MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

CHAMELEON ALICIA

 Alicia Keys hmmmm...what comes into mind when you hear her name, well her music is one and beauty is the other. Alicia has this sense of style that is toned down the cool chic kind of style so when I found this piece on her on the Italian vogue I was amazed at the transformations that she went through, the looks just define her alter egos if I may call them that.

The theme was Chameleon and the stylists totally proved it here. The styling makes Alicia seem as if she is a new person in every page. The first one is she is a rocker.. that was totally fantastically done by the way, the hair alone screams rocker, studs on heels and socks but also in the same page she potrays sexy rocker with the nude embellished dress. 

The  second picture the first one on the left is the classic Alicia. What says classic more than the feminine neck cut line, black  bow detailing and bold red lipstick? I wish they showed the whole dress but the head shot was enough to depict the classic Audrey Hepburn look but with an edge. 
The picture on the right gives of  a goth/boho feel. The black nail polish, black body suit and black skirt screams goth but the fringe skirt just tells the boho story conjoined in the mix...I like!

 Now the third picture is more of a Modern Disco Diva, the brown dress  with the cut out arms with the sparkly detailing tells me of disco doesn't it? I love the hair, wish I could make mine like that one day...

In the fourth picture tells me that Alicia could be Italian, the basic black and white ensemble, piercing eyes and bold red lipstick..simple and chic!

In the last picture, I don't know how exactly I would describe the both of them but both have that peaceful element. It sort of like show the real her, she is soulful, happy and simple.

AFRICANS RISEN....PEAKED....CONQURED!

Arise Magazine is a Nigerian based magazine that focuses on African culture that is Fashion, Music and Lifestyle. Since it is all about promoting Africaness the December issue was all tributes to the Icons in Africa who have made a mark in either politics, music, humanity and fashion. You all know I will be concentrating on the Fashion bit, so on the cover they had 3 supermodels who have paved or influenced the fashion industry not only in Afirca but the world as we know it. Presenting Naomi Campell, Liya Kebede and Alek Wek....

 In case any of you haven't heard of Liya, she is from Ethiopia and her career started when she was spotted by a film director that was in her country at the time. She was introduced to a French modelling agent with whom she moved to France to pursue her career. She then relocated to New York for her big break which she got  when Tom Ford the creative director of Gucci then hired her for a catwalk show for the Fall/Winter 2000 Gucci Collection. This really was a big break for her because after that she appeared in the May 2002 Paris Vogue issue below which dedicated the issue to her. And after she went to grace the cover of American Vogue twice..!

 LIYA KIBEDE IN PARIS VOGUE, MAY 2002 ISSUE

Of all the three models I didn't know much of her either but after research I found that she has made it big in the fashion industry and in the magazine she says that she looks at Naomi Campbell as her inspiration. Naomi really paved way for black models in the industry and to see people like Liya who had always wanted to be in her shoes finally make it is truly humbling and legendary.
Others who were also featured were Nnenna Agba from Americas next Top Model cycle 6. We all remember the bald, strong faced woman from Nigeria, she entered the competition with a bang but unfortunately didn't win it. She however got a modelling contract with MC2 which is proving to be successful. She also got a spread in Arise magazine check it out..



                                                              NNENA AGBA

Oluchi Onweagba is also a supermodel of Nigerian descent. She started her modeling career when she was 17 after winning the Nokia Face of Africa competition in 1998. This resulted in her winning a 3 year contract with Elite Model Management that is based in the US. While there she appeared in many fashion shows like John Galliano, Christian Dior and even the famous Victoria Secret. She has also graced the covers of Italian vogue, i-D and Elle just to name a few but the highlight of her career is when she was featured on Sports Illustrated 4 times in a span of three years. Now being in Sports Illustrated is a big deal and when an African girl is featured 4 times, its major big deal! She now has her own  modeling agency in South Africa, OModel which awarded winner of Nokia Face of Africa 2008 Kate Tachie Menson with a $50,000 modeling contract. I think she has done a great job representing Africa don't you?
Check out her spread in Arise Magazine below...

I love the print in this editorial....I think it will be my signature look for 2011 :-)

If you want to read or rather see more on the Arise Magazine, check it out here

images via Arise Magazine and Google

GOD BLESS...

PRESENTING ANNA DELLO RUSSO THE STYLIST

Now you all know she is my number one fashion/style icon when it comes to dressing, and her styling never ceases to impress either. She styled the Vogue Nippon  recently and I think it's beyond marveolous it's inspiring..!
 The styling is simple, chic and stylish...

Glamor was the theme of this editorial and I love the way she hasn't used the cliche elements for example RED LIPSTICK..instead she used BLUE in the first picture. The hair, jewelery and the sequined dress are stunning..totally inspiring!

LAMB SPRING/SUMMER 2011 READY TO WEAR

I am not a fan of celebrities starting their own designer collections, well because most of them aren't good at all, they just want to do it because other celebrities that have the talent are doing it. Gwen Stefani has however totally shunned that ideology, her collections seem to impress every season and in Spring/Summer 2011 she didn't fail to deliver. I love the Afro-Carribean prints that they swoon, for lack of a better word. Actually I am swooned by her collection, the colors are vibrant and who doesn't want that in Summer.

GWEN STEFANI

My eyes were feasted on these designs check them out....

 

Prints, prints and more prints for Summer! Gwen Stefani has clearly made that clear and we are getting on board :-)! 

CHRISTIAN SIRIANO SPRING/SUMMER 2011

CHRISTIAN SIRIANO

He is one of my favorite designers because he deserved to win the fifth season of Project Runway and his amazing shoe collection that i got to know of through Sally a pal of mine. Well I LOVE all his designs they are always cleanly cut and finished. So this year his Spring/Summer 2011 collection didn't fail to leave me speechless although some of the material would be a dread for summer but I love the contrast of the whole collection though.
Here are some of my fave desings:








Official Wear

Haute Coture

 Maxis

OUTER WEAR

 Another thing I love about Christian Siriano runway shows is that they are simply styled so that you can see the pieces without too much distraction. The Gold economy trend was so evident in his pieces and I think of all the runway shows that I have seen with this trend, this is definately my favorite!
Snake skin is something I would like to try out and Siriano just proved to us in his collection that you can snake your way in anything.

HAVE A LOVELY DAY :-)

LIKE A BOY



(What I love about this look is the studs on the jeans.
It's abit dramatic but it's the punk rock look, studs just slide in there!)



You all remember that song by Ciara right? Well ofcourse it's not possible to be a boy, well there is the option of plastic surgery but whatever! There are days that being a girl is stressing and you just want to dress up like a boy and feel the way they do. So I found this editorial of Lindsey Lohan in her glory days as some would say and I think she was styled perfectly in these boyfriend jeans and blazers. Am not a fan of the punk rock look but I love what the stylists did here..I think I will try it out....



The acid washed jeans are my favourite in this look. 
I think they are amust in any girls wardrobe, they break the monotony of  the basic blue and black plus give you a more edgier look.




In this look what I love is the mixing of the basic grey and blue plus the pendant.




The last and my favorite look, mixing of sequins, boyfriend jeans and basic blazer. I so love this look and would wear this both day and night. The glove was a nice touch it so puts this outfit on the punk rock scale...

 Overall I love all the looks, they are all looks that you can try out, but it would be trickier on a hippier person. In hippier I mean size 14 and over. Well I do fall on that category but  I'm the kind of person who is not afraid of trying something new and letting my creativity do the rest. For example in the last look I would wear an oversized blazer rather than wear the fitting blazer as Lindsey as worn, why? Well because my bum is big and this would just make the boyfriend jeans look ugly. This will still work because I would have still cuffed my jeans so that it would create some kind of silohouette for my body, that is am still tall and slim like.
Anyway point is try out the looks above and make it work for you...

Images from Song of Style

Have a lovely evening y'all..GOD BLESS:-))

CAN I DO IT?

Hey guys, I just checked my blog today and I can't believe it's been a week since I updated..! well there are many explainations to that but I don't want to bore you with that... ever since I was interested in fashion I never got to know what exactly I wanted to venture in. So this year after some soul searching and consistent prayer plus inspirations I decided I wanted to try styling. I have always been opinionated on how a person is dressed that is no secret and therefore that just geared me up to get into the styling world.
So anyway I was with my pal Maerie (or Mary but I think the other name is way cooler...LOL) when she went to a photoshoot like two weeks ago with a scouting ageny called 2DIE4 and I hepled her stlye her portfolio. It was all impromptu in a way because I wasn't sure if I was going to make it. So she decided on her clothes and jewelery I just styled them the best way I could.

Here is one pic of her in a boyfriend blazer...

So in this picture I had a boyfriend blazer to work with. I wanted to work with the blazer alone but it was too short to go with the idea I was going for which was something like this latest issue of Glamour Magazine in which Fergie was featured on the cover. 

 so I decided accessorizing was the way to go, I used 3 colorful belts that i looped like shown here on another post I did, 2 pearl white crystal faced rings and a pair of multicolored earrings.

The point was also to make the accessories contrast with the background and the blazer since they were of a darker hue.

 The shoot director Ben Kargechu is amazing! I love the way he directs and makes a model feel comfortable, he even doesn't lose his cool when the model doesn't get what he is saying. It's important not to lose your cool as the shoot director for this will only frustrate your model even more thus the shoot will flop.

The photographer is Ben Kiruthi you can check out his blog here. He is an amazing talent and he sure does know how to work the camera.

Sadly this is the only pic I have of her at the moment more to come...I will post others later on....

P.S that's  Ben Kargechu in the background doing his hands effect thing...I thought that was interesting, don't you?

 GOD BLESS..:-)