Timeless chic...courtesy of Vogue

Happy Friday! As I am off to my weekend, I will let you contemplate these two renderings of timeless beauty. Seriously, who would've thought these were taken in the 21st century?

You can browse through the rest of the photos from Vogue's Archives here.

Alrighty--bye for now!

A Versace Moment...A Vogue Special

No words to describe Versace's unique take on stylish opulence. You can take a deeper look here. To be continued...

This fall, plaid shifts and color blocks become pure art form

Photos courtesy of Vogue

Who said plaid was passé? From blouses to trousers and dresses, these geometric patterns are super in vogue this fall. Prada surely takes this trend to another level with her hodgepoge of color blocking forms and plaid shifts with these two outfits I like to call "night and day", because of their mirroring color compositions. 

P.S.: notice the tricolor python boots? I think we've got you all covered dear animal prints!

One cannot consider the above dresses as anything lower than pure art form. The multi-size blocks of cold winter tones can first seem a little too kaleidoscopic, yet they all come together to form a cohesive design delineated by intersecting black lines, evoking the beauty of a Mondrian piece. I definitely gasped while inspecting these pieces, as they immediately reminded me of YSL's 1965 Mondrian dress (shown below).
   

French Vogue, September 1965, Couturier Yves Saint Laurent's Mondrian Dress

In 1965, Yves Saint Laurent transported Piet Mondrian's Broadway Boogie-Woogie painting to a shift dress. Yves did not fail to recreate the intersecting black lines and blocks of primary colors based on the Dutch painter's abstract painting. His application of these geometric-shaped silhouettes to his dresses, dubbed the 'Mondrian Look', marked the start of the Pop Art movement in couture fashions. Harper's Bazaar even described this sensational piece the "dress of tomorrow". It is specifically Saint Laurent's way of treating his dresses like canvases that proved his undeniable ability to predict upcoming trends in fashion, a gift he was recognized for and still is today. 
A visionary and legacy, YSL is still in our hearts - and apparently also in Miucca's.

Head-to-toe prints: the fabulous evolution

To continue on our little dissection of prints--and not to mention my insane excitement for the coming of Spring (although Winter has barely even hit us yet--*sigh*)...I will focus on a trend that emerged in the late 1960's and that has hit the hot spot for 2012. You named it, head-to-toe prints are in! What had been considered a no-do for a while is now hitting all the runways.

Photo courtesy of Vogue

I am particularly lusting over Celine's floral ensemble, from the 2012 Resort collection. A Flower Power shirt and pants could very well be screaming "I am a dainty girly", but here a bomber jacket is paired with the ensemble to add the touch of dandy that makes my heart melt. I won't be dissecting this outfit without making a reference to Marimekko, the Finnish company that made a huge mark in 1960's and 1970's fashion with the introduction of brightly-colored printed fabrics and simple styles, used both in women's garments and in home furnishings. Applying graphic designs to textiles was a first in this era--a method also adopted and reinterpreted by Emilio Pucci with his psychedellic designs, and later Alexander McQueen with his Spring 2010 RTW collection.

A good example of Marimekko’s legacy is the Green-Green fabric (also in black orange shown above), created in 1975 by Japanese designer Katsuji Wakisaka. As stated by Marimekko, Wakisaka’s “refreshing take on color, basic illustrative technique and inspiring imagery produced popular patterns which helped revitalize the Marimekko brand during the 1970’s."

Refreshing is definitely an appropriate term to describe our little preview of the Spring's collections...