High Fashion
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Burberry has created a 96-piece beauty linedue to it’s frustration with the make-up used on Burberry Prorsum shoots and shows. Chief creative officer, Christopher Bailey, explained “Like the trench coat, it can be worn anywhere… You’ve got the natural [shades] from the trench coats, and from the weather, you’ve got these beautiful stormy grays and blues. Then, when the sun comes out, you’ve got this glow and you’ve got lighter tones as well.”

“[Burberry Beauty] is completely integrated with everything else we do with the brand and with the company,” said Christopher Bailey, Burberry’s chief creative officer. “It started because I felt that, at shows and the shoots, the whole [Burberry] attitude is epitomized through the shoes, the bags, the clothes, the accessories, but then the face was the one thing I really struggled with. When we were doing makeup, I felt like we weren’t able to get the right attitude. It was either caked-on makeup or then just the wrong colors, the wrong tones, the wrong spirit for makeup. I wanted it to be this kind of effortless elegance.”

  The trench swayed the designer’s choice of makeup shades, too. “I liked the idea of taking the trenchcoat and the weather as the two things that influence and define the colors,” said Bailey. “You’ve got the naturals from the trenchcoats and from the weather you’ve got these beautiful stormy grays and stormy blues. Then, when the sun comes out, you’ve got this glow and you’ve got lighter tones, as well.”

When it comes to a Prada collection/campaign/lookbook/anything, you can always expect the unexpected. For the labels Autumn Winter collection we saw a return to old world, traditional Italian styles of ribbed tights, corset tops, gloves and fuller figures, all cleverly presented in an unexpected way that made it all appear modern and new. Following on from the collection, the release of Prada’s look book is yet another unexpected return to old fashioned techniques cleverly mixed with modern themes and unexpected aesthetics.

The Fantasy Lookbook features the labels chunky knit sweaters, forties styled dresses and court shoes in a mish-mashed collage of illustrations, blurred photos and distorted images. The clashing imagery of pop illustrations and modern day snap shots is the combined work of art directors Alexander Reichert and Fausto Fantinuoli and photographer Phil Meech.

Posing naturally in amongst the artificial and obscure world are a range of models including Barbara Palvin, Monkika Jagaciak, Lara Stone, Kasia Struss and Miranda Kerr. The mother-to-be also walked in the Prada and Balenciaga shows last season, proving the Victoria’s Secret angel has also earnt her stripes on the international high fashion catwalk.

On the final day of Paris fashion week March 2010, Marc Jacobs rounded off the Fall collections in more ways than one. Not to put too fine a point on it, this was one fashion show heterosexual men are going to understand. Breast-wise, it put it all on a plate—or rather a corseted, cantilevered, frill-edged balcony. "And God Created Woman" announced the program, bringing up thoughts of the era of the young Bardot, of fifties-sixties wasp waists, and circle skirts. And, inevitably, Miuccia Prada, who first broached the comeback of the curvy silhouette earlier in the season in Milan.

It takes a different casting approach to do justice to the refocusing of all eyes away from legs to the plentiful bosom. Jacobs had called on Laetitia Casta, Bar Refaeli, Catherine McNeil, Karolina Kurkova, and finally Elle Macpherson, all women whose physical attributes have acted as a disqualification for fashion show participation for so long. Not that the rehabilitation of the embonpoint was vulgarly done. Jacobs framed it more as a fresh, feminine, ingenue look, with hair scraped back into high, bouncy ponytails; clean makeup; and square-toed, block-heeled pumps trimmed with flat bows—another angle on the Mad Men era but this time with a charming Frenchified accent. The show swung along prettily as a fountain sprayed and jolly fifties movie music played in the middle of the tented courtyard, creating that quintessentially Parisian atmosphere, a sense of all being right in the best of all possible cities to be appreciated as a woman.

The devil may well wear Prada, but at a biennial exhibition of sacred art in Italy, a statue of the Virgin Mary is donning Louis Vuitton, local newspaper Il Centro reported on Thursday.
The veil traditionally covering the Virgin's head bears the French luxury brand's trademark "LV" logo in golden letters decorating bags  many.
Francesco De Molfetta, 31, said he created the work to "denounce a society based on the cult of appearance through the use of a brand that represents the search for ephemeral happiness."
"This new way of interpreting sacred art is along the lines of the famous work presented (in 1999 in Venice by Maurizio) Cattelan that showed a wax icon depicting Pope John Paul II being crushed by a meteor," the curator of the biennial Giuseppe Bacci told Il Centro.
"It is a way to hit the visitors' unconscious," he added.
The biennial is held at Isola del Gran Sasso in the central region of Abruzzo.
Milan native De Molfetta's works have been on show in Tokyo, at the T20 contemporary art gallery of Murcia Spain and at the museum of Besancon in France.

A  cocktail party dress is worn to semi-formal occasions. One fashion expert has stated that every woman must own one to have a complete wardrobe.

Legendary French designer Christian Dior’s term ‘cocktail dress’ was coined in the late 1940’s prompting many manufactures to create a simple but yet elegant black dress often considered early eveningwear. The LBD ‘little black dress’ soon became popular in Hollywood cinema, where femme fatales were dressed in cocktails. Chanel also introduced the cocktail and party dresses and designed collections that have completed new ideas and changed styles. These houses have not only inherited the traditions shapes, but have now added more colour to these dresses.

 The military trend is hot hot hot this spring! The trend is strong and with the new Chanel nail colours it is clear they’re in! The colours are rich olive green, brown khaki and tan. This is defiantly more of a subtle way to enter this seasons hottest trend, the earthy shades could and will be the best beauty find.

The three colours were created to celebrate the Fashion’s Nigh Out by Peter Philips, the global creative director of Chanel makeup they will be available on  September 10. The three variations of khaki are made for an interesting take on the ubiquitous military look happening in fashion this season!

Though the hues are earthy, they don’t seem too drab! Khaki rose has a pink tinge that makes it feel almost mauve and Khaki Vert is a creamy green that has a hint of gray for a modern twist of green polish.

Make sure you do not wear them with the same colour clothing, otherwise you’ll look more camouflage than Chanel chic.

Happy Painting cuties!