What makes perfume so sweet

I live in a world where the latest perfume release is inherently irrelevant. I'm not an obsessed collector nor am I a girl who picks out a bottle and for years on becomes the Girl Who Wears This Particular Designer Scent. This could be because I grew in a small little town where it was unlikely you'd be assalted with heavily applied latest version of Lily of the Valley-type abomination, unless you sat near the 30-somethings with the badly dyed hair. (In Toronto, elevators and subway trains are breeding sites for purgent mixing of different incorrectly-applied fragrances, resulting in watering eyes and the inability to breathe).

And don't get me wrong, it's not as though I'm set against perfume. I'd love to be a proud owner of Chanel No 5 or similar some such fragrance. But as with other designer artifacts, I don't buy things that don't appeal to me just because of their label. (I passed up on a vintage brown YSL luggage bag for that very same reason -- it may have been designer, but there's no point in buying something as scuffed and hideous unless you're planning to use it as your next residence). And so every time I dutifully unfold the little samples in magazines, I always think with a certain naive hope Maybe this is the one... before my nostrils are invaded by something that smells like household soap or an $80 rip-off of Calgon.

But when I read about Sarah Jessica Parker's perfume commercial shoot in Paris in December's Vogue, I was ready to be brought to the other side if by nothing else but the fact that it's SJ and the gorgeous Lacroix dress she is wearing.




Celebrity Mound

Winter wishlist

Being an atheist, Christmas is not something I look forward to or attempt to celebrate. So holiday music and the bringing out of the Christmass tree are usually met with a cynical roll of the eyes. The hopeful claptrap of the winter holidays does nothing to warm by black heart. But having said that, I am a sucker for free stuff, and this list is as much for me as for anyone wanting to get me gifts this December. (Friends, listen up.)

What is on my Wanting list:

• Bertrand Russell's "Why I Am Not A Christian"
• Alfred Kinsey's "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male"/"Sexual Behavior in the Human Female"
• Kinsey DVD
• Night of the Living Dead DVD
• Susannah Frankel's "Visionaries: Interviews with Fashion Designers"
• Caroline Evans's "Fashion at the Edge: Spectacle, Modernity, and Deathliness"
• John Emsley's Vanity, Vitality, and Virility: The Science behind the Products You Love to Buy
• Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises
• The ability to read in French, so that I can shelf my inferior American Vogue for good
  
• A subscription to any of the following: i-D, Vanity Fair, American Vogue, W, Adbusters, American Scientist

Oh, and these boots by Anna Sui would be great. But I'm not holding my breath.

Doo-Ri Chung and CFDA overlook

... was the recipient of the Vogue Fashion Fund.

Pictured here with Penelope Cruz. May I just say that I love the simple lines and cut of the dress.

Of course the fashion set came out to party, so here are some highlights:

Milla Jovovich and Carmen Hawk (in their own designs)

Giancarlo Giammetti and Narciso Rodriguez

Lily Cole, with designers Richard Ascott and Philip Colbert. And I am really adoring this picture.

Agyness Deyn. Come on, how cool does she look?

Marc, and the Olsen twins. What is that green see-through cover that MK/A has on? I can't tell if I really love it or hate it.

Whoa-nelly! What has Kate Spade done here? An oversize, bright colored coat with shiny slippers. Does it get any more maternity clothes than this?


CFDA

Fur overload

I know this topic has been done to death by fashion bloggers worldwide, but browsing through Style.com over my spare, I came across there hideous monstrosities:


This one is only good for Halloween, when you want the five-year-old trick-or-treaters to think you have grown a bird's nest instead of a head. Vision is optional.

This is the fur ball to rival obsessive cat ladies everywhere. (Honestly, though, I would give anything to see a normal woman wear this.)

This is a bit of a repeat of the first picture, but now, instead of just the boring bird nest, we're got an extralarge moustache as a hat/face covering. I mean, maybe if you're into the whole Marx Brothers thing, but for me, personally, a big no.

Giles

Bags of our fathers

I grew up in a small village in southern Ukraine. When I was a little girl, my mother began to make trips to Odessa, where she bought wholesale products, which she later sold in our town for a profit. To make these trips, by bus no less, one required fairly sturdy, cheap bags that would be big enough to carry a fair amount of product and easy to replace if one happens to break. I remember these bags as though it was yesterday because they remained with our family throughout my childhood, when my parents actively made a decent living in sales. Big, rectangular, with a red, blue and white pattern, they were often utilized in my home.

Marc Jacobs obviously thought the same thing, because here they are in their fleamarket glory:


Now, this picture is truly Ukrainian. Lots of layering to keep warm into the winter, a weary face, flower-like hair accessories that resemble curlers, and a handy bag to store your produce in. You can't help but think that in a minute this girl is going to peek out of the house, see her dirty son, and yell at him for getting mud on his clothes again.



Louis Vuitton SS07

King watch

For the last several weeks I have been a complete hermit, leaving my room only for the occassional meal and to peruse online fashion news. It had gotten to a point where I could barely navigate my way around downtown Toronto (yes, it was that bad).

But now that school has retreated to being merely a dull nuisance of work, I was finally able to head downtown, where I could be assured that worn Uggs and Juicy Couture sweatpants are not a fashion staple enjoyed by trendy Torontonians.

Of course, Toronto is no rival to fashionable cities like Milan and New York, and you're unlikely to see gaggles of fashionistas slinking on Spadina in their five-inch Louboutins, but we've got charm. Plus the chilly weather just makes you want to layer several sacks over your body, not break out the tiny jackets.

So wondering down King West, I was hit with reassuring sights: confident business women striding in smart suits, hip girls in skinny jeans and knee-boots, very cool guys in jeans and trench coats, in designer shoes and chic scarves. In fact, I think there were more impeccably dressed men than women miling about. Let's be thankful for the metro movement.

NOW 25th birthday bash:
Those waisted pants are gorgeous, and the clean simple pieces really make the outfit stand out.
Look at that smile. Look at those tights. And those boots. One word: fantastic.


NOW party pics

Russian fashion

Science courses have been keeping me busy, but I'm trying to stay on top of the fashion world (because, let's face it--it's much more important).

Namely, five Russian designers are showing their collections at China Fashion Week in Beijing, starting November 19. And not only that, but they're getting a separate day to showcase Russian talent! We're finally moving up in the world.

The five designers: Sergey Teplov, Yulia Nikolaeva, Olga Romina, Julia Dalakian and Tatiana Parfionova.

Parfionova, in St Petersburg earlier this year:


And here's a bit of Russian Fashion Week '06 in Moscow overview.

Natalia Valevskaya:



Katya Mosina:




You know, I've never been a blind Russian patriot ('cuz, you know, I'm not Russian... at least not directly) but I'll admit that the Russians do have a distinct look. The clothes by Ms Mosina remind me of the cool stylish figures I read about in my Mom's Russian fashion magazines when I was but a girl of eight. But then on the other hand... there are the walking disasters that have "Russian" written all over it, such as the woman clothed in the beige sweatsuit with Bermuda shorts horrorshow. And, dear God, are those little carpet rectangles sewn in on her shoulder?

Be warned, dear readers: that is exactly the uniform of a middle-aged woman trying to desparately retain her youth by wearing hideous ill-fitting ensembles.

Well, I'm off to study nucleotides and endosymbiotic theory. Hope you all have a fantastic weekend.




Russian Fashion Week in Moscow

Russians in Beijing

Snow white and disappointment

So I went to H&M today, to check out the Viktor & Rolf collection, mostly just intent on buying the scarf. Of course, silly me, I (rather foolishly) assumed that a coveted label at low prices would not sell out most of its designs only five hours after it debuted.

By the time I got to the store, at around 3, the scarves were gone. And the heart blouse I wasn't sure about was also nowhere to be seen.

And I have to admit that, as much as I was looking forward to this, the clothes looked a bit cheap. Especially the V&R (heart) H&M t-shirts. I know, I know, at 24.99, what was I expecting, right? The clothes (or whatever was left over) just looked very drab and uninspired. Which really is a shame, because as I left to browse through the rest of the store, I found some dresses and jackets that looked fairly sophisticated and they that didn't cost more than any shirt V&R presented.

On a much brighter note, though. Isn't this the most Snow white-inspired outfit that you have ever seen? I'm absolutely in love with it.





Vivienne Westwood S07

Viktor & Rolf come to TO

So tomorrow, the Viktor & Rolf collection will be available in the Eaton Centre and Bloor H&M stores. I really want the scarf (not pictured).

And I'm kind of eyeing the blouse with interest. But I'm not sure that it's the sort of thing I can pull off without looking very strict-librarian.


Viktor & Rolf for H&M

Sex and the City, the movie?

OK! Magazine reported that the Sex and the City movie is "back on track," that talks have begun with the stars' teams about the possible movie.

As much as I looove SATC, is a movie really necessary?

For one thing, what would happen? As far as I saw, the last episode tied things up in terms of plot and "who will end up with who."

Another thing--the writers probably won't have free reign over subject matter and rating. I'm sure that some major studio will hop on the project right away and try to make it as PG as they can to attract as wide an audience as possible. So where would it leave the fans who are used to lines such as "Fuck me badly once, shame on you. Fuck me badly twice, shame on me." and

Samantha: Ladies! Seamen, twelve o'clock!
Miranda: I pray when I turn around there are sailors, because with her, you never know.

But I'll just shut up and show pictures of what makes SATC so great (besides the wit and humor, anyway):



First 4 pics taken from Carrie's Diary
The rest are from hbo.com
Sex & the City film in the works

Anna Sui

These dresses make me wish I had several grand in the bank, just so I could buy them.





Anna Sui 2007 Spring Collection

Lacroix 07S Hits & Misses

For the 2007S collections, designers seem to have gone one of two ways. Either really pastel, modest suits and dresses with a few choice colour outfits thrown in to accentuate the clean look. Other chose colourful, flashy dresses and pants (namely Christian Lacroix). Of course that is all good and well, but there are bound to be complete misses and clothes can go either way (too drab to be shown to a group of fashion elite or too hippie with clashing colours).

And it really pains me to say it, because I really love the rest of his collection, but this outfit is too old lady for words. You can even see that just wearing it is causing the girl to hunch over with age. Someone pass her a cane before she falls down!

From a certain distance, those white heels look like white runners. Not fashionable.

You can really see the designer had a bit of a black blobs on white fixation. If it were at least knee-length, it wouldn't have been as bad. But as it is in the picture, it makes a model look shapeless. What chance to regular women have?


It wasn't all bad, however. Aside from those two disasters, the colours and cuts of the other garments really won me over. And the haircuts really have to be commended. They compliment the clothes and make them more dramatic.


Christian Lacroix 07 Spring Collection

Slavs on the Runway

Perusing style.com's spring ready-to-wear collections, I can't help but notice the dominance of Slavic girls (especially DKNY). Was I not paying attention or is this a fairly new invasion? Though being Slavic myself, had it not been for the names of the models in the right-hand panel, I would have never guessed their ancestry. I guess something about being a long-legged waif makes one look international.

La Perla has some really fantastic clothes in their spring collection. For instance this dress: it's so light and flowy that you can just imagine Tatiana strolling down the street in Paris or maybe fanning herself and drinking espresso in one of the chic cafes in Yorkville. Though, the dress is probably more appropriate for summer, what with Canadian climate.




I'm not sure if I'm really loving this dress. It looks a bit too simple, but there's absolutely no doubt that it was made for Bruna Tenorio, who is lovely and coy.


But the shoes... the shoes are phenomenal. I am glad not every designer thought that having your models wear glorified dollar store, thick-strap man-sandals was a great accent to the lavish clothing, a la DKNY.


What happened, Donna Karen? You had such lovely ankle boots in your ads for the fall line.