Heroic Hats

The definition of a hat is "A shaped covering for the head." Whether it's keeping your head warm, or shading you from the sun's rays, hats have been around for thousands of years. One of the first hats appeared in the early Egyptian times.

In fashion, hats aren't always about practicality, but about their aesthetic.
One of my favourite hat designers is the fabulous Philip Treacy. Treacy has been designing head-wear for a number of years, and celebs such as Lady Gaga and Sarah Jessica Parker have worn his ensembles, making hats more of a fashion statement.

Sarah Jessica Parker in Flower and
Butterfly ensemble

Lady Gaga in Lobster Hat

Hats are now an art form, and to create a mind blowing bonnet in the 21St century you have to have a unique style and concept. 

Jodie Kidd in a Louis Mariette Hat

A Jo Gordan Bonnet

Aside from the avant-garde headgear above, hats we can wear out to the shops include straw trilby's, tweed flat caps and old classic knitted hats. You could even attempt to knit your own hat for the coming winter, which is fast approaching!

Marc Jacobs Straw Hat

Chanel Knitted Hat

So whether it's an abstract fascinator at some ones wedding, or a thick woolly beanie in the snow, make sure you get your hands on a lovely hat soon!

No matter what style, shape, colour, texture or height of hat, hat's will never be out of fashion. So yet another key item that will forever be in our hearts.

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Fabulous 50's

50's fashion has been on it's way back for a while now, but not till recently did I know the extent of how in-fashion the 50's is.

From Skirts to Suitcases, the 50's is defiantly in style. Some of the era's icons are well known in the fashion world, from Grace Kelly and Marlon Brando to Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe (the lyrics to Madonna's Vogue?).

It's now stylish to wear thick rimmed glasses. But these are normally "geek" style glasses, but what about 50's ones? As you can see below "Grandma's" glasses are now in vogue. You can wear them with practically anything!

50's Glasses Advertisement

Also, with out realising it, we have adopted 50's hosiery to our modern day needs. Tights with seams are now deemed sexy and classy. So wearing them to posh restaurants or out in the office, these tights are a wonderful way to give yourself confidence, and keep you warm this winter. 

50's Hosiery Advertisement

Speaking of class, one of the most classy ladies of the 1950's was Grace Kelly. Taking beauty to another level, this lady wore some of the most amazing dresses. Maybe not so practical to wear out with the girls, but Dior's shimmering silver dresses remind us of some of her gowns.

Grace Kelly

Dior 2010

Skirts - an easy way to style up an outfit, and from pleated skirts to poodle skirts, they are defiantly back.

A simple, pleated skirt or dress can look wonderful in plain black/white or can look gorgeous in pinks, greens and blues. See House of Holland's 2011 Spring/Summer collection.

HoH 2011 S/S

HoH 2011 S/S

But in Contrast you could be bold and wear a bright Poodle Skirt. 

In addition you could always have a go at making your own skirt or dress. Making your own clothing was a big hit in the 50's, often it was cheaper to do. But making your own clothing means you know exactly how it's been made, what it's been made from, and also you can adjust it to fit you like a glove.

To round of this post I would like to finish with Suitcases. Often a way to show your style in Airports, Suitcases can say alot about you. Personally I have fallen in love with vintage suitcases, and here is my ever-growing collection below. I have either acquired them from a kind family member, or I have bought them for under £10!

So, get down to a vintage shop, charity shop or raid the loft, you never know what hidden treasure you might find. 

Let me know your ideas and opinions by commenting below, you don't even have to be a member! 

Also follow me on twitter (So_Stilvoll) to keep posted on all the new posts.

Religious Fashion

Since the Pope is on his state visit in Britain this week, I thought it would be interesting to look at how religious dress has influenced current fashion and which designers are featuring religious inspired collections.

I start with a controversial piece of religious costume, the Burka. In the UK they are considering banning this item of clothing to be worn by Muslim women. But some brave designers have created some colourful Burkas.

Marked Moskva

Louise Golden

To add to the controversy of the Burka, Hussein Chalayan decided to de construct the Burka into a literally bare form, you can see below that Burkas can hide any shape, size, or coloured women underneath all that cloth.

Hussein Chalayan spring/summer 1998

Givenchy Haute Couture fall 2009

Although Moskva and Chalayan contradict the whole reason why Muslim women wear Burkas, it's still nice to see that people are willing to challenge strict religious costume. 

Religion has been around for so long that it must be time for religious costume to come back into fashion. Religious dress in the past has always been long skirts embroidered with avant-garde stitching.

Alexander Mcqueen gold leaf embroidered dress

Alexander Mcqueen

The last thing that i think is coming back is religious jewellery. Apart from the religious reasons for wearing crucifix's, there could be a big market appearing for kooky and unique Christian jewellery, if Tiffany have such wonderful crucifix's as below, then who wouldn't want to be wearing crosses.

I hope that religion and fashion can flourish together, but many people might not understand the reasons for religions having specific clothes to wear. Which perhaps needs to be explained.

Any thoughts, I would love to hear them, and thank you to all my twitter followers for helping me to reach my 100 hits mark!

Beautiful Beige

The colour to own this summer is Beige. Often it is seen as boring, plain and unimaginative. But depending on the way you wear this earthy colour, you could look amazing!

This fall Beige has been injected into silk shirts, wonderful woollen coats and cascading capes. Chloe, Aquascutum, Marc Jacobs and Gucci, to name but a few, have all used different shades of Beige in their Fall collections.

Using the same tone of Beige you can create a fantastic, jaw dropping, outfits to wear on a chilly autumnal day. For example a Beige blouse and a brown skirt, with a thick coat tied together with a knotted leather belt.
 Another way you could wear Beige this season is in the form of long, high waisted trousers with a silk blouse and a thin tanned leather belt as Chloe shows below.

Faux fur and feathers have also been given the Beige treatment. Perhaps not so practical for all you office workers, but for a classy night out, a vintage, floor length dress with a beige cable knitted jumper could be a practical, yet elegant twist on a classic (see Marc Jacobs above).

To round off a all Beige outfit you're going to need shoes and a bag. From Boots to Wedges, Clutches to Wristlets. Every Designer is showing off there wonderfully simplistic bags to accompany any outfit. I like the touch from Kurt Geiger who are selling socks to wear with heels. as you can see above they have paired a pair of pastel pink socks with some Beige heels. Adding a hint of flavour to any outfit.

To me Beige represents quality, comfort and style. And any colour that oozes these characteristics must be worth spending money on this season. So get out to vintage stores, designers and high street shops this instant to get your hands on this everlasting classic colour.

Designers in Detail

Designers in Detail is a new feature I am introducing to my Blog. At least every month I will do a post on a designer, past present or up-and-coming.

For the first ever Designer in Detail to be featured on So Stilvoll, I have decided to look at one of Marilyn Monroe's favoured costume designers William Travilla.

Travilla and Monroe wearing an outfit
from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes 1953

Over my holidays I dusted of an old box set of Monroe films including The Seven Year Itch, Bus Stop and River Of No Return. I didn't realise until reading the titles at the begging of these wonderful, iconic films, how many films he worked with Monroe to achieve wonderfully shaped gowns.

Some of the most iconic Outfits he created for Marilyn Monroe include the amazing hot pink gown worn in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Also he crafted the fabulous white number from The Seven Year Itch.

White Cocktail Dress worn
in The Seven Year Itch.

Travilla's Sketch for the Diamonds Are A
 Girl's Best friend number.

Not only did the 1920 born designer dress Marilyn Monroe, but he dressed women from Judy Garland and Whitney Houston to Jane Russell and Dionne Warwick. Which leads me onto a brief mention of the tour of his beautiful gowns, for more information go to http://www.travillatour.com which i have to thank for some of the wonderful images in this post.

After a wonderful life he died in 1990 at the age of 70 of lung cancer. What an unfortunate loss? In my opinion he was one of the best costume designers ever to live, and he must have been important if such iconic actresses let him dress them. If you have any thoughts or questions comment on the bottom of this post, you don't even have to be a member of www.blogger.com, I would love to hear your thoughts, so keep posted for more Designers in Detail.

Part of the Travilla exhibition, thank you www.travillatour.com

Fashion Decay

When we think of fashion decay normally we imagine torn clothes, bobbly jumpers or stained jeans. But instead I think we should realise how fashion decay can either be reversed or made to look stylish.

Stains - most people hate them, but think about paint stains, your painting a wall, or a picture and your wearing some old jeans with ripped holes that are fraying around the edge.

Alexander Mcqueen Resort 2010

Alexander Mcqueen Resort 2010

The late Mcqueen manages to pull it off well in their resort 2010 collection, along with these fabulous 4.75 inch heels.

Holes in tights - many of you ladies out there hate ladders and holes in your tights but as you can see below, go over the top with the ladders and holes adding a unique character to you making you look amazing

In my previous post I said that I had buried a shirt to achieve a similar look to Hussein Chalayan's graduation collection all the way back in 1994. But unfortunately this fashion experiment didn't work out, so i have re-buried the shirt again, so in a month or so I shall see what the results are like then.

So why don't you get down the charity shop and buy some jeans, a shirt or get some old tights and rip to your hearts content.
But remember be original and comment any other ideas you have for fashion decay, I'd love to hear your ideas! I will be back soon with another Stilvoll post.

Coming Soon...

My first proper post will be coming soon within the next week. The theme is "Fashion Decay", drawing inspiration from Hussein Chalayan.

For his graduation collection Chalayan buried his creations underground.

 So I have done the same, to see the results and many other things, watch this space for my next post.