Armani

Bottega Veneta

This dress is for my fellow blogger, Sarah.

This dress is my favorite. There’s nothing like red to make an outfit pop!

Dsquared

Dsquared’s line was my favorite out of the day. I love the stark contrast of black and red used subtly interlaced on the lipstick, dresses and tights. The majority of the clothes were black business suits with a 1940s and 1950s cut.

Gianfranco Ferré

This line featured a lot of black power business suits and neutrol tones of white, beige and gold. The gold dress is the boldest fashion choice by Gianfranco Ferré this season.

Jil Sander

Personally, I didn’t care for any of this designer’s clothing. I choice two of the more interesting samples. The first is a black plaid dress outfitted and the second a plaid suit that was replicated in many dark fall colors.

Versace

Fendi

I love the balance of the white billowing sleeves and black shirt with black leggings. It looks very chic.

I’m never a fan of fur in fashion, but this one screamed Curella de Ville. Anna Wintour, anyone?

Again, I dislike the use of fur, but mustard is very in for the fall fashions. It was a huge theme during New York fashion week. The cut of the dress is calling back to the power suits of the 1980s.

Prada

A black dress is always in style, but this coming fall season, there is a hearkening back to the Victorian fashions.

There were several coats in this plaid style in variations of black, gold, purple and green.

I wasn’t floored by any of the designs from the Fendi and Prada shows, but it’s still early! What are some of your favorite fashions so far?

Here are some of my favorite designs:

Band of Outsiders

Christopher Kane

Elie Tahari

Burberry

Ralph Rucci

Vera Wang

Matthew Williamson

What were some of your favorite fashions? Or some of the wildest?

2. You Got that Dirtee Love – Florence and the Machine

3. Fireflies – Owl City

4. If We Ever Meet Again – Timbaland featuring Katy Perry

5. Empire State of Mind (Part II) – Alicia Keys

6. Rude Boy – Rihanna

7. Don’t Stop Believin’ – Glee

8. The Way Love Goes – Lemar

9. Halo/Walking on Sunshine – Glee

10. Starstrukk – 3OH!3 featuring Katy Perry

Information compiled from the BBC Singles Chart.

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: February 11, 2010

Alexander McQueen with Naomi Campbell, left, and Kate Moss in 2004.

LONDON (AP) — British fashion designer Alexander McQueen has been found dead at his London home, his spokeswoman said. He was 40 years old.

Company spokeswoman Samantha Garrett said McQueen’s body was discovered Thursday morning but said she had no information ”in terms of circumstances.”

Police did not directly comment when asked about how McQueen died, but said officers were called by the ambulance service at 10:20 a.m. (1020 GMT) to an address on Green Street, in central London, and found a 40-year-old man dead. They did not name him but said next of kin had been informed.

The force said a post-mortem would be conducted but that the death was not being treated as suspicious.

Original article at New York Times.

2. Replay – Iyaz

3. Don’t Stop Believin’ – Glee

4. Starstrukk – 3OH!3 featuring Katie Perry

5. Riverside – Sidney Samson

6. Won’t Go Quietly – Example

7. Don’t Stop Believin’ – Journey

8. Broken Heels – Alexandra Burke

9. Bad Romance – Lady Gaga

10. One Shot – JLS

All information compiled with the BBC Singles Chart.

Here are some of the pictures I took there:

A Sleeping Angel over a grave.

They built some graves in the shape of pyramids because they believed it made it harder for the devil to lie on top of the graves.

Alexander Litvinenko, the poisoned ex-KGB agent is buried here. It’s still a working cemetery.

So tragic, this grave is of a 19 year old burned to death, and it took her ten days to die. At the bottom, it says, In the bloom of youth, I prayed amid agonies for death.

A catacomb of a well-to-do-man.

I highly recommend visiting Highgate if you have a chance! The village Highgate is also quite beautiful, and has a wonderful quiet charm. It’s high up on a hill, and it has some gorgeous views of London if you look from the right spots.

Cheers!

Sarah

Does this image look familiar? If not, it’s from the PBS show, “Wishbone.” It was about a dog that reenacted famous literary works like “Don Quixote”or “Ivanhoe” and simplified the book for kids. (“What’s the story, Wishbone?”)

Ever since meeting a close Janeite  (a Jane Austen junkie) friend my freshman year of college and seeing “Pride and Prejudice” starring Keira Knightley, I’ve been hooked on all things Austen. Who can resist the terror, drama and suspense of rooting for a heroine of a  lower social ranking and a man of fortune becoming united in love while overcoming odds against them? (A bit of sarcasm there…)

While browsing through rows of books, I happened upon one called “Jane Austen Ruined my Life” by Beth Pattillo. That sounded like an interesting title and on the cover is a woman dressed in red, holding a letter and looking either utterly distressed or constipated. After reading the description on the back, I knew I had to read it.

This book follows the life of Emma Douglas. She was a professor of English literature with a specialty in all things Austen. She had her fairy tale happy ending with a world-famous John Milton expert and thought she had the life. Her fantasy life ended one day when she found her husband  spread-eagled on her kitchen table with her teacher’s assistant. She arrived at Gatwick Airport with two bags fleeing the dissolve of her marriage and allegations of plagiarism on behalf of the other woman.

Emma thought she would find refuge in Hampshire, England where her cousin lived. Upon entering the house she found her ex-best male friend standing half-naked in the foyer and her cousin gone off to Paris for a tête-à-tête. Her life became a literal roller coaster as she takes up the offer of a mysterious widow called Mrs. Parrot. Mrs. Parrot offered Emma a chance to see original long-lost letters from Jane Austen that divulged information about the hermit author that few had seen before.

Emma took off across England to Austen’s England from her home in Steventon to Bath to Lyme Regis to find out Austen’s secrets and uncover a few of her own.

It’s very much like Austen’s own novel “Emma”, the namesake of the main character. It’s a fast chicklit read, but one that demands the attention of anyone in need of a light read or something comical involving the famous Jane Austen.

Me at Stonehenge. It was smaller than I expected, and visitors aren’t allowed to go up close to the actual stones which was a bit disappointing. Stonehenge is a bit out in the middle of nowhere, the closest occupants to the mysterious landmark are sheep.

There’s def. a lot more to see in Bath! It’s a beautiful city that has so much history. The first king of England was crowned here, and the city has ruins and buildings that date back to norman and saxon conquest. The city got its namesake from the hot springs that the Romans bathed in, and this is what they look like:

Check out the steam!

The buildings in downtown Bath are very pretty. My favorites were the Georgian-style ones, like this:

My tour guide told me that one of these apartments sell for 5 million pounds. Anyone want to buy a girl a flat?

And here is an uneven street with a phone booth and an old limestone wall. I quite like this photo:

Besides the weather, I had an exciting day of visiting new places. Tomorrow, I am going to go see Tony Head’s new play at the Old Vic called ‘Six Degrees of Separation’, and I’ll write about that.

Cheers,

Sarah