Elle Mag recently featured newcomer Saloni Lodha as a young designer to watch. Her line of dresses Saloni stand on their own, as the kind of pieces that only need a fierce pair of shoes to accompany them. The Cora Strapless dress  available at My Wardrobe is a great example of how she uses her Indian heritage and her trainning as a graphic designer to enhance silhouettes with just enough adornment to make the clothing look special and individual . Detailed view on the next page.

Shoulder pads are  slowly creeping back in, to add more dimension to blazer silhouettes. The power shoulders that were frowned upon are slowly being adopted by the fashionistas, as an avant-garde statement. Showing that everything in fashion  does eventually come back. The Shadow Blazer available at Pixie market is an acceptable update. Detailed view on the next page.

Chip & Pepper  Foster took the denim world by storm with their lineof  perfectly weathered vintage inspired denim   in 2003. Fueled by their passion of  denim and authenticity Chip & Pepper’s Autumn/Winter 2009 collection introduces  their signature silhouettes in new colors as well as edgier washes like the super bleached “Hot Sauce” and the ‘Nikki Martin”  in a very wearable red shade called Red Rover, that totally made me rethink red jeans. On the next page a closer look at Chip & Pepper women’s Autumn/Winter 2009 looks.

 … In honor of this gray rainy day enjoy”Eyes without a face” by Billy Idol !

For all you flip-flop-aholics, you know the drill, you wear them all summer and by July, you have those weird tan lines on your feet, which stand out whenever you’re wearing any non-thong footwear. If you alternate with these cute, two-toned Sanuk “Ibiza” flips-floops, voila, problem gone! It’s the same concept as alternating your bikinis so you can get as all over a tan as possible. Not that anyone does that anymore due to concerns about skin cancer, but shhhh, I promise I won’t tell about the many of you who still go for a summer tan! Lord knows any day now you’ll get sent to jail for that shizz!

One more color after the flip.

Before & After: take out the shiney fabric and coordinated missing-torso top and not much has changed!

Fashion is the ultimate expression of history repeating itself. As such you’d be heard-pressed to find a fashion show review that doesn’t include a reference to a 20th century decade that the writer believes inspired the collection. In commenting on the current return-to-’80s fashion craze to New York magazine, Washington Post fashion critic Robin Givhan probably deeply hurt MC hammer when she stated emphatically, “I don’t think the world needs MC Hammer pants ever, ever again.” Ever! And by the way, she aint so high on acid-wash either. I’m with you Robin. Hammer pants should have died with harems; all that extra fabric just make no damn sense. If I want ill-fitting bottoms, I’ll buy a pair of pantyhose one size to small, thanks very much!

In fashion’s  continual infatuation with  the 80’s we’ve seen a love or hate relationship with  the return of harem pants , saruouel or hammer pants.   Cropped tops were also de rigueur , in these days if you reall. Although I have not seen many versions yet, something tells me that, we might see a lot cropped tops very soon. Daniel  Palillo’s  take is one of the best/fun  I’ve seen so far. Available at Welcomehuntersla.

Talented, N.Y.-based designer and stylist Tiff LaStar, aka Butch Diva, is selling off some of her studio samples. Visit her blog to see more and also get a view of some of her wicked styling skills.

A recently-styled client featured after the flip. The slickness!

HighSnobette are fans of Kelis back to our days when we were a mere HighSnobiety blogette, known back then as ChicksWithKicks. Since she got knocked up, Kelis has been very much out of the spotlight and while we understand, we very, very much miss seeing her and all her fashion genius choices. She looks great here and it’s great to see that she’s keeping up in a snakeskin catsuit no less (that’s a baby boy she’s carrying, btw), along with Nasir Jones, who is looking appropriately protective and hood-minded in his Adidas kicks and Yankee fitted. Excellent birthing vibes to you Mz. Jones!

Via TheLifeFiles via TheYBF

I’m overdue late on Mariah’s latest video, “My Love,” produced or directed by her man, whatshisface, and featuring The Dream. A big part of what makes this video noteworthy is that it prominantly features Mariah wearing a Claw top (pictured above), which, yea, Blogue pointed out, oh like at least a week ago. Being as behind as I am (sorry people, I was practically dead for the past two days from some fuckery virus) I at least have the advantage of reading some of the response to the video, which has been controversial to say the least. A lot of people were put off by the styling, thinking that it just didn’t work for Mariah given her age. Meh, I think she looks adorable and I’ll take a chick in kicks at any stage of her game. One thing I did agree with was a comment on the Dream from some poster on another site, where she was like, “I can’t stand him, he’s got a baby-faced head on a grown man’s body!” Right?? How in a nutshell is that description? Anyway, I’m not gonna link to the actual video, but to the outtakes one, where you can watch The Dream and Mariah do some of the worst acting you’ve seen in your lifetime. I swear, if you’re feeling blue, watch! You will be rolling by the time it’s over. I promise.

A couple more video screen shots after the flip.