The Rise of Patriotic Clothing

The moment I arrived in England three weeks ago, I noticed Olympic themed clothing everywhere. In the united states there has been a trend of wearing the American flag or the Union Jack, but it has not been as popular in England as it is this year. This is probably because the Olympics are taking place in London. As well as the London 2012 Olympics official clothing there has also been a rise in normal clothing and bags printed with the Union Jack. When I went into Accessorize, a British accessory store, I noticed that they have a whole new collection of bags and scarves featuring the flag. Not only flags are becoming more popular, but also more red white and blue is starting to appear in stores. 

Though I do sometimes like to wear a Union Jack shirt, the patriotic trend is not one that I would normally chose to wear, but i do think it is great that people are supporting team GB with what they wear. I also think that the fact that one event like the Olympics can create a whole new trend shows that fashion is not only about what the fashion industry creates for us to wear, but it is also about how people want to express how they feel, by wearing what they feel shows their mood and personality.

Parisian Fashion Houses

 

While I was on my vacation in Paris a few days ago, I went to visit the Fashion Houses on Avenue Montaigne near the Champs Elysees. All the shops are very clean and polished with lots of mirrors that made the store look a lot bigger than it was.The designer stores are very different from normal clothing stores, because instead of having racks of the same garment in different sizes they have one of the garment for you to look at, and then in the Haute Couture houses they will make it especially for you. I did not actually get to go inside the Dior store but i did get to go into Prada. Prada's new collection features sharp geometric prints in olive greens, orange, mustard and dark reddish purple. Trousers and sleeveless collared shirts where also featured in this collection. All the shoes had a sort of go-go boot style square-ish heel, and some of them had patent  white leather flower shapes appliqued on. My personal favorite in this collection was the purple handbag in the pictures above. Later in the day I went to Printemps which is a huge department store. In Printemps I saw a life-sized sculpture of horses and people that was made out of denim. Unfortunately I was too tired to look around Printemps, but i did manage to get some french makeup from the sale. If anyone wants to go and look at fashion in Paris, I recommend the designer fashion houses.

The Summer Style in Britian

In California everyone is decked out in shorts and tank-tops trying to beat the summer heat, but Where I am in Beeston, England it is a different story. First off, school has not even ended yet and almost every school here requires a school uniform. I frequently see students walking by in dress shirts and ties, the boys in long pants and the girls in skirts with thick black tights. The second reason that what people are wearing is so different is because it is raining! There are barely any shorts in the stores, but instead many many different colors of those stretch colorful jeans that you saw in all the spring clothing catalogs in California. Unfortunately I packed all my summer clothing from home, so now I am freezing!

'The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From Sidewalk to Catwalk'

A few days ago I went to an exhibition of Jean Paul Gaultier's clothing. It is called 'The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From Sidewalk to Catwalk' and it is showing at the De Young in San Francisco. I have seen this show before, but i wanted to go back and see it again for my birthday. I love this exhibit because it has such a variety of awesome clothing and all the clothes are fun and different than anything else you normally would see. I have chosen 11 of my pictures of the exhibit (above) to show some of the peices i saw.