Fashion Fantasy

It is 5th day since my boyfriend left.
3rd day in a row of going to the gym (2 days in between emotional therapy talks with my girls).
2 Emotional breakdowns ( possible PMS, so it doesn't count).
1 domestic attack (I made banana bread, mushy middle, crusty sides...I just ate the sides.)
No ice cream crisis.
So far so good.
Anyways, since my boyfriend left, even though I miss him dearly and I am jumping from joy every time I see digits 385 on my cell, I do have more time to focus on work and fashion over all, which I by no means prefer over hanging out with him.


Last thing I was researching was the impact that current economic situation has on this years couture and RTW collections and designers inspirations. As I was scrolling through some archive RTW (ready to wear) videos on www.style.com I started with my favorites. Galliano's RTW Fall 2008 was sensational, arguably one of his most artistic and wildest collections ever. His inspirations for set and collection came from Rudolf Valentino era of silent film. I was amazed by the fantasy Galliano has created and how he managed to isolate himself and his creative inspirations from current economic events. He certainly did not save a penny while putting this show together and was able to maintain his original "bias cutting, retro coats, and overblown headgear(Sarah Mower- www.style.com) . " My absolute favorites were pink houri pants, his new line of amazing jewelry (oversized broaches and necklaces) and his signature craftsmanship.




Next, another one of my favorites was McQueen who created absolutely mesmerizing collection rich with Indian Jewelry and "British-colonial romance inspired crinolined princess dresses". McQueen had spend a month in India and consequently created an amazing collection out of carefully selected treasures (gorgeous fabrics and jewelry) found in ancient India.


Personally I loved a peacock feathered lace, a structured military plaid jackets, an amazing skinny leather pants under gorgeous fur coats (yes, fur) and thin knit tunic sweaters, as well as gorgeously rich Victorian gowns carefully embellished with Indian Empire motives.


I loved it all, this collection was absolutely brilliant and I am anxiously waiting to see the way its going to be interpreted on the City streets this fall. I know I will be rocking curly hair and humongous broaches on my knits over skinny pants(maybe I even dear to go wild and wear houri pants in my signature purple).


Beauty sleep time.....zzzz.....


Ciao
~Kat

Baby Don't Go!!!

Sunday, May 25th
10:06pm (4 ujutro doma)


As I was finishing the last three pieces of my boyfriends medium classic crust mushrooms, ham and cheese (minus the ham) and his glass of Orangina, I started the rough draft.....
Agenda for tonight: Finish packing my boyfriend before he leaves to London on Friday.
Wish: "Please God cancel all the flights from US to Croatia until further notice."
Thanks, Kat
Brilliantly desperate ideas: Hide his passport, pretend your sick, call airport saying he's a terrorist, pay the cab driver to get stuck in traffic etc.
Reality Check: Flight will leave on time Friday the 30th, the whole entire month apart...oh...the desperation, the sadness, the thought of sleeping alone, the thought of no one to complain to, no one to smooch, to sing my bestest to!!! OMG this is completely OOC (out of control)! This is so much worse than I could ever imagine. I can already feel it coming, my eyes are watering....O.K , calm down Kat! Breath! More detailed planning is necessary ASAP.


So I wrote in CAPS LOCK BOLD....

SURVIVAL PLAN FOR JUNE (not that there was one for the month of May)

• 4 pounds of mint chocolate ice cream, 2 ibs of pistachio ice cream (to be consumed on the night of)
• Buy 10-15 kg of cokolino (breakfast)/Astoria
• Cafe Misto with whole milk from Starbucks allowed daily (I'll live it up)
• Go to see "Sex & The City: The Movie" with girls from work
• Work,work, work (time will pass faster)
• Pack for Croatia, don't do everything in the last minute (some shopping is needed of course)

Note to myself: Leave the freaking credit cards and/or ATM Card at home! ( in past known to be used as pain killers, they are healthier on my body than over the counter meds, deadly however to my bank account).
Plan is set. I'm gonna be OK, its just a month, I'll be busy(so I try to convince myself) , I will go to the gym every day and get abs like Janet Jackson had at her skinniest, or something. No, I will not be OK! We will be oceans apart! God damn...I hate relationships.Where is that freaking memory eraser thingy from "Man in Black" when I need it.
As I am looking at My Baby poking at his old cell phone with the knife ( he thinks somebody will steel it to get all of his "celebrity" friends, his mom's and dad's cell phone numbers) I can't help but notice how in love I am. When even that what he is doing looks so smart, intelligent and adorable. All until he cut himself trying to break his old bank card in half with his bare hands :) .
OK. Of I go to find a band aid and to spend some more very much valuable time with him and hopefully O.D. on him enough to last me for the month he is away.
Wish me luck!

MOVIE REVIEW: Virgin Queen

During the week, my boyfriend and I don't get to do much together since we are both working crazy hours. The little time we do spend together we do something that does not require a lot of physical activity. Yesterday we have seen a movie "Elizabeth, The Golden Age".

Queen Elizabeth was also known as a "Virgin Queen". Although the name is self explanatory, she indeed was a virgin, she never married and she was the last monarch of her dynasty and was known by what is considered the greatest military win in British history when she defeated the Spanish armada in 1588. Elizabeth claimed that she was married to her "people" and she was focused on serving her nation, especially in the fields of art, drama and seafaring prowess of English adventurers.

The movie reminded me on the conversation I had with one of my Turkish friends as we were returning back to University from clubbing in the City, and I remembered how shocked (although tired and partially intoxicated) I was by his views on sex and relationship. I do not remember how this conversation came about. It might have been his unsuccessful attempt of flirting with me or even just a conversation starter.
What I do remember though is that I was absolutely flabbergasted when I found out that he was dating a women and having sex with her but was expecting to marry a virgin. Also, he claimed to prefer a women he was currently sleeping with as well as the one he chooses to marry later to be of a Turkish origin.
Logically, my train of thought was following ....if all the Turkish man are having sex before the marriage, and all the Turkish women are waiting to get married to have sex, who are the Turkish man having sex with?
Are they traveling internationally to satisfy their "manly needs" or is there a divide between the women in Turkey that are virgins, and those that are "sinners" and having sex prior to marriage with no chance of "tying the not".
Next, I had a conversation on a similar topic with my boyfriend. We were discussing if it is expected from a women in today's society to take her husbands last name or not. Even though very liberal, my boyfriend seems to prefer to marry a women who will take his name and start all over, identity wise. I felt as if he hit me over the head with the bat and dragged me to his cave, until he saw my facial expression and listened to my arguments, than he decided to support "who ever the lucky one to marry him will be" and go with whatever she decides to do, my boyfriend is very smart, he picks his battles.

Personally, I believe that taking your significant others name upon marrying him is a "tradition", but it is a very detrimental one. The women who decides to do that could potentially confuse/loose her business connections, reputation and all the other accomplishments she did under her maiden name. It might not seem like to big of a sacrifice to make for the one you love but in this day and age it is not needed anymore.


Women should be able to keep their maiden name without feeling guilty or not loving enough to their husbands or boyfriends. The same thing works with the issue of splitting the inheritance among children after parents pass away and male successors.
In some cultures (read Eastern European Cultures) male child is still considered the only legitimate successor of his parents heritage. This "tradition" is absolutely wrong, and leads to development of generation of women with low self esteem and no desire to grow and become somebody, as all of their dream are shattered by what is genetically determined by whether sperm from their father supplied an X or Y chromosome to their mothers egg cell.


A matter like that should not be an issue anymore, one would think that after burning our bras,voting, getting higher education as well as multitasking and managing successful careers and family life women should not have to defend their freedom of choice anymore, or are there more uncivilized wild man left hiding in their caves?

BOOK REVIEW: "The end of fashion" by Teri Agins

Inspired by the lack of daily intellectual activity and the pile up of thoughts and ideas in my rather creative head with the limited information storage space (and probably inability to find a person who would be willing to hear all of the above, other than my boyfriend who doesn't count as he has no other choice)I decided to start writing this blog. This way, I can bother all of you willing to read it, with my daily dilemmas, worries and observations.

So,today, on my day off work I woke up 100% PMSal ready to scream at, cry to and complain to the first person I see, as my boyfriend ran out to work before I fully regained my conscious my first victim was my mother. Which is great since she must always understand and forgive, she has to! That's her "mother duty"-Mother's Law 1252.1 :"Never take anything your PMSal daughter saids to heart".

Next, I talked to my GF and BFF, we discussed rather important issues with finalizing her wedding plans and she educated me on "The American Weeding Traditions" which are soooo damn confusing! Gosh!!!! I miss Croatian good old "cash in the envelope" kind of gift giving.

As I finished my conversation I finally started reading Teri Agins's "The End of Fashion" and sinfully indulged in my 654 Calorie Grande Fat Free Pepermint Mocha (God Bless Starbucks on the first day of PMS and damn you New York City officials for showing the calorie count in my face).

Recently, I started to research fashion history and fashion business to help me decide if I should go to fashion graduate school or not. So far, the more I read the more I am realizing that my view of fashion is very naive and romantic. I have been living in an "isolated bubble".

In my little bubble, fashion is still painfully gorgeous, impractically fabulous and totally unwearable, and I love it like that! I seem to be one of a dying kind. I learned that those who would agree with my views and who would share my mindset died in 60's (Dior, Chanel) or are alive but severely drugged and medicated (but still very successful) and have no connection to the reality what so ever (John Galliano).

Please don't get me wrong, I am not comparing myself with their geniusness but simply realizing that I myself think of fashion garment as little pieces of art, rather that a pieces of fabric stitched together by a 10 year old factory worker in China. As Teri Agins realistically noted the fashion has ended as it existed before and became a mass-pleasing part of entertainment industry :(

Obviously, I have just started reading this book but I am hungrily turning its pages, praying to find a thread of hope to grip on, hoping to learn that it is not all about money and catering to couture illiterate sloppy dressing masses and that there is still interest in fashion in form it has once existed: exclusive, reserved for sizes 6 and under ,fabulous, expensive, glamorous, uncomfortable and painful to wear but stunning to look at and a privilege to wear.

PUSA.

DISCLOSURE POLICY

I wrote this post in order to provide transparency between my readers and companies I may work with now or in the future and in accordance with newly published FTC rules. 

PRODUCT REVIEWS

Occasionally I will receive products for free from a company in exchange for a review of their merchandise. I accept and promote only the products from the companies which I use myself and believe in it's good quality.

I always disclose to the PR person contacting me that I will make an honest assessment of the product on the site with clearly stating that I have got this product for free to review it from the respective company, or if I really don't like it I will not post about it at all.  

If you have questions about whether the product was given to me or purchased by me, and if you are unsure about which post is sponsored please email me or leave me a comment, and I will be more than happy to explain.

SPONSORS

I work very closely and develop relationships with companies, independent small business, retailers and young designers which I myself support and trust. Sponsors and I develop a relationship to provide great advertising space for them on my blog, often times in exchange for product goods as these small business mostly do not have disposable advertising and marketing budget. I view this as a win-win situation, and many times it is because of prior posts or an interview that the relationship with the business person happens.

AFFILIATES

I do participate in a limited number of Affiliate programs, who's banners are disclosed in the right sidebar of my blog.  There are, on occasion, links within my posts to products on these sites.  All affiliate links are for products that I own, I bought myself and liked.

Katarina Štimac 
Founder & editor

Email: katarina@lapassionpourlafashion.com

www.lapassionpourlafashion.com

 COLUMN / TUMBLR / PINTREST 

LINES OF LIFE

LINES OF LIFE  are posts which reflect emotions and life lessons I learned and  went through in different stages of my life, these are the lessons of growing up which based on your kind feedback many can relate to and find comfort in.

INTERVIEWS

INTERVIEWS category contains quick interviews I did with young and talented fashion designers, editors and business people in fashion world with intention to get a better picture of what is happening in backstage of fashion industry.

If you know or you are a young designer who ‘s work I might want to feature  on my blog please feel free to email me  designers resume and  photos of his/her work and I will be happy to consider you for a post and/or an interview. I am always looking to support young designers and showcase their work.