Trend Report: Angelic Appearence

Instead of all the black, navy and gray, why not wear something lighter this Christmas? Choose a dress in soft colors like beige. sand, gold, ivory and white and you’ll definitely make an Angelic appearance. It makes your look fresh and feminine.

Look for design with extra elegant detail like lace or ruffles (as seen at Valentino, Marc Jacobs, Alberta Ferretti and Diane von Furstenberg). Combine your dress, skirt or suit with light accessories and soft-colored shoes.

And if your bringing your man to the Christmas dinner, buy him a light suit as well. You’ll make a better match and will both look cool & trendy.

Wanna go for a safer option? We already selected the best Little Black Party Dresses.

Fashion Focus: all about Thakoon

This week we chose designer Thakoon for our fashion focus. The reason for that? Up until now we didn’t know a lot about him, besides the fact that Anna Wintour said she loved his designs in The September Issue. But why did she like Thakoon so much? Why are his designs so special?

Name of the brand: Thakoon

Name(s ) of the designer(s): Thakoon Panichgul

About the designer(s):
Thakoon Panichgul was born in 1974 in Thailand, but now lives in America. He moved to the United States when he was 11 years old.

Start of the brand: 2004. Thakoon had been working as a fashion editor at Harper’s Bazar before.

First collection: a ten pieces collection in 2005

Thakoon is based in New York and sold in 34 countries

The Thakoon woman: has an inner sensuality. She is nonchalant and casual, but still very sensual.

Thakoon women: Rachel Bilson, Demi Moore, Michelle Obama and Sarah Jessica Parker. (Michelle Obama was recently seen in two different dresses from Thakoon’s spring/summer collection on 5 and 11 May 2010.)

The clothes are: easy and sophisticated. For Thakoon the most important thing is the clothes are wearable. Thakoon also has a thing for prints, he works together with different artists to create the most lovely prints. He likes to use colors in his collections too.

Type of clothes: mostly dresses made out of classic materials like lace and chiffon, but used in a modern way.

Signature: combining punk and chic

Collaborations: Thakoon for Nine West (accessories)(2006), Thakoon for Gap (2007), Thakoon for Hogan (2008), Thakoon for Target (2008). Thakoon even designed a few menswear cardigans for Aloha Rag (2010).

Quotes:

• ‘For me it’s about creating silhouettes that sort of have built-in gesture.’
• ‘I would love to dress Coco Chanel, she embodies al those things I love so much. She has a chicness and a rebelliousness around her.’
• ‘My clothes represent a combination of punk and refinement’

What to expect: Thakoon’s fan base will keep on augmenting and we’re sure there are some interesting collaborations ahead of us.

Above you can see several of Thakoon’s designs from four of his latest collections.

Haute Couture 2010: Oscar Potentials

With the 82^nd edition of the Academy Awards just one month away, we thought it was about time to have a dress-room talk….

A lot has to be arranged before a famous actress wears a designer gown to the Oscars. Stylists first have to order several dresses. Those have to fit or else be altered. Then the search starts for the right shoes and accessories. Finally, the whole look has to be approved and if a celebrity decides it just isn’t the right dress, there needs to be time to find another one. So one month is not that long of a period.

The Haute Couture collections shown in Paris had a lot of potential dresses for the Oscars. While watching the shows we could already vision Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz and Angelina Jolie in the beautiful gowns that were presented.

At the Armani Prive show three dresses seemed ready to battle for the Oscars. The best one was a strapless black dress with a small part of the dress covering one shoulder.

The Chanel collection had quite a few dresses that just belong at the Oscar-show. Lagerfeld’s gorgeous silver and pastel combinations with exquisite embroideries are sure to look swell on almost any Hollywood star. And the yellow pastel strapless gown with the classical silver adornment needs to be shown on the red carpet, if you ask us.

For Dior, John Galliano created a lot of voluptuous white gowns. Last year white was a huge hit at the Ocars. But maybe this year it’s time for a little more color. Dior’s deep red gown with pastel colored top and back might just be the real thing for Oscar nominee Sandra Bullock.

At the Jean Paul Gaultier show one blue and silver dress had some nice elements. Yet it could be a bit over the top for the red carpet. The rest of JPG’s dresses didn’t seem very appropriate for the Oscars either. JPG had used many different themes in his collection, so his dresses were a bit too playful.

Elie Saab’s mind-blowing dresses on the other hand simply earn a spot on the red carpet.  Their washed out colors, chiffon frills and sparkling silver beading just looked so graceful, feminine and seriously chic. A minty green Elie Saab dress stood for perfection.

The Valentino collection had many youthful color combinations and therefore not a lot of Valentino gowns looked appropriate for the Oscars. Still we think the red and bright yellow gowns might stand a good chance on the big night.

The closer we get to the Oscars, the more exciting it will become. Which dresses will celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe get a hold of? And which stars will pull off a fifties dress, like Penelope Cruz did last year? Will there be any huge fashion flunks? What color trend will we see this year? And which of our Oscar Potentials will we meet on the red carpet on 7 March.

One thing’s for sure: all A-listers want the best-looking, most lengthening, figure-narrowing gown on the planet, so the competition is on!