Farewell to Oscar De La Renta

photo credit// Annie Leibovitz

My thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Oscar De la Renta with the sad news of his passing.  His gowns, and entire collections have always been breathtaking!! Rest in peace Oscar, you will be missed.

Princess Beatrice steals the show?

                                                                       Princess Eugenia and sister Princess Beatrice


With all the royal wedding hype in the past months, its not surprising that all the guests went all out to find the perfect outfit for the occasion. As can be expected with British aristocracy, there were many interesting and fashion forward hats and head pieces, many of them by haute couture hat designer Phillip Treacy. I usualy adore Phillip's hats, but I'm at a loss for words at the hat Princess Beatrice showed up in.

 

  

Is it really even a hat? It looks like it should be worn to a sacrificial ceremony of heathen gods.. seriously! I'm all for high fashion but not if you cant pull it off. I mean she could have worn the hat more towards the back of her head or on the side of her head at an angle, but the way its sitting in front of her head, I just have two requests,

1. Dear princess Beatrice dont ever wear this "hat" again
2. Dear Phillip Treacy kindly print out instructions of how to wear your hats for each of your clients because something tells me this hat wasn't designed to be worn this way.

Much obliged! ;)

xoxo



The Royal Wedding photo recap

I didnt stay up all night to watch the Royal wedding, nor have I been looking forward to with the crazed glee that most people seem to share. But I sure do love weddings so I couldnt resist sharing photos and thoughts about the good, bad and crazy fashion of the ongoing royal wedding. The bride herself looked timeless and elegant, if only the same could be said for all the guests too!

Kate middleton's wedding dress. ( or should I say Duchess Catherine..)

Her gown was a classic long sleeved ball gown with cathedral train made by he house of Alexander McQueen, very much the norm in the royal circles, and quite similar to one of my all time favorite wedding gowns worn by Grace Kelly.  All I can say about Grace kelly is that she was way ahead of her time! Her wedding gown has been the inspiration for many brides since then.

Grace Kelly in her wedding gown

This little girl in the left corner is too cute, she clearly cant take the sound of ringing bells any longer!

xoxo

Monique Lhuillier wins again!

Everytime a celebrity gets married, I view it as a battle of the bridal designers, because I assume that each designer is hoping that they will be chosen to create a custom gown for the bride. Monique Lhuillier won the latest round as she got to design two dresses for the most recent celebrity wedding of Reese Witherspoon to Jim Toth on March 26 2011.

I've expressed my love for Monique Lhullier time and time again.. her gowns take my breath away time and time again, so its no suprise that so many celeb brides choose to wear her gowns down the aisle. Other celebrity brides that wore Monique's gowns are;

  Pink and Carey Hart

Carrie Underwood

Molly Malaney [The Bachelor]

 Kevin Costner & Christine Baumgartner

xoxo

Megan Fox's beach wedding photos!

Simple and chic were clearly the two words Megan Fox had in mind at her beach wedding. It was a quiet and elegant affair with the entire bridal party dressed in white Armani. Mind you the entire bridal party consisted only of the bride, the groom and the groom's son!  A wedding need not be a grand affair to be memorable and classy and they clearly proved that here. I adore the contrast of the bare feet on a beach paired with an elegant floaty gown, complete with train and traditional bouquet. Brides who incorporate unexpected ideas in their weddings enter my bridal hall of fame. 

Photos credit//Barcroft Media

Congratulations to the new couple.

xoxo

Minority Report!

Tia Mowry at her wedding

Ever tried searching for great wedding hair and makeup tips for women of color? If you have you'll know its much like digging for diamonds in your own living room.. pretty darn difficult! Figuring out hair and beauty is always a tough one, women spend a lifetime deciding on the perfect combination of products, and the most flattering hair cuts, but women with darker skin tones and afrocentric hair have the toughest time of all! Probably because they have less make up options available to them and not as many magazines or sites that specifically showcase hair and make-up techniques for the black bride.

The fabulous Jada with natural looking foundation

This inspired me to start yet another one of my mini-series called Minority Report, dedicated to bringing bridal hair and beauty tips specifically for women of color. My most recent addition to the series is all about the Right Light.  There is simply nothing worse than a beautiful bride, in a gorgeous gown wearing foundation that is simply way too light, way too dark or way too much! Now although there are many reasons why this happens, one of the main culprits is bad lighting.  Brides on a budget can't always afford a high priced make-up artist but at they very least they can and should make sure they have the right lighting to ensure that once they step outside into the natural light they look just as beautiful as they did indoors.

Hope the week ahead flies by, the sooner we get to spring the happier I'll be!

In the spotlight!

The fabulous lives of the rich and famous arent always as glam as they appear to be... I simply can't imagine the constant pressure the stars are under when they know they have to show up to one red carpet event after another in consecutively stunning gowns that are flattering and yet all different from each other... But then isnt that what they signed up for? Extreme praise and equally extreme criticism? hmmm...

Carrie Underwood at the Grammys last night

I love looking at the red carpet photos and seeing all the interesting outfits; right away I can tell which gowns would look equally stunning at a wedding too! This is why I started a series on my examiner pages focused purely on bridal inspirations from the red carpet, to show that the best wedding gowns arent always in the bridal stores, they could be couture evening gowns too! So far this year I have been wowed by Kate Hudson at the Golden Globes with her stunning Origami dress by Marchesa, Jennifer Carpenter at the SAG awards in her long sleeved mini dress by Paule Ka and Rhianna at the Grammys last night in her stunning gown by Elie Saab.

Jennifer Hudson at the Grammys last night

As usual the fashion police have been harshly vocal about the gowns and looks they hated, and while some of them seemed unneccesarrily mean with childish name calling [ then they wonder why stars have such deep rooted insecurites], others were spot on with their comments. I for one could not understand the look that Gaga was going for last night. While the Armani dress was futurisitc and unusual (and probably uncomfortable) what was her excuse for the hair and makeup? Lesson to all brides, a stunning gown is simply not enough, it needs to be paired with classy hair, makeup and accesories otherwise its just a waste of a dress.