BALMAIN Fall 2009

I can not believe how wonderfully perfectly amazing Christophe Decarnin's Fall 2009 collection was! I'm love with every look, every piece and oh the sequins! Click HERE if you'd like to check out a video of the show!

P.S. How hot is Anja Rubik?? Fashion's next It Girl? 

Thursday Night

My girlfriends and I went to Electrofest @ Venue Thursday night, here's my look! DIY tank, American Apparel skirt, Zara shoes and bag. Just got my haircut yesterday too, very short! This is definately the shortest it has ever been, it's taking some getting used to. 

VOGUE en Francais

Sometimes when I have a day off, I will go to Chapters, the one on Howe and Robson, and sit in the magazine section and browse through five or six or seven magazines to make sure I buy the one, or two, that have the best fashion editorials. 

The other day the magazine that caught my eye was French VOGUE. Nevermind that I don't know a word of french, other than 'un petit peu' for how much milk and sugar I take in my coffee-learned that one in France, and other random words I've picked up from books and what not. Certainly not enough to make sense of a full article, but I reasoned that my $12 was well spent on a foreign magazine because the fashions would be incredible. I've only just flipped through the first few pages, but I was right! I'll be lost in the world of VOGUE for the next hour or so....

Day 'N Night

Monday's looks.... Day time out for lunch and shopping with the girls, (a self portrait in my front hall mirror - I was home alone).

Here is Stephanie drinking a strawberry margarita at Earl's on Top.

Night time date at Cap Golf Club, (please excuse the horrible red-eye reduction effort, and know that my eyes are actually hazel, not some weird combo of red and navy as the computer makes them). Boyfriend said this is his favourite outfit I've ever worn, we had very similar shirts on last night.

Friday Night @ the Modern

Vancouver Club Kids

I looove this girl's pink nails, and pink lip stick.

Karl does Street Fashion

Karl Lagerfeld

Olivia Palermo's Style

I am dying for a fur shrug for Fall. Both of them just look amazing.

Frosty Pink Lips

Frosty make up is baack! Hopefully minus the baby blue eye shadow though this time round. Do it with a brown smoky eye, that'd be gorgeous. I'm really enjoying Smashbox's pink lip gloss called Pout that makes your lips a pretty light pink, then layered with sparkly pink Chanel gloss, or maybe over a Barbie pink lip liner. Sephora carries one as part of their Sephora line that is perfect. And if you want to try the look for a little less, try Wet 'N Wild #525D. Just don't try and kiss your boyfriend after you put it on...

Lacroix's Last Chance at Couture

All images from www.style.com - check out style.com for the full collection.

I am too sad to write... here is an article from style.com, by Sarah Mower about Lacroix's last show from Paris: 

PARIS, July 7, 2009

By Sarah Mower

It was one of the most poignant and emotionally fraught haute couture shows ever: a collection produced on a shoestring at the last minute, and only made possible by the collective will and donated time and skills of the seamstresses, embroiderers, jewelers, milliners, and shoemakers loyal to Christian Lacroix. As the whole world knows, his future is in limbo after his former owners put the Lacroix business into administration and laid off all but 12 workers—an unclear and messy situation that leaves one of the greatest creators of the genre out on his own. Only the models were paid—€50 each, according to French law — but they too ended up in tears. "I didn't want to cry," said Lacroix, amid a standing ovation and a tumult of support from clients. "I want to continue, maybe in a different way, with a small atelier. What I really care about is the women who do this work." If the collection was a pitch to new backers, it was one that showed Lacroix at his most restrained and approachable. Without access to the oodles of extravagantly hued and embellished materials he has lavished on his couture fantasias since 1987, he pared it back to mainly black and midnight blue, concentrating on shape and wearability. Little caped coats and coat-dresses, short and flirty bell-shaped skirts, peplum jackets, and bunchy taffeta party dresses all brought rapturous applause from a packed room of friends and clients. Fantasia it wasn't, and couldn't be. Yet no financial constraints can detract from Lacroix's mastery of his art: Witness the simplicity of a floor-length navy one-shouldered dress swooping into an asymmetrically curved back with a satin bow nestled into one side. Then there was the extraordinary wedding dress, an eau de nil satin gown with a gilded headdress, a vision evoking an image of a saint in a devotional church painting. As the designer came out to lead the bride in the finale, the whole audience stood to honor him.

80s Fashion

I'm quite pleased that the 80s are back with such a vengeance. All the glamour, the extravagance of the 80s silhouette is something we neeeed to have back. Like the big shoulders, and big hair, and big make-up, (Well maybe we can do without the blue eye shadow-red lips combo). Ooooh and the fabulous matching leather clutch and shoes, that was a staple then. I adore how 80s fashion was really about the fabrics. Ever look into your Mother's closet and pull out the silk dresses or beautiful wool suits? I did, and I fell in love with them.

I'd like to see a return to the gorgeous woven fabrics, anything other than all the stretchy knits that clothe all us westerners, (ask anyone, I will NOT wear yoga-wear as clothing, a.k.a. Lululemon. Those are work out clothes, not street clothes in my opinion. Why not a beautiful cotton sundress to be comfortable in??).

Anyways, my favourite movie is "Working Girl" starring Melanie Griffith and Harrison Ford, and so I'd like to show the trailer for the movie, check out the black sparkly evening dress she wears at about the half-way point! So cute.

Enjoy!

Man Style

DJ Matthew Owchar of the Expendable Youth. Party host on Sunday nights at Venue, (formerly known as Plaza Club on Granville). 

B's Birthday

At Monika's Boyfriend's Birthday at Lola's on Broadway. My first time there, as you can probably tell, seeing as I am quite over dressed for the occasion. Apparently the dress code was "rugby thug chic", meaning any sport t-shirt, with really any pair of shorts, and any pair of shoes ranging from sneakers to flip flops, unfortunately I didn't get that memo. Which is a shame as I do "rugby thug chic" so well. I have to say, Branden's party of people was dressed very nicely. Wasn't it Coco Chanel who said it's always better to be overly dressed up rather than dressed boringly? Or something like that...

Bourbon Style - Thursday July 9

I made my necklace ten minutes before we left, I felt the little black dress was lacking. It's a vintage scarf woven into a heavy silver chain, (from Dressew, I'll be going back for the $1.97 white lace gloves!!). 

L to R: Jon Campbell, me, (a.k.a StyleStruck, or just "Style" to some), Mon, JP Valdes

The September Issue's Aussie Poster

Boyfriend's Best friend's Girlfriend's Birthday.

Here are Tommy and I at Hayley's birthday at Ocean Club in West Van. It's too bad you can't see my shoes, they're these amazing blue suede high, high heels with lots of cut outs and strappy bits. Tommy wearing all black, with accessory in hand, (not me, the 3 oz jar of mojito).

Leggings are Not Pants.

This is my first fashion complaint here. 

I follow "SeptemberIssue" on Twitter, who tweets all about The September Issue, the film about the making of Vogue's September issue, (coming out in Sept!). Anyways, SeptemberIssue posted "what would you ask Anna Wintour?" I replied that I'd like to know what her greatest fashion pet peeve is, and that got me thinking, what's MY greatest fashion pet peeve. I didn't even have to think about it though, because I know what I hate: LEGGINGS. 

Sure they look great on some people, but I still don't like them. Maybe with uggs and a big T on a cozy type of day, but other wise, I just want to shred them all. Especially when worn with a fancy dress, or tunic, or worse, a top, as evening wear! Noooo! Leggings are Not pants! (If you know me, and wear leggings, I promise not to hate in person against your leggings. I'll just think it, because that's what friends are for).

And yes, these are real-life pictures. 

Things To Do:

1-Sephora Grand Opening at Pacific Centre TODAY!!

2-Valentino - The Last Emperor Movie out TONIGHT!

3-Buy fresh flowers, specifically the gorgeous pink peonies $10/3 bunches (Burrard/Dunsmuir)

4-Go to Irish Heather for  $12 dinner/beer promo at their long table in Gastown.

5-Vancouver's Largest Waterfight @ Lumberman's Arch in Stanley Park 1pm TOMORROW!

6-Bike ride around Stanley Park, wow what a view. 

7-Watch the Marc Jacobs Documentary, (I did over youtube.com), it's very fascinating and really interesting. 

Okay, I'm off to walk around the park with Tommy now, maybe I can get him to walk the other direction towards Sephora....think he'd notice? haha

Out and About on a Thursday

Top pic: The Cross Home Boutique

Second to top: flowers at Chintz & Company

Yesterday I was on a mission to get a birthday present for one of Tommy's, (boyfriend), best friend's girlfriend's birthday. I headed straight to The Cross, a gorgeous home store in Yaletown, on Richards. That store is incredible, there are reasonable prices and the staff is super nice, and the styling of the store is just incredible! If you need any inspiration for decorating, I say head there. I can't say what I bought until post-birthday party of course. But I did find some beautiful gifts, (and they gift-wrapped them gorgeously), and so boyfriend was very happy with me. So he took me for a Purdy's ice cream. 

Then I met up with twin sister, (Monika), for lunch while she was on her break from Holts. A fellow employee of hers from the men's department ate next to us and left us some very valuable relationship advice:

"If you ask your guy to do something for you, and he doesn't want to do it, you tell him 'I'm worth it!' "- Mark from Menswear. I think Mark may be a tad biased since he's a Dad to two girls. Cute though.

Z!NK Magazine Featuring WV's Kate Bock

Browsing the magazine section at London Drugs and who do I spot?! West Vancouver's own Kate Bock on the cover of Z!NK magazine! (I graduated from WVSS with Kate, hence being so excited to see her face on the cover) Z!INK is a fabulous Canadian mag that does incredible and very well-styled, (in my opinion), fashion spreads. And not just two or three like the typical magazine, but more like 8 or 9, so there's something for everyone. Kate's spread featured swimwear, and she looked gorgeous. The pictures featured were my favourite, very glamorous. 

The last picture I had to include because the model is wearing my Miu Miu sparkly pumps!! I feel very fabulous right now.

Main St Windows!

The other day I ventured over to Main St. to check out the window displays of Front and Company. This store always has the most amazing windows, a few months ago there were these stacks of old, pretty tea cups surrounding the mannequins! So creative. The owner of the store is also an artist, which explains the amazing concepts she comes up with for the displays. I adore the mannequin with the brown/olive coloured dress with the feathers. (Sorry about the reflections in the windows, it was a sunny day, what's a girl to do?)

Then I walked on down Main St. and came across this cute little store selling stationery called "The Regional Assembly of Text". Their windows were done up with vintage type-writers with pretty ribbons as the ribbon paper. Much better and prettier than the average window, I would say.

My DIY

My first year out of high school was spent at Kwantlen, doing my first year of their Design and Technology degree program. Sadly, after that first year I realized that it just wasn't for me, but I did get the opportunity to create a lot of my own designs, turn them into patterns and then out together the actual garment. And so I have these clothes lying around that I've made, and some of them aren't exactly my style, so I did a little fixing, using my favourite vintage cut offs as a bit of a length-determiner. 

For this particular garment I created, (high waisted denim trousers), we had to also make a mock version, and so I did my mock in leopard print, (why the heck not, right?). At the time they were very outlandish, but I'm soo glad I chose leopard because now they're hot high waisted shorts! I also chopped the denim pair, and wore them out that day! 

Except for that I got a little scissor happy and cut them too short so you can see my bum, but I came up with a very exciting way to fix this: a ruffle at the back. I know, sounds odd, but just trust me, it'll look great and I'll post a picture when they're finished.

I Always Wanted to Dress 90s Style

I could not be happier that 90s style fashion is back! Crop tops, high waisted shorts, ragged denim, it all makes me very happy! Here I am at Venue for a DJ concert last night

My outfit:

headband from Holts

denim vest brand unknown

vintage rose crop top

vintage leather shorts

Nine West gladiator wedges

vintage white/black leather croc print purse

white bangle from Macy's