Suit-Dress

If you have a regular 9 to 5 job, you will love  Balenciaga Resort 2015 collection. The designer gives a whole new meaning to the term "Suit Dress" by creating quite literally a suit-dress.

This Spring/Summer, drop the work-wear to night-wear trend and say: "FFS", yes short for Fun and flirty Suits.

On Point

If you’re looking for something bright and fresh this Spring/Summer, you will find it in Southampton Solent students.

Although many students may have finished University either for summer or entirely, it’s a chilling thought that some haven’t yet. Fashion students, studying Fashion Design hung on to the very bitter end in order to see where the piece of string stopped; used not only to piece together garments, but ultimately helped to reveal their graduate collection.

“The Graduate Show” was held in Eastleigh at The Point on 7^th June, which was created as a way of showcasing and highlighting many talented students. Rebecca Butler, Fashion Designer and student says: “My inspirations derived from religious clothing/uniforms worn by sisterhoods such as the Nun, Amish and Puritans. The uniformity and impact of the clothing evokes a very modest and austere emotion. There is little expression with gesture and it is somewhat oppressive in terms of outer personal expression”. After hearing the designer’s response, this was a good indication of what to expect at the show, which was nothing other than fantastic.

Sitting impatiently in the audience, the suspense seemed to fill the entire room. The light dimmed for what could be one last time, heightening the excitement even more so and the entire audience beamed as they waited to watch the collection.

One by one the Models sashayed the runway wearing the most incredible clothing. The first collection was designed by Ruth Simmons. It was an explosion of terracotta’s infused with fresh blues and yellows, which helped to wash a zinging design to a winning one. Looking at the collection in deeper depth, there were oversized jackets, cocoon jumper dresses, preppy cropped trousers and turtle necks – the designer was rolling with ideas. The end result was that the collection was cool, coy and very wearable. There was a sense of picking one piece and wearing it either as a statement or teamed with something else to create a grand look.

The music played continuously and the flow of fantastic designs continued to fill the runway. Designer Alys Webb collection was nothing other than a clean slate. It had rustic colours and the origami style strapless dress, meant that the designer was off to a flying start.  But the last piece of the collection was a clever play with materials. It was a combination of metallic stiff Midi skirt, which was held together by woven wool and was paired together with a brown jumper. This brought a whole new meaning to rustic metal and truly deserved a medal.

Rebecca Butler, designer kept her promise regarding her collection. The models wore black lipsticks and their hair was neat but messy at the same time and with the name Butler – her collection was clean, sharp and well-polished. It was Nun meets grudge; this was truly an innocent design and gave a devilishly good collection.

Kirstie Ward had her ideas buckled up. It was fresh natural hues, with buckle details that made everyone go crazy for it. Although the models faces were almost hidden from the drapes and folds, it helped to create mystery to the collection; leaving the audience intrigued and captivated.

The entire show consisted of 29 graduates; Ruth Simmons, Abigail Carter, Alys Webb, Suzanne Rennie, Kirtstie Ward, Khloe Pavis, Rebecca Speed, Mira Valerie, Megan Rudd, Leila Alloush, Sue Carley, Jessica Harding, Sarah Mac Crossan, Ashleigh Lawrence, Janu Kumar, Maija Richardson, Amber Smith, Gemma Eldridge, Jay Shah, Georgie Clarke, Joelle Torincsi- Furness, Lauren Richard – Smith, Hannah Rodgers, Lucy –Jayne Hogan, Hannah Thomas, Leanne Willis, Rebecca Butler, Katie Jane Marie and Holly Lake. All their collections were truly brilliant and similar to their MBA– it was Magnificent, Brilliant and Amazing!

SUMMER LOVE

Roses are red, Violets are blue, sugar is sweet and so is this year’s S/S trend…

Yes it’s nearly that time of the year; Valentine’s Day. Now I’m not one for having silly little crushes, but when I saw this year’s S/S trend, it gave me butterflies almost instantly – holding the magazine with my sweaty palms before rushing around in store like a giddy little girl I realise this isn’t just an ordinary little crush; I have fallen head over heels.

From runway, street trend and stores, there’s no escaping it; here are a few of my favourite catwalk trends.

Power flower

Whether you like flowers or not, this year the floral trend is eye watering and when worn either on a date, meal with friends or shopping, you will have a blooming good time.

Alberta  Ferretti

Christian Dior

Life in 3D

If you’re going for a movie or not this Valentine’s Day, enjoy your time by wearing sculptured, ruffles and shake things up.

Vera Wang

Burberry Prorsum

Sharp fringe

Some people can’t pull off a fridge hair-cut, but the fringe trimming trend is fun, flirty and will work either on a date or a night out.

Calvin Klein

Emilio Pucci

A little blush

Wearing a bit of blusher always gives a lovely fresh look and similar to the make-up rule, this year look out for garments in subtle hues of pinks, mint and blues - this will give an effortless but yet classy, elegant and even girly look depending on how you style it.

Burberry Prorsum

Preen by Thornton Bregazzi

Play games

Remember to have fun either on your date/in general and you can do so by wearing the sporty trend.

Vera Wang

Rag & Bone

Carolina Herrera 

Ralph Lauren


You & Me
I want and I need these below items in my life.....

ASYMMETRIC TWO-TONE PLEATED SKIRT

Ref. 2297/852

39.99 GBP

TRF WRAPAROUND SANDAL

Ref. 3629/301

Height of heel: 11,5 cm./ 4,53 ˝.

29.99 GBP

Images found on style.com and Zara.co.uk

A PLASTIC SECRET

“I’m a Barbie girl in a Barbie world, life is plastic it’s fantastic”, yes there’s no doubt that this is some seriously catchy lyrics by Aqua.  And whether you managed to catch Channel 4 “Secret Of The Living Doll” which aired on 6^th January 2014 or not, it will give you the ideology of its literal term “life is plastic it’s fantastic” should in fact never be practised in the real world.

Unlike Barbie’s, the programme follows a congregation of full grown men with a rather bizarre fetish. Some of them were either married, single, rich or poor but they all had one thing in common - they live a double life; in their spare time they dress up like life-size female dolls.

Afraid of the stereotypes of the society, this has meant that they have kept their fetish a secret, but in this programme we see them finally taking their creation from indoors to outdoors.

We first take a trip to California, where we meet Robert, a 70 year old retired property developer. And we soon discover that he has been married for 10 years, but is now recently divorced and now lives with his daughter in a mansion. Like any big house; it’s spacious and looks reasonably normal. Having lovely wooden floor and wide windows, the only thing that stands out is the collections of fine arty mask bought from his travels. But as we go up the spiral wooden polished staircase, before arriving to his bedroom and opening the walk-in wardrobe, we come across his most priced collection – rubber, fleshy looking mask, body suit with female parts used from the clipping of his own hair. This gives a whole new meaning to “Keeping it in the closet”.

The people responsible for the product (Femskin) are a family, consisting of three boys and Barbie Ramos who’s not only their Mother, but also their Manager/Creative Director. Usually unique names are a sign of greatness and sometimes even an insight to what one might do as career. But with the name Barbie, it’s seems ironic that she lived up to her name by co-founding such a lucrative company.

With their business booming more than ever, we come across four more men who buy into this product.  Now you would think a father and husband would struggle to get support from his family but oddly enough they seem fine with the whole situation; his daughter goes as far as helping him dress into his Alter-ego. Taking the vowel “Through sickness and health” this first seems a sickness, but the way his wife supports her husband by encouraging him, makes you wonder whose sick – is it the wife, him, the daughter or us for being so judgemental (It is a free world after all) – a world turned upside down, where plastic dolls have feelings – you can’t help but feel for these plastics!

 Image found on: http://www.docmasters.tv/