I`ve decided this morning that my new favourite colour is the one of the sky early in the morning, a sort of combination between cold dark violet and blue. I think it is the most optimistic colour ever. And I will tell you why. It is such a wonderful feeling to know that this colour is going to get lighter and lighter, warmer and warmer, until the sun goes up in the sky. Just like the sensation of a new beginning, when all you do is hope that things are going to get better and better.
I can`t believe I am reading the last issue of Look magazine. The March edition is the last one and I feel so sorry that I will never read Romanian Look again. I`ve read on the Internet that this decision was made due to the fact that there were two high street magazines with the same profile in the publisher`s portfolio, Joy and Look. Being mostly the same and having less profitability than Joy, they decided to close the latter of the two. Look was the one that came the last in the portofolio, arriving from another publishing company.
I think we need more and more high street fashion magazines in Romania, which can inform girls what`s new and hot under the fashion sky. Thank God that Glamour and Bolero are still around. As a fashion lover and a shopper, I am quite shocked they`ve done it now after the last year lunch of two high street brands, H&M and New Look, in Romania. If you ask me, I never get enough of the fashion magazines, the more they are the merrier I am.
Not to mention the fact that there is a field of activity called marketing, that can be used to facilitate the presence of many products of the same type on the market. That`s why we have so many beer brands out there, because every brand of beer has been injected with a special, unique message. Their unique selling proposition is what matters the most. The marketers promote one different and unique benefit, improving the product by enhancing, changing or adding a strong attribute. I really can`t see why this theory can`t be applied on magazines. If your product and brand strategy are strong enough, people will buy your stuff, no matter how many other products of the same kind already exist on the market. Especially when the consumer already has got some knowledge of your brand, so you don’t build something from scratch.
I am one of those people who like to touch and smell the pages of a book or magazine. I love to be surprised by the images and photoshoots. This is why I buy as often as I can the British and French Vogue, Elle, Harper`s Bazaar, Glamour, etc. I don`t care that I don`t have enough space for them. I will never throw a magazine. They will all wait quietly in the corners of my room until my children and my grandchildren discover them. And one day, when I will be old, I will read them and maybe I will smile remembering my youth, the clothes, the trends, everything. I will probably ask my girlfriends “Do you remeber when I used to walk into that dress and everyone was looking at me? Or, do you remember when we went there and I was wearing that?” The stars of our generation, Rhianna used to wore this designer item and Adele was seen in this. Do you remember?” I actually already do this, with the older editions, and I do remember how it used to be back then, reading the pages turned yellow of the fashion magazines from 2003,2005,2007 etc. Too bad Look will no longer join my archive of memories.
I just finished watching the McQ show live on Alexander McQueen official Facebook page and I am in love. It was just like I expected it to be, theatrical, artful and mysterious. McQ is the diffusion line of the house Alexander McQueen and this is the first time they show it during London Fashion Week.
Now, this is what I made out of the show. For me it was a sort of 50`s housewives fighting for their rights, because of the mix between two main themes, utilitarian and romantic, that consisted in military coats, full skirts and long gloves. I loved a lot the contrast between two of the fabrics used, lace and leather, a sort of combination between vulnerability and strenght.
Then comes my favourite part. The last model took to the catwalk dressed in a wonderful white dress, with long gloves, just like a bride. But not an ordinary bride. She stopped in the middle of the catwalk, lost, when some autumn leaves began to fall on her. She was rescued with a rope and she went back to what appeared to be a wood. The image was blurred, so all I could see was that she found a man back there. At the end she was seen in some sort of pub. Maybe she was a bride who ran away from her housewife future in a possible arranged marriage, and got resucued by a stranger.
I loved the presentation! This was the third military inspired show I have seen so far, after Victoria Beckham and Marc by Marc Jacobs. I really smell a trend out there.
Later edit
Here you can watch the video of the presentation, posted by the company on YouTube:
There are only few movies that you carry with you forever in your mind and soul, after you see them. You know this after you press the button on your remote controler or after you step out of the cinema. The images stay with you.
For me, there is a special movie that I won`t ever forget called Atonement. I remember the night when I saw it. It was a cold November night and I wanted something that could warm me up. Sometimes a hot tea or bath are just not enough to make you feel safe and warm. But a movie can.
I hadn`t read any review before buying it. I just saw the picture cover of the dvd and read two names, Vanessa Redgrave and Keira Knightley and it was enough for me to make me add it to my shopping bag.
Atonement has a very interesting plot about unrequitted love, selfishness and revange. It is quite useless to make a review, you have to see it. It is one of those movies that keeps you with your heart in the mouth until the end.
However,it`s not the plot I want to write about, but the scenery and the clothes, the things that one may say are not that important: the British gardens, the dresses, the make up, the hairstyle, the furniture, the British accent. It is said that most of any communication act consists in the nonverbal things (body language and tone), and this movie makes no exception to the rule.
Although the subject was a sad one, and I even cried watching it, I fell in love with the other aspects of the movie. Aspects that made me have a crush on England. Watching summer scenery on a cold day can warm up anyone.
This movie gave me a lesson on how important the images are and that the way we dress and look is sometimes more important that what we actually say. For example, I don`t remember any of the lines Keira said in Atonement but I will always remember her long, green, 40`s dress. I think that everytime someone says fashion is not important, they should reconsider this idea. Fashion influences the way we are perceived. The way we look is very important, and it is a form of communication in itself. I remember one of the professors from faculty teaching us one of the Palo Alto axioms, stated by Waltzawick, that even when we don`t say anything at all, we still talk.
I had no idea Hugh Laurie sang so well.
Swanee River reminds me of summer and crowded restaurants full of happy people enjoying their holiday. I am loving it! I`ll buy his album for sure!
I went to visit my cousins new house in south Bucharest and had an enormous surprise to discover they have a pair of parrots exactly like the one from my House of Holland budgies sweathsirt.
Awful weather, you need a place to hide from the cold wind.
You enter the mall but someone calls you. You can say “we can meet some other time”, but you want to see that person. You only have half an hour to get yourself something nice.
Panic! Enter as many shops as possible. Faster, faster, be careful not to fall on the stairs!!! Oups, you almost did, anyway nobody knows you. You find something nice, you look at the clock, you really have to go now. You look at the beautifully coloured and wonderfully tailored item that screams at you:”you need me so bad, buy me, buy me”. No time to try it on!!! You buy it anyway. You are happy you arrived safe and sound, just in time, at the restaurant AND you also bought something nice.
Home, you realise you have bought something that is too big for you. End of story.
Now, a huge note to self: don`t you ever shop and run again, all at the same time, Cristina.
We are living though times these days, with the financial crisis and all the struggles the youngsters have to deal with to finally accomplish what they have always dreamed of. And what do young people need to be ready for this? A strong attitude! As a consequence, the Marc by Marc Jacobs autumn/winter show was like a lecture on how to deal with a difficult situation. The girls and boys were wearing military hats, having a very strong and confident attitude.
The song played was “Something`s gone wrong” and the models were all like “yeah, but we are going to fix it, we are like soldiers, we are going to win the battle!” I really liked the bright lipstick and the full skirts in combination with the boots, it was a very nice contrast between them.
I loved the presentation and also taking into consideration the military theme of the Victoria Beckham show, I wonder if there is a military trend the next season.
For me a Marc Jacobs show is always like a gift that I long to unwrap. Yesterday, I had been waiting for it all day long, and when the time had come, at 3 o`clock in the morning, I opened my laptop and started watching one of the most beautiful fashion presentations I have ever seen so far.
I was smitten by the fact that the runaway was so big. When the models took to the catwalk, I saw a big, all white stage decoration that reminded me of the town from the Tim Burton animation, “The Nightmare Before Christmas”. Then, when the outfits were revealed, I realised that it was all about childhood memories. Those hats and shoes reminded me of the Victorian period and the literature characters of that time that I had discovered when I was little, from David Copperfield to Tess of the D’Urbervilles. The music played helped a lot, too, with the main theme from the Oliver Twist musical, “Who will buy this wonderful morning”. The show brought back to me so many memories of the people and friends with whom I grew up, that I almost started crying. Inside my head I was repeating “Wow” for so many times. Marc Jacobs imagined a story for us to interpret in our own ways maybe.
The model Daria, who can be seen on the Louis Vuitton Spring Summer 2012 ad campaign, kicked off the whole story, with a skirt and coat over pants and embroidered shoes. And then, other models came with their big hats, big bags and glowing outfits, made from lurex, sequins and lame, the fabrics that the designer had also used in his previous collections for Marc by Marc Jacobs and Marc Jacobs. Then the knit stoles with huge safety pins were introduced, worn over dresses and sweaters in wonderful colours combinations, green and violet, red and black. I really liked the dress over skirt and shirt and the hologram sequined dress in dark pink. The model wearing this pink dress came with a rose in her hands, and I suddenly remembered that in my time zone it was already the 14th of February, Valentines Day. I think this look reminded me of Tess of the D`Urbervilles in a way. After seeing some wonderful dark pink items, paisley printed dresses and skirts, the show was over with black outfits and Kati came the last in a lovely black dress.
At the end, Marc Jacobs came for the final bow, wearing the lovely shoes seen in the presentation, and I felt so sorry that the fairytale was over. I felt like watching my own childhood memories throughout the show, when I used to listen to stories on the vinyl discs. I was so little that I didn`t even know how to read back then, but those stories helped me fall asleep and at the same time, they had woken up my imagination.
Thank you, Marc Jacobs, for making such a magical show!!!
“WOW”! It is all I can say, the rest of the words will come in a few hours!!! I`ve just finished watching the livestream.
I can`t wait to write about it!
