Sale mania has now started, Urban Outfitters are starting the ball rolling with up to 50% off designer brands including Luella, Acne, See by Chloe, Anglomania, Paul & Joe Sister.

You need to be quick though as at 50% there won’t be much around for long!

The Louis Vuitton bunny ears are sóóó 2009, darling. If you want to be on trend, forget the bunny ears and start wearing Minnie Mouse ears. To complete the look wear a fifties polkadot dress with cute little pumps…

No, I’m not kidding, the mouse ears are everywhere at the moment. It started this Fall with the Mochino Cheap & Chic collection, then Luella came with the bows-dress-pumps look, and in the December 2009 issue of Vogue Germany, model Chanel Iman stars in a fashion spread influenced by miss Minnie Mouse.

Here’s the proof:

Luella, Spring 2010 collection

Dolce & Gabbana Minnie Mouse t-shirt, don’t know what season…..

Moschino Cheap & Chic, Fall 2009

Vogue Germany, December 2009

Vogue Russia

Minnie in real life, pictures from lookbook.com: 

 (B., show this post to your boss, he obviously doesn’t know what he’s talking about!)

eah
we

The new, no frills approach to the “babydoll” look.

i spent a lovely day mooching around town, ogling christmas displays, gathering ideas of what to get my friends for christmas, and planning what i want for christmas too.

i had a fantastic time in liberty’s at their luella christmas, and loooved their window displays; a giant red robin made of tinsel, lots of christmas-y nostalgia and a christmas scene dedicated to the fantastic mr fox (who is fantastic btw, did you ever get to see the film? i loved it!)

so, i’ve put together a little ‘dear santa’ list of all the things i wish for this christmas:

‘patti’ jeans, reiss 1971; erdem girl diary, smythson; diana f+ colette, lomography; scribble stem mugs, orla kiely; liberty print creme de corps, kiehls @ liberty; long quilted leather gloves, oasis;  ‘antoine’ belt, reiss 1971; mini casio watch, urban outfitters;  marc jacobs eau de parfum, space nk;  nars 15 palette, space nk;  miu miu studded leather messenger bag, net-a-porter

I don’t know which I like best: the military look or the nautical look. I think I’m leaning towards the latter; sailor-style simple stripes (great bit of alliteration there) are the way to go. Want to start working this look? Head to Urban Outfitters!

A nautical-stripe tee with a wide boat (see the pun there) neckline is casual and will blend effortlessly into any outfit. Dress this up or down- it’s up to you. £28.00.

This t-shirt is by Luella, so it’s obviously going to be divine. I love the way the navy trimmings contrast with the off-white fabric, and I think that the bow on the front with the stitch-detailing is lovely. £145.

We are in a recession, so I suppose it’s a good thing that, if you buy it, this boobtube won’t break the bank. Follow the lead of the UO fashion team and team this with a gold necklace and a black bodycon skirt. You should probably wear tights too- not just because it’s winter, but also because you don’t want to reveal too much flesh. £14.

And finally, because we all need accessories, I have to show you this necklace from Tatty Devine (more on them later, because I adore the brand and am planning to create a blog post about them in the near future). It’s so cute! I want one! £27.

All items featured are available from urbanoutfitters.co.uk.

please HELP to save Luella:

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Luella.com

My faverite one, Luella Bartley.
Luella is the label of choice for the streetwise British girl-about-town and is regularly worn by London gossip-page royalty Alexa Chung, Lily Allen and the Geldof sisters. The designer once described her look as “the kind of clothes you can get drunk and fall over in”.

This leopard print beret from Accessorize is only £16. It gives a subtle nod to the animal-print trend, so it’s good for those who aren’t planning on sporting a leopard-print jacket anytime soon. I ordered mine yesterday.

At £83, I don’t think I’m going to be buying this unless it hits the sale but, OH MY GOD, I love it! I am a huge fan of cosmic prints. This t-shirt dress is from Urban Outfitters, designed by Australian brand Something Else. Well, the print certainly is something else…

Yes, I know that they are from the Spring/Summer collection, but these ‘John’ shorts from Luella are still on my wishlist. They’re reduced to £87.50 now. I could ask for them for Christmas, I suppose, but unfortunately they no longer have my size in stock… Actually, I just checked the website and they don’t even stock my size at all! Boo. Oh well. If you can snap these lovelies up, then you should.

These fingerless mittens from Lowie are available from Labour of Love for £41. I discovered Lowie in December 2008 at the Clothes Show Live. The brand- which I’d never heard of before- had a stall there and there was a lovely lady behind the till. I picked up a quaint little knitted snood, with red and white stripes, which had no price on. The woman sold it to me for £5. There was a Lowie label and tag attached to the snood, though, including a web address. I went on their website (www.ilovelowie.com) to discover that Lowie products are generally much more than £5! So I was lucky. I shall look out for Lowie when I go to the Clothes Show this year (which is just over a week away, hurray).

I am a Cath Kidston devotee. I have 4 bags, 2 make-up bags, 2 duvet covers, a quilt, 4 pillowcases, 2 wallets, a suitcase, a pocket mirror and a plethora of other things from the brand. I just love it. I love the prints and the quality of the items. The hankies- like this bird print one for £6- are a nice thing to tie around the handle of an otherwise boring handbag.

Where to buy:

www.accessorize.com
www.urbanoutfitters.com
www.luella.com
www.labour-of-love-shop.com
www.cathkidston.com

I used to love watching Popworld on Channel 4 at the weekends. Alexa Chung’s style plus Alex Zane’s sense of humour  was, in my eyes, a perfect combination. Alas, the series ended in 2007 , but Alexa’s style continues to inspire me.

Alexa and Alex back in the Popworld days

Chung epitomises British style, regularly donning Luella dresses (she is a huge Luella fan who has recently been urging her followers on Twitter to “Save Luella” after hearing the news of the designer’s recent financial crisis) and Burberry trenches and carrying Mulberry bags. Her outfits are always wonderful and she pulls them off effortlessly. She knows what suits her and sticks to it. Also, she knows how to pull off a perfect balance of designer, high street and vintage in her outfits. I love that.

Life isn’t fair. Alexa has it all: lovely clothes, tiny legs and a gorgeous boyfriend.

Alexa with boyfriend Alex Turner

Here are a few of my favourite Alexa looks:

Don’t take the title too literally.

Hahaha it’s funny how everything ends up in a cycle, couture becomes second-hand becomes vintage becomes antique becomes couture. French fries become fat become gym membership become skinny become french fries. And now runways become teen-blogger talk become designer talk become runways. Yes, this season the designers went back to (their interpretation of) childhood. We saw backpacks, kittens and birds and dogs, chunky heels, mary janes, pre-adolescent models (and A-lines, ruching and layers to accommodate their underdeveloped bodies), jackets, peacoats, collared shirts, peter-pan collars, lots of bows (in the hair) and hearts and polka-dots, pleated skirts, braids, afro’s, tweed, ruffles, awkward layering, pink, navy, orange, thigh high socks and even a ring binder inspired clutch at Miu Miu

With a (thank god!) injection of…sexy! Or as Style.com’s Sarah Mower said about Christopher Kane’s ss10 collection “Pretty yet perverted, innocent yet disturbing- At Miu Miu we saw an artistic naked print all over the dresses, shirts and skirt…(who doesn’t want that!), conservative dresses were updated with not-so conservative panels, fabric were sequin and crystal sprayed, there was transparency, a lot of it, hems were chopped short and sportswear was made out of revealing netting.- All hail Muccia Prada who does Miu Miu, she reinvented the 14-year-old, kept her geekyness and laughter but made her sexy, sophisticated and professional. “I was questioning innocence, questioning youth.”

(images via Style.com)

But is it really surprising? No! What was Nicole Phelps talking about when she reviewed Miu Miu? “They didn’t quite fit into this season’s naïf narrative. But they did make playing grown-up look like a lot of fun.”(she’s right about the second part!) With teenage bloggers rising to new heights (think Tavi Gevinson from Style Rookie on the cover of Pop, Bryan from BryanBoy at Marc Jacobs -got a bag named after him- and Vogue Russia, Jane Aldridge from Sea of Shoes at Elle and Crillion dressed in Chanel Haute Couture and Noa Leijdesdorff from Brains and Beauty at London Fashion Week and NET-A-PORTER.com) “Talks to her friends on the phone like an Editor in Chief talks to her PA, stomping around like mini Editors shooting street-style pictures like Mini Sartorialists and getting press passes confiscated by security for being underage” (a not so kind but humorous piece) written by Isaac Lock about Noa Leijdesdorff for the LFW Daily. It’s teenbloggers that constantly push designers boundaries, we have no needy publisher to satisfy or important advertiser to hold on to…we can say exactly what we think. We’ve gone back to having total absolute fun something lost sometimes in the commerciallll environment these days.-

One word about Louis Vuitton ss10, yesyesyes when you separate all the fabrics and pieces and accessories -I mean come on, you can recognize Marc Jacobs styling in 1 second…horror horror- you can see beauty, but lets not get carried away shall we? Marc Jacobs is a genius, and he likes to have fun, and go crazy, and wear skirts…and we love him! But Louis Vuitton is bought by le riche! And the 14 year olds we know don’t shop Vuitton, it’s the 44 year olds…maybe he’ll have to rework this one slightly for the hanger. Marc we’ll forgive you for this one, the music, starting two minutes early without half of the front row arriving and “so wrong they’re so right” clogs made up for some lost points.

What were your thoughts on Miu Miu, Luella and Louis Vuitton? Do you think teenage bloggers really are inspiring the catwalk? Let us know by dropping a comment or sending an email to brainsbeauty@live.co.uk

XX Brains + Beauty

this photo

luella

a wall of bed linens, enough said.

zooey deschanel with some champagne

marionette show via the blue hour

i bought this top yesterday at gap

david bowie + tea in his kitchen

this photo because i miss the lake

kirsten dunst’s style

this photo via wet behind the ears

I’m sure by now we’ve all heard the news; one-time cool girl line Luella will not be selling anymore. I really only heard of the line while in the Vogue offices, but I remember it sure was a funky brand.

Owner Luella Bartley started the line in 1999 after a stint as a Fashion Journalist for Vogue, The Face and Dazed. She experienced success designing for US retailer Target’s Go International line and launching a limited edition bag collection in Hong Kong, she was also in high demand by the likes of countless slebrities including Cate Blanchett, Kate Bosworth, Reese Witherspoon and Sienna Miller.

You can still get whatever’s left at Net-A-Porter, FarFetch and Colette.

Notícia triste para o mundo da moda. A marca inglesa Luella, que já mostrei aqui no blog no post sobre a semana de moda de Londres foi “forçada” a fechar. Isso aconteceu por que o principal fornecedor da marca, a confecção italiana Carla Carini fechou as portas mês passado, impossibilitando a produção da nova coleção, que por sinal foi muito elogiada. Depois disso o principal investidor da marca decidiu não apoiar mais a marca. (ou seja: pulou do barco gritando: salve-se quem puder!)

É péssimo quando isso acontece, não é a primeira nem será a última vez. Em 2005 a dupla britânica/mineira Clements Ribeiro passou por uma situação parecida.

Agora é sentar e rezar.

Luella! Te amamos!

by zazoza

bolsa de couro luella forrada com camurça. usada, em perfeito estado. modelo semelhante ao “gisele”. comprada já de segunda mão. 500 + frete.

1. Jason Wu will collab with Yue [Stylelist]

2. Save Luella! [Fashionista]

3. Emanuel Ungaro has dug his own grave. The label was just dropped by Neiman Marcus and Net-A-Porter. Outside of his own stores and Vivaldi, the label cannot be found. By this rate Ungaro will turn into a novelty item. [Style.com]

4. Rumor has it Ashley Simpson may be on Vogue. But, that’s not why she appears in retail news. She’s aiming high with preppy-punk designs brought to you by the ex-Melrose Place actress – sign of a girl with too much time on her hands. [Hollyscoop]

5. Despite losses in Q1 and Q2, Bulgari sees $10 million Q3 profits. Oh joy! [WWD]

6. Zero+Maria Cornejo will debut a full menswear collection for the spring. [Racked]

7. It’s time to rack up the flights to Finland. Trade in your Finnair airline frequent-flier miles for plastic surgery. Your eyes aren’t decieving you. We said plastic surgery. [Allure]

Last week, the sad news hit that Luella had ceased trading after ‘a key financial backer had withdrawn funding‘. This news came as a real shock, especially as the day before, Liberty’s of London, the iconic and quintessentially British department store, unveiled their Christmas windows designed by none other than Luella herself. This weekend, I decided to go and check out the windows, seeing as this may be the last Luella-inspired thing that I see for a while.

Liberty's Luella Christmas 2009 via dazeddigital.com

I don’t need more reasons to love Christmas but if I did, these windows would be right up there. Christmas is a time when we watch things we shouldn’t like and eat in excess and these windows capture lots of those British stereotypes; it’s the perfect marriage of all things British – Luella and Liberty’s.

Liberty's Luella Christmas window via dazeddigital.com

Luella’s magical touch doesn’t stop at the windows, she’s also curated a list of Christmas must-haves that feature in the windows and are available to buy in stores and online.

I bet you Alexa Chung is holding on tight to her dress from Luella’s Spring/Summer 2010 collection that she wore to the after party of Luella’s show at London Fashion Week and I would be too. I am a Luella girl and I want Luella back! I have every hope that Luella will find the money she needs to get back up and running and provide beautiful dresses for girls like me to wear with big hair bows soon enough but in the mean time, here is my show of support:

Save Luella via theneonhive.com

Notícia triste pro mundo da moda. A grife Luella, da designer Luella Bartley anunciou na última terça-feira (10) que irá encerrar os seus trabalhos devido a crise financeira.

Logo uma das marcas mais bombadas do London Fashion Week, e que trouxe a coleção mais linda daquela semana de moda anunciou que após perder o apoio financeiro da VSQ Ltda, e ter a sua maior fornecedora na Itália (Carla Carini) fechada no mês passado, não tem mais condições de realizar as suas encomendas para a próxima temporada primavera-verão.

A marca, que existe desde 1999, conquistou espaço como a queridinha de muitas fashionistas, como a nossa musa Alexa Chung, Pixie Geldof, Kate Moss e muito mais.

Ainda ano passado, Bartley recebeu o prêmio de Estilista do Ano no British Fashion Awards, o grande prêmio da moda britânica.

Luto.

Fotos: Reprodução

No quite as morbid as it sounds. Sad news that the quirky yet quintessentially British designer Luella ceased trading on Tuesday. Stealing the hearts of all girls craving an excuse to reference their favourite dressing-up wonderland memories, in a sensible(ish) attire, Luella Bartley, the British Fashion Council’s Designer of the Year 2008, had apparently gone from strength to strength since setting up shop in 2000.

Over the last decade she has established influence lacing far beyond the friends’ flat in which Luella showed her first collection. Luella’s signature style, in her own words ‘Princess Anne goes psychedelic’, successfully echoes, splices and revives everything from eccentric pussy-bows, asymmetric tutus and pop florals to countrified neons. 2010 was set to be her sweetest year, as indicated by the attention lavished on the lovely Luella only weeks ago at London Fashion Week.

 Yet the success of Luella is not just about internationally renowned catwalk shows, celeb endorsements or silly sales statistics (a turnover of around £9 million by 2006). Wherever a New Look bowed ballet-shoe or a Topshop frilled-tee lurks, her summery shades and lacy idiosyncrasies are felt. Over the last few years those of us that only dream of owning a piece of this lady’s collection have bathed in the warm feeling that as long as she sparkles we will no-doubt have an excuse to get that bargain peach tutu out (I wont be binning it just yet) or adorn our barnets with that huge butterfly bow. Sigh.

 So ‘why?’, ‘how?’ and ‘what can be done?’ we all cry! Money, that’s the thing. Luella has ceased trading. Her global licensee Club 21 has failed to reinvest in the company. Another casualty of the current economic climate. The highly anticipated S/S’10 collection is unlikely to be produced. But the ‘Liberty love Luella’ Christmas lights adorning my favourite London department store looks so pretty! Who would refuse such wonderfulness? Cruel, cruel world. I say to all those with the funds…. preserve, snap up, hunt down, do all you can to gel hold of any available A/W’09  Luella NOW.  It may well be the last. Sob.

But fear not, hold back those tears. A girl after my own heart, apparently Luella is not giving up yet and is desperate to protect her employees. In Cornwall this weekend having a relaxing surf and mulling things over, she is not yet defeated. And with all those celeb fans a friendly helping hand is possible. A rise from the ashes next year may not yet be too fantastical.

***

Correria loka tá atrasando master os posts do blog, estou deixando notícias para trás e não estou postando muito, né? Mas porque estou correndo atrás de coisas boas que vão arrasar por aqui tá super complicado manter a rotina de updates.

De notícias… fiquei triste com a história da Luella, pois é uma marca que eu gosto muito. O investidor principal da designer não aguentou a crise e encerrou a parceria, o resultado: a marca parou de ser comercializada, nem o último desfile (fotos abaixo), que estava lindo, chegará às lojas. Luella Bartley ganhou o prêmio de estilista do ano no British Fashion Awards em 2008 e completaria 10 anos no ano que vem. Acredito que essa paralização seja por pouco tempo, Luella tem talento e deve ficar no mercado… é queridinha das British it-girls e creio que outros investidores virão.

Imagens: Style.Com

Agora o que não tem saído da minha mente e do meu som é meu rockstar dos sonhos… Marilyn Manson. Achei umas fotos da campanha primavera/verão 2005 que ele e a Dita fizeram para a Vivienne Westwood mas infelizmente não achei muita coisa e as fotos não estão com muita qualidade, mas vale passar por aqui anyway porque nada é mais incrível que rock e moda juntos. E claro, se eu achar mais fotos e melhores, posto aqui.

Imagens: Google Imagens

Para encerrar… as imagens incríveis do Alice no País das Maravilhas de Tim Burton. Lindas e vibrantes… sensação total de high trip de LSD com esse monte de cores e fantasias. Todos esperando anciosamente pelo filme.

Imagens: Google Imagens

Amanhã tem dica de livro! Fiquem ligados!