MY TOP 10 FASHION BRANDS: Hooked on KARL.

Photo source: www.karl.com

A little while ago, I posted on my Facebook and Twitter pages how trilled I was with the last Marie Claire Spain November magazine issue which was chief edited by Karl Lagerfeld for magazine's 25th anniversary. 

I usually don't buy Marie Claire on a regular basics but since for a past year and a half I am trying to learn Spanish I have been purchasing more and more of Spanish fashion magazines. This particular November issue attracted me both with its amazing cover photo, lovely stories and fashion spreads as well as the 25th anniversary gift – this stylish KARL by Karl Lagerfeld canvas tote.

In preparing this post I dedicated some time to research this fairly young brand and brows through its FW 2013. collection available exclusively on Net-a-porter and it took me about 4 minutes to run to get my credit card. Ouu yes...I am hooked on Karl. 

This is Karl Lagerfeld's second collection for lower-priced line Karl by Karl Lagerfeld. The Kaiser Karl has launched sophisticated and edgy mix of clothing and accessories available for online purchase via Net-a-porter.

Like Lagerfeld’s first collection for Karl, this new collection offers a feminine twist on the designer’s signature personal style: There are sharp tuxedo jackets, embellished crisp white collars, and, of course, studded leather gloves. The collection is predominately black and white, but Lagerfeld also included a lovely miniature camouflage print and red stand out coat as well as some silver and gold stand out pieces. Most of the items are within a price range from $50 to $1000, so collection is as last year quite possible to sell out soon.

Iconic London department store Selfridges was where two collections from the fashion brand including KARL MAN + WOMAN and newly launched premium line KARL LAGERFELD PARIS MAN and KARL LAGERFELD PARIS WOMEN debuted.

Bellow are my favorite pieces from KARL collection, couple of these are already on their way to me J

KARL'S lower priced as well as his premium lines are available for purchase exclusively via www.Net-a-porter.com women's lines and www.LuisaViaRoma.com men's lines.  Lagerfeld launched pop-up-stores on 3rd floor of Selfridges but also at Luisa Via Roma and St Tropez which closed earlier this October. 

Saint Tropez pop-up-store  offered holiday makers the opportunity to discover – besides the beach line collection developed exclusively for that place – a selection of ready to wear items for the KARL and KARL LAGERFELD PARIS lines. Last pop-up-store opened was at Bleecker Street in New York.

All photos source: www.karl.com and Net-a-porter

How do you like the new KARL brand lovelies? Do you find it wearable and affordable for your style and budget?

GIVEAWAY WINNERS: And the winners are....

Photo by Ramona Reuter

After an exhausting flight today I took a moment to relax with a cup of green tea British Vogue and Marie Claire Espana November issues and finally managed to check all 100+ applicants in my Ženski Rokovnik giveaway and indeed ladies, we have our two winners!

Randomizer decided that the winners are two ladies: Ana Duvnjak and Pavla Haramina. Congratulations ladies! You each won one, limited edition Ženski rokovnik feat. Lei Lou by Alex Dojčinović covers.

Thank you for all of you who entered this giveaway, stay tuned for more exciting fashion posts and giveaways soon!

Note that Ženski rokovnik will be available for purchase on book fair Interliber (13.-18.11.) on promo stand in Arena Centar(25.11. - 25.12.) and starting from beginning of November exclusively in all dm stores in Croatia. The price will be 89,90 kn.

Dr.Martens limited edition designer collaboration!

Photo: Goran Matijašec | Make up: Žana Kožul | Hair: Keune Academy

Most popular Croatian fashion designer Aleksandra Dojčinović did her first designer shoe collaboration with worldwide known shoe brand - Dr.Martens. Aleksandra designed a three model limited edition line which will be sold in one store only ShoeBeDo store in Zagreb.

With this collaboration Aleksandra joined a group of international fashion elite who already designed their limited edition Dr.Martens shoes such as Raf Simons who is a creative director of house of Dior today, Yohji Yamamoto and fashion model Agyness Deyn. 

Aleksandra gave her unique, elegant designer signature to historic '1460' and 'Vi' motocycle model and in that way she gave a fresh look to dozens of year old, well known and well recognize Dr.Martens boots look. The new limited edition 'Dr.Martens by Aleksandra Dojčinović' line is cool sexy, trendy and very much wearable just like Lei Lou by Alex Dojčinović clothing line. 

"It is a great honor for me to become a part of Dr.Martens family, especially knowing that before me some of the greatest world known designer names collaborated with this historic brand. I am also proud that through me Croatian fashion scene has become a part of Dr.Martens trend and that my three Dr.Martens designs are already attracting attention of Croatian fashionistas."

 Aleksandra Dojčinović

This limited edition line Dr.Martens by Aleksandra Dojčinović is available for purchase exclusively in ShoeBeDo Zagreb Gajeva store starting in November, 2012. My favorite ones are motorcycle black and gray ones and I can't wait to rock my pair!

Photo: Goran Matijašec | Make up: Žana Kožul | Hair: Keune Academy

"When designing my Dr.Martens line, like always, I had regular, working girls in mind. I tried to put myself in their shoes first, and start from there.I would like my Dr.Martens booties to be recognizable, unusual, elegant and equally wearable with romantic dresses and skinny jeans. Military trend is very much making a come-back this season so I am sure that Croatian fashionistas will know how to combine them with both day and evening looks."

Aleksandra Dojčinović

You can find more info on this exciting collaboration on ShoeBeDo and Lei Lou Facebook pages. 

Conversating.

"I wear my Chucks with any uniform I need to wear be it a team uniform for travel or a dress up suite for formal occasions. They are one part of my look which I always keep true to who I am."

Ante

This post has been long into making. Every time I am picking up my boyfriends sneakers around the house I tell him -"I really need to write a post about your sneaker collection sometimes soon, you have more shoes then most women I know!" So tonight,  finally this "sometimes soon" time happened.

Other then our love for each other (duhh), playing PlayStation 3 and eating peanut-noodles we also share our love for James Dean t-shirts and Converse sneakers, although my boyfriend definitely has more Chucks then I do, overall my heels pick up the total score to my advantage.

„Only the gentle are ever really strong.“ 

James Dean 

So today we pulled out his favorite sneakers from one of his shoe cabinets and realized that more then eighty percent of his sneakers are Converse. This must be worth of a blog post I thought :)

When we first started dating I noticed that he is wearing Chucks for..well..every occasion. He wore them for clubbing, for going to the beach, I was only surprised he didn't play basketball in them, which he probably would, if he could, so he told me the story of his oldest pair of slip-on Chucks and on how he got hooked for life to wearing Converse sneakers daily.

These red leather John Varvatos limited edition ones are my favorite pair

Ante got his first pair of cream color slip-on All Star Converse sneakers in Summer 2008. in New York where he went to participate on NBA draft. He paid them almost $100 at the time and wore them so much since that they broke at couple of places so his dad fixed them with superglue.

Although Ante keeps buying new pairs and various designer limited edition Converse sneakers, he remains quite emotional about his first pair of Chucks so he still slips them on occasionally. As you can see from the photo bellow - these really earned their retirement ;)

Few days ago we got Ante walked through the door coming from practice and he said: "They arrived!" with his face stretched in a big kid smile showing me the newest edition to his vast shoe collection - high top gray leather Converse shoes. I really like the round stamp logo on their inner sides and dark shoe laces. 

Knowing how hard it is for Ante to find cool casual clothes and shoes in his size I found the story he told me about his first pair of Chucks really heart-warming. I was surprised to find that he remembers all of the details so vividly and still has this emotional connection to his first pair of Converse sneakers which he bought on his own. 

Seems like not only us girls get emotional when talking about shoes! ;)

I SPY: Fashion alter-ego, Split.

Dina Lijić reporting from Split.

One of my blogs loyal followers and amazingly successful young women currently studying in Italy reported from a very cool event which took place this week in Split, Croatia.

Today, in Split, Croatia the biggest to date Modni Alter Ego/Fashion alter-ego was organized. 

The concept of this fashion event is to present young fashion and accessories designer talents at the informal venue such as coffee or a bar where people could have coffee or a cocktail and meet a friend all while browsing through latest creations of young designer creative forces.

Some of the brands/designers present were: Pink Pig/Chiara izrada nakita/Majin proizvod/Oh, Tiger/TT/Picole Ateljer/ Yo Soi Juanita/Bartolino Hobby Art/Chaindelier/PinPin Bags/ Decoupage stari pazar 3-6/THC/REC&Klaž/Duju design. 

As part of this Fashion Alter-ego event, second-hand clothing and accessories exchange also took place where people could trade or sell their regretted „impulse buys“. 

Dina managed to find couple of amazing pieces here including leather skirt for only 40kn as well as blue short summer pleated skirt for only 30kn.

Split is usually the city which lives mostly during summer season and it falls in winter sleep mode during fall and winter so it is quire refreshing to know that this kind of events started to take place in these out-of-season months of the year. We are excited to see more of such amazing events which are popular among younger generations both in offering and price!

EXCLUSIVE GIVEAWAY: Ženski rokovnik 2013.

I am extremely happy to be able be the first one to organize giveaway of limited edition ženski rokovnik - company which is the partner of my blog for a while now. In one of my previous posts I have announced this new 2013. edition, so you can read more details about it here.

Ženski rokovnik celebrates its 5th birthday this year after four years of being totally sold out in Croatia. Together with five different new covers in trendy bright colors and one - limited edition fashion designer cover designed by most famous Croatian fashion designer - Aleksandra Dojčinović.

“For our 5th birthday we wanted to dress our rokovnik in most fabulous celebration dress.Choosing Lei Lou for this occasion was obvious choice for us with her feminine, comfortable and gorgeously fitting dresses. Lei Lou dress will surely be on the “shopping list” page of each fashionistas Ženski rokovnik 2013.”

Dunja Tadić, ženski rokovnik director

In this post, you can also exclusively take a first look and preview each page of Ženski rokovnik for 2013. imagine my surprise when I first saw that my blog's link was pre-listed in "blogs I follow" section of the planner! I was jumping of joy! :) 

3 STEP GIVEAWAY! 

Award:You an win one of two limited edition Ženski rokovnik feat. Lei Lou by Alex Dojčinović cover!

Winners will be selected via random.org and will be announced on this blog 2.11. afternoon.

This is international giveaway but planner is in Croatian language.

Duration: 26.10. - 2.11.

In order to participate in this giveaway one must:

1. Like following Facebook pages: 

Ženski rokovnik/Lei Lou by Alex Dojčinović /La Passion pour la Fashion

2. Share the link to this post on your Facebook wall.

3. Write a comment to this post with your email address and a link where you shared this post.

For additional entries follow me on Twitter (@la__Kat) and/or share this post on your Twitter. 

Ženski rokovnik will be available for purchase on book fair Interliber (13.-18.11.) on promo stand in Arena Centar (25.11. - 25.12.) and starting from beginning of November exclusively in all dm stores in Croatia. The price will be 89,90 kn.

Good luck ladies!

Fashion photographer quickie: Daša Gajić.

For this post I had a great pleasure to interview a lovely lady photographer, Mrs.Daša Gajić, who contacted me as a follower of my blog and we continued to set a theme for the photographs you will see in this post. 

I suggested and Daša agreed to describe a lady through different stages of her life in black and white photography. Daša was kind enough to follow through and put together a lovely portfolio of emotional and real life photos which best desribe a lifetime of a lady in Banja Luka, Belgrade and Venice.

Read through this short interview to meet Daša and her lovely ladies in black and white. 

When did you start photographing, do you consider photography your profession?  

Photography was part of my life as far as I can remember it. I grew up in artistic surrounding, and camera was one of my first toys. I was part of my first team exhibition when I was 13, but I never knew or planned photography to become my profession. I was focused mostly on studying political science, getting my masters degree and with looking for a “real” paying job, however, my love for photography overcame it all.

In 2010. Photography has become my profession, while I feel like I learned and grew the most this summer. This year was an absolute fairytale for me as it comes to photography! My fairytale continues through this fall as well, true testimonial for this is also this interview for a fashion blog which I regularly follow and love.

Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

"This is one of my favorite street-style photos from Banja Luka, Bosnia. 

This lady is dressed quit stylish, 

she is proving that a lady can look elegant even when riding a bike." 

Do you ever think about fashion when you take photos? How do you define fashion?

I love fashion, but I don’t follow fashion trends much. Fashion is inspiration source for me, it is a game, source of joy and integral part of daily life.

As one of the most amazing fashion designers Dries Van Notes said:

"Coincidence is important, the convergence of different ideas, 

but sometimes you think so much that at the end it is dead.”

My personal view of fashion and photography is similar to his, I am trying to find this fine balance of coincidence and inspiration, I try to enjoy what I am doing, give it my personal mark and don’t put too much thinking into it.

Belgrade, Serbia.

"I usually don’t like to take photos of people from their back, this photo is an exception. 

I really like how mum and daughter outfits are matching.

 I really think this little girl will be a true fashionista when she grows up." 

Do you think that a person can learn to be a good photographer or one needs to have that “special something”?

I think it is extremely important to learn, to educate yourself, practice and continue to progress in technical and creative sense. It is very important to follow the work and learn from other photographers but I also agree that one needs to have that X factor, “an eye” to catch interesting things at right time on a right way.

My general motto is: 

“Learn all you can learn, and the forget all you learned so you could create.”

Venice, Italy.

"This lady defines elegance as per dictionary definition. 

Her outfit is simple, casual but sophisticated and balanced."

Do you think that photography as a format will essentially die out with development of new technologies and with advance of video format?

It’s hard to say, I hope it will not, although it is true that more and more photographers are turning to video format. I still think that the best days of photography are ahead of us.

Follow Daša's work via her Facebook page and her Streetstyle Banja Luka Facebook page.