FEET: Designers are creating the focus point on the heel this year. Big heels, small heels, heels upsidedown, patterned heels, two heels. The variations are endless but each adding a bit of fun to our outfits. Miu Miu’s summer collection uses the heel technique to spice up her outfits and continue her themes. She shows us heeled Mary-Janes with fairyland detail on the heels, in shades of pink and black with gold decoration. Prada has also taken to heel fashion, providing us with flower sculpted heels. The heel trend looks like a hit.

 

Another feet must have is, The ‘Spat’. They first made an appearance in Chanel’s Spring/Summer 06 collection and have now made a huge comeback in Miu Miu’s Spring/Summer 08 collection.

BODY: Oriental inspiration. Fendi’s show at the Wall of China impressed us all. Asian inspiration was included in the designs. Subtle details like birds in flight and the use of gold made this theme classy and fresh. Well done Fendi. Alexander McQueen used cinching at the waist to create the womanly figure while integrating the oriental theme too. Others like Prada and Martin Grant all had the theme streaming through their collections. Oriental is definitely one to look for.

HEAD: The bigger the better…when it comes to hats this year. Marc Jacobs and Oscar de la Renta had an interesting variation in the hat department. Both big, both having the ‘WOW!’ factor but done slightly differently. Marc Jacobs had soft satins, draping down the face and landing on the shoulders. Whereas Oscar de la Renta offered more structure, using straw to convey sheer excellence.

 

MAKE-UP: Emphasizing the old and the new is key. We want red lips, shaded cheeks and black eye-liners, basically the forties, mixed with the new; liquid metallic eyes, stone cool lips and razor-cut contours. Rather than black mascara, try brown. Wiggling it at the roots, rather than all the way through.

By Sarah Taplin