In honor of 9/02/10, here’s some 90210. Check out our 90210 Style Trends post from back in the day here.

Note: Watch for Tori Spelling’s intro scene, while everyone else got to come off looking relatively cool, poor Donna just eats a sandwich.

posted by: Tricia Rock

Blonde Ambition, POP Fall/Winter 2010, photographed by Jamie Morgan

If Warhol’s ‘Marilyn’ defined an untouchable height for blonde cool, a detached silverscreen/silkscreen perfection, then that hasn’t stopped others returning again and again to the template with a renewed passion. For 2011 the blonde is powerful, cultured, independent, self-aware… and ubiquitous.

See the entire editorial on Fashion Gone Rogue

posted by: Tricia Rock

Loving The Angels Betrayed editorial for the October 2010 edition of Vogue Nippon. The spread features model Mathilde Frachon in looks from Marc Jacobs, Celine, Alexander Wang and more styled by Beth Fenton and photographed by Lachlan Bailey. Clean, classic cuts with a bit of attitude – part vintage, part modern – perfect inspiration for fall. See all the images on Fashion Gone Rogue.

posted by: Tricia Rock

Thanks to Refinery 29 for introducing me to Austin, TX based footwear label HELM. Boots to die for that are also hand-crafted old-world style in responsible working conditions, what more can we ask for?

The HELM Story

HELM is a reinvention of iconic footwear design establishing a new foundation for the classic male boot – the shoe for the new male footwear connoisseur who will not sacrifice comfort. The vision behind HELM is founder Joshua Bingaman’s lifelong passion for men’s shoes and boots, refined during his years owning and managing the Subterranean Shoe Room in San Francisco, a highly influential and progressive shoe store in the Mission district.

Through familial connections, Bingaman was introduced to the sophisticated old-world charm of Istanbul and its renown leather expertise. After extensive investigative research and sourcing, HELM was formalized on a foundation of responsibility, integrity, passion, and trust.

HELM products are handmade by one of the best untapped handmade shoe companies in the world and are the elegant result of design touches from around the globe – designed in Austin, handmade in Istanbul, with leather from Holland and Australia, and soles from Italy and France. Bingaman: “We love these boots. We want you to feel like you’re walking around in art.”

The HELM Process

Founded by Austin-based entrepreneur Joshua Bingaman, HELM’S origins are purely passionate. From the historic design inspirations, through the expert leather craftsmanship, down to the sweet familial call names – HELM is about stylishly unpretentious integrity. Designed in Austin, handmade in Istanbul, with leather from Holland and Australia, and soles from Italy and France – HELM is the elegant result of design touches from around the globe.

The meticulous lineage of each boot starts when Bingaman’s design is rendered by an artist. The drawings are then scanned and sent to the artisan shoe makers, who craft the signature molds per each design. Hand-fabrication of one pair of HELM boots takes five days. The leather is cut by hand according to the exclusive molds of each design. The leather pieces are then hand-stitched to together and nailed to the mold. The hand-nailing process takes 48 to 72 hours and allows time for the leather to shape to the mold. Then, while still on the mold, the nails are removed and the sole is stitched to the rest of the boot – and continues to shape for another 24 hours. Lastly, the boot is removed from the mold, brushed, cleaned and polished. When you wear HELM Handmade Boots you’re walking around in art.

posted by: Tricia Rock

Fashion designer Gail Reid, behind the label Gail Sorronda, presents an aura as mysterious and otherworldly as the clothing she makes:

Gail describes fashion as “an art form where the human body is the canvas. Sometimes it is a visual representation of my alter-ego, at times a voyeuristic fantasy. In the future, instead, when the governments will give us permission, we will have access to alien technologies in the fashion world: we will be able to explore new textiles and production techniques. Fashion will be custom-made according to our individual DNA, thanks to a symbiotic technology.” (Vogue Italia)

The Australian-born designer started in fashion by studying at Queensland University of Technology and founded her line in 2005 after winning a contest that enabled her to show at Australian Fashion Week. With a one-year stint in Paris in 2008, Sorronda grew her international acclaim and now plans to move operations to London in order to be closer to her Italian manufacturers.

Pictured here are images from the Spring 2011 collection Murmurs. The collection showcases the designer’s dark romanticism that falls perfectly in the center of masculine/feminine, quirky/sophisticated, accessible/artistic. With such amazing clothing and accessories I can only assume we will be seeing much more from Gail Sorronda in the future.

posted by: Tricia Rock

We recently posted about jewelry line MANIAMANIA, check it out here. The line has now released two short films for their second collection entitled DUST. The films feature their new face Bambi Northwood-Blyth, are directed by Fiona McGee, and encapsulate the mood and direction of the collection.

Part I has derived inspiration from a 1969 image of a young Bowie dressed as a Sphinx by photographer Brian Ward, and imagery from backstage footage of Ziggy Stardust….

Part II is an ode to the psychedelic light shows of the 1960s, The Man Who Fell to Earth and the universe….

posted by: Tricia Rock