do all Italian men dress like this?

THIS ...



So a few months ago I saw this photo on thesartorialist, and was literally dumbfounded. WHO THE HELL IS THAT GUY WHO WHO WHO?



I literally wanted to stab myself because I was so jealous. WHO THE HELL wears a double breasted jacket, with a fluffy mohair (PRADA?) top, then teams it up with joggers, a beanie and a men's clutch?! and wears it with such ease and still looks so good?!



With a bit of stalking and a hint of luck, I eventually found out his name was Francesco Cominelli and he's the style assistant at Vogue Homme Internationale. Okay, that explains it. THAT, my dear, is what I call style with a capital "S", no logos in sight, no "It" bags or shoes, 100% pure Fashyon!



I'm so obsessed I'm telling you. Doesn't he look like a 21st century Steve McQueen? If all Italian men dress like that, I'mma pack my bag and fly to Florence tomorrow.

To Mr Flawlessimo,
I adore you with much envy.

XOXO

~Dee-Ha~

10 reasons why i love 10 ....

So all my friends know I used to be a true psycho fashion mag whore. I read literally everything that was on offer, from Vogue to W, Grazia to Shop til you drop, you name it, I would've read every single page of it. Though lately, properly due to the fact that I'm, ahem, not getting any younger, my health/vision/patience does not allow me to read that many magazines anymore, which means I need to be super selective, and for me to fall in love with a new magazine now, it needs to be something quite fabuleux-spectaculare' (relatively, in Dee Ha's term).



"10" magazine is one of those that made me fork out my hard earnt money (mind you, imported magazines are way too overpriced in Australia), and never have i regretted getting every issue. So to keep it short (and corny), I'll tell you 10 reasons why it became my new bible :):

1. It comes out quarterly, which means every issue is thick, with plenty of interviews, articles, editorials, well worth every penny :D.

2. You don't need to flick through 12345645743 pages of ads to get to the content, which is quite unusual for a high-end fashion magazines (Vogue US please take note?!)

3. 10's a UK publication. Call me biased or whatever, but I love all things Brit.

4. Being Brit, it has that dry humour, sarcastic kind of tone which endures through out the whole magazine, which I love.

5. Its editor is a self confessed 'shoe pig', which means every issue will have its own section of 'shoe porn'. Need I say more?



6. There's no section called 'MUST HAVE ITEMS'. It's about celebration of style, not about dictating the retail market. After all, fashion's about inspiration, not imitation.

7. The editorials credit the designers, but don't give out the prices (in ITALICS). It's a true fashion magazine, not a bloody catalogue.

8. The editors aren't afraid to tell you 3/4 leggings are bad, ripped leggings are disgusting, and jeggings are, well, ............ (please insert your own description)

9. The cover of every issue is always interesting, and not just a photo of some random celeb with a boring pose, underneath a sea of subtitles in tacky fonts.

10. My shamefully confessed lack of languages spoken limits myself to only looking at editorials of overseas magazines. So until I get around to learn some broken Italian, French or Japanese, this remains my FAV!

If you haven't heard of 10, run and get yourself a copy now! It's not a suggestion, it's a command (because fashion is all about distatorship!) !

LOVE!

~Dee-Ha~

Love me some porn ...

(Don't worry, I'm not putting up anything NSFW on my blog.)

If Tommy Ton from JaknJil is famous for his 'shoe porn', then the latest f/m 10 Gucci menswear collection was 15 minutes of pure "bag porn". Clothes aside, Frida Giannini seems to get it right with the shoes and bags every season. After all, she was originally the accessories director under Tom Ford back then, which means she too was responsible for all those GG monogrammed bags flying off the shelves back in the 90s (which I admitted lusting after and gladly never got to purchase :D).

Now, until the whole movie comes out, let me introduce to you the the stars of "Gucci bag porn vol. 2010" :

1. Leopard baby got me excited ....



2. Mr Duffle made me sweat ...



3. oh Senor DOCTOR you've got to stop, this is getting too much ....



4. Monsieur Birkin-lookalike made me quiver ahhhhhhhhhh (screams ecstatically) ....



Someone please assure me it's not too late now to start saving for those babies? That maroon suede baby has got to be minnneeee (please bring it to Australia please please?!)

One thing I wonder though: Even with leather bags that good, Gucci still needs to rely on their tacky monogram canvas, isnt that a bit sad?

~Dee-Ha~

When Cathy says WERK, you'd better not walk, but run and WERK!

Cathy Horyn is one of those rare journalists that have such incredible authorities in fashion. Famous for her ruthless criticism, she's never afraid to point out things in fashion that provoke much thoughts and debates. A few weeks ago, Ms Horyn posted this on her blog (which I LOVE) about how fashion houses need to step up in terms of media/marketing:

"...Go to the sites of the most innovative labels — Prada and Balenciaga, to name two — and you find almost no appreciation for the potential of digital technology. No special films that might illuminate the creative process, no animation, no design gestures that are consistent with the contemporary spirit of these brands. Instead, what you chiefly get is a video of the last collection, some still images from an advertising campaign and, in Prada’s case, an update about its art-world projects...."

Bet chu Prada staff wet their skirts in horror after reading such thing, and, "coincidentally" for the latest F/W 2010 menswear collection, Prada leaped a mile in terms of media/PR and:
1/ decided to stream their collection LIVE to world wide audience
2/ created their own YOUTUBE channel (here), which makes it much easier to access and navigate worldwide.

Talking about the collection, there's no denial that noone does TACKY just quite like Mama Miu Miu. Watch the latest FW2010 menswear (+ womens prefall) below:



In Rachel Zoe's terms, the collection was totally BEYOND and I went BANANAS. There's a strong 90s feel in Milan collections this season, but 90s tackiness never looked so fresh. I loved:

1/ The shrunken sweaters in carious poppy colours (which i'm sure will make them gayz go crazy and fight for the size XS once they hit the stores, mark my words :P):



2/ The camouflage. Trust me I normally have camo-phobia (especially after seeing those camouflage cargo shorts that are still being sold at shops, yuk!), but those prints at Prada look sooooooo DAYUM! Have i gone insane?



Thank you Cathy, thank you Miuccia, Sorry credit card! I have 6 months to save till these hit the stores!

Bring back more 90s tackiness!

~Dee-Ha~

I thought I wasn't a brand whore ...

So all this time I thought I stayed true to Carine/God's teachings that non of the stuff you wear should have logos on them, not even a tiny weeny one (okiez maybe those GG monogrammed thongs back in the 90s did sound delish, but Tom Ford was in charge, so that was another story) until I saw these necklaces from the Lanvin menswear spring summer 2010 collection:



OH EM GEE I'm telling you. Logo crystal necklace in graffiti font and tacky hot pink? OH EM GEE! I wonder how much they cost? I've looked at all the online shops that stock Lanvin and none of them has those. OH NO!

The necklace in action:



That outfit is so flawless no?

I hope Mama Roitfeld would forgive me for this horrible sin. I promise to eat salads all year!

This flu's driving me crazy, eekk!

~Dee-Ha~

Dee Ha is ....

SICK! ahh I hate being sick, makes me feel like a lifeless piece of meat, eeekkkk!! Will be back as soon as i get better!

Bedtime for now!

~Dee-Ha~ :(

the credit-crunch-wise ad campaigns ...

With consumers still refusing to buy, and fashion houses closing left right and centre, it's about time luxury companies come up with more radical marketing strategies. One of the biggest attention grabbing method is, obviously, the ad campaign. And with the current economic crisis, there's been a new trend of ad campaigns that I've noticed this season, which I may name the "the clothes sell the clothes" trend.

Back in the 90s, when everything was still tacky, whacky and wonderful, and disposable income was flowing like tsunami waves, designers concentrated on selling luxury lifestyles, trying to lure customers into buying the brand from top to toe, to complete the customers' "designer ways of living". This included:

1) excessive use of supermodels, who were THE celebrities back then. Remember this classic?



2) making a house statement. Designer houses were like cults back then. They had excessive, impulsive followers (blame Tom Ford), who would have the cash to dress themselves top to toe in, say, Gucci fur, Gucci dress, Gucci shoes, Gucci monogrammed bondage G-strings (still my favourite till this day, but ahem, that's another story)



How time has changed, 15 years down the track, and the majority of the population now can't, or refuse to, buy a top to toe deisgner outfits. With runway looks being knocked off in less than a month (Topshop anyone?), and ridiculous bi-annual price mark ups of luxury items, consumers these days are happy to wear zara, and save up for 1,2 pieces of designer items per season instead. Which makes the whole selling a lifestyle thing a bit irrelevant in this day and age. So what to do now? Cut out the models' faces, and focus on the clothes instead! Let's have a look at a few ad campaigns this season that executed this 'trend' extremely well:

1) Celine (which I cannot praise enough):



2) Lanvin :



3) Prada - which continues to be my favourite seasons after seasons:



Then, there are houses that seem to stick to the conventional ad-campaign:



Artistic value aside, what's your first reaction when you see the ad? If it's like mine, it'd be 'Raquel looks AMAZING', and not 'I love what she's wearing!'.

Get my point now?

~Dee-Ha~

vanity's something you can't practise ...

it's something you're born with, and it shows from very young:



LOL! am i the only one finding it extremely HIlarious? damn mama fierce calling herself snow white at 8 and auditioning for snow white even though she's african?

Talking about vanity, noone does VAIN better than drags, more specifically UBER WHACKY JAPANESE DRAGS. Introducing "J'ONTE MOANING" <~~ haha?



Now that is the reason why I need to pack my bag and move to Japan ASAP! It's where creativity, whackiness, craziness, all things feroshovicolacious are! Watch Jonte performing live here:



There's only one thing I can say: Beyonce and Gaga, you'd better watch and LLLUUURRRRNNN!!!

This insanity has got to stop!

~Dee-Ha~

New ideas may or may not be ideally executed ....

but they're ALMOST ALWAYS REFRESHING! Take the audacious Balenciaga spring summer 2010 ad for example:



Would you call it a conventionally gorgeous ad? No. Truth is 80-90% of Vogue readers will properly think it looks horrid and doesn't sell the clothes. But really, does Balenciaga really need ads to sell their clothes? especially when the collection was the most talked about and most featured of the season? No. What they need is controversies, which means attention, which then means $$$.

A recent post by Cathy Horyn from the New York times (here) pointed out a very obvious fact that in this day and age, fashion houses really need to step up the game in advertising and presentation of their brand image, and not just of the clothes. Long gone is the time where most fashion lovers sit at home and drool about clothes on magazines. Consumers are well informed and well travelled these days, and can easily get to try on/experience the quality of the clothes themselves. Which is why airbrushed images of clothes are doomed to fail. What's lacking now are thought provoking ads that show the brand's direction and identity and what sets them apart.

Which is why the latest BRUNO PIETERS campaign, to me, is pure genius :






Amazing no?

Withh all that being said, can I have those Balenciaga boots PLEASE?

Can't wait for more campaigns to come out now!

~Dee-Ha~

What a way to start the new year ...

with a bunch of Spring Summer 2010 ad campaigns! Let's see how much effort fashion houses put in to attract some $$$ from our half-empty walllets! One of my favourite has to be this:



Though I have to say: NATALIA REALLY? despite her effort for fierce stare, I do think she's more of a Stella McCartney/Valentino kind of girl. Saying that, this is the case where "the clothes sell the models" (in those yummy prints, even Dee Ha would look good too for a campaign, lol!).

Perfect example where models sell the clothes, though, is this:



The true Sasha Fierce for H&M! Can i have that sweater please? :D It is interesting, with chain stores hiring top models and airbrushing just a click away, how do top fashion houses manage to send the true craftsmanship/quality message to the consumers?

With runway videos of course! Watch watch the Givenchy ss2010 collection here to witness the amaazingness that is Ricardo Tiscy:





Did you die? I sure did. Definitely one of my favs!

LOVE YOU ALL!

~Dee-Ha~