The city guy.

I got a lot of requests from men to write a male fashion post and not just to mention them in traces as the "guilty" ones in heart breaking stories and testemonials. 
I hear you, you poor victimized men and I shall do just that. ;) (notice the manly green color font)


As I am, after all, a women, selfishly focused on more creative and more fun female fashion, one of the reasons I haven't written about men's fashion before was simple - I haven't had enough knowledge to provide constructive comments on trends in male fashion industry. But I have investigated and at least now I can provide you with links to knowledgable male fashion bloggers writing about male trends.


Male Fashion bloggers

• The urban gentleman 
• The Smugger
• We could grew up together
• Man Fashion
• Berkley magazine
• Snappylifestyle
• M.J.C.G.
• TheSouthSider
• Mens Flair
• Freshwallstreet's Blog
• TerrenceSamboWrites
• Art of manliness

Male magazines

• GQ
• Homme
• Vanity Fair
• Vibe
• VMan
• Men's Health
• Esquire

So this post will be about the kind of men I like and the kind of man I am attracted to. Naturally, we get attracted to a men/women visually first, then we notice the vibe they project and just after that inteligence and all of those spiritual personality traits.

So here we go, my man is an URBAN GETLEMAN.


 1) Suits should be a staple piece of every post college man. Which not at all means he should be boring or to corporate.

2.) No, man is not to metro or totally gay if he pays attention to details and styles them well. There are really cool gloves, hats, scarves, man bags/totes and grafiti inspired cufflinks  for a man who is working a lot and is always on the go.

3.) Its important to choose right coat or jacket as it is a piece you wear three season in the year, one should be real worm and another one transitional. Its always good to choose one you can wear to work and out, so classic one with trendy details to show your personality. This seasons favorites are aviator shearling jackets and structured camel tone coats/black is an option to with rockerish details, my favorite are Burberry Prorsum coats.

On an off day man can go all the way personality wear. I really like the MJ inspired jacket and really cool harem jeans as they move away from classic straight fit or distresses jeans, still with jeans, its all about details. Spice them up with some dangerous accessories like a bullet belt or a bomb watch. 

For Autumn and Winter wear them with classic Timberlands or Frye boots, I loveee gray ones. When its sunny, don't forget your Ray Bans.

Photo sources: The Urban Getleman, Google search, GQ

So what you think boys? Is this something you would wear? :)

Ciao lovelies!

"Women thrive on novelty and are easy meat for the commerce of fashion. 

Men prefer old pipes and torn jackets."

~Anthony Burgess~

Love loan

Recently I had one of those phone calls with a girlfriend when she called and she was in pain, and I knew this pain very well, so well that my throat started choking with every new sentance she said. 

    In this situation you just want to help her any way possible and than you transform into this most reasonable, most rational "Psychiatrist know it all", who just waits for her to take a break to cry or to breath and you go back and rationalize every chunk of the story she said so far...and that's how it goes...for hours...and than you kind of always conclude with a cheesy joke from the past only you two share. 

      You remind her how fabulous she is, how she is better off without him, how you didn't like him anyways and how they were never really good as a couple, and finally you conclude the conversation with a cliche bullshit like "time will heal all the wounds" or "there is someone else out there, who is just perfect and waiting for you"...Right, and he is on the horse.

Why the hell do we women do this? Why do we put so much presure on ourselves and overanalize?

Why do we give LOVE LOAN to men, with no credit check, with no interest rate and prolonged payment period - forever. Are we just some LOVE ATMs with totally secured credit cards and endless limit? After so much witdrawals, are we LOVE broke by the time the right one comes along?

I wanted to tell him I was afraid he could never love me the way I wanted to be loved. 

I was afraid that maybe he didn't have the capacity to love anyone but himself. 

I was afraid that, given the chance, he'd break my heart again. 

But I cheated and just said 'I guess I was afraid.'

Urbanology

Day #2 in Budapest Hungary. 
3 hours of drive, 1 Starbucks venti skinny peppermint mocha with rather crisspy Almond Biscotti and a strong headaque later, I finally got home. 


Last two nights were pritty intense with traveling, cold hotel room and long hours I put in last couple of days ( aka since last Xmass when I actually had a proper vacation). Just when I was about to log off from my computer around half past midnight I got interview questions from www.moda.hr which urgently needed to be answered so Eva can meet her blog article deadline. I answered them half awake trying to pull last atoms of common sense out of me to finally be able to go to bed. If you want you can read my answers here.


Note to self - schedule a damn vacation or you WILL start showing wrinkles!


Anyways, I got inspired by one editorial in UK Vogue featuring grey jersay sweatshirt dress with enhanced leather patch shoulders so I actually selected my top urban pics from Urban Outfiters smoking new collection.


What you think? What will be your key piece for this Fall?

Photo source: Urban Outfiters

Xoxo lovelies!

"Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn."

~Elizabeth Lawrence~

Partylilicisous!

         No matter what it is, you can overcome it, no matter how much it hurts, you can heal, even when you think there is no other chance, no other option, when you feel  your saddest, pushed in the corner without a way out...believe!

     Believe that what you are going through has happened with the reason. Someone up there is watching out for you, and although you cannot understand it at this particular moment, believe, that everything in this world happens with a reason and that there is always, ALWAYS another chance. A better chance.

So when the going gets tough, and the tough gets going, put on your most fabuolous dress, your highest heels, put on some make up, do your hair and dance it off!

Versace pattent leather dress                                             Parad Shoes

                          James Perse T-shirt                                              Ashih sequined Mini Kiss

             Tom Binns for Disney Couture                Yves Saint Laurent Boots

To my fabulous diva friend! Hang in there!

"The difficulties of life are intended to make us better, not bitter. "

"Count the garden by the flowers, never by the leaves that fall.  

Count your life with smiles and not the tears that roll."

Cro-A-Por qué?

Boris Pavlin FW 2010.

First and foremost I would like to remind on the disclaimer written bellow on my blog. I am not completely biased while writing this as I am working for the company sponsoring another fashion event in Croatia - Dreft Fashion Week.

         The other event I am commenting here is being organized in another smaller city in a different zip code and sponsored by a smaller competitor company to mine so I will refrain from commenting on this company inputs to the event as this blog is about fashion only.

CROATIAN FASHION INDUSTRY SITUATION

 As I have written before in my posts. There are three main fashion events in Croatia: fashion.hr, Cro-a-porter and Fashion Week Zagreb.  Each claiming to be the best. 

Just based on the country size, available talent pool, lack of proper/modern fashion and business education, available budgets and capability of all the organizers, all of these people gathered together (if their egos and willingness to share the profits would allow) would maybe be capable to put together one decent fashion event per season which could export talent outside of the country and ressurect fallen Croatian fashion industry and local textile mass production.

  They are indeed all fashion professionals, some with more experience than the others but so far none has shown consistency in quality, continuous improvement and willingness to invest in their event long term. This current situation is really, really bad for such a tinny market - as the decision lays in hands of a hand full of people some of which are long overdue to finally retire.

   This is not totally organizers fault, not at all. If designers would be more entrepreneurial and more business savvy maybe the organizers would need to spend less energy on motivating them to create more wearable collections, which normal people could afford to buy and wear, and teaching them how to properly present themselves and would have enough time to negotiate sponsorships, partnerships and other complicated technicalities of the complex and labor intensive event organization (knowing the lack of financial resources, countries bureaucracy overall and current old school clans in Croatian fashion industry one has to be careful not to erode).


CRO-A-PORTE

Last night I came back from the final night of Cro-a-porte. 

First, to be honest with you I could not get over the fact that this fashion event is organized outside of the countries capital in a shopping mall, in what seems to be an empty store location. 

Second, it was obvious that there was limited space but the crowd there was not what designers needed. It seemed like the seats were limited, but there were a lot of people who were (based on their comments): family members, friends of the designers, there were kids, dogs and many people who were in some way part of the organization. 

Local celebrities as we all know came to promote themselves as they mostly borrow local designer’s clothes and never really cash out for it but rather buy foreign already established designer clothing (and why  wouldn’t they when it is similar in price as the Croatian "no name" designers). 
   In addition, there was no showroom so designers who do not have their own store were left to find their own way to return the invested fast as the collections they have shown now are for the current season F/W 2010. (which retail is already discounting).

Lastly, the events website is really bad, not updated timely and not all designers contact info/website links and the full shown collections are uploaded. 
  
There is a facebook fan page with only cc 300 members and no Twitter profile. There was an attempt, based on global trends to include local bloggers. This resulted in selecting bloggers who so far wrote a hand full of posts (with an exception of croator.net)  in total (most related to this particular event) and were extremely biased while reporting without disclaiming their agreed endorsement to the event, this is simply not fair towards their readers and not the way bloggers should function.

This seasons Cro-a-porte had positive sides as well. They are equipped with many good designers, many of which really do sell well and are really creative. Models wearing the shows were really well casted and other than being in the shopping mall, the rest areas with leather chairs and the bars surrounding the runway were much better positioned than years before.

My intention here is not to bash any of the three events, I am just writing down and posting comments I hear from local fashionistas, editors, journalists, photographers who's publishing house politics do not allow them to comment on the route cause of current fashion event orvedose in Croatia due to business connections and not wanting to get on anybodies back side as many are not professional enough to take criticism well.

My kind advise to organizers would be: why don't you retire some of your members, start from the education, organize workshops for these young creative people (designers, stylists etc.), invest in what you believe in, organize a local fashion cauncil, set some rules and guidelines and stick to them in order to create a local industry and strong fashion week - long term. 

Quality over quantity please.

Bellow you can find my favorite pieces from this season shows darlings:

Juraj Zigman FW 2010.

Boris Pavlin FW 2010.

Andreja Bistricic FW 2010.

Recension by La Kat. All rights reserved.

Photo source: www.moda.hr

"The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, 

as in what direction we are moving to."

Oliver Wendell Holmes

The perfect man

I thought I had him,

Had him and let him go,

The truth is,

I haven't even met him yet,

so how could I know?

I could only imagine,

who he might be,

But will I ever meet him,

that we will see.

He sure is not a quitter,

that I know for sure,

I used to date one of those,

He is now in the past,

and past is right where he belongs.

He used to be kind,

But got lost on the way,

He used to know how to love,

Now he only loves his cash.

My man knows who he wants,

And That Who is Me,

he knows me and he cares,

no matter the challenges,

he is brave and he dares.

He cares to show me he's here for me,

He cares about me and it shows,

He is here when I need him,

What more can I ask for?

Money and success come easy to competent,

That's the fact that I know,

True Love is what you fight for

its something that you earn,

So once you have it....

Be thankful, take a risk,

cherish it,

and never let it go!

                                                                  

Make your own diy draped skirt

I don't share already written post ideas that often but here is the one most definitely worth sharing and trying out.


Original post was posted on AnyWho blog which I read quite offen, cause it is simply fabulous!


I was admiring  diy draped skirt in Burberry Prorsum SS10 collection and looking for something similar in Zara and Top Shop, I haven't found it so I decided to make it on my own.


I'll post pictures as soon as its done. Today is the day D!


Try it out and post the pictures of your fabulous creation on my Facebook fan page!
If you have questions you can of course email me anytime, ill be happy to help.


Ready. Set.Go!

1. Use a high-wasted bodycon skirt as a pattern. Leave 1cm for the seam as you cut.

2. Cut out 8 wide pieces – they should be approx 25cm wide. Sew them together in pairs so you’ll end up with 4 long tubes.

3. Cross two tubes to achieve a draped effect. Repeat with the remaining two.

4. Pin everything down all the way around then take the back of the skirt and attach it to the front piece. 

Here is what AnyWho got as a result:

I suggest using a mixtures of silk and cotton so there is not much wrinkling later.

Xoxo lovelies!