John Galliano Spring 2009

Inspired by James Gillray, a British caricaturist and satirist during the late 1700s and early 1800s, and the Queen mom, Galliano put out a show of characteristic exuberance. Despite the amazing but somewhat overtop styling the collection was subdued and wearable. Many fashinistas the world over will be dreaming of the candyfloss colours and sparkly, seethrough party gowns. See entire collection here.

Sonia Rykiel Spring 2009

In reflection of Sonia Rykiel’s 40th-anniversary, the Knit-Queen put on a spectacular fun and flirty event showcasing a retrospect of her fashion house. The surprise came at the end, however, when many of the industry’s most notable designers created their own Rykiel looks in homage. check out the show here.

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Hanii Y Spring 2009

Hanii Y has created a quirkily cute collection filled with smartly tailored seperates with cool styling. See entire collection here.

Marchesa Spring 2009

Georgina Chapman, designer of the-almost-couture line of Marchesa has created 24 perfect and intricately constructed garments. See entire collection here. Equally as inspiring is her Resort 2009 collection line which references Greek goddesses and Egyption detailing. See the Resort collection here.

Erdem Spring 2009

With eye-catching colours and textures, Erdem Moralioglu is an artist who paints with fabrics. His collection is full of romantic victorian tailoring and pastel watercolours creating the feel of a dreamlike spring garden. See entire collection here.

Wunderkind Spring 2009

Wolfgang Joop is the creative mind behind Wunderkind. His collection, this season, inspired largely around sculptor.architect Isamu Noguchi and pre and postwar Japan, mixes military references and feminine tailoring in a quirky and fun way. See entire collection here.

So I am back! I had an awesome time and had a amazing week full of adventures. We visited all the major monuments in Paris, Notre Dame, Sacré-Coeur, Paris Catacombs (unfortunately just as it was closing), The Louvre, The Natural History Museum and Zoo, Disneyland! (Wee we were such kids) and my favourite Chateau de Versailles! As a huge fan of Marie Antoinette this was a little dream come true to me and Versailles was so much more then I was expecting. The palace itself is incredibly grand and to the point of being overly opulent with ornamentation. And I was so absolutely shocked at how enormous the palace grounds were. We had a lot of fun exploring the little hedge labyrinths and I especially loved Marie Antoinette’s little theatre and her country village ‘the Queen’s Hamlet.’ I have 1800 photographs to sort through but once I do I will be posting relevant pictures here and on my travel blog. I honestly can’t wait to go back to Paris I am so in love.

Painting of Marie Antoinette’s Temple of Love

Painting of Marie Antoinette’s gardens and music house.

On a side note I was interested to see that Karl Lagerfeild had a photographic mini exhibition at Versailles named Versailles à l’ombre du soleil (Versailles in the shadow of the sun), a nice black and white architectural study of the Palace and grounds.

Well I am off to Paris for a week, returning July 31st. Hoping this time around i’ll be visiting the Louvre, Versaille and even Disneyland yaa I do not know if I will have internet connection so posts are suspended till I return. Love to all my family and friends ^_^

This is my beautiful cat Noke. She lives with my parents back in Canada and I really miss her. Isn’t she lovely? ^_^

Viktor & Rolf are among my top 5 favourite designers along with Lacroix, Lagerfeld, Galliano and McQueen. I marvel at the way they can easily shift from elegant, formal tailoring to innovations so conceptualized they edge on the absurd. One thing is for sure though; this Dutch duo takes the cake for some of fashions most memorable moments. Now the masters of surreal and distorted construction are currently the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery in London.

Photography was strictly forbidden and unfortunately I was not brave enough to do any stealth photography myself but I found a couple of images of the dollhouse here and here. Also there are some nice pictures of the construction of the event here.

For those in the London area the Barbican Gallery hosts several fashion industry workshops be sure to check out their schedule! The show runs 18th of June – 21 of September tickets are £8/6

Watch the video here!