Shoepping list

Each shoe of Sergio Rossi latest collection is amazing
La collezione invernale di Sergio Rossi è creativa e divertente

Cool from Topshop  to get party season ready

Quilted design+huge platform (Dolce&Gabbana last fall inspired?)

Mesh cut out boots (Louboutin circus shoes inspiration?)

Da Topshop ecco le proposte per le serate invernali

Mega Plateau e impunture (ispirato a Dolce&Gabbana fall 2010)?

Design cut out per lo stivaletto (un po' Louboutin non trovate?)

Python and Glitters, I can't have enought this season!

Pitone e glitter questa stagione non si può farne a meno!

Don't you love these Lanvin too? This design seems so clean and perfect to me!
Bellissime le Lanvin, non credete? Un design essenziale, a mio avviso perfetto!

Ex Chanel model now shoe designer Max Kibardin designs a classical shoe wrapped in chiffon 

Ex modello per Chanel ora designer di calzature, è Max Kibardin che ci propone questa scarpa avvolta nello chiffon!

My favorite shoes designs from this fall collections. Which one would you buy?

Alcune delle scarpe proposte per la stagione invernale. Quele preferite?

Fashion can be fun

The fashion world is an estremely serious business where creative vision, millions of dollars and stricht schedules are mixed together. The model's first rule on the catwalk is  "don't smile".With this ad campain  Lanvin wanted to go over this seriousness that often communicate extreme luxe but rarely fun.
Models are really goofy in the dance, they can walk and stare but maybe no one have ever asked them to dance. Do you like Lanvin Fall Winter 2011-2012 Ad Campaign?Do you find it funny?

Filling your Christmas list:10 essentials of the season

Oh the weather outside is frightful, But the fire is so delightful, And since we've too many places to go,let's go shop,let's go shop, let's go shop.
Ok, i've been taken by the christmas mood, that is another way to say i've been taken by the shopping fever.
But to avoid impluse buys let's sit down and write our christmas list.Later on you can whisper it to your boyfriend while he's sleeping so it will turn out it has been his very own idea!
Let's look at our wardrobe: do we have all the seasonal must haves?
Christmas is the right time to grab them all.
This is my list of the season must haves, feel free to tell me yours.
I made a polyvore set for you

1. a coral (or red) maxi dress a 70s vibe for your christmas parties
2. a leopard coat (we need one anycase)
3. 70s flare jeans
4. city ankle boots
5. a pair of wedges
6. a little black dress with some character (take one decorated it will make your look)
7. a piece of Lanvin for H&M (we talked about it all autumn so you've got to have one!)
8. ruffle coral shoes (coral is one of the seasonal most hot colors)
9. structured wool sweater (one with loops or exagerated shoulders,one with some unusual decorations)
10. a brocade coat or dress

off the list but still very important

1. a 60s dress
2. a jumpsuit or a playsuit
3. a wide floppy hat

Oh the weather outside is frightful, But the fire is so delightful, And since we've too many places to go,let's go shop,let's go shop, let's go shop.
Ok, sono stata contagiata dallo spirito natalizio che in altre parole vuol dire dallo spirito natalizio dello shopping.
Per evitare di comprare la prima cosa che ci attira salvo poi non poterla abbinare con niente sediamoci un attimo e scriviamo la nostra lista di Natale. Con calma dopo la potrete sussurrare nell'orecchio del vostro ragazzo mentre dorme così al risveglio penserà che sia stata una sua idea!
Guardiamo nell'armadio: abbiamo tutti i pezzi necessari della stagione?
Natale è un'ottima occasione per completare la collezione.
Ho stilato una lista di quelli che sono i must haves della stagione, vi ho anche fatto un set con polyvore!

1. un vestito maxi corallo perfetto per i party natalizi(non ve lo mettete ai party dove andrò io però!)
2. un cappotto leopardato(non può mancare nell'armadio cmq)
   
3. pantaloni a zampa anni 70
   
4. stivaletti per la città,vanno di moda quelli stringati
   
5. un paio di zeppe
6. un tubino nero con un po' di carattere decorato in maniera appariscente(da solo farà il vostro look)
   
7. un pezzo della collezione Lanvin at h&m(ormai ne abbiamo parlato per mesi, ne dovete avere uno)
   
8. scarpe corallo decorate con ruche
9. maglione scultura (decorato in maniera vistosa con avvolgimenti o ganci o pon pon)
   
10. un vestito o un cappotto broccato

fuori lista ma cmq necessari

1. un vestito anni 60, quelli a sacchetto un po' svasati sotto
2. una tuta lunga o con shorts (non quella da ginnastica!!)
3. un cappello a falda larga
   

Lanvin at H&M: fabrics and fitting

As promised i took today some pictures of details of lanvin dresses.
The first impression is that the fabrics used are different compared with the usual h&m ones.
They are all synthetic.
I'll talk about the pieces i've bought first.

• The pink ruffle dress.

The fabric used look like satin but it's not shiny.
Hems are all unfinished but they put a rigid ribbon in the borders. There is a small black ribbon belt attached to the dress.
The ruffle part has borders exposed in the skirt.
These dresses in my opinion fit bigger than usual,i would say a size bigger.

elastic band at the belt

• The zebra trench coat

The zebra trench coat has the most particular fabric, when i saw the preview pictures i tought it was satin but it's not, the fabric has structure, a little rigid and rough to the touch, a little creased, hems are unfinished here too even lateral sewn parts have rought borders on the front part of the trench instead of being on the reverse side. It's a pity!

• The white bow skirt

This skirt is made of taffetta,no hems here too,borders are secured only by a zig zag stitch.
This one has the zip hidden by the bow, it's the only one who has the zipper hidden, all other dresses have a big black zipper exposed on the side or back.The skirt sits on hips and it's higher on the back than on the front.

My cousin bought the ruffle flower print dress. This one apart from the exposed zipper has refined borders, a rigid ribbon sewn into the borders, the straps are of tulle with unfinished borders and unthreades a bit.
The pink one shoulder dress available even in plum has a fabric like jersey,medium weight something like this
The puffy shoulder is taken together by just one stitch.
I couldn't touch the yellow dress because flew off the shelves but i would say it's the same fabric of the pink one, still with unfinished hems.
Overall these dresses are good although they could have been more refined.
I would say they fit bigger than usual h&m dresses a size bigger.
With every dress they gave me a garment cover that is nice.
I'll try to buy a couple of more pieces on ebay now that is overwhelmed by listings and i'll share with you links for some good buys! In any case the first thing i'll do is to make invisible those zippers!!

Lanvin at H&M:This is Sparta!

As you may have noticed i haven't blogged yesterday because i was out on a shopping mission:lanvin at h&m. It wasn't for me of course was for the chronicle...ehm....no one bealives that! I hit the city of Rome that was one of the selected one, of course is the capital!
I have chosen the shopping center instead of the city centre because i tought that women couldn't sleep overnight outside of a closed parking, i was wrong. They slept there and they had the bracelets distributed at 6 am in the morning. Ouch!
When i arrived (early but not enought!!)no bracelets were left. A big group of women came out of h&m with lanvin bags even if all other shops in the mall were closed.There were bouncers everywhere in the shop keeping people calm like there was Lady Gaga in the fenced area. The lanvin area was blocked off all sorrunded by women of all ages and the discontent could be felt. The H&M staff was constantly picking dresses from shelfs and giving them to people with that lucky bracelet while dissasembling shelfs.These women inside the box were waving dresses in front of the nose of those outside the cage.The exposition was dramatically decreasing. I asked if the stock was low and at 10 in the morning almost everything was gone and on a big poster i read:having the bracelet does not guarrantee the purchase.
I wanted to take home the zebra trench so i waited until the gateway was opened. What happened later i call it sparta. It was a battle really. All the women invated the fenced area like crazy, i had my hand stracthed while i picked the trench and missed to take the pink necklace. I grabbed a pair of shoes and then i got an idea:i'm going to exchange them with something else! I was there with my sister and cousin and we couln't leave without anything!
All the deluded women with nothing in hand guarded the empty shelf waiting if someone changed idea and left something.
I found myself pulling a hanger from one side and another girl pulling the other side, i left those hangers to maintain some dignity. A girl said me threateningly in roman:"Do you know that i've been here for 2 hours?" that sounds like this "Ah bella, io sto qua da du ore"
I thought: 2 hours? Lady i've been here since forever now
The following 2 and half hours were implied in speaking with other womens,in exchanging a dress with another until we got what we wanted, we managed to succeed!
When i saw the queue at first i tought we could not buy anything.
Finally we got to the cash desk, the cashier told me the jimmy choo's collection was even more messy and crowded, a old lady touching my zebra trench asked if i was buying it even if i was at the cash. We made that harmful payment but we were happy. With every dress we received a hanger, a garment cover and the paper bag.
We got a slice of pizza at the end, we totally forgot to have lunch!
Next i'm going to tell you everything about dresses, fabric quality, style fitting, i'll take some pics of my buys and then i'll tell you how to buy lanvin if you couldn't finding for you some low cost ebay listings.Stay tuned!

Fenced area shopping




more windows

my dedicated manicure

Couldn't wait, i had to wear Lanvin now!

I was one of the lucky bloggers who could wear the Lanvin collection before the others, touch the fabrics, take the pictures, have them as a gift, neither Madonna or Jlo could have them in advance.
Ah ah I'm kidding. It's not true. We're not one of those fortunates but we do can wear Lanvin in advance, yes there's a way. Do it ourselves!
Why? Because it's fun! Because we can do it our way!Because it will fit perfectly!
My chosen dress from Lanvin collection is the black little black dress decorated with all those loops

This one!
Ok my passion for fashion is eating me and i want to get involved in the process of dress making. I want choose the fabrics, i want to draw patterns, i want to learn as much as i can the way i like it more, discovering step by step, resolving one problem at the time when a question arises. Call me crazy i can't stop myself.
So after a week searching for the fabric (you can find every patterned fabric you like but when you need black no one has it!) i managed to get my hands on a 1.5 meters of black wool a little acrylic in it that gives just a little bit of stretch.
I came home and it was time for pattern making.
This is a classic lbd sleeveless, this basic dress pattern worked fine! It has 4 seams that define waist line.

This pattern is from Rosanna La sarta website, thanks Mrs Rosanna!

click here to see how to measure

Basic Dress
half front	half back
AR=1/12 chest AC=1/4 chest CM=1/4 chest+3 cm AD=front waist lenght DN=1/4 waist+5 cm ON=1,5 cm DE=1/10 height EG=1/4 hip + 2 cm KP=1/18 chest RP=1/7 chest CL=1/2 breast distance BL=CL UV=3 cm UZ=10 cm RT=bust height DB=skirt lenght	AR=1/12 chest AC=1/4 chest CM=1/4 chest+ 1 cm AD=back waist lenght DN=1/4 waist+2 cm ON=1,5 cm DE=1/10 height EG=1/4 hip - 2 cm KP=1/18 chest RP=1/7 chest+1,5 cm UV=4cm UZ=14 cm DB=skirt lenght

If you want i'll translate for you the legend so you can draw your pattern according to your measurements, mail me if you need them!(*DONE*)
Now some work till i got the dress ready to be decorated!


The pattern

Loose threads
And the dress is done!
Now let's move on with decorations!
I've cut more than 60 rectangles of fabric for the decorations, sewn the borders to avoid loose threads, folded and then sewn on the dress




Deciding loops position (they don't need to be on rows just try to fill the space regularly)


Finished dress

What do you think?I put longer loops at the neck to make it more regular and well refined. I decored the dress on the back of the skirt too, i don't know if the Lanvin's dress has decorations on the back.Personally i don't like those dresses decorated on the front only because they make the dress look like an apron. It looks like they didn't have enought time to finish the dress.
As you can see i left the waist decorations free. That's where you put a wide elastic belt. The final result is a slim looking waist compared to the puffy effect of the decorate dress. I love it!



Dress tried on
Now just some numbers to let you figure out if it's worth realize this dress instead of just buying it.
the fabric cost 22 euro (but was a special price, a remainder piece)
(price of fabric will depend of your choice (and shop), polyester is 8 euro per meter, pure light wool 44 euros per meter)
i employed a full day of work to complete it, like 9 hours
Lanvin dress is 129 euro
Now i'm even more curious to see the h&m collection!

Lanvin at ASOS

€59.71
ASOS Exaggerated One Shoulder Pencil Dress

Today i wanted to find out how original is the Lanvin collection at H&M. The question is: can we find similar dresses anywhere else if we can't make it the 23th of November?
This is my first find the puffy one shoulder dress. This one is by asos; compared to the Lanvin one is pretty similar, do you agree? You can choose between three colors: mink, coral and black. The price difference is not this big, it costs 30 Euros less than the lanvin one but you can buy it if you can't get the lanvin one

Lanvin for H&M unvealing the whole collection

After talking and waiting for this collection here are the pieces we're going to buy hopefully at H&M the 23th. There are a lot of lovely pieces, if i could i would buy them all but the truth is that it will be hard to get one.
All these rules and selected stores thing is insane. If you haven't read them yet here they are:

• first thing arrive early (will see if the queue will be overnight)

• you have to be one of the lucky ones that catches a bracelet (there are 320 in total)

• wait for your turn

• then you have 15 minutes to shop the collection and you can buy one for each piece of the collection
  

if you don't catch the bracelet you'll have to wait the end of the 320 queue and then you can shop the remaining pieces.
If you can't reach one of the chosen h&m you can pay these dresses for double on ebay the day after.
Let me tell you this shopping session seems more a battle.
Maybe all these complicated rules are made for distracting us from realizing we're buying overpriced h&m dresses.
These capsule designers collections should be sold in every h&m, this won't make them less exclusive and wanted.