little bitty girl

This is one of my very favourite questions to ask Marie at the start of every fashion season. She always responds with "You are retarded!" and "Who plans what their look will be every season?" You see why we're best friends. We have no issues with abusing one another.

Fashion is such a funny thing.

I do think there are many people in the world who do plan their wardrobes seasons ahead. I however, am not really one of them, I kind of just buy what I feel like. I do have a couple of pet peeves when it comes to fashion:

(1) Having no personal fashion identity -- you know the girls I am talking about. The ones who travel in packs and wear variations of the same thing, and the ones who look as if they ripped a page out of a magazine, went to a store and told the salesperson to get them "the look" regardless of whether the clothes complement their body type or personal taste.

(2) Taking fashion too seriously. At the end of the day, it's only clothes, people should have fun with it.

So when I ask Marie the question, part of it is mocking the silliness of the industry. My answer is usually something really random like "Marie Antoinette mixed with 90's grunge and 20's flapper girl" and we'll laugh. Then Marie will swear she won't be seen near me if I come close to dressing what I described above.

That being said, even though I am no longer in the fashion industry, I am still very into it. There is something about a new season, a new look, a new designer that always gets me excited.

Fall 2008 has already been in full swing and here are some looks from the runways (so far...there's so much to catch up on) that I would totally incorporate into my wardrobe (if I was taller/richer/chicer).

These first picks are completely biased since I went to school with Erdem. In my defense, I always thought back then he was completely talented and am glad to see him do so well in this fickle industry. I love the prints in this dress (1), it reminds me so much like art that I would love to own and I've always loved maxi dresses even though as part Hobbit, the silhouette makes it very hard for me to pull it off. This dress (2) I would definitely wear a lot. It's something that you can definitely dress up and down. Since work requires me to go to events where there are other creative people around, this (3) would be a great number to add to my wardrobe. The rich purple and pleating detailing makes it something I would want to keep for a very long time.

These are looks that I would totally wear to work when I need to dress up more. The first two looks are by Diane Von Furstenberg. I love the styling of this look (1) with the belt. Layering is my favourite way to dress and I feel that all the pieces can be pulled apart and worn with different existing things in my wardrobe. I have to admit that I love black dresses (2). I seem to buy a new one every season to the utter bewilderment of Stefan, who cannot see that every single one is extremely different from the other. This one has such beautiful lines and tailoring to it. This look (3) by Elie Tahari is one I have been wearing a lot lately. I really like mixing lines --- long sleeves under little jackets and I love, love , love mens style pants. I don't think they'll ever go out of style.

This look (7) by Max Azria is my perfect Friday outfit. I would wear it with a long black cardigan, leggings and boots for the day and a little cardigan, dark tights, a chunky vintage gold choker and high, high black heels for night. I would get these two other two looks (8 & 9) by Chloe and wear them as pieces. They look like items that you could mix and match in numerous ways to make several outfits.

Looking back at my picks so far, me thinks Mama Kang would be quite upset. She's always bemoaning the fact that I refused to wear anything feminine for most of my formative years, rather choosing to wear my brothers' discarded clothing.

Funny how that works...