Fashion | DVF A/W'12

Diane von Furstenberg Winter 2012 featured a combination of creative prints and vibrant colours. The collection included alluring wrapped dresses,chain and jigsaw print,elegant coats and pencil skirts. On the accessories front, there were long leather gloves and clutch bags to polish off the final look. Diane formed an enthralling display by pairing bright hues together. Plum + lime, chartreuse + fuchsia, red + azure, all married together with wide leather belts.

Fashion | H&M 2012 Concious Collection

Hitting stores in just two weeks time, H&M furthers their 'Green Fashion' initiative by releasing the second year installment of their eco-friendly Conscious line, focusing on sustainable sourcing and organic materials such as organic cotton and hemp as well as recycled polyester. And to top it off, they're making Eco Fashion 'Glamorous'.

This year the fashion retailer are including Red Carpet inspired formal attire along with the standard green-themed tees and sundresses. Speaking of Red Carpet, celebrities have been promoting the line on the sly without you even noticing!  For example, you might have recognized the blue short suit set on Amanda Seyfried quite recently.  Michelle Williams has also been snapped wearing a custom H&M gown that will be featured as separates in the collection. I've selected a couple of looks that have impressed me (see above) but the full lookbook can be seen via TeenVogue. The collection launches in stores on April 12th but is limited to 100 stores, worldwide. So for the mean time, have fun plotting your speed-shopping raid strategy and I'll see you in the queue!

Fashion | Guestblog for StyleBlogUK: Edit Your Wardrobe

Keeping a well cordinated wardrobe should be a priority for anyone serious about fashion. Every fashion piece needs to be treated with respect. The toss on the floor and forget about it method may be convienient but it won't be doing you any favours. So with winter finally left behind and summer in sight, its prime time to do a bit of spring cleaning. Here are some tips to maintain a well-kept curated wardrobe: 

 1) Categorize Take all your clothes out and divide them into seperate piles depending on color, type of clothing, occasion etc. Whatever works for you.

 2) Its a general rule that jackets and coats should be hung on sturdy hangers, jeans and blouses should be folded and shoes/socks should be kept in pairs. 

3) Find out which clothes aren't being used. Here's a useful way of finding out which clothes you actually wear and which ones you don't. Turn your coat hangers the other way around. If you take a piece, place the hanger back to its correct position. Then in a few months time, review which hangers remain facing as they originally were and consider letting go of them.

 4) Make an effort to iron blouses and dresses. Creases can make an otherwise sophisticated piece look cheap. If you are short on time, here's a handy tip: Put a hanger holding your garment on the doorknob while you take a shower, the steam will naturally decrease the wrinkles. 

 5) remove Dust. Once in a while, it doesn't have to be too often but it would certainly help, hoover the bottom of your wardrobe to keep dust from collecting. Otherwise, you could always invest in a lint roller. 

 6) Don't discard your shoe boxes. Take a picture of your individual shoes and stick them on the outside of the boxes to identify them. This will not only store your shoes well but also eliminates the hassle of rooting through all the boxes to find one specific pair! (Personal experience talking)

7) Maximise your closet space by investing in those IKEA hanging or pull out storage containers. They can truly make a difference to a small closet. 

 8) Color code. Buy cheap stickers and stick them on the side of the hangers to make categorization easier and to keep you from putting them in the wrong area after taking them out. 

 9) Familiarize yourself with your inventory. Keep a list inside your door of all the clothes you have to make life easier when it comes to reminding you of what you have and what you're missing. 

Hope these ideas have helped. If you have any other tips you'd like to share, feel free to leave them in the comments section. 

• view original post on: http://stylebloguk.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/edit-your-closet/

Miscellaneous Musings | Have you heard of Chen Man?

http://www.chenmaner.com/

Fashion | Enter the Shanghai Tang Mansion

Fashion | When Fashion meets Infographics

As we know, Fashion Week is a hectic time and given the multitude of shows and blogs reporting on them, it gets hard to keep up (not to mention it happens in 4 different countries). Sure, we can read Vogue articles or daily Tweets to keep up with the individual shows, but how do we get a clear and concise overview of an entire week's worth of designer shows?

Using the concept of the infographic, a social media tool that presents complex statistics in simple visual form, Editd is a site that finally helps accumulate and analyse data for any given Fashion Week.

For example, here is London Fashion Week broken down:

As you can see, a brief overview is given at the top of the page which is followed on by section after section of graphs that chart popular trends, designers, looks and tweets from the Front Row.

Editd does not only focus on Fashion Week though, they do infographics charting fashion through a particular season or the whole year.

Aside from producing infographics, the site also offers a number of services and platforms for fashion companies to engage with. In short, it's kind of like a full-fashion Facebook Insights.

Even if you're not a retailer, brand or supplier of fashion, Editd is a clear indicator of how social media analytics has become integrated into the Fashion sphere and therefore is a platform we should take notice of.

SS

Fashion | Project by Miss Selfridge

via missselfridge.com

Miss Selfridge has released a follow-up to their capsule collection Project #1, with the new and improved Project #2, consisting of 22 pieces designed by the assistant buyers for the fashion house. The inspiration behind the collection is 90's retro fashion which includes eclectic prints, neon and the infamous Elizabeth Hurley safety pin dress. The line coincides with many of this season's new trends such as the sheer maxi skirt, bra tops and denim. In person, the garments are stunning and well tailored. My favourite pieces were the studded denim jacket and the two layer dress.

Fashion blogger Olivia Pervis models the collection