From April 28th, 2010
Apr 292010
When it comes to the most feminine of fashion accessories all other embellishments bow before bows.
A bow is the ultimate girly getup, and it is as dangerous as it is darling.
The problem with a bow is that they can easily become a fashion distraction. Taking up all the attention and not sharing the stage with the rest of an outfit. The key to carrying off a bow is knowing this fact in advance.
If you plan on wearing a bow in your hair, on the tips of your toes or wrapped around your wrist, then dress accordingly. This means either going over the top with the rest of your outfit, which when done well will make you look like a fashion independent and not a fashion victim, or make the rest of your ensemble the backdrop to the bow.
It is almost more difficult to pull off the second option as the sugar sweet style of a bow tends to entice the wearer to continue to add on embellishment. Restraint is needed.
Stick to basic black or classic clean line styles and then let those bows do what then were born to do- wrap an outfit up.
It doesn’t get more classic than pearls. The ultimate old fashioned accessories, pearls were once a mark of wealth and entitlement. And for many the image of a older woman wearing a row or two of pearls, while she sips on afternoon tea, is still the first thing that comes to mind when they think of pearls.
And that is a shame.
Pearls shouldn’t be banished to the back of a jewelry box. They just need to be seen in a new light. To do this start wearing pearls in an unconventional way. Wrap a long sautoir of pearls around the neck to make a multi strand choker, weave them into the waistband of a pair of form fitting jeans or loop them around the wrist so they form a jeweled cuff. These styles will show off your pearls in a who new light.
Another great thing about pearls is that they play well with others. Add a pearl necklace to a stack of other necklaces in contrasting materials and the look with be will transformed into modern mess of mode. Or wear pearls in unexpected colors. Black pearls are still a surprising choice and a single gray pearl fitted on a strap of leather and worn cradled in between the clavicles is oh so sexy.
And let’s not forget that with the advent of great fake pearls there is no need to worry about investing in the real thing right away. Have fun with the fakes. Stack them up in different sizes. Weave them into a grosgrain ribbon a la Lanvin. Or layer up a few long stains to lap against the body.
Once you discover what look you like best, start saving up for the real thing.
Because every woman deserves her own set perfect pearls.
From April 14th, 2010
Books about timepieces, watch brands, the history of the industry and collectors’ catalogs are a dime a dozen. It is hard to get excited about tomes coming from a world that is famous for weighing down Baselworld visitors with so much paper that they get an overweight charge when they check in for their flights home. Still, one area of the watch world had generally been overlooked by the publishers until recently: that of the independent watch makers. During the past 12 months, however, that gap has been filled by three books focusing on the independents and their close-knit world.
“Masters of Contemporary Watchmaking,” essentially a beginner’s guide to the world of independent watchmakers, is written by Michael Clerizo, who covers the watch market for a number of newspapers and magazines. “The Hands of Time,” published by the Horological Academy of Independent Creators in honor of the academy’s 25th anniversary, reads like a dry catalog of the independent watch market. It is left to “Twelve Faces of Time,” by Elizabeth Doerr and Ralf Baumgarten, to take a more imaginatively holistic approach.
Filled with original black and white photographs, “Twelve Faces of Time” looks at 12 leading independent watchmakers in their home environments — sitting at their work benches, crafting unique pieces of haute horology and talking about why they continue to work outside of the corporate system.
The poetic nature of the book is already manifested in the table of contents, where a quote from each of the 12 watchmakers — Philippe Dufour, Vianney Halter, Felix Baumgartner, Thomas Prescher, Volker Vyskocil, Paul Gerber, Beat Haldimann, Ludwig Oechslin, Kari Voutilainen, Roger Smith, François-Paul Journe and Kenji Shiohara — sits besides their name and the starting page of their narratives.
“I wanted it to be a personal view of the gold thread that runs though their work,” Mrs. Doerr said. Her aim, she said, was to shape the book in a way that highlighted the artistry of the independent watchmakers and their collective passion, which is realized in such distinctive ways.
The 12 virtuosos were chosen from a field that Mrs. Doerr says she sees as numbering no more than 30 watchmakers who still spend hours hunched over their benches, slowly crafting their metal movements, using techniques that have been virtually unchanged for hundreds of years.
Of particular interest is the way the different generations in this book came to work as independents rather than joining a corporate environment. For the older generation, including Mr. Dufour, who is considered within the small network of autonomous watchmakers to be the greatest living craftsman in the field, the quartz revolution forced them to set out on their own. The younger masters, however, see working independently as an ideological choice.
Mrs. Doerr says she hopes that “Twelve Faces of Time,” which she calls her “love letter” to the world of independent watchmaking, will be the first in a series.
“That way,” she said, in a world awash in corporate handouts, “we can draw attention to people in the watch industry that don’t get a lot of press.”
By JESSICA MICHAULT
Jessica Michault -- luxury style expert -- goes behind the scenes at runways of Paris, New York, London and Milan to bring you the best that the fashion world has to offer.
