Resort 2014: Tribal 'Clover Canyon'

I am so ready to celebrate the fact that I can add Clover Canyon to my favorite brands list. I have just only heard about their brand 2 days ago and they are fairly new to the fashion industry. Giving the 2 years that they've been at this, they surely seem to know who their customers are. This season they took Resort to another level reaching for the customer that wants to turn heads when she walks out the door!

Inspired by Fifties Cuba - cigars, fruit and mosaic tiles - Rozae Nichols took care of the showstopping collection that looks amazing together as well as apart. Let's see what else she has mastered in this collection.

I couldn't choose one so here are My 2 Favorite looks:

As I couldn't choose my favorite out of this amazing collection, I simply chose the two looks that I want the most in my closet. Both of these looks are simple yet eye-catching and they have this personality of their own

Prints are truly a must for every Resort collection, without it being too busy for the eye. Clover Canyon made sure that the looks also had a Caribbean feel to them so that they also look relaxing. Another way to make the prints less busy is to make them symmetric and that's what Clover Canyon did. Even though the collection is cohesive you can split it in two: the black & white looks with a pop of color and on the other side the basic brown looks with the darker and subtle colors. As I love the contrast black and white and bright colors in between I enjoyed that part of the collection more.

They also styled the looks simple so that you really focus on the detailed collection. I loved the red lipped model, the customer who would buy and wear these pieces would also be bold enough to go for a red lip.

I love the entire collection but the 8 looks that are under 'the rest of the collection' are simply out of proportion or not well combined. When you work with these kind of prints volume or ruffles can't really play a big role in the pieces especially not around the arms or waist.

Here are the rest of my favorite looks:

Here is the rest of the collection:

Some brands design their collections based on two to three customers, but that most of the time fails to keep the cohesion of the collection. Clover Canyon however has one customer - which I like way more - that would wear one of these looks to the mall, one to a concert and one to an art gallery. 

More importantly someone needs to call Solange Knowles to tell her that I'm ready for her to rule the red carpet in one of these pieces!

Much Love,

Ryan's Clothes Beyond the Pines

It's no secret that Ryan Gosling's future is looking pretty good. No, I'm not talking about his face and body (even though that would be a lovely subject), but I'm talking about his talent. Ryan was my prediction of 'The Actor to Watch' in 2013 and well...I hope you watched him on the big screen in his new movie 'The Place Beyond the Pines' starring alongside Bradley Cooper and Eva Mendez.

The Place Beyond the Pines is more a father-son tale as the movie starts with Ryan finding out Eva Mendez is carrying his child. Don't even get me started on the fact that I only got to see him the first 47 minutes of the 2 hours and 20 minutes movie. Putting that aside I have to point out that Ryan's TPBtP character has some serious style. 

Ryan went beach blond and all tatted up for this role and it payed off, he was unrecognizable because it's nothing like the rest of his roles. He owned it, acted like it was nothing while looking good - sorry great.
But then I realized that I haven't felt that way since I saw James Dean's "Rebel Without a Cause".

Yes, I was thinking of James Dean as I was watching Ryan play a masterpiece of a role that doesn't come along everyday. I'd like to think that The Place Beyond the Pines is the sequel to Rebel Without a Cause as rebel then isn't the same as rebel now. Both James and Ryan played their roles beautifully as they created a character that has no limits whatsoever.

Let's Break Down Ryan's Style Throughout the Entire Movie:

Eva Mendez - Ryan Gosling

The first thing I noticed was his awesome folded and tucked in 'Metallica' shirt that he paired with biker pants with drops of white paint on them.
Ryan's character robs a couple of banks to provide for his 'lover' and child - aww sensitive, hot and bad - might I say he even managed to personalize a tracksuit by adding sunglasses with bright green on the sides.
Another outfit I really loved were the grey jeans with a white shirt and his red jacket.

 

The first few minutes of TPBtP I was wondering where the sleeveless shirts were because they make guys look tougher especially when they have guns and a lot of tattoos. I'm so glad that Ryan didn't disappoint. We get to see a sleeveless hoodie and a sleeveless grey shirt.

Can't believe I'm about to say this but his white shirt with the holes made his character even more real and messed up at the same time.

The Fashion highlight of the movie was in fact this next outfit. Every separate piece of this outfit was included one way or another in another outfit. I'm talking about a red leather biker jacket with a white shirt (with holes in it) and a pair of black trousers with skulls on them. The complete outfit also has a dark green handkerchief (covering his nose and mouth), black heavy boots and dark blue gloves. Also completing his outfit is his Bad-Boy-Beach-Blond act.

The Director of TPBtP is also the Director of Blue Valentine in which Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams played. As you can understand Ryan is known for his character Noah in The Notebook. During the press conference he admitted that the Director Derek Cianfrance really made him push the limits of his character.
Ryan: ''When I first started filming the scene where I am robbing the bank, I looked down and women were smiling and filming me with their cell phones. Derek was very angry and blamed me for not being scary enough because they were having a great time being robbed. He made me do 22 takes of trying to scare them and at a certain point I got desperate and that's what you see in the film.''
I've noticed that a lot of Ryan Gosling fans have an issue with seeing him like this, but I truly enjoy these roles because I know Ryan can't stay 'Noah' forever. No actor that wants to have an Academy Award on their name can do that. I'm so glad that Ryan got out of that type of character because he was a child TV-star and the movie The Believer got him out of that phase. We will see more Luke (Ryan's character in TPBtP) roles than Noah roles Ryan said at the end of last year. 'Drive' also starring Carey Mulligan and 'Gangster Squad' also starring Sean Penn, Emma Stone and Josh Brolin are more roles leaning towards Luke.

I haven't compared anyone to James except to Ryan now & to Heath Ledger when I saw his movie Candy. They both have the drive that James had when playing a character. He exceeded his roles by creating a character that fills in the blanks and is more real. It's a shame we won't be able to see Heath in a new movie again but Ryan has some exciting movies coming up. 'Only God Forgives' is one of them. Ryan's past work include The Believer, The Notebook and The Ides of March. Ryan was nominated for an Oscar for 'Half Nelson' and a Golden Globe for 'Blue Valentine'.

Fingers crossed for Ryan winning an Academy Award anytime soon!

Much Love,

Resort 2014: Flower Power in 'Moschino Cheap And Chic'

All Flower-Power-ed up are 'Moschino Cheap And Chic' in their Resort 2014 collection. This being one of my favorite seasons I am always looking for collections that show a new and/or improved version of vacation state-of-mind clothing. The perfect Resort collection is in fact the collection that you want to wear to Coachella, but there are two kinds of Resort collections: the obvious beach vibe collection and the not so obvious relaxed but creative collection.
With Moschino's Cheap And Chic Resort 2014 collection we're talking about the second kind. As you might have guessed from the cover photo, they took every hippie's motto: 'Flower Power Is The Way'. Then again a collection can have different angles keeping in mind that it still needs to be cohesive.

My Favorite Look

This is simply my favorite look because they updated the A-line dress. Resort is not really a season to play with volume so they toned it down without sacrificing too much of the basic structure. My favorite thing about this dress is however the hippie effect that this entire collection strongly has: the tie-dye effect. The A-line dress has a certain asymmetric structure but they really didn't pay attention to that when they picked the fabric. I am indeed glad because it totally eliminates the stiff structure that the asymmetric A-line dress has.


Next to my favorite look there are a couple of other looks that caught my eye for many reasons. First of all I have to compliment them on their use of color, the obvious route for a Resort collection would've been bright colors but they concentrated more on pastel colors and colors between pastel and bright shades. The most memorable dress certainly is the one with a sky background with PEACE on it. I'd like to see any of my hippie rolemodels in it any day of the week - floral crown included. The next thing that also caught my eye is a pastel colored green bag in the form of a cast. It's a fun and whimsical way to bring out the goof in everyone. It reminded me a lot of Alice + Olivia's winked eye cardigan.

The rest of the collection is filled with colorful combinations of high waisted skirts, shorts and long sleeved shirts.  

Here are a couple of my favorite looks:

Here is the rest of the collection:

Moschino Cheap And Chic didn't need to apologize for accessorizing, I give them mad props for their bags, glasses, worn out boots and of course floral crowns (it's the hippie thing to do!). I first saw the floral crown on Leighton Meester when she was performing with Check in the Dark. The cherry on top however is the fact that they ended the shoot with floral on floral without it looking like your moms garden.

Much Love,