Jocasi Rocks!

Accidently bumping into 'new' labels, that we've never heard of before is a real treat. We've just discovered Jocasi, and the full collection of studded bags, belts and matching accessories is simply the coolest stuff we've seen in a long time. Do check out Jocasi's web site, it's one that should not be missed! The bag pictured above, costs £89 at Top Shop.

Bella, Bella, Donatella

There's no question about it - Donatella's up and running, and well recovered after the rehab! Yes, the Italian Bella proved to us in the Milan fashion show that Versace is a strong, blue chip fashion label, and it's now delivering highly desirable goods again. It's not a label that should be mistaken for a run down, mismanaged company. Whether Versace have had professional consultants giving them guide lines on the company structure, we don't know, but the show was a feast for the eye, that left us all very impressed. The focus on 85 percent day wear was a wise move indeed. The collection, named Classico says it all. Safe colours ranging from off white, cream, cappuccino and black, contrasted by occasional use of turquoise, acid green, cerise and chocolate brown. The clean cut, striking dresses, the versatile first class jackets and skirts, and the gorgeous, gorgeous bags, are enchanting results that Don Gianni would have been pleased to have seen. Donatella shows the world that she's one helluva leading lady. Front row audience including Missy Elliott, Elizabeth Hurley, the Canadian fashion design duo Dean and Dan Caten, and colleauge Miuccia Prada seemed thrilled by the show.

Having been totally secluded from the fashion world for a time (filling our suit cases with sun lotions, flip flops and Kangaroo friendly outfits...), this was an extremely impressive show, and we can't wait to check out what Donatella has to offer in Sydney when we move there next week..

Rafe and Pucci are the fantastic labels hosting our web site this week.

Homework

Preparation is everything; we’ve used this saying before. For us it’s indeed a highly fashionable expression, as we’re talking Ozzie preps. Going from a dramatic weather change of getting frost bites at -20’C to a sizzling (+)30’C, we’re naturally a little bit apprehensive over our current shoe and clothing collection. As a result, 21 pairs of shoes, 4 hand bags, 15 big bags of clothing, Russian fur hats, woolly gloves, long, thick cashmere scarves, long johns (yes, no spelling error…), sheep skin coats, etc., went to meet their maker today. But all for a good reason, as they are being replaced by some new, hot, ready to wear Ozzie gear. As we don’t want to be caught lost on our first days in Sydney, we’ve done some research on our new, future habitat - the Shopping Malls of Sydney. Do make recommendations/warnings on the homeliness factor, if known to you -

MLC centre
Imperial Arcade
Piccadilly Centre
Sky Garden
Westfield Sydney Central Plaza
Westfield Centre Point
Queen Victoria Building
The Galeries Victoria
The Chifley Plaza
The Strand Arcade
Bondi Beach
Second hand in Sydney
Useful info

Heading For Oz

Due to our recent decision on re-allocations to the southern hemisphere, we will be updating our web site on a less frequent basis in the next couple of weeks.Think of the move as an opportunity in many different ways; you don't have to put up with us grumbling over the cold weather in Sweden [Thank Goodness..]. You won't need to read our upsetting reports over the limited selection of glamorous winter outfits. You will be guaranteed tons of reports of sassy summer dresses, gorgeous handbags and shoes from Down Under. Think of Elle beach wear, and all the surf gear we'll have to check out; whilst surfing that wave, it's vital to look like a stunner - ask Kylie... You will be introduced to the most glamorous bush outfits; the perfect gear to wear in the busy wallaroo land. Really - there's no end to the possibilities!

Any Australian coolchiq (or any coolchiq of course) reading this - please comment or send us an e-mail of your thoughts of the most hip Oz designers we should be heading for! We'd love to hear from you!

Girl Power

Jenny Packham had already treated us to a supreme spring/summer collection not long ago. Our hopes were set rather high for Jenny to deliver the sequel. And there it was, in Battersea Park. The collection was a nirvana of sequin dresses, kaftans and drop dead gorgeous evening dresses. Not gala glamour by far, but still dazzling and could worn by any coolchiq, any time of the day (ehh..well nearly). Being spoilt for choice, it's difficult to pick the number we loved most, but our favourites were the delicate chiffon dresses in lots of different pale colours. The combination of mixing the strong, bright, gorgeous tights with these dresses, made a deep impact that we were majorly impressed by. The results are probably easier to obtain than we'd like to think. As long as you're ready to ditch the black/nude stockings, and opt for a totally different colour, you've got a Jenny number. This is glamorous, wearable fashion delivered at its finest moments, and we're pleased to say that Jenny Packham beat most of her over rated colleagues by far.

Paul Smith's message was loud and clear, and disappointingly basic; a pair of orange tights, and we're set for the winter. So that gives us a simple target for the weekend - bright tights and lots of them. Thanks Paul, but Jenny told us that in a more interesting way -

London Fashion Week

London, 13 February. Julien MacDonald's models went strolling down the cow skin-covered runway yesterday, at the opening day of the London Fashion Week. Not only did the girls wander up and down ex cattle, but half of the collection consisted of fur. Luckily Ace Ventura didn't turn up, so the show went on successfully. The collection was nice but fairly unimpressive. It seemed almost over-co-ordinated with a lot of styles all thrown together; not necessarily on the same outfit, but more an attempt to cover up all styles and areas. Lots of gun metal and bronze, some mustard yellow, metallic red: mostly rich, earthy/metallic tones were the colour range. The girls with the fur reminded us of Sloane Rangers trying to achieve a bohemian style - expensive looking pencil skirts matched with fox fur coats. Perhaps it's the next step of style we should be looking out for, but it did very little for us. As always, the Vogue team praise the designer. Have they ever done anything else?

Emma Cook kept it nice and tidy and office-like. This is also a diplomatic way of saying it was plain, simple and square looking. The basic colours were black, bottle green and metallic grey. The show finished with slightly stronger autumnal numbers with subtle pattern. Total absence of bags, jewellery and very nude makeup made this a rather un interesting show. No queuing up for the summer 2006 collection, we're afraid.

From one extreme to another; Fringe Basso & Brooke didn't play down the colours or the creativity for that matter. Their display felt very much like Versace meets Japan, mixed with a little Middle East charm thrown together. We're not entirely sure what the designer's vision of this was though. Being their second show since the design start, it was not as rude as the very first introduction to the design - patterns of male genitals on luxury fabrics. Although this show's title "The Succubus And Other Stories" might have caused more than one person to blush...

Finding the perfect runway is difficult. The selection shouldn't show too basic, simple lines as we'd get terribly disappointed - after all the business is glamour and this is what we'd expect. But a show full of totally un-wearable, luxurious evening gowns a la red carpet is not good either... Hard to please? Maybe. Whatever the results have been so far, we can't wait to see the next few days report on the week.

Below from left: MacDonald, Cook and Basso&Brooke

Moi Not A Style Icon? Never...

Take a trip down the memory lane and check out the tedious stuff at Trackies.co.uk… And here’s us thinking sports fashion is limited and unglamorous these days. Bahh. Sick bowl, please.
Seen at Manolo.se

Chutzpah

... In other words; Matthew Williamson, is the guest of Honour at London Fashion Week starting tomorrow, 13 February. Williamson, who left London for New York three years ago, is now back again in the UK, with some rather exciting projects lined up. Not long ago, he set up his first flagship store at Bruton Street, and this has been a tremendous success. So much so, that the rumours say a second MW flagship store will open up shortly in New York. Williamson’s also due to set up a store at Harvey Nic’s, Knightsbridge, and on top of this we’ll be able to enjoy his new fragrance, due to be released in April. Online chiqs can get hold of Matt’s fab creations here. In the next coming days we’d love to see the famous MW trio; Moss, Christensen and Jagger featuring his collection, but it’s not confirmed whether the glam gals are assigned for this yet. Although MW has an exquisite fashion talent, we’re hoping that the Christmas tree he designed last year was a one off shot. The tree was decorated with 1,000 pink velvet and chiffon roses, toy birds, dragonflies and his signature butterflies. No, Matt, just stick to what we love you most for, the runway business.

We Will...

Design your own romantic, virtual Valentine's candy (or, the way we've done it, our mission statement in life). But make it short and sweet as it only takes up to 4 characters per line! ACME (heartmaker) is the fun site behind this brilliant idea. Go check it out. It's easy, it's fun and it doesn't cost a penny!

The Weekend Deal

Rafe's Leather and rattan tote bag is made for a long day in town. [Come to think of it, should be in every womans collection.] With it's fairly generous size, it can hold tons of new purchases. The Chinese dragon shoes are just adorable, Irregular Choice. The mission of the day is to find something similar to this.

La Cage Aux Folles

This versatile bag could be advertised in many different ways. One is to to sell it to the house wife, to use as a waste bin for potato skins. When it's full, you just throw the whole thing away. Another direction is to actually use it as a pet bag (as clearly shown). Your hamster, gerbil or budgie could be kept in there, and it doesn't matter if they use it as a toilet. Perhaps the Manolo, he would say: The Lulu Guinness, that woman, she must be stopped.
A piffling $698

Kors We got Him

New York, 9 February 2005. As predicted, His Royal Highness Prince Kors showed a hugely impressive collection. To describe it as sophisticated and wearable would be an understatement - in both respects. Lots of glam, frosty silver-metallic colours; the dresses had a rather ‘Sex and the City' - touch to them. And the coats… God Almighty. A blood red, silk lined, cashmire coat, with an enormous wolf fur collar. Another coat; a knee length fur coat that looks like – do we dare suggest - white chinchilla... We do realize we're pushing our luck here, but with all the coolchiqs we know, we’re in good company. So no claiming we’d rather go naked and all that… For the men; more classy winter styles, a silver duvee jacket a la retro style that would make most men look like a billion (space) dollars. Extremely handsome stuff . Let’s hope all the men we hang out with will all dress as suggested. Yes, Mr Kors, we realize you talk directly to us.

21st Century Fox

Anna Sui showed us an absolutely unmissable autumn 2005/winter 2006 collection yesterday. Our quick report on this is - Yes, We Love It All. Although Anna Sui always changes her style (not always as gorgeous), it's always Anna Sui that we recognize. And it feels so much better now that we know Anna will look after us next winter as well....

A Walk on The Wild Side

It's just getting better and better... The Diane Von Furstenberg collection looks so desirable, we feel like ordering a set of each outfit immediately. Do we get a discount for the tenth dress ordered, do you think?

And Narciso Rodriquez' shoes - Walk not, Stand not, Sit only! Either way - Purchase a Lot, don't you think..?

Kors We Want Him!

We can't wait for the Michael Kors runway images to be published...

Angry Fashion Runway

Ella, the coolchiq of Kiss Me, Stace.com is absolutely right - it's sad that we can't find charming runway girls, where their faces aren't tripping them... How can this be? Is it lack of food? Are they generally unhappy? Or, are they just trained to look angry?

Virtual MiniMe

Having a bad hair day? No need for depression, darlings - the Virtual Model will save our day. It only requires a few clicks to create our own Virtual Model, and then we can shop til the broad band connection drops. All you have to do is to create your own account, defining your height, weight, hair style/colour, eyes, etc. This is so simple and such good fun. And it's only a matter of time before we can to get our Manolo Blahniks through Virtual Model.... The three models displayed below are coolchiq "MiniMe x 3".

coolchiq visits Bangkok

Go check out our guide to shopping around the world at www.coolchiqtravel.blogspot.com First of many more to come, is our publication of Bangkok's best shopping, food, culture, and more. Sawadee Kaa!

Faux Pas?

One can easily get fooled looking at what appears to be a diamond these days. It’s interesting and rather amazing, that diamante jewellery can be so easily mistaken for real diamonds. OK, unless you’re a diamond specialist, that can tell one special gem from another, it’s fairly easy to get a good quality faux these days. Just don’t let your man know this is the case… The professionals advise that we should be looking for the four C’s in a real diamond - Colour, Clarity, Carat and Cut. But we really suggest there should be a few more C’s here – what happened to Cost, Cubic Centimetres, Coolness and Can we use his Credit Card? For real diamonds, it’s no problem at all to find a jungle of amazing, posh, expensive boutiques. As long as you're willing to re-mortgage your house and beg/borrow/steal the down payment. Finding good quality faux bijou on the other hand, is a little bit more tricky. The German label Thomas Sabo is our favourite. The label has shops and retailers world wide, Pink in Stockholm keep an excellent selection. Other good quality jewellery labels we favour are the Danish Carre Copenhagen, Dyrberg Kern, Frits Heiring and Swedish designer Kum Kum (though the latter one has a rather unfortunate website that doesn’t do the products justice).

The Mystery of Over Doing It

The one and only Manolo showed a fine example of Heatherette's over-designs in one of his posts today. The fashion creator must take his job far too seriously, when we see results such as those above, presented at the New York Olympus Fashionshow. Or is this simply a sign of being unable to focus on his directions? It makes us wonder, as the outfits display every single colour in the rainbow, all in one go. Getting closer to spring, it's wonderful to see some colour in the creations, but surely they could be put together in a more co-ordinated way...?

Multi-coloured Yawn

We're not entirely sure what happened to Alexandre Herchcovitch , maybe he was dropped on his head when he was very small. Or perhaps it's just that these girls are forced to wear accessories strikingly similar to party hats?

Delta Fashion Force

The Plaza, New York runway, 4 February 2005 - By the looks of things, we'll be seeing some fairly stylish looking Delta Airline air stewardesses early next year. The American airline must be totally over the moon with their outfit move; Richard Tyler was assigned the job to create their new airline outfits, clearly a wise move indeed. Tyler has been known in the 'red carpet business' for many years, designing dresses for the likes of Catherine Zeta Jones, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Heather Locklear, etc. He's also won many fashion awards for his designs.

From what we could see on the runway, the outfits showed a very functional but elegant style; the full colour scale varied from midnight to navy, red, platinum and gold. Going from the light grey uniforms of the company's past, this is now an obvious driver to the airline's transformation plan. Naturally there's always two sides of the coin; the negative side is that we're guaranteed an increase in the ticket fare. The bonus is that we'll get served by stylish flight attendants!

The Weekend Deal

On the agenda for tomorrow is Vintage Shopping with capital letters. As always, we need some gorgeous, comfy shoes and a perfect bag for the occasion. Casual-yet-exclusive favourites are these white/silver Dirk Bikkembergs sneakers in combo with white, woven, leather slouch bag from Bottega Vineta. Licence to spend!!

DIY - Design It Yourself

Design your own Longchamp bag - Yes, highly recommended for any fashionista that can’t get enough of an endless amount of colours and styles in the bag business! We get to pick a style of choice, size, colour combination, handle strap, golden/silver accessories, and whether we want to have our initials embossed on the bag. We got so fond of this activity that we had to do it 5 times... And every time the results were just as amazing. But we need your support now, coolchiqs out there! What’s the best way to explain to your man, the credit card bill for 5 Longchamp bags delivered all in one go? Ehh, well...

Sheik Yerbouti

What can we say? Well, it's difficult to say anything when your jaw is on the floor. Thanks Jimmy. Love coolchiq xxx

Maloles?

The first look told us: "Not sure whether we love these shoes or hate them". But the more we look at them, the cuter and more adorable these Spanish flats become. The brand Maloles is particularly good if you're a tall coolchiq, as the make focuses on flats. So far. Maloles shoes could be purchased through Matches, Liberty, Selfridges and Fenwick.

Watch this Space...

Coming up soon is www.coolchiqtravel.blogspot.com which will be published on a regular basis. This is your chance to see our detailed, personal view on some of the most amazing cities/countries in the world, covering; fashion, shopping, restaurants, nightlife, culture, and more...Don't miss it!

Champagne Brunch Anyone?

God Almighty. It sounds like we’re going to have some fairly busy days ahead.... The USA International Fashion Shows have their opening party in New York tomorrow, Wednesday 2 February. With activities such as the Champagne Fashion Brunch it makes us wonder why we’ve not already booked ourselves in. The shows will carry on until 8 February. Unfortunately the website is tedious and uninformative, but you can visit it here should you feel adventurous. Let's hope the Fashion designs are an improvement on the web design.

Londonedge, the trade event for club wear and alternative street wear, starts on 4 February and runs for 3 days. The show will focus on specific customer groups, such as gothic, punk, rock-a-billy, heavy metal etc. Londonedge runs concurrently with the Urban Wear trade fair, and London Front Cover’s Fashion Trend exhibition.

The Helsinki International Fashion Fair, in co-operation with Helsinki Fashion Weeks, opens up on 4 February and runs through to 7 February. Undoubtedly we’ll be forced to view some Marimekko, but on a more import note, we’re hoping to see some fur! The Finnish ladies; they do know their good quality endangered species.

The Scent of a Woman

Fraulein Jill Sander, the creator of the mega expensive fashion label, decided that she’d had it with the co work with Prada and dramatically walked out from them in November last year. The German designer has been commonly associated with her clean-cut suits and subtle colours, mostly loved by the well-off, middle aged woman. The collections have also been described as “..the collections of Jil Sander avoid loud colours, are spartan in print, and are economical [read boring] in the use of accessories…”

Since the split from Prada, it seems that Jill Sander has been very busy on some new scents that will be aimed for a much younger age group. Apparently we’re in for a sporty concept of flashy colours due to be launched in April - an orange version for the men and a pink one for the ladies (what the actual scent is like, seems of no relevance). Hmm, sounds like a perfectly good reason not to try this perfume...

Vote for The Green Party!

Even a web site needs maintenance and a face lift now and then. But this is as close to the scissors and botox we're ever going to get. Our banner pictures show a luscious green dress from the Billy Blass spring/summer 2005 runway. The heavenly shoes are maestro Christian Lacroix's master piece.

Is that Elvis re-incarnated as Axl Rose...?