I want - I got

Lovely, lovely images for Alexander McQueen’s fall/winter collection
the Fashion Spot - Alexander McQueen F/W 08.09 : Alice Gibb by Craig McDean

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I had a day off work so I attend the preview of the new Lancôme mascara. Ôscillation - Mascara by Lancôme

So the whole buzz about this mascara is that it vibrates. That knowledge brought out a lot of comments about eye poking and other injuries from most people. It’s not actually like that. The technology is nothing like your electric toothbrush. The brush oscillates at 7,000 vibrations per minute. Partner this action with a specially made formula and there you go. The oscillation aspect of the brush was chosen in order to mimic the way professional makeup artists would apply the product.

Jean-Louis Guéret, the designer of all Lancôme brushes gave a short talk about the product and the history of mascara. It was fascinating to be honest and it made me regret not getting into Chemistry when I had the chance. Could you imagine the R&D lab for Lancôme mascara!!!!

We were all given the chance to try the product out in addition to the demo. Even Jean-Louis used the product; that is dedication to your craft right there. His lashes looked fabulous.

So, what do I think. Well, I like it and it does a good job separating, lengthening and curling. Many people will have a hard time getting used to technique of applying the mascara because it’s a little different; you sweep up slowly from the base of the lashes. No wiggling necessary. I didn’t have much of a problem with the technique as it suited the way I apply mascara normally. It’s a much slower motion than what you expect.

You can safely put the brush near your eyes like a regular mascara brush. It’s vibrations are so small that there isn’t an additional risk of injury.

You can customize how you want your lashes to look by adding more coats or by lengthening the tips. They can get pretty fake looking if you are looking for that. It definitely applies better than other mascara I own. It covers easily and without clumps. I used to think my little sample of Dior mascara was the best, but not anymore.

The only problem I have is the price. $39. I’m not a makeup junkie so I don’t think I would spend the money. I don’t wear mascara enough to warrant the purchase. Although this stuff is really making me reconsider the not wearing mascara often thing.

There is more than enough product to last past the 3 month shelf life (That’s right girls, you shouldn’t use mascara for more than 3 months after opening it!!!). The battery is built to last well beyond that too. You can also remove the battery parts for proper disposal instead of trashing the whole unit battery and all into the garbage.

Ôscillation, Mascara by Lancôme won’t hit stores until December 29, 2008 and will be sold at The Bay exclusively for one month. On January 30, 2008 it will be available at all regular Lancôme counters, like Holt Renfrew, etc.

We were warned that there isn’t a lot of stock of this product, so if you are itching to try it you’ll want to hit up The Bay opening day. I’m looking forward to see how the product actually does in the marketplace. I’ve seen bad reviews and good ones. I’ll be giving this thing ago for the next 3 months and I’ll let you know what I think after some more field tests.

The marketing:

“This mascara is like no other. It cannot be compared to other mascaras. It is totally unique. My objective for over 30 years has been to further enhance eye beauty”, explains Jean-Louis Guéret, designer of all the Lancôme mascara brushes. “After years of research, I have come to the conclusion that the application of the formula around the lashes in a non-random, ordered way, charging the lashes homogenously, declares a new era in lash make-up. With oscillatory movement, the make-up result is truly unique and Lancôme creates the revolution on all levels.” Patented by Lancôme, the brush, oscillatory system, wiper and formula all work together in perfect synergy.

The longitudinal micro-oscillation system of the powermascara performs no less than 7,000 vibrations per minute for perfect formula application and ideal 360° coating around each and every lash. Micro-oscillation is activated as the thumb presses the applicator. Place the brush at the root of the lashes and smooth it towards the tip, all the while maintaining pressure on the button. Thanks to its micro-oscillations, the powermascara allows each lash, even the shortest and most hidden, to be perfectly coated and reshaped from root to tip. This controlled application method ensures no gaps are left and allows every lash to be coated 360° in intense black. This simple technique ensures lashes have a pure finish, with absolutely no trace of clumping.

The texture is ideal to work with as it allows for repeated applications to obtain an ultra-sophisticated result. The applicator’s affinity with the formula helps to open up the eyes, giving them new depth, without any risk of over-application.

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Oakley Frogskins Re-release Sunglasses

I had a pair of Frogskins in 1987, I loved them to death. I thought they were the coolest thing ever. They got scratched and then lost. They came back into my life in 2007 when Oakley decided to bring them back from the dead. I have to admit, I’m loving them to death all over again.

Be a part of our history with a new spin on a pop culture classic, the Oakley Frogskin®!

At Oakley, we’ve spent decades creating original works of art that reinvent both technology and style. To celebrate the rich history of our brand, we decided to re-release a ground-breaking style that can be traced back more than twenty years to our “garage” company roots.

First introduced in 1985 and originally available in over 50 colors, the Oakley Frogskin was a part of the 80’s pop culture, a time like no other. Ronald Reagan was in the White House. “The Terminator” was in the box office and Run-D.M.C. was in certified gold. We have resurrected the original tooling from the early ‘80s to produce new limited editions, giving today’s culture a chance to own a piece of history.

WHY NOW, IN 2007?

The answer is simple: sometimes, amidst all the Mad Science here at Oakley, we get to waxing nostalgic. So we wanted to give you a chance to channel a core piece of our brand, circa 1985. Far from just reintroducing an older sunglass model, this limited, tiered release applies to those who appreciate the fine art of innovation; people who are setting the pace in today’s world of style.

For each original color combination of this coveted style, only 3,000 Collectors Editions will be produced. This is an opportunity to own a rare retro classic, and once supplies are gone, the window of opportunity will be closed forever!

There might be another pair at Ilori where I got mine. If you want to drool over expensive sunglasses, this is the place to be. So many gorgeous styles!!!!
95A Bloor Street West
Toronto
416-928-9385

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del.icio.us fashion links for October 9, 2008:

• Narciso Rodriguez gets boost by Liz Claiborne: Update - Parting Ways
  NEW YORK — Liz and Narciso are getting a divorce.

  In a joint statement made today, Narciso Rodriguez and Liz Claiborne Inc. said they are ending their 18-month-old partnership.

  Rodriguez will regain full ownership of his business and inherent trademarks. Essentially, the termination of the deal with Claiborne will give the much-respected designer, who launched his collection in 1997 in a partnership with Aeffe SpA, complete independence for the first time.

  While the tie-up with Claiborne was much trumpeted by both parties when it was unveiled in May 2007, giving the giant vendor the cachet of a major designer in its stable and Rodriguez the backing he needed to grow his brand, in the end the relationship just didn’t work.

  “LCI and I had hoped there would be more synergies between our companies,” Rodriguez admitted to WWD. “We did not find enough common grounds and jointly have concluded that the Narciso Rodriguez brand could be developed more effectively outside of this partnership - Tags: none

• CityNews: Local Dress Maker Feels The Pinch Of Hard Times
  Tizz Guisti has been designing, cutting, sewing and selling lovely evening dresses at the same location on Queen Street East in Leslieville for the past five years.

  Just a little over a half year ago, he was so busy he had to turn away customers who wanted custom made dresses. Today, he's struggling to make ends meet after an economic downswing that's taken a huge chunk out of his pockets. - Tags: none

• Luxury Stores Brace for Slowdown - WSJ.com
  The luxury-goods industry is bracing for fallout from the global financial crisis.

  Some companies, including jewelers' Tiffany & Co. and Bulgari SpA, are considering a brake on future store openings to reduce costs ahead of a likely sluggish holiday season. French fashion house Dior SA may close some boutiques in smaller U.S. cities. - Tags: none

• LVMH takes 45 pct stake in Russian perfume retailer | Industries | Consumer Goods & Retail | Reuters
  PARIS, Oct 3 (Reuters) - French luxury group LVMH (LVMH.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is expanding its presence in Russia by taking a 45 percent stake in perfume retailer Ile de Beaute with an option to become majority owner later, it said on Friday. - Tags: none
• WWF study shows luxury companies not yet socially responsible | ABS-CBN News Online Beta
  Whether it be a million dollar sports car, a rare sparkling gem, or a European vacation, luxury can still be afforded by the elite.

  In 2007, the luxury industry was estimated to be a $150-billion dollar business. Today, research shows, a growing demand for luxury items has left it virtually untouched by the global financial slide. - Tags: none

• The Business of Fashion: Valentino | The saga continues
  By now, most everyone in the fashion universe has heard that Alessandra Facchinetti has been ceremoniously removed from her post as Creative Director of Valentino. Some fashion critics, Suzy Menkes included, have spoken against the designer's dismissal, pointing to early successes in her first outings over the past couple of seasons, where she availed herself of Valentino's formidable atelier.

  But the story doesn't end there. A report in WWD said that Facchinetti's ousting was not due to poor collections, but rather to a difficult and long creative process, and an inability to build a cohesive team around her. And, perhaps therein lies the point. Designers are no longer able to operate in a vacuum, in studios which are isolated from the business at hand - Tags: none

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Hi IE6 folk.

If you’ve abandoned reading the blog through a browser you can now return.

IE6 is displaying the blog again in it’s entirety. I checked it out at work and one of my readers emailed me to tell me that she can once again view my blog from work.

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These were pretty cool. Only in Paris folks and thank gof for that.

See the rest of the collection at the Fashion Spot - Hussein Chalayan S/S 09 Paris
images: same source

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Lovely collection from Akira Isogawa. I’m totally obsessed with the Japanese this season, Undercover, Yojhi, It’s the obi belts; almost every designer that has used them has gotten me by the heartstrings.

See the rest of the collection at the Fashion Spot - Akira Isogawa S/S09 Paris
Images: same source

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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FOR 2 DAYS ONLY, starting this Thursday October 9th 2008 @ 11 AM until 8pm AND FRIDAY 11 TO 6PM, we are having another, ‘let’s just get rid of it’ style Spearmint Pelican Sample Sale! And you know what that means for you: FANCY DEALS ON SOME PRETTY FANCY BRANDS!

PLEASE NOTE THE NEW SHOW ADDRESSS AT 58B FRASER AVENUE JUST WEST OF OUR OLD SHOWROOM AROUND THE BACK

HOLDEN OUTERWEAR www.holdenouterwear.com
GRENADE www.grenadegloves.com
OBEY www.obeyclothing.com
WESC www.wesc.com
BRIXTON www.brixtonltd.com
PF FLYERS www.pfflyers.com
SIX PACK www.sixpack.fr
FAMOUS STARS & STRAPS www.famoussas.com
LIFETIME COLLECTIVE www.lifetimecollective.com
NEW BALANCE SHOES….& more!!!
** A portion of proceeds from sales of all LIFETIME COLLECTIVE SAMPLES will be donated to the KEEP A BREAST foundation. www.keep-a-breast.org.

Need we say more? Oh, actually, yeah …CASH ONLY! J

SPEARMINT PELICAN SALES
58B FRASER AVE,
416.535.6724

(2 votes, average: 3 out of 5)

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Louis Vuitton was quite stellar this year. Marc ported the obi belts and the colour palette from his Marc Jacobs collection to LV and they look fantastic. This collection reminds me a lot of YSL’s Africa collection (which I saw parts of in Montreal). I’m sure this was intentional and perhaps a nod to the dearly missed designer.

Frillr has the Runway Video for Louis Vuitton up. I downloaded it and watched it on my Nano one morning going to work. You have to see it, just amazing.

You can see the whole collection at Louis Vuitton Spring 2009 Ready-to-Wear Collection on Style.com: Complete Collection

(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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del.icio.us fashion links for October 8, 2008:

• It's an Ugly Business When Fashion and Reality TV Converge - washingtonpost.com
  As designers have been sending their spring 2009 collections down the runways here, sometimes it has been hard to know whether one was watching a global industry engaged in its most urgently creative sales endeavors or if one was in the midst of a reality show.

  Fashion trades on glamour, bitchiness and exclusivity. That keeps people intrigued. But it is that rare industry so focused on the ancillary elements that it often shrugs off the importance of its core product: the clothes. - Tags: none

• Lululemon Prospects
  Christine Day, the recently appointed C.E.O. of Lululemon Athletica, exhibits the kind of optimism usually reserved for religious leaders and self-help gurus.

  "Even the Great Depression only lasted a certain number of years!" she chirps, by way of justifying the company's expansion plans in the face of a retail climate going more sour by the day. - Tags: none

• Pursuit of Happiness - washingtonpost.com
  It's dangerous to speak in absolutes, particularly in the fickle fashion business. But it would seem stingy, even churlish, not to state the obvious, even at the risk of sounding like the hyperbolic fashion editor who cried "Think pink!" in "Funny Face." - Tags: none
• London school aims for trendy "Made in Bangladesh" - Yahoo! News
  DHAKA (Reuters Life!) - "Made in Bangladesh" is set for a makeover after the Asian nation's key apparel sector signed up a London fashion design school to help it appeal to more trendy and quality-conscious buyers.
  ADVERTISEMENT

  Clients of Bangladesh's export-driven ready-made clothes sector include major U.S. and European retails such as Wal-mart, Tesco, JC Penny, Zara, GAP, H & M, Adidas, Puma, Marks and Spencer and G-STAR. - Tags: none

• Valentino designer bitter to be leaving: media - Yahoo! News
  MILAN (Reuters) - Italian designer Alessandra Facchinetti said she was bitter to be leaving the Valentino fashion house after learning from media reports that the company was replacing her, Italian newspapers said on Sunday. - Tags: none
• Paris Week let down us fashion addicts with trousers that looked like nappies, pointy bras and unwearable nonsense | Mail Online
  So, after four weeks of 300-plus shows, what will we all be scrimping to save for next spring?

  Hmm, well. Embellishment - chunky necklaces, fringing on bags and belts, embroidery, crystals hung from every vantage point - is key, and an easy way to make an old outfit new.

  Shoulders are big, checks are everywhere, as is a palette of (predictably) black and white, but also rose pink, yellow and ice blue. - Tags: none

• Prêt-à-rapporter - Telegraph
  Spending the past month watching fashion shows as the pillars of capitalism toppled was surreal. You'd find yourself sitting on a bench at Balenciaga discussing bail-out failure, while scanning the eyes of American buyers whose poker-faced, lacquered and pomaded confidence visibly slumped day by day. - Tags: none
• Fashion Week Playlist: Paris - Lifestyle News - WWD.com
  French musical legends haunted Paris Fashion Week. Dries Van Noten spun Serge Gainsbourg classics, interspersed with segments of dialogue from the films “Slogan,” “Cannabis” and “Anna,” and Louis Vuitton played hits by the late Parisian songbird Edith Piaf (of course for every high there is a low: the house’s preshow music was lifted from “The Muppet Show”). Inspirations varied elsewhere, from Chanel’s cheeky “Our House” by Madness to a live concert at Hussein Chalayan by the white-gloved Jean-Claude Chapuis, who produced a symphony using crystal wine glasses, or crystallophones. Here, some of the week’s top hits. - Tags: none
• IMG, Smashbox to part ways after L.A. Fashion Week | All The Rage | Los Angeles Times
  After 10 seasons of trying to make the marriage work, Culver City-based Smashbox Studios confirmed earlier-reported rumors that its partnership with events producer IMG would end after the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Smashbox Studios that kicks off Sunday.

  Though an IMG spokesman would not comment on the two groups parting ways beyond stating IMG remained “100% committed to the current event,” Davis Factor, who co-owns Smashbox with his brother Dean, confirmed the news in an exclusive interview with the Los Angeles Times. - Tags: none

• Nicolas Ghesquière to design costumes for Guggenheim performance | Frillr
  French visual artist (and designer of Balenciaga boutiques) Dominique Gonzalez Foerster will present a performance installation at the Guggenheim Theatre October 24 and 25, with dresses by Balenciaga. The performance will be based on Soylent Green, an iconic science fiction film from the 70s. Nicolas Ghesquière designed the costumes, Fashion Week Daily reports - Tags: none

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Looking to get Comme at H&M on November 13, 2008. Here are your best bets in Canada.

You can view some of the collection at The Fashion Spot. Leave a comment if you want an invitation to join.

I’m not sure what my plan is yet or if I’ll even bother.

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Thanks to Linda who passed this sale on to me.

She has this to say about the sale:

I’ve attached a poster for the clothing sale at Grace Church on the Hill, which is happening on Sat. Oct. 18th from 10am - 2pm. I’ve been coordinating this sale for a long time and I think donations just keep getting better every year.

It’s a large sale with both a general area (mostly casual wear in good condition) and a boutique with vintage, better labels and even quite a bit of new stuff all at ridiculously cheap prices.
It has become known as the church clothing sale, partly because of the quality of donations, given the location of the church.
All proceeds go toward providing sheet music, robes and assistance for the choristers when they go on tour.

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