Fashion in the News is a collection of articles/blog posts online that catches my attention and (is in my humble opinion) worth reading. Enjoy!

Karl Lagerfeld Shot a Big Girl for V’s Size (The Cut) – Despite his distaste for curvaceous women, Karl Lagerfeld shot burlesque dancer Miss Dirty Martini on the mirrored steps of Coco Chanel’s 31 Rue Cambon salon for this month’s V magazine (zot alors!). The magazine’s issue focuses on body size and appears on newsstands January 14.

In India, Luxury Brands Need Localised Strategies (Business of Fashion) – Forbes magazine reports India has the fastest growing population of millionaires in the world and luxury retailers are eager to get in on this piece of the pie. To penetrate the Indian market, companies such as Montblanc and Louis Vuitton are using localized marketing tactics to engage customers and drive sales.

Charles Kleibacker, Fashion Designer, Dies at 88 (New York Times) – Charles Kleibacker, former fashion designer, adjunct curator of design at the Columbus Museum of Art and Master of the Bias cut in the 1960s, passed away at the age of 88.

Holt Renfrew replaces president with Canadian Tire exec (Toronto Life) – This past week luxury retailer, Holt Renfrew announced Mark Derbyshire will be replacing outgoing President, Caryn Lerner who held the position for five years. Some media reports speculate the changing of the guard is a result of the economic downturn but let’s just wait and see how the New Year progresses, we’re only 11 days into 2010.

Year in Fashion: Real life overtook the runway (Toronto Star) – Fashion Reporter, Derick Chetty provides a fashion year-in-review for 2009: the rise in popularity of fashion bloggers, Hollywood’s fascination with fashion in film (as a subject), the use of social media by designers to showcase their collections and the style invasion of Michelle Obama.

The big bum theory (Toronto Star) – For years the stick-figure look has dominated fashion magazines and catwalks. However, now the attention to the body has gone to the rear. Designers have made the butt the body part of focus for spring 2010, over exaggerating the posterior and hips by using panniers or you can use the 20^th century technique called plastic surgery.

Images from Refinery 29 and New York Times

The following quote from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities captures the way I characterize 2009; “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness...”

Perhaps the Dickens quote is a little dramatic, but it best describes how I feel about this past year and what I went through. Here’s a brief look in order:

Lowlight of 2009:

• Being laid off – Yup, this tops the list as the lowlight of the year. I can now say the phrase, “I was laid off” to family, friends  and sometimes to complete strangers without flinching, feeling embarrassment, shame or inadequacy.

Highlights of 2009:

• Volunteering at Luminato
• Rediscovering my love for fashion
• Starting this blog
• Reconnecting with old friends
• Working at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival
• Welcoming my nephew into the world and into the family (he is now three-months old)
• Attending and covering LG Fashion Week’s S/S 2010 shows and events
• Meeting and establishing a whole new network of supporters and friends

I mention these personal events in my life openly on The Souls of My Shoes (and in previous entries) not looking for sympathy, but to share with you what fuelled me to start this blog, maintain it and how it initially served as a life raft and is now a vehicle for my ideas, love of fashion and writing. Funnily enough, the good outweighs the bad exponentially in the above list. I’m very thankful for the opportunities and people I’ve met along the way, as well as the support received from my family, friends and readers which has and continues to be uplifting and heart warming.

Here’s a working list of what I look forward to in 2010:

• Finding and landing a full-time job
• Attending and covering LG Fashion Week’s fall/winter 2010 collections in March
• Continuing to create interesting and thoughtful content for The Souls of My Shoes

Like Karl Lagerfeld wrote in the pictured tweet, I look forward to setting ablaze the past and creating positive change and fresh starts for 2010. Happy New Year.

After reading an inspiring blog post by Danielle Meder, I felt it was time to share a more personal side of my life I briefly touched upon in My first blog entry: revealing the souls. For the past several months I’ve been going through – and continue to experience – a period of change. Adapting to change isn’t always easy but you learn a hell of a lot about yourself and accept the motions of life, whether you agree with it or not.

When I completed my postgraduate studies at Seneca College I was ready and rearing to begin a new phase of my life. I was ready to start my career, ready to work hard, ready to feel accomplished, ready to feel financially stable and ready to live life to the fullest with the perfect job. For a brief moment everything was going as planned, but as they say where you want to be isn’t necessarily where you’re supposed to be and I experienced a shift in my career.

Since then the road has been difficult, yet despite what happened I’ve had the opportunity to rediscover a part of myself which was only considered as just an interest in fashion. I can’t pinpoint the exact moment when my love for fashion was fervently reignited and culminated into starting this blog, but I can attribute it to the people I met  and conversations with family and friends (old and new) who have emerged as truly authentic people supporting me – thank you.

My search continues, career wise, but it’s comforting to know I’m not the only person who is thinking of and is going through change. Just the other day Karl Lagerfeld tweeted, “I am a fashion person, and fashion is not only about clothes – it’s about all kinds of change.”

Friday marked the end of fall/winter 2010 haute couture week in Paris. I’ve included footage and my reviews from the shows of some of my favourite houses: Chanel, Givenchy and Valentino. Have a read through and let me know what you think of these collections.

Chanel: Recession… What recession? The 2010 fall/winter collection for Chanel took place in the Grand Palais, Paris with towering white bottles of Chanel No.5. As you watch the video it appears Karl Lagerfeld is using the simplicity of these sculptural bottles to offset the richness and texture of this collection. His aim was “to combine extremely pure silhouettes, which evoke ‘unencumbered graphic effects and asymmetric lines’” in his garments (Chanel.com). Individually I think each outfit is beautiful, however as they appeared on the runway I couldn’t help but feel there was a lack of cohesion in the collection – the silhouettes seem to lose its purity with long trains and I found the lace hats distracting and out of place. Grade: B+

Givenchy: all I have to say about the Givenchy 2010 fall/winter collection, by Riccardo Tisci is WOW! I am completely floored by his work. It is one of the most dynamic, haunting,and captivating collections I’ve seen during this past week and most likely the whole year. Watch the accompanying video and you’ll see that the clothes speaks for itself. Suit me up Tisci! Grade: A+

Valentino: newly appointed designers to the House of Valentino, Pier Paolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri have received mixed reviews for their second collection for fall/winter 2010 (see New York Times and Associated Press articles). The duo is carving out their own niché and creating a different vision of the Valentino woman and being the house’s former accessories designers for years they have a personal and professional relationship with the company which can work for or against them. They present the evolution of the Valentino woman who is youthful with a little bit of an edge. I find this new vision for the house refreshing and sexy, but Piccioli and Chiuri need to be reminded the House of Valentino should be transformed in stages rather than in a wave of change so they don’t alienate their pre-existing audience and customers. Grade: B

(Videos from www.telegraph.co.uk and YouTube.com)