Monday, March 06, 2006

A/W'06 - Choose your ride

The riders on the runway this Fall will be making it to highstreet soon. Choices Choices Choices. What camp will you be on?

Horse

Equestrian is back. But this time, it is sophisticated and luxurious as well as feminine. The black cape at Hermes is this season's musthave - in sumptuous black leather, who can resist? Nina Ricci does chic and girly with a loose fitting jacket - an wearable version of this season's obsession with trapeze shapes. And Balenciaga does it with clean and neat structured jackets that balance between cute and grownup. Must have: black leggings, leather gloves and velvet helmets - all ready for the Grand Prix.

For a translatable street wear version, check out Dsquared's latest collection. They did country club equestrian with a shrunken jackets, vests, plaid shirts and jodhpur-ish jeans. And those helmets.

Motorcycle
Fighting for attention from the prim and preppy private-school camp is the rock-chick glam one. Sunglasses, sequins, jewels, short hemlines - it's a rock concert come to live. Chanel did it with a feminine victorian twist - mixing ruffled blouses and victorian jewels with navy leather pinafores and slouchy boots. Emma Cook mixes edgy with feminity with jewels on a cropped jacket, softens the leather boots and gloves with a slinky dress and chunky jewellery. Dior was rockstar all the way. Shaggy jackets, shiny sunglasses, crumpled leather jackets and my favourite - the patchy aged jeans - totally what a motorcyclist's jeans would look like after accumulating sand and dust from the road. The Dior Gaucho bag is also not spared from the aged dirt treatment, a refreshing twist from the luxurious bags we've seen so far. Must haves: Shiny headbands, shiny sunglasses, crumpled leather