Scottish Fashion Awards 2012
Courtesy of Scottish Fashion Awards, Getty

Last night the Clyde Auditorium in Glasgow saw the 2012 edition of the Scottish Fashion Awards. This is the 7th consecutive year of the awards and it looks like they're getting bigger and bigger. I am a big supporter of new independent initiatives like this because, even though the CFDA or the BFC help give exposure and tutor young talent, they're a bit limited to their areas. Hayley Scanlan was the winner of this year's Scottish Young Designer of the Year. You must check out her designs. You may notice certain influences from other British designers in her work, which is a great symptom of how much the British fashion scene is growing at the moment.
Alexa Chung hosted, once again, the award ceremony dressed in one of Kane's designs and following on the shirt-under-dress trend she started herself at the Met Ball. I'm still unsure about it.

Click below on read more to see the full list of winners from last night's Scottish Fashion Awards.

Courtesy of Scottish Fashion Awards

Best Dressed of the Weekend: A lesson in high & low
JustJared

It has been a great weekend for celebrity style both on and off the red carpet!

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley made an appearance at Coachella, for which I am so grateful! Her is the best look I have seen so far this year – until I see pictures of Leandra Medine, that is. I loved Rosie's unbuttoned tux shirt paired with the ultra luxe Christopher Kane SS12 shorts, a powder blue Mulberry bag and chic low boots.

Emma Watson, who had had quite a few misses lately went back to her old cool self in a super rock and roll Miu Miu outfit. The girly mixture of prints is just great and works so well with the leather blazer. There is even a bit of a peplum action going on there. I love!

I have been a fan of Charlize Theron's street style for ages. She can wear anything and make it look like style genius. Proof of that is her checked shirt and khaki trousers combo – how chic is it?!

Scarlett Johansson's style has never been my cup of tea apart from two or three spectacular Dolce moments. But I am loving this Prada look – the colours are elegant yet interesting for evening and the satin peplum does only good things for her like making her waist look tiny. Can we have some more of this?

Best Dressed of the Weekend: No one beats Viviana
JustJared, LeeOliveira.com 

Since the Oscars are tonight and it is only obvious that I will be devoting my Monday posts to the best gowns that walk the red carpet in LA I thought I'd move the Best Dressed of the Week to today. It wouldn't be fair not to talk about these four looks.

My absolute favourite this week is Viviana Volpicella. Every Milan Fashion Week I know that she will not disappoint. It looks like she is already thinking of spring so Viviana went for a head-to-toe MSGM floral ensemble of mismatched prints masterly combined and accessorised with black pumps and one of Sara Battaglia's signature bags.

The Spirit Awards that took place last night also delivered a few jewels that have only got me more excited about tonight. Elizabeth Olsen killed it once more in an exquisite Antonio Berardi number – a combo that makes me very happy! Shailene Woodley also went for a British designer with a Christopher Kane bejewelled top. The genius in this was letting the top be the protagonist. And I loved the golden-tip Loubs, a great touch. Zoe Saldana went for a more relaxed look in a Balmain mini-dress that she made look completely effortless and über-sexy. And I loved the neutral shoes with a killer platform.

Sponsored Video: 'Merino. No Finer Feeling'
Courtesy of Merino

Sometimes we get so wrapped up in fashion-forwardness and designers working with new futuristic materials that we tend to take for granted the ones that actually play a role both on the catwalk and in the day to day of fashion. This is why I thought that the 'Merino. No Finer Feeling' campaign was such a great idea.

The campaign is a 5-year global campaign which aims to educate and inform consumers about the benefits of Merino wool. You might think (I know I did) that you already know about it because you wear it all the time but did you know that Merino Wool is natural, biodegradable and renewable? I didn't. That makes it the perfect eco-fabric to work with. Not to mention how soft it is to the touch. I not only buy my jumpers and scarves in Merino Wool but also my tracksuit bottoms!

And don't think this extends only to classic or high street pieces. Take London Fashion Week designers. Merino Wool was present in all of the biggest SS12 collections shown here – Erdem, Christopher Kane, Jonathan Saunders, Richard Nicoll, Acne, Burberry Prorsum, Paul Smith, Mulberry, Markus Lupfer. Impressive, huh?

Merino have also recently relaunched their website, Merino.com, where you can learn everything about the fibre itself and all its different uses as well as news.

*This post is sponsored by Merino

Style.com, Know Wear

The Comunications Store press day was exactly the kind of place where you'd like to get lost. Not only because of its size (they took over half of Somerset House) but because the rooms where filled with some of the best SS12 collections.

One of the lines I was most excited to be closer to was Christopher Kane's –attending the show and interviewing Kane this season was one of my LFW highlights.

It was an incredible feeling to be able to touch all the pieces. The aluminium organza tops, which were extremely light, looked so expensive and chic. The embellished tops, in contrast, weighted quite a bit but I was simply amazed by the amount of work that must have been needed to hand-make these pieces to such detail.

The embellished bags are definitely going to be one of the hits from this collection for next season. They are perfect for a smart evening look but could look super cool with jeans and a Chanel-style jacket too. The same goes for Kane's embellished jeans, which reminded me to Lagerfeld's couture creations for Chanel's spring line.

I just can't wait for my favourite fashion editors to be sporting these looks for the FW12 fashion week season.

Style.com, Telegraph Fashion

It's funny how during London Fashion Week this season I kept running into Eliza Doolittle. I've obviously never met her but we kept being sat opposite each other and after 2 or 3 shows where this happened you could tell that she found it as amusing as I did. She's not only really beautiful in person but she's got this really cool vibe.
My favourite two looks of her were both Christopher Kane. It was kind of lucky that London gave us one or two sunny days because it left room for people to give Resort 2012 a shot. I love the whole Christopher Kane cruise collection, as you might remember me saying a few months ago.
I loved Eliza in the rainbow jumper (I sat opposite her at Christopher Kane when she was wearing this). She totally feeling the colour blocking that day and I love how she wore a very casual outfit with really high platform pumps. I don't think this would've worked on many people but on her looks ace! And I loved, of course, the asymmetric tangerine dress with the pleated skirt. This might sound silly but I love the contrast of the straight pleats with her long curly hair.

Chic or not: The Geriatric Sandal
Style.com

Yesterday, looking through the new collections from Paris, I found this pair of 'classic' flip-flops Stella McCartney included in her SS12 collection. They instantly reminded me of the style of shoe Christopher Kane chose a couple of weeks ago to show his collection in London.
I remember people were commenting on Christopher's shoes after the show. They were slightly confused  as to the reason why they looked like orthopaedic sandals for kids. Personally, though I can't see fashionable people wearing them, I thought they were interesting in the context of the show. They had that Tavi-esque quirkiness to them that doesn't appeal to everyone but is nonetheless intriguing.
Stella McCartney's feel more traditional in comparison. Like those 60's flip-flops your dad had for years and years and your mum made him stop wearing.

What do you think?

Style.com, LuisaViaRoma

One of the things that used to drive me a little crazy when Project Runway started about 9 years ago was how unaware all the designers were of what the big names were doing on the runway. This, of course, is arguably a good or bad thing –the way I see it, you need to know what the competition is doing.

During this new season of the show we've already seen some clear references to other designers, especially McQueen, which keeps coming up on the judges' comments too. In last week's episode the only similarity between the contestants' work and the high fashion runway was the picture of an angry dog that served as inspiration for one of the dresses.

The final result was hideous but it seemed interesting to me how the girl who painted the picture, whose Christopher Kane dress made it evident that she knows fashion, might have been somehow influenced by Riccardo Tisci's f/w11 Rottweiler menswear collection.

I also loved Viktor in one of Prada's famous s/s11 shirts. It was about time some of the designers started dressing well because I will never understand how you can make beautiful things if you can't start with dressing yourself well.

Style.com, Gel-collared shirt, gel-detail dress and PVC gel clutch all @ Net-a-Porter

Christopher Kane is one of the reasons London Fashion Week makes me so excited season after season. His last FW11 collection was particularly genius. I found the crochet pieces that opened the show quite interesting but it was the second half of the show that made the collection so amazing.
I'm hoping to see many of the LBDs with the PVC gel detailing on people like Alexa Chung, who already wore a dress from this collection to the Met Gala, and Kate Bosworth.
It's so cool how the blue and green gel and the wavy lines make the pieces so fun and how they give dresses a different feel as they change the way they move. One of my favourite items, which wasn't shown on the catwalk, is the white shirt with the PVC collar. It could make such a playful office look with a black tube skirt and a blazer and it would look great with skinny jeans and a pair of brogues (Alexa, take note).
The clutches come in a number of colours and, if you can afford them, would give a nice touch to an evening look. They remind me a lot of a pencil case I used to have in school. Maybe that's why I love the collection so much.

Style.com

This collection made me excited about Resort! Who other than Christopher Kane, one of my favourite London designers, could take a cruise collection (the most commercial of all) and do something extremely creative with it!

At first look, I wasn't too convinced about the rainbow theme. It is one of those things that just seems to obvious. But as I kept clicking through to more looks I started changing my mind. It was probably the silver lame dress with the pleated skirt and collar and the rainbow top that changed my view on the collection.

The cuts are quite simple but very Kane. Classic necklines and uneven hemlines. But what I loved most was the combination of materials. Only looking at the pictures I can't tell if a dress is PVC, silk or lace. But the fact that something might look like something it's now makes it exciting for me.

I absolutely loved the neon green sandals and a few of the pieces outside the rainbow thread like this stunning pink number.

Who's that girl?

I normally don't pay too much attention to celebrities I don't know so it's something of an event when I start remembering a face whose name I don't know. And that's what happened with Teresa Palmer. She started popping up here and there when she was said to be dating Adam Brody (a downgrade from Rachel Bilson, if you ask me) but I didn't notice her until the last few weeks when she started her press tour for the film 'I am number four'. I was surprised to see such a relatively unknown name wearing key SS11 looks from big brands. She looked pretty incredible in the turquoise Pucci mini dress and its black maxi cousin but it was the two Versus SS11 looks (one below and one here) and a Christopher Kane (despite the dreadful hairstyle) that really impressed me. She still has a lot to learn but she's definitely one to look out for.

I'm off.

[Pictures: Zimbio.com]

You got Kane'd

Just as it happened to Miu Miu, Versus is walking steadily towards establishing itself as a respected fashion label rather than a giant's diffusion line. Ever since Donatella Versace brought Christopher Kane on board three seasons ago Versus started to become the young, cool and sexy tentacle of the Medusa's head. The SS11 collection was a repetition of über-girly shapes, plaid and florals. It was almost reminiscent of Luella's rebel Punk schoolgirl is she had ever been to boarding school in Italy. Button downs, plaited skirts and badged cardigans were the protagonists. And it's there where we could see Kane's mark —in the Westwood-esque stripes, the sheer tartan and his unmistakable geometric shapes and skirt pleating. More in line with the season's trends, we saw some mesh and some rather clever colour blocking with florals and circusy dresses.

I'm off.

PS. This is the last from Milan. Stay tuned for all the fashion from Paris. Dries Van Noten today! Follow us on twitter for up-to-the minute-updates!

[Pictures: Style.com]

Bring on LFW

With fashion month approaching I can't but start getting excited. Especially about the SS11 shows that will take place in London. I always enjoy LFW because everything feels so fresh and different from any other fashion week. These are the designers that surprised me the most or that I simply loved last season and whose spring lines I can't wait to see. Who are you dying to see?

I'm off.

[Pictures: Style.com]

Alba's roller-coasting edge

Just yesterday Giulia and I were ranting about various fashion stuff and saying how we both always make comments like "agh, Diane Kruger in black and white again. Give me a break" and two days later Bosworth is wearing bright prink. Maybe out flats are wired. Or maybe we're simply delusional. Anyway, yesterday we discussed Jessica Alba's amazing Christopher Kane dress for her Jimmy Kimmel interview. We commented on how she's kind of being a little edgier and how much we liked it. And what happened this morning? There pictures of Alba from Genlux magazine were released. The shoot cannot be called edgy per se, it is kind of going away from her usual 'plain-but-pretty' Vogue US looks.

Apart from the slightly creepy doll theme which I'm quite digging, I absolutely love all the Marni in the editorial. It was one of the top FW10 collections for me and, while I love the fact that we rarely get to see it on paper, I love it when it kind of trickles down to mainstream fashion.

In terms of her personal fashion, Jessica Alba is often right and occasionally spot-on but always very inconsistent. There have been some amazing moments in the last few weeks like the one in Proenza Schouler below and the incredible Christopher Kane one I mentioned before.

What do you make of Jessica Alba's personal style?
I'm off.

[Pictures: Celebrity-Gossip.net, JustJared.buzznet.com, Zimbio.com]

wear Summer, day and night

I have never been too fond of graphic prints on clothing. I always found them a bit tacky and I got easily tired of them. S/S10 has changed this for me thanks to the creations from the hands of Prada, Maison Martin Margiela and Christopher Kane (from his Cruise 2010). Their palm tree, beach landscape and sunset prints together with the general 60's vibe of the season are the perfect way to spice up short/t-shirt summer combinations. I am currently trying to get myself a Kane sunset tee, which one would you go for?

Clockwise from left: Maison Martin Margiela palm tee @ Net-a-Porter, Maison Martin Margiela ladscape tee @ Browns, Prada beach scene dress, Maison Martin Margiela palm tree dress, Prada yellow beach dress.

Clockwise from left: Christopher Kane sunset tee @ Net-a-Porter, Prada palm tree shorts, Christopher Kane sunset trousers, Christopher Kane sunset dress, Maison Martin Margiela degradé jeans @ Browns.

[Pictures: as credited, Style.com]

I'm off.

embroidered flowers

I have been blogging a lot about celebrities in the past few days, which is not because I intend to but because I am ever astonished at the amount of FW10 pieces that we have seen at events only a couple of weeks after fashion month came to an end. In any case, this has to be one of my favourite celebrity moments so far (in regards to FW10, that is). Emma Watson has that classic British mixture of neatness, coolness and casualness that works great with any dress. She pretty much rocked this Christopher Kane with embroidered leather and lace (one of my favourite collections of the season). I specially loved how the sides of the slightly A-shape skirt have been tucked in for her to give the dress a more body-con and young silhouette. Do you love Kemma? (Kane/Emma - I know, I am hilarious).

[Pictures: Style.com, JustJared]

I'm off.

PS. Do you follow us on tumblr yet? Click here and get twice as much soVIPzone!

15 essentials for SS10

Every season, together with the must-have bags and shoes, lists are made about the key silhouettes, colours, textures and garments that a woman must add to add the required savviness to her wardrobe. We have chosen our soVIP essentials for SS10 with a selection of our all-time favourite designers, the most acclaimed of the season and a couple new additions.

1. David Delfín's hospital green, 2. Marni's head scarves, 3. Chloé's denim patchwork, 4. Céline's structure, 5. Rag & Bone's jersey harems, 6. Isabel Marant's cropped tweed, 7. Prada's palm landscapes, 8. Dries Van Noten's printed wraps, 9. Prada's bejewelled-ness, 10. Stella McCartney's denim, 11. Givenchy's stripes, 12. Altuzarra's suede and lace, 13. Preen's fuzziness, 14. Christopher Kane's gingham, 15. Alexander Wang's leather and jersey.

[Pictures: Style.com]

I'm off.

happy birthday to moi

Every year the world celebrates the date of my birth my marking the 21st of March as the kick-off of the Spring. I'm not sure about other parts of the world but here in London it still feels too grey to get into the SS10 mood (as much as my beige Lanvin's scream to get them out). However, I have been present-hunting for weeks and these are part of the (hundreds?) of the splendid pieces I have found in my touring of my three favourite spots to shop —Browns, Liberty's and Matches.

Left to right and top to bottom: Dries Van Noten linen jacket @ Browns, Burberry Prorsum biker jacket @ Liberty's, 3.1 Phillip Lim plaid jumper @ Matches, Comme des Garçons appliquéd blazer @ Browns, Acne check shirt @ Matches, Christopher Kane atomic tee @ Matches, Liberty of London check shirt, E Tautz striped jumper @ Macthes, Burkman Bros patterned shorts @ Liberty's, Comme des Garçons trousers @ Browns, Linda Farrow for Dries Van Noten sunglasses @ Liberty's, Balenciaga graphic tee @ Matches, Dries Van Noten printed scarf @ Browns, Lanvin straw hat @ Browns, Bottega Veneta suede derby shoes @ Browns.

[Pictures: BrownsFashion.com, LibertyofLondon.co.uk, MatchesFashion.com]

Feel free to drop me an email asking for my address. No one will blame you for wanting to thank me for my amazing contribution to fashion by means of a piece of designer-wear. ...I jest, of course, or do I?

I'm off.

king of the heel

So I finally got around finishing checking the details section of Syle.com and giving my first go at photoshop. And, boy, did it take long... Try and ignore any flaws your eyes may spot and concentrate on the shoes. FW10 offered a variety of heels, but it seemed quite evident that the stiletto is back to reclaim its place as king of the heels. We only saw a few wedges or chunkier heels courtesy of Bottega Veneta, Fendi, Marni and Prada. The key is on the shoe details rather than on the shape. Concerning materials, we saw plenty of the usual croc and ostrich but also embroidered leather (Christopher Kane), shearling interiors (Burberry Prosum) and metallic flower applique. These are our favourites.

Top to bottom and left to right: Bottega Veneta, Burberry Prorsum, Christopher Kane, Fendi, Emilio Pucci, Lanvin, Phillip Lim, Givenchy, Miu Miu, Prada, Rodarte, Prada, Prada.

[Pictures: Style.com]

I'm off.

Milan highlights

Whether is was entirely due to Anna Wintour's preferences or not, Milan fashion week occurred way too fast. We almost didn't have enough time to savour every collection the way they deserved. As it happened in London, the Italians proved that they know the direction they're going and that they haven't lost that savoire faire that first made them so popular. For the first time, I have organised the collections in order of my liking (excluding, of course, Marni and No. 21 which deserved special mention). Dolce & Gabbana pleasantly surprised me this season rooting back to their great basics and putting special emphasis in power dressing. Gucci, who in past seasons seemed unfocused, came back better than ever with an ode to Tom Ford times. While Donatella is still trying to find something that deserves having his brother's name on the tag, Christopher Kane's intervention at Versus succeeded in bringing the brand back into fashion from obsoleteness. —What's your favourite?

[Pictures: Style.com]

I'm off.