Color, Color Everywhere…

It looks like color will be pervading the drawers and racks of your favorite boutiques and department stores this fall.  Color palettes include elegant and opulent jewel tones like deep hued purples, full bodied wines, and strong sapphires as well as rich and robust autumnal shades like spice, poppy, and olive.  Even the absence of color makes a bold statement with luxurious, creamy colors like blush and oatmeal.

Favorite Brands for Color: Zinke, Brulee, Amulette, Affinitas, CLO

It’s All in the Details!

Prints are back!  I’m a huge fan of prints from a little accent to a bold statement.  This fall, prints are airy and ethereal and include feature everything from florals to birds to symbols.  Other favorite details for fall include the timeless eyelash lace, cheeky ruching, flirty ruffles, edgy hardware, and pretty piping.

Favorite Brands for Details: Beautiful Bottoms, Marlies Dekkers, Lelo,  ARI DEIN

Mix it Up

One of my favorite new trends is the concept of mixing and matching.  For all you recessionistas out there, this is the perfect way to maximize your lingerie wardrobe.  From camisoles, chemises, and robes in alternating colorways to solids and patterns with similar color palettes, there are limitless options for creating a unique look.  With so many options, it will be tough to decide!

Favorite Brands for Mixing and Matching: HotMilk, Between the Sheets, La Fee Verte, Amulette

The Romper is Here to Stay!

I’ve proclaimed my love for the romper before and am glad it is here to stay!  This fun and flirty silhouette continues to be a trend in many collections that speaks for itself.

Favorite Brands for Rompers: Else, La Fee Verte, Brulee, Zinke

Vintage Inspired Looks

Many brands are using classic looks of the past and reinventing them to be fitting for the modern woman.  Long lined bras, high-waisted knickers, and wide straps are just a few of the details that characterize this look of years gone by.

Favorite Brands for Vintage Inspired Looks: Dirty Dolls, Made by Niki, La Filled’O, Else

Five Brands & Products to Watch Out For!

Two Figs - This amazing, new, San Francisco-based company does exactly what its tagline says and supports sleeping beauty in its chemises, gowns, and more designed for cup sizes D-G.  Stay tuned for more including stockists!

Beautiful Bottoms - This darling, U.K. brand isn’t new, but it just emerging in the U.S. after experiencing much success abroad.  Known for affordable airy pieces, this brand is bound to be one of our favorites (and yours as well!).

Lelo – Lelo isn’t a new brand, but since introducing its first lingerie and loungewear line, I’m excited to see where they continue to take their collections.

HotMilk - HotMilk is on the cutting edge for luxurious pregnancy and post-pregnancy lingerie looks including everything from bra and panty sets, camisoles, and chemises to post-pregnancy shapewear, mix and match pajama tops and bottoms, and my favorite, the new wrap dress.

Pure Lime - This Scandinavian-based company that specializes in fitness attire is revolutionizing the sports bra with the addition of a detachable Polar heart rate monitor.  The runner in me is dying to know more and will bring you the information soon!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Krista attended Curve in New York for us, so expect some new labels and trends to hit the blog in the next couple weeks!

Some of the booths/labels in these pics (and at Curve): Wacoal, Simone Pérèle, Squeem, Natori, Leonista, HOTmilk, Eveden, Jenna Leigh, Marie Jo, Freya, Chantelle & many, many more…

Artillerie – This great new company will bring you bags (with great pockets and compartments!) for all of your intimate apparel and swimwear.

Between the Sheets Lingerie and Layla L’obatti for Between the Sheets – The delightful loungewear and luxurious lingerie you’ve been seeing will finally hit stores.

Commando by Her Look – One of my all time favorite brands (including my new favorite, Commando Cotton) will continue to make better than nothing better than nothing with more colors, patterns, and designs.

Cosabella - Color, color, color!  Bright and beautiful swimwear, basics, fashion, and shapewear.  Look for Smooth by Cosabella at a store near you.

Daddy’s Favorite - Not just fantastic robes and wraps anymore!  Stay tuned for more on tanks, bloomers, and lounge pant options.

Damaris – Expect more of the signature bow and corset backs as well as exquisite jeweled accents in an opulent collection.

DuMi Shapewear – This company, which wowed us with pretty shapewear, will expand to include a new longer cami that can easily be worn as innerwear or outerwear!

Eucalan – An eco-friendly, no rinse delicates wash with yummy scents from essential oils.

OverBra – This innovention will give ladies of all different sizes a little extra lift.

RipT – A new body-sculpting undershirt for men.

Sassybax – The Pretty range will include a cami and chemise that will smooth and slim the silhouette just like the original collection.

Slimpressions – One of our favorite shapewear brands is now expanding to include the Bottom Line collection to lift and shape your lower half!  And we aren’t the only ones who are noticing…

The Little Bra Company – Spring will bring beautiful new colorways as well as convertible straps on bras for even more versatility.  Plus, a new non-padded option!

White Saki – A fun, city-themed line featuring novelty panties and matching flip flops.

Zielo – Soft, pima cotton sleepwear including women, maternity, and plus collections.  Awesome!

See below for some of my photos from the show.  And stay tuned for more details on the above listed brands and more in the upcoming months leading up to Spring!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Times of uncertainty call for a return to the body and an acceptance of imperfection and transience.” For Fall/Winter 2009, New York designer Laura Mehlinger examined the Japanese ideal of wabi sabi, in which beauty is found in imperfection, impermanence and quirks. While referring to this concept, she continued the distinct aesthetics that are the hallmarks of Lola Haze: boldness, play, and the energy of New York City.

One of the visual themes of the collection is body ornamentation. In the Tattoo group, designs inspired by tribal and eastern body ornamentation are hand-painted onto sheer black mesh, a fabric that both veils and reveals the body underneath. The marks, imperfect themselves, caress and frame the body’s natural contours. But these Tattoos are transient ornamentation, and the revelation comes when the tattoos are skimmed off the body, leaving only the natural form.

Ornamentation and surface art appear in the collection also in the Peacock and Imperfect groups, in which luxurious silk charmeuse and metallic lace are appliquéd on top of sheer mesh and silk chiffon.

For Fall/Winter 2009, Lola Haze embraced the simplicity and appeal of one piece dressing: rompers, teddies, jumpsuits, body stockings, and plenty of chemises and slips. Alongside these modern silhouettes are updates to some Lola Haze favorites.

Mehlinger’s collaboration with New York artist Charlotte Pinson, announced in December 2008, continues with a series of quirky, elegant painted silk tops that will be shown alongside the Lola Haze Wabi Sabi City collection.

Mehlinger has been studying, designing and making clothing since the time she could hold a needle. Before launching Lola Haze, she held design positions at Gap, Inc. She received her BA from Harvard in English and was called “Harvard’s Ace Student of Fashion” by the Boston Globe for creating and showing her own line of women’s wear in the only one-person fashion show there in memory. She named her line after the title character in the novel Lolita, which she wrote her thesis about and which continues to intrigue and inspire her.

She finds difference and quirkiness -visual and otherwise- inspiring, and is driven in her designing by the idea of surprise.

“Design is molding juxtapositions: elegance and kitsch, innocence and seduction, playfulness and sophistication, and for Lola Haze, public and private. I love lingerie because it dances between public and private domains. It can be a woman’s own secret that makes her feel special or something beautiful for display. Lola Haze is for a playful, confident woman who loves the transformative power of clothing and dresses for herself. She can wear Lola Haze as innerwear, loungewear, or outerwear.”

Her designs have been the major silk collection at New York’s world famous Bergdorf Goodman for many years and she continues to set the trends with her selection of cosmetic colors and
luxurious prints. Proudly made in her own factory in beautiful Vancouver, this is a couture collection made by a small team of highly skilled seamstresses whose workmanship meets rivals the best European lingerie. Distribution is carefully controlled to maintain the exclusive cachet that’s so important for a deluxe brand. The collection can be found at special boutiques in London, Paris, Zurich, Spain, Germany and Japan.

A new collection of Patricia Fieldwalker limited edition beach covers and Kaftans will debut at the coming August/08, Curve Lingerie Show in New York. Visit her website for more photos and information: www.pfieldwalker.com

At the Curve NY show, I was able to view the Fall 2008 collection. And believe me, it does not disappoint! Rich fall colors like navy, maroon, and burnt orange are not only used as solids for the signature modal/silk collection, but are also incorporated as a new colorway for the sheandme print. In addition to new, beautiful colors, also be on the look out for new sheandme styles like a chic racerback chemise (with build in shelf bra!) and a cover wrap that looks great with jeans and also doubles as a robe.

So what do you do until those great pieces are available? Check out the amazing colors and cozy items available now. And soon, just in time for spring, look for sheandme in great pastel colors. Click here to find stores where sheandme is sold.