Striding in style

After years of subtlety, this year is exploding with bright colours, fun silhouettes, and in-your-face accessories. This is particularly true for footwear. From embellished wedges to perspex heels to colour-blocked Mary Janes and French toe-caps, the 'art' in 'artisan' is back and how.

Slingshot

And now say hello to Kobi Levi. This Jewish genius graduated from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem, in 2001, and had since turned his creative attention to his women's footwear line in Tel Aviv.

Levi's shoes epitomize the term 'wearable art'. Drawing inspiration from everyday objects and themes that one would never associate with shoes, he translates the essence of the object into footwear to create wearable sculpture pieces that have their own personality separate from that of the wearer.

Blow

Chewing Gum

The painstakingly hand-crafted shoes have rightfully been displayed in museums and expos around the world, firing up the imagination of the hundreds that flocked to marvel at the wild and wacky creations. One thing's for sure - owning one would be a sure-fire conversation starter.

VFW 2012 Fall/Winter II

Designer Profile: Megan Mackenzie Jones

The global catwalks have been watching the rise of avant garde Canadian talent, and VFW is one place where you get all of these on one platform. 

Source: vfwblog.com

Calgary-based multi-media artist Megan Mackenzie Jones hails from Alberta, where she obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Jewellery and Metals. The 2010 winner of the Board of Governors Award specializes in creative jewelry design, but is equally well known for her alternative fashion line. Inspired by emotions and events, her work has a dreamy, gothic fantasy appeal.

source: jonesmodernvintage.com

Trend: Animal motifs

The animal-inspired trend of last Fall is back even bigger this Spring, with fauna motifs appearing not only in prints, but structural details of one's accessories.

Megan Mackenzie's "Fauna" collection brings the animal theme into her neck-pieces in all the bright hues. 

Trendy Horror?

When we think of movies as fashion inspiration, titles like The Devil Wears Prada, or 27 Dresses, or I am Love come to mind. Rarely does one equate a horror flick with couture trends. And then you get a movie like Fruit Chan's "Dumplings", a surprisingly fashion-forward movie. The clothing worn by the two lead women in this 2004 film has elements one might recognize from the Autumn 2011/Spring 2012 catwalks. Mixed prints? Check. Colour blocking? Check. Wedges and platform shoes? Check. Asian influence? Androgynous silhouettes? Done and done. Since, because of the disturbing content of the movie, we can't exactly recommend it to anyone but horror aficionados, we'll leave you with a few stills to illustrate our point. 

    

Source: meinte-film.blogspot.ca

Trend: Florals

Source: shopbop.com

Spring is synonymous with blooming, beautiful flowers...in your garden, and in your wardrobe. Pack on some flower power, and stay super trendy this season!

Trend: Bright shoes

Sirens Storefront, Metropolis at Metrotown, BC

Nine West Storefront, Metropolis at Metrotown, BC

The bright colours that we spoke about in our last post are exploding all over our favourite accessories. Subtlety is passe this season!

Colours of Spring

While we're currently waiting with bated breath to see if the weather will finally make up its mind, the stores are already flaunting their brand new offerings for Spring. We've seen what the runways have to offer for the season, and if you want to catch up on what happened on the catwalks, you can hop onto M's blog here.

On LWIS, though, for now, we're primarily interested in colour. Pantone's report for the trending colours of the season are in, and we've got the skinny for you.

Lady Hues

From L to R: Nanette Leopore, Ella Moss, ADAM by Adam Lippes and Tracy Reese

From L to R: Barbara Tfank, Pamella Roland, Cynthia Steffe, NAHM, Adrienne Vittadini and Rafael Cennamo

From warm tones such as tangerine, sunny yellow, and cabaret pink, to cool tones such as deep maritime and bright cockatoo blue to soft pastels, such as lilac, lavender and margerita green, to earthy neutrals such as starfish brown and driftwood grey, this year's palette has an eclectic range of tones and shades, and promises to be a year of bold statements.






Man tones

From L to R: Hyden Yoo, Tommy Hilfiger, and Bill Blass

Do not be fooled by the muted palette on the picture; it was just that sketches were unavailable for the rest of the shades. 
Menswear too, sees a lot of variety this season. They share the deep blue and fresh tangerine and sunny yellow with the women, but in place of the deep pink, the menfolk will be wearing a richer wine red. There are two fresh colours in the mid-range: grass green and ocean blue.  Amongst neutrals, khaki sees a revival, and then there's starfish brown and a deep brown-grey shade called tradewinds. 














Light or dark, bright or subdued, the colour charts this year allow for a lot of flexibility. What will you pick?