Winter garments in summer is a big topic in the fashion industry as of late. We are crushing on shimmer nylons and have used Fall collections as the ultimate summer wardrobes so its no surprise that we continue to find ourselves enamored with community members that take this fascination as seriously as we do. Fashion is Spinach has fallen in love with hats even in this hot humid sticky months. She really enjoys tiny caps but we must say we are in love with really all kinds of hats and have been since we had the pleasure of shooting James Coviello's fall hats. Let's all hope that this trend catches on in a big way!

The maxi dress is the older sister of the bubble dress. Both dresses were flavors of the month last summer in what felt like an endless season of cheap and easy to wear fashion that didn't ask much of the wearer or her pocket book. And yet the maxi-dress always felt like she had a little more staying power than her kid sister.

The allure of the maxi-dress isn't as simple as the bubble dress. The cute and obscuring bubble dress was the sartorial equivalent of the one hit wonder. But the maxi dress hints at so many possibilities and we don't just mean what is under the folds of fabric. It suggests a certain kind of life with leisure time, extraneous bank accounts, and a lack of concern for dirtying the fringes with concrete sidewalks (or the boardwalk). The maxi dress is casual and yet with its length it goes formal in a wink, something the bubble dress never did manage.

And we clearly aren't the only ones wondering if the maxi dress deserves another summer in our closet. Community member Margarite Elaine has tips for wearing the dress (for short girls like two of our editors she recommends having them stop just above your ankle) in any situation or on any body. But the real proof? Six of the bloggers at our DVF X Bloggers fashion shoot chose to highlight a DVF Maxi Dress including The Daily Obession, SheFinds, See Pretty Things, Shopalicious, The ShoeBlog and Clothes Pin.

Being bored to death with fashion is almost as trendy as being obsessed with fashion. Or at least that is the impression we get from LookOnline's Marilyn Kirschner's report on Fashion Group Internationale's Fall/Winter 2008 Audio Visual Trend Overview.. FGI’s Fashion Director Marylou Luther narrated the presentation and afterwards the "best eyes in the business" weighed in on the report including Linda Fargo, Senior Vice President, Bergdorf Goodman; Michael Fink, Vice President – Women’s Fashion Apparel, Saks Fifth Avenue; Ana Maria Pimentel, Senior Accessories Director, Harper’s Bazaar; and Jane Larkworthy, Beauty Director, W. The Special Guest Moderator was Hal Rubenstein, Fashion Director, InStyle.


The general consensus formed around the frustration with the fall season. Not only were the looks lacking in cohesion or direction but the focus on "it" procuts from bags to shoes had everyone sighing. Hal Rubinstein asked “What are we watching?” “What are we looking at? “What are we selling”?


Thankfully Marilyn helped us focus in on what might work best for fall , she tells us that you can start stocking up on black and purple garments, prints (particularly winter florals), coats (a category which is now very much focused on statement pieces), jackets (structured, cutaway, swallowtail, peplumed, boyfriend) pants (wider in New York, narrower in Europe), blouses (often bow tied at the neckline and worn with a skirt or tailored pants): skirts (there is literally a “hemline for every age”): knits (particularly the knitted coat); evening (cocktail lengths outnumber full-blown gowns); embellishment (everything from safety pins and staples, to sequins, holograms, feathers); fur (from savage to super-chic); accessories (the “fundamental ornamental for fall is the necklace”); shoulder bags (slung diagonally across the body).

Personal style runs wild in the blogosphere. From DIY fashion to the very high end, the style blogosphere creates, consumes and styles so much fashion in a day it will make your head spin. Indeed, proliferation of blogs that explore personal style has reached a fevered pitch. And while there are plenty of photography blogs, Flickr pools, and party websites that let you check out street fashion from Los Angeles to Tokyo, our personal favorite genre on Coutorture is the wardrobe blog. While browsing through the network we noticed the straight cropped bang as a very popular style among the wardrobe bloggers. In fact, five amazing bloggers sporting straight cropped bangs. We have Style Bubble in London, Kingdom of Style's Queen Michelle in Glasgow, Style Bytes in Oslo, Wardrobe Oxygen in Washington D.C, and Fops and Dandies in New York City. We would say that makes it a very international adoption of the hairdo indeed.