Make Me Beautiful

“One World One Dream”, this is the theme of the upcoming 2008 Beijing (China) Olympics which will be held on August 8-24, 2008. As of today, China and other countries seems to be Olympic-themed and focused when it comes to fashion. Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar magazines as well as Polo and Adidas comapanies set up a fashion shoot, presented campaign ads and created special collections to follow the crowd.

For China Vogue August 2008 Issue :
The magazine seems to be having some fun with their idea of Olympic fashion. The following shots are remarkable because of a fine selection of exquisite and colorful sporty apparel and sports equipment.

For Harper’s Bazaar:
Lucy Lui have teamed up with Harper’s Bazaar to create an Olympic themed spread. The photos aimed to demonstrate that it doesn’t matter whether you lose or win, it’s how you dressed that counts.

For Adidas: According to Adidas, Impossible is Nothing because:

• I never lift alone.
• Alone I jump, together we soar.
• Ever seen a nation fly?
• I run with 600 million legs.
• They see me, but they’ll feel us.
• No one gets up when a whole country kicks.

For Polo:
Inspired by the rich past of the Olympic Games, Polo Ralph Lauren brings an elegant and contemporary style to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Teams. The collection offers casual sportswear styles in patriotic combinations of red, white and blue adorned with the U.S. Olympic Team and iconic Polo Pony logos that Olympic fans will surely adore.

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Shirt dresses are the best. They are smart, sophisticated but still very feminine and daytime perfect. Tailored, clean cut, prim and pretty, they are the sisters to classic DVF wrap dresses (and can even be worn by girls less well endowed in the chest area!). These kind of shirt dresses, like the ones shown from Ralph Lauren, will never go out of style. But in a more casual atmosphere, as I almost always find myself in, sometimes these shirt dresses make me feel slightly too dressed up, even if they are designed to be perfect for the daytime- like a sore thumb who somehow landed on the streets from the country club.
Luckily for me, the newly updated shirt dress this season neatly solves my dilemma. They are less structured, more casual, with fun, youthful details. And yet they still manage to maintain the very proper and put together effect of a classic shirt dress! These two are from DVF (left) and Sass & Bide (right). I especially love how they made it into a high collar instead on the Sass & Bide dress.
Over at Paul and Joe Sister (left) and Derek Lam 3.1 (right), they turned in the buttons and switched it for laces . Usually I’m not a fan of this type of lacing up (too Pocahontas!), but I think it works here. It gives it a more casual, outdoor-sy feeling to the whole look.
Here are two of my favourite reinterpretations of the shirt dress from Top Shop (left) and Corey Lynn Calter from Nordstrom (right). The Top Shop dress barely looks like a shirt dress with its wide round collar, bubbly sleeves and scrunching. But all the crucial elements are still there. With the right accessories i.e. big colorful necklace, this dress would look so cool and now. Going in the opposite direction, the dress from Nordstrom is loose but still structured in a futuristic kind of way. The addition of the bright yellow belt is absolutely genius. It completes the look. I DEFINITELY wouldn’t mind owning this dress!

Image Source: Ralph Lauren , Paul and Joe Sister , Top Shop , Nordstrom and Net a Porter

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