Style Inspiration: Jason Wu Resort 2012

If you've been following my blog since the beginning of the Fall 2011 Fashion shows, you may recall that I'm basically Jason Wu's #1 Fan. OK, so I don't own any of his clothing or have a t-shirt with his name and picture plastered on the front, but in my dreams we are BFFs and he uses me as his muse to design dresses.You're super jealous right now, right? I thought so.

Anyways, it has been with bated breath that I've been waiting for Mr. Wu to debut his Resort 2012 collection, and when I saw it show up on Style.com a few days ago I just about had a mini seizure. And let me just say one word about it: Stunning. The man just can do no wrong.

Check it out for yourself:

Image Source: Style.com

I mean... I think... I LOVE. Each and every single piece is perfect, and the way he matched everything up is even more perfect. Perfect perfect perfect. Oh Jason Wu, why must you be so fabulous? I'm pretty sure that you could send your models out on the runway stark naked and I'd applaud it as some sort of revolutionary genius and become a nudist the next day. That's just the power of Jason Wu, people.

New York Fashion Academy Annual Runway Show

The main purpose of my trip to Seattle this weekend was to go to the New York Fashion Academy's annual fashion show in which all the designer's who have completed the program show their collections. Don't ask me why it's called the New York Fashion Academy when it's in Seattle... some things are more interesting if you don't understand them.

I had the hardest time deciding what to wear to the show, but eventually decided to go with a fairly fail-proof option, my gray Calvin Klein dress. And of course I had to wear cute shoes, so out came the mustard Seychelles. I. Love. Mustard.

This pose was 100% directed by Joni, so if you think I look silly blame her, not me. :)

After taking this picture, Joni said, "My kitchen looks so cute! Oh... I guess you look cute, too!" Thanks, Joni.

Anyhow, the fashion show was super fun. 11 students showed collections and I was thoroughly impressed with most of them. The biggest disappointment for me was how short it was... each designer only showed 4-8 looks, so the whole thing was done within an hour. It was so good that I wanted it to keep on going!

After the show I popped over to say hi to Gina Marie, one of the designers that showed. Gina has been nice enough to answer a few questions for me about the school via email (as it turns out, my old piano teacher's daughter knows Gina and gave me her email). It was neat to be able to put a face to a name. Check out Gina's blog HERE.

We ended up getting to the show only a few minutes before it started so our seats weren't the the greatest for taking pictures, but I did  manage to snag a few.

These looks are from Gina's collection. She had her models wearing the cutest wigs.

All in all, it was a very fun trip! I'm so happy I got to go and see the show (I'm hoping to be able to go to NYFA this fall), and also to meet Joni and her family. As I am now safely on the train on my way home, I can officially say Joni is not a 60-year-old creeper man/ax murderer living in his mom's basement. Yay!

Prada Milan Men's Collection S/S11

I watched the live stream of Prada on AnOtherMagazine and the industrial set up with a beautifully arched fluorescent lighted runway was exciting and beautiful - more so than the collection.





A mix of suits that were not exactly groundbreaking in a "wide" palette of gray, beige and a weird denim somehow wasn't special or crisp but pretty boring. Bearing in mind that nude palettes are very sexy on a man, it simply didn't work - especially with the frame of the stylization being really unflattering - and what was up with the horrible, awful ski sunglasses necklaces? The only place I tolerate these is on an actual skiing person and even then I find it tacky and early 90s. The worst element, however, were the surgical shirts - OK, maybe I don't "get" men's wear but this really didn't excite me at all.



What I liked, though was the arched U-neck outline of the denim jumpers layered over shirts and ties.






At the end of the show things started lightening up with a gorgeous series of knitwear that visually cut the upper body in third by introducing a poncho-like pattern, which I found very inspiring.












There seems to be mixed feelings about the "platform creeper with espadrille and colored rubber sneaker-like layers" (TheMoment). Stylebubble seems to love them but I personally don't.



All images are screenshots taken by me from the live screening except from the last image takes by "TheMoment" twitpic.