Fashion Sensei Says… Nerd Alert! Edition May 2, 2008

After seeing this first event and nearly making an entire post out of it, I decided to have a theme to today’s Fashion Sensei Says.  Enjoy!

Le Geek So Chic…

Hot off the Style.com newswire, Superheros: Fashion and Fantasy is set to go on display May 7th at the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Here’s a sneak peak of what looks to be a fantastic show.

Masked Mavens

Inspiration

Cat Woman

 

Runway

 

Every Superhero needs and emblem

Inspiration

Superman, Queen with Supermen

Runway

 

 

When Super Powers Just Aren’t Enough- Body Armor

Inspiration

Iron Man, Tron

Runway

The Feminine Caped Crusader

Inspiration

Jane Fonda in Barbarella

Runway

 

 

Free For All…

May 3rd is Free Comic Book Day.  Hit your local comic book store to pick up one free comic from a list of titles.  For more information, click here.  Sci-Fi Sensei has been talking about this for weeks and was excited to see this cover to the local entertainment section of the Detroit Free Press today.

 

Not A Paper Cup…

From the fabulous Thinking Geek site comes the Not A Paper Cup. This ceramic, thermal java cup is fantastic!

Beauty and Brains Too…

While toting your new coffee cup, show that you have a dose of brains to go with your astonishing beauty.  The below  Caffeine Babydoll Tee has the molecular structure for your morning buzz.

 

 

I hope you enjoyed this abbreviated Fashion Sensei Says… and getting in touch with your “Inner Geek”.

 

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Seeing Spots April 15, 2008

This Spring you will be seeing spots…polka dots that is.  Last Fall dots could be found in collections ranging from Givenchy to Lacoste and everywhere in between.  Here are a few examples from the Spring 2008 shows.  (click on images for the image source and full collections) 

Givenchy

Carolina Herrera

Lacoste

Karen Walker

Luca Luca

Now that we have seen what came down the runway, here are a few choices from retailers. (click on images for shopping information)

 

 

But here are a few words of advice (and some of this goes without saying), please only where one spotted item, maybe two at a time.  Otherwise Polka Dot Princess, you will begin to look a little silly.  Finally, when wearing black and white dots, add a punch of color to your look.  Infuse a little of the bright shades that are so popular this Spring.

 

 

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Comme Des Garcons for H&M Fall 2008 April 15, 2008

H&M has announced that Rei Kawakubo will collaborate with the discount design emporium come November 2008.  Her collection will include men and women’s collections along with some pieces for children.  The collection release will coincide with the launch of the second H&M store in Tokyo.

“Rei Kawakubo has been at the top of our wish list for a long time and we are thrilled that she has chosen to collaborate with us. We have tremendous respect for Kawakubo’s fashion philosophy of questioning fashion’s ingrained patterns, and admire her artistic approach to design. …explains Margareta van den Bosch, creative advisor, H&M.”

Rei Kawakubo who was born in Tokyo and interestingly, not being a trained fashion designer (she studied fine art and literature), dictated her designs verbally to pattern makers.

She now is responsible for 14 different brands, in shops spanning 25 countries, with nearly  700 employees.

Comme des Garcons has been described as specializing “in anti-fashion, austere, sometimes deconstructed garments, sometimes lacking a sleeve or other component.”

Here are some looks from her Spring and Autumn 2008 collections.

 

 

I will be interested to see what sort of collection she decides upon.  Not to mention the budget constraints she will have with fabric and materials.

Hmm…this is all beginning to sound like a Project Runway challenge.

 

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Sources: infomat, H&M, Style.com

Wills India Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2008 March 20, 2008

Have you ever heard the saying it’s always Happy Hour somewhere?  Well it seems this adage applies to Fashion Week around the world. 

Last week while I was covering Japan Fashion Week Tokyo, New Deli India was hosting their own.

However some industry insiders felt Wills India Fashion Week (WIFW) designers did not take into account global weather and questioned who Indian designers were marketing to.

Benedicte Bro, an international fashion consultant, asked, “Who is the target client for the Indian designers? The clothes they showed seem to be for a fantasy woman whose only preoccupation is to look pretty. The designers right now are definitely not catering to the working woman.” She added, “Good clothes are powerful.”

The article also goes on to say:

Chantal Rousseau, operating vice-president, Europe Bloomingdales said, “I have been coming for the autumn/winter fashion week now for some time but I am wondering if I should continue because if the week is held in March there is no way the deliveries can happen by the time the autumn/winter collections are in stores in the west.”

So what were they looking at?  Here are some highlights from WIFW.

Manish Arora

Said to be inspired by warrior fashions from around the world.

Rina Dhaka

Puja Arya

Charu Parashar

Ekru

What do you think of these pictures?  Frankly based on these pictures, I do not see how the above criticisms are warranted.  I see a lot of influences that we have seen elsewhere; i.e. Manish Arora’s first picture feels a little Galliano and the second definitely is Ballenciaga Spring 2008.  I also see the Ombre influence in  Charu Parashar’s beautiful long beige, crimson and gold skirt.  But how are these clothes and less wearable than runway shows we see in Paris, New York and Milan?  There are all sorts of  “unwearable” fashion that comes down those runways if you hold it to the average woman’s standards; especially work wear.

 Any Indian readers out there?  What’s your take?

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Sources: Business Standard; Fashion Wire Daily

JFW Tokyo Autumn/Winter 2008 March 14, 2008

Here’s the latest run from JFW/TYO.

ato by Ato Matsumoto

everlasting sprout by

Keiichi Muramatsu /
Noriko Seki

FUMIO by FUMIO AKIYAMA

* installation

corazon del alma by Nobuhide Koi

* installation

HISUI by Hiroko Ito

Raphus cucu by ERIKO ISOYA

YLANG YLANG by Ryunosuke Aoyagi

AGURI SAGIMORI

Here comes cousin It!

suzuki takayuki by Takayuki Suzuki

ELE TRA by Ritsuko Kato

tiny dinosaur by Naomi Yamamoto

Yukiko Hanai

JUNYA TASHIRO

TAKUMI HATAKEYAMA

garconshinois by shin

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Update On JFW A/W 2008 March 13, 2008

Hi guys, here is an update on the collections for Autumn/Winter at Japan Fashion Week in Tokyo.  I don’t have any time to comment on them other than some are very creative and some are just crazy.  Enjoy!

zechia by 

Lica /
Masahiro Nakagawa

motonari ono

mintdesigns by

Hokuto Katsui /
Nao Yagi

MIKIO SAKABE  by

Mikio Sakabe /
Shueh Jen-Fang

JOTARO SAITO

support surface by Norio Surikabe

Né-net by Kazuaki Takashima

UNDER CASTLE by Shinichiro Shimojo

(FYI this is underware)

matohu by

Hiroyuki Horihata /
Makiko Sekiguchi

 

Photo Sources: JFW/TYO, REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon (JAPAN)

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Tokyo Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2008 March 11, 2008

This is an exciting week in fashion as Tokyo unveils their Autumn/Winter collections for 2008.  Unlike many other countries, Japan’s Fashion Week is organized by the Japanese government along with the private sector to bring international awareness to this countries talented fashion design community.

Many well known Japanese designers such as Junya Watanabe for Comme des Garcons, Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto, Rei Kawakubo and Jun Takashi of Undercover are well known names worldwide.  However, these designers no longer show in Tokyo.  Instead, they have moved their collections to Paris for greater recognition.

JFW started on Monday with 4 shows under it’s belt with a total of  45 brands set for exhibition.

Here are some highlights of Monday’s shows.

KAMISHIMA CHINAMI by Chinami Kamishima

HIROMI YOSHIDA

MODE ÀCŌTÉ by Minoru Adachi

Hidenobu Yasui

I’ll keep you posted on any noteworthy designs in the coming week.

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 Photo Source