Tag Archives: Fashion Designer

Style Crush: Lupita Nyong’o

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Today I want to talk about how much I love Lupita Nyong’o. I’m sure like everyone else she came to my attention during the awards season 2 years ago when she was nominated for her role in 12 Years A Slave for pretty much every award going. I actually watched the Oscars that year (staying up until about 4am!) and I was thrilled – and a little moved – when she won the Oscar. I also loved the dress she wore. When asked about it she said the colour reminded her of Nairobi – she was brought up in Kenya.

The Prada gown seemed to fulfill any princess fantasies one might have but also be a bit different in terms of the cut and the fit – I love how it plunges so low at the front!

From the same awards season is this Ralph Lauren red dress with a cape. I love it!! It’s so chic and edgy at the same time.

This is another Prada gown which she wore to the 12 Years A Slave premier at the Toronto Film Festival. I know actresses all have stylists these days but this was her first movie – I doubt many actresses looked like this at their first few premiers!

This is another gown from her first awards season – this time by Gucci. i love the colour – I love turquoise in general – and I love how it’s mostly simple but has the pretty flower neckline. I like her makeup here too.

Nothing quite like a perfectly fitting yellow gown!

This is definitely what I would be doing in this green Gucci gown too! Another great deep v on the front.

This white Calvin Klein dress Lupita wore to the 2014 Critics Choice awards is stunning. I love the cut outs and the slightly sporty feel of the top and the simple column skirt.

Who doesn’t love a red sparkly dress?! And it looks great with and without the white coat.

Earlier this year Lupita was promoting her new film, Queen of Katwe, about an African (Ugandan) chess prodigy and her outfits for the various events were definite nods to the film’s setting and to her Kenyan roots.

I love, love, love this dress! Blue and yellow are two of my favourite colours (as I’m sure you’d know if you looked at all my me mades!) and the headscarf looks amazing. And the outfit looks somehow really effortless – even though I’m sure a lot of work went into putting it together.

This is another amazing outfit from the press tour. I love everything about it – the super high-waisted trousers with the giant turn-ups, the matching top and headscarf, the earrings, her eyeshadow. The outfit is by Rosie Assoulin, a designer I’d not come across before. She worked for Oscar de la Renta and at Lanvin before launching her own line. You should google her stuff, it’s quite structural and cool.

Another event, another great headscarf and dress. I like the simplicity of the dress, with the (I assume embroidery) detailing around the neck and hem.

This Chanel dress, which I think she wore to the premier of Start Wars is so cool. I love the cut out at the back and the sequined shoulders. I like how the back stripes are missing for the waist and hem, it emphasises her great figure. I love her hair here too.

Now I’ve got a few slightly less dressed up outfits – I pretty much could only find photos of her on red carpets, so I don’t know much about her ‘street’ style.

I love this purple jacket – I assume the collar is from the dress underneath. The proportions of this jacket are spot on. I don’t normally like purple, but it definitely looks good on her! Also her make-up looks beautiful and I love the earrings.

I love this shift dress – the fit is spot on. And I like the patterns on the front.

I like the use of the stripe on this green, white and black dress. Also I love her hair super short but it looks really cool here.

I want this outfit (though probably in a different colour!). The trousers!

And finally I will leave you with this stunning photo from her Vogue photoshoot from 2015. The gown is by Givenchy and I think everything about this photo is perfection.

Who is your red carpet style icon?

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Designer Inspiration: Pierre Cardin

Pierre Cardin who was born in 1922 in Italy, worked under Schiaparelli and became head designer for Christian Dior’s tailleure atelier in 1947 and he’s still alive! He launched his own label in 1950 and was interested in geometric shapes, especially bubbles:

The above dress is obviously one of the more extreme geometric designs, which is great in its way but I like his more minimal designs too, like the heart one below. I’m not normally a huge fan of hearts, but there’s something about the proportions and design of this that I really like.

When I was first thinking about looking at Pierre Cardin, I of course, thought of him as a 60s designer, but having discovered he started his own house in 1950, then I found these 2 more 50s-style designs. You can already see his interest in structure and shapes.

I love this dress worn by Mia Farrow! Although its shape is not geometric, the colours obviously are. She seems to have some rather funky tights too.

I really love these bubbly dungarees! They look a bit boob-squashy but I guess boyish figures were in style in the 60s. I kinda want to make a copy of these! Maybe for SewDots…..

And talking of dots, I love these totally circular pockets. And I’m always a sucker for mustard yellow!

He seemed to use cut-outs quite a lot to give the geometric designs he liked. These ones look a bit like Star Trek uniforms to me, especially the orange on in the middle – maybe Cardin was the inspiration for the costumes (or vice versa)?

I included these ones because glitter.

I love all three of these dresses, especially the one on the left. Good hats too. Could do without the leering man, though……(It might be Cardin himself, I can’t really tell!)

I like this monochrome offering and it seems a bit more wearable than some of the others, if the cut-out on the stomach wasn’t actually cut out!

I quite like the half and half colours on this dress – and the way the navy sneaks onto the green side. Not sure it would be totally office-appropriate though…

This seems to be one of the less extreme dresses, and I love it! I like the shaping of the placket-type-thing and the I guess quilted shapes on the bottom.

With this one, I’m just curious how the collar stands up and was made! Not convinced about the colour….or the fabric, it looks almost shiny. I wonder what it is? Anyone know?

I like how this one combines the cut outs and the structured designs. I kinda want to see a picture of it with the model’s arms down, I bet it looks a bit rubbish! Good boots though.

Cardin was still designing clothes into the 80s (he’s moved towards designing cars and buildings and things as well as fashion). This bubbly coat seems to be from 1987.

As with most designers of the 60s, Cardin released sewing patterns based on his designs. I’m not sure about the collar, but I like the shaping on the yoke and the swingy shape of the dress.

I think this one looks much more interesting in the drawing than the photo – you can’t really see the seam lines in the cream. I’m digging the weird grey 60s hairdo too!

I really like the shape of the neckline on this one, and clever how they’ve shown it colour blocked as well as all in one fabric.

I really love this jacket – I may have to search ebay for a copy of this pattern! It might look a bit costumey but I don’t really care.

You can’t beat a great 60s swing coat! And the collar! I wonder how they get it to stand up….

Do you like Pierre Cardin or are his designs a bit too costumey do you think? I kind of like how extreme the clothes are, but I probably wouldn’t have the balls to wear most of them without toning them down or making them a bit more modern!

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