The Best of... Marchesa

Illustration: left to right Marchesa S/S 2009, S/S 2011, and F/W 08.09, Image source: MyVisualPleasures, Rlaneri, blog.beautylish.com

One thing we must understand about Marchesa is that there is no use looking for avant-garde fashion statements in their pieces. There is no signature and dominating silhouette or textiles, along with the fact that many Marchesa pieces look dangerously similar to some other fashion houses. No doubt some fashion purists consider this as a bad thing. Well, it's not about that kind of talent. It's more about execution/creation than concept, creating whimsical yet romantic, stunning - for there really is no other word for it - dresses in voluminous tulle and dizzying amounts of embroidery and intricate handwork.

Sometimes it's difficult to digest a Marchesa collection for me because it's all dresses in one collection and I am definitely not so used to that... it's wow after wow without more street-wearable passages and it gets a bit overwhelming at times. But Marchesa is not about being innovative and radically inventive when it comes to design. They create breathtaking dresses that seem to make stylists gasping for air imagining having them on their editorials, and for those actresses who are trying to create a red carpet moment. It creates a dream, and drama... two things that's still, most surely get a welcome nod.

Illustrators Drawing Illustrators

Image source: The Catwalking

Few weeks ago, Meagan from 'TravelWriteDraw' asked me to join in her illustration project, called 'Illustrators Drawing Illustrators'. Basically she would put all of the participating illustrators' names in a jar, pair each with another illustrator to draw, and on Jan 11th we all post our illustrations and link to the person's blog, making some kind of a blog-crawl. According to Meag, I replied her email only few minutes before she pulled the names from the jar, so I'm glad that I could participate in this project after all; it was definitely fun. Thanks Meag (:

So anyway I was chosen to illustrate Meg from 'The Jersey Gem', whose blog I have been following and regularly visited for quite sometime now. Meg provided me with only a close-up picture of herself as reference, so I decided to draw her in this layered chiffon dress from Sonia Rykiel S/S 2009 collection. I think it's quirky, fun, very Parisian, and definitely one of my favorite Sonia Rykiel's show. I also tried to collage the illustration with some doodles from my scrapbook and photograph archive, just to give some breath of fresh air to my illustration. I hope you all, and especially Meg, like it!

I Miss Luella! Luella Bartley S/S 2009

image source: www.elle.com

Think of a nice, polite, knee-length dress you might find some royal duchess wearing to a garden party, add three of those, mash them together, add an ample amount of sickly sweet confectionery color, and a bit more, then look at it through psychedelic tinted glasses, give it a matching handbag, shoe and hat, and Luella's S/S 2009 character is born.

The color was bright, garish, sick, and the styling was so done to punk proportion. On first glance, everything is rather English and proper, but there's a strange, wonky undertone. There's bow fronted blouses, paneled tweed and lace skirts, retro handbags, and multi-colored heart fronted heel at the bottom. There's randomly pleated, floral paneled dress which graduates into a gray jersey sportswear tanktop.

Last year, the designer behind the label, Luella Bartley, announced that her fashion label has ceased trading after a key financier pulled out. Club 21, the company which holds the license to supply shops with Bartley's preppy, punky ready-to-wear clothes and accessories, decided not to invest any further with the designer. Named British Designer of the Year in 2008, Bartley regularly receives rave reviews from press and buyers alike for her English eccentric style shows.

So it was such a relief to hear that recently Target has tapped 17 designers to introduce the Go International Designer Collective line, and Luella Bartley was on the list, among Jonathan Saunders, Proenza Schouler, and Erin Fetherston. I always love the Luella character and I hope that Luella girl can have an exciting future ahead of her, whichever incarnation she takes on next!

Christopher Kane S/S 2009 London

Image source: www.vogue.co.uk, www.net-a-porter.com

Christopher Kane is never one to shy away from pushing the envelope, and therefore I guess he deserves to be one of London’s most buzzed-about designers. During spring/summer 2009 London Fashion Week, his original take on fashion brought us the circular theme he had going on with all the palettes from his previous fall/winter 08/09 collection being carried over, this time in the form of layers and layers of chiffon semi-circles.

The outfits are actually quite hit-or-miss for me. I love the scallop jackets and the semi-circular wire trimmed dresses, however I am definitely not a fan of the maribou feathers, and some scallop dresses looked quite overdone. But the monkey prints totally won me over; it was so spectacular it's like the new, younger, edgier version of Margiela horse print! While at first I kinda thought that the prints have no relevance to the rest of the collection in any way, it finally made sense after reading what was his inspiration, which were 'The Planet of the Apes' and 'The Flintstones', to name a few. This isn't modern art, after all, which habitually seems to require to be excused via a pretentious verbal explanation. In the end it's just fashion isn't it, and fashion should be fun!

Overall for me this really is a cool collection as a whole. It is terribly clever for amazing reworking of the common silhouettes and definitely isn't taking itself too seriously. Yes, some of the leather skirts are a bit tacky and the construction isn't very flattering unless you are a size zero, but this collection is definitely memorable. Even now I'm like just sitting here smiling because it really made me laugh and in a good way. Kane's definitely one hell of a designer who never wants to see semi-circles ever again.

Marc Jacobs S/S 2007-2011 New York

Marc Jacobs has always been one of my favorite designer, so I've been wanting to make an illustration of his outfit since like, forever. But somehow I never manage to do it because simply I couldn't choose which collection should I sketch! Then one day I came up with the idea of sketching one outfit that I like most from his spring collection from four years back until the recent spring 2011 collection, and what an idea it was; I certainly had a lot of fun drawing it. (:

Among all the collections, S/S 2008 would be my favorite Marc Jacobs' collection, ever. I never ever get tired of this very wearable interpretations-of-the-surrealist outfits and these misplaced pumps are just adorable, and remember the bag-on-bag bags? Well they just counts as another layer of adorableness, which makes this collection....hang on a second while I make some quick calculations...mmhmm...carry the three...ah yes, double adorable.

Marni S/S 2009 Milan

If Prada was a big sister, I imagine Marni is most likely being the younger, quirky, and more relaxed cousin. I always loved Marni, but never I've been totally blown away before this collection came up! It does look like a good collection to salivate over! I love the lively color and the cool out-of-granma's-closet appeal on this collection, and the accessories are also INSANE this season! SOOO GOOD!