Not so perfect Barbie

Many if not all of us have played with Barbie or better say Barbies when we were little. 


I had 11 of them, together with a custom bathroom,car, house,horse and all the other accessories. But was this only a doll we played with and which made our childhood fun? Or was this a doll that tough us how the women should look like, dress and live? Does this doll determine how strong our confidence is and how feminine we feel?


Lets review some facts:


Poor Barbie, she may someday marry Ken, but chances are, they will never have children. 
Based on research done by Rader Programs, the percent of Barbie's body fat would be so low, she would have ceased to menstruate--that is if she ever started. She has been grossly underweight since the beginning.


If Barbie were a real person, she would be 6' 0", weigh 100 lbs., and wear a size 4. 
Her measurements would be 39"/19"/33". 


 The average woman is 5' 4", weighs 145 lbs., and wears between a size 11-14. Her measurements are approximately 36"/30"/41". There is a fifty-fifty chance that she is on a diet right now.


After spending her childhood playing with Barbie, watching models and actresses who stand 5' 11" and weight 117 lbs. sell them on the idea of the perfect body.


On top of that, since fairly recently there was no black Barbie and no fat Barbie...she is "perfect" ,white, skinny and blond. Has an expensive car and equally handsome boyfriend Ken and some babies (depending how many family members get you one of those as a Xmass present).


Bellow are the recently published photos of not so perfect Barbie:

     Not to be a hypocrite, I played with Barbie and it was my favorite doll when I was little and I have bought some to girls I babysat as I do not consider them being a bad influence to little girls - but I have also never had issues with weight and built my self-confidence through athletics and school success. The education and reflection to self esteem  part is on parents and teachers to do,more than on Mattel - the toy producer.


For more blog's on Barbie craze today: Fashion Gossip wrote a great piece as well.

Xoxo,

            Kat

"If Barbie is so perfect, why do we have to buy her friends? "

A girl with a baggage moving on...

This morning I woke up with my new heels on. Looks like I am back to being  my old self again after a long time! 

I am taking some risks and moving on (in the full meaning of the word). Night before yesterday I went out again with this guy, who is so not good for me, but he is sucha freakin' adorable, artistic hottie with a great body that I can't make myself stop. We started kissing at this random place and two peeping weirdos were looking at us the whole time. 

     Thankfully I haven't been the first to notice them but he did and he was terrified...hahaha...I was dying laughing although I bet I wouldn't sleep for days if I saw their psycho faces myself. Hanging out with him is really fun, we are like some two rebellious teenagers getting in trouble all the time.

I really need a reality check asap ( Note to myself: DON'T fall for him).

 I have been trying to break into these peep toe high heel brown booties and I wore them all day yesterday while packing and cleaning the house all day. Mission completed. I hope they won't bother me next week while on business trip.

Lately I have been overloaded and haven't been in a blog writing mood. With all the emotional and other big changes in my life I couldn't get myself to start writing. 

    Today, some things are more clear and I am really excited :) If everything goes well I am moving into my new apartment this Friday . Cross your fingers for me so everything goes well!


I am dedicating this post to going back to my old self again, taking risks, following my heart and having fun while at it!

           ...and here are some marvelous editorials for inspiration....

Xoxo,

     La Kat

"You can do anything, you just have to dress for it".

~Edith Head~

Abused mommy

Hello lovelies! Long time no blog, or better say long time no live :) However, I am back now...couple of business trips got out of hand with the volcano cloud and all. 


         Many years back now, back in the war time in Croatia when I was really, really little I used to cut out the editorials  while waiting for my mum at hairdressers or while she wasn't looking out of her magazines at home and I would glue them in my little notebook, I still have some of these  notebooks. Glued editorial on the left side and my drawing on the right side. 


My notebooks with editorials cut outs helped me get my mind of the every day life and every time I would hide in the corner behind the curtain or under the blanket these cutouts would take me to a whole new world of different kinds of pretty.


   Working in fashion industry for a couple of years back I have developed an understanding of the complexity and cost of making one of those compelling, story telling, provocative editorials.          
      Back in New York (before the economic crises) this kind of costs were needed, accepted and managed on a daily basics. Every assistant had their own assistant or an fashion intern to torture with their wanna be diva demands. 
    But frankly, I do believe it is easier to be creative and to conceptualize your ideas when you have a cushiony budget and a fleet of people supporting you, some paid and talented and some just wanting to be a part of the fashion world buzz.

With this post I would like to introduce work of a team of people running a fashion portal www.moda.hr in Croatia. This team of people is creative, positive and visionary regardless of the fact that their budgets for creating the editorial are lower that the food and taxi fair taken to one of the NYC editorial shoots. 


www.moda.hr team has created a sort of an online reality show or better say a casting call, inviting all of the creative fashion junkies to apply and from selected few editors have gathered a creative team to create an editorial.


The one that intrigued me the most is the one bellow. The topic of the editorial was a twisted world where children become the abusers of their mother. This is happening in mental institution where kids are becoming the abusers and overpowering their mother to become her mirror image later. Enjoy! 

Please find the rest of the editorial photos and information about the fabulous team who worked on this editorial here. I am really looking forward to see more of their work! :)


Xoxo,


            Kat

Life is the row material. We are the artists. Be creative!

Romance is Alive & Well - Lei.Lou.

Gorgeous, creative and with business sense seems to be a wining combination for a very talented Croatian fashion designer Alex Dojčinović and her fashion brand Lei.Lou. 

Alex Dojcinovic is young entrepreneur and fashion designer from Croatia. She participated in 2007 Wella Fashion Week in Zagreb and won the public vote for "Best of Fashion Show Award" for both Spring and Fall collections. 


After a couple of independent fashion shows this year was her comeback on a fashion scene and she participated in Fashion.hr fashion event.


Alex opened her own fashion company in 2008 called Lei.Lou. and also worked for the well known companies as P&G, GM, Audi,Honda, Peugeot, Tele2.

Her success is based on her ability to adjust to the specific wishes of the various companies in an artistically intelligent and financially successful manner. Her fashion insight and dedication to the business are major reasons for her success. Alex's fashion drawings are also used as examples in the fashion school text books.

What I like the most is the romantic feel, lightness, beautiful color pallet she uses and gorgeous great quality materials which are also wrinkle free and suitable for working women. Many her dresses have the ability to be worn in multiple ways which is highly economical and are not hard to maintain.

One of her major success was the Drake Hotel Fashion Show in Chicago in 2008 and 2009.

A couple of Chicago boutiques recognized her talend and are now selling her designs.

You can see Lei.Lou. multi functional dress which can be worn in 9 different ways. As Alex's customer and a close friends I can personally vouch for the quality of her sawing - her dresses are sown in a way that you can  even wear them inside out if needed :) 

The above multi-functional garments as above you can purchase on the Private Sale ones a month - its first comes, first served basics, so go and get your fabulous morning to night multi season dress by Lei.Lou.

Lei.Lou. fashion show for S/S 2010. you can see here.

For the F/W 2010. Season Alex also had a successful collection. She incorporated romantic French feel fabricated in silk mixtures, fur and satin all in gentle powder tones, models had minimal natural make up, their hair was pulled back in a tight buns and they had lyrics tattooed on the outside of their lower arms. Jewelry and purses are also designed by Alex and branded with new Lei.Lou. logo.

My top pics are bellow. The show collection is sold out or reserved to be sold. I am planning to buy a pale pink Jumper from Alex and this beautiful skirt bellow left.

What I like the most about Alex is that she understands that although unique, fashion forward and artistic the clothes she creates must be wearable and sellable. She is creating a brand name for herself and understands the industry together with current economic and geographic situation she is in - the keywords of the year are adaptability/flexibility and sensing the needs of the consumers.

 Lei.Lou. has the whole team of people supporting the brand: seamstresses, PR person, lawyer, models who favor her, celebrities and a capable business person and a creative designer - it is a power team which guarantees success. 

Buyers and boutique owners - here is your chance to support a young star who's designs guarantee sales.

I am looking forward to see Lei.Lou. grow as a brand! Wish you all the best Alex!

Xoxo,

Kat

“We tell young designers that you need to believe in what you've made. You put all your love and passion into it and if you are good your dream will come true.”

~Stefano Gabbana ~

Lesson learned...

Today I remembered a girl I wrote a post about several months ago. She was tough from the outside but scared and alone from the inside. 

She still had her childish naiveness about her than, the goofiness and that naughty smile - although it was overpowered at a time with fear and loneliness of the situation she was in which went from excitement to fear, and than back to greatest happiness and love, and then back to the worst kind of pain and a heartbreak. 

This girl was a tough cookie, used to do all sorts of stupid things like: wrote love notes on post-its and sprinkled rose petals for a romantic evening, she worked hard and kept smile on her face all the time, loved to joke around and race down the street in heels, sang under the shower and walked around like a crazy person in the morning, more than anything else - she believed in true love and honesty, she put her 100% in it. But it wasn't enough.

I don't remember the last time I saw her. I heard she is doing really well. She still works a lot. She is still strong. There is a great looking guy who likes her and she just goes with a flow, maybe she gets married...without giving her heart in it. There is another guy who she likes - who is definitely a heartbreak potential. 


 If you look at her closely these days, you might notice that naughty spark in her smile once in a while, although she doesn't smile much anymore and is scared to ever take that chance again.
       
She gave up on believing in love, I guess this is the time of growing up when you realize that painful fact that relationships and marriage are just norms and expectations of the society and have nothing to do with lifetime long love and faithfulness. Just like you painfully realize that Santa never really existed and that when somebody dies, you will never see that person again. 


Hopefully...maybe...some day...somebody....
                                                          ...will prove her wrong...and she will be her kooky self again. 


Xoxo,


Kat

" I don't hate you. I am just disappointed you turned into everything you said you'd never be." 

WTF are your Jeans?!

Goodbye to the time of plastic nails, under the chin pushed up boobs, stick-on eyelashes, blond straightened hair, spray tanning and tons of make up - soooo passé! 



Hello to the natural wavy hair, pastel color nail polishes, natural make up tones, nipples showing on T-shirts, soft blazers and boyfriends jeans with your favorite Manolo's!  Show of your natural beauty and let your personality and your brains shine threw! Geeks are sexy! 


How sexy?! So fuckin' sexy they designed they own brand of jeans called - WTFJeans. 
Sanja & Peđa are two computer nerds (Serbian born living in France) who really like their iPhone's safe and handy and really wanted a comfy pair of jeans to wear while doing what geeks do.


Being smart, not only they designed a dream jeans for geeks but also managed to create brand for themselves and make money - all with their laptops in their laps & their iPhones in their hands.

Sexy geek essentials:

Short sleeve t-shirt, $420
Day Spring Suit Blazer by Day Birger et Mikkelsen, 200 GBP
Elizabeth and James Mason at Zappos.com, $355
Authentic Chanel Pink Salmon Raw Silk 
Double Flap : MALLERIES
Miss Dior Cherie

WTF Jeans 79 E


WTF Jeans - is a brand of Jeans completely created virtually. With help of their Twitter friends the pair has decided on the best suited name What The Fuck Jeans. They found a local designer in Serbia, gave her the specific instructions on design and made a simple website.

Limited edition of WTF jeans (100 pieces) to be delivered to the orderer's addresses within a month has virtually vanished due to the buzz that has been created around it in social media: Twitter, Facebook & YouTube alone. 

        So much so, that they faced numerous technical difficulties due to vast number of orders that arrived within just couple of days from website going live.The whole process from idea about the need for such jeans to the first orders has been recorded and published on above listed social media networks.

What's so special about them? 

WTF jeans have a special pocket compatible for iPhone. Within the pocket the designers have inserted microfiber lining so not only your iPhone is safe and easily accessible in your pocket but it also gets cleaned. The other fabulously geeky thing about them is the Twitter blue color of the tread they are sewn with and for the boys there is some extra room and padding to keep their package cozy on the right side - as 90% men do :)

For women, the next best thing would be to make a virtual dressing room - so I can actually see how the WTF's will fit around my bum and decide. Or the sizes could be more elaborate - and explained in details in cm's so I can be sure they will fit perfectly, but I am sure the geek squad will sort that part out as well! Can't wait to order me a pair!

As Peeches Gerdof said in her article in Nylon magazine "In the end, most of us just seem to want someone who can be self-depreciating-someone who knows his shit and isn't hiding behind a cliched macho front. Nerds are the lovable mavericks of an overbearingly masculine society that is driven by old-fashioned ideals. These Dungeon & Dragons-loving, Einstein-quoting, chunky spectacles-wearing guys are the true catches."

Xoxo,

            Kat

Lets talk Croatian fashion

In Croatia there are plenty of fashion events. Considering the size of the market we have more fashion events that any other country in the world. 
CROATIAN CULTURE

As having a good car, being well dressed, being spotted on all of the events worth coming to, including sipping our Saturday morning coffee in the city center are of the crucial importance, it is not surprising that supply of such events is vast. This is neither bad, nor good - in the time of economic crises, this order of priorities seems ironic,but its part of our culture.

Love it or hate it, its certainly better than drinking Prozac with early morning fat free late from Starbucks in NYC at 6am and coming home to your fancy apartment in Soho at 11 pm from work to an empty bed (Ralph Lauren silk sheets mind you) at the age of 35, to tired to sleep, and than running this on repeat 24-7.
        Not being trendy, not wearing a branded clothes for all to see (with brand logos on most visible places - on ones forehead if needed) and not following such events is like not being registered on Facebook - you practically do not exist. 
Most mainstream people do not resist being part of this stereotype, peer pressure seems to be way to strong...ahhh...but some do, and they are more fabulous than any New York trendy kids, because they have to be twice as much creative (with financial situation as it is and weak local  fashion industry) to show off their full potential. 


 FASHION EVENTS

In next couple of weeks two of such fashion events are taking place in Zagreb. 
Zagreb as the capital of the country  hosts three big ones: Dove fashion.hr, Nivea Cro A Porter and Dreft Fashion Week Zagreb. All are sponsored by three leading skin and beauty care/home goods companies: Beiersdorf (Nivea),  Unilever (Dove) and Procter & Gamble (Dreft). 
While only the last -  Dreft Fashion Week is licensed fashion week  for Croatia and has the longest tradition of the three, competition and quality between the main three differs year in and year out. 

Most are showing collections for upcoming seasons as other world's fashion weeks, however none of the three has shown a continuous progress in quality, somewhat due to finances and organization but seems mostly due to competence of the people organizing these events and the fact that there is way to many of them considering the size of the country and talent available. 

There are also a few other new and up coming fashion events in other cities : Modni ormar in Zagreb also, Fashion Inkubator in Osijek, Split City fashion  in Split and Dubrovnik Fashion Week in Dubrovnik.

The coastal ones seem to be a good tourist attractions, while Modni Ormar and Fashion Incubator are a bit less commercial and more design focused (launching many young designers) - which is great for creativity but not as good for their sale potential and media coverage.


FASHION DESIGNERS

Majority of fashion designers in Croatia are educated to create art. i.e. not a wearable pieces. In addition to that, fashion design schools in Croatia seem  to be missing the business and communication classes so even the talented designers who are creative enough to make it nationally and internationally lack the business sense and fail to sell their creations to end consumer and do not know how to communicate to media, buyers and organizers to their advantage. Lastly, most fail to create brand of themselves, do not have the clear vision,  no website, catalog or business card for that manner - so they end up selling to their family and friends and a hand full of local celebrities.

I will write a different post on selected few who actually are the full package and thus make money of their creations.


CELEBRITIES
So it happens that we continue to see the same faces in front rows over and over again, all to show and self promote - none to buy, we continue to see same designers many of who continue to copy their international counterparts and their recently shown collections. Media seems to look for sensations and yellow press is blooming while not much is written on design and fashion itself. 


THE ORGANIZERS 
It seems like most of the organizers have the : "take the money and run" mentality. 
Not many of these event's websites other than Dove Fashion.hr which has a really well organized fashion portal: fashion.hr are maintained and running throughout the year. 
      In addition, impression is that organizations are mostly done last minute and collection selection is not done thoroughly enough, which results in overall poor quality.
This is due to the fact that all of the sides are very much polarized, there is a lack of cooperation,  fair play and mutual support for well being and development of fashion in Croatia. 


THE FASHION EDITORS
The editors of fashion media in Croatia are not attending these events at all due to the quantity over quality ratio, or attending some of the events and reporting on them based on personal friendships and clan separations. Many in fact are rather copying already written reports from the international editions of their respective magazines that putting an effort and helping to develop local talents. 


Your readership and sales are skyrocketing downwards! Don't you think its time to step down from your editor's throne, stop writing about super expensive pieces most of which your average reader can't afford to buy or cannot find in local boutiques and start to support local talent and do something to wake up or even create fashion industry locally all while supporting local economy rather than copy pasting international fashions?


Take the idea from US Vogue's Ana Wintour who organized "Fashion's night out" to give a necessary boost to fashion industry, to excite people about fashion and motivate them to shop again.


     There is a noticeable lack of direction and long term vision. Collections are created,  events are organized, if collections are any good - some pieces are sold within couple of weeks/months and than there is struggle to make it until the next fashion event. Local buyers, showrooms and Croatian designer boutiques are rare to none existent.


So lets revise, shall we?


Objective: to create/strengthen Croatian fashion industry and exploit existing creative potential.

• Who: designers & models/event organizers/fashion editors & celebrities/boutique owners & buyers
• What: Fabulous original fashion pieces! - made in Croatia 
• When: A season ahead
• To whome:  fashion conscious Croatian people/public!
• The goal: To sell! Sell! Sell! 

To summarize all the above, seems like the best thing would be to create one central event and combine the vast creative talent to one place - let the most creative and most competent ones prevail to build the Croatian fashion industry which very much needs a kick in the butt! 


The key to longevity is to keep doing what you do better than anyone else. We work real hard at that. It's about getting your message out to the consumer. It's about getting their trust, but also getting them excited, again and again. My clothes.. the clothes we make for the runway.. aren't concepts. They go into stores. Our stores. Thankfully, we have lots of them. 


~Ralph Lauren~


   Xoxo,


              Kat