Fashion for everyone

Earlier this week, I got a chance to take a peek at the new Lacoste and Catherine Malandrino collaboration. The Lacoste x Malandrino collection is meant to be a meeting of two French brands, fusing the masculine sportif aspects of Lacoste with the distinctly feminine aesthetic of Malandrino. Like most American women, I'm somewhat fascinated by how French women put themselves together: always effortlessly chic, feminine but never frilly. It's a look that I myself could never master, being the general mess that I am (I guess I could start by brushing my hair once in a while), but one that I can definitely appreciate, and I think the collection embodies this pared-down perfection. My favorite pieces by far are the pointelle polo dresses, which look like they were designed for Daisy Buchanan of The Great Gatsby.

All photos by Shourouk

A couple months ago, I spied a glittering necklace with sequined cherries adorning one of my classmates in my CAD for Jewelry Designers class. The design reminded me of the classic Bakelite cherry necklaces that you see on auction, or at high-end vintage jewelry shops, remade with a glimmering twist, and I had to ask my classmate where she got her necklace. You can always depend on other jewelry designers to give you the best jewelry shopping tips, and although my colleagues and I will jealously guard our sources and production methods, we will always blab about other designers who inspire us.

My classmate happily informed me that the necklace was by French designer Shourouk, and a quick look at his website revealed pieces that tickled all of my closeted and repressed princess tendencies--I almost had to surpress a squeal when I saw the bunny necklace or the snail headband. The whimsical baubles are inspired in equal part by vintage and retro glamour, a childish sense of play, and the designer's Tunisian origins. Many of the pieces mix traditional embroidery methods and sequins with hundreds of rhinestones, to create jewels that sparkle with the intensity of diamonds, while flaunting the fact that they're the antithesis of those precious gems. Who needs those conflict-ridden diamonds anyway, when these rhinestones will do the trick?

Half of my friends have jetted off to Paris for market, and I'm incredibly jealous that I'm not joining them. My last trip in January was way too short, and left me with a craving for all things French: macaroons, escargot, and of course, that quintessential French chic that all Parisian women possess. I'm not particularly chic or put-together (more thrown together), but Parisian ladies make me want to try a little harder. Catherine Malandrino's collections are always based on that very idea of Parisian chic, and this season she presented some of the staples of the look: elongated silhouettes, luxurious outerwear and furs, men's inspired trousers, all mixed with flashes of fishnet. Malandrino's knits are always one of her strongpoints, and one of my favorite pieces was a body-hugging grey long-sleeve dress, which looks just as well suited for the streets of Manhattan as the Left Bank of Paris.