Fashion | Quite Continental

NYFW Recap: Nonoo S/S 2013

14/09/2012 § 1 Comment

To kick off my coverage of New York Fashion Week,
one of my very favorite collections: Nonoo.

Designer Misha Nonoo and Bergdorf Goodman’s Linda Fargo.

As I stepped into the Nonoo presentation at Milk, I was pleasantly surprised to hear tropical music. Peeking around a throng of fans that included Olivia Palermo, Linda Fargo of Bergdorf Goodman, Jamie Beck and Leandra Medine, I discovered designer Misha Nonoo’s amazing Spring Summer 2013 collection — and promptly fell in love. Drawing inspiration from the faded beauty of Cuba, the collection deftly balances elegance with whimsy amidst a richly saturated palette and some very gorgeous prints. The lace! The flamingos! The Supergas!

Smartly tailored, vintage inspired, and more than a bit Wallis Simpson in the Bahamas, Nonoo Spring/Summer 2013 is glamorous and casually refined. Perfect for a weekend jaunt to the Caribbean…or just kicking around the West Village.
I’ll take it all, thanks.

Be sure to pop by Nonoo.

New York Fashiongram

13/09/2012 § Leave a comment

Full posts to follow, but I just wanted to share a few of my
favorite New York Fashion Week moments, captured via Instagram:

Bill Cunningham at Suno
The rush at Monika Chiang
Lovely linen at Samantha Pleet
Misha Nonoo and Olivia Palermo at Nonoo
Lani en route to Fashion’s Night Out
The opening of Michael Bastian
Refreshments at Cafe Gitane

QC Loves: Studio Nicholson

17/08/2012 § 1 Comment

The interwebs truly is a beautiful thing.

I’m not sure what rabbit hole lead me to discover British designer Nick Wakeman’s amazing line, but I thank my lucky stars that I fell down it. Because it’s like it was made just for me.

Studio Nicholson is “…inspired by her love of menswear design whilst incorporating subtle female trend hooks each season. Nick, a former menswear designer has always been inspired by the assured and classic style of the sartorial European man’s wardrobe. Each season Nick catches the heart of that man’s sense of dress and creates an effortless, confident and uncomplicated wardrobe for women who require a practical yet classy uniform.”

Few things to note here:
1) inspired by classic menswear,
2) embraces seasonal female trend elements,
3) advocate of the uniform,
4) her name is Nick? Utterly cool.

and perhaps most importantly,
she’s just taken a 50% final summer reduction on all you see here and more.

Do hop over to Studio Nicholson, post haste.

At Home With Ms. Issa

10/08/2012 § 1 Comment

Loved this glimpse into the home of Caroline Issa, the executive fashion director of Tank Magazine, photographed by Natalie Joos. I’m a big fan of Issa’s style, which tends to combine unexpected elements with excellent tailoring, so when I happened to cross paths with her at the Rag & Bone F/W 2012 show, I came thisclose to making a bit of a fool of myself by proclaiming my admiration. Thankfully, I managed to keep my cool.

I will admit that I expected Issa’s home to be much more colorful, but perhaps there is something kind of perfect about the whiteness of the space — a “less is more” approach that leaves plenty of room for Issa to push the boundaries with her personal style.

Be sure to visit Tales of Endearment for the full tour.

Featured: Refinery29

26/07/2012 § 4 Comments

Just a quick note to let you know I was featured on Refinery29 today, as part of their “I love my…” series, where they ask a writer to share the story behind a special item in my closet. Care to guess what I chose to write about?

Find the feature here.

Many thanks to Refinery29!

The Dandy, The Rockstar & The Gentlewoman {Style Icons: Janie, Esther & Jeeyong}

17/07/2012 § 7 Comments

Janie Cai, Esther Quek and Jeeyong Kang.

Three amazing women, three distinct senses of personal style
that are heavily influenced by menswear.

Believe me when I say serious. girlcrush. (times three).

The Dandy — Janie Cai, fashion director, Esquire Singapore.

Janie is a lady who loves a good hat and a statement lapel (or accessory). She’s eternally smiling — something of a rarity for streetstyle subjects — and her kits always feel like so much fun. I’m especially digging her new haircut.

From Janie, take a carefree attitude and a love for nattily mixed textures…

The Rockstar — Esther Quek, fashion editor, The Rake.

Esther’s self-assured composure and amazing hair choices have me a bit intimidated, even from pictures. But I love it. She is a master of the necktie — and did you notice her tie bar game? So, so good. I love her approach to layering and pattern-mixing — and her omnipresent dark glasses? Completely badass.

From Esther, take a sense of boldness and a love of color and contrast…

The Gentlewoman — Jeeyong Kang, fashion director, GQ Korea.

Of the three, Jeeyong’s sense of style is probably my favorite. There is a calmness to the way she dresses — it is simple and elegant and communicates a sense of seriousness.

From Jeeyong, embrace a sense of confident simplicity.

Images via: You Just Got Spotted [1 and 2], The Sartorialist [1], All the Pretty Birds [1 ], Vanessa Jackman [1 and 2], Rock the Trend [1 and 2], STREETFSN [1 and 2], Stockholm Streetstyle [1, 2, and 3], Guerrisms [1], Streetpeeper [1], Citizen Couture [1 and 2], Tommy Ton for Style.com [1], and a few random finds courtesy of the Tumblrs and the Googles.

Rabbit Hole || Summer in the Vogue Archives

26/06/2012 § 4 Comments

July 1919, illustration by Helen Dryden.

Similar to the recent release of vintage beach fashion images from Vogue Spain that I highlighted a few weeks back, US Vogue has also decided to open up their vast archive to give us a look at summer fashions dating back to 1899. Containing some very famous and iconic images, you know I couldn’t resist. I selected a few of my favorites, but be sure to head over to Vogue to see them all.

These images have me looking forward to my planned
trip to Ft. Tilden this weekend, definitely…

July 1928, photograph by George Hoyningen-Huene.

July 1930, photograph by George Hoyningen-Huene.

May 1933, photograph by Edward Steichen.

July 1940, photograph by Toni Frissell.

May 1941, photograph by Horst P. Horst.

June 1949, photograph by Clifford Coffin.

December 1952, photograph by Richard Rutledge.

July 1954, photograph by Karen Radkai.

January 1956, photograph by Richard Rutledge.

January 1958, photograph by Richard Rutledge.

January 1959, photograph by Jerry Schatzberg.

January 1959, photograph by Tom Palumbo.

January 1966, photograph by John Cowan.

June 1976, photograph by Arthur Elgort.

June 1991, photograph by Patrick Demarchelier.

Hop futher down the rabbit hole here.
All images via Vogue.

About Last Night || Celebrating Tomboy Style at Rugby Ralph Lauren

08/06/2012 § Leave a comment

Last night, I was very pleased to celebrate the release of Tomboy Style by the exceptionally lovely Lizzie Garrett Mettler at the Rugby Ralph Lauren store on University Place. It was a such a lovely party, I couldn’t help but snap a few pictures to share with you…

So great to see Lizzie on the east coast!
Was hoping to kidnap her and make her stay, but I was unsuccessful.

Loved how Rugby styled four of Lizzie’s Tomboy archetypes:
(from left) the prep, the naturalist, the sophisticate, the rebel.

With my gorgeous friend Marisa Zupan, Managing Editor at Rugby Ralph Lauren, blogger at The Significant Other, and all around awesome lady. I’m especially loving her new bangs.

Haven’t yet picked up your copy of Tomboy Style? What are you waiting for?

And if you are in Boston this Saturday, be sure to stop by the Rugby Ralph Lauren store on Newbury Street between 5 and 7pm to meet Lizzie and get your book signed! Rugby is also sponsoring an awesome Tomboy Style giveaway, which you can find out about on Lizzie’s blog here.
I’d wish you good luck, but you know I’m hoping to win, natch…

Improper Bostonians

22/05/2012 § 5 Comments

I’m off to Boston for a few days on business, and I thought it would be the perfect time to share this set of photos I discovered in the Life Archive. They were taken in 1949 at the original Filene’s Basement, then called the “Automatic Bargain Basement” for the automatic schedule of its discount percentages (pegged to the number of days the item had been on sale). Created in 1909 in the basement of Boston’s flagship Filene’s department store, Filene’s Basement was eventually spun off as its own entity and outlived the department store until it too became defunct in 2011. Fun fact: it’s actually where the term “bargain basement” originated.

Sadly the gorgeous original flagship store at Downtown Crossing in Boston, built in 1912 and where these photos were taken, was largely demolished in 2007 after Filene’s went out of business. Because only the building’s facade was landmarked, developers were free to gut the interiors of the building, which also dated back to 1912. When those developers lost funding, the building was just left gutted — a huge, gaping hole with the facade looming like the ghost of sales past. (I haven’t been to Downtown Crossing lately to see if anything has changed at the site — has anyone?)

In these photos, Life photographer George Silk captured the annual $11 suit and topcoat sale at Filene’s Basement. Just like today’s sample sales, customers started forming a line for the 8:30am sale at 6:30am, and made a mad dash as soon as the doors were flung open. In less than three hours, 5,000 garments were sold. In the article, entitled “Improper Bostonians” (which you can read here), Life delightedly informs us that a 200-pound woman fainted and had to be carried away, a blind man was nearly trampled and a man posed as a salesman and swiped someone’s $11!