Seoul fashion week is going to kick off this Saturday with a bit of fanfare. Now granted it is already duking it out with Los Angeles Fashion Week which, incidentally, won’t be at Smashbox studios any longer; this fashion week promises to give Hollywood’s fashion week a run for its money. Think about it, Eley Kishimoto might be there. That’s a really big might, but some of the women’s designers slated to be showing their collections include Song Jain, Gee Choon-hee, Lee Young-hee, An Yoon-jung and Cho Sung-kyong.

There is some backstory to Seoul Fashion week in terms of drama. According to the Korea Times, some major top designers like Rubina Lie Sang-bong, Son Jung-wan are going to be no-shows for the event because tehre was a rift between organizers and the Seoul Fashion Artists Association. Apparently, we all can’t just get along.

Though not participating in the SETEC fashion show, I am particularly looking forward to Rubina Lie Sang-bong. In my next series of posts, I’ll elaborate on this Paris based designers genius, but Korea fashion week still looks to have great collections on display.

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Luisa Beccaria’s been dogged by lukewarm reviews of her previous shows in Milan. By no means were they bad or were her collections simply written off as unwearable. The designer was simply a victim of indifference. In many instances that may be seen as worse than a bad review. The thought process is, at least the reviewer thinks something either good or bad about the about the collection. Indifference is akin to not even meriting a review of substance. Nicole Phelps at Style cleared that up by providing a laudatory review of the show and from the photos, it’s apparent that the designer has done her classwork and homework. Phelps gushes in her review on Style that:

For some, Beccaria’s party dresses are the very essence of romance; for others, they’re just too sweet. But there’s no arguing that this was one of her most accomplished shows. It was cohesive, well-made (although she’ll have to address the sheerness issue before retail), and utterly charming.

What’s this? A black model on a Milan runway? Is the end of the world nigh? Apparently it is not, what’s happening is that Milan designers were almost shamed into using black models for fashion week. What’s the big deal you say? The big deal is that fashion needs to be somewhat representative of the public at large. There are all shades of women that purchase Italian designer pieces a glaring omission of the client base was immediately noticed and called out by models like Naomi Campbell. Italian Vogue picked it up with their nearly all black issue and the return of the black model to the Milan Runways is a welcome sight to say the least. The question now is will the floodgates open up to Asian models, latin models and …gasp Indian models? We may have to answer that question in the coming seasons.

Rick Owens had laid the gauntlet down. No one could get into his show during Paris fashion week. The numbers just did not add up. There was no room. So when Lenny Kravitz sauntered by thinking that because he’s, well, Lenny Kravitz, the celebrity was unceremoniously told in no uncertain terms that he could not get into Owen’s fashion show. As a matter of fact, most people couldn’t get into Owen’s show. Vogue’s Style File blog alluded to as much when they stated that only headmistress of Paris Vogue, Carine Roitfeld was provided entry. Eventually Kravitz did make his way in, but not without a certain amount of acrimony and tension and chicanery (he snuck in).

If government’s want to learn how to stop terrorists, they should talk to designer’s about security.

No one can tell me that Dolce and Gabbana’s Milan show had little to do with the far east. I may be biased because of my close proximity to Honk Kong, but there was a noticeable tinge of Asian inspired fashion to the show. The point of bringing this up is because there is genius in not the fact that they did it, but how they did it. A lot of the pieces in the collection seem to be a mix of 20s styling and asian inspired kimonos, robes and dresses. The melange of era and region makes the effort of the designers that much more pronounced. My money for Spring in terms of Italian collections is on the Docle and Gabbana collection.

Sorry for my absence of late. I was asked recently to work with a designer for Hong Kong Fashion Week as a stylist which caused me to be severely occupied and stressed, but I am back. You’ll love some of the coverage I have for Milan and this week’s collections in Paris.

-Cam Ling

This is something you simply cannot make up. You look at all the shows that went on during Milan fashion week but what dominated headlines across the web was the arrival of Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest alter ego gracing the presence of the Iceberg show. The unwelcome appearance of Bruno was a party of Cohen’s latest project debuting in theaters this May – Bruno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Male.

Will he break into any shows during Paris? Anything is possible with Bruno.

via: The Telegraph

Although Milan is going on right now, I’m still focusing a bit on London Fashion week as things happen in a blur and if you don’t pay enough attention you may miss something. This photos is from Bernard Chandran’s Spring 2009 collection.

I am currently thoroughly enjoying our London Fashion week coverage and I’m in favorite photo mode. So what’s currently on my fashion week photo radar? Peaches Geldoff of course. She’s currently everywhere in British high society. So naturally when Anne-Marie Michel snapped this photo of “the Peach” I had to feature it:

Also check out the Amy Winehouse impression:

In a word Lace.

John Rocha described this as his inspiration while showing his London Fashion Week Collection for Spring Summer 2009. The designer is never afraid to take chances and create something completely different for the season. The lace looked light as air in the photos.Our writer on the ground in London, Aradia Crokett described his collection as:

“if for dessert, the last run of girls wore beautiful, simple dresses in an array of aqua blues, lemon yellows and candy pinks. Lovely!”

Read her entire review here