The Shop that is just so Top

TopShop. Described to me by a friend as "Forever 21 quality at Zara prices". I agree but only to a certain point. Ok, the quality isn't that fabulous and the prices are sky-high, but the ideas are there. TopShop has become, for me, a place of serious inspiration. I guess Kate Moss allows me to walk into a store choc-full of stuff that has been studded, pierced, cowled, jeaned, bleached, cut, draped, diagonal-ed, zippered, bowed etc... and see what's going on in the world. Also, it gives me some absolutely great ideas for DIY projects! The above shoes are so cute! The bows! The height! The colors! I love beige shoes - and these are so girly and fun!

I've always loved backless dresses - I think the back is one of the more beautiful body parts, especially on women, and showing it off is subtly seductive. I think I might make one of my own...

This jacket is amazing. First off, it's white - not so common, but so cool. The shoulders peak right at the line between Balmain and everyday blazers. The single button is also a great feature, although I might not have chosen it in gold.

Love. This. Jacket. Jean with a bad ass buttons and a bleach effect on angled cuts. So 80s with a 21st century flare.

Song of the day: Jan Turkenburg - In My Spaceship (Pilooski Remix)

Let's call it DIY, studs

Lauriane (photo by 4Mika - 4Mika.com)

Lauriane (photo by 4Mika - 4Mika.com)

fig 1.

fig. 2

fig. 3

Military style became particularly trendy after the death of the King of Pop. We saw the gold rope-like embroidery across the chest and epaulettes, which veered into familiar faux shoulder insignia, colorful ribbon strips at the wrists and bright buttons. Of course, we've all seen the boyfriend blazer trend as well. Recently, however, I've noticed an amalgamation of the two with the increase of an edgier side to these looks - studs. There seems to be a punk version of the military jacket and blazer- studded shoulders, studded wrists, studded pockets. Balmain (fig. 1) has created a few of these and I've seen some nice studded lapels at Zara (fig. 2). A couple weeks ago, my brother's girlfriend Lauriane was wearing a plain v-neck grey sweater with the perfect studded detail on the shoulders from Sandro (take a look at the studded Fall '09-'10 collection here: http://www.sandro-paris.com/). Fond of the look, I decided to search for some studs to DIY a sweater myself. I went first to Omer de Serres, an art supply story in Montreal, where one of the employees showed me her studded belt (making sure I was in fact referring to the right peice of metal) and directed me towards St. Denis, to a punk store store called X2O-Rio, where I could find studs. They were selling 10 for $2, so I bought two bags, went home, and carefully folded 5 metal prongs into each shoulder of the sweater. Et voila! Not as nice as last year's Givenchy studded number (fig. 3), but still cool.