Shoe of the week - Manolo Blahnik

Sure, anyone who's ever watched 'Sex and the City', which would comprise more or less every woman of my acquaintance, knows about Manolo Blahnik. Some of them undoubtedly eat, sleep and dream Manolo Blahnik. 'Cus that's just the kind of guy he is, and his special gift is to make shoes over which you coo and woo and forget to eat and sleep. And while all his collections have at least one pair I imagine not living without (even if I do usually surprise myself by actually managing to live without, somehow), the model I'll be talking about today is even better - if that were even possible.

The shoe of the week is, this time, this beautiful strappy sandal by Manolo Blahnik for Antonio Berardi's Spring Summer 2013 collection. This is one of those shoes that, when I first saw them, I was speechless, and my mind murmured 'perfection' in a awed little voice. Yes, they are my definition of perfect. They combine it all - they have a creative twist of modernity, yet they are classic and low-key enough to be able to be worn with just about anything in my wardrobe; they are sexy and a little bit edgy, yet with clean lines enough to be worn during the day; they can switch easily from work to an evening out; the colours they were available in on the runway were the perfect neutrals; and, more important, they really don't look too uncomfortable... All in all, this seem like one investment that would pay off for itself in sheer pleasure over time :)

Guilty fashion pleasure of the day - Lana for Moja.ro

If you're Romanian, you know about Săpânţa. If you have Romanian friends, you really need to ask them. If you are neither Romanian, nor have Romanian friends... well, first of all, it's a shame :) And second, you can find out more about it on the New York Times. Or from clothes :) 

Namely from Lana for Moja.ro, a capsule collection of dresses, jackets, tights and clutches with clean, minimal cuts, but prints that make a stunning statement. In fact, all the pieces feature key images from the crosses at Săpânţa, from a tractor to one woman working over her sewing machine or another being hit by a car. Don't worry if it sounds weird, or deranged, or plain awful. I assure it's none of these things, except a great sense of humor when it comes to clothes and a wonderful interpretation of traditional Romania. 

The entire collection is available on Moja, or, if you are interested in seeing more of Lana's talents in action, on her Facebook page.

The clean colours of Stella McCartney's Spring Summer 2013 campaign

Don't you just love it when there is that wonderful chemistry between a brand and a person? When the image and the message just go together and it all clicks? And when they realize it too, so they keep on it, creating a meaningful relationship and a cast of other beautiful things? Because I know I do. 

Just as I love Natalia Vodianova (love, love, love, in fact) and Stella McCartney (maybe with the exception of the one-before-last collection of her, which I failed miserably to understand). And so, naturally, I love the new Stella McCartney spring summer 2013 campaign, featuring the above-mentioned Russian beauty in big-eyed girl poses shot by Mart&Mercus. 

Stella McCartney’s Spring Summer 13 collection was all freshness and lightness, thanks to modern fabrics, oversized shirts and T-shirt dresses and clean, curved lines. The colour palette encompassed clean whites, sharp citrus shades and vibrant apple green. It's no surprise, then, that the campaign ads are fresh and clean with a certain doll-liked quality and no artifices - it's the clothes that take center stage and they are as straightforward as their maker. A campaign that very much reminds me of an older time of ads, some 15 to 20 years ago, when I would admire these cool, distant women like the Barbies of my playhouse in the few foreign fashion magazines that made their way here. A beautiful walk down memory lane and a just as beautiful proposal for the future warm season.