In just a few hours, we’re gonna be blessed by the musical magic that is the European Music Awards, hosted by Katy Perry. This year it’s gonna be in Berlin, with performances by Shakira, Leona Lewis, Green Day, Beyonce and more. The EMAs never fail to deliver a blood pumping show… ahem unlike their American counterpart…

Last year’s EMAs were cute and fruity, according to Katy Perry. She adds that this year, the fruits have gone sour. It’s gonna be a dark and sexy show. Rumour has it that it might be a cabaret theme. But whatever it is, this year promises to bring a very sexy night. Can’t wait to watch all the performances…

This is another event where fashion and music cross paths… Nowadays it’s really becoming more and more common as celebrities like Shakira, Beyonce and Rihanna are becoming more interested in fashion, incorporating it into their own music and performances.

So, what is one supposed to do while they’re in anxious anticipation for their favourite singer’s appearance at the EMAs…? Fantasize of course! It’s really very therapeutic if you’re under a lot of stress. What I did was just put together a couple of outfits I wish and pray Shakira would wear during the show.

1. THE RED CARPET.

Elie Saab Spring/Summer 2010

The red carpet of any event is where you’re supposed to shine the brightest. This stunning gown would make Shakira look nothing less than a deity herself. This would go amazingly well with her figure and well… it’s just a wonderful dress. Así es perfecto…

2. PERFORMANCE

Thierry Mugler

Ok ok, we all know that Shakira is going to be sporting a Gold Leotard covered in mirrors (now you know), but a guy can dream, can’t he? This beautiful piece by Thierry Mugler looks like it was made for her figure, and it even has mirrors, something Shakira seems to be enjoying recently. She Wolf performed in this would definitely steal the show. My body’s craving, so feed the hungry…

3. PRESENTING

Versace Spring/Summer 2009

If Shakira were to present an award to someone else, I say let her steal the spotlight a bit and have a little wardrobe change. A woman can never have too many dresses right? And when else would she have the opportunity to wear them? Lucky she has strong legs like her mother…

4. WINNING

Elie Saab Spring/Summer 2010

Up for Best Female and Best Video, Shakira would the one stunning She Wolf if  she goes up to collect her award(s) in this nymph-like number. Somebody bring me some shades, this dress is dazzling! Ay me voy otra vez…

5. AFTER PARTY

Balmain Fall/Winter 2009

You don’t expect Shakira to go back to her hotel room and sleep after the show, do you? She’s totally pumped for the nightlife in Berlin and this time she hopes to go around clubbing, unlike the last time when everything was closed. But not before attending some of the hottest after parties of night. Shakira’s gonna end her night the way it started, looking ferocious! Long time, baby, long time…

Good luck to everyone who’s nominated!

Thierry Mugler/Spring 2010

ok so i get the whole lady gaga/beyonce fad with this pant-less/robo chic trend…not for me and i’m sure only appropriate on stage and during Halloween apparently but this….really? how you gonna pee with that? and how do you clean it?

Wendell Lissimore of RED Models, NYC. Born in Utah, a former Boxer, Wendell’s modelling career started in 2006 when he was greeted by George Brown an agent for RED Models, ever since then  his career has sky rocketed, known for his chiseled exotic features Wendell has been working overtime landing work for Hermès, Bleu, GQ, V, Adidas,  Thierry Mugler, Kris Van Assche and more, he is also one of few black male models to make it to the top in such short time.

Check out some of his portfolio below:

IMAGES | With permission from Wendell Lissimore

O corpo tem sido o objeto de vários tipos de “poderes disciplinares”. Muitas estudiosas feministas têm argumentado que o corpo feminino, especialmente, tem sido o local dos regimes disciplinares, tais como dietas e vestimentas femininas, que são concebidos para fazer com que a mulher seja dócil e feminina. Neste contexto, o espartilho tem sido interpretado como um instrumento de opressão física e de mercantilismo sexual. Mas também tem sido valorizado por seu apelo erótico.

O historiador de arte David Kunzle argumentou que longe de serem oprimidas pelos seus espartilhos, tigh-lacers do século passado eram fetichistas femininas sexualmente liberadas que encontravam prazer fisíco no abraço do espartilho.

Abraça ou aprisiona?

Imagens de Fakir Musafar, o mais famoso entusiasta por espartilhos hoje, segundo ele “o uso do espartilho aumenta as experiências sexuais. Não há nada como você mesmo ficar atado enquanto homem e fazer amor com uma mulher que está atada… todos os seus orgãos internos e seus componentes sexuais ficam em lugares diferentes, com tensões diferentes – há uma base mecânica para isso”.

NA MODA

Quando o espartilho reapareceu na moda, Vivienne Westwood foi uma das primeiras estilistas a explorar o carisma do proibido. Inspirada por espartilhos do século XVIII, em vez dos modelos vitorianos mais familiares tipo ampulheta. O francês Jean-Paul Gaultier é provavelmente o mais notório por ter desenhado para Madonna espartilhos de cetim rosa-ostra, com lacing de seios pontudos, cintas e sutiãs. O perfume de Gaultier é embalado em um vidro com o formato de um dos seus espartilhos. Thierry Mugler é particularmente importante porque tem feito do espartilho uma parte integrante de seus designs teatrais da femme fatale. Sem jamais ter medo de ser exagerado. Azzadine Alaïa também tem usado espartilhos em seu trabalho, assim como Betsey Johnson e Chantal Thomass desenham espartilhos. Estilistas como Christian Lacroix, Ungaro e Valentino criam espartilhos glamourosos e caros.

Por volta de 1994, o espartilho apareceu como roupa comum, urbana quanto roupa íntima. Karl Lagerfeld também fez e a famosa loja Saks nova-iorquina afirmou “o corselet emergiu como acessório definitivo”.

No Brasil, a marca Madame Sher é referência em corset, a quem interessar possa:  http://www.madamesher.com/

* fonte de pesquisa e texto: Moda, Sexo & Poder - Valerie Steele

* imagens: fakir.org

Os anos 1980 parecem nunca terminar, pelo menos para quem vive na primeira década do terceiro milênio. Desde o começo dos anos 2000 que sinais de revisitação da chamada década perdida (nome dado pela imprensa para a estagnação econômica dos países latino-americanos na época) são sentidos na música, nas artes e na moda. Mas é interessante notar o quanto é muito peculiar a visão que os jovens de hoje tem em suas releituras da década de 80. Eles enxergam liberdades em um período que foi completamente conservador em relação aos anos 70 e 60.
Em política, a eleição do republicano Ronald Reagan nos Estados Unidos e da dama de ferro Margaret Thatcher na Inglaterra selou uma nova era pra economia mundial: o neoliberalismo sem intervenção do Estado. O hoje chamado reaganismo sofreu sua mais dura apunhalada pelas costas pelo próprio capitalismo que o alimentou. A crise hoje, de 2009, tem sofrido uma dura intervenção do Estado na compra de bancos e empresas falidas, algo impensável e totalmente condenável nos anos 80.
Em artes, foi a década que assistiu a volta à pintura, às telas, depois de duas décadas de arte conceitual. Muitos críticos acreditam que foi uma armação das galerias pra poderem ter objetos para vender – já que as performances e intervenções eram bem pouco palatáveis como produto para muitos compradores de arte -, mas a força ainda hoje de quadros como os de Anselm Kiefer colocam em xeque esse argumento. Assistimos hoje, em São Paulo, depois de todo maneirismo do conceitual já super inserido e amansado dentro da chave do mercado das artes, novamente uma volta à pintura. Esse retorno está sendo realizada por jovens artistas que como a Casa 7, tem uma fixação por números em seu nome, o chamado coleitvo 2000 e Oito e também por artistas como Rodolpho Parigi e Marcos Brias.
Foi nos 80 também que o curador avançou terreno se transformando em artista ou pensador. O caso da curadora Sheila Leirner na Bienal de São Paulo em 1985 que juntou todas as obras do chamado neo-expressionismo em um grande corredor que ficou conhecido como a Grande Tela denota a importância nunca antes sentida e obtida por um curador. Ao utilizar o artista a favor de seu discurso e pensamento, o curador funda uma nova fase nas artes, no qual ele mesmo pode ser visto como artista.
Também é nos anos 80 que o grafite ganha status de arte e passa frequentar galerias, um contrasenso para alguns críticos para com a chamada arte de rua. Para eles, essa operação de levar o grafite para a galeria o enfraqueceu como manifestação espontânea.

A Grande Tela, 1985, o curador como artista

Hoje temos a figura do curador como persona central nas artes sedimentada lá nos anos 80, mas o impasse do grafite e das manifestações da chamada arte de rua parece ainda não solucionado. Basta lembrar do lamentável caso da prisão de uma pichadora por intervir na última Bienal, a de 2008, conhecida como Bienal do Vazio. Ao invadir o espaço do curador, o chamado andar vazio do Pavilhão da Bienal, ela – a pixadora – afrontou o pensamento construído pelo então curador Ivo Mesquita e sua escudeira Ana Paula Cohen. Questões essas estavam todas sendo debatidas nos anos 80, só que naquela década de forma mais progressista e menos opressora.
Em música pop, temos um profusão de gêneros vindos da avalanche punk: new waves, new romantics, os inúmeros estilos hardcores até o grunge. Todas mais comerciais e menos radicais que o punk. Temos também a entrada do hip hop e com ele a música eletrônica começa a ganhar mais espaço, afinal até o rock começa a se utilizar de sintetizadores. Mais pro fim da década, a acid house, a hpsue e o techno saem dos guetos negros de Chicago e Detroit e ganham as rádios. O que se relê hoje da música dos anos 80 é principalmente o rock, talvez a faceta mais acessível musicalmente da década. Em contraposição aos 90 e a música eletrônica que de certa maneira sai da lógica tonal para algo mais modal e experimental, podemos hoje dizer que as novas bandas de rock que tanto sucesso fazem são responsáveis por um certo retrocesso musical dentro de certo contexto, pois além de muitas delas serem pastiches de bandas dos anos 60 e 80, por mais que gostemos de suas sonoridades, elas apontam para uma regressão da audição para o tonal mais palatável, o mesmo acontecendo com uma boa parte da música eletrônica que nos anos 2000 ficou mais comercial, repetitiva – não como as escalas modais pedem mas de ideias. A house bate-cabelo que o diga, ou grite.
Uma nota importante: A rainha do pop Madonna criou um estilo próprio no começo de sua carreira, nos anos 80, com luvas de rendas, faixas na cabeça e colares com crucifixos e símbolos religiosos. Hoje, ela simplesmente segue as tendências.
Por fim, a moda. Nos 80 temos a revolução japonesa causada pela chegada de Rei Kawakubo e Yohji Yamamoto em Paris, somando com outro nome, Issey Miyake, estava formado aquilo que seria conhecido como japonismo. O preto toma conta das passarelas, assim como novas formas e tecidos tecnológicos, experimentações de novas silhuetas. Looks que lembravam os mendigos recebe dos críticos de moda o nome de pauperismo. Do lado ocidental, o ultra sexy de Azzedine Alaïa, Claude Montana e Thierry Mugler também ganham notoriedade assim como o deboche de Jean-Paul Gaultier, que na época era chamado de “enfant terrible” da moda. No fim da década contra todo o conceitualismo do japonismo que reinou no imaginário da moda surge o barroco de Christian Lacroix.

Vestido Comme des Garçons, 1987: pauperismo, preto, japonismo, revolução

A força das idéias inovadoras do japonismo não parecem ter tanta força hoje na releitura que temos dos anos 80, nem o barroco de Lacroix que está em processo de falência com sua marca. O foco hoje é mais voltado para o chamado power dressing, isto é, uma roupa que indica o novo poder econômico que mulheres ganharam nos 80. Então ombreiras, blazers estruturados e cintura alta são os itens em alta nessa incansável revisitação que os anos 2000 estão fazendo de uma década que foi muito plural, mas essencialmente conservadora. E pela leitura progressista que a geração do terceiro milênio faz dela, comprova que vivemos tempos mais conservadores ainda.

Power Dressing: Força nas ombreiras

[Esse texto revisto e ampliado foi publicado de forma mais resumida no site da TAM]

Delay total de posts, mas o blog tava precisando ficar mais pessoal né! Agora que ele está (quase) pronto, we keep on going!

Rock your barbie:

Joan Jett, Debbie Harry e Cindy Lauper vão virar barbie! Isso mesmo, as três incônicas mulheres do rock vão poder ir pra casa conosco. As bonecas devem chegar às lojas em dezembro e fazem parte da comemoração dos 50 anos da boneca mais famosa do mundo. Doida por Barbies e por rock eu quero, claro!

Fonte

Cutting Edges:

Pela primeira vez na história da Elle Internacional, uma modelo completamente nua na capa. A edição é da Dutch Elle de novembro, com a modelo holandesa Lonneke Engel. A idéia: “Embrancing your body”.

Fonte

Mugler is back:

A ex-designer de Paco Rabanne, Rosemary Rodriguez, responsável atual pela Thierry Mugler, reaberta em 2008, depois de ser fechada em 2003, que fez o figurino da atual turnê de Beyoncé, apresentou essa semana uma coleção no Moscou Fashion Week com peças novas e antigas. A marca do famoso corset motorcycle, volta às passarelas parisienses em outubro do ano que vem, durante a semana de moda. Aqui você vê a nova coleção de Rodriguez.

Fonte

Nicolas Dhennin est un graphiste, illustrateur de Lille…. issu du monde du graffiti. Il a travaillé pour de célèbres maisons comme celles de Thierry MUGLER, Art computer en Angleterre, Virgin, etc… et propose aujourd’hui sur http://www.kung-fu-fighting.fr une série limitée de trois toiles sur canvas format 40×40 cm et une bâche  de 2 mètres de haut sur 80 cm de large …
Son travail léché et coloré mérite un petit coup d’oeil sur son site perso : http://www.nicolasdhennin.com/

Illustration de MEDA pour Thierry Mugler

If you dream of clouds, then you probably dream of angels, and if you dream of angels, then you must’ve been near the dazzling, luxurious scent of Angel Liquer by Thierry Mugler. Few forms of liquid evoke as much passion as the liquers, so it is befitting that this intoxicating conconction was created with century old aging techniques in cherrywood barrels, until the most angelic and flawless levels of scent were formed. Close your eyes, purse your lips, and feel the decadent inebriation, the triste de opulence of Angel Liquer de Parfum.

And because the scent only completes half the package, Thierry Mugler held no expense in presenting you the ultimate accomodation to any collection that is to be deemed, excellent. The flacon is shaped as to the cut of a flawless amethyst, purest in all the worlds rawest metals, and embridles with a brilliant, shining star stopper that brings to mind the luxury of diamonds and the opulence of royalty.

Packed in a black-silver outer carton, this amazing fragrance is an exercise in style and ultra-elegance. Available in 30 ml eau de parfum for a price that refuses to scratch the level of expertise, and flawless execution with which this inebriating daze filled liquer is produced. I dream of angels. And I awaken to Angel Liquer de Parfum.

Liberty Ross para View of Times

(via Atelier Management)

a fan video of Beyonce’s latest tour spectacles

Thierry Mugler has become pop star Beyonce’s designer of choice, almost exclusively wearing pieces from his archive for marketing events and photo shoots. The designer was commissioned to do the costumes and give creative direction for her recent tour. For the most part, it’s a perfect match and perhaps just the one Thierry was waiting for when he took leave from the fashion scene in 2003.

In his later career Mugler was criticized for his camp sensibility and over the top theatrics that no longer seemed relevant in the pared down 90’s. Now as the mainstream entertainment industry desires the outré, his brand of futuristic and severe glamor finds itself refreshed with new appreciation and interpretation. Kudos to Beyonce (or at least her advisers) to go straight to the source amidst all the facsimiles and doppelegangers.

 (Save it, Baby! Count me in!)

So, it goes like this . . .

Well, really, I don’t know what I can say that goes much beyond that title, do you?

However, being the wordsmith-y (is that actually a word?) girl that I am… I am going to try… (Wink, wink.)

So…Sephora… my beloved, Sephora…

How do I love thee, let me count the ways…

I love the to the depth, girth and breadth my ass can reach.

I love thee… that you are in almost every blooming mall that I have ever shopped… and if that is not enough… you are helping me to spend more of my money by opening more stores in lucky select JC Penney’s across the United States.

Bless you, because I thought you weren’t really giving me enough opportunity to spend my money already.

Now, I have yet another reason to walk into a JC Penny’s for more than just the $12.99 sitting fee in your Photo Booth center.

I used to take my kids there for their baby pictures… but now I just go there to harangue high school part-time photographers by sitting in making ju-jee faces in the camera.

Trust me.

They love it.

Right.

I digress.

Sephora…

Ah, yes… my beloved, Sephora…

I love thee to the extreme that my credit card can reach…

I love thee for your precious vials of wrinkle erasers…

You are so kind to give me samples in little plastic cups to take home… sure to lock me into the use of yet another $130 an ounce wrinkle cream for the rest of my life.

Bless you… again…

I have no more counter space in my bathroom due to your generosity.

Thank you to you, beloved, Sephora… for the fact that every time I walk into the house from one of your stores I smell like a perfumery…

“Honey, do like this Gucci fragrance?” And, I stick out my arm.

My husband puts his nose above my arm, “No, not there, honey. That’s Chanel. You have to move your nose up 3 inches toward my elbow.” My husband still hovers his nose above my arm… “No, honey, not there, that’s a Britney Spears fragrance that I despise… Uh… How about this one on the back of my wrist — that’s the new Thierry Mugler… what do you think?”

Poor guy… he doesn’t realize that I have sprayed 24 different fragrances on the fronts and backs of each arm, behind each ear, and between each toe…

“So, which one do you like, honey?… Honey? Honey?… What, baby?… You don’t look so good…”

He has now turned a little pale, and evidently has sprouted a migraine from all the combined scents that will now reside for the next 24 hours on my little piece of “sumpin sumpin” that he was hoping “to get some” from later.

“Honey, I am only trying to make myself more attractive to you, baby.”

No response.

…

Whatever…

My beloved Sephora…

A rainbow of makeup choices for every type of skin, for every type of look, for every holiday… including Halloween.

Grandiose eyelashes, eyeshadows that you never think that you would actually wear…

“Just sit right down and let me give you a little demo…”

And, of course, after said demo, you are walking out of there looking like something out of a Cosmo magazine.

You are looking absolutely divine! 

However, after you’ve spent $700 to get all of that absolutely divine looking stuff that will give you that absolutely divine looking “look,” you take it home and try to re-create that divine looking “look” and walk out of your bathroom looking  something more like Frankenstein’s cousin… Frau Hosselheimerbrau… albeit, with great eyelashes.

My dear, dear Sephora…

You even let me take home little spritzers the perfume for my husband to try.

I love those little testers that you guys make up for him.

All different kinds of men’s fragrances. You are just too generous.

Of course, he has never tried any of these because I have never given them to him… those little darn fragrance sprayers are just too cute.

I have to hoard them for myself, even though they’re full of men’s fragrances. I think I have about 23 of them…

Those little baby perfume sprayers…

Eeeek! I’m in love with them!

What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him, right?  … 

Honestly though, I could go on all day about the attributes of Sephora…

My knees get weak when I walk by their black-and-white striped storefront.

I get a little “oodle” in my “hoo-haw” just thinking about it.

Eeeek!

Yup, this is a Sephora “O!”

I just need about 30 seconds to myself…

….

Yes, it’s a fact…

I am happily a Sephora “Ho,” and I have the credit card statements to prove it.

Plus, I have 2473 Points in my “Beauty Insider” account…

So…

Let’s go shopping!

Be well,

Belle

S. Belle Karper, Author, Speaker www.BelleKarper.com
THE WIDOW WEARS BLACK - An Edgy Memoir from an Outspoken Survivor
Check out S. Belle Karper’s – Beauties and Beasts – Blog! Baby! Blog!
and Belle Karper Face Book & the popular Twitter-Belle - all on Website
Save it, Baby! Count me in!

Girls today think they want Balmain but what they really need is Thierry

“Too Funky”, 1992

Thierry Mugler’s high drama theatrics made the perfect wardrobe for George Michael’s fashion spoof. The outrageous and comical video stands as a record of some of the most recognizable signatures of the designer’s  repertoire: his full on sci-fi and fantasy styling, reinterpretation of retro women’s undergarments, graphic and dynamic  silhouette, and a smattering of humor, even if it’s just a smirk.

I have recently been exploring the works of the fragrance house “Thierry Mugler” and have been looking for bargains. Some of the fragrances by Mugler are pretty popular (Angel and A*Men for example) and can be pretty pricey even at discounters. Enter Ebay. Besides selling everything, if you have enough patience you can still find bargains there. You also need to shop defensively. There are people just selling off stuff they have, people trying to run legitimate small businesses and people just trying to make a buck.

I had purchased several fragrances over the years through Ebay and have had no problems. In fact I’d been quite happy with the things I’ve gotten but I have read horror stories; cheap knockoffs being the main concern.

Last week I bid on several Mugler fragrances from two different sellers. At the time I thought they were pretty good deals. From one I got Angel and from another I got A*Men (aka Angel Men).

Receiving these packages was the exact opposite experience of the euphoria I felt when I received my first parcel from Catherine. (see Part 1 of this blog)

From the outside, Angel looked great. The inside told the sad tale. Angel itself is supposed to be light blue. Quite eye catching through the clear bottle. This Angel was dirty green and worse yet, smelled dirty green.

In case you aren’t familiar with it, Angel is a very controversial fragrance. Once of those love it or hate it kind. It is known for being very sweet but has a very prominent blast of patchouli, with chocolate, vanilla, and fruits thrown into the mix. I think there may even be melons and coffee in it. It is very distinctive and very rich smelling and I happen to love it. What I had in the bottle before me, however, was vaguely rosey smelling dreck. It eventually dried down to have a somewhat Angel-esque vibe to it but it wasn’t Angel. Comparing it to two known genuine examples of Angel it wasn’t even in the same ballpark.

What a gip.

I contacted the seller who offers a guarantee. They of course are shocked, SHOCKED that I should say the fragrance is a counterfeit. No one has ever said that word about the fragrances they sell.

Well they are now pal.

I’ve been promised a full refund after I return the bottles. We shall see.

As for the A*Men. Sigh.

The best I can say about it is the fragrance is genuine. But the juice, the liquid inside the bottle, falls about a half inch below the top of the bottle. Meaning my “brand new sealed” bottle of A*Men has either been used or is that factory second known as a “low fill”. Either way that is not what I paid for. But I am too tired to fight about it. Sometimes you just have to chose your battles. I’ll leave the seller lousy feedback and call it a day.

One of my many mantras in life is the old chestnut, “Never pay retail”.

The thieves and charlatans out there may just be driving me to recant that.

Yes I still will feel ripped off paying the high markups at Sephora or Neiman Marcus but at least I know I’ll be getting what I’ve paid for.

Do you shop Ebay or have you avoided it like the plague?

This is it- Autumn. My favorite season, hands-down. I am burning a Spiced Pumpkin wax tart from Yankee Candle. My house smells like Fall…and pie! I am really glad the weather is turning, one reason being now I can wear Angel by Thierry Mugler, which was a little too heavy for the summer months. Angel is a soft, mouthwatering oriental that undergoes an interesting change throughout the day. The first element of the perfume that hits me is the scent of honey, and (am I nuts here? Am I completely on the wrong planet?) a bit of pine or balsam. That’s right, the scent of a Christmas tree. But that’s a very fleeting part of the experience of wearing Angel. The honey softens and fades, the balsam disappears, and I am left with a wonderful warm, powdery candy/dessert-like scent that I want to devour. I have to quash the impulse to lick my arm…I wonder if it smells this delicious to anyone else…? If a stranger comes out of the blue and starts munching on my wrist, I’ll know it was the Angel.

PS. I am just now remembering that Angel,when it’s first applied and at its strongest, reminds me of a perfume oil I used to wear years ago, called “Goddess Rising.” One girl confessed that she followed me all the way down the hall because, she said, it smelled so good.

Bryan Ferry, known for a smart whistle or two, once explained why his attire has rarely deviated from a simple, impeccable Anthony Price suit: ‘Because a suit is the only thing that doesn’t look ridiculous in photographs twenty years later.’ Fashion may be something of a nonsense to even the mildest of cynics, but there’s no denying that the suit is one of those alchemical devices, whether the transformation is geared around upgrading the physique or persuading a magistrate that the individual in front of them is more accustomed to roaming miscellaneous halls of power than a sink estate.

A suit is a suit and unless your surname is Furnish or you’re an authentic dandy, the design concerns of menswear that aren’t exclusively concerned with fit and creating flattering proportions can never extend past ‘classic with a twist’. And yet… men’s fashion has moved on. Over the last six or so biannual seasons (like dog years when you think of the rollercoaster trend-speed of corresponding women’s fashion), there has been a hugely significant change in the male silhouette… The times they are a-changing.

The most radical move – and no eye rolling please, we’re not about to start talking men-in-skirts here – has been a long overdue move back towards the double-breasted ensemble. There may be some of you reading this for whom the double-breasted suit has never lost currency. So be it. If it ain’t broke, and all that… But in terms of what looks both current and forward thinking (two attributes anyone in business needs to exude by the bucket load, now more than ever), it’s been a solid twenty years since double breasted was the norm. In the 1980s the likes of Thierry Mugler championed an aggressive single buttoned, single breasted jacket that looked every stitch like the future and resigned double breasted to the charity shop along with the shoulder pad (‘the flares of the eighties,’ as David Bowie so correctly diagnosed at the time).

So what happened to bring it back? Well, the return of double breasted is very much a part of the return to favour of traditionalist dressing. It’s conservative and luxe, but with a fresh twist. One of the upsides of the free market discovering that the world was, despite so much circumstantial evidence to the contrary, flat, and that it was sailing right over the edge of it, is that the more ridiculous element of menswear departments is shrinking fast. The market for £800 jackets that make you look like Sgt Pepper just isn’t there anymore. People want to look serious, not frivolous.

When Tom Ford opened his first standalone store in New York City it aped an upscale classic gentleman’s outfitters rather than the Studio 54 tart’s handbag of his Gucci stores. Ford, backed by Ermenegildo Zegna’s meticulous manufacturing arm, has been at the forefront of the double-breasted renaissance. Ford’s styling and shape is sleek, modern and high fashion without smacking of the fashion victim. This is where Cary Grant would get kitted out if he were around today, and where the current James Bond does.

The edgier international designers are also embracing and fast tracking the change in style. For this autumn Alexander McQueen showed sedate but perfectly handsome double-breasted suits (styled tieless but with top shirt buttons fastened, very au courant) while Martin Margiela, whose artisanal white-on-white Mayfair boutique with lab coat wearing shop assistants is a temple to the avant garde, has embraced a mature and serious aesthetic with his capsule Sartorial collection. Sartorial utilises the kind of tailoring expertise more commonly associated with the very best of Milanese bespoke to create discreetly luxurious suits and coats that work well with the other similarly less showy and publicised pieces in the Margiela canon: the Perfect White Shirt and the Perfect Black Trousers. And who hasn’t gone shopping for those simple pieces and given up when faced with racks of over fussy details that have been tacked on gratuitously to differentiate the current season from previous ones? No wonder so many of us, when dabbling with off the peg, dash straight back to our tailors to get what we want.

Around the corner from Margiela’s London store, on Saville Row, Gieves and Hawkes is pushing the new look with its ready to wear range in the form of a beautiful dandy-meets-neocon chalk stripe double breasted suit and, more excitingly, double breasted black velvet evening jackets – something that Giorgio Armani has also been doing for his Emporio label. The double-breasted evening jacket is the epitome of dressy, and its resurgence points to things having come full circle from the 1980s. It’s shamelessly showy but not vulgar. It has to be tailored at the Saville Row level to be done well though – a cheap knock-off has all the panache of the Nigerian wedding outfits that line the shop windows of Dalston Junction.

The one problem with double breasted is that it can be unforgiving if you have a paunch. Like fine gauge knitwear (particularly cardigans) it can add pounds on top of already surplus pounds. Far more forgiving is the other main strand to the new traditionalism that is reappearing in men’s suitings – the three piece. This really has taken off over the last couple of seasons, and its formal, slightly fogey quality has been spliced with a just-the-right-side-of-outré selection of fabrics. Paul Smith has mixed the look up for this winter with Wind in the Willows mismatched tartans and bow ties while Ralph Lauren has taken a power broker stance with his top-end Purple label – monochrome checks and charcoal greys, cut slim but muscular, that look like they, and their wearer, really mean business. The label also boasts some of the best double-breasted suits around. That Ralph Lauren has shown these suits in an advertising campaign styled with a bowler hat speaks volumes. There’s been a resurgence of the bowler amongst east end kooks and wannabe flaneurs in 2008, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if it came back properly, Steed-style?

While half of the men’s fashion world has been looking to the pre-micro chip past to create a well dressed future, the remainder has been reworking the minimalism that the likes of Jil Sander and Miuccia Prada have made their own over the last decade. You could call it the Scandic-American look, even though it stems from a German and an Italian designer respectively: the silhouette is currently being refined by Swedish designers, like Filippa K, and Americans, like Thom Browne. The Scandic elements are in the narrow cuts, monochrome palette and never more than two buttons that all of the suits in this category have. The American element is in the change in proportions that have been taking place. The trousers break above rather than on the shoe and the jackets show a good couple of inches of shirt cuff. What Thom Browne does shouldn’t really work. Essentially he makes shrunken suits – stuff that doesn’t fit. As New York magazine says, ‘he dresses like an insurance adjuster circa 1957,’ and he dresses like he designs. There’s a touch of the Pee Wee Herman as well as the mid century modernist about Browne, but he’s dead clever and a skilled tailor. To see his own label at New York Fashion Week is to see it in what one could kindly call a ‘pure form’ – overstyled to the point of the risible. And if you aren’t stick then and over six foot, forget it. To see it at Brooks Brothers, where Browne designs the Black Fleece range, is to see it in an entirely wearable form. The quirk is there, but the Black Fleece man is resolutely a serious Eames-era, super-stylish Hitchcock villain, made modern. And then there’s Browne’s double-breasted suit, bringing it all together in one look, straddling both schools of design. This is very possibly where men’s fashion is ultimately going – a little bit minimalist but more than a little bit traditionalist, but with the confidence to bring the elements together in a brand new way.

No matter where it ends up, menswear has moved on. Men will never be slaves to fashion like their wives – mercifully the silhouette and proportions of menswear move at a pace that you’d need Peter Greenaway stop-motion cinematography to chart – but the only thing worse than having no interest in fashion is not knowing anything about it. Despite the metrosexual revolution, the explosion of the men’s style press and the popularity of the personal shopper pour homme, the city of London is still full of men wearing clothes that are badly made and don’t fit. No Swedish or Italian businessman would ever keep wearing a suit that only fit them before middle aged spread took hold. For this very reason, your wardrobe needs to be reassessed every year. The fact that small details change season upon season also means that only the most bland of suitings avoid becoming, eventually, trite. Look at the flared suits of the 70s. Or the pegged and pleated trousers of the 80s. Or Bowie’s shoulder pads.

A young generation of men, fashion literate but with more experience of the high street than Saville Row, is demanding a higher quality of design and finish in menswear. The likes of Pokit, with smart but decidedly casual HQ on London’s Lamb’s Conduit Street, is a fine example of the change in the market. Pokit tailor suits for the kind of man who might work in typography, photography or furniture design, but for whom the idea of jeans every day is as unthinkable as a baseball cap. Their customer is likely to mix one of their suits with a Margiela shirt, a Mulberry bag and Uniqlo socks. Ultimately, there is more choice than ever out there off-the-peg, which means there’s no excuse for merely making do with what’s in the wardrobe when you haven’t bought anything new for five years. Go shopping. Make sure it fits. Make sure it flatters. And finally, make sure you’re wearing it, not vice versa.

Stockholms Auktionsverk har sin Fashion-auktion den 22 september. Det här är ett område där jag har noll koll kan man väl säga. Men en Kellyväska från Hermès, Paris, kan jag väl tänka mig. Den är i gott skick också, men jag är inte säker på att jag vill ha den i äppelgrönt….. Utropet är 8000-9000 kr.

Annars är jag lite inne på 80-tal. Mycket av modet nu är 80-talsinspirerat, vilket jag tycker är kul. Här är en “vardagsdräkt” i svart ull och en aftondress i guld från Thierry Mugler med tidstypiska detaljer (axelvaddar). Var inte Thierry Mugler väldigt inne på 80-talet?? Dräkten ropas ut för 800-1000 kr och klänningen för 2000-2500 kr. De är kanske möjligen lite för utstuderade för mig……………

Vill man inte satsa på kläder så finns en mängt modeplanscher som känns fräscha och roliga. Nedan är 4 stycken som ropas ut för 1200-1500 kr.

It may seem atypical that a perfume be described with its association with food. Yet, the Angel perfume by means of Thierry Mugler is one such perfume that blends numerous comforting warm food smells odors like coffee, caramel and mint.

For Men

Launched through the creation house of Thierry Mugler in 1996, the perfume, Angel perfume for Men is classified under flowery odors conceivably since there is no category for ‘food-like’ scents. This masculine odor possesses a mixture of: mint, coffee, caramel, chocolate and is recommended for casual wear.  Angel shower foam goes well with Angel cologne adding richness when matching together. Angel for men is enclosed in a masculine silver bottle and has Thierry Mugler’s signature star on the front. The bottle is packaged in a blue and black box.

For Women

Angel Perfume for Women on the other hand was launched in 1992. This too is categorized as a flowery feminine scent with a blend of vanilla, sandalwood, and patchouli, with notes of fresh citrus, melons and plums. It is suggested for daytime wear and is also available in a refillable bottle where experts can professionally refill the bottle through taking the cap off. Nevertheless, this has its advantages and disadvantages – the plus side is that you can purchase your favorite perfume refilled at a discount. Nonetheless, the disadvantage is that counterfeits could fill the bottle with fake smells odors and sell it off as the original. The Angel perfume is also obtainable in a cream and lotion.

Angel Innocence perfume was introduced in 1998 and includes notes of bergamot, mandarin and passion fruit. It is accented with honey, almonds and amber concept this variation of Angel perfume best for informal use.

The majority of the people that tend to like the Angel perfume are those that enjoy heavy perfumes. Others take for granted it is too easily distinguishable and doesn’t have the elusiveness about it. If people are familiar with its scent, they will with no trouble tell what you are wearing or go rush out and buy it too. It is a somewhat intoxicating, heady perfume which goes well with Mugler’s clothes, not with floral, summer dresses but with something more formal and classy. Quite a lot of Angel perfume wearers love the fragrance but acknowledge that it is too bold to wear in public. They have a preference for it during intimate times and wearing it with loved ones in private.

It is not as readily on hand in stores as many alternative designer names, but it can easily be ordered online. The only catch is that you may not be able to try it on your wrist before obtaining it.