Posts with tag couture

The latest collection from luxury couture lingerie line Spoylt -- called Tantalize -- is living up to the brand's sexy reputation. The woman-designed pieces are flattering and seductive, with classic and innovative pieces that will appeal to the vixen-within. Also, to the vixen partner, waiting under or over the sheets!

Anyone who's been to a bridal shower has probably made at least one wedding dress or veil out of toilet paper. It's a surprisingly difficult material to work with, but in the hands of professionals, the results can be surprisingly pretty!

Music and fashion are intrinsically linked. The Queen of Pop knows that. So, when Madonna performs, her costumes come from nothing but the best designers available.

Our world is officially rocked. If men are pulling off pantyhose (or mantyhose) these days, then it's hard to really fault someone for pairing sock with sandals (if you can call them sandals) -- especially when it actually looks good. Not wear it out in public good, mind you, but good in that 'wow that doesn't even really look offensive' kind of way. Actually, we think they look like some sort of couture bowling shoes.

We realize it's supposed to be a joke, but deep inside our hearts, we believe these guys might be on to something real with The Fuxedo!

Stuckey and Murray don't mention the price, but how can you put a price on genius? There are many men in our acquaintance who would very much appreciate a graceful sewn-in cummerbund and bow tie. Most have spent their lives searching a graceful two-way zipper fly.

So much grace for one item of clothing! It's practically couture.

Oh, don't just take our word for it. You must see for yourself. Safe for work, unless you sit near someone with delicate fashion sensibilities. You know, the kind who get hives from sale racks. They just won't get it.

The media has been abuzz about the July issue of Italian Vogue which will feature over 150 pages dedicated exclusively to black models and stories about successful black entertainers and performers. Famed photographer Steven Meisel -- you may remember him from his Naked Madonna days -- was selected by Vogue Italia editor Franca Sozzani to shoot the issue.

The issue will feature new faces like Jourdan Dunn alongside famed beauties like Tyra Banks, Naomi Campbell and Alek Wek. Sozzani says she was inspired by Barrack Obama's historic presidential campaign. Her intention was to spark conversations about race, and to demonstrate that there is more to beauty than blond, blue eyed Russian models.

Birthday parties, weddings, and other events call for cake. And, if you're trying to throw a stylish soiree, your cake should follow suit. Don't settle for a plain old layer cake or a simple sheet cake -- there's so much more available!

The cakes at I Dream of Cake are sure to make an impact, regardless of the party's theme. They have gorgeous, tall cakes with amazingly intricate floral designs, but if you're looking for something a little more specific, don't worry. They also have cakes in the shape of designer shoes and bags, Buddha, sushi, pianos, famous works of art, and more, making your cake far more than just dessert -- it'll be a centerpiece for the party and a topic of conversation for years to come!

We love all of the amazing independent designers out there. In order to find out more about just what makes all of these creative types tick, we present to you an ongoing segment called Indie Designer Interviews.

Today's interview is with avant garde independent designer Desira Pesta. Her dreamlike Spring 2008 collection is full of ruffles and perfect tailoring and is inspired by the circus, Iceland, and Film Noir.

There were some pretty fantastic outfits at this year's Costume Institute Gala at the MET, but not much can top Kate Bosworth's Chanel Haute Couture dress. We loved that she took a chance at this event, because, really -- what better opportunity does one ever have to go all out with a dress? It's a Costume Gala, for Pete's sake, and we think her outfit was totally powerful enough to save the day.

Check out the gallery to see what how Kate makes this outfit work for this event!

Christina Ricci once called the Metropolitan Museum Costume Institute Gala the "East Coast Oscars," and she was right. It's an evening that's all about being seen. The right dress can get you talked about the for the rest of the year. So with no further ado, we present to you, our own best of the best list from the big event tonight!

Browse through the gallery to see what we had to say about each and every celebrity outfit, and drool over the amazing clothes like we did!

These are our top 15 picks of the whole night.



And here are the ladies who looked great, but night quite polished enough to make it onto the best of the best list.

SlickSugar began as a way for two friends, both of them mothers, to find an outlet where they could express their creative sides and include their children in the process.

They decided on a clothing line with the goal of creating "items that will inspire children to pick up an instrument, sing in the car or dance down the stairs." Needless to say, music is the common thread between the designs.

We love international fashion weeks. There's nothing better than seeing crazy, amazing clothes from relatively unknown designers, models walking down runways in cities we've never been to, and checking out the outfits on famous people we've never heard of. Work from houses outside the typical big names in fashion is always interesting. This week, I present to you, Fresh Art, showing at Russian Fashion Week.

Is that a $3,000 designer gown, or a few trash bags held together by tape and staples?

That's the question Louise Roe, a TV presenter for Vogue, was hoping everyone would be asking at Milan Fashion Week -- after she arrived in an outfit created entirely from refuse receptacles.

It was a challenge from her editor, inspired by the recent trend of designers creating absurdly expensive pieces -- like $100,00 bags and $80,000 dresses -- as they attempt to distance themselves from the cheaply-made, disposable fashion you find at discount retailers like H&M and Target.

And apparently it worked. After stapling herself into the "surprisingly comfortable" BLD (bin liner dress), Roe showed up at the first fashion show of the day, and was immediately pounced on by paparazzi, who all wanted to shoot her new look. When journalists started asking where she'd bought the dress, Roe knew her experiment had been a success.

Think you could pull off wearing a trash bag on your next night out? Scroll to the bottom of this Daily Mail article to find instructions on how you can create your own.

These $4,175 Balenciaga shoes have been photographed in every fashion magazine lately and I have finally found a photograph of them online! I was in desperate need of a photo so someone out there can help understand why these shoes exist. Usually talking it out on Styledash gives me some sort of strange conclusion that may or may not make any sense, so let's give it shot:

At first glance I would say these shoes look like a combination of a ski boot and a roller blade, which leads me to believe that these are a high fashion version of an athletic shoe. However, the 1990s colors lead me to believe these are some sort of high fashion street shoe, i.e. if in the proper shape, the Fresh Prince of Bel Air would rock a pair. Then there is the obvious correlation, these are just another pair of freaky hooker shoes.

There is a slight chance that I am dead on about all of these ideas. Maybe if we opened the sketch book where this shoe was conceived there would be clippings of ski footage, action sports shots, photos of Will Smith in his Fresh Prince days, and a hooker leaned into a car window about to close a sale.

But the real question is, would you wear these shoes, and if so, with what? I would go full on 1990s and wear them with a black mini dress and Ray Ban sunglasses.

The brief and fleeting spectacle of a runway show is the culmination of months and months of hard work. Much of that work, in the haute couture arena, is done by workers whose skills in the intricate arts of beading, embroidery and other finishings are a big part of delivering that wow moment on the runway. But the workshops of Paris are finding that these workers are in short supply. Many of the artisans are aging and there are not enough new workers interested in the painstaking but low-paid labor. An Associated Press article reports that much of the knowledge of the work will die out once the Parisian "petite mains" or "little hands" retire. Hat blockers, flower makers and cobblers are particularly prized by Chanel, Lacroix and other houses that specialize in elaborate haute couture. One possible solution is to outsource to other countries but for the French, it is hard to part with the idea that made in France has its own unique cachet.