Fashion Seen

An exhilarating thing has happened. The male fashion consumer has become a great deal more educated and sophisticated when it comes to their likes and dislikes concerning what to wear. At MBFW there are guy specific presentations and shows that run the range from traditional to edgy, giving the well-dressed male many more choices when it comes down to the way he wants to dress in everyday life. Want to be a rock star? Or, how about a preppy upscale look? Let’s count down the top 10 trends in menswear for the coming year and beyond, because it’s time to…

The day I receive my list of designer contacts from the powers that be at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week is when the real gearing-up fun begins. I dutifully e-mail each and every PR Company and politely ask for an invitation to see the up-to-the-minute fashion from their client as they present their runway shows at Lincoln Center. Now in its second season at that hallowed location, I look forward to another week’s worth of opportunity to meet, mingle and learn from other fashion professionals, and maybe do a little star gazing, too! Once the tedious e-mail process is repeated for what…

As January draws to a close and 2011 starts to develop legs, the fashion industry machine continues to roll on and on with predictions about how we will survive the flagging economy and, more importantly, what we will care to wear in the year ahead to do that very thing. After attending a webinar provided to me as a subscriber to stylesight.com, I can be of the same mind with trend spotters that there are a whole batch of ideas floating around in fashion land. Some will stick while others will blaze hot for a moment and then fade away…

I fell in love with vintage clothing because of simple inevitability. Growing up in rural Wisconsin, with parents who had come through both the Great Depression and World War II, clothing had purpose, and if it happened to be fashionable too, that was just a side bonus. I can’t remember my mother remaking one of my grandma’s old wool coats into a new suit of clothing for me, but I do have pictures of that coat somewhere. The mantras of reduce, reuse and recycle that we have today were really born from the necessity of poor families all over the…

It goes without saying that every year we make resolutions for the New Year. And I’m proposing yet another resolution for our readers here at insidemilwaukee.com! How about taking a critical look at all of the fashions you already have in your closet? Twice a year I attend Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York, where designers show us the new trends for the Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter seasons to come. But how many of the items in your wardrobe actually fit into your fashion plans for the New Year and beyond? If they look more like an edition of VH1’s “I…

What is better than being naked? For most of us who don’t have model perfect bodies, it would be adapting one of the hottest color inclinations into our wardrobes. Blush, beige, buff, flush and flesh are all synonymous with the year’s plethora of all things nude in fashion. I think it really took hold when Angelina Jolie stepped out in a short black strapless dress for the red carpet premiere of Salt and Kung Fu Panda. She gave her already long legs some extra mileage by donning some spectacular nude platform pumps. Women all over the world took notice, and…

2010, was it the end of another decade or the beginning of compiling yet another best and worst list? The answer to that question is both.  Lists are essentially arbitrary contrivances of opinionated people, namely bloggers, writers and, of course, me. These lists chronicle the good, the bad and the god awful of a given period of time. As a casual observer and sometime participant in the fashion game, I have gained some insight into where modern fashion is and where it wants to go again and again. We will see some trends carry over into the next 10 years…

The older I get the more the memories of New Year’s debauchery of my youth become fuzzy. Since I worked at several Milwaukee nightclubs back in the heyday of the ’80s, I feel that I’m speaking from some experience here. Let’s just suffice to say that I know the difference between sexy and sleazy. It is a fine line and one that it seems every gal walks like a tight rope. How does one go out and welcome the New Year in sassy style without bordering on bordello? I have a few tips straight from hip for enjoying the evening…

Just the other day I was at an event at the new Vici Capilli Salon and School in Bayshore Town Center, where a young woman wearing a beautiful sequined and jeweled headband caught my eye. I liked the way it wasn’t too over the top but still had some razzle-dazzle and class. I knew it was from Jaxie because I had just done a segment on Fox 6 and had used pieces she sells at Luci Boutique. She confirmed my hunch. At that moment, I had the feeling that we had a new designer/entrepreneur/trendsetter here in our midst. Whimsical, romantic,…

Somewhere between the realm of the precocious preschooler and any of the gals on a holiday episode of the “Golden Girls” lays the lair of the holiday sweater. This seasonal garment, which is by all accounts both reviled and ubiquitous, rears its ugly head with little or no warning about this time of year. Just who hasn’t been confronted by the well-meaning wearer of something that shall we say is unsightly to say the least? I am here to do a little research and enlighten us all about the insidious way these gruesomely gleeful items permeate the fabric of our…