How to Create the Day to Night Classy Look

Stylogs,

You try to balance a busy life. Your work, you need to look after the house, the kids, the after school activities, the bills, the supermarket shopping and that’s before you even take account of the man, who needs another whole article on its own. You need to find a way to dress quickly and efficiently in a way that would help you transition seamlessly from morning routine, to formal work dress code to evening going out look.

Can it be done?

The key is finding your inner style and body rhythm. Depending on your body shape and size you can always find a set of clothes that will flatter you. Taking account of your skin tone, your face shape and colour of your eyes, a simple make up work can really magically transform your presence from a tired rat-race zombie to a confident leader.

Start your day right. Go with solid colours shift dress. This will serve you well throughout the day. In the summer (thanks God it's back) choose classy sandals, or low heel ballerina pumps with colour matching gloss or matt finish. If the summer is a British one, a pull over or jumper may be required.

Keep jewellery to the absolute minimum, their time will come later in the day. A white gold necklace, with matching earrings and maybe one or two bracelets, but keep it light and understated.

Remember, you will raise your decibels later in the evening.

Along with the understated look, keep your make up colours in the beige, nude space (you can go with some rosy tones to lighten it up). Avoid stark colour, avoid smoky eyes and keep the lipstick to natural colours.

For mid-afternoon, you can spike things up a notch. Pair your dress with boots, such as heel boots, cowboy (cowgirl?) boots to add some flair. If the temperature is on the wrong side of warm, go with a casual blazer. Make sure the blazer’s colour comes from the same family as the boot

Your mid-afternoon jewellery can also grow in stature and drama. Silver, gold can definitely add in a level of prominence, but still I would steer clear of pure and cheap bling.



Night out? As night approaches, and the atmosphere becomes less desk and more club, you can surely turn up the heat. Pair your dress with killer high heel pumps, put the foot down and go all out with some strong make up look (dark colours, bright lipstick, smoky eyes).


Don’t forget your clutch. If a jacket is required (and it probably is), go for bright colours to ensure you get the attention you deserve.

A Little Visit to Zurich

Stylogs,

I always find this an eye opening experience. Travelling to another country is testing your acceptance and perceptions of other cultures. I didn’t go far, both geographically and culturally, and yet the differences are obvious.

Zurich in the summer - Cafe on Limmatquai by the
Limmat River

I visited Zurich for work. Although the flight left Heathrow at an unsocial hour (6am, just think about what time the taxi picked me up…painful), I arrived early enough into town.

The first impression was how clean and quiet the train from the airport was. I never thought a train could be, well, quiet. When you travel on the London underground (or overground) you can’t hear anything. You can’t have a conversation (unless you shout your lungs out), you can’t listen to music (unless you stuff those little plugs down the ear canals where they almost press your brain in), and you can’t really relax. In Zurich you hear other people have a chat three rows away. And they chat in whispers. It’s serene.

The dress code is classy continental. Women make an effort with their dresses in quiet matt colours and the men don’t try to outdo each other with their Jermyn Street shirts. The weather was very hot so the cut was lower and deeper than typical London standard this time of year (mind this is London summer).  An informative stroll down Bahnhofstrasse, Zurich’s main shopping street is interesting, if not life changing. Some of the familiar brands where there (C and A) as well as some local favourites.

On the way back I indulged. Sprungly is famous for chocolates and multi-flavoured macaroons. There must be 20-30 varieties in pink, brown, purple and a gold-pinkish hue with an exquisite chocolate passion-fruit flavour. The filling is airy and the macaroon is not too sweet. Just perfect for a little treat or a different kind of present from the land of the watches.

I couldn’t resist a visit to the chocolate aisle at the local supermarket. There must have been about 50 SKUs there. I quickly hoarded half a dozen and ran for my train back to the airport. On a carefuly (if not yet complete) test, the cranberry dark chocolate is the winner, though the competition is still neck and neck.



Chocolate aisle in a Zurich supermarket, a place to avoid if
you're looking after your waiste line

I know you’re not going to believe it, but my train was 2 minutes late. Travesty. I know.

Pre - Season Collections: Fashion Cycles are Getting Shorter

Stylogs,

Pre-season fashion is confusing the fashion establishment, but does bring in a fresh set of gorgeous designs.

Heavy floods in central Europe may not be your first association with June, but just ask the people the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. However, the fashion world steams ahead with ever shorter design cycles.

What used to be a four season world, has recently turned into a multiple season parade with pre-seasons to add to the mix confuse everybody. These sub-seasons are gaining popularity with some fashion buyers claiming to spend about four fifths of their budget on these bridging collections.

Customers have grown used to the ‘latest’ and ‘new’ stickers on their fashion sites, or dedicating a whole sub-section of their website for the latest collections (http://www.kaleidoscope.co.uk ). Offering a way to get into a new collection early on and before trends take place in the wider public, allows the fashion oriented customers to make an early move, according to sources in the industry.

There are several designs I actually like in the inevitable pre-autumn collections that have crept upon us from these shores and across the pons.

From Barney’s New York a beautiful and yet classy knit sweater by O 2^nd


Knit sweater by O 2^nd

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Brown’s London, a chic  sweat shirt

A really clever Missoni multicoloured wool blend jumper that is as intriguing as it is pretty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The best view on this latest development is by Paula Reed, Fashion director at Harvey Nichols who said that she thinks of the catwalk as “the icing, but the pre-collection is the cake”.  She was particularly excited about some promising young British designers such as Peter Pilotto, Roksanda Ilincic, Christopher Kane and Jonathan Saunders. She also mentioned Nina Ricci, Proenza Schouler and Céline as ones to keep a close eye on.

From the across the water, Tomoko Ogura a Fashion director at Barney’s of New York said that some of their favourite pre-autumn collections are Saint Laurent, Givenchy, Carven, Acne Studios and Regulation by Yohji Yamamoto. She pointed out that animal prints will be noticeably prominent this season, as well as the Manolo Blahnik’s zebra print pump