Must Read Issue of Flare

Ok, Ok so I am biased - after all I am in one of the articles! The lovely people at Flare magazine asked me a few questions about vintage and the new trend towards a retro look and how to make it all work - see the full size version on the SC press page or just go buy the issue why don cha already xoxox

I Die!

This story is on the NY Times Style Magazine blog today - I think I am in heaven!
AND I am soooooo proud of my latest designer team
- Silhouettes & Profiles -
their beautiful items deserve the accolades!

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Shop Talk | Silhouettes and Profiles

By LYNN HIRSCHBERG

December 15, 2009, 1:48 pm

Courtesy of Shrimpton Couture

The designers behind Silhouettes and Profiles made “The Kira” with leftover metallic lace from an Oscar de la Renta collection.

Since I wear only vintage clothes, I spend a lot of time at Silhouettes and Profiles. The brilliant Irene Tcherniakhovsky has been perfecting my wardrobe there for the last 10 years. Recently I was bringing in a pile of repairs and I noticed this dress on display. Assuming it belonged to a customer, I checked for a label, but Irene told me that she and her co-worker, Anna Drugovahad, designed the dress. It’s called “The Kira” — black lace with a slightly empire waist and a wide grosgrain ribbon that subtly shapes the garment and makes it flattering to every figure. It’s the perfect party dress. It comes in four different fabrics, including a metallic lace left over from an Oscar de la Renta collection, and the quality is on the level of couture. At $500 dollars, “The Kira” is the best dress I have seen in a long time. It almost looks vintage.

Much Fun Had by All

Gorgeous intern Alli in a dress from Silhouettes & Profiles
See the full collection here

Things and life have been a bit of a whirlwind lately.

I jetted off to London to hunt for some new vintage frocks for Shrimpton Couture (watch the site this week for some of those to appear), partook in intimate Trunk show for a client and her friends and have brought a brand new line to Shrimpton Couture called Silhouettes & Profiles - they design drop dead one of a kind gorgeous dresses using vintage fabrics that they source from all corners of the earth.

Shrimpton Couture also made a bit of a splash here and there on the web this week. Wendy B posted about her and I finally meeting in real life (and she is wearing a dress from Shrimpton Couture so that alone is worth the jump over). I lent out some vintage and the last remaining harness from Norwegian Wood for Shrimpton Couture for a photoshoot for Toronto Magazine Eye Weekly (the online version is here but sadly only has the teeniest of photos - I am trying to get more and will update if I do - meanwhile here is the online article). And the Northwest Herald mentions a Glamourai Ring for Shrimpton Couture in its article on "Investing in one Great Piece!"

Tons of beautiful dresses listing this week!

HUGE mega Catch Up Post

I know I have not been blogging as regularly lately. The shop has been so busy its been hard to juggle it all! So Today I am going to do a HUGE mega catch up post of all the fab happenings of the last week or so! In no particular order - here we go:

First I get hassled all the time about my lack of self-costume posts here on the blog so when I was invited to a dinner party thrown by one of my best friends and UBER talented Interior Designer Lee Ann, of Beaux Arts Interior, I suffered through a mini photo shoot just to quiet you all down for at least a few weeks, les sigh

(wearing a vintage kimono coat that might be listed soon if I don't keep it myself, a Temperley London dress, vintage Chanel necklace & Gucci shoes)

Now on to a enviable vintage costume post:

Kristen Davis wore vintage Milla Schon last week and looked fabulous

Kelly who is the designer behind The Glamouria line, wore her own self designed Crystalline Crumble Collar that was available in the shop up until yesterday but has just sold - sorry peeps - should have grabbed it when you could have!

Meanwhile, my beautiful client and author of the blog Golden Means posted own self wearing another of The Glamourai's creations. How fabulous!

I posted SEVEN new RSVP dresses today

A new semi-precious ring collection just landed in the shop today as well

(CAN you say HUGE? And drop dead FABULOUS - go peek)

And I was pretty pleased to bring an entire NEW collection from the UBER talented Anita Quansah to the site today - She has collaborated with Christian LaCroix in the past - WOW
MUST GO SEE

This 1970s Fish Print gown sold to one of my favorite clients and I was sad to see it go - I can't believe it has not been long gone.
I always have suspected it was a Lanvin but it has not label - bye fishies!

I finally found a digital copy of this picture. I have been hunting for it for a bit - I LOVE the doors and want to use this feel as a possible inspiration for my future permanent studio space. Rustic creams blended with some of the best fabrics on the planet - perfection, no?

I spoiled myself and scooped this coat this week!
Shhhhh don't even tell My Guy a HINT that I did this - will be so in the couture dog house
*wink*

This is a sneak peek preview of a new Look Book story coming soon, shot by the talented Jennifer Cress - and yes that is this rather NON-sexy looking 1960s silk Travilla -
see what styling can do for a dress - yowza

Speaking of fabulous photos - this is from Kelly's blog today to celebrate her week of guest blogging on - ummm on THE LUCKY MAGAZINE SITE. Yep our very own gorgeous girl is guest blogging there all week. I sent her a couple of skirts from the shop to use for some shoots so you might just recognize this little 1950s Hand Painted Mexican Skirt.
Its famous now :-)

And that was my week!

Bye Bye

Shrimpton Press - The National Post

Can't believe I did not post this here! The National Post ran a story on the shop Saturday!
Link here to read the on-line verion!

Shout Out - Collectors Weekly

The nice folks at The Collector's Weekly asked me to do an interview about collecting vintage dresses. I immediately said YES as they have a fantastic site that is chock full of resources for collectors of both vintage and a ton of other things as well!

The interview is now up so I would love if you hopped over and gave it a read.
Its fairly long (Bet they did not know I can chat for hours on the subject - poor girl on the other end of the phone - chatted her ear off I did) so grab a coffee or glass of wine and enjoy! I hope you like it.

Click here to jump!

www.shrimptoncouture.com is to vintage clothing as net-a-porter.com is to designer duds

- the huffington post

WOW

For once I am utterly speechless
Click here to read the write-up The Huffington Post has done on
"Where to Find the Best Vintage Clothing on the Web"

Press! Got some Canadian Love Today

I was contacted by a lovely journalist a few weeks back - Suzanne Wexler - who asked for some background from a vintage perspective on the whole one shoulder trend! I almost jumped for joy - you all know my obsession with that look!

The story came out yesterday and I just received the link. I have copied it here for you all to see! Thank you so much Suzanne! You where fabulous to speak to!

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Baring arms
By SUZANNE WEXLER, Special to The Gazette

Kate Winslet at the Academy Awards in February.
Photograph by: Kevork Djansezian, Getty Images

The one-armed Jane - Tarzan's gal pal - is coming on strong this summer on the runways, red carpets and Winners outlets near you.

And most fellas don't like it. After the initial "Huh?'' some eyes can re-regulate to the concept - depending.

"I really hated Kate's dress at first," said Access Hollywood commentator Steve Harding about Kate Winslet's Oscar gown, a one-armed blue-grey satin Atelier Yves Saint Laurent. Eventually, he liked the dress more and more - only after he saw other starlets wearing the same style, but worse. "Kate's was the best," he said, just after the Feb. 22 Oscar ceremony.

The asymmetrical trend even puzzled some female stylists at first. "I actually wasn't the biggest fan of asymmetrical," said Montreal's Cristina Acevedo, who dressed Creature Band for this year's Juno Awards and will be styling The Stars and Broken Social Scene for their coming albums.

"I found that (asymmetrical) didn't really give any one look - classic, beautiful or edgy."

Asymmetrical tops pull the eye in all sorts of directions, from the arm to the neck and up to the face, so all that extra effort had better point our gaze somewhere worthwhile. For edgy gals, it may lead our eyes to a flower or even a turban - which is what Kate Moss wore with her silver asymmetrical mini Marc Jacobs dress to a gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in May.

But ladies who can direct our eyes toward something symbolically large - like toward hope, to a baby, or a dashing new president - are the ones who've truly dazzled in asymmetrical in the last year.

Think of Michelle Obama at the Inaugural Ball in January with her white chiffon Jason Wu gown.

The new president's goofy smile said it all:

"How good looking is my wife?" a charmed Barack Obama asked the press that night. Like a moving statue - not a dinky trophy - the first lady's dignified drape swished as she danced. Her bold character, paired with that classical dress, made her the perfect embodiment of a Greek goddess.

Other memorable asymmetrical looks this year were worn by breast cancer survivor Christina Applegate at the Screen Actors Guild awards (in green) and Heidi Klum, who donned an off-the-shoulder disco silver mini dress, with a cape, to the Council of Fashion Designers of America awards in June. Her look was radiant, especially with her enormous pregnant belly.

Who looked the worst? Most would agree that Heather Graham looked ridiculous at the premiere of The Hangover in June, with the outlines of her nipples visible through a shapeless bright blue asymmetrical dress by Michelle Jonas, and a peace sign dangling around her neck.

In her book Seeing Through Clothes, art and costume historian Anne Hollander explains the significance of asymmetrical dress in paintings.

Prior to the 15th century, she says, asymmetrical dresses were worn by the suckling Mother of Christ or the fighting all-female Amazon warriors of ancient Greece. (Amazons, rumoured to have pinched off one breast for ease of combat, were always depicted in painting and sculpture with two full breasts, one that was showing and the other still covered.)

These images usually came with partial nudity - as in, the fabric slung so low that a naked breast was revealed. The woman appeared to be in motion and pre-occupied with a greater cause, which denoted "unselfconscious movement," Hollander writes, helping to conceal any erotic connotations of the breast.

However, dishevelled frocks and exposed flesh eventually took on more heated connotations, including an "emotional disarray," signalling that "unsettling events were under way," Hollander says.

Even though the asymmetrical look has been worn often through the years (think Jennifer Beals in the 1980s movie Flashdance), those who wore it before were often powerful muses - an important point to keep in mind before throwing one on.

In the modern age, the trend seems to have resurfaced from the disco dancing '70s era with designer Roy Halston.

Halston, who brought the one-armed jungle dress look and Grecian glamour gown together, boasted cocktail dresses with asymmetrical tops and skirts that swirled as you twirled. His designs were popular with Bianca Jagger and Elizabeth Taylor.

"Five years ago, you couldn't sell a one-shoulder dress if you tried," said Cherie Federau, an avid Halston collector and owner of www.ShrimptonCouture.com, a full e-commerce vintage site based outside of Toronto.

But, she says, ever since stylist Rachel Zoe and Jimmy Choo founder Tamara Mellon were spotted everywhere in vintage Halstons - only to relaunch the label last year - the one-shoulder look was everywhere.

"Now a high-end vintage original can be $1,200 to $2,500," Federau says. Her clients include Courtney Love Cobain and the Boston Museum of Art, which just purchased a dress for their permanent collection.

Federau explains how asymmetrical Halstons won over her heart:

"The pieces actually change when they're worn on the body," she says. "They tend to be very fluid and loose and really capture the feel of the '70s - freedom, glamour, and women coming into their own after the constraints of the past era."

Another relaunched vintage brand that Federau says is doing great is Hervé Léger, which is designed by BCBG's Max Azria and his wife, Lubov.

In 2008 the couple re-launched Léger line, which was famous in the '80s and '90s for Egyptian-inspired mummy snug bandage dresses.

Azria's Hervé Léger numbers are more casual and form fitting than many of the draping goddess gowns he designs for his other labels, BCBG and Max Azria (though also more expensive). As such, they tend to attract the exercise queens of the world - probably because they're the only women who can wear them.

In fact, just a few weeks before her blue gown blunder, busty glamazon Heather Graham gleamed in a golden one-shoulder Léger at a Vegas magazine event in May. She appeared like a perfectly shiny trophy gal and a must to Vegas's wild nightlife. Her look inspired thoughts of vodka tonics and slot machines. The glitzy asymmetrical number suited her much more.

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