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Street Style: Madrid
March 16th, 2010 by Melissa Alvarado Sierra
Posted in Uncategorized |
 
Scottish Delight: Holly Fulton
November 2nd, 2009 by Melissa Alvarado Sierra
After winning the Young Designer of the Year Award at the Scottish Fashion Awards, and showing a triumphant collection at London Fashion Week’s Fashion East, Holly Fulton is grateful. ”I am very proud to be Scottish, and flattered to be alongside Christopher Kane and Jonathan Saunders. Their level of success is good to aim for,” said the designer. Armed with Art Deco graphics and taking cues from haute couture, Fulton’s design viewpoint is gathering her much respect in the fashion world. Keep an eye on this one.
For more information go to: www.hollyfulton.com
The Designer:
Images via: hollyfulton.com
Posted in scottish fashion, holly fulton, scotland, art, london, fashion |
 
MaRIO DE JANEIRO Testino
October 28th, 2009 by Melissa Alvarado Sierra
Mario Testino, the world famous fashion and portrait photographer, is releasing a new book in November featuring Rio portraits, scenery and carnival shots. Inspired by the boys and girls from Copacabana and published by Taschen, MaRIO DE JANEIRO Testino will also include words from celebrities including supermodel Gisele Bundchen. The book shows Rio through Testino’s very own eyes. Coincidentally, in the same week of the book’s launch, Rio de Janeiro was chosen the host of the 2016 Olympics. Brazilians must be proud.
Visit taschen.com for more information.
Images via: taschen.com
Posted in wearable art, copacabana, war, Dundas, von furstenber, Uncategorized |
 
Fur Play: Paris Vogue, November 09
October 24th, 2009 by Melissa Alvarado Sierra
Posted in french fashion, fashion |
 
Look Book Exclusive: Daggs Italy
October 23rd, 2009 by Melissa Alvarado Sierra
Italian brand Daggs presents its Summer 2010 Men’s Collection. Described as vintage-chic, the collection embodies sophistication and style in a very relaxed and casual way. “A clean silhouette, vaguely retro and super slim with colors robbed from the winter. Bordeaux, green and brown pulverize to create indefinite and warm shades,” says Marco Risaliti, from Daggs. Enjoy this exclusive!
Visit Daggs.it for more information.




Images via: Marco Risaliti at Daggs
Posted in Italian fashion, fashion |
 
It Takes Two: Meeting the Girls Behind Milla Concepts
October 23rd, 2009 by Melissa Alvarado Sierra
A jewelry line focused on masterpieces you can wear.
by MELISSA ALVARADO SIERRA for FTV | tFS
Sisters Aimeé and Katia Suero are not new to the fashion scene, especially after holding a repertoire that contains stints at Óscar de la Renta, Donna Karan, Simón Alcántara and Edmundo Castillo. But back in 2006, the duo decided to branch out and spring anew to invent jewelry on their own. Milla Concepts was then born out of sisterly love and a background that proves to be a perfect fit. Aimeé Suero studied at the Altos de Chavón School of Design, a well-known institution in the Dominican Republic affiliated with Parsons. Aimeé handcrafts the pieces, while Katia Suero bestows her marketing expertise to promote the brand.

The result of their collaboration consists of three collections aptly named Princess, Chains and One of a Kind. Their seemingly bricolage approach to conceiving their impressive necklaces for the One of a Kind collection, for example, is in reality a meticulously orchestrated design. Each necklace features a distinct color palette, varying slightly in form, but all echoing an almost Fulani tribal aesthetic. Their other collections include über-cool plastic chain necklaces and delicate designs - all with a defiantly feminine mystique. The pieces are made of luxurious materials such as silk, nylon, semi-precious stones and Argentinean silver.
Milla Concepts centralizes on handcrafted creations that are truly masterpieces for your neck. The Suero’s believe in timeless, wearable art. That’s what drives their design process, culminating in intricate pieces that are meant for today, tomorrow, and forever.
Browse all collections at millaconcepts.com
Interview:
 Sister, Sister | Katia and Aimeé Suero
tFS: How did you girls came up with the name, Milla Concepts?
MC: Milla is a nickname that uncle Edmundo Castillo put Aimeé when she was little. It made sense because it’s a family business.
tFS: How do you get inspired when designing?
MC: From traveling and living…
tFS: What other jewelry designers do you admire?
MC: JAR
tFS: How would you describe your personal style?
MC: Our style is a little mix of everything. Depends on the mood!
tFS: What trend do you love right now?
MC: A mix of Graphic + Organic.
tFS: What trend do you hate?
MC: Fashion victims.
tFS: What’s something every woman needs?
MC: A beautiful necklace!
Photo Credit: Andrea Barbiroli
Posted in masterpieces, jewelry, wearable art, milla concepts, art, fashion |
 
Irving Penn, Arguably the Best Photographer of Our Era, Dies at 92, RIP
October 7th, 2009 by Melissa Alvarado Sierra
The April 1, 1950 cover of “Vogue” by Irving Penn. Image released by Condé Nast Archive. Penn, whose photographs revealed a taste for stark simplicity whether he was shooting celebrity portraits, fashion, still life or remote places of the world, died Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009, at his Manhattan home. He was 92. AP Photo/Irving Penn/Conde Nast Archive/Conde Nast Publications. (Image not included in the exhibition)
EXCERPT FROM ARTDAILY.ORG
LONDON.- A major photographic exhibition of Irving Penn Portraits will open at the National Portrait Gallery in February 2010. Devoted to one of the greatest photographers of his generation who died earlier this month, the exhibition will include over 120 prints from Penn’s seven-decade career ranging from his early portraits for Vogue in 1944 to some of his last work.
The exhibition is a survey of Penn’s portraits of major cultural figures brought together from many international collections. Portraits include Truman Capote, Salvador Dalì, Marlene Dietrich, Christian Dior, T.S. Eliot, Duke Ellington, Alfred Hitchcock, Nicole Kidman, Willem de Kooning, Jessye Norman, Rudolph Nureyev, Edith Piaf, Pablo Picasso, Harold Pinter, Igor Stravinsky, and Tennessee Williams.
Irving Penn began his career as a photographer in the 1940s working for Vogue in New York. In 1947 and 1948 he made a series of portraits which were a groundbreaking stylistic shift from existing conventions of portrait photography. In contrast to his contemporaries, who often used complex or dramatic sets or showed sitters in their working environments, Penn worked in a studio that was almost empty. He used a band of tungsten light to simulate daylight and only the simplest props. In some cases his sitters leaned against a length of carpet covering a solid base and in other images the subjects stood in a composed corner. These basic studio settings provided opportunities for performance and self-expression, notably shown in the exhibition in portraits of Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning (1947) or Truman Capote (1948).
From the 1950s Penn began to photograph many of his subjects close up, rarely showing a sitter from below the waist. Included in the portraits from this period is Penn’s iconic image of Pablo Picasso (1957), half of the artist’s face is in the shadows of a wide-brimmed hat and the folds of a dark overcoat, leaving a single eye to radiate from the centre of the image. Penn was gradually eliminating the visible framework of the studio, resulting in a greater emphasis on the gesture and expression of the sitter for which he is well known.
Penn’s portraits since the 1960s are significantly different from the full-length portraits made earlier in his career. There are fewer changes in his pictorial style over the following fifty years than there were in the few years leading to the breakthrough of the 1940s as Penn moves into more intense head and shoulder studies. Later exhibits include his reflective portraits of Ingmar Bergman (1964) Arthur Miller (1983) and Louise Bourgeois (1992) with their eyes closed, cartoonist Saul Steinberg in nose mask (1966) and Woody Allen in disguise as Charlie Chaplin (1972).
Also on show will be some of Penn’s celebrated group portraits including the 1967 photograph Rock Groups, which captures Janis Joplin and her band, Big Brother and the Holding Company, alongside the Grateful Dead, and his photograph of Ellsworth Kelly, Chuck Close, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Kenneth Noland (2002). Penn continued producing portraits well into the twenty first century and the most recent featured in the exhibition is artist Julian Schnabel (2007). The exhibition will include numerous previously unpublished or exhibited portraits including an intriguing early portrait of photographer Cecil Beaton with nude (1946), writer Harold Pinter (1962), and the painter, Lee Krasner (1972).
Penn’s work rapidly became part of the canon of photographic history. Within a few years of their making his photographs were seen on the walls of public galleries and museums; the first touring exhibition that included his work was organised by the Museum of Modern Art in 1949. A marker of both quality and innovation, Penn’s visual language has been assimilated by a wide range of photographers and designers across generations. What was new for him has established the conventions for others.
Irving Penn was born in 1917, in Plainfield, New Jersey. In a career of more than sixty years, he created an extensive and influential body of photographs in portraiture, fashion and still life. His work resides in the permanent collections of major museums internationally and has been published in over twenty-five monographs and exhibited throughout the world. Irving Penn passed away on 7 October 2009 at his home in Manhattan.
The exhibition is curated by Magdalene Keaney, Associate Curator of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery.
Posted in Uncategorized |
 
NY Fashion Week Round-Up
September 22nd, 2009 by Melissa Alvarado Sierra
NEW YORK FASHION WEEK SPRING 2010
Platforms with a kick. Structural and rope embellished at Ports 1961.
At Charlotte Ronson’s show, casual and chic predominated. Comfy and loose ensembles in beautiful blue hues.
Candy colored and organic shaped, Marina Nikolaeva Popska’s (from Academy of Art University in San Francisco) designs were the highlight of the evening.
Sportswear never looked so haute. At Alexander Wang’s, function and style mixed effortlessly.
For Derek Lam, feminine meant graphic and starry.
Herve Leger’s body-con dresses are revitalized with patterns and denim.
Woven evening wear at Carolina Herrera in a delicious palette of terracotas, deep purples and caramels.
Ombré casts its shadow over Carlos Miele’s flowy sirens.
At Donna Karan, asymmetric pieces are juxtaposed against pebble-like necklaces. Muted colors with some brights appearing sporadically.
Geisha-esque meets cabaret girl and then goes grunge at Marc Jacobs. Think harlequin, Lolita, and fresh out-of-rehearsal ballerinas. A mix of it all to conceive a performance-infused collection… Genius.
Feral and deconstructed at Rodarte. Inspired by the endangered California Condor, a giant eagle with a nine feet wingspan.
Red carpet worthy, Marchesa’s collection contained a flower-heavy leitmotiv along with a classic color spectrum.
Images via: style.com
Posted in marc jacobs, new york |
 
New at Last
September 20th, 2009 by Melissa Alvarado Sierra

- Current Issue
Now, amidst a financial crisis rage, seems to be the perfect moment for fashion devotees to be fêted by a fashion publication that sets itself apart from celebrity and commercially-charged print giants. In fashion, when times get tough, innovation goes a long way.
The name of said publication might puzzle you a tad though; The Last Magazine, first published about a year ago. One of its creators, Magnus Berger, says of the name, “it might sound cocky, but it’s a play on that whole discussion that print journalism is in its final throws, which we don’t agree with.”
The magazine’s expose is a big chunk of the allure, published in an oversize newspaper format similar to that of French magazine Egoiste and 80s British magazine Ritz. The Last is enveloped in a paper wrap and includes poster-size editorials that are sure to blow your mind.

- Berger & Wild, photo by Melissa Hom
The brainchildren behind The Last are design royalty Magnus Berger and Tenzin Wild. Berger, also known as Julia Restoin’s ex-boyfriend and Baron Baron’s former art director, commented on the importance of the glossy, “I feel like at a lot of magazines it was always the same people working and it was really hard for the younger guys to get into it and get their work published. Not just with fashion, a lot of new artists, new music, new designers. The whole idea now is to promote a new generation.”
With brand new faces, including plenty of up and coming stylists, photographers and writers, the prospect of fresh blood is simply exciting. Appointed by a non-jaundiced mix of inspirations, marked by iffy personalities, and inspired by an “all things new” philosophy, The Last Magazine proves to be a lot more than just another fashion rag.
Editorial from The Last Magazine
The Last Magazine
by: Melissa Alvarado Sierra
Posted in fashion photographer, french fashion, new york, fashion |
 
The Best Days of Our Lives: Summer ‘09 Festivals
September 9th, 2009 by Melissa Alvarado Sierra
Summer is over and all we’ve got are the memories of pretty darn good times. All over the globe crowds congregated at diverse summer music festivals to dance, celebrate and liberate. Every festival has its own style tempo depending on the music genre, fashion is then an undeniable part of the festival charm.
After giving it serious thought, I preferred to compile only the looks that are authentically stylish and not so trend-obsessed. Believe me, I bumped into some infectiously tiring get-ups, from Glastonbury’s Kate Moss wannabes to Electric Daisy’s neon queens, I saw and then moaned.
But scouring for the truly stylish has its perks, so I scratched the surface to unearth only the unique. After attending and researching countless of festivals, carnivals and street events, I now uncover a combination of exclusively the best of what festival goers wore; including performers, celebrities, fellow journalists, and of course the always eye-filling attendees.
Let’s start with the Glastonbury, V and Reading Festivals
Good eh! Let’s continue with the LoveBox, Bonaroo, All Points West and Loolapalloza Festivals
Sweet garbs! Ok, now with the Coachella, Electric Daisy, High Line and Field Day Festivals
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Melissa Alvarado Sierra is a published writer who specializes in architecture, home design, fashion, travel a...
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Britney {01-09-10} on Under water fashion
Britney {01-09-10} on Under water fashion
Misha {01-09-10} on Under water fashion
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