ORANGE AND BLUE - Color Blocking

OK, so if you're going to be brave enough to try color blocking this season, we say to start out on the safer side and when you feel more comfortable, go bolder. We decided to go with pairing blue and orange here. We love the colors together. Actually one of our favorites is to pair navy and orange together, like Victoria Beckham did in her Spring collection here. We think the two colors seem to compliment each other well. And we're not the only ones that think so; we see the two paired together in interior design all of the time, like here and here.  And you know what, it's really not a terribly new thing, color-blocking. We decided to go for it last year when we were inspired by the Gucci 2011 teal and purple/blue color trends. So really, remember it's been a round a bit so you don't need to feel terribly self conscious. And lastly, these two colors reminded us of this fabulous Roksanda Ilincic dress we remember from last year. So cool.

(H&M top, Forever 21 zipper jeans, H&M clutch, and Forever 21 shoes. All, except shoes, are current and in stores.)

MODEST LOOKBOOK - Erdem Resort 2012

We don't even know what to say about this. It truly speaks for itself. Erdem is fast becoming a very favorite designer of ours as of late. There are other awesome looks from the resort line, but we felt this one needed its own space and its own post.  But we definitely feel you should view the rest here. Oh how beautiful....

2ND BEIJING FILM FESTIVAL

Zhang Ziyi in Alessandra Rich

Fan Bingbing in Tadashi Shoji

Crystal Liu

The 2nd annual Beijing film Festival held this past week was quite a stir in the Chinese media. It was a chance for that country to see all of its stars in one place...a red carpet the size of a football field. And of course the women looked stunning. We've been fans of Zhang Ziyi for quite some time now, so it was awesome to see her do away with the glitz of the night and go ultra cool in her Alessandra Rich dress. And then there was Fan Bingbing. Her red carpet looks have been pretty awesome as you can see here, here and here. But she really hit it out of the park with her 20's glamour Tadashi Shoji look. (By the way Tadashi Shoji is doing some awesome things right now for the modest dressing crowd, and it's not out of this world in affordability.) We like her style best out of  all the young Chinese actresses. Also, the west's fashion world is definitely taking note.
Lastly, Crystal Liu (or Liu Yifei) changed her dress twice for the film festival and this is her second look. We've looked everywhere for the maker of the dress but can't find any info on it (that is, in english). It looks slightly Elie Saab-ish, from his Spring couture line, but not quite. In any case we thought she looked rather nice. I think we may be seeing more from these women in the future as Chinese film continues to make huge strides. By the way, James Cameron and other heavy hitters from the west were there that night and many news articles after the event spoke about how China is like the American film industry in the 20's, in the sense that so much is happening, so fast. It's just exploding onto the scene right now. James Cameron told press that many Chinese cities are just about to get their first movie theaters, and they'll be full 3-d theaters! Kind of a crazy thought there.

PAIRING TEXTURES - Denim and Tulle

We love when different textures are paired together. There's something kind of nice about the rough against the sweet, like when you see leather paired with chiffon, or in this case, denim paired with tulle. And do you know when we started seeing this specific denim and tulle combo? On the runways of 2010 (back where the denim trend was taking off. You can see the look here. You can also see a shot from backstage at D&G here).We feel bringing in an element of texture is what makes some outfits more interesting. A lot of us don't very often think of texture as being an element in dressing, and I must admit we hadn't either.  Sometimes you just go off the instinct of  'oh this could use a fur element' or 'this could use a tweed' 'or maybe leather would help this.' For instance, one of us is dying to pair a long chiffon dress of hers with a leather jacket soon. We'll let you know how it turns out. By the way, we loved this picture from Vogue China (Feb. 2012) that kind of illustrates the juxtaposition of denim paired with something more formal. So we say go for it! Start pairing rough and sweet (kinda like the sour patch kids commercials....:) 

(P.S. don't you think sometimes nature has it right all along? The bird pictured was definitely an inspiration for this color combo.)

ZINA FROM FASHION VIBE - Blog Highlight

So we've been watching Zina from Spain for a while now (at her blog Fashionvibe-blog.blogspot.com), and we had to show you all what she's been up to. We know we can't show you everything from her blog because it's all amazing, but we can show you some of her most recent looks. What we love about her style is her perfect blend of class and edge. She can't really be labelled to have a specific style, like "preppy," or "rocker," or "traditional," because really she's all of those. So keep up the awesome styling Zina, and you, like us should keep an eye out for her....

THE DUCHESS - "African Cats" Premiere

Kate Middleton stepped out in a Matthew Williamson pre-fall 2012 dress on Wednesday night for the London premiere of Disney's "African Cats" (a documentary done in 2011 which is now being released in theaters to help promote the charity work Disney is doing for wildlife protection in Africa). It's funny how all growing up it was William that was always in the spot light, but now he steps out with his wife and he's very much in the background to everyone getting a glimpse of what Kate is doing or wearing. Don't get us wrong, we've always loved William's poise and eloquence with the media, but now it's definitely a power couple who step out together. We love these guys.

WHAT WE WORE - Clinton Kelly at Macy's City Creek

Since Desirae couldn't be there this past Saturday, we had Alison (Melody's sis-in-law) fill in in her absence. And would you ever believe that this girl has 3 kids? Yeah, tell us about it. And look how effortlessly cool she is. By the way, I would've been tempted to put heels with this look, but she definitely doesn't need them... she's 5'9" without them.  I had to wear heels just to keep up with her! Man, sometimes it's hard being a part of an extended family where all of the girls are almost 6'....