Of sweethearts and queens

Antonio Berardi's SS10 showed a lot of sweetheart bust lines, a classic romantic look that doesn't seem to come around enough these days. Two of the looks that really struck me or caught my favour were these two:

Once a while a go, I saw a friend's picture where she wears vintage black dress with chiffon top and it struck me how simple yet very feminine and sensual that detail can be. Ever since then, I've been looking out for dresses or tops like this and have yet to find the perfect one. However, this piece from Araks comes close. The graphic lines that accentuates the curves gives the soft look a modern twist for that uptown cocktail style.

This tube sweetheart dress won me over on both sides - front and back. The graphic lines and the colour block that reminds me of the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, but a slimmer and contemporary one. Instead of black, the back of this dress is blue.

Images: Style.com

Quaintly Blue

Blue and I have history. When my sister and I were growing up, my mom would always buy or sew us the same dresses in pink and blue. (I still haven't found out why specifically those two colours) And somehow, I always end up getting the blue ones. Through many years of conditioning and convincing myself that blue are for girls too, I guess the power of my mind won. Now in my adult years, anything electrically blue will send some kind of shock to my brain reception and trigger a series of chemical reaction that tells me that what is see - is awesome.

Last season's craze with colour was a galore for me and I'm loving the fact that this trend is continuing strongly. A recent visit to hm.com (just for inspiration and absolutely no intention of purchasing) ended up with a pseudo-wishlist. Most of them were blue, of course.

Simple yet strong skirt for an impact-ful day or weekend wear. Makes those difficult to match tops suddenly very versatile.

I'm still somewhat in doubt with these suede boots. But the colour, ahh, so alluring.

There's something about these 19th century English boots that's very Oliver Twist and Helena Bonham Carter. Quaint and crazy, in a nice way. A challenging style not for everyone, especially if you think you have larger than average legs. Otherwise, the laced up boots makes an interesting twist to the also classic tapered pants.

This grey t-shirt dress reminds me of a specific top from Marc by Marc Jacobs, also an embellished t-shirt. The dress brings a slightly more fabulous touch to your easy weekend wear with it's sparkling colours. Pair it with leggings, simply accessories and boots to complete the look.

And these chic stripe fingerless arm warmer to keep my hands warm in the winter while I type away on my laptop.

Images: hm.com

Crunch it with a Blazer

Sorry for the blog-drought, many ideas were dried up and unharvestable but a few were saved. Here's one of them.

If you want to know the secret to a great looking day - looking chic and relaxed that is - Crunch it with a Blazer.

Yup, it's not really a secret anymore so you better hear it now and hear it well. And the best part is, this look works just as great with guys as well!

It's actually really simple. First you pick a nice looking blazer that fits you well. Blazers doesn't mean they have to make you look like you're from the 80's. Once you have blazer on, push the sleeves up until they're just below your elbow. And that's it. That's all there is too it.

One of the Olsens doing their usual trick of looking fashion forwardly chic.

Anne Hathaway shows us how one can be elegant and chic with a casual crunched blazer.

For some fun and excitement, try it with bright colored blazers. You know how blazers tend to be in boring dark shades - go for a change and some shock value. It'll be fun and you'll enjoy your day with the bright colors beaming off dark thoughts.

Singing the Blues

After a binge on minimalism and modernistic-cool, the fashion world decided to take a break by swinging to the other end of the pendulum and celebrate what the real world has to offer us – colors!

Strong, electrical colors made a bold splash across runways this season painting several collections in colorful prints and in strong singular colors the borderlines screaming neon. Colors as we all know have very interesting effect on people – both the wearer and the admirers. Therefore, it can be rather tricky to pull off a “heavy” and sometimes “depressing” color like, say blue.

But when Blue gets electrical it’s an entirely different world – think Super heroes, think Mischa at the Cannes festival, think retro-cool-tight-fit-electrical-blue-dress!

What you get here is nothing close to the blues but exciting, funky notes of electric blues!

This simple blue dress is chic, sexy, and complementary even for curvy ladies. The cut and the lines in the front makes a slim streamline while the long sleeves can be pushed up the arm slightly to create a casual crunch.

Since it’s almost like a bare, albeit colored, canvas, one can top it with chunky accessories or an iconic clutch. Don’t forget about shoes – it cannot be said enough that shoes complete the look! Play around with your options – go chunky for retro funk, stilettos to ooze sex and sophistication, or just flats for elegant chic.

Though adventurous, a dose of prudence can do one good when it comes to strong colors. Alas one should end up with the 'parrot-syndrome'.