Now that the Fourth of July has come and gone, it's the perfect time to try out A Midsummer Night's Dream-style beauty look. So for some inspiration on how you can channel your own inner woodland nymph, just read on for five different ideas.
Source: Getty
Savvy shoppers know that right now is the ultimate time to score some incredible buys for Spring. Now that so many styles are seasonless, you can dig through deeply discounted past-season merch to find something fabulous. We love the airy softness we saw on the Spring '11 runways at Doo Ri, Alberta Ferretti, and Max Azria, which is why we are freaking out over this Twenty8Twelve silk chiffon dress ($120, originally $400). The asymmetrical hem and faded print make the dress feel dreamy, and we can wear it now with tights and a chunky sweater, or later with strappy sandals and a loose-knit cardigan. Point is, at 70 percent off this dress is an incredible get right now.
Maybe it's taken you a while to catch on, and hey, np. Coutorture, aside from the writing, the photo galleries, the videos, and the network, is producing it's own photo shoots, refreshed a few times each week, to give you our say on fashion (without you know, too much of the pedantic say). That's right we're shooting and shooting, and barely breaking for lunch (although Dumont burgers have been known to be ordered), and in the midst of this madness, we've enlisted some of our friends and heros to shoot for us as well. This week, we're featuring a Coutorture exclusive by Wayne Liu, a photographer whose subjects do not catwalk nor pose. Hell, that's one of the main reasons why we wanted to work with him. For a fashion website, we kind of like that sort of thing.
The shoot took place on one sunny Saturday in a former public school house (now studio space for artists), in the Lower East Side. Liu brought his ICP (no, that's not the Insane Clown Posse) friends/colleagues/assistants (who can tell these days) and we all drank a couple of pots of coffee and ran around the place. There were photographers, models, photographers who were models, artists who were wondering why these strange faces were drinking coffee in their doorways. Liu was not drinking coffee, but shooting in the crooks of the place. We swear, we only saw an elbow, bootlace, and wisp of hair from him all day (we caught up later).
For the shoot, we've dressed the models in some pieces from the Chris Han Spring/Summer 2008 collection. Han's ethereal inspiration, her ability to make clothes that are wearable but still beautiful, coincided nicely with Liu's ability to bring out a haunted rawness in his subjects.
Links:
Haunted by Wayne Liu
Chris Han Spring 2008 Collection
Chris Han Pre-Fashion Week Studio Visit
Chris Han Fall 2008 Collection & backstage interview
Chris Han Spring 2008 In Brace Yourself
We've become good buddies with the talented and gracious Chris Han. We visited Han for our pre-fashion week video series, attended her Fall 08 runway show after interview her backstage (see below!), and featured some of her S/S 08 garments in today's Coutorture photo shoot. We've actually one more (well, at least for now) Chris Han trick up our sleeve, but you'll have to wait a few days before we let you in on that secret. Han's 2008 collections were inspired by the ethereal, but for this shoot we chose the black basics Han is so skilled at creating. Even though her garments suit the conservative professional doesn't mean they can't be seized for the opportunity to stir up some Friday afternoon mischief.
