cant buy it? then rent it!

Vainglorious Aussie fashionastas with champagne tastes but coca-cola pockets can now afford a taste of luxury by renting designer items, just like their American counterparts. 
American website, bagborroworsteal.com, who founded the original concept of "rentable luxury" gained enormous publicity after being featured in the first "Sex and the City" film by Carrie Bradshaw's assistant, played by Jennifer Hudson. 

Australia quickly jumped on the bandwagon with the launch of loveme&leaveme, offering a similar service that rents out authentic designer bags, jewellery and accessories at weekly and monthly rates. The company has now also opened a boutique in Armadale Victoria, so clients can see the stock up and close for themselves. 

If renting is not your thing, you can also buy the 'lightly used' designer products at a reduced price, although for the better known designers, you'll still be looking at about $1500.

I'm sure I'm not the only one crossing my fingers to be invited to some grand event that will require a lux item hanging off my arm. Especially since at the moment, they are offering $100 off rental and $50 off purchase.... (shivers of excitement)

http://www.lovemeandleaveme.com/

"Romance was Born" highlights from the Rosemount Australian fashion week 2010

Some favorites from "Romance Was Born Spring Summer Collection shown as part of Rosemount Australian Fashion week in 2010. You just have to admire the eccentric, fantasy embeddded crafting of these outfits which are borderline kitsch yet masterfully creative. (photos from news.com.au)

"Romance Was Born is the product of Anna Plunkett and Luke Sales. The result is a crazy, fantasy fashion label for both men & women that combine eccentric pointless style with hand detailed features. Romance Was Born is not simply a clothing label, but rather a clothing experience. The technical pattern-making and over the top embellished designs create a playful yet professional fashion label that is Romance Was Born.

Anna and Luke seemed destined for success together, after meeting at East Sydney Fashion College, both studying fashion. The duo graduated and were selected to attend The Fourth International Support Awards in Italy. This is where the fun really began, as Anna and Luke turned down prestigious internship offerings from Galliano, to carve their own paths – Romance Was Born.

Romance Was Born is set apart from other fashion labels for the core reason that the label continues to combine elements of art, costume, theme and quality to create clothing collections that are best defined as wearable art that is now highly regarded and demanded.

Like any successful Australian fashion label, Romance Was Born has dressed the celebrities including individual pieces for music superstars Karen O (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Lilly Allen, MIA, and twin duo The Veronicas. Unsurprisingly, Romance Was Born has and will continue to be a hit at the annual Rosemount Australian Fashion Week. In 2009, Romance Was Born collaborated with Sportsgirl to release a one-off twelve piece wardrobe collection named Clownin Around". 

(excerpt of article taken from fashion review.com.au)

Blake Lively, the new face of CHANEL's Mademoiselle hand-bag line

picture from http://chanel-news.chanel.com

"Gossip Girl" star and rising hollywood starlet, Blake Lively has been selected to be the face of CHANEL's new mademoiselle handbag line campaign which will be photographed by Karl Lagerfeld himself. 
 
"She's a kind of American dream girl," said Lagerfeld. "I think she will become a great actress. It [the shoot] was an easy job because everyone fell in love with her."

As reported by vogue.uk, Lively and Lagerfeld were introduced by Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue US during Couture fashion week in July last year.

"How did Cinderella feel when she slipped on the glass slipper? How did Snow White feel when she met her Prince Charming?" Lively says. "A dream come true is an understatement. I can say that I feel like the happiest, luckiest girl around."

"I will always feel [the bag] is more than just a purse," she tells WWD. "It's a quilted case full of lipstick, love letters and the dreams and possibilities that I have always felt every time I see that beautiful CC."

Lively will join the other famous faces to have starred in Chanel campaigns including Lily Allen, Nicole Kidman, Audrey Tautou, Vanessa Paradis and Diane Kruger. The campaign will be released in mid-march 2011.

Artist Obsession: "Phoks"

came across these flashy mixed media fashion illustrations by "phoks", just thought i would spread the love.

 http://www.phoks.fr/

dior spring/summer '11, best picks for men and women

The Simpsons Go to Paris with Linda Evangelista.

Came across this delightful piece in Harper’s Bazaar from their August 2007 edition, “The Simpsons go to Paris with Linda Evangelista”, putting our favourite American family in the then current designs by fashion big shots, Versace, Chanel, Lavin, Louis Vuitton, ViKtor & Rolf & Jean Paul Gaultier. Illustrations by Julius Preite. I've also incuded the 'real life' designs for comparison against there cartoon versions.

 

 

Disney Hero's Just Got Sexy!

While majority of (adult) Disney fan art involves our sweet princesses in unruly positions and usually doing unruly things, artist David Kawena has gone against the typical norm by re-imagining disney’s hunks as underwear models. Finally something for female Disney fans to gawk at!! 

 

how many could you name?

visit David Kawena's deviant site for a few more sexy disney hunks.

heres hoping hes got a Flynn Rider (Tangled) in the works, created by directors to be Disney's most good looking lead male...see a snipet of the article below..

Director Byron Howard (Bolt) said they wanted to make Flynn “the most handsome, most attractive male lead Disney has ever had.” They conducted impromptu “Hot Man” focus groups where, “all the ladies of the studio came into the ‘Hot Man Meeting,’ where we gathered pictures of their favorite handsome men—we collected pictures from the Internet and from books and from women’s wallets. They were very specific about what they liked and what they didn’t like.”

Co-director Nathan Greno adds, “the women would come in and they’d put up these pictures of the hottest guys they’d ever seen, then point out the flaws in all of them.”

“Everybody got ripped apart. Nobody was perfect,” says Howard.  “It was a very hard meeting to be in as a man. You left feeling terrible.  But we tried to coalesce all this information into one amazingly handsome and appealing character.”

 “We created the ultimate man,” says Greno.

                                                                                      Read the full interview at Sceenrant

watch the trailer below...

BLACK SWAN and RODARTE

The buzz surrounding Darren Aronofsky’s new film, BLACK SWAN, a psychological thriller staring Natalie Portmain and Mila Kunis, had reached fever pitch. Not just with talk of oscar nominations and high critical ratings, but also of the baroquely beautiful costumes fashion label, RODARTE, designed for the actual “Swan Lake” performance in the film.

 

 

Sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy's from Pasadena California created label RODARTE, tagged from their mother's madien name, in spring of 2005 with nothing more than 10 pieces in their collection. Gaining immediate recognition for thier meticulous romantic dresses, they had early support of retailers Bergdorf Goodman, Barneys, Neiman Marcus, and Nordstrom. Still a relatively new label, Rodarte has scored the Mulleavys the 2008 CFDA Swarovski Emerging Womenswear Designer award, the 2008 Swiss Textiles Award, and quite an industry following, including Old Guard lions like Karl Lagerfeld and Christian Louboutin.

"It's actually a very amazing, kind of big moment for us," says half of the design duo Laura Mulleavy. "I think our aesthetic naturally fits into the film and I think it was an interesting thing to have someone say, 'Help us say this thing.' It didn't feel difficult at all. It was very natural. It was one of the most exciting things for us to do because the end project was breathtaking."

The collaboration came about after Portman introduced the Rodarte sisters to the film's director Darren Aronofsky. Laura describes the process as "a meeting of the minds" and says creating the tutu's wasn't easy.

"Building a tutu is one of the lost couture arts," she told the New York Magazine. "Everyone will know it's like getting your hand on the prize, like a coveted piece of couture that no one ever gets to see. It's very interesting, the dance world. You can't go rent a tutu. You have to own it. And every ballet theatre has an archive and everything is stored and kept perfect. They're worn over time and they're ruined and they have slits and eyes in different spots, so they're never actually perfect, but from afar, when you're in the audience, it looks like one of the most beautiful things in the world. So our job then was to create tutus that were beautiful, but then they had to function completely. A tutu is thirteen layers of tulle sticking straight out and then it's over the body, so you can imagine. It's crazy!"
                                                                                                         

- interview taken from Vogum.com.uk http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/daily/101020-rodarte-black-swan-interview.aspx

  WATCH THE TRAILER