Marni Bucket Shoulder Bag in Rouge Red Eco-Leather
We love it when form and function collide. The sturdy bucket bag is a design meant for practical women with much to lug from sippy cups to sleek portfolio cases. Canvas lining and nylon straps will often feature prominently. But make it bubble gum pink and the connotations start to seem a little less clear. And we grant if it were just some frustrating pink canvas bag meant to make pragmatic women feel as if there is some whimsy in their lives we might not give it a second glance. But make it a Marni Bucket Shoulder Bag in Rouge Red Eco Leather and we are liable to throw around the word genius and inspired. Call us a slave to labels but only Consuelo Castiglioni could help bring together these disparate worlds and not make us feel as if its a bag meant for a frustrated Park Slope mom, an insufferable graphic design geek girl, or a McKinsey consultant.

We'll have the Jenny Packham Fall 08 show to you shortly and here's a sneak peek from backstage. Looks like the London red's are still turning up as the week continues and though many designers from London Fashion Week are presenting much darker, more sinister collections, opulence is bound to turn up somewhere. The Packham show should be quite romantic (the woman does bridal wear for god sakes), and dare we say it, appropriate to show on Valentine's Day.

So it seems our British friends have taken A/W 08 in an entirely different direction. That is, the fur and sparkle of New York's A/W 08, not to mention the deep plums and vibrant greens are virtually non-existent. London Fashion Week, thus far has been a little more Terminator, a little less Kindergarden Cop. Just take a peek at our photo galleries from Topshop Unique, Jacob Kimmie,
Krystof Strozyna, and Modernist Autumn, it's virtually another fashion world. All of these collections dominated by black and white, most with eruptions of red in the most brazen display (it's not worked in slowly, it's thrust into the collection and promptly removed). Sure, you could call upon Paul Smith from the Londoners, and
Camilla Staerk from the New Yorkers to argue that there is crossover. To which we'd say: "Despite some dandy-embellishments, Paul Smith is no different than Ralph Lauren, and Camilla Staerk is a newcomer. Those are bad examples.". So we win. And boy, do we love the fight.

In addition to the boom of floral prints expected for Spring, we'll be seeing a lot of rose-colored frocks. Red is a classic color, and appears every season, but the most common shades this season are rose and poppy colored. So it seems, florals are back in more ways than one. Click through our gallery with rose and poppy colored garments from Carolina Herrera, Rebecca Taylor,Three As Four, Temperley, and Tracey Reese. To drive the point home, we've even included a few red floral prints.