Showing posts with label shoes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shoes. Show all posts

Saturday, 1 October 2011

Colour, Collars, Carven

The Carven Spring 2012 collection, shown as part of Paris fashion week, is really lovely. The evening wear looks are fresh and unexpected, the chunky shoes (though reminiscent of a lot of the flatforms around this season) give the looks an intriguing masculine edge, and the bold cut-out detailing gives the collection a sense of vitality as well as continuity and coherence.






The collection features some super-short silhouettes, which obviously look gorgeous on the models. Equally obvious, however, is the fact that my purple-white sausage legs would look infinitely less desirable in this abbreviated variety of skirt. Ditto the unmade-up faces. There are some elements of the show which do really tap into my current style preoccupations, however, and which I therefore both covet and wish to approximate in some kind of budget version.

I'm very keen on the golden / mustard tone which punctuated the second third of the collection. It's not a colour I would usually experiment with, but Carven made it look so sumptuous that I might just have to give it a go. I think that the palette in general is pretty delicious (not to mention the prints!); it manages to retain a real sense of femininity whilst also seeming bold, strong, and modern.



I also love the way that shirt collars can be seen peeping out from the necklines of dresses. I have tried this kind of look before, but always in a more winter-y way - white shirts buttoned to the neck beneath grey woollen dresses or pinafore-type numbers. Here, however, not only do the colours help to make the outfits more season-appropriate, but a number of the collars themselves are autonomous. That is, one need not wear a shirt in order to get the collar effect, but can just wear the collar separately - shirtless collars rather than collarless shirts! I think that's a genius idea for when the weather turns hotter and nobody wants to layer up.



In short, I really like the whole collection. Well done to Guillaume Henry. I want to finish off with an outfit that manages to encapsulate all of my favourite elements, and which I will have filed away in my noggin as style inspiration come spring. I love the colours (the mustard with the blue lace against the baby pink, combined with the acid bright shoes), I love the buttoned up collar, and I love the very neon librarian feel about the whole look!

Tuesday, 27 September 2011

Super-Bright Loafers: The Ultimate Neon Librarian Shoe?

As much as I love my little brown loafers, I am very much into all the super-bright footwear that's around at the moment. I came across a particularly gorgeous neon pink pair in Topshop at the weekend (see below), but colourful flats are cropping up all over the place right now.

  • Pink Tassel Brogues by Topshop, £30
  • Leather Tassel Loafers by Asos, £50







  • Bow Loafer Flats by Schuh, £65
  • Suede Loafers by Topshop, £28 
  • Coral Canvas Loafer by Office, £30








I think what I like best about these shoes is the juxtaposition between their neat, scholastic shape and their jolly festive colour schemes. There is a real sense of a joyful disjunction between function and frivolity here, and I love it. I'm sure all five pairs would prove a valuable edition to my wardrobe; coupled with some contrasting coloured tights, they would fit in perfectly with my current 'Revenge of the Neon Nerd' look. 

Indeed, I did come perilously close to buying that pink Topshop pair - £30 is so cheap for something so beautiful! - but I was already buying a coat, a spotted dress, and some austere black wedge-heeled boots, and the shopper's guilt would have been too much. Plus, I already have a perfectly functional pair of non-garish loafers and some purple lace-up brogues; all of my sartorial bases are pretty much covered without the addition of these lovelies. Nonetheless, should anybody out there be looking to get me a PhD viva present, I can assure you that the neon pink pair in a size 6 would go down a storm!