Gucci turns 90 & Fiat turns Gucci

While searching for some anniversary campaigns in any random sections you can imagine, I found that cute Fiat 500 designed by Frida Giannini, creative director of Gucci, and Centro Stile Fiat. 

Although it seems absolutely braggy to my mind, my heart starts bumping faster by all of that sweetness this cars spreads. I guess this "oh how sweet"-effect is triggered by the size a Fiat 500 generally has.

I would most probably never want to ride that care seriously myself (beside the fact that my bank account would say something like "nice try, dream on") but still I would love to see that model once in a while in reality.

Furthermore, this model is not only the result of the cooperation of two traditional, Italian houses but it also seems as if the real intention was meant to be the 150th birthday of Italy itself. If you look at the colours (not hard to recognise huh), then you discover the Italian flag as a part of the interior design.

"In the 1950s the Fiat 500 was like a revolution of the streets", says Giannini. "The Fiat 500 became the must-have, that everybody wanted to possess and drive. Smart travelling was always in focus of Guccio Gucci's work (Gucci founded his label in 1921). When Lapo Elkann asked me what I personally think of that cooperation with Fiat on the occasion of Gucci's 90th anniversary, it was the perfect moment for me to make a statement about travelling in the 21st century." 

This expensive, exciting (redneck?-)sweetie can be reserved until the 30th of June via www.500bygucci.com before it heads to Paris, London and Tokio as a new, exclusive market launch. 

I'm still enraptured. Gucci-Gooh, little Baby! 

"Yes, your home is your castle ...

...but it is also your identity and your possibility to be open to others."

(David Soul)

Oh yes, how David Soul might have been right was just for our fortune yesterday, when we went to the incredible Bensberg Palace, near to Cologne. It is a former hunting seat of the Counts Palatine of the Rhine and since more than 10 years it accommodates a hotel. 

Having had dinner at the Italian styled restaurant, I thought about taking out my newly bought , orange dress by COS and pull it with the necklace of my mum, a classic bag and my Zara heels. 

The comfort with that dress is that it is not body conscious, therefore I might look a little pregnant in some pictures. But since summer is expected to be absolutely hot once again and since I'm sick of last summer's experiences with tight summer dresses, this one is absolutely fine to wear. Not least because orange is one of my favourite colours since I discovered the bangles by Hermès in its classic colours (which "Dear Santa Claus" never brought :( ).

Have a nice Sunday! 

Dress: COS

Jacket: Zara

Bag: Chanel

Heels: Zara

Necklace: from Mum 

First Blog Award

I finally found space and time to thank Deborah from http://www.hopethinkknow.com on a separate post for passing on the Stylish Blogger Award. I have seen so many sweet and cool blogs before who have received such awards and now I'm also in virtual possession. ;)

As it says, you need to give 15 facts about yourself, I think that this blog here is already such a personal insight of my thoughts and interests that it is hard to think about 15 simple facts right now.

Since I have a reason why being a faithful reader of the many blogs I chose to follow in the past, I just took the first two blogs coming up my mind randomly. Those two are The Fashion Mom and It's On With Allegra.
(http://www.thefashionmom.com/   ;  http://allegrabj.blogspot.com/) 

Have a nice Saturday :)

Oh and Happy belated Birthday to Vivienne Westwood (The Queen of Punk Chic) !!!

Balmain's separation from Decarnin ... another sign of a designer-losing era?

Balmain 2008

It has been reported in several online-news-pages including all Vogue-likes on Facebook and other social platforms: Christophe Decarnin leaves Balmain after nearly 5 years. In 2005, he entered as a star designer for the little overaged label founded by Pierre Balmain in 1945 and it was like a miracle how "Balmania" broke out across the world. All of a sudden, people started talking about that french label nobody from our generation knew before and I personally found it just breathtaking how somebody like Decarnin can design such amazing, sexy, just outstanding dresses.

So no wonder that some people might bemoan that literal resignation while others (including unfortunately me) find it hard to be sad about that fact and rather go for a new era of the (newly) beloved label. I have been talking about Balmain since I started this blog two years ago and I couldn't help it while looking at Decarnin's brilliant work he has done when joining Balmain. Ever since, it seems as if he had lost energy over time. I remember just my latest post about his collection, which I overall commented with "Mr. Decarnin, I think we should change our relationship to 'It's complicated'." since I got more and more disappointed by his imaginations of the different seasons. The personal reason was most probably the fact that I'm just not that kind of girl wearing completely ripped-off leatherjeans being hold together with fixing pins and leatherjackets having the same "problem" just that their prize lies 2000$ somewhere over the already 4000 $ jeans. Maybe this will change.. you never know;).

But trying to look at his past collections a little more objectively, it seemed repetitive, always having the same issue (let's be a little pseudo-punk-rock-chic and meanwhile glamorous while 'glamorous' was disappearing at every new collection as time progressed). Okay, I just realise that this is not objective at all.

Nevertheless, I do not appear to be the only one with this opinion since the New York Times just reported  that "Mr. Decarnin hit some kind of personal impasse and lost control of the label" (Cathy Horyn, New York Times on April 6). His absence from Balmain in the weeks before this year's Fashionweek in Paris and his little communication with the label's chief executive may have undermined some assumptions that he might probably leave Balmain.

So what is left to say then? The only thing, which many of us might have already recognised, is the fact that Balmain does not seem to be the only label separating from its (star) designer. Dior just recently kicked out King Galliano (who deserves it) after an anti-semitic outburst. Other brands like Cacharel or Azzaro follow this "trend" dropping their designers with rare explanation and I start to wonder whether we are facing a new designer era, therefore a new (hopefully fresh?) fashion-decade? Is it time for newcomers to overtake such traditional labels in the Kick-it-like-Dior-wave? As Betsy Pearce, consultant and legal adviser who has been representing top designers and executives in the past, said that she "honestly believe(s) the star designer will become less and less of a force, especially for brands that have to answer to shareholders why the business is dropping off"(New York Times on April 6), I must tell that this will most probably be the case. While employing a star designer might have become a clever strategy in the past decade, it is considered to be "shaky at best, often involving designers with little business experience"according to Eric Wilson, journalist reporting for the NY Times. And what is left to say then? It is sad to see how the big as well as the small shiny stars at the fashion-sky seem to burn out. Is brilliance closely related to craziness including pressure from shareholders, fashion magazines and other parts of this industry we do not even think about? This may be the chance for newcomers to establish themselves whether personally in an already well established label or in their own.

I hope Decarnin gets well soon (it was said he must have left because of health issues including mental breakdowns and depression) and that Balmain was not his only baby to watch after. Although we personally went through "complicated" relationship-statuses, I hope that I won't stay "single" for a long time. Maybe it is time to recover and come back with his initial brilliance.

Balmain 2007

Balmain 2009 (my absolute evergreen) 

Mixed Pictures of New York

Okay, I promise this is the last photo post about my trip to New York. But since there are soo many pictures I took, I just felt like sharing them with my readers and followers. 

Hope you have a great day! 

PS: I thank Deborah (http://www.hopethinkknow.com) for giving me the Stylish Blogger Award! So cute of you. I will mention that in a separate post as soon as possible & pass it on to others. Love 

For Information: 

First two pictures: Broadway in the morning and my mum & me heading back to the hotel

MoMA 

Room and view 

Different pictures from my shoppingtrips

Hall at Mondrian SoHo

Lunch at Imperial No. 9 at Mondrian SoHo with my cool, fashionable dad who's proud of his newly bought sunnies. How I love him ;)

Happy Birthday, Grace Coddington!

On my flight back home I studied the US Vogue over and over again since it is most probably the first time I'm holding an issue by Anna Wintour in my hands. Oh wow. Sad enough that the Russian Vogue made it into my little Vogue collection before the mother of all did but let us leave this aside and focus on this post's topic: Grace Coddington's birthday. 

Lacking of research-motivation and therefore just desperately googling her exact birthdaydate without any success, the creative heart of Vogue celebrates her 70th birthday. 

I think that Mrs. Wintour brought it to the point when writing (in the foreword of this month's issue) that Grace most probably made into everybody else's hearts after the release of R. J. Cutler's The September Issue. 

We all don't know much about here beside her personal insights in Cutler's documentary and the Wikipedia page but when talking about her personally it is hard for me to put her in right words. 

A woman, a lady so full of warmth and meanwhile strength that I consider Mrs. Coddington to be one of the most interesting personalities alive. Thoughtful she does her job with such a brilliance that it is hard to replace her if she would ever retire (which I doubt). I wonder if there is any other person in this world who could actually go into her direction with dignity (which I doubt even more). You can feel that she has seen a lot of this world: The good, the bad, the beauty, the stressful, the success, the disappointing. And still hard work seems to be closely connected to deep exceptional gift and highest loving precision into every detail. Hearing and watching her always makes me reflect about inspiration sources, fashion in general, my life and (hard) work, which once again proves to be the only way to success.

Grace seems like the figure of a fairy tale - a natural beauty uniting hardness and love, the queen in her profession. She has not become older. She has grown in all of her positivity, wisdom and powerful appearance she spreads. 

And above all, there is her name that describes herself the best - Grace.
Happy Birthday!

Some of her outstanding works