You are currently browsing the monthly archive for November 2010.
Even those of us who satisfy our hunger for darkness and solitude by living under a rock can’t help but be exposed to something spectacular every now and again. But on the off chance that the news hasn’t reached your rock yet, allow me to inform you:
November 23. Lanvin for H&M.
If you’ve been following for a while, you know of my love/hate/guilt/admiration relationship with H&M. But this collection is looking monumental, and I’ve got plans to camp out outside of H&M so I can check it out as soon as it opens. Oops, someone’s going to be a little late for work next Tuesday.
I get the feeling that I probably won’t end up buying any of it, but I do plan to try stuff on for ideas, if I manage to get my hands on any. The gorgeous yellow ruffle dress above (even I can get on board with the one shoulder thing for a dress like that) is one that I can easily recreate at home, and in a color better suited to my skin tone (jewel-toned teal, perhaps?) This is another example of one shoulder done beautifully in this collection:
And I’m dying to slip this over-the-top jacket over the dress for an over-the-top ensemble:
Here’s another magnificent confection that looks easily recreated, if you could only find the marvelous retro rose print fabric.
The dresses and coats run between about $150-$350, perhaps somewhat out of the price range of the average H&M teenybopper client, which perhaps means that mature career ladies like me will have fewer lithe, spry 17-year olds to punt out of the way to get to the racks. They can go for the collection’s lower priced t-shirts, skirts, and accessories.
The collection also has a less-exciting but still quite chic selection of menswear. Oh, and shoes at a relatively gentle $99 a pop.
Anyway, check out this heart-breakingly, tooth-achingly delicious collection of sweets, fashion-loving members of the proletariat. It’s Lanvin for the masses! And lest you think the once-rarefied has become all too accessible, don’t worry- the video is still delightfully artsy-fartsy :)
Oh yeah, by the way, the collection is only in limited stores, so check the website before you pitch your tent ;)
The December issue of Burda isn’t usually my favorite because it usually contains a lot of evening dresses and cocktail attire that I don’t need for my everyday activities of grumbling, backstabbing, and cookie scarfing. As such, and based on the early partial preview, I didn’t have particularly high hopes when I clicked on the full preview for the 12.2010 issue which has now popped up on the German Burda site.
Umm, let’s just say that an overabundance of evening attire isn’t really a problem this time around. I’m a little more concerned about this:
On a related note, I take some issues with this:
And I’m really none-too-pleased about this:
I’m especially worried that perhaps white poly chiffon as daywear is making a comeback, because I’m pretty sure I gave that habit up after a bit of a chiffon bender at the Unique Boutique in 1993.
As for this cut, Blanche Devereaux, anyone?
Not so much? How about some Dorothy Zbornak style?
There’s also this, which is kind of like an unsexy version of the Ann Taylor dress that I was considering knocking off for a while:
I’m tempted to make one of these hot little numbers for frisky nights at home. Seriously. I think that would be hilarious.
Honestly, my favorite stuff from this issue is the knitted stuff. I don’t think I’ll buy the issue for the knitting patterns, but I think this is the best of December (minus the Scandinavian bands on the sleeves):
Other than that, I’m not feeling good about this issue. And as much as I appreciate a good snark, I would gladly trade in snide Burda commentary for a great Burda issue for a month. I adore Burda- it got me sewing for real in the first place – but I haven’t loved an issue in a while (August 2009, perhaps?) It kind of breaks my heart. Here’s hoping for some great, great Burdas in 2011. And if that fails, I just ordered all the (fantastic!) 2006 issues from eBay.
Okay, readers, update on the overturned box full of crap that is my life. Dan and I “successfully” moved into our new apartment last week, and by this I mean we got all of our stuff into the new place. This can only be considered a success if you have very low standards for success. It pretty much looks like a moving truck threw up in an otherwise nice apartment. The good news is that my beloved Husqvarna is here. The bad news is that we toasted a transformer when trying to use an American projector and now I’m terrified of attempting to get the Husqvarna going on the European current. But I can’t deal with that anyway because anything I would need to sew is buried under the crapvalanche as it is.
Since folks have been asking, here are a couple of photos of the place. You can tell my priorities are in order because the first thing we had to do was to run out to Ikea to get the enormous PS Maskros hanging lamp that I’d coveted since I first laid eyes on it:
Seriously, this lamp is a BEAST. It is nearly a yard in diameter and it is a bucking fitch to assemble and install. Plus as we have discovered, it is a “one time use” lamp. You put all the paper florets on, but you can’t take them off later, so there’s pretty much no way to move it unless you have Go-Go-Gadget arms. It will live in this apartment and this apartment only. But it makes such pretty shadows on the walls and ceiling and it’s such a joy to wake up to in the morning that I don’t even mind that Dan has blisters all over his fingers from assembling all the wires and plastic bits. Also cool? When you’re partway through attaching the paper flowers (the easy part, albeit quite time consuming) it kind of looks like a friendly version of the partially reconstructed Death Star. Yeah, decor-related Star Wars reference!
Incidentally I’ve ordered swatches of celery green cotton velvet to do some drapes for that room and pick up the lighter green color in the bedding.
Here’s a partial view of the sewing room/guest room:
This room will get the blue and ivory striped silk dupioni curtains. It has two built in closets that I will undoubtedly stuff with fabric, and off on the far right hand side is one of the corners you can’t see where my sewing table is. I am currently plotting to replace the queen size bed with a daybed or other something that can fold up so that I can consume more of the room with sewing stuff. I want my guests to feel as though they are less important than sewing. Because it is true. Take that, friends and family!
And if you’re standing in the sewing room looking out the door, you see through the dining room into the living room where one of the movers is. He’s gone now though.
There are a couple of other rooms as well, but for now these are the only pictures that don’t look like crazy town. More soon though. And as soon as the drapery lining I ordered for my curtains shows up, there may even be some *gasp* sewing!
I’ve started to accept the fact that the whole 80’s trend isn’t really a trend anymore, but a full-blown revival. I barely even notice anymore when girls walk by in leggings, pumps, and legwarmers. But I’m not about to jump on the bandwagon, even if Burda’s early preview for the December issue (thanks again, Burda Russia!) suggests that I might be keen on sewing up a pair of these:
Considering that these pants are spacious from the top all the way down to the oh-so-flatteringly tapered calf, I’m not sure what innovative feats of sewing and construction are keeping the band so appealingly positioned around the model’s lower ribcage. The only gripe I have about this garment is that they don’t have a picture of them paired with the coordinating cropped jacket:
Wasted opportunity, if you ask me.
The 80s weren’t all bad though, and as a 4th grader, I’m sure I would have dreamed about the day that I could have donned this for an awesome party at which Morten Harket, lead singer of A-ha, and I would have fallen in love and probably gotten engaged right there on the spot:
Wouldn’t we have made an adorable couple? I didn’t realize at the time that I wasn’t exactly going to develop into the type that could pull off that dress though, which I assume is probably the reason that Morten and I didn’t end up together after all.
I have to say, I don’t really get this look. I’m not sure if that’s 80s-related, or just my general failure to comprehend what is going on here:
And the choice of satin pleated Dockers, purple armwarmers, and fur mushroom hat isn’t really helping me to make sense of it. I think she stole the hat from this sensitive lumberjack guy…
… and he is thinking wistfully of the fur hat he lost.
Also kooky? This. Is it Spandex? Latex? Hefty bag?
Based on the limited early preview, I’d have to say that this is not on my To-Buy list just yet. If you’re looking for a good plus dress for your fancy holiday parties (Selfish is never invited to parties on account of her tendencies to insult other guests’ outfits and shove more than her fair share of desserts into her purse before the others have had a chance to get to them), this issue does have a beautiful one. At least I think it’s a plus gown- it’s always so hard to tell with the Burda models:
But far and away my favorite is this dress (though I think a better fit could have been achieved), on account of its resemblance to bad girl Caroline’s dress from the school dance in Sixteen Candles:
Sigh. I miss the days when lavender ruched taffeta was the uniform of the naughty girls. She smoked, she drank, she was on the pill, she got her hair stuck in doors, she partied, and you know how you could tell? By all the puffiness in her sleeves! Caroline got a bad rap though. She appreciated Jake for being rich, whereas Molly Ringwald just liked him because he was hot.
I’m pretty sure if I make that Burda dress from the 12.2010 issue, I’ll end up at a party at which Jake from Sixteen Candles falls in love with me. And no, not the actor who played Jake who left Hollywood to become a carpenter, but JAKE RYAN FOR REAL.
The Selfish Seamstress 