The Beautiful Classicals at Golden Globe Awards 2006

The fashion at this year's Golden Globes was AMAZING! I LOVED the main theme of lux. whites and neutrals. For once, most stars were dressed very up-to-fashion and the dresses actually suited the stars who wore it, (as opposed to stars wearing unsuitable dresses just because they were trendy.) The dresses were mostly SO beautiful that I'm only going to talk about the dresses I liked the most:

Reese Witherspoon -LOVED her haute couture Chanel dress. It's Chanel without looking old, and glamorous without looking over the top. I also love how simple and elegant her shoes were. And Reese just prooves that to outshine everyone, all you need is an incredible and genuine smile. She's such a darling!

The women of Wisteria Lane -Teri Hatcher in Versace, Felicity Huffman in Marchesa, Nicolette Sheridan in Armani, Eva Longoria in Bob Mackie and Marcia Cross in Marc Bouwer. As usual, the colors of the five are conviniently coodernated. The styles of their dresses are very 'them' -Marcia in a red-hair-complimenting-colored dress, Eva being very eye-catching and Teri sleek and glam. Not unexpectedly, breath-stopping beautiful...... just elite as normal.

Charlize Theron -looking exquisite in Dior. I love the whole black lace over nude-color tube design.

Sandra Oh -in a slinky Collette Dinnigan gown. The dress really suited her. Congrats for her winning Best Supporting Actress in Television Series, she def deserved it! For those who don't know, Sandra is an intense surgical intern in Grey's Anatomy. Grey's Anatomy is one of my recent favourite tv show -all the characters in the show are so smart!

Renee Zellweger -in Carolina Herrera. For once, Renee really looked great in her dress, at least not as awkward as she did in previous dresses.

Keira Knightley -possibly one of THE most stunning actress on the red carpet in this Golden Globes. She's wearing a Valentino gown and holding a Tod's clutch. She looks so dazzling I don't know what else to say!

Ziyi Zhang -in a bright, lime Giorgio Armarni gown. This is def one of the more daring dresses on the red carpet, and Ziyi really wore it well.

Kate Beckinsale -another one of my very favourites. She wore a Dior gown. She's also another 'simply stunning' star. The dress is so divine and elegant.

In general the makeup was absolutely luminous -picture porcelin skin with black eyeliner and mascara on a well-highlighted face.

Hairstyles were mostly up-dos. My favourite was the glamorous-looking messy up-do, which made up-dos less stuffy and more youthful. Seriously, look at Keira Knightley, her makeup looked gorgeous and her hair seemingly casual. This is what being young and fabulous should be all about in 2006!

Stripes I: Black and White

The verdict is out everyone. According to the high street stores, the trend that is going to be carried from the catwalks and onto sidewalks next season is stripes-more specifically in this post, black and white ones!

How else did this simple black and white striped tunic from Lux end up on the cover of both the website and catalog of Urban Outfitters?

And it seems that our friends at Top Shop agree with this trend as well. Coming up with almost a whole collection of different variations of black and white tunics. Gee I wonder where they got their inspiration from. . . .

This design from Dior's AW05-06 collection must've haunted them for ages. They were probably kicking themselves for not picking it hot off the runway earlier when they saw these pictures plastered all over the place. Well. . . beter late then never!

Cozy Coats

Ideally I would be wearing something as stylish and slimming as the coats below, from Anthropologie and BCBG, to keep me warm in the winter.

However, as a girl used to subtropical winters, where winter is more of a change of wardrobe than weather, I fear that such thin looking coats will just not be enough to keep me warm under the onslaught of a Chicago winter.

As a result, I find myself turning to puffy down coats, like these two from Polo Sports, to keep me warm. And so far, they've sufficiently kept me warm on most winter days.

For the more extreme days of winter, I have in reserve a long poofy jacket that looks remarkably like this one here from North Face, except mine isn't from Northface and my hood has fur on it. And I'm happy to report that I haven't used this yet after one winter and a half, although I was tempted to today under the attack of wind and freezing ice/rain pouring on us.

But really, as practical as these poofy down jackets are, they're not exactly very flattering. So what I'm wondering is, for those of you who live in extremely cold climates, how do you keep stylishly warm in winter?

SS06 Fashion Don't: Bling Bling

I have been brainstorming for ages of what to write as a fashion "don't". The problem with living in London is that everyone is so well dressed I can't get inspired by people in the streets. Then finally it hit me, I HATE bling!

Bling is something I have hated every since well, forever. For those who aren't completely sure what bling is, it's basically draping yourself in huge, obnonxious, overbearing jewelry. Bling is pretty much an essential in the culture of hip hip. The whole trend of hip hop was brought to a high a few years ago when performers thought it was just oh-so-attractive to wear eye-catching jewelry, whether male or female. And of course, since singers decided it was cool to wear bling, their fans thought it might be cool to imitate them too. This fugly fashion of bling also extends to styles such as wearing sportswear with bling jewelry and encrusting diamonds onto all your accessories etc.

Yuck yuck yuck! I esp hated those huge gold necklaces with the dollar sign. Talk about poor taste.

Now in 2006, we are all about the sophistication, new minimalism and quality luxuries. So unless you're a serious hip-hopper, here's the message just in case you still don't get it: Stop wearing bling!

tokodoki for Lesportsac

Ever since LAMB collaborated with LeSportsac, we have taken an interest in their special collections each season. LeSportsac makes some of the most practical bags -I love how I can squish the my weightless LAMB hobo bag into my suitcase when traveling. For Spring 06, LeSportsac once again collaborates with outside artists and presents tokodoki for LeSportsac. When I first saw the designs, I was like woah, this is so Marukami for Louis Vuitton. But after looking through the site properly, I think it's fair to say this collection is not a total copy of LV.

tokodoki (which means 'sometimes') is a new brand by Italian artist Simone Legno and his partners, Pooneh Mohajer Arnold and Ivan Arnold. I totally expected at least one of the artists to be Japanese, but it seems that they are only 'inspired' by the Japanese culture. One praise I can sing about this collection is that they did make an effort to make the bags relatively Japanese and not some sorry crossover between American and Japanese -you can tell because the shapes of bags are all very Japanese. By this I mean if you walk on the streets of Japan, you'll see people holding bags of similar shapes instead of other more Westernised shapes such as hobos.

To be honest, I generally can't take LeSportsac's overly color & little pictures-bombarded prints on big bags. It just feels tacky to carry a huge childish-looking bag around. The little cosmetic pouches on the other hand can be considered as cute. The other thing I don't like about the bags are the color chains. I mean, the chains work for some of the designs but not so much for others. Anyways, here are a few designs from the tokodoki collection:
This is my favourite bag in the tokodoki print. The bag is small enough for the color prints not to be tacky., the chains def work here and the shape is quite cute!
I like the design of this bag, esp the contrast between the black fabric and the color zippers. The only thing is the shape doesn't seem all that practical.

Oooh, this thing is sooo adorable! I just have no idea what you use it for......

This tote bag is extremely practical. LeSportsac bags in general are pretty sturdy so this bag will be great for carrying stuff like school books. The black makes it so easy to match with outfits, but that green chain thingy has got to go!

Ahh yes, this collection of bags also comes with these little thingys calles Qees. These ones are the cheap US$18 ones.

And this one is the shockingly US$150 8 Inch tokodoki Qee! Unless you're a super fan, I don't know who else will pay for it.

Blackwell's 46th Annual Worst Dressed Women List

Blackwell's annual Worst Dressed List is out! Hmm, I must say I don't completely agree with it. Going through the list......

1. Britney Spears

To the public, 2005 was a seriously fashion-disaster year for Britney. Her clothes seem to get uglier and more tasteless each month. In her defense though, the poor girl married the so-not-cool Kevin F., put a halt on her career and had a baby, so she probably had other more important things to think of. Let's hope she gets her act together this year! (And let's be honest, she was never the best-dressed girl anyways.)

2. Mary Kate Olsen So I'm obviously going to defend her. She's 19 and I think the clothes she wears suit her perfectly. And she obviously cares more about personal style than what trends dictate because Balenciagas were the 'it' bags two turns ago and she's still carrying them, and we all know it's not because she can't afford any of the new 'it' bags. She's one star who won't dress the way fashion magazines dictate just to get be a 'trendsetter', (and this makes her a trendsetter herself.)

3. Jessica Simpson I repeat, Eww! I'm sure all her male fans disagree but she needs to stop dressing so slutty, and as Blackwell says, sack her current stylist!

4. Eva Longoria

I'm a bit puzzled by this. You usually only see Eva photos when she's at some kind of big event or party. She's not photographed by the paps that often so I don't understand the basis for declaring her one of the Worst-dressed. From the photos I've seen, she looks pretty fantastic so...ya.

5. Mariah Carey

Obviously a year with Vogue's Andre Leon Talley didn't help much with her sense of style. Here's a little tip: Cover up more skin.

6. Paris Hilton

Umm, I'm a bit biased since I really don't like the LA style and we all know Paris is all about the LA style. One thing worth mentioning though, I think Paris's formal dress style has improved considerably last year. Let's hope for improvements with her casual wear this year.

7. Anne Nicole Smith
She should be fighting with Mariah Carey for the Worst-Dressed Number 1 spot. Yuck yuck and yuck!

8. Shakira
Honestly, who cares how she dresses.

9. Lindsay Lohan

I'm not a Lindsay fan or anything, but I think her outfits last year were well put together. She and her stylist are great at mixing high end fashion with street fashion. Let's face it, we're all so jealous she can afford to change her outfits three times a day and still not run out of 'looks'. And hooray to Lindsay for dressing less slutty and waaay more trendy last year than her previous years. And thank goodness she got rid of the blonde hair.

10. Renee Zellweger
Is it just me or does Renee look weird in most of the dresses she wears? The dresses she chooses are usually pretty stylish but just doesn't seem to look completely fabulous on her. Weird.

SS06 Fashion Don't: Distress Jeans

In class today during an especially dry bit of the lecture, my eyes wandered around in an attempt to stay awake and landed on these ripped cropped jeans that this girl was wearing. And I thought, ugh. Not only is it ugly but its cold! I'm so glad that we're in the seasons of being ladylike and put together with the whole distressed jeans thing out the window. It is just one of the things about fashion that drives me NUTS!

Here is an especially good example of why I don't like it. What were the good people of True Religion thinking? This is just . . . *shudder*

Just a few more examples of ripped/distressed jeans that distresses me. This one by Dolce & Gabanna.

And this one by Elie Tahari. This one doesn't even look flattering on the model. Its like they're trying to be chic and sophisticated with the pointed heels and all, but the oh-so-carefully placed distress just completely ruins it.

And I use the word distressed here to include this monstrousity from Just Cavalli. And to match it with that top! Can we say tacky??