Wednesday, March 27, 2013

The Makeup That Goes with the Outfit

    At some point, anyone, has tried out some makeup. Even if you hate if, you probably wore it in  a play or when you were little and felt like breaking something. Me, personally? I ADORE makeup. Lots of people judge it as a way to cover up imperfections and not look yourself. I think it can be used that way, for sure. But I mean, if you have some giant pimple and want to cover it with concealer? Is that really all that terrible? I think it's fine to wear makeup if you realize how awesome you look, and then show it off more with some makeup. And makeup is ART!
     Almost all designers, and especially couture designers, have a makeup line. Chanel is my favorite. I've seen and tried out a lot of other clothing designer's makeup, and it doesn't really remind you of the clothing. But Chanel's makeup fits right in with their style. It's sparkly but not flashy. It has a Roaring Twenties flair. And one of the rarest things in makeup, like EVER... the colors are unique! The eyeshadow I have is coral/pink and gently sparkled. I like to wear green eye shadow right at the beginning of my eyelid and right under my brow bone, wear the coral Chanel. It blends right in with the green wonderfully. I also own a Christmas red lip gloss. Unlike most lip glosses it lasts almost as long as lipstick, and in each stage of fading it looks even better. It looks over the top right when it goes on, but when it soaks in it looks SO PRETTY AND WONDERFULLLL.
     The best thing about Dior makeup is the way it's packaged. That makes me sound really materialistic and gullible, but the way something is presented is not just important for advertising. It's good design. And good design is art. Like the curvy, glamorous, pastel, colorful Dior outfits, the lip glosses come in rectangular tiny containers with a metal curvy lid. The colors are bright and pure. I've never tried the makeup, so I don't know how well it lasts or is easy to use.
    I think it's very interesting how a designer can take their inspiration from their clothing and put it into lip gloss or eye pencil. Yves Saint Laurent re-did a classic in makeup: Mascara. He didn't do something super lame, like just changing the color to neon green or orange. He changed the color, but changed it to one that works, maroon. It takes true genius to recreate something so classic. But isn't this just fascinating? Makeup and fashion... intertwined! Two completely different things, melded together to come into one style.

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Louis Vuitton Fall Winter: Where leotards are for winter and pajamas are for day.

Luckily this show was much more modest then the show from Jacobs's own line, but definitely had the same theme: Boring and un-creative. All of the dresses looked like night gowns, and the fur coats like bath robes. It was like a pajama collection!
It only got worse with the nighty (admit it, that's what it is) that had a giant diamond shaped opening on the stomach. The furry bags were okay, but reminded me too much of those hideous furry Celine shoes. The more dress-like dresses had a ridiculous amount of cleavage, and the way it was cut looked like it was made to not have the cleavage, but someone cut it. It was a wannabe Chanel mutation, minus the beauty of Chanel.
The only looks I liked were the ones with tendril-like feathers at the bottom. The reminded me of a beautiful swamp.And I live swamps, so that totally works.
This collection was what would happen if you put Chanel,Ralph Lauren, and Valentino in a bucket and shook it up.

Friday, March 15, 2013

Marc Jacobs Fall Winter

     I've always been inspired by Marc Jacob's designs, since the designing I've been working on has my own ideas, but he's a big inspiration. I love the brights and colors. And the modernity of it. The 20's and 80's are my favorite eras, but well made clothing from the present can be awesome too. This collection had it's really gorgeous moments and it's, well, not making sense moments?
   I didn't really fall head over heels about the last collection, but it certainly was much better than this one. The oddest part of this collection was  the shorts. Unless you live in either Hell or California, it's usually cold during the winter. And that usually means not wearing shorty shorts. I mean, these shorts were shorter than the shorts I wear in the summer. And the shorts were plain colors, like black, metallic tan, and gray. There wasn't anything special about them.
   One particular model had the shorts on, and she didn't have a top on. At all. Of course she covered herself with her arm, but it annoyed me so much. Their just plain black shorts, so we need to have a half naked model wear them? It's as if the fashion show isn't about fashion, but about shock! Believe me, the world is still recovering from Jennifer Lopez's infamous Grammy's dress. We had our fill of shock. Alexander McQueen, who was a design genius in my opinion, did have a lot of theatrics and dancing and somewhat shocking outfits, but he did it in an artistic way, to complement the clothing. He completely re-did common ways of dressing.
     Aside from the half naked model, there was way too much fur. I just really dislike fur. Style wise, it makes you look obnoxious and, well, crazy, and moral-wise, I love fashion, and it's a very important thing..but is it so important that we have to kill animals for it? Especially when we have so much more fabrics and faux feathers and fur to wear, why do we need the real thing anymore?
      The see-through maxi dress was just dumb, and the upper thigh length one as just as dumb. I mean, who really walks down the street in a sheer dress with nothing else underneath? Ugh! The only dress I really liked was Look 54, because thought it was the only truely different design, even though it had fur. If it was faux, I would buy it! I've actually read that some of the designs use faux fur, but even those have been confusing, as an animal rights group said a jacket labeled faux actually had dog fur from China.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Valentino Fall Winter 2013

     The thing I love about Valentino is how they make styles and materials that are considered outdated and old, modern and very, very cool. And honestly? Is there anything really wrong with old?
The latest collection was only an improvement from the last one, gorgeous and floral and lacey wonderfulness. One thing that surprised me the most was the use of florals. Fashion for  more boring seasons usually doesn't include flowers, and if it does it USUALLY looks stupid. But with this collection! It totally changed the way I think of fall and winter.
     The floral embroidery had a very wilted and faded affect, and were relaxed. Another dress had more lively flowers, and they covered the whole dress. The colors yet again were very relaxed and coordinated.
    The first black and blue dresses looked to much like something from Ralph Lauren. They reminded me of something a stereotypical evil teacher would wear. The big long coats had more elegant shoulders, but reminded me of Celine, just with the plainness and lack of originality. The white purse also looked like the red purse that Ralph Lauren has in all it's adds
A lot more of the looks were very plain,. The white dresses with blue floral designs were a particular favorite, looking as if they were taken off those beautiful Asian ceramics. The scalloped dresses were something unique, though the linger dress with see through stomach was not very attractive. Whenever an outfit shows too much stomach it makes it look broken to me. The Lacey see through dresses were obnoxious and silly.
Almost every dress was super long, and the floaty way the hung made them very angelic. This was definitely the best show of this season. Dior made a big improvement from last season, but it wasn't Dior enough or unique. Chanel was just do bland. This collection certainly was not perfect, but what actually is?

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Alexander McQueen Fall/Winter Collection

YAY NEW CLOTHES FROM ALEXANDER MCQUEEN! Okay, I'm calm now. Before I go into the details, let me just say one thing: If you don't love this collection like craziness, you need to see somebody.
   Anyway. Being one of my favorite fashion designers, I expected something really beautiful and elegant, but at the same time edgy and totally unique. I have to say that it wasn't as awesome as the Spring/Summer 2013, which was pure gorgeousness, but it was still beautiful. And I think it is really hard to do clothes for more plain seasons like fall and winter, and bright flowers and extravagant giant dresses wouldn't really fit winter, but Sarah Burton did a fabulous job making pretty outfits, while fitting in with winter.
   The dresses all had cinched waists, which has been very popular in design. The two main colors were black and white, with  beads. All of the models  had ''tights'' made from beads, and  head pieces made of beads. I do think the bee keeper  head pieces from last season were better though. It was classic McQueen, very edgy but still feminine. These were too dramatic and not very realistic.
   The beaded corset dresses looked a little strange, and the hips went out reminded me of those pictures of women from the Victorian era, with malformed hips from those terrible whale bone corsets. One of them had a completely see-through chest, which was pretty ridiculous. It's just an attention grabbing motive, and doesn't depend on the good design.
   The white dresses were a different story. They were, big, modest, elegant, and beautiful. The skirts of the dresses were taken right from the last collection, shaped into bee comb columns. The gold tops were very baroque and royal. These dresses looked like they were taken from a medieval kingdom.
  In my opinion, this collection seemed much more like the designs that McQueen himself would design. Sarah Burton in the last collection took classic McQueen and mixed it with her own design inspiration, which was awesome. But this collection really took into consideration the classic style of this wonderful couture design house.
  

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Chanel Fall Winter 2013

Since the Spring / Summer Chanel collection was probably the most beautiful thing I ever did see, I was really excited to see winter coats and hats. But this collection was very bland and boring. It just seemed like a big mixer of everything from the other popular designers of today (and yesterday). The few stuff I did like looked nice, but were not Chanel.
First, the eye makeup. Almost completely identical to the makeup used in Dior's Spring / Summer collection, with the rhinestones. Then there were the Alexander McQueen-esque super high collars. And a ton of very un- Chanel cinched waists. And the huge jacket with big flowers and what looked like metallic cupcake sprinkles was loud, obnoxious, and just plain ugly.
And then there was the floral dress that looked like some polyester Target creation.The only thing I really liked was a red/pink tweed jacket. It seemed like the only classic Chanel piece.
Oh, and the terribly monotonous music didn't help either.

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

my other blog-like thing- a-ma- bobbers

I also have a tumblr, instagram, and pinterest if anyone would like to follow me...
Instagram: 1dsBird
Tumblr: http://directionercouturelover.tumblr.com/
pinterest: 1dsBird
 These accounts, unlike this blog, are kind of about everything I like, such as Daria, Pretty Little Liars, One Direction, cats, and, of course, couture fashion. Enjoy!directionercouturelover.tumblr.com

Dior Fall Winter 2013

New collections from favorite designers are always a big deal, so obviously I watched the latest Dior show. The first thing you notice when watching the show is the strange but very awesome background ''music'', which is actually a interview of some dude named Brad, and a woman talking about living in New York and her veterinarian prescribing carrots to her dog. I don't know how they did it, but it totally worked. The clothes reminded a bit if New York, so the talk about New York fit.
Now, the clothes! I have to say it was not as great as the famous fall/winter collection, but was a big improvement from the last collection. The dress with the ruffled middle was my favorite, and reminded me a lot of Balenciaga. I don't really get the whole thing with the cuts across the side if the leg, though. The ruffle at the top if the slit doesn't help either. It kind of looks like a tied of beach cover up.
The images of people and flowers on a lot if looks was interesting, but not really in the classic Dior style. The thing that I really liked, though, was their was a classic Dior hourglass jacket, AKA,a perfect jacket? All in all, this collection was a big improvement from the last, but had a few negatives.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Me being really quirky and hippie-ish



Meadham Kirchoff

I was on Rookie today and they had, in my opinion, THE COOLEST PHOTO SET! It was of the most recent collection from Meadham Kirchoff. The clothes were so beautiful,like a box of glittery pastel rainbow cupcakes, with a dash of Dolce and Gabbana. A lot of the clothes had my favorite thing ever, hourglass shapes, and they distantly reminded me of Dior, with that pure, colorful lightness.
What really amazed me, though, we're the shoes. They were so unique, and so much has already been done with shoes. They really were elegant and beautiful. I think shoe design takes a rare talent to do, and this designer has it. I really don't understand why this brand isn't more popular, with such boring designers like Michael Kors. If you search ''Meadham Kirchoff '' on Rookie, you can see pictures of the inspiration boards, backstage, and the recent collections. Tootles!