A Look Ahead in Fashion: spring summer '12 favourites//under wat

Poppy is today's guest blogger. She is a Fashion and Editor in Chief of
Project Quality ( www.projectquality.blogspot.com ) who has recently
discovered her love for the art of paint-photo editing. She shares the thing
she loves most in the world (Fashion!) with her readers at www.idonot-exist.blogspot.com

There are two reasons why I am putting Chanel and Alexander McQueen in one post

a) There are loads and loads of s/s collections I love and instead of doing one after the other and filling my entire blog with them I'm trying to reduce the number of posts by putting them into categories if possible

b) Both shows share the same theme - the sea

There is something very beautiful about the sea. The waves, the way the sun glistens on the water's surface and the creatures that live there. If you have been diving or snorkeling before, you know the amazing world under the surface...or at least a bit of it. To see all is impossible. No matter how often you go diving, how many books you read about the creatures lurking deep under water, there will always be something surprising, something undiscovered. Just imagine how many have never been seen by a human being - it creates a sense of mystery.
No doubt fishermen were inspired by the dazzling beauty and danger of the sea when they made up stories of nymphs, mermaids and monsters. Burton and Lagerfeld did pretty much the same thing, they took inspiration from the sea and created fairytales.

CHANEL

I was surprised by this collection, it was Chanel but it wasn't so overly typical Chanel, it had a new twist to it. The style is classic and the pastel colours and pearls make the clothes very romantic. If mermaids were turned into humans I'm sure this is how they would dress while dreaming of going home. You can see the otufits are inspired by the sea, however Lagerfeld made it subtle enough to make them wearable. The icing on the cake to me was Florence Welch performing What The Water Gave Me. (Again: I am in love with her)
Huge favourits of mine are the tailored jackets, strings of pearls instead of belts and see-through rain coats. I really want a plastic rain coat like that for spring!
I'm not sure about the silver shoes, they might grow on me though...

ALEXANDER MCQUEEN

Lagerfeld created clothes for mermaids-turned-human, Burton turned her models into mermaids!

The dresses remind me of all kinds of underwater creatures. Some of the dresses look like jellyfish, some glisten like the scales of fish, some remind me of a coral reef.

In true McQueen style Burton created creatures that are beautiful but at the same time send a chill down your spine, there is something powerful and dark about them. She captured the danger and mystery of what lurks deep under water, creating something strangely beautiful. The influence McQueen had on her is obvious, the way he found beauty in things that were strange, scary or repulsive to most left a deep impression. He had the skill to stirr the dark side of the viewer aswell as the sense of beauty and wonder and I find Burton has achieved something close to this sensation.

I am really looking forward to seeing her future collections for McQueen!