Cedric Charlier fall/winter 2013/14

Last weekend Hunting and Collecting has transformed the boutique space into a static catwalk for Cedric Charlier's winter collection - unbelievably gorgeous one!
Shift dresses, pensil skirts and ruffle collars all have a sporty feel, and I couldn't tell whether it was silk or neoprene... possibly both, with fur insets and intricate embroidery all over.
It is not a casual collection, but I would wear some bright-coloured sneakers with any of those outfits, not just for the laid back feel of the collection but also for my tired feet that are longing to be comforted with a pair New Balance or Nike or Adidas for OC.
Tired feet are no excuse for dressing down though! So thank you mr. Charlier for coming up with a perfect solution for a modern woman who can walk 15km a day all prepped up down to the ruff. And let's hope that the It-bag and the It-shoe will soon disappear, leaving us with beauty and comfort all at once instead of the pretentious 'must-have' items.

modern folklore

 Finally at home, making sales wishlists and basking in the sun - it's warm enough sitting by the window, but wearing a pair of shorts and sandals out is still a dream.
I've been intrigued by this quilted A.P.C. coat since the very beginning of the season, it has the strange 'back-to-the-roots' appeal being made of silk/linen mix, it could almost be part of traditional folklore dress of some unknown country, somewhere between Mongolia and northern China may be. Yet it finally grew on me that a quilted oversized coat with a hood is a perfect companion for the je-ne-sais-quoi weather in Belgium. Five minutes rain and five minutes sunshine - my fellow Unknown countrymen know why.

While everyone swears off the brand/designer total look I have no shame! Why bother if it all fits so perfectly together avoiding the unnecessary morning rush of not knowing what to wear? Why deny that one brand makes clothes that correspond me perfectly? Afterall I wouldn't mind seeing someone wear Douglas Firs total look, because when I design my brand I do not think about mixing it with anything else, so why should I complicate the whole thing by mixing other people's creation?



Here and now

Tiny little creature in my hands!

Up and away.

Off to Russia! With mobile roaming and 3G,so I make sure you're stuffed with silly Instagram images like this one. Brussels Airlines seems to have raided the local concession store while decorating their business lounge - the ugliest one in my travelling experience. Thanks to my globe-trotter dad who flies five times a year around the globe and holds platinum membership at most existing airlines I have seen quite a few. Well what the heck, why am I complaining? Such a spoiled child.

Shine on you crazy diamond

My favourite outfit for the summer! I stuck it in the window hoping that someone will buy everything, so that I don't have to go completely broke next month.
Shorts, blouse, and jacket all by Dries Van Noten.

five principles of casual dressing

1. Sand beige
2. Bleached denim
3. White t-shirt
4. Bucket bag
5. Nautical stripe

5bis. ...a totally idiotic outfit photo

COS jacket, Christophe Lemaire t-shirt , A.P.C. striped denim trousers, sunglasses, pumps and bucket bag, Rue Blanche scarf with a print designed by Yu Matsuoka. O.P.I. nailpolish.

 

I have those huge book-shelves filled with books brimful, so may be stuffing myself between a bookshelf and a door has some kind of symbolic meaning... may be not. I first thought using books as a backdrop, but then you wouldn't see me at all - this outfit has some kind of strange colour blend-in properties.

So I do wear perfectly normal clothes at times! Thanks A.P.C.!

On a side-note though, I've decided to stop buying clothes at chain brands like H&M, COS, Zara, Mango - all part of Inditex or H&M group or other big chains until they assume full responsibility for their doubtful production methods. But in fear that it may not ever happen my wallet has scrunched and grimaced at me and the Visa card ran hiding in the nearest corner - unfortunately for them, correct production and guarantied quality come with a certain price tag... or not. There are always 2 euro days at Think Twice, seasonal sales and designer stocksales, friendly shop staff with honest advice - believe me that exists, I can even tell you where.

Choosing well is choosing right.

 

Welcome to the club

 Even though I keep on complaining about the styling at the Dries Van Noten Autumn/Winter 2013-14 show, the details of the collection and the garments that work perfectly on their own without too much layering - that's what really seems to have hooked me up. There are tons and tons of club-stripe - on skirts, on trousers and naturally on blazers.

A blazer in its original meaning was a club jacket - bright coloured, monogramed - and what is a club-stripe if it doesn't 'blaze'? Dries Van Noten twisted it around, of course, and made dresses with stripes and put feathers on them, but that's another side of the story! What has really grabbed my attention is the blazer.

And then as it often goes, with a little chance of finding something similar two months before the aw/2013-14 collections hit the stores I went for regular grabs at Think Twice (my favourite second-hand joint) and found nothing else gazing at me from the messy rails but the very original club-stripe blazer! Bless the 2 euro days at Think Twice! I put it on and it fit like a glove - two minutes later I stood by the cashier desk with this blazer in one hand and a pyjama-style shirt in the other.

I wonder if I should really push the envelope and layer the blazer over a shirt together with chinos, loafers, a fedora hat and my faux Louis Vuitton bag that I got as a gift from China... could be just a perfect overdo! Although I think I'll start with baggy denim, printed t-shirt, pointy heels, clutchbag and sunglasses to perfectly blend into the mass of 'Parisian chic' streetstyle. Long live the clichés of modernity!

 

The rest of my month I've made into an A.P.C. month - it's a very easy thing to do, especially when I wouldn't mind to own the entire collection. The Retrosuperfuture/ A.P.C. 70's style sunglasses are heaven - oversized navy blue frames are ultra-light and the lenses are photochromic, changing the opacity with the strength of light. The anchor-shaped belt goes over all denim summer dresses - in the summer I'm very nautical on that point. And the striped denim trousers from the new capsule collection are light and stretchy, perfectly summer- and travel-proof. The uncanny feeling is creeping up that I will go bonkers at the sale, since my wishlist is just a couple of meters too long to remain sane. 

And now a rare beauty note! I never write about it because my beauty regime is limited to a moisturizer-mascara-nailpolish. Sometimes I wear a concealer, you know, the times when sleep did not fit into the schedule, and a lot of times I wear bright red lipstick because one very elegant woman told me that I must always wear  that shade of red. Always. So normally I wouldn't have much to tell you, but even the most evident things may have a trick up the sleeve - mine is loose colourless powder with a rather high sun protection factor. I hate sunscreen creams because they are sticky and looking for one without paraben is a bore. Finding the colour of the powder that would be as pale as my complexion is an equal bore, read impossible. I don't tan, neither burn nor turn red, and if I put a lot of effort into obtaining some sort of colour my skin gets a veil of matte olive-toned translucent tan. Not being sure of whether looking like a marinaded fish would collect compliments I just remain white, like the Asian girls do, just without parasols, only with a fine layer of loose powder on my face. This summer I'll be testing the Bourjois 'Flower Perfection', it is perfumed unfortunately, but has no parabens - so bring on the sun!

 

Run Lena Run

Today is the perfect day to start running, and not running about like I usually do, but to start running in the evenings and eventually in the mornings watching the Nike+ running app cheer me as I go.

Atelier Solarshop

Endless love for Atelier Solarshop and their tiny online retail space with a selection of lovely objects, clothes and accessories, all as cozy as they are precious.

 Black Adaism leather bag.

 

Hui Hui printed silk scarf.

Katharina Trudzinski ceramic bowls.

Sin City or A Lament for Brussels' Fashion Retail.

I've noticed a strange trend after myself - saving posts as drafts and never finishing nor publishing them - a negative one. So I've decided while sunbathing at the open window that it is time to stuff the content of previously unfinished abrupt thought of draft posts into a coherent one.
Well first of all I was planning to moan and to groan about the situation in Brussels retail, and mainly fashion retail, and it's not that I'm being negative (as usual) but I came to a city without any initiative but with a lot of potential in 2008 and saw it growing into a capital of the most daring fashion initiative in a matter of a couple of years. Select stores and fashion boutiques popped up like mushrooms after the rain and made this city (finally) one of the coolest fashion destinations in central Europe. "Forget Berlin - come to Brussels!" - so I thought and so I lived and breathed this city's potential...



Now the year 2012 has been a rollercoaster ride for some - endless road works, rotten weather, economic crisis and (importantly!) diversion of customers' interests -

 take any of that and you're fucked... take all of that and you're in Brussels!

Welcome to the city which will rather spend 150 euros on a dinner and grow a belly that doesn't fit into a pair of designer trousers, making a perfect excuse for not buying one, where everyone owns the latest iPhone and iPad and rushes into a store elbowing eachother the moment the new model comes out - 700 euros down, how much more to go? Or how much further? Off to the sea coast where you own an apartment or to Spain where you own a house or to, erm, Berlin where you just spent a couple of hundreds of euros on drugs and beer? The grass is always greener on the other side than in Brussels and we spend our last euro cents trying to get out. And then with last remaining dough we act like snobs and go shopping at COS with a thought: "I'll never buy anything in fucking H&M because I'm so much better now!"
A crowd, a mass, a herd that doesn't know (neither want to know, and that is worse) that Dries Van Noten is not a brand abbreviation for some factory in Bangladesh, thinking that  Mr. Zadig and Mr. Voltaire are doing a great job personally designing their exclusive clothing line.
Oh but 2012 is so passé! We are in 2013 now with all the consequences: Sandrina Fasoli, MAPP., Menage a Deux, Own, Mieke Cosyn, Charlotte aux Pommes, debuted by Cristophe Coppens bankruptcy - all going and gone. Annemie Verbeke is closing her stores worldwide and Les Presieuses have gone from three stores to only one. Rumors about Nicolas Woit? - you tell me. This year has been harsh on everyone without exception, and the only way to meet your budgets and outgrow them is to become a slave for your customer - we cannot do the Opening Ceremony trick anymore (hide in the backoffice and watch customers snatch the season's key pieces off the rails like hot cakes) - we have to be out there with our upmost fashion enthusiasm and honest advice and knowledgeable opinion to show those sparse customers that even if we are the sole survivors we are believers that fashion can turn hearts and make this world a better place!
...or at least a better dressed place! That is already good enough.
But in five years time Brussels has gone from bloom to the gloom and unfortunately plans on staying there, because all we've got is the lousy M.A.D. that is all about brand coaching and fashion communication, yet they'd rather see others do the job and simply put M.A.D on the flyer just oh-so-casually misspelling the other's name because it has always been easier to joggle with someone else's money than to do any effort or listen to the advice of those people who have risen the centre from the ashes. But Brussels seems to despise its history and live today and now and not care about tomorrow.
I feel like some sort of a crusader or even a mercenary - a foreign soldier who picks up the Brussels fashion flag and holds it up in the air - sky high -  for it may never touch the ground.
Our cause is holy - and I call out for all the retailers to alert and alarm the customer about the pseudo-luxury or pseudo-green brands, teach them to tell the difference between a French chain and an independent  designer, teach them to see to the origin of the product and beware that the beloved COS is produced at the same factory as much hated H&M and not succumb to the twisted marketing campaigns. We have to breathe the potential back into this city and welcome the buyers and independent designer brands  - not chains. I am ready to do so as  a customer and even more so as a retailer, knowing that unfortunately Elle Belgique will never share this post and M.A.D will be just, erm, mad at me for mixing their doubtful activities with dirt. But I want other retailers and customers to join me - not be proud or fussy, no! - just have enough patience and guts (yes, it takes guts!) to educate the differences between the successful marketing and real product, to show people where their money really goes to - local designer support or abuse of an Argentinian family. I believe that good conscience is where the true difference lies  - not in who's the most colourful or worldwide exclusive, but in one's knowledge and attentive comprehension of customer's needs. Knowing the tricks of trade, of course, having eye for detail, naturally... not contradicting, but informing! That's all I'm up to.