Custom Design

If you just can’t stop looking at the haunting pictures of Alexander McQueen’s final collection, I’ve got a little Friday treat for you. Originally posted by the crew at Fashionista, the video shows details of not only the clothing, but also the shoes, bags and accessories that are on display at McQueen’s buyer display in Paris. As expected, the tailoring and finishing are impeccable.

Video via Fashionista.com.

Original post by Amanda Mull

After Alexander McQueen’s death, one of the ways many people reacted was shock followed by wanting to buy a piece from one of his last collections. The Skull Clutch is an iconic McQueen bag and all of the websites that previously had them in stock sold out within hours.

Saks just stocked a few new McQueen bags, one being the Alexander McQueen Stringray Print Skull Clutch. The clutch is on pre-order right now, with a shipment date of the end of July. In fact this clutch popped up a couple weeks ago with a much earlier shipment date, but was sold out quickly and the shipment date changed. The black/silver stingray print adorns the outside of the classic clutch with a skull clasp closure and purple lining. Pre-order through Saks for $1,175.

Original post by Megs Mahoney Dusil

If there is a more haunting experience in fashion than watching Alexander McQueen’s posthumous Fall/Winter 2010 presentation to a very small group of fashion’s glitterati, I can’t imagine what it would be. Presented in an ornate salon owned by the brand’s parent company, the partial collection of 16 looks was brilliant, as we all knew it would be. It was also, in part, something totally unexpected: angelic.

The collection was inspired by 16th centurty painter Hieronymus Bosch, among other artists, who specialized in religious interpretation and commentary. Some of the patterns actually contained computerized and re-worked prints from the original artwork, including the Bosch masterpiece “The Garden of Earthly Delights.” Outside of the professed inspiration, however, it’s difficult to not ascribe a more personal and tragic meaning to the stylized angel wings that several models sported. Indeed, there were otherworldly aspects to many of the looks – pure while, gilded feathers. Perhaps the most pointed reference was in the show’s final look, a golden jacket that could have been made of wings, fluted at the floor by gobs of beaded white tulle.

But this collection was anything but one-note. Alongside the angelic whites were brocaded and beaded dresses in hues of red and gold, plus digitally printed short dresses, seemingly a continuation of the previous season’s much-lauded Plato’s Atlantis collection. The show displayed only a fraction of what McQueen had probably completed, but even in its abbreviated length, it not only demonstrated the designer’s unmatched technical prowess, creativity, and mastery of the female form, but also rendered in stark relief the stunning loss that the fashion industry and the world at large has suffered in McQueen’s death.

Original post by Amanda Mull

For those of you who think that Alexander McQueen handbags might be a little too out there for your taste, I may have found a bag for you.

Looking at the name of the bag, I was wondering what was really meant by the word camouflage. Did it have to do with the colors, the design, some hidden meaning? It is not that McQueen camouflaged his genius or his innate ability to take design to the next level. Perhaps the word surrounds the idea that the bag is a bit more understated than most of us might be used to.

The Alexander McQueen Camouflage Skull & Rose Tote has understated beauty and edge written all over it. In fact, at first glance I barely noticed the skulls intertwined with the rose print design. The combination of rose and skull print on the canvas provides a great way to introduce femininity and edginess at the same time. Since the skulls aren’t as prominent as the roses, they do require a double take in order to be noticed. The canvas has wonderful brown leather trip and a great chain strap with 7″ drop. Everything works together in perfect harmony for a fabulous tote that would look good on the shoulder of so many women no matter what your taste may be! Buy through Saks for $930.

Original post by Shannon Mahoney

Alexander McQueen, magnificent designer and creative role model to thousands of fashion lovers, has died of an apparent suicide. He was 40 years old.

It would be disingenuous, at this juncture, to speculate about what McQueen’s legacy will be or what impact his all-too-soon death will have, but if there is one thing I can say for sure, it’s that the world still needs Alexander McQueen.

A one-time enfant terrible of the fashion world, McQueen’s designs had recently found a more widespread audience that garnered him a good bit of mainstream fame. Pop stars like Lady Gaga wore his most avant-garde creations in music videos while celebs as mundane as Kate Hudson carried his more accessible handbags in front of hordes of paparazzi. By all indications, it was Alexander McQueen’s moment.

He’s gone now, long before he was done, and the fashion industry is without one of its greatest iconoclasts and creative thinkers. As Zac Posen said recently, fashion is a business that loves an exception, and McQueen was one of its greatest. His clothing had an inherent wit and violence to it, and it was often completely unwearable outside of an editorial shoot. That he would rise to prominence while making commercially unmarketable clothes was a longshot at best.

To McQueen, that was never the point. Season after season, he reminded us all of what fashion could be on its very best day, when the cynicism was stripped away and creative people got the chance to do what they were born to do. He made clothing that made us dream and gave us nightmares, and there are few experiences in fashion as visceral and revelatory as watching a collection of his creations see the light of day for the first time.

We don’t know whether his final collection will walk at Paris Fashion Week or if we’ll ever get to see what he was working on when he died. In the new issue of LOVE magazine, McQueen said cryptically, “When I’m dead, hopefully this house will still be going. On a spaceship.” It is without question that his legacy and vision need to be continued I merely wish that he was going to be the one to do it.

More information on McQueen via Daily Mail.

Photo via the Guardian.

Original post by Amanda Mull

Can we talk for a moment about this whole denim thing? And I mean not talk about it like fashion people, but like people that like to buy pretty handbags, because ultimately, that’s what almost all of us are. Even if we are fashion people in our spare time. Let’s dispense with what might be “on-trend” and talk about what actually looks good. Hint: IT’S NOT DENIM.

In the interest of full disclosure, I probably haven’t worn jeans in about a year. I just don’t like them. I know a lot of people do, and they look great on a lot of women. They do not look great on me, however, and they do not look great on handbags. I’m ok with denim-colored leather, but bags like the Miu Miu Large Denim Tote are simply beyond the pale.

From a distance, this bag looks it might just be made out of the denim-immitating leather that has started to pop up around the handbagosphere (forgive me for the portmanteau), but on closer inspection, it’s actually a really expensive handbag made out of fabric that came to popularity as a heiny-cover. The Dudette most certainly does not abide (further apologies: I watched The Big Lebowski for the zillionth time this weekend and for most of the intervening days, I’ve been speaking in nothing but TBL quotes).

More than anything, though, I can’t imagine that this bag would be particularly useful. In a situation that would be casual enough to encourage people to wear a denim bag, aren’t most people already wearing jeans anyway? There’s nothing worse than too much denim in one outfit, but I suppose that if you’re already partial to the Canadian Tuxedo look, this might be the perfect way too pull all of those different washes together. Buy through Net-a-Porter for $1295.

Original post by Amanda Mull

When I was in middle school, it was all about the shoulder bags. Leather or canvas, plain or printed, I conjecture that at least three-quarters of the girls in my grade owned some iteration of this style. So far, I’m not the biggest fan of this Miu Miu Croc Print Leather Bag, and I’m going to chalk it up to this (clearly traumatizing) childhood experience. I suppose that I’ve owned at least five of these small baguette shoulder bags- isn’t that enough?

But let’s separate the bag from my past and look at it objectively. Besides the general style, I actually do find the bag quite agreeable. I mean, it’s in one of those wonderfully soft pastel shades, light mint green, in this case, that is almost impossible not to like. It’s just too nice, too cute. But it’s toughened up just the slightest by the croc-print- but it’s not quite tea party gone goth, don’t you worry, nor is it glazed and poppy like its sister bag, the Miu Miu Stamped Leather clutch of yesteryear.

Add the little gold hardware touches and well, the bag is growing on me. And though I’m not a heart person, I find the bitsy gold heart on the strap to just be too adorable to dislike. It’s like a puppy, really. Romping about in the spring grass. No one can’t like that. Buy through Net-a-Porter for $450.

Original post by Anna Cooperberg Gonzalez

Since I’ve been looking at the Fall/Winter handbag landing page at Net-a-Porter every day for months, I thought it was kind of a big deal when they suddenly changed all of the bags in it in the past few days. Perhaps this is only interesting to me since I’m constantly staring at it, but I thought you guys might like to see what’s ahead for the new season at NAP as well.

The only bags in this graphic that are particularly compelling to me are the Halston and Jimmy Choo clutches. Of course, I also love the Alexander Wang Coco Duffel, but that’s something we’ve all already seen. What’s jumping out at you guys?

Original post by Amanda Mull

Since I’ve been looking at the Fall/Winter handbag landing page at Net-a-Porter every day for months, I thought it was kind of a big deal when they suddenly changed all of the bags in it in the past few days. Perhaps this is only interesting to me since I’m constantly staring at it, but I thought you guys might like to see what’s ahead for the new season at NAP as well.

The only bags in this graphic that are particularly compelling to me are the Halston and Jimmy Choo clutches. Of course, I also love the Alexander Wang Coco Duffel, but that’s something we’ve all already seen. What’s jumping out at you guys?

Original post by Amanda Mull

I have a hard time pinning down the Miu Miu handbag aesthetic. Their bags seem to roam freely between minimalist and intricate, taking a pit stop at every level in between. Since “brand cohesion” is probably only something that obtuse fashion people (like moi) ever think/care about, it doesn’t necessarily seem to be a bad thing – it certainly brings them attention from a wide swath of stylish girls and women.

The Miu Miu Lurex Jeweled Shoulder Bag is the brand at its most intricate extreme. Based on how successful the bag is, maybe they should spend more time at that end of the spectrum.

This lively clutch-alternative reminds me of the glory days of the early aughts, when brightly patterned Dior Saddle Bags and Fendi Baguettes rules the accessories roost. This bag is like those bags were, except with an elegant, ladylike bent that most of the accessories of that era sorely lacked. This is the Queen’s Baguette, if you will.

The lurex/brocade combination is just updated enough to be cool and modern while still an obvious retro reference, and the smokey jewels on the chain are just perfection. I know this clutch probably has too much personality to appeal to everyone, but that just means that there will be more for me. Buy through Net-a-Porter for $950.

Original post by Amanda Mull