litas. I mean, even though almost every ‘fashionista’—negative connotation intended—has them (one girl I worked with told me she collects them.. seriously?), it’s hard not to buy at least one. Think about it: they look good with everything, make you super tall (which is a huge plus if you’re as short as I am), and are more comfortable than any other pair of heels I own. Sold.

Then winter came along, and I started wearing nothing but black. Anyone who knows me, knows I love wearing black all winter, and no matter how hard you try to convince me otherwise, I’m sticking with black. I mean, black and winter go perfectly together. Black makes everything look so chic, and let’s face it, most winter clothes are kinda blah (especially the puffy snow jackets that we have no choice but to wear for a third of the year here in Canada.) I also wear black all winter to mourn those three (here they’re actually four or five) depressing months.

Anyway, so when I started to wear black all winter, I bought nothing but black shoes. I currently own eight black shoes that I wear regularly all winter. I tried to switch it up and bought a pair of brown beautiful knee-high snakeskin boots from Michael Kors, and wore them twice. So I’ve just been staring at them and how pretty they are for the past 3 months really.

And now today, I went from one extreme (of chunky black heels) to another.

I bought these bright, colorful, pointy-heeled Prabal Gurung shoes from the states this weekend. (I went all the way to Buffalo, NY to eat at the Cheesecake Factory and bought these shoes while I was there). They were part of the Parabal Gurung x Target collaboration. And I initially went to check out the clothes (which looked really good online, but weren’t that great in person), and bought the shoes (which didn’t look that good online, but were great in person.)

I guess I’m done mourning winter, and starting to welcome (or beg for) spring. I’m completely against buying spring clothes or shoes until it’s actually spring, but I thought I’d make a smart exception this time. (So don’t expect anymore posts about spring clothes until spring actually comes.)

Featured: Chloé’s Spring/Summer ’13 Make-up Tutorial

Tags

Beauty, Chloé, Fashion, makeup, Spring 2013, SS13, Summer 2013, Trends, tutorial, video

If you guys didn’t already know, I love make-up. A bit too much (or never mind, there’s no such thing as too much).

Last summer, I started taking make-up artistry courses at Glow Academy so I can get my MUA certificate. So my plan is to eventually start working in make-up professionally.

Which brings me to this. Last weekend, I shot my first ever make-up tutorial for Stylecircle. This is the first part of our SS13 feature, where we’ll have tutorials for several designer looks from the Spring/Summer ’13 runway shows.

Anyway, watch the video and let me know what you think. Also, feel free to request any looks you want to see.

Psychedelic Meggings

Tags

bad fashion, humor, Men

Here’s a little something to get you excited about the weekend. As if guys wearing skin-tight skinnies wasn’t enough, we now have “meggings” (man leggings). But wait! They’re not just any meggings. They’re psychedelic jungle meggings.

Boys, hurry up and get them before they’re gone. Because the first guy to wear these, will have the entire female (or male) population eyeing him. (Possibly for the wrong reasons, but who knows.)

You don’t need to think twice. Buy them right here.

Featured: Winter Skin Savers

Tags

Beauty, Clarins, Clinique, Cosmetics, Fashion, Hand Creams, Health, Jack Black, L'Occitane, Moisturizers, Products, Scrubs, Sephora, Shopping, St. Ives, The Body Shop, Winter

Dry skin, oily skin, normal skin, combination skin, whatever your skin type may be. Find a way to save it during this horrible, horrible, cold winter. Read my post on stylecircle.co right here.

Ain’t Laurent without Yves

Tags

Céline, Chanel, Commes des Garçons, graphics, Unif, YSL, Yves Saint Laurent

The art of catchy slogans…

As a graphic designer interested in typography, clothing that has that extra witty touch of using words, is a marriage I want to see have many offspring and whose wedding I will gladly get drunk at.

Although these items aren’t necessarily produced by the brands themselves, (some are unknown,) they hold a clean look with bold text and the humor makes it worthwhile.

Unif T

FU boyfriend pullover

The well known, Commes des FUCKDOWN*

Celine me alone version 1

Celine me alone version 2

And finally, my favorite

Ain’t Laurent without Yves

The Collab to End All Collabs: Prabal Gurung x Target

Tags

collab, collaboration, Prabal Gurung, Spring, SS13, Target

Edgy, yet feminine. Bright, yet cool.. Prabal Gurung’s collaboration with Target is the best collab I’ve ever seen. This spring collection is so bright and colorful, it makes us all start to wish the snow away.

To see the entire collection, click here.

Opinions?

January Updates

Tags

Alber Elbaz, Bassem Youssef, Cairo, Collabs, Enigma, Fashion News, Ford Models, Georgia May Jagger, H&M, H&M x MMM, John Galliano, Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Kimye, Lancome, Maison Martin Margiela, Michelle Obama, Missoni, Neiman Marcus, News, Nina Garcia, Oscar de la Renta, Target, Toronto

January’s almost over so it’s about time I gave you the updates that you might or might not know.

First, there’s Cairo: 

• If you aren’t following Enigma on Facebook, or haven’t seen this yet, here’s the behind the scenes video of their Bassem Youssef cover shoot. Probably, Enigma’s best cover so far.

Here’s the cover photo: 

And here’s the video: 

In other news:

• For the past two weeks, Vittorio Missoni, the CEO of the family-run Missoni fashion brand, was lost at sea. They thought his plane may have been located, but apparently the issue’s more complex than we thought. The plane has not yet been located, and apparently neither the plane nor its pilot were licensed. Which lead to the speculation that he may have been kidnapped. And this leads me to the following question: Why would somebody want to kidnap him? What kind of beef could someone have with Vittorio Missoni? And if he truly was kidnapped, and the issue was just about money, why haven’t the kidnappers spoken out yet or asked for anything?

• Nina Garcia (Creative Director of Marie Claire, Project Runway Judge, and my personal favorite fashion author) launched a new webseries called Decoding Style. It premieres January 22nd on AOL. And what I like about her show, unlike other makeover type shows is that she’s not changing someone else’s style to suit her own style, but instead she show them how to express their own style better, or say, in a more fashionable or aesthetically pleasing way.

• Next up: Kimye. You’ve all likely had your twitter newsfeeds bombarded with Kimye baby tweets for at least 3 days once Kim announced her pregnancy. Then for weeks after that (and until now, really), your timeline has been bombarded with tweets about Kim’s controversial pregnancy outfits. But, you know what my favorite part of all this was? The Manrepeller’s prediction of what Kimye Jr. would look like. I’d say she seems to be pretty spot on. 

• As for the collabs. Remember how excited everyone got over the Neiman Marcus x Target collab? Or the MMM x H&M collab? And then it died out. And to top it all off, the products got extremely discounted. Reasons? First of all, the Neiman Marcus collection was a complete disappointment. The stuff was absurd, and there barely even any clothes. Just random.. stuff. Other than that, neiter of the two collabs had clear target clients. Maison Martin Margiela (MMM) isn’t for the general public, but H&M is. MMM is a niche that not everyone understands or even finds appealing, and therefore it should remain a niche. Another reason why the collection was discounted is because H&M collabs are often discounted because a lot of people buy them then try to sell them on ebay for 5 times the price. And as expected, nobody buys them. Because the whole appeal of a collab is its price. But H&M is smart. I asked about the return policy for the MMM collection, and they said it had to be returned within one week. Hence, they changed their return policy for collabs in order to give those ebay sellers a hard time.

• If you haven’t already heard, Ford Models is closing its Toronto offices. More about that here. My one concern is, is this going to affect Toronto’s fashion industry in some way?

• Georgia May Jagger (Daughter of Rolling Stones legend, Mick Jagger, and 70′s supermodel, Jerry Hall) lands a campaign with H&M for their Rock ‘n Roll Mansion Collection. Check out some sneak peeks here. 
• In beauty news, designer Alber Elbaz is collaborating with Lancôme to launch his first makeup line. 
  

• As for politics (well, not really), Michelle Obama got bangs! She also got a twitter account. 

• And now for the unexpected.. or what some of you may have expected: John Galliano gets a second chance. The giver of said second chance is Oscar de La Renta. Question is, has Galliano really changed? Oscar obviously thinks so. More on that here.

That’s that for now. Opinions? Comment below!

Jessica Jensen: The Super Designer

Tags

bags, Business, Canada, Entreprenneur, Fashion, Handbags, Inspiration, Interview, Jessica Jensen, Leather, Toronto

A couple of months ago, I interviewed Jessica Jensen at her studio on Queen Street West. The second I stepped into her studio, I had already gotten to know a lot about her. Her studio was white, cozy and elegantly yet artistically decorated. It had lots of personality. There were colorful bags lined up neatly next to a mannequin on the side, a table full of charts and designs, and a board full of goals and ideas. One can tell that a lot of work was going on in there. They were also preparing for a trade show in New York.

Interestingly enough, there were only two desks. That was because, as it turns out, there are only two people working at this studio: Jessica Jensen and Nadine Parsons, Jessica’s Sales Account Manager. I found this interesting because when you think of a luxury brand, you imagine a huge company with lots of staff. But no, Jessica and Nadine do everything themselves. Nadine’s job is to pitch to retailers across North America and overseas. She also helps Jessica with trade shows. “It’s a big company, we wear a lot of hats, and it is just the two of us”, says Nadine.  “That’s why we are crazy, because we both do a lot of jobs!”

Did they seem crazy? Not so much. Passionate? Definitely. While Interviewing Jessica, she was smiling the entire time. And not the fake I-have-to-put-on-a-happy-face-for-the-interview kind of smile, but more like the genuine I’m-so-happy-I-can’t-stop-smiling kind of smile. I’m assuming it was either because she was that happy to see us, because she was excited about tomorrow’s trade show in New York, or simply because talking about her job makes her happy because she loves it that much. It was definitely because she was happy to see us. No, I’m guessing it was all three reasons, but it must mostly be because of her love for her job. When asked about why she chose the fashion industry, she said “one of my girlfriends when I was very young said ‘I am going to be a fashion designer’ and I was like ‘actually, I am going to be.’”

Well, she did become quite the designer. When she launched her line in New York in 2008, her creations, known for their unique detailing and exclusive European leathers (Jessica Jensen Incorporated), were instantly picked up by everyone. Her collection was immediately featured in magazines such as In Style and was on 5^th Avenue right away. It was also featured in Vogue within 2 months. She later secured a spot in The Shopping Channel’s handbag lineup, which is a first for a Canadian fashion designer (The Vancouver Sun).

It’s quite inspiring how she did it all by herself. Until a year ago, it was just her; she only hired Nadine last year. Surprised? Me too. But with Jessica, it makes sense. She’s more than just a designer. She’s also a businesswoman. Since she was young, she was always business-minded. She acquired her mother’s artistic sensibility and her father’s business sensibility. “A lot of people’s goal in fashion is to just have a fashion show at Toronto Fashion Week,” said Jessica. “Well, that doesn’t make you a business.” She then gave us advice, saying, “At the end of the day, if you wanna do what you love, you have to make money doing it.”

In my opinion, Jessica Jensen is a super designer (if such a thing were to exist). She can balance all the work of running a luxury brand, with only Nadine helping her. She can design beautiful bags with high quality and great attention to detail, but can also run a successful business. As Jessica said, “It’s very difficult to start and run a business if you don’t have your entire heart and soul into it.” It’s quite obvious that’s exactly what she did, and frankly, it’s inspiring.

For more about Jessica Jensen, go to her official site. Also, shop Jessica Jensen’s handbags here. And don’t forget to like her Facebook page and follow her on twitter for updates.

References: 
Jessica Jensen Incorporated. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.shopjessicajensen.com/pages/the-designer 
The Vancouver Sun. Fashion feature: Canadian designer Jessica Jensen. Retrieved from http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2012/04/30/fashion-feature-canadian-designer-jessica-jensen