{that dress}

{longtime favourite ad campaign: daria werbowy by karl lagerfeld for chanel}

{pretty details & other expensive things}

{photography by garance doré}

{organza & lace}

{ilvie wittek by marco pietracupa for d la repubblica via fashionising}

{holiday inspiration: pretty things}

{from this is glamorous}

{riva}

{image: chanel}

{black velvet & gold lamé}

{chanel le vernis via rdujour}

{vogue russia}

{images: ann kenny and kirby kenny by kt auleta for vogue russia, august 2010 via oh}

Karl has raised the bar once more- Chanel Haute Couture Autumn Winter 2010/2011

Let us ignore the clothes (and the lack of black models) for a moment and just focus on the lion.
I saw this absolutely fabulous beast as a twitpic on Bryan Boy’s twitter and couldn’t believe the scale of the thing.
But after being confirmed on various fashion related website I realised thatKarl did indeed install a massive golden lion in the Grand Palais which pawed a gigantic pearl from which the models emerged from. Amazing. Forget the clothes, the set alone was incredible, it even topped the barn and ice themes from SS and AW 2010 collections.
Karl said that the inspiration for the lion motif- which also appeared on the Chanel invites, not that I was lucky enough to receive one-was because Coco Chanel’s star sign was a Leo but to be honest it was probably just an excuse to install an enormous 40 ft gold lion, not that he needed one.

Now onto the clothes. It was much more regal and back to Chanel’s roots than the Neo Romantic theme of Spring Summer 2010 with none of the Barbie/Flintstones hair and makeup and instead a simple look with red stained lips the only statement. The hemlines just above or below the knee, fur trims, golden embellishments and an abundance of darker colours which will be perfect hues come autumn/winter with shades of plum, charcoal and deep royal blue appearing. All of which came to a sartorial climax near the end when Karl sprinkled a little bit more sparkle onto the runway with my favourite looks here:

Then came the spectacular finale where a model emerged from the giant pearl, hand in hand with a man in a tux wearing a fierce lion mask. Then in a breathtaking Beauty and the Beast moment the mask was whipped off to reveal Karl’s muse; Baptiste Giabiconi.
What did you think of Karl's latest creation?

Beth Ruby xoxo

DESIGNER ENVY- My soft spot for gimmicky heels

It has been awhile since I have had a full on designer shoe envy (probably due to being locked up revising in my room and spending less time on Style.com and Sea of Shoes if anything else)

But once I laid eyes on these DSqaured shoes which have a SPINE FOR THE HEEL (!!!) I fell a little bit in love.

"It's just such a genius idea!" I cried.
And then after getting a major deja vu I got thinking about the sheer amount of times I have said that after seeing a rather cool pair of heels.
After trawling the extensive albums of photos of shoes which are knacking up my computer hard drive I realised just how many gimmicky heels there are out there.
Shoe designers love a good novelty idea to get people talking and buying. (If this was a power point I would add the cheesy *KERCHING* sound effect here)
It makes sense really, I mean I know a girl can own a lot of shoes but there are only so many plain black sling-backs someone can have before they crave the crazy.

And I know I would rather have a pair of fierce, eye catching, compliment attracting, fabulous shoes than a pair of plain. fabulous shoes (remember my rant at the beige schmeige and boring ol' Celine's "Wardrobe Staples" ?)

So here are some more gimmicky heels I found.
I'll shut up now and let them do the talking:

Dolce and Gabbana 'Face' shoes- photo from Sea of Shoes

The Nicholas Kirkwood for Rodarte 'Melted Wax' heels (which I thought looked like the Wicked Witch of the West melting...) Source unknown

The legendary Chanel 'light bulb' shoes (source unknown)

And the lovely new 'Chandelier' heels from the Prada collection.

Can you think of any more shoe gimmicks?

I could go on but I really must go back to revising Vietnam and Womens rights for my exam tomorrow. Exciting I know.

Ciao!

Beth Ruby xoxo

ps) Happy fathers day!

{inspiration: black & white}

{via style me pretty}

{runway: chanel resort 2011}

{images: 1-3 - studded hearts; 4 - moodboard}

To clog or not to clog? That is the question...

So clogs have apparently "made a come back." Not that I ever thought they were "in" in the first place, but still.
Ever since they were seen at the Spring Summer 2010 Chanel collection and then on the front cover of British Vogue in the Alexa Chung photo shoot (see above and last photo) they have been gradually seeping down from the high end to the high street and infiltrating normal peoples wardrobes. And I really don't know how to feel about this.
Pictured below are my mum's old pair of clogs-which fit me so I could theoretically wear them- but I really don't think I will be making a public appearance in them any time soon.
To start with what do you wear with them? (I am not going to kid myself that I can pull off the double-denim look like Alexa below)
Anyone got any ideas?
Has anyone seen clogs EVER pulled off well?
And more importantly has anyone seen them be pulled off on a mere mortal, not just on a supermodel?
What a tricky trend. Lets just send them back to the Chanel runway where they came from, hmm?

Beth Ruby xoxo

ps) Thanks to everyone who wished my blog a happy one year birthday! They really made my day.

{inspiration: big hair + a chanel guitar}

{images: olga maliouk for vanity fair 2009 via wet behind the ears}

{runway: chanel couture spring 2010}

{style.com}