Exposed lingerie was a big story on the Spring runways. At the recent Resort collections, designers tweaked the trend, swapping bras for bandeaux. Echoing the 1940’s by way of the seventies, Yves Saint Laurent’s Stefano Pilati paired his with turbans and high-waisted skirts that left the models’ toned midriffs exposed. Others took a more covered-up approach, pairing theirs with a tweedy skirtsuit (Marc Jacobs) or a sporty leather bomber and shorts (Bottega Veneta’s Tomas Maier). Maria Cornejo told Style.com, “I really like the clean line of a bandeau. It’s low-cut, flattering, and more interesting than a bra.” But not exactly sidewalk-ready when worn on its own—so she suggests layering one underneath a dress or jumpsuit for a playful look.fashionsandmode.blogspot.com
We never thought we’d see denim on a Valentino runway. But there it was, paper-thin, deep indigo, and spliced into shirtdresses and a shorts suit. Valentino’s Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli weren’t the only ones to dress up the forever-practical fabric. Stella McCartney, Celine’s Phoebe Philo, and Thakoon Panichgul cut it into full trousers, tunics, and tailored vests. For Derek Lam, who was inspired by all things California, denim was a natural, even though his ultra-chic trench is a long way, baby, from Levi Strauss dungarees. Part of the draw is the material’s versatility. “It’s a very honest fabric,” Lam told Style.com. “It stands the test of time in its endurance and functionality.” If you ask us, it just might be one of the hardest-working wardrobe investments you could make come spring.
We’ve seen sheer on runways here, there, and everywhere for the past several seasons. But in 2010, daring starlets like Blake Lively and Emma Watson took transparency to the red carpets, offering fans suggestive glimpses of bare skin. At the Paris Vogue Bal Masqué—arguably the fashion fête of the year—diaphanous dressing was practically mandatory.
The Golden Globes are this Sunday and the Oscars will be here in a flash, which means the red-carpet speculation has begun in earnest at Style.com’s offices. From what we’ve witnessed at our pre-fall appointments, the A-lister every designer is angling to dress seems to be Best Actress nom—and expectant mom—Natalie Portman. How else to account for the return of the empire waist, as seen on Valentino’s long and lacy black gown (left)? We can’t say for certain that Marion Cotillard, Jennifer Connelly, or Penélope Cruz will be showing off their baby bumps in the coming weeks, but if they do, body-skimming halter gowns from Derek Lam and Reem Acra are two flattering and comfortable options. On the other hand, a bit of flash is always welcome, and Peter Dundas’ neo-hippie number for Emilio Pucci would look great on a wild child with child—Kate Hudson, we’re talking to you.
The streets of London are still lined with confetti from Kate and Will’s big day, but here at Style.com, we’re not done speculating about dresses. That’s because the Costume Institute Gala is tonight. Given the subject of this year’s exhibition, Alexander McQueen, the Metropolitan Museum’s red carpet will be aglow with frocks by the late designer, not to mention those by the label’s current creative director and designer of Kate’s wedding dress, Sarah Burton. But there are bound to be some surprises, too. Who will make our best-dressed list? Check back late night for our picks, and in the meantime, enjoy this slideshow of some of our favorites from the past ten years.
Between the Fall runway shows and Monday night’s Costume Institute Ball—think Ashley Olsen in vintage Dior or Rosie Huntington-Whiteley in Burberry—the upper-leg area hasn’t gotten so much attention since Suzanne Somers’ ThighMaster heyday. “We wanted to do something fun,” said Jason Wu of the hip-high slit on the skirt he made for Diane Kruger’s march up the Met’s steps. While most designers go straight for red-carpet appeal with sky-high slashes, Joseph Altuzarra and Jonathan Saunders whipped up slightly more casual takes on the look at their February shows. Trust us, though, they’re still guaranteed to keep the flashbulbs popping.
What’s old is new once more. During the Spring shows, we noticed more than a few front-row fixtures decked out in cameos. “It is a true renaissance,” says Amedeo Scognamiglio, whose family has been hand-carving the baubles since 1857. “My father always told me, ‘Cameos may get ill, but they never die.’ ” For proof that these portrait pieces are alive and kicking, see Miroslava Duma in a necklace and ring set, Shala Monroque with an oversize brooch, and Giovanna Battaglia wearing earrings to match her Gio signet ring. In-demand designers have recently latched onto the vintage trend, too. Tom Binns’ latest collection spotlights Technicolor cameos, and Dolce & Gabbana showed them on its Fall runway. But in terms of showstoppers, the tiara that Princess Victoria of Sweden wore to her wedding last year (a crown that originally belonged to Napoleon’s Empress Josephine) definitely takes the cake.
Couture-inspired silhouettes popped up in droves on the Spring runways, so it makes sense that peplums are having a moment. In the late forties and fifties, Christian Dior added flounces to the waistline of jackets as part of the New Look. This season, everyone from the current team at Dior to designers like Jason Wu and Celine’s Phoebe Philo (who called them basques) revived the look. “Peplums cinch in the waist and highlight curves in a way that’s come-hither yet demure,” said Carly Cushnie and Michelle Ochs. While most designers, the Cushnie et Ochs duo included, took peplums in a dressed-up direction, Marc by Marc Jacobs and the new Kenzo collection from creative directors Humberto Leon and Carol Lim featured them in a sporty, everyday context.
The Philip Treacy fascinator Princess Beatrice wore to the royal wedding fetched over $130,000 on eBay for the UNICEF and Children in Crisis charities. Lucky for you, the hats on the Fall runways won’t set you back quite that far. Floppy rather than froufrou, next season’s chapeaux have a seventies sensibility in keeping with the flared jeans and button-down blouses now in stores. Couple that fact with their face-shading wide brims, and there’s no reason not to invest in one of these babies now when summer is nigh.
The fashion world’s gone wild. But if you’ve been paying attention to the front rows for the last few months—or following along via Tommy Ton’s street-style dispatches—you knew that already. Still, our recent travels on the menswear circuit showed us that the animal motif trend has legs (and tails and fangs). The only question: Whether to go with Miuccia’s monkeys (first debuted at the Spring ‘11 Prada womenswear show) or Riccardo Tisci’s snarling Rottweilers (from the Fall ‘11 Givenchy menswear collection).
The past few days in New York have been so hot, we’ve finally stopped complaining about working in an office with its AC set to “Siberia.” Every time we do venture outside, visions of last week’s couture shows and the resurgence of old-fashioned folding hand fans we witnessed there come to mind: Hilary Alexander churning up a breeze front-row at Chanel… Elena Perminova wielding hers in the sizzling hot Third Arrondisement outside Jean Paul Gaultier… Speaking of, JPG sent models Frida Gustavsson and Andrej Pejic flapping fans of their own down his runway, and at Armani Privé, Philip Treacy combined several of them to create an ornate headpiece that channeled the Far East. We’ll be scouring the city the next few days, looking to scoop up a fan or two of our own.
Summer reading? Fashion folks aren’t necessarily known for their book smarts (you’re more likely to catch them cracking the latest issue of i-D than Finnegans Wake), but they sure know how to fake it in style. Olympia Le-Tan’s whimsical clutches, which are made to look like famous novels such as Moby-Dick and Lolita, have been a smash success both on the red carpet and in the streets. The Kate Spade label picked up on the bags’ popularity and created its own editions. And at Zero + Maria Cornejo, the designer put her spin on the trend by printing library shelves on a draped silk dress. There are, of course, a few rogue intellectuals in the bunch. Top model Frida Gustavsson can often be found backstage thumbing through a highbrow paperback. Daphne Guinness, naturally, was toting Harold Bloom’s The Anxiety of Influence at the Couture shows. And while vacationing in Mexico recently, Naomi Campbell got her Kabbalah fix by skimming the Zohar—even if it was upside-down.
It’s time to dust off your jean jacket. Favored by the likes of Ruby Aldridge, Liu Wen, and Hanne Gaby Odiele, the denim staple is making a bid to replace the leather bomber as model-off-duty topper of choice. This summer, bona fide celebs (Cameron Diaz) and burgeoning trendsetters (Pippa Middleton) alike have been spotted layering snug, faded ones over feminine looks for an edgy update. Speaking of edgy, we loved the acid-wash, pharaoh-embellished number that Sleigh Bells’ Alexis Krauss wore to the Sasquatch festival this May. Same goes for Jonny Johansson’s heavily deconstructed indigo style from Acne’s Resort collection.
We’ve glimpsed quite a few exposed shoulders on the streets and at the Resort collections this summer. Casual, collared dresses popped up at Richard Chai Love and Chloë Sevigny x Opening Ceremony, and for after-hours examples, check out Vionnet’s royal blue, long-sleeved frock, or the framboise silk gown by Sophie Theallet that Karolina Kurkova wore to the Ischia Global Film Festival. (In other news: There is an Ischia Global Film Festival.) Why we like these dresses: Well-placed cutouts highlight a part of the body that doesn’t usually require hours of upkeep at the gym. As Donna Karan famously said, “Shoulders are the one place a woman will never get fat—so show ‘em!”
The early sixties were a favorite reference point on the Fall runways, and as Fashionista recently pointed out, that’s led to an abundance of mod-themed editorials in the new September magazines. It’s worth adding that our culture’s current fascination with the youthquake years goes way beyond fashion. There’s Mad Men, of course, which is finally, officially beginning to produce its fifth season, but next month sees the release of two more decade-specific shows: Pan Am, starring Christina Ricci as a jet-age stewardess, and The Playboy Club, featuring twenty-first-century pinup Amber Heard as a Bunny at the original Chicago club. (Talk about male wish fulfillment!) Then there’s the big screen—and no, we’re not talking about the rumored fourth Austin Powers film. We’ll Take Manhattan is scheduled to come out next year and tells the tale of photographer David Bailey and model Jean Shrimpton’s era-defining fling. We know just the thing to wear to the premiere: a black and white fur coat from Christopher Bailey’s Shrimpton-inspired Burberry Prorsum collection
The menswear phenomenon has been going strong for quite some time, so shorts suits have been on the periphery of our trend radar (see Diane Kruger in Jason Wu Resort). But designers really pushed the two-piecers into the spotlight on the Spring runways. While Carven’s Guillaume Henry and Proenza Schouler’s Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez cut upper-thigh-grazing versions that are decidedly NSFW, there were others, like Prabal Gurung and Trussardi’s Umit Benan, who showed more forgiving inseams. “I think a high-waisted, thigh-baring short is incredibly chic if you have the legs to rock it,” A.L.C. designer Andrea Lieberman told Style.com. “But I’m also a huge fan of the knee-length city short and blazer—it’s all about confidence.” Amanda Seyfried had confidence to spare in her turquoise shorts suit from H&M at the London premiere of In Time—what a refreshing, rebellious change-up from an overworked gown. Our consensus: If you’ve got great legs, flaunt ‘em.
Earrings made a big comeback—”big” in both size and scope—at the Spring shows. Marni’s Consuelo Castiglioni led the way, accessorizing her Fall collection with door knocker-sized baubles and making ear candy in the form of mod, colorful hoops a big part of her story this season. Boho glam chandeliers punctuated every look at Oscar de la Renta and Emilio Pucci, while Dolce & Gabbana and Missoni turned up the kitsch factor with garden vegetables and gilded critters, respectively. Needless to say, street-style darlings like Shala Monroque, Anna Dello Russo, and Miroslava Duma kept up with the runways, showing off their jumbo-sized earrings in many a front row. But we’ve got to give props to stylist Catherine Baba, whose rotating collection of shoulder-scrapers is arguably as signature as her ubiquitous two-speed bike.
We haven’t even bought our winter coat yet, but celebrities have been racking up Spring dress credits since the shows wrapped last month. See: Gwyneth Paltrow displaying her finely tuned thigh muscles in a one-sleeved Stella McCartney mini not all that unlike the long version that Nicole Kidman wore a week earlier to the Country Music Awards, or Tilda Swinton and Elisa Sednaoui, both in vibrant silk pants ensembles from Haider Ackermann’s latest lineup, at the Prix de la Moda awards last week in Madrid. Carey Mulligan and Miranda Kerr worked Peter Pilotto’s peplumed scuba dresses to perfection on The Late Late Show and at the MoMA gala for Pedro Almodóvar, respectively, but we’re guessing that you have a favorite
With its flirty clothes and cheeky decor accessories, Anthropologie (2130 de la Montagne St., anthropologie.com) brings out my playful side. Adding local flavour to this brand new location are designs from Montrealer labels Noémiah, Tamé and Elaine Ho.
Need more proof that Alberta has hit its shopping stride? As of this month, Amsterdam-based label Scotch & Soda has opened not one but two stores in the Wild West (West Edmonton Mall, 8882 170 St., Edmonton, 
What’s cuter than a pair of ballerina flats? A pair with ruffles. These little numbers are only $25 at Bizou (
