An inspiration for the New Year

This being said I wish all my fabulous readers a great

New Year and an even greater New Decade!

See you next year!

Merry Christmas!

A new bike fashion?

As you know I've been living in Holland, the Land of Bikes, for almost 4 months now, but I haven't seen this one coming. Is this what the future of bike fashion will look like? At lest according to Olli Erkkila, a Finnish bicycle designer, it is. This model was his graduation project for the Institute of Design in Lahti. Pretty interesting I'd say, even if it looks as if it has no balance at all! Very fashion-forward, as all things designed in Northern Europe. Can't wait to see it on the streets!

Talking about RED

Well, if we were talking about RED a few days ago, I thought I could continue on that same holiday note. Remember that a few months ago I was talking about a great exhibition about Yves Saint Laurent that I had visited in Paris? Then you'll probably also remember this post about how actual his designs still are, which brings me to today's post: the RED dress from the Evening Collection at ZARA resembles at lot one of his designs from the late 1950s... Which one? Go see :) Great inspiration!

Red lipstick

"Red is the colour of life"

Christian Dior

Have you ever wondered what you could do to spice up your look for a party, give a new shine to that old LBD of yours or maybe how to bring colour into your life during an icy winter day? My answer is of course: wear RED lipstick! What better way to show off your lips? It's guaranteed to be a show stopper, even more when Christmas and New Year are on the way! I've been thinking of buying a red lipstick for months, but I didn't find enough courage until a few days ago. I read a lot of articles about how to choose the right red lipstick, but it all seemed too complicated. When I finally decided, I wondered around the cosmetic shelves looking at every shade of red lipstick, until I found the one:

"A deep, intense and voluptuous red, the quintessence

of floral sensuality blossoming on the lips"

Zinnia Red

Zinnia Red is from the new Rouge Dior Collection that just came out in September. This collection has 32 new shades of lipstick, each one inspired inspired from a special Haute Couture Dress and it runs under the motto "From Haute Couture to Haute Couleur". On the left you can see the dress that inspired my shade of red.

As for you who have not yet picked your red lipstick yet, you may think that once you've decided to let your fears aside and wear it, the hard end of the deal is over... you might have to think again, as even more difficult than convincing yourself that you CAN wear red lipstick is to find the right shade, the one that makes your lips pop, the one that complements your skin tone.

The first thing to do is to find out if your complexion is cool or warm-toned. The easiest way to do that is to look at your skin against golden and silver jewelry - if your skin looks better against silver then you're cool-toned, otherwise it's warm-toned. Cool-toned complexion looks better with red shades with blue or pink undertones and warm-toned complexion with brown or orange undertones. After you've figured that out, just go to your favourite store, skim through the shelves, try all the shades on your hands until you've got no inch of bare skin to spare, and finally find a nice shop assistant who will tell you in 2 seconds what the best shade for you is and make all your previous research superfluous! Guaranteed! I should know :) Enjoy your lipstick shopping!

Natalia Vodianova for Harper's Bazaar

The gorgeous Russian model is the cover of Harper's Bazaar latest issue. She features in the Women of the Year category under "Inspiration of the year" and she certainly deserves this title! Michelangelo di Battista succeeded in creating amazing scenes, the photoshoot mixing glamour, femininity and strength on an industrial backdrop is simply breathtaking.

Bleu de Chanel

This is one of my favourite ads for a perfume in the last months. French actor Gaspard Ulliel and Canadian model Ingrid Schram were the lead actors in this short film directed by Martin Scorsese for the new Chanel fragrance.