Sandra‘s Closet

Ladurée is worldwide known for their double-decker macaroons which come in various flavours and seasonal specials. Founded in Paris by Louis-Ernest Ladurée, in 1862, the famous luxury pastries shop and café is always worth a visit. Today, the brand can be found all over the world and has even opened its doors in Zurich last winter.

Even if you are not into caloric treats, you should pay the shop a visit. The interior itself is overly stunning and inspiring, definitely nothing for minimalists.
Remember my friend, I wrote about, that built her dream closet in the famous Ladurée green.

The Ladurée universe includes much more than sweets. They sell the most beautiful gifts you can imagine from scented candles to shower gel, from ruffled printed umbrellas to tea degustation sets. All gorgeously wrapped and packed in their signature boxes in pastel colours.

Many designers got together with the famous French patisserie for the best fashion/food collaborations ever. Names like Christian Lacroix, Christian Louboutin, Marni, which are making our hearts go all aflutter with their designs, have created adorable macarons gift sets.
In the end of October, John Galliano will be decorating his special edition for Ladurée: The rose-ginger macaroons.

While the sweets inside may not last long, the fashionable packaging will be worth keeping it forever.

LoL, Sandra

While shopping on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, I came across a very interesting store called Duuya. I browsed through the subtle, very versatile avantgarde couture and asked the lady in the store about this beautiful collection. It turned out to be Jaga Buyan, the designer herself.

Famous model Devon Aoki in an outfit by Duuya

Born in Mongolia, she took her chance in 1999 and came to the US to fulfill the “American Dream”. Learning English quickly, Jaga began working in retail boutiques before launching her own clothing line and opening her shop on trendy Melrose Avenue in 2004.

Her courage paid off. Today, her unique signature distressed silk designs and perfect tailored pieces are sold in various stores in the US and internationally, and sometimes even seen on the red carpet in Hollywood.

Below you will find a preview of the upcoming S/S 2011 collection. If you are interested, feel free to contact Jaga at + 1 323 658 8481 (e-mail: ).

LoL, Sandra

Bonnie Star with her friend fashion designer Randolphe Duke

At a ladies luncheon in Beverly Hills, I sat next to Bonnie Star who turned out to be not only a very interesting woman, but also a fantastic jewelry designer. She invited me to her beautiful house the next day and showed me all of her fantastic work. Being a former artist, Bonnie has a total eye for shapes, fabrics and colours. She uses sterling, crystals, ornate stones like turquoise and agate along with a mix of vintage pendants and toggle clasps to create her unique pieces. Most of her designs can be worn in different ways as she loves multi-functional jewelry.

My personal favourites are her romantic tulle necklaces.

Bonnie leads a fashionable life being the sister of Darren Star, the mastermind behind our beloved television series like Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place, Cashmere Mafia or Sex and the City. She was looking for the perfect jewelry to go with her outfits for all the special events she has to attend. What started as something just for herself, ended in a sparkling business. Her line ranges from $180.- to $380.-. Enjoy some photos of her creations below.

Bonnie Star Jewelry is currently sold at Fred Segal in Los Angeles or contact: info@ bonniestarjewelry.com, phone +1 310-993-7292. Worldwide shipping is available on request.

Be a star!

LoL, Sandra

I would like to dedicate this week to outstanding talented designers around the world who have impressed me with their work.
As the annual Munich Beer Festival, the famous Oktoberfest, is taking place at the moment, I would like to start with Lola Paltinger who creates the most beautiful dirndl couture– the embodiment of urbane German traditional costume, so-called “Tracht”.

Lola graduated like me from ESMOD. After her studies she trained with Vivienne Westwood before launching her own atelier.

Her style is eccentric and very feminine, inspired by the Hollywood glamour of the 1930s/40s. Her playful romanticism with that touch of drama is what makes her creations so special. As for me her dirndls are by far the most gorgeous ones on the market, elevating the traditional costume to a trendy must-have.

Her label Lollipop & Alpenrock stands for her famous couture dirndls, classy two-pieces and separates. The beautiful range of Bavarian accessories complete the collection.
For enquiries concerning the bespoke pieces, please contact the Munich atelier directly.

Under the name Happy Heidi, Lola Paltinger presents her prêt-à-porter range of very fashionable models in limited editions. Aprons, charivaris and matching blouses are also available from selective retailers both within Germany and abroad.

For my German, Swiss and Austrian readers: Himmelblau by Lola Paltinger is her casual line with Tracht elements that is sold exclusively to HSE24, the home shopping televison network.

She even has some famous fans who were spotted wearing her Bavarian pop couture, among them Selma Hayek and Paris Hilton.

One thing is for sure: Women of all ages, figures and types look great in a dirndl!
And with that famous “dash of Lola”, that coquettish wink, you will be snowed under with gingerbread hearts saying I love you!

LoL, Sandra

Photos: Courtesy of Lola Paltinger

When I was in London recently, I visited the new headquarters of net-à-porter which are absolutely stunning.

The best part was my exclusive preview of Alexander McQueen’s exquisite F/W 2010 collection.
The late Bristish designer’s final work is a piece of art, to be taken literally and owning such a statement collector’s piece is like owning a piece of fashion history.

Have a look at my favourites and see how much work and dedication the genius put in his creations. Which one would be your cultural heritage fashionwise?

Look 2

Incrusted harness dress with bulletted duchesse skirt. The printed jacquard was inspired by 3 paintings from Heironymous Bosch entitled “Earthly paradise”, “Garden of Earthly delights”, and “Musical Hell”. The harness has an all over metal sequin embroidery inspired by Byzantine Mosaics.

Retail price £12,420.00

Look 3

Duchesse dress draped with minimal use of seams and darts to form two exaggerated pockets on the side. The embroidery is a metal based embroidery inspired by the 17th century Dutch wood carver, Grinling Gibbons. The embroidery combines bullion, threadwork, metal sequins, metal flowers, metal beading.

Retail price £7,640.00

Look 5

This is the last dress that Lee McQueen draped on the mannequin. The print is inspired by the 15th century artist Stephan Lochner’s 3 church paintings of the Inunciation. Print is on silk duchesse placed following the drape of the dress. The underskirt is made of gold painted goose feathers. This dress has a bustier as part of it’s construction.

Retail price £7,165.00

Look 12

This dress is a combination of the angel wing print translated on Duchesse and chiffon. The print is inspired by the 15th Century Flemish church painter, Hugo van der Goes. The duchesse part of the dress is very sleek with a train creating a stiffness which is softened by the airy chiffon skirt that seems as if revealed. The embroidery is a silver and light gold bullion embroidery backed unto organza.

Retail price £7,165.00

Here are some photos of the beautiful display and me enjoying every detail of those divine creations.

LoL, Sandra

Good news for my Swiss and German based readers: After the summer break, the new Weltwoche Style Edition N°4 featuring 4 pages of my must-haves for F/W 2010 is available now. A nice weekend reading!

LoL, Sandra

Ladies, it is official, there is a shoe heaven on earth, located at London’s department store Selfridges. The world’s largest shoe department opens its doors officially today.
Designed by world class architect Jamie Forbet, it is bigger than the huge ground floor of London’s Tate Modern.

Here some of the unbelievable facts:

-55000 shoes in stock at any one time

-4000 shoes on display

-150 international brands

-6 unique shoe galleries

-11 beautiful boutiques

-1 hanging garden

-1 restaurant located in between (hubby parking space)

A special preview party was held last week for an exclusive crowd to peruse the new space. Look at all those sweet treats in shoe shapes, so adorable!

Selfridges’ Director of Accessories Sebastian Manes describes it perfectly: „Imagine you are in a gallery. From the entrance you see a succession of doorways, and at the end a huge window flooding the space with daylight. Your journey begins at the front, with shoes from the best of the high street. Slowly you begin to travel through different galleries until you reach the end – the couture designer gallery, flanked by Chanel and Louboutin, and a vision of Eden – the new suspended garden at Selfridges. Shoe heaven!”

Unfortunately, they do not sell a lot of their brands online yet. So you will have to go on a little shopping trip to the British capital.
But here comes the best: You can say that you went through all the galleries. Imagine how impressed your art loving and intellectual girlfriends will be!

LoL, Sandra

Sarah Jessica Parker attended yesterday in London the S/S 2011 Burberry Prorsum fashion show in an outfit that made her the style candy of the day.

The trendsetting actress wore a brown lace dress from the F/W 2010 line by Burberry Prorsum together with a stunning leather jacket from the upcoming Resort 2011 collection. In case you do not like to wait and would love to save some money, mytheresa sells a very similiar one on sale.

Sarah Jessica Parker topped off her look with a pale rose bag by Alexander McQueen and some killer heels by Nicholas Kirkwood.

Thumbs up!

LoL, Sandra

Recently the couture bottle design has become a huge craze. Companies team up with famous designers to get new “clothes” for their drinks.

After some really amazing collaborations with some of the biggest names in fashion, like Christian Lacroix, Jean Paul Gaultier and Paul Smith, Evian has chosen Issey Miyake this year to create a stylish cover. Clean, contemporary and colourful is the new design that will be available in gourmet stores.

Perrier is spicing up his bubbles with the help of burlesque star Dita van Teese who will be their new cover girl this year. Before that they worked with Custo Barcelona, Agnès B. and Paul & Joe to create some very desirable cans and bottles.

Finally San Pellegrino decided to be part of the hype and has chosen Missoni to cover their famous bottle label with the Italian fashion house’s zig zag pattern for their 111th anniversary. Thirty million units are being produced and will be sold in the best restaurants worldwide. In Zurich, they are everywhere.

Diet Coke has been increasing its connections with the world of fashion since quite a while. So no wonder that a long list of famous designers already have got a chance to embellish the beloved soft drink. Karl Lagerfeld has even changed the shape of the bottle this spring.

For all champagne loving fashionistas, Piper-Heidsieck has got some amazing pieces, from the corset bottle designed by Jean Paul Gaultier in 1999 to Christian Louboutin’s Le Rituel Box with a red soled shoe flute and Viktor & Rolf’s limited edition Rose Sauvage set with an upside down bottle.

Dolce & Gabbana’s first experiment in the wines and spirits sector is the Martini Gold Limited Edition. The exclusive mix: bergamot from Calabria, lemons from Sicily as well as oranges, Spanish saffron, myrrh from Ethiopia, ginger from India, and cubebe pepper from Indonesia was developed by the design duo themselves.

A good investment was definitely one of the 2000 individually numbered whiskey bottles that featured Alexander McQueen’s signature Union Jack colours. The late designer had teamed up with Chivas Regal to create that special piece in 2008.

As to me, all those bottles are really striking and sophisticated object d’arts and a show stopping addition to any dinner party.

Cheers!

LoL, Sandra

The nail polish is back and fashionistas all over the world crave for the newest It-colours. Celebrities even go a little further and wear sparkling glitter stones to leopard prints and striped designs. Arabian princesses might like master manicurist Leigthon Denny, who has an original nail boutique at the Urban Retreat Day Spa & Salon at Harrods in London and offers his Diamond, Sapphire and Ruby Encapsulization manicure for only $32.000.- . For this amount, you will get nine carats of precious gem inlays. O.k., this is totally insane!
But let’s come back to the actual question: Is nail art tacky or chic?

Let’s investigate this. Having the logos of Oreo cookies and Goldfish decorating your fingers is definitely ultra-tacky. Fruits, Hello Kitty and more have also no style factor. Ultra-long and sharp filed nails look more like a witch going to the carnival and who would like to be touched by those?! Ouch!

Short nails up to 2-3mm over the fingertip are very elegant and stylish. With this length all colours look beautiful. The key is to pay attention when applying the nail polish. Better make sure you do it more than perfect. It might seem tacky to match your nails to your dress like the Miu Miu version above but I am in love with this.

Half-moon manicures like Dita van Teese parades them are absolutely the style of the moment due to all the 50s and 60s inspired trends.

I also love my camouflage design. I took the three limited Les Khakis de Chanel for that. Khaki Brun is the base colour, Khaki Rose and Khaki Vert the spots.

For special events, Sephora by OPI offers self-sticking foils in all sort of designs for your nails. I think that they are kind of hard to apply but they can be fun.

So Ladies, experiment a little but keep in mind only well-groomed nails look really good. See your manicure as the crowning touch to a perfect outfit!

LoL, Sandra