Recapping the week with some friends over brunch I scrolled through what I missed at my day in the office. Namely Carlie Wong's "gangster meets glamour" collection! A great stable of soft, glam separates that were cut
down to 'there', featuring a lot of strategic draping and flowing Grecian dresses. Beautiful, wearable and saleable; she was in buying meetings all day today - I hope they went well Carlie!

Photograph courtesy content.coutorture.com

Photograph courtesy media.onsugar.com

*Morales* was definitely a HIGHLIGHT of MY week. I went to the show with high expectations having seen her previous collections - and Renata Morales sure did not disappoint! Her collection was unabashedly feminine and
beautiful. I walked into the show with anticipation, which soon turned to
admiration and left the tent in love - which will unfortunately remain unrequited until I get my hands on some of it! What girl wouldn't love to wear this - with slick opaque tights and sky high booties, or foiled against
the hardness of a biker jacket! I'll let the photos speak for themselves:

Photo courtesy media.onsugar.com

Photo courtesy media.onsugar.com

Photo courtesy media.onsugar.com
The exquisite details of the rosettes had me at hello.

Photo courtesy media.onsugar.com

I personally found the wreaths (as beautiful as they were in their own
right, to be distracting from the collection - as much as I loved it, it wasn't a couture show right?).

*Lucian Matis* showed a beautiful collection for Spring 2009 - I especially loved the burned out, pixelated prints used on his maxi dresses. It looked like some inspiration came from the east (or Prada SS 2007 - at least for
the turbans) - featuring floating, sari like dresses and turbans on every girl that walked.

Photo courtesy fashionweekdaily.com

Andre Leon Talley is a fan - having worn turbans out to the CFDA's, and while co-hosting Vogue's fundraiser for Michelle Obama this past June.

*Denis Gagnon's* leather-clad geisha girls closed out the shows for Spring 2009. Gliding down the runway in sky high platforms, these girls must have felt more tightrope walkers than runway models.

No demure turn of the wrists here - all his models wore intense tribal jewellery; with horns, leaves and spikes featuring prominently in necklaces and cuffs. The show opened with a heavy emphasis on black - showing off his
ability to manipulate shape, working with volume and cinching in all the right places.

There were four distinct colour stories in Denis' show. He began with black, then lightened to cream and white, with magenta and red following, and finally ending in metallic gold. The magenta was a moment for bold colour
and dramatic shapes - whereas the gold featured great tailoring and an emphasis on the shoulders (which appeared at Nina Ricci, Balmain, and in most SS 2009 collections in Milan, Paris and London).

The main message I'm taking away from this week is toughening up my look for SS 2009, it's not all about ruffles and lace (a little bit of leather can go a long way!).

Posted by JACQUIE