Fashion Week days 1 - 3 (ish)

Hooray for Fashion Season! Such a ridiculous stressball of adrenaline that I will someday (God willing) become much more involved in. Until then, I sit in LA with my two unattendable invites and dish out my own personal judgments. Here are a few standouts from the first 3 days. (Help! It's day four already?!?!)

 Prabal Gurung. Soooo many of my favorite things here: off the shoulder, tiny waist, full skirt, little black gloves...

Edun. Awesome. Took my breath away. The rest of the collection, not so much but the balance of these prints is just perfect.

 Jason Wu. I wish I could see the back of this dress. If it's got a ballerina, scooped back then yes please! Otherwise, it might be a bit too simple. Totes a Blair Waldorf dress.

 NAHM. First collection by Tommy Hilfiger's daughter and based off the concept of the shirt dress. The makeup was a bit distracting, but this dress I would def wear in white. Or blue. Or yeah, maybe actually in this rust color...

 Nicole Miller. WANT. So much this season (so far) has been more Annie Hall than warrior princess. I vote warrior princess every time.

 Peter Som. Two words. Gorilla Arms. Thank you to @ManRepeller or whoever coined this term on Twitter. This may turn out to be one of the worst ideas this season.

 Rebecca Minkoff. A show full of super cute, super wearable, not really envelope pushing pieces. Gotta love this coat though. It's pretty much perfect.

Ruffian. Who doesn't love a little black lace dress?

 BCBG. Love the flowy skirt and the cuffs. Plus, I swear I own those boots...

Vena Cava. 90s throwback. NOT a fan...

 Alexander Wang. I KNOW he's brilliant at what he does, but it just doesn't quite fit my aesthetic. Would I pull this for a shoot though? Absolutely.

 Altuzarra. Most of this collection was 90s themed and I couldn't stand it. The asymmetrical color blocking of this dress hit a weak spot with me though. Until I noticed the fuzzy shoes...

 Boy Band of Outsiders. Totally wearable pieces but...is that a dude chastity belt? Or part of rock climbing gear? Or what?

 Daryl K. Again, much of this was 90s. But sheer sleeves, LBD and a red head?...sigh.

 Erin Fetherson. Nothing groundbreaking. But I WANT this dress.

Thanks style.com for the pics!

Hyper Color

Disclaimer: this post is SUPER late. We're actually shooting the next theme tonight - should be pretty epic and we'll be out all night :) I'll try to post some behind the scenes shortly afterward!

"Love Your Body" photoshoot with the Fashion Squad. Obviously, my body isn't healthy - you can count my ribs and I barely eat, so I took the shoot in another direction. Instead of painting "I'm beautiful just the way I am" across my stomach, I splashed on one word: "Control." It was supposed to evoke a darker message that young women often resort to unhealthy ways to keep their bodies looking a certain way because they feel this is the only thing they can control in their lives. Unfortunately, the lighting of the shoot was so soft and "glamazon-y" that I don't look that unhealthy and the message kind of got lost. Oh well. We got some great pictures out of it.

Lol and the others who actually stuck with the theme looked fantastic!

Why Socks and Sandals are Never Going to Happen

I'm going to just point this out now that fashion season has officially started (and it's already 9am on the east coast! I'm already behind!), the push to make socks with sandals a trend needs to DIE. Now. Quickly. Before it trickles down to the masses and the forever-shunned tourist look starts to (heaven forbid!) become okay!! The closest thing that I can handle is sweater tights that look kind of like socks but they're not because they cover your whole leg...those I can handle. So Prada FW2010 you're ok. But WWD, I don't care if it's styled with Rodarte for Opening Ceremony, the socks/sandals trend does NOT belong on the cover.

Watch. The first 17 shows of NY Fashion Week will all include some form of this trend just to spite me.

 

 WWD cover from Wednesday, Feb 9

 

 Yup...celebrities are trying to do it too... look below. That's what we're encouraging, people!

No idea where this pic was taken, but I completely support the sentiment. Hear hear!

In other news, I received my first ever official invitation to NY Fashion Week this year - to my gorgeous friend, Ela Acosta's show in Concept NY. Soooo wish I could have gone! I'll definitely have her send me over pictures. Things have been a little too hectic in LA lately...

Feathers, Cake and Sinatra

Glorious, glorious, glorious weekend away at Benvenuto with all of my loves, celebrating my ridiculous graduation. Pasta and cake and fountains and fireplaces and Frank Sinatra at 3am. Not to mention brunch. Life is good when you're surrounded with friends like mine.

The table. I was actually pretty proud of this.

 The centerpiece was picked straight from the yard and full of olive branches for good luck!

 

 Debut of a new LCS Designs creation - and a ridiculously awesome vintage feathered cap I found in an old hatbox. Little things make me so happy.

 Yup. Chocolate place tags.

 Me and the gorgeous Kerrianne.

 Dinner.

 Running water??

 Cake a la my father. Amazing.

 Apples to apples. This was a particularly terrible hand.

 Bed time after jacuzzi :)

 Good morning, Benvenuto!

Brunch :)

Many thanks to Bri and Kerrianne for the phone camera snapped pictures!

Couture

Couture. Fashion at its utmost. At its finest. The epitome of quality, grace and craftsmanship. At least, that's what couture is supposed to be. And I suppose the embodiments of such traits can come in countless shapes and sizes, but still...jeans on the Chanel couture runway? Is it just me, or does that seem a little...well...less than luxe? Then again, as so many supporters point out, if people will pay hundreds of dollars for Balmain jeans, then why not thousands of dollars for couture? Regardless the excitement I felt Chanel lacked was made up for in spades by the craftsmanship of Givenchy and Dior and the energy of Jean Paul Gaultier. As for Armani? Well...let's just say I'll be interested to see if any of the pieces make it past the runway. The shiny, futuristic theme was beautiful, but a little too otherworldly to be very wearable. Here are a few of my pics from this season:

 Alexis Mabille

(Clean, simple, pure. Maybe a little too much so?)

Armani Prive

Jean Paul Gaultier

(I actually really like this jacket)

Chanel

Chanel

(Jeans or not, who couldn't love this finale?)

Dior

(Someday I will be glamorous enough to wear this)

Dior

(Way better than Belle's yellow Beauty and the Beast gown. WAY better.)

Elie Saab

(Reliable red carpet wear as per usual)

Elie Saab

Givenchy

(I've never been into samurai, but these are pretty amazing.)