I'm sure this news will upset my dear friend Faust very much. Although my experience with Cloak is only from a couple of pictures online, one visit to the boutique in Soho, and one conversation with the designer Alexandre Plokhov at Barneys, I feel deeply sad about what happened.
I bumped into Plokhov on a Sunday afternoon at the Barneys in NYC. I was in the shoe department, and I saw a familiar face from the "Seamless" DVD - Alexandre Plokhov. He was with his wife shopping.
His wife is a strong career woman with a big heart as far as I know. I remembered that my tears down when I watched Seamless when they went through difficult times with an ocean between them. The couple on that Sunday though, were relaxed and happy.
Alexandre's wife purchased a Balenciaga little black dress, and I happened to be around, too. (I was seriously like stalking them due to our similar shopping pace and I had to go to a different direction eventually trying to avoid bumping into them all the time. It was really awkward.) Alexandre made a comment on the fit, and then they decided to purchase it with Alexandre altering the dress for her. I felt so jealous of her having a designer husband at that moment.
We then had a brief chat. Alexandre was surprised at first that somebody would recognize him. Then I mentioned that I admired his wife very much for her full support. She blushed and leaned towards him. Then they mentioned that they were looking for a good financial backer. Alexandre wanted to do a women's line, but they needed money for it. I wish I had millions to do something, but apparently I don't. He sounded serious and concerned back then, but I was still surprised by the news today.
It's so sad that true designers like him can not keep the business for long. It's a fundamental conflict between being commercial and being creative. I just wish them the best.
Monday, December 18, 2006
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Who is driving the SALE?
You probably have sensed that the sale started very early this year. Almost all department stores started sale, or private sale, before Thanksgiving.
What happened? Who started first? What are the consequences?
It started with the Neiman Marcus private sale two weeks before Thanksgiving. There was a link to the department store's website with the entire Chloe and Alexander McQueen's ready-to-wear collection at 30% off. The private sale only lasted for one day, but many bag lovers grabbed the Chloe bags within hours.
When I visited Bergdorf Goodman at around the same time, I was informed by the sales people that they could put certain items on hold for me as pre-sale. I was surprised by how early it came, but went ahead to pick up some clothes without hesitation.
Then the domino fell. All department stores including Saks Fifth Avenue started "pre-sell" a week from the Thanksgiving fearing that the customers would be drawn to Neiman Marcus only.
Why did they start the sale so early this year? The economy is doing well, and the stock market is at historic high. They could have kept selling things at retail price hoping that the bankers buy those nice gifts before Christmas. But the stores didn't wait.
One related event was a comment made by Mr. Prada in a fashion award event. He called for early fashion show schedule and gained support from major department stores in the US to stock their pre-collection inventory months ahead of the normal time. It also seemed to me that the department stores increased their budget for cruise (pre-spring) collections and increased their inventory. If that was the case, then it totally made sense for the department stores to mark down the price early just so they made enough room for the cruise collection shipments.
As the last part of the sale chain, small business felt the pressure. All those boutiques selling contemporary clothing are now marking things down to 30% to 80% off the original price already. The Alexander McQueen boutique received customer's phone call right after the Neiman Marcus private sale requesting an earlier sale. The store started their private sale days before their normal schedule due to the customer requests they received.
I am very curious to see what happens next year. Is it a new practice now? Is it going to be sustainable? Well, the bottom line is that we consumers and fashion lovers gain. At least I've got my long-waited Alexander McQueen clothes and my Fendi skirt.
What happened? Who started first? What are the consequences?
It started with the Neiman Marcus private sale two weeks before Thanksgiving. There was a link to the department store's website with the entire Chloe and Alexander McQueen's ready-to-wear collection at 30% off. The private sale only lasted for one day, but many bag lovers grabbed the Chloe bags within hours.
When I visited Bergdorf Goodman at around the same time, I was informed by the sales people that they could put certain items on hold for me as pre-sale. I was surprised by how early it came, but went ahead to pick up some clothes without hesitation.
Then the domino fell. All department stores including Saks Fifth Avenue started "pre-sell" a week from the Thanksgiving fearing that the customers would be drawn to Neiman Marcus only.
Why did they start the sale so early this year? The economy is doing well, and the stock market is at historic high. They could have kept selling things at retail price hoping that the bankers buy those nice gifts before Christmas. But the stores didn't wait.
One related event was a comment made by Mr. Prada in a fashion award event. He called for early fashion show schedule and gained support from major department stores in the US to stock their pre-collection inventory months ahead of the normal time. It also seemed to me that the department stores increased their budget for cruise (pre-spring) collections and increased their inventory. If that was the case, then it totally made sense for the department stores to mark down the price early just so they made enough room for the cruise collection shipments.
As the last part of the sale chain, small business felt the pressure. All those boutiques selling contemporary clothing are now marking things down to 30% to 80% off the original price already. The Alexander McQueen boutique received customer's phone call right after the Neiman Marcus private sale requesting an earlier sale. The store started their private sale days before their normal schedule due to the customer requests they received.
I am very curious to see what happens next year. Is it a new practice now? Is it going to be sustainable? Well, the bottom line is that we consumers and fashion lovers gain. At least I've got my long-waited Alexander McQueen clothes and my Fendi skirt.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
It is a shoe season......
The winter sales are going to start. When I am prioritizing my purchases during the sale season, I realized that it's such a shoe season.
Do you remember the last winter? The whole winter was dominated by Balenciaga's military coats and Stella McCartney's bubble coats. I hesitated between a Balenciaga coat and a Yohji Yamamoto coat but ended up with a very fitted grey wool coat from Doo.Ri.
This year, however, nobody made any memorable coats. Instead, many designers sent models down the runway strutting in gorgeous shoes. There are platform shoes from Gucci, YSL, Christian Louboutin, and Fendi, beautiful heels from Alexander McQueen (what a season for Lee!), and the over-the-knee boots from Chanel. Together with the puffy jackets or skirts, The shoes completely changed our proportion. So when you are doing the same thing as I am, updating the wishlists, make sure you put down a couple of pairs of shoes on it. For the next winter season, I think, the designers will impress us with different things. Maybe bags, maybe coats, but not shoes. It's a shoe season, so cherish it.
Do you remember the last winter? The whole winter was dominated by Balenciaga's military coats and Stella McCartney's bubble coats. I hesitated between a Balenciaga coat and a Yohji Yamamoto coat but ended up with a very fitted grey wool coat from Doo.Ri.
This year, however, nobody made any memorable coats. Instead, many designers sent models down the runway strutting in gorgeous shoes. There are platform shoes from Gucci, YSL, Christian Louboutin, and Fendi, beautiful heels from Alexander McQueen (what a season for Lee!), and the over-the-knee boots from Chanel. Together with the puffy jackets or skirts, The shoes completely changed our proportion. So when you are doing the same thing as I am, updating the wishlists, make sure you put down a couple of pairs of shoes on it. For the next winter season, I think, the designers will impress us with different things. Maybe bags, maybe coats, but not shoes. It's a shoe season, so cherish it.
Tuesday, November 7, 2006
I'm back from Paris!
Hi guys,
I didn't forget about you. Rob and I visited Paris last week for our anniversary and we just returned. We had a wonderful time! I will update with my stories and some pictures later!
Best,
Jing
I didn't forget about you. Rob and I visited Paris last week for our anniversary and we just returned. We had a wonderful time! I will update with my stories and some pictures later!
Best,
Jing
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Review on the Marc Jacobs SS07 collection-post trunk show
It's finally the right time to share my view on the Marc Jacobs collection after experiencing the clothes at the trunk show.
Marc always has great ideas, and he is not afraid of using the elements from other designers to complete his ideas. This time around, Marc wanted to present the lightness. He used fabrics such as gauze, muslin, and lightweight silk that look like candy wraps. To balance the sheer looks, he used metallic leather, metallic sequins, tweed, and cotton gabardine to form more structured looks.
There were three kinds of metallic shown on runway: a metallic shirt made of paper, metallic leather, and metallic sequins. The Japanese made clothes with durable paper many years ago, but Marc introduced the paper fabric with a metallic coating to create a worn yet shiny effect. It was priced at $300 range, and I won't be surprised if many young people fall in love with it: I tried the silver shirt on, and I saw an updated "boyfriend's shirt" look on me instantly. The dress with metallic sequins was gorgeous. Not only the sequins reflected the light with a metallic shine but created great draping looks. The beautiful dress full of sequins was priced at more than $7,000, expensive but it made sense. The metallic leather jackets, however, felt stiff and lifeless. I'd rather pay less and purchase a jacket made of synthetic fabric to get the same look.
Another group of clothes were the deconstructed pieces. There were shredded T-shirts, shredded T-shirt dresses as well as deconstructed knit wear. They reminded me Martin Margiela, Comme des Garcons' "broken bride" collection, and Cristobal Balenciaga. Marc was not afraid of using bold reference to complete his concepts, but the dress on Stam showed so much reference that I felt slightly uncomfortable.
The prices on the T-shirt dreses were not sensible at all: the printed T-shirts with the simplest construction and the most common cotton fabric were priced at around $860 each. When a nicely made tweed jacket was priced at $1,500, it looked like a problem to me.
The dresses impressed me very much. I put on several size 4 dresses (the one worn by the model but two sizes bigger on me) and yet I was amazed by the beauty of them. One dress made me feel like wrapped in a beautiful flower yet it looked so abstract and well constructed. Another dress worn by Chanel on the show was the most amazing piece to me. It was a highly "Cristobal" looking little black dress with a great deal of volume, but Marc made two poufs on it with a sash belted between the two to define the waist. The brilliant design made it a statement piece without overwhelming the girl in it. If I had the courage to shed $3,900 on it, I would definitely do so. It is going to be a LBD never goes out of style and follows me for the years to come. (I should start buying lottery tickets, seriously!)
The "Arabian nights" looking pants were interesting but they looked hard to sell. The good news is that they are being perfected, and by the time they reach the stores, you'll see the slimmed down version. I expect them to be very flattering.
(all pictures were from style.com unless noted)
Marc always has great ideas, and he is not afraid of using the elements from other designers to complete his ideas. This time around, Marc wanted to present the lightness. He used fabrics such as gauze, muslin, and lightweight silk that look like candy wraps. To balance the sheer looks, he used metallic leather, metallic sequins, tweed, and cotton gabardine to form more structured looks.
There were three kinds of metallic shown on runway: a metallic shirt made of paper, metallic leather, and metallic sequins. The Japanese made clothes with durable paper many years ago, but Marc introduced the paper fabric with a metallic coating to create a worn yet shiny effect. It was priced at $300 range, and I won't be surprised if many young people fall in love with it: I tried the silver shirt on, and I saw an updated "boyfriend's shirt" look on me instantly. The dress with metallic sequins was gorgeous. Not only the sequins reflected the light with a metallic shine but created great draping looks. The beautiful dress full of sequins was priced at more than $7,000, expensive but it made sense. The metallic leather jackets, however, felt stiff and lifeless. I'd rather pay less and purchase a jacket made of synthetic fabric to get the same look.
Another group of clothes were the deconstructed pieces. There were shredded T-shirts, shredded T-shirt dresses as well as deconstructed knit wear. They reminded me Martin Margiela, Comme des Garcons' "broken bride" collection, and Cristobal Balenciaga. Marc was not afraid of using bold reference to complete his concepts, but the dress on Stam showed so much reference that I felt slightly uncomfortable.
The prices on the T-shirt dreses were not sensible at all: the printed T-shirts with the simplest construction and the most common cotton fabric were priced at around $860 each. When a nicely made tweed jacket was priced at $1,500, it looked like a problem to me.
The dresses impressed me very much. I put on several size 4 dresses (the one worn by the model but two sizes bigger on me) and yet I was amazed by the beauty of them. One dress made me feel like wrapped in a beautiful flower yet it looked so abstract and well constructed. Another dress worn by Chanel on the show was the most amazing piece to me. It was a highly "Cristobal" looking little black dress with a great deal of volume, but Marc made two poufs on it with a sash belted between the two to define the waist. The brilliant design made it a statement piece without overwhelming the girl in it. If I had the courage to shed $3,900 on it, I would definitely do so. It is going to be a LBD never goes out of style and follows me for the years to come. (I should start buying lottery tickets, seriously!)
The "Arabian nights" looking pants were interesting but they looked hard to sell. The good news is that they are being perfected, and by the time they reach the stores, you'll see the slimmed down version. I expect them to be very flattering.
(all pictures were from style.com unless noted)
Sunday, October 8, 2006
SS07, The best collections
Instead of listing the best and the worst, I figured that it might not be a bad idea to do an "Academy Award" style list:
Perfection
-they lead the trend and they satisfy our fantasies. They have the best clothes for day and for evening. They have perfect presentation with beautiful settings. They have the most consistent spirit and execution.
-trend makers but with less "wow" effects
-for the consistent concept and execution
-in a season with countless beautiful clothes, most of the designers forgot to make shoes that look nice and feel comfy. The special shoes award shows my appreciation to the designers who designed beautiful and practical shoes for us modern women.
Perfection
-they lead the trend and they satisfy our fantasies. They have the best clothes for day and for evening. They have perfect presentation with beautiful settings. They have the most consistent spirit and execution.
- Alexander McQueen
- Yves Saint Laurent
-trend makers but with less "wow" effects
- Louis Vuitton
- Marc Jacobs
-for the consistent concept and execution
- Yohji Yamamoto
- Junya Watanabe
- Marni
- Max Mara
- Fendi
- Balmain
-in a season with countless beautiful clothes, most of the designers forgot to make shoes that look nice and feel comfy. The special shoes award shows my appreciation to the designers who designed beautiful and practical shoes for us modern women.
- Alexander McQueen
- Chloe
Sunday, October 1, 2006
Heels and a whole new perspective
Have you ever tried doing housework in heels?
It's probably routine for you, but it's totally new experience to me. I just purchased a pair of Alexander McQueen heels I was eyeing on for a long time (that's a totally different story, and I promise to tell you later), and I decided to break them in before their debut in public due to the heel height: four and half inches with a half inch of built-in platform.
I felt nice and tall the second I put them on. Then I walked around to do my routine. Things looked different. With my 5' 8.5" new height, I saw everything in our living room from a higher perspective. The chairs were low, the shoe boxes on the top shelf were easier to reach, the further away the door knobs were, and I found the sink so low that I had to bend over very hard to wash off the facial mask on my face. Were the furniture made for migits?
I felt like living in a different life. I suddenly wondered how my husband felt everyday. The skirts falling on my knee probably looked like falling on mid calf. My hair maybe looked totally different from high above. We're preparing our daily looks from our own perspective, but what do other people see from different angles? Growing up, I adjusted my own perspective to this world gradually and I never felt any changes. Now that I am in my four and half inches of heels, the world seems different.
So if you have not tried wearing heels around the house, give it a try, and let me know how you feel. It's different, isn't it?
It's probably routine for you, but it's totally new experience to me. I just purchased a pair of Alexander McQueen heels I was eyeing on for a long time (that's a totally different story, and I promise to tell you later), and I decided to break them in before their debut in public due to the heel height: four and half inches with a half inch of built-in platform.
I felt nice and tall the second I put them on. Then I walked around to do my routine. Things looked different. With my 5' 8.5" new height, I saw everything in our living room from a higher perspective. The chairs were low, the shoe boxes on the top shelf were easier to reach, the further away the door knobs were, and I found the sink so low that I had to bend over very hard to wash off the facial mask on my face. Were the furniture made for migits?
I felt like living in a different life. I suddenly wondered how my husband felt everyday. The skirts falling on my knee probably looked like falling on mid calf. My hair maybe looked totally different from high above. We're preparing our daily looks from our own perspective, but what do other people see from different angles? Growing up, I adjusted my own perspective to this world gradually and I never felt any changes. Now that I am in my four and half inches of heels, the world seems different.
So if you have not tried wearing heels around the house, give it a try, and let me know how you feel. It's different, isn't it?
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