Styling and crackin' for the holidays: connect with stylists on the go

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from www.coveteur.com

Imagine a purveyor of style on-demand from the comfort of your home and it’s not a robot. Yeah, a one-on-one conversation with a personal stylist that will result into a red carpet outfit or a total haul-over of your closet and, still, the only technology involved, is the screen.

It’s personal and intimate, sometimes he or she becomes your own confession channel like your best friend, you know those conversations that remain in your closet? Only difference from that "I have nothing to wear" confession with your friend, with this one you get your wardrobe resolved.

If you are not intrigued enough, I will add that you don’t need to go to the mall, stand in line, you’ll get first hand access to whatever goes public when it’s already public, and you are still sitting in your armchair.

To me it sounds like a Carrie Bradshaw dream.

StyleReply is an online platform that provides on-demand personal styling service, or in other words, it doesn’t matter where you or your personal stylist are, you can be a screen-call away and resolve the outfit for your office gala during lunch time.

Let’s say you need wardrobe assessment and clean-up: open your closet and let the professional do the job while you sip a glass of rose’, at the end of the session you have a pile of clothing for charity, the other to send to consignment or online resellers, you’ll monetize on your wardrobe dead branches and will regenerate life with shopping for the right pieces. I just wrote 300 words of things you can do, and you haven’t moved from home.

It’s a win win, the professional stylist has the flexibility of traveling for assignments, maintain the clientele and make it grow all by having an internet connection. The client has the privacy, the ease of a meeting that is not delayed by traffic or other annoying intermissions and has 24/7 access to professionals that will help with capitalizing in what s-he has instead of running like a headless chicken and falling in the trap of fast fashion smoking mirrors.

It’s competitive, sustainable, supports recycling, reselling, quality and peace of mind, which can be priceless.

There's much more to this: closet rehab (don't we all need this??), guided style shopping, digital lookbook, online shopping (you guys this is heaven), professional look (because sometimes we have corporate attire to respect but we can't bear how boring it is) and wedding styling. For the non-committers, there are 15 mins and 30 mins image consultations that will seal the deal.

To get to know a bit more about how revolutionary StyleReply is, I was privileged enough to be invited to a Kit and Ace Supper Club, otherwise known as collaborative consumption. It was a meeting of the minds, many talented stylists under the same roof sharing a delicious dinner and stories about travels in far away places and new projects, an incubator of ideas running around clothing, beautiful, glamorous and comfortable clothing. 

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from Steven Meisel to Kate Betts: a hot june in miami

A June with a bang in Miami, a promising season.

Go figure, normally summer is the low season here and yes it took me years to get acquainted with the idea that, while I grew up where summer is the epitome of the high season, I live in the same hemisphere yet this is the time of the year when either you leave and go to … Europe or you stay put until better times come.

ROLE PLAY

The first Monday of the month was sealed with a cocktail at the Moore Building in the Design District celebrating the opening of ‘Role Play’ the Steven Meisel traveling exhibition sponsored by Loewe and Phillips Auctions. Nice groove, pleasant conversations and engaging networking.

Is it Miami up to something that I am missing?Tthis looks like Milan before everyone leaves for the beach: keep up the great job.   

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MY LITTLE PARIS

It continued in Bal Harbour. 

From Vogue to EIC at Harper's Bazaar, Kate Betts, the fashion journalist born under the wings of Mr. John B. Fairchild turned author, drew Miami's crème de la crème of style to Bal Harbour for a lavish luncheon at Makoto hosted by Lara Shriftman and Sarah Harrelson. A reading of her recently launched book ‘My Little Paris’ followed suit at Books & Books which is becoming the new fashion salon literaire in Miami. 

Bal Harbour stepped up its game from when I was working there, starting with the activities around The Fashion Project curated by Cathy Leff. 

#GucciCruiseNYC

This didn't happen in Miami, it was Chelsea, NYC but it marked the calendars as the re-birth of the Gucci legacy.

Cruise was the first collection that Alessandro Michele, th new man at the helm of the Florentine heritage brand, was able to design with enough margin of time. He blocked off a whole City block to have the models strut across a street in Chelsea and walk the catwalk: the cement floor of an art gallery covered in Persian carpets.

Michele’s new Gucci has been called weirdo, nerdy, deliberately grannified, a rag-bag parade of vintage, a fantastical story and a mismatched patchwork of everything. 

In reality the core of the Gucci brand had been long hidden under the carpets like dust, relegated to the closets, stuffed in the attics as a reliquiam of a time gone that we were supposed to forget. 

Michele's sensibility brought it back by digging in those same armoires, those same that one's grandmother has with a romantic and urban feel. 

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credit @angelicahicks on Instagram 

The connection? Fashion, with the capital F

I am kinda breaking the rules by putting together the two fashion conglomerates of Bal Harbor and Miami Design District, that are in an unspoken battle of opposite pulling forces, but I agree with anything they are doing, because they unveiling a new existence of Fashion in Miami. 

The Bucolics of chic

A conversation about the concept of chic arose this past week after the launch of CHIC Fille a new French magazine.

It's not about being trendy, wearing the next thing, battling against aging, reckless consumption or chasing the latest trend like a headless chicken. A girl's style and her wardrobe are not a chain production mill of fast-paced fades, it should be cradled as a curated exhibition. 

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Jane Birkin

Everyday life is infested by what theorists call the 'megaphone effect', an audience pleasing game where you allure the readership by wearing the latest, the 'un-published', the hot-off-the-runway IT bag to drool over. It doesn't matter whether it's 'tasteful' or not, it's what the designer and the corporation behind him are supporting and will be featuring in the ad campaign. Coming soon to your nearby screen, meanwhile it's on Instagram or Twitter 'as seen' on X, Y and Z.

That 'as seen' means X, Y and Z received it in consignment or as a regalia where gift assumes the double sense of present for the blogger and free advertising before the paid advertising campaign. It's a merry-go-round of freebies where good taste, chic, elegance, eye for details go forgotten.

We are not here for bitching though. 

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Mademoiselle Coco Chanel

Here we are in the realm of the naturally chic, instinctively refined, honestly sophisticated that doesn't happen overnight, but we believe in it. It's like going to school to learn how to cross stitch like good wives to be used to have to: it takes time, there's no crash course available, you have to climb the steps. Same happens when you decorate a house and you decide to hire an interior decorator, a landscape designer, buy pieces at flea markets and hang your child's pre-school hand-crafted masterpieces and dress your bed with family's heirloom monogrammed linens.

When people show they rely on you, they count on you and they consider you good at 'being chic', you are first surprised, baffled by the role and proud to take it seriously. 

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Ines de le Fressange

“... that’s how I ended up with this reputation for being the ultimate Parisian. I didn’t choose it, but I am very proud of it.”

— Ines de le Fressange

It happened to Ines de la Fressange, unofficially crowned the Ambassador of French awesomeness. There are various misconceptions and rules, but the most important secret lays in learning the balance of being unpretentious. 

How are you being chic? 

On buying shoes: do you ever kiss & tell

It may not happen often, but please tell me I am not the only one. 

You linger perusing through the racks of a high street fashion store and there’s nothing in your mind that your closet needs or that you have seen in Vogue and want to be able to buy. 

A pair of shoes left unpaired on the floor next to the giant mirror: somebody has tried them on and didn’t like them. That moment of glory when somebody’s trash is somebody else’s treasure. The thrill is even more rewarding when you realize that those non-animated heels look so much like those YSL lace up you saw on Outnet …

How to do it.

1. You have to be a runway addict. Practice will help you recognize if it is a Pilati YSL vs. a Hedi Saint Laurent. If you are not up for it, ask for help. Any stylist will be happy to do it. Some charge, some others, aka yours truly, love doing it for free. 

2. Be patient and wait, sooner or later it will show up emulated in some website or one of those big cheap stores that we never pronounce, but we all now we visit religiously. 

3. Snap them and show them off. Be aware they will be the most uncomfortable ones, but if you style them masterfully you will look like a ‘couture girl’. Don’t plan on standing on heels all day long, overall they are not Manolos or Ferragamo.

And now please share that fake deal steal you have found and rocked once, or twice or whenever. (Pics please!)

if this is the backstage (#regram from @worldmcqueen) an intricate, elaborated, conceptual collection can only be expected. #monumental #fashion #moment

#NYFW and the winner is ...

Oscar de la Renta (bien sur)

because he does navy and white for the ladies who lunch like none else

because of the pastel evening gowns that make you feel like a million bucks

because of the abundance of embroideries and lace 

because of a cohesive, classic, modern, young exquisite collection

because of those white gloves

because of those Swarovsky studded mesh booties 

Schiaparelli: the utilitarian couturier

Paris Couture Week was a splash in the past. Eat, drink, love, breathe couture at its highest glories.

Karl Lagerfeld presented “The Glory Of Water” on the Quai of Pont Alexandre III giving a whole new perspective to the millenial spectacular fountains of Rome. Did we forget to mention the Chanel Couture theatrical presentation in a make believe disheveled theater?

Vionnet presented an utterly impressive retrospectives of her genius, we re-discovered this time through the eyes of its creative director Goga Ashkenazi.

Then the Christian Lacroix’ tribute to Elsa Schiaparelli and it was a dream at first sight. The debut to the high society after the stint with Miuccia Prada. Elaborate, fascinating, exquisite celebration of her legacy, the collection will remain in the annals. The Shakespeare of fashion? 

The cages, the virtual chirping birds and bamboo manipulated a surreal ambiance. The mannequins carrouseled the 18, looks each one bearing vivid reminiscence of Schiaparelli’s dark, surrealistic elements. The parachute pockets from the “cash and carry” collection, the jumpsuit, the symbolism of the “circus” line all recall the idea that the designer was creating something elegant yet convenient. The inspiration dates back to a the dark and scary period of World War II when “Paris could still be elegant” to say it with Lacroix.

Bravo to Lacroix who presented couture at its highest and produced a show that surpassed all expectations. Stakes are even higher for whomever will be the actual creative director now. On another note, our enthusiasm was stimulated to the point that compared all the other couture shows seemed blushing (not completely though).

And, yes indeed, Paris was more than simply elegant as usual, at least for those three days. Another milestone of fashion history was marked.

What will happen to the collection? There were no comments from Mr. Lacroix and la maison. What we know is that nothing is up for sale.    

Paris in my mind