Peplum Power … Give Your Skirt Wings

If fall’s most mystifying trend was the mullet dress, spring offers an equally mystifying take on the idea.  For spring it’s all about the peplum skirt.  This is one of those trends that I am skeptical I will ever be able to get on board with.  I am usually one to buy into just about any and every trend.  I believe firmly in the concept so eloquently played out on Leandra Medine’s blog The Man Repeller, that women dress not for men, but largely for themselves and each other, and there is an enormous amount of pleasure to be gotten from indulging in the most preposterous of trends no matter how ugly and inexplicable men might find them.  When I think about fashion and getting dress, it aspires at its best to art, not to a sales pitch for my sexuality.  But a girl’s got to draw the line somewhere, and the peplum may be one of the most horrid design elements I have ever seen.

The peplum skirt was certainly a presence on the spring runways…

whether at Jason Wu

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Spring Dresses, Look Like Costumes From Mad Men, But Are Utterly Modern

As spring gets into full swing, and the stores are starting to hold spring sales, it seems like must have item this spring and summer is not in fact floral jeans (although they’re still great, so don’t worry if you followed my earlier advice and got a pair), but the floral dress.  As a certain kind of over the top Monet floral print becomes ubiquitous, it seems like everywhere I turn Erdem has suddenly become “the” brand.  It may be that I only recently became aware of it and others have known the label for a while.  But it suddenly seems to be in every magazine, on every celebrity, in every boutique ….  And Erdem’s forte, as it turns out, is a certain style of floral print constructed into garments that seem almost sweet (kind of Mad Men style) but is tailored with a modern edge that tempers what could easily come across as awfully saccharine.  Is Erdem popular because the floral thing is such a big trend right now, or did the line play any kind of a role in shaping the trend?  That’s deep, right?

Erdem Spring 2012 Collection

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Fashion Star May Have Style And Not Just Celebrity And Sales

Fashion Star may prove me wrong yet.  Love this dress!

Nikki's High End Maxi Dress - Episode 4 - Bought by H&M

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Head Over To H&M Before You Hit The Red Carpet … No One Will Know

If you can easily afford designer prices, hell, go for it.  The clothes are generally exquisite.  If you find a designer piece on an unbelievable sale, go for that too.  But in terms of jumping onboard with spring’s fabulous designer trends, the fact is it’s really not necessary to shell out for the real thing.  That is, after all, what fast fashion is about — the fact that trends are changing constantly, so the clothing may as well be disposable and be priced accordingly.  Beyond that, however, H&M does an absolutely unbelievable job of reproducing the designer trends.  At times, it can be hard to distinguish the H&M version from the real thing.

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You Know You’re Okay When You Look Just Like Everyone Else

Seriously?  A third fashion post in a row?  I know, I’m a little annoyed with myself for it, but I finally feel ready to address the whole Fashion Star  thing.  And the fact of the matter is, it’s really not a fashion post, but a retail/pop-culture/popular-mentality post.  Because Fashion Star  is only tangentially a show about fashion.  Critics can’t resist the temptation to compare it to Project Runway, and I am certainly guilty of that inclination myself, but the fact is, they are apples and oranges.  Project Runway  is about the art of fashion — the process, creativity in the face of constraints, talent, blah blah blah.   Fashion Star  is about retail.  It’s about understanding what sells, about marketing, getting clothing to market quickly and selling through even more quickly.

So far (and admittedly it has only been one episode) Fashion Star  is getting mixed reviews as entertainment.  As reality television it is not likely to garner anything resembling the cult following of Project Runway.  But it seems to be succeeding where it counts — maybe not for the network, but for the designers and above all the stores.  Consensus is, the format plays like one long infomercial and leaves plenty to be desired.  But bottom line, the show aired, the winning designs became available online and in stores, and the clothes sold like hotcakes.  No, not in the blow out in 2 hours fashion that Versace for H&M sold.  But still, the show aired Tuesday and by mid-day Wednesday H&M online had sold out of the winning dress.  If you ask me, that’s pretty impressive.  Karl Lagerfeld for Macy’s didn’t sell that quickly.  The inevitable question is “Why?”.

Fashion Star Ep 1 Blue Dress Designed by Sarah (really, just look at the description, you can't get much more generic than that)

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Another Affordable Designer Capsule Collection … Ho Hum

Karl by Karl Lagerfeld

Is it just me, or is this whole affordable designer capsule collection thing just spinning out of control?  I bet you’re getting tired of reading posts about designer collaborations. I’m getting tired of hearing of them and I am obsessed with the damn things. That suggests to me that something is clearly out of whack. Let’s take stock of the collections since the summer:

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Pick Your Reality – Wait Until You See The Options

Trish Summerville's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" collection for H&M - Remember this?

Holy cow! This movie tie-in thing is really starting to get out of control. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that H&M was launching a collection based on the Lisbeth Salander character from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoofilm which will open on Tuesday. The collection hit stores today. I suggested in my post that the collection left me a little confused about H&M’s understanding of its target audience. But really, it is a bizarre concept all together. H&M has received criticism for the collection arguing that it glamorizes rape survivors. Natalie Karneef writes that “[Lisbeth Salander]’s a hero in some ways, but in other ways she’s somebody that I don’t think we should glorify from a fashion point of view”. H&M has responded saying that the collection was less about the specific character, than it was “about encapsulating an urban street fashion and how Trish Summerville was inspired in creating the costumes for the film”, about a general revival grunge aesthetic. H&M’s response kind of misses the point. Karneef has said, “I want them to think about why she’s wearing the clothing and how that’s not a good thing.” Lisbeth Salander is an incredible character, but much of her strength and character come out of a childhood of horrible adversity and abuse. Her style is 100% informed by those experiences. Clothing plays an important part in self-definition, so it is naïve to offer up to the public an identity of anger, walling oneself off, rejecting engagement with society as a result of intense trauma and suffering, and to suggest that the public put on that wardrobe without realizing that you are offering them that identity, and idealizing it, along with the clothes. One can admire Lisbeth Salander for how she has responded to those circumstances, and who she has become as a result, but I don’t think any of us really wants to walk in her shoes, literally or figuratively.

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H&M: Calling All Sexy Tattooed Librarians with a Pierced Lip, Bleach Blond Hair and a Fake Tan?

I am ever more fascinated with H&M’s marketing positioning and its understanding of its audience as demonstrated by its designer collaborations.  The store’s stated mission is “to bring you fashion and quality at the best price” (H&M website, About H&M). While aimed at “everyone interested in fashion”, I have always understood to accessibility of the H&M pricepoint to imply that the store aimed to bring fashion and style to a broad audience.  The early forays into designer collaborations reinforced this understand.  They did not bring high fashion in its totality to the general population at accessible prices, but rather some of the most accessible (from the standpoint of style and wearability) of high fashion to the public at accessible prices.  Not only were the prices accessible, but the clothes were.  The first two collaborations, with Karl Lagerfeld and then with Stella McCartney, were well tailored and elegant, beautiful, but ultimately fairly conservative and safe.

Lagerfeld for H&M

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Confession Time

OK, I have to make a confession.

– Let me preface this post by saying that this is only for those of you who are interested in fashion and/or shopping.  Anyone interested in the more philosophical aspects of this blog will have no interest in this post and shouldn’t read any further.  I am capable of more depth than what follows, but there is no question that the superficial often gets the better of me.  I find that superficial concerns can be quite funny, which makes life a lot more fun after all. However, for those who like pretty pictures, this post is extremely wordy.  In other words, this post should appeal to about two people. I promise I won’t make a habit of this.  –

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Are You Prepared to Sleep on the Street for Donatella?

I don’t know about anyone else, but I all of the talk about the Versace for H&M collection exhausts me and there are still two more days until it launches!!  Maybe I’m bitter and jaded from the Missoni mess?  Tiring from all of these collaborations?  That couldn’t be, could it?  There is almost nothing I won’t do for great fashion.  It’s a little out of control.  The day that the Missoni collection went on sale I was reading all of the rants and pleas on the Target Style Facebook page and pointed out to a friend that as nuts as I might appear to be about sales, clothes, shopping – you name it – at least there were people clearly a lot more extreme than I.  She laughed and said, “Don’t fool yourself, you’re plenty crazy.”  Having admitted that, and acknowledging that I have been excited about the Versace collection for H&M since I first heard about it, and the clothes look AMAZING — even if I’ll look like space woman wearing that fabulous black floral tunic and leggings, I am dying to wear it — I’m kind of stunned that I really cannot bring myself to line up in front of H&M at whatever absurd hour on Saturday (Friday night?) to have some sort of hope of getting into the store while there’s still merchandise.  It seems pretty clear that if you’re not there first thing on this one, it will be all over before you know it.  So I’m trying to resign myself to what appears to be fact — I will not be getting any of the Versace clothes.  You have to understand, for me that’s a little bit heart breaking.  But I just don’t think I have it in me to go as nuts as this one requires.

So … in an effort to console myself, and anyone else who is in the same boat, if you can’t get those fabulous Versace leggings, here are some other options:

1.  Go RIGHT NOW to Hautelook before these things sell out!  Yes, it still involves an element of mania, but at least you can do it easily from in front of your computer in the middle of the afternoon, so check out the Betsey Johnson and Anna Sui sales.  No, they’re not Versace — at all, I know — but they’re not a bad alternative (and perhaps a little more wearable).  Coincidence that Hautelook is having this sale today?  I think not.

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