The lovely ladies at Nitro:licious posted tips on how to survive the upcoming Lanvin for H&M madness that will descend upon your local H&M this Saturday, when the collection drops from heaven and onto actual racks.

Different colored bracelets, limits, groups of 20! Sounds confusing, especially for so early in the morning. We say, depending on where you are in the country, get there at least an hour before H&M opens, wear comfy shoes,  and prepare to elbow your way through the racks!

[via Nitro:licious]

Following in the footsteps of Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign, MAC lauches “MAC Me Over” to find  real people to rep their fall  2011 color collection. Just go to macmeover.com and submit a photo or video of yourself that begins with the phrase, “MAC Me Over because…” and ends with the phrase, “style, heart, and soul.” Entries will be accepted through December 20 and six winners will then be flown to New York City to be photographed for the campaign, which is set to launch globally.

Good luck to you and your “real person” face!

Hi, y’all! Yours truly has entered the Sunglass Hut Full Time Fabulous Blogger  contest!

VOTE HERE.

For a year, the winner gets to blog FULL TIME for Sunglass Hut, a 100K salary, a styling allowance, travel to fashion shows around the world, a rent-free apartment in NYC’s W Residences and did I mention blogging full time? Seriously a dream come true, since I’ve been plugging away at this blog for over 1.5 years just for the pure joy and love of fashion and beauty.

To vote, all you  need to do is enter your first name, email address and click on a confirmation link in your email. It seriously only takes 30 seconds. AND you get $20 towards any Sunglass Hut purchase! AND, if I win, all of you can stay with me if you visit NYC (not at the same time, though).

VOTE HERE.

So enjoy my cheesy video below and vote, vote vote! Thank you, gracias, merci, danke, obrigado, takk, mahalo, arigato, asante, kiitos!

VOTE HERE.

We all know that carrying or wearing Chanel is an exercise in art (or arousal, depending on your sensibilities). Now, you can check out the story between the lines at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Shanghai where they’ll be presenting an exhibition of Chanel’s literary and artistic inspirations.

400 items will occupy both floors of the museum’s glass structure, including clothing, artworks, manuscripts and films. Curated by Jean-Louis Froment, a French art director and critic, it tells the story of Gabrielle Chanel’s rapport with artists including Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso and Igor Stravinsky — and continues through to the Karl Lagerfeld era.

“Culture Chanel” is set to run January 15–March 14, 2011.

[via WWD]

Face it: everyone’s sick of grape “eyeballs” and spaghetti “veins” at your annual Halloween party. This year, it’s time for something different!

Kamibashi, a North Carolina company that sells fair trade Thai handicrafts, make string dolls that are too cute to be scary! Pick from almost 20 Halloween-themed dolls, including Punkin’, The Grim Reaper, SkullBoy, Witchy Woman and The Ghost. Bonus? Each doll comes with its own special qualities and a portion of sales go to charity. Now that’s spooktacular! (I tried to restrain myself from typing that, I really did.)

Available online or check for local stores here.

Check out this uber cool video produced by Safari Sundays, a boutique creative agency in Soho. It captures the energy and beauty of New York Fashion Week–including models, editors and generally fabulous folk–in a little over two mesmerizing minutes.

Take A Walk : NYFW SS 2011 from TrendLand on Vimeo.

Our love affair with Paris Fashion Week S/S 2011 continues . . .

Haider Ackermann

Haider Ackermann is a master of the carefully executed undone look. Sexy, careless and asymmetrical, the looks appeared as if they were hurriedly, yet perfectly, put together.

John Galliano

John Galliano brought his typical flair to Parisian chic in this collection with sheer lace ruffled skirts, column dresses and leather touches. Galliano didn’t veer far from his theatrical aesthetic, but no one can appeal to our inner French girl the way he can!

Lanvin

Alber Elbaz brought an urban warrior feel to this collection with skirts and dresses that were fluid and strong at the same time, with defined waists. We’re just hoping to see a semblance of this in his collection for H & M, but that may be too much to ask.

Louis Vuitton

Marc Jacobs, yet again, coming up with the unexpected (which is what makes him a genius) brought overt, over-stylized Chinoiserie to his collection for Louis Vuitton. Fab, glam and decadent, Louis Vuitton is to minimalism what water is to fire.

Finally, it’s over! The frenetic flurry of fashion weeks across the globe have finally culminated in Paris–the cherry on top of fashion month. Paris is the most highly anticipated week due to the concentration of conceptual and high fashion designers–fashion that’s aspirational for the majority of us, because, face it, what are the average girl’s chances of getting her hands on a fantastical McQueen gown or on an iconic Chanel jacket, save for a lucky vintage find or a couture vs. rent wrestle, with couture for the win? Paris is where our breath is taken and where our fantasies bloom and transport us to worlds we may never experience, except through these glorious clothes.

*Note–for this post we covered things we really liked. We did not cover anything conceptual, costumey or plain confusing (e.g. Gareth Pugh, Christian Dior, Comme des Garcons or Givenchy).

Alexander McQueen

Sarah Burton stayed true to Lee’s vision, but softened it in the only way a woman can. She married an earth mother sensibility to the McQueen fantasy that’s been carefully cultivated throughout the years.

Celine

Phoebe Philo continued with Celine’s signature sparseness with a slight loosening up and color in geometric patterns to break up the parade of whites, nudes and blacks. Though some items looked like straitjackets, many were lovely and simple in their luxuriousness.

Cerruti

One of our most recent favorites, Richard Nicoll has created the perfect balance between structure and femininity for Cerruti, showing bodycon dresses and flowy bottoms with menswear blazers.

Chanel

Karl Lagerfeld is an effen genius–an eccentric, sometimes annoying genius, but still a genius. For the S/S 2011 collection, he dazzled us with the authentically Chanel aesthetic while adding an Edward Scissorhands touch, showing unfinished edges and holes in this decidedly modern collection. The dresses were not dresses, but plumes of feathery (and sometimes sheer) confections. Seriously, this caused us to have a visceral reaction. Please, Jesus, let us attend a Chanel show at least once in our lifetimes!

Elie Saab

Elie Saab gave us his reliable red carpet glamour girl dresses, with ethereal silhouettes and colors that ranged from pastel blush and baby blue to bright disco apricot and chartreuse.

Paris Fashion Week review to be continued demain! Au revoir!

Dolce & Gabbana threw a party for Naomi Campbell at their Milan shop to celebrate her 25 years in the fashion biz. Ms. Campbell gets emotional, throws no phones and watches models dancing in tees bearing her likeness. Enjoy!

Milan Fashion Week S/S 2011 presented us with a pleasant surprise, for the most part. We’ve often dismissed the lot of Italian fashion as garish, loud and way too bright. Wrong, we know, just like, rationally, we know that all Asians aren’t bad drivers, we just like to think they are every time they cut us off in traffic. This time around, however, the Italians brought it with modern minimalism, calculated color and sleek silhouettes.

GUCCI- Frida Giannini married vibrant jewel tones and high-gloss sheen to maximum glamour and threw in safari-inspired fabulosity for good measure. Gold accents touched almost everything, to the relief of the middle eastern girl in me (can I make any more ethnic stereotypes? geez). Perfect for a nightclub in Morocco in the 70s or in NYC’s Meatpacking district today. All in all, an infinitely wearable and aspirational collection.

Etro, Moschino Cheap & Chic- Bold color and patterns were the name of the game at Etro and Moschino Cheap & Chic. The comfortable flared and wide pants are a welcome reprieve from circulation killing skinny jeans. The non-annoying floral and checkered prints seemed fresh without being overbearing.

Etro

Etro

Moschino Cheap & Chic

Moschino Cheap & Chic

Max Mara, Versace- Black, white and fabulous at Max Mara and Versace! Of course, not everything was black and white–there were tribal prints and brilliant Mediterranean colors at Versace, too. These two collections were minimal and body-conscious, yet still sexy without being blatantly vulgar.

Max Mara

Max Mara

Versace

Versace

Versace

Sheer Metal- Emporio Armani’s collection maintained a cohesiveness without sameness. Sheer fabrics and a neutral metallic sheen touched most pieces with the unexpected, fresh layering of longer skirt sand shorts underneath longer tunics.

Three days, three videos in a row! Wow, that’s called laziness.

Sorry, peeps, but we couldn’t pass up posting an interview with Kate Moss (whose voice we’ve never heard, by the way) at a party in London unveiling her collaboration with Longchamp. Bespoke Banter‘s Scott Wimsett talks to her and Longchamp’s CEO, Jean Cassegrain about their new and exciting collaboration. She does look she’s tossed back a few, but beautiful nonetheless.