Milan Fashion Week: Real Women, Real Clothes

Prada Autumn Winter 2010/11 Look 1

Big-name designers demonstrated a new understanding with a focus on real clothes for real women at Milan Fashion Week for the upcoming Season.

The beautiful Celine Spring Summer 2010 collection was cited by many as a key influence for the Autumn Winter 2010/11 Milan fashion trends. With its stunning new classic but very sophisticated cut and fit and a strong focus on clean day-wear it quickly turned out to be the favourite of many from the last season shows. And it is certainly one of ours.

Celine Spring Summer 2010/11 Look 3

Celine Spring Summer 2010/11 Look 2

Celine Spring Summer 2010/11 Look 1

Milan's fashion designers have moved slightly away from the stunning red-carpet looks and instead focussed more on the saleability and wearability of their designs. There was a new wave of wearable daywear and key separates as we have seen on the first day in the fabulous Prada show. " It is normal clothes - classics," Muiccia Prada said backstage before the show.

She thoroughly revisited Prada's strenghts from the double-face cashmere to flattering fifties and sixties dresses and skirts. Detailed coats and jackets with the collar as the highlight also stood out. It was a very fresh and sexy approach as it celebrated the very curvaceous woman amongst us and we all love to see that don't we??!!

Prada Autumn Winter 2010/11 Look 39

Prada Autumn Winter 2010/11 Look 25

Prada Autumn Winter 2010/11 Look 10

Prada Autumn Winter 2010/11 Look 1

Alberta Ferretti's collection on the other hand was all about the separate pieces and with the concept of wearing the pieces separately and in lots of different ways.

Alberta Ferretti Autumn Winter 2010/11 Look 27

Alberta Ferretti Autumn Winter 2010/11 Look 14

Versace surprisingly also moved away from the Glitz and Glamour look focussing on more day-to-day items. She was obviously inspired by the good old biker style making it suitable and appealing to her audience by translating it into tight fitting pants and trousers with matching biker jackets and stunning asymmetric long sleeved zip dresses. It was a clever step from her moving away from the evening wear and putting more focus on the daily wear.

Versace Autumn Winter 2010/11 Look 6

Versace Autumn Winter 2010/11 Look 34

Versace Autumn Winter 2010/11 Look 5

And then of course there was Jil Sander's collection that represented a pared-down approach in a very clean and clear way. It was all about practical dressing for grown women "who know what they want and aren't afraid to go for it," as Raf Simons, creative director, explained. This has led him to designs that were inspired by a mix of Anna Wintour and Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft in Tomb Rider which resulted in classic and beautifully tailored tweed suits and black sheer shorts, bodysuits and tailored catsuits.

Jil Sander Autumn Winter 2010/11 Look 31

Jil Sander Autumn Winter 2010/11 Look 4

Jil Sander Autumn Winter 2010/11 Look 1

Info and images taken from here.

Its the final countdown...

Lara Stone at the Christopher Kane Spring/Summer 2010 Show

With a mere 11 minutes to go until the first London Fashion Week show by Paul Costelloe kicks off we are sitting impatiently in front of our Laptop screens.

With the new digital schedule everyone can be in the front row and can follow almost every show during London Fashion Week.

London Fashion Week has announced its launch of the digital schedule about two weeks ago. With this move they are following in the footsteps of brands such as Alexander McQueen, Louis Vuitton and Dolce & Gabbana who live streamed their previous show online.

Alexander McQueen's show had such a huge online audience that it even brought down the whole website for the duration of the show ( thanks to Lady Gaga who announced her new single was featured in his show).

The Internet is becoming more and more dominant and we will certainly see it growing more and more and with it our power as a consumer as well.

It has now come to a point where the oh so exclusive fashion shows are accessible for everyone online and everyone can become part of it.

It will be interesting to see how this will develop further in the future... but for now there are two minutes left until London Fashion Week kicks off live and everyone can see it.

So get comfy and enjoy the shows!

Image taken from here