Milan Fashion Week: Prada RTW Spring 2010

Giant projections of chandeliers fading into doorways fading into beaches fading into more chandeliers and more doorways. For Miuccia Prada, such imagery set the tone for a fashion locale situated somewhere “between reality and fantasy.” It’s a place where postmodern Bardot types stroll around in Bermudas under couture-inspired coats with raw edges and scuba whites under chandelier pinafores. Crystals spill over shoes and handbags, and, if a girl prefers briefs to real pants, well, she’s got the legs for them. Yet if it all sounds like youth, beauty and not-quite-innocence, stop there, as this lineup pulsed with the iron grip of the designer’s womanly control.

In a vacuum, this was a beautiful, focused collection. Chez Prada, it made for an inviting palate-cleanser concocted from beloved motifs — tailored, tacky, minimal, decorated, even a beachy postcard or several, cousins to that scenic-print outing of yore — into something that felt familiar yet fresh. Most significantly, it felt like a bridge to somewhere else. After last season’s Forties’ tour de force, which itself followed a series of major statement shows, Prada here offered what soon might prove to have been a calming interlude between major moments. She is one of the few designers working today who can whip such a transition into genuine fashion.

Rocawear Runway Show

Launched off of the meteoric success of co-founder, Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter, The ROC represents a borderless, global lifestyle. Today, Rocawear is a dominant lifestyle apparel brand for a wide range of customers. In this video, you'll see the latest in men's and women's fashion from Rocawear.

"Fashion Is Foremost Inspiration"

- Suzanna

GUESS Fashion Show: Accessories

GUESS is about sexy, adventurous, trendsetting apparel and accessories. Guess has the quintessential all-American look with that uniquely European attention to detail. This clip is your front row seat to this year's, Guess by Marciano runway show. It's inspiring.

"Fashion Is Foremost Inspiration"

- Suzanna

Women's Swimwear Trends For 2009

We're only a few weeks into summer which means that its only going to get warmer. If you haven't shopped for your swimwear yet you still have time and we can help you. The swimwear styles this summer are going from colorfully patterned to the cut-away bikini - which is one of the hottest swimwear fashion trends for 2009. Take a look into a bikini fashion show with the colorful and eye-catching pieces of the season that you can choose from.

"Fashion Is Foremost Inspiration"

- Suzanna

Front Row at Jean Paul Gaultier

Fashion week is going on and everyone wants to know what's new in the glamourous world of couture and who's in attendance. There was no exception at the Jean Paul Gaultier show.

Stepping into the fashion ring, Mickey Rourke turned up at Jean Paul Gaultier’s couture show on Wednesday. Rourke said he has personal business in town and is planning to buy a new pooch following the passing of Loki, his treasured Chihuahua. “Loki died three months before the Academy Awards, which was so sad. I had his name embroidered on my shoes,” he said, gesturing to his black velvet slippers. “Gaultier had even made a tuxedo for her,” he added gravely, before slipping backstage to greet the designer.

Pop princess Kylie Minogue, meanwhile, was on a shopping spree for her next performances. “I’m going on tour in the States in October and I’m here to see clothes that we can incorporate,” she said.

And Sonia Rykiel turned up to be filmed with Gaultier for a documentary for German TV channel ARD. “They’re following me everywhere,” she said. Rykiel was unequivocal in her criticism of haute couture. “Haute couture doesn’t mean anything. There’s no baisse (low) couture or haute couture, there’s only fashion, that’s all,” she declared.

"Fashion Is Foremost Inspiration"

- Suzanna

Bonsoir Christian Lacroix: Fall 2009 Collection

On Tuesday afternoon, Christian Lacroix presented what very well may have been his last haute collection, perhaps his last of any sort, for the house he launched from his poufy Patou springboard back in the high-flying Eighties. The show was perfect.

Chez Lacroix’s receivership status stands in harsh, obvious alignment with the now-horrific economy: The man considered the purest of Paris’ remaining couturiers, its heart and soul even, has had the financial floor dropped from beneath him in a manner painful for us to watch, let alone for him to go through. The process smacks of harbinger: Couture as we know it will, in all likelihood, change dramatically in the near future.

Yet Lacroix’s woes started before those of the greater economy. Long ago he gave himself over completely to the métier’s sheer beauty, romance and boundless extravagance, any hint of temperance be damned. If his evening creations were the stuff of glorious dreams, a day jacket, all beribboned and jeweled brocade, might have been plucked from an 18th-century portrait. Magnificent, yes, but even as the shows awed endlessly with their beauty, they often offered no hints of real-world restraint.

On Tuesday, Lacroix did more than hint. He showed a breathtaking collection that, while utterly signature — not one item could have been conjured by anyone else — was completely reality-based and wearable, from start to finish. Though apparently a product of necessity — the coffers are pretty much empty — the newly sedate collection looked as haute as ever, yet now utterly suited for life beyond a dream sequence. Lacroix’s ultradecorated Basque jackets became a saucy spencer with jeweled pockets and a gold-buttoned military affair; an asymmetric draped cocktail dress had a controlled spill of jewels down the front; a drop-waist coatdress looked almost stark. But the biggest surprise was evening, almost all black and linear (save for a remarkable full-skirted, flamenco-influenced knockout), his passion for decoration as subtle as a point d’esprit fichu, and for color, a single vibrant, well-placed ribbon. One couldn’t help but wonder if, had Lacroix embraced this mood a few years ago, it would have taken him to a different place than the one he’s in now.

Now, Lacroix must hope for a buyer in the worst of times. Then again, fashion has always attracted adventure-seekers. To the deep-pocketed and curious: Consider this collection one spectacular employment pitch.

"Fashion Is Foremost Inspiration"

- Suzanna

Project Runway announces

Lifetime IN .... Bravo OUT

If you’re a diehard PR fan such as me, you’ll notice that it’s been a while since the show last aired. I’ve been trying to record the upcoming series and no information was provided. Words of cancellation whispered throughout the air…. Is Project Runway cancelled; if so why and when? If not, when is it going to air? That’s because the innovative design-competition series was tangled up in a lawsuit involving NBC Universal, which owns Bravo, the Weinstein Co. and the Lifetime channel.

Last April NBC Universal sued Weinstein after the company landed a $150 million deal with Lifetime for the series that features supermodel Heidi Klum as host. Now after many talks from both sides, the lawsuit has finally been settled. In September, a New York Supreme Court justice issued a temporary ban preventing Weinstein from taking “Runway” or any spinoff to Lifetime and argued that Weinstein violated NBC’s “right of first refusal” for the show. Weinstein says that there was no such thing in the contract; only that NBC Universal was offered the deal and was outbid.

In a statement issued yesterday, NBC Universal and Weinstein will compensate the media company “for the right to move ‘Project Runway’ to Lifetime. All parties are pleased with the outcome.” Lifetime’s CEO Andrea Wong stated Lifetime “the perfect home” for the series. She added the network was “thrilled” to proceed with Klum, Tim Gunn, Nina Garcia and Michael Kors.

All the while this legal mumbo jumbo was going on; the show’s 6th season kept rolling and will air this summer. Thank God! Bravo will replace PR’s slot with a new series “The Fashion Show,” featuring Kelly Rowland (formerly of Destiny’s Child) as a judge on May 7. I am oh so relieved that Project Runway is coming back to TV. I can’t wait to see who’ll be the next Christian, Santino, or Michael. Wherever Project Runway goes I go. In the words of Heide Klum “Auf Wiedersehen.”

Food for Thought: If Bravo really wanted to compete, they should offer Christian his own show!