Balenciaga FW '06 - Skyrocketing price v.s. a semi-couture collection

Nicholas Ghesquiere is officially my favorite designer after another solid collection showed in Paris a couple of weeks ago. The Balenciaga FW 06 collection is the fruit of his research on Cristobal Balenciaga's archives, and it showed Nicholas' modern interpretation of Balenciaga women.

After appreciating the looks for weeks, now it's time for us to face the reality and see how much those semi-couture pieces cost. I will list some looks and the prices below...honestly I am itchy on some of them but I am not sure if the prices are justified compared with the spring '06 collection. Let me know what you think.

Look #11

Jacket $2,995 (double sided); Top $2,675; Skirt $1,285

Look #14

Top $1,160; Pants $890 (Satin lined wool pants)

Look #15 $1,650 (one piece)

Look #18

Jacket $1,975

top $1,685

Look #23 $15,000 (!!!) - the material is specially made for Balenciaga

Look #24 $2,919

Look #25 $4,700

Look #32 $990

Look #35 $4,375

Look #37 $4,695

Barneys New York's Boston store is open!

The store is renovated from an old movie theatre and they take advantage of the existing structure to introduce sky light to the two-floor space. The entire store was full of sun light on this sunny Friday.

I checked out the store during lunch hour. I am very impressed. For the past years I have shopped in the New York store for many times (including calling them for certain items that I couldn't find elsewhere). Now, the store in Boston will totally save my to New York. The first floor looks like a fashion museum. It features Rochas, Alaia (!!!), Ann Demeulemeester, Lanvin, Rick Owens, Martin Margiela (line 1 and line 4), Yohji Yamamoto, Junya Watanabe, Tao, Comme des Garcons, and so on. They are the most original designers in this world but not covered by adjacent Saks or Neiman Marcus for a long period of time (what a shame!). I also have to say that Barney's buyers did a great job to pick the most gorgeous pieces from the spring collections.

The men's department and Co-op are located on the second floor. Only a few designers are featured in the Co-op department, but they are the best ones in that tier.

Service is very nice. My SA was very helpful looking for sizes for me, and customers can put things on hold for up to 72 hours. Sales are not pushy, which is consistent with their culture in the New York store.

All in all, I give it 4.5 out of 5. The half point deduction is from the lack of Balenciaga ready-to-wear. I understand that there might be distribution restrictions on that brand, but for a department store like Barneys, the selection is not complete without it.

FW'06 New York Fashion Show - All About Marc Jacobs

After looking at all the collections on http://www.style.com/, my only feeling is that I would no longer care about the New York fashion week if Marc Jacobs stopped showing his designs in New York.

There were lots of nice clothes shown in the Fashion Week, but they were rarely directional. Oscar de la Renta and Carolina Herrera looked more and more alike. Others presented nice clothes but appeared to be confused. At the same time, Marc Jacobs kept exploring new looks. In this season, Marc Jacobs offered cover up looks and showed us real life outfits for the winter: skirts over pants, leggings above boots, and coats over dresses. The looks were beautiful yet practical. The colors were mostly dark grey with sparkles. It continued the soft hues in spring 06 and it made me very comfortable to get used to the gentle color transition. I found many highly desirable pieces although it was a little overwhelming to figure out what Marc had to offer through the layers.

The Marc by Marc Jacobs collection was well made as well. Being a customer of both collections for three years, I have already noticed that Marc always brings ideas and details from the collection line to the Marc line to offer affordable designer looks. They normally come in the Marc line one season later, but nothing is better than a bargain design. I remember a top from three or four seasons ago in the collection line: it had this pleated details on collars and the delicate look eventually became one of his signature details. Then the same details appeared on a couple of tops in the Marc line one season later, and it became one of the hottest items in the boutique. In this season, Marc used the coat over long dress look from the FW '05 collection in the Marc line, and the silhouette showed a grown up Marc girl. Layering still comes into play in this collection, but this time around, the Marc girl is growing up. Not a girl, not yet a woman.

Marc Jacobs Collection (photo courtesy of style.com)

Marc by Marc Jacobs Collection (photo courtesy of style.com)

Designer Agendas

I had thought about getting a designer agenda for a long time but never bought one. With the Outlook in my computer at work keeping track of everything, a designer agenda seemed unecessary. When I recently changed my job, however, I realized how important it is to keep my personal contacts and activities in a personal book that will follow me forever. Digital technology brought us all the efficiency and convenience, but when it comes to unexpected changes or a system crash, the old fashioned paper and pen system appears to work better. So I decided to get an agenda and return to the old fashion.

I always used agendas to organize my life since I was a kid. My parents always gave me those free agendas from conferences and business gifts. They normally only worked for only a couple of months and then were replaced by new free agendas. This time though, I need a really nice agenda that I plan to use for the years to come.

There are a few designers who offer nice agendas: Coach, Kate Spade, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Smythson, and Hermes.

Coach, Smythson, and Hermes don't use ring agendas. Instead, they offer agenda covers and secure the refills by the pockets inside of the covers. I was told that Hermes agendas start from $1,800, so it was out of consideration. Maybe I will get one when I am one of those C_Os.

I prefer something classy and I always think that showing a logo product in public is embarrasing. I failed to find a logo free agenda at Chanel, and I was told that the agenda market was shrinking so they only produced agendas in selected product lines. Kate Spade agendas are mostly colorful from the tabs to agenda covers. I would have loved to get one if I was in college, but apparently it's not something appropriate if I need to bring it to conference rooms.

I saw the most variety of agendas at Louis Vuitton and some of them are very decent. Epi, Suhali, and Taiga agendas are all good choices to me. I am especially fond of the Suhali agenda because of the details and the lack of logos, so I ordered one with plum color. Although the LV refills were sold out, I was able to find a set of Franklin Covey refill with pastel lanvender flowers. The lanvender and the plum work perfectly together.

Louis Vuitton Suhali Agenda

Louis Vuitton Taiga Agenda

Coach Agendas (www.coach.com)

Kate Spade Agndas (www.katespade.com)

This winter is not over yet, and the FW06 shows is getting started

I just realized that the FW 06 show would start this Friday. It's always awkward time to me, as I will be wearing FW 05 winter clothes for three more months while the new trends for the next winter are shown to the public. So no dramatic changes, please! (Just kidding:-) )

I bet that some fashion forward people will incorporate the new trends in the last days of this winter yet I am curious to see what the designers come up with for the next year. The following link will bring you to the schedule for the New York Fashion Week. I hope that you can watch closely to the online pictures during the Week and let's discuss afterwards.

http://www.newyorkmetro.com/fashion/fashionshows/schedule/3.html

Spring 2006, two trends will cover all

It's been almost four months since the spring 2006 ready-to-wear collections were shown. It's enough time for us to digest and memorize all the beautiful outfits, right? Before we receive the overwhelming trend information and get confused from the generous March magazines, let's look at the most important two trends for spring: the new proportion and the soft grey colors.

The new proportion

The new proportion is the best news to the girls (including me!) who are sick of the bohemian looks. In the coming season, the waistline is high from the true waist to the empire line. Even when you wear a pair of low-rise jeans, remember to pair with an empire waist long camisole to modify the proportion. Belts are heavily used in all the major runway shows, and we will definitely see them around in the coming seasons. The belts are wide and powerful. Think about Lanvin and YSL, a belt can change the entire look.

There are a couple of things I would like to purchase for the new proportion, and you might be interested as well:

* High-waisted pants and skirts
* Silk or silk blend blouses
* Wide and sleek belts, cummerbunds, or ribbons
* Fitted cardigans

I also found the following tips to avoid the bulky material around the belt.

* Wear thin and fitted cardigan
* Wear silk shirt instead of cotton shirt
* Keep the waist of the pants or skirts simple. No belt loops or oversized waist. I found a pair of Martin Margiela pants with the minimum design on the waist, and it looks great with the new proportion.

Soft grey colors

Words like flesh tones, pastel colors, and soft grey colors will be all over the places in fashion magazines this spring, but they all mean the same thing: less saturated yet sophisticated colors. A couple of pictures from the runway will give us a better idea than words.


I am sure there will be more trends in magazines, and the editors will all list "ten most important things" to buy. With the sky rocketing prices in the fashion world, who can afford all the trends? But calm down, and let's think it over. Most of items are related to the two major trends. That means we can buy less but the most efficient pieces to update our wardrobes. Things get easy this time, right?

Tough cookie or addicted shopoholic

I went to the semi-annual Louis Boston sale today, fifteen hours after five of my teeth were pulled out. I know, I know. It's a lot of teeth. I always believe that short pain is not as bad as long pain, so if they need to remove five teeth, I prefer doing them altogether. Unfortunately I had a history of passing out whenever I got a shot or had my blood drawn, so my kind dentist had to use extra Novocain on me and took his time. After more than three hours of struggle with the tough teeth, I couldn't speak but wrote down one question to my dentist: Can I go shopping tomorrow?

The answer was yes. And I had a big grin with my numb mouth. Even if it was a no, I would still go. Look, sale, especially the Louis Boston sale, has been like a ritual to me. Twice every year, I will be lined up with thirty to forty men and women in front of the store entrance waiting for the opening.

I was in equally tough situation last year. I had just had surgery on both of my pinky toes before the sale. I took a cab and went shopping in the middle of a snow storm. People said that I was a tough cookie. The truth is that I would regret so much if I was too late to grab that fabulous item I've been waiting for months. In this case, shopping always takes priority.

It turned out to be a good day. I got a pair of Neil Barrett ankle boots and a Mansharey washed leather jacket despite the dizziness from the pain killers. Don't worry, I brought hubbie just in case I made any insane decisions. Luckily he liked both.