Yesterday I went to Antwerp to visit some press agencies that were presenting new collections for spring/summer 2011. I didn't quite make it to every press agency on the list because there were so many beautiful things to see, smell, taste, try and feel that I lost track of time. Luckily I brought my friend, Melissa, to help me take pictures and take some notes. Let me show you a glimpse of the future after the break..
The first stop was at Unlimited PR. If we didn't have any other places to go to, I could've seriously stayed there the whole day. First of all, the whole showroom was covered this delicious scent. Later, we found the source, those delicious scent candles of L'Occitane. Second, there were 2 floors full of racks with gorgeous clothing and accessories to discover. Too bad we couldn't try anything on, but we did get the possibility to get our makeup and nails done. (So why did I wake up so early in the morning to go trough all that trouble?) Anyway, we were pampered with all kinds of food and drinks all the time, we were given a wonderful tour around the showroom, and there were professional journalists and stylists all over the place. In other words, temptation was lurking around every corner.
L'Occitane has new packaging and gift wrappings for the holidays. The gift sets with 3 hand creams or 4 bottles of shower products are a great idea to give during the holidays. One of the things that kept me around this table for so long was the lovely aroma of the scent candles, which made me believe it was Christmas already.
Fleur Chérie is a lovely scent with notes of orange blossom, cedar and musk. The scent is fresh, but not too strong. It's the perfect sensual touch for winter. The line offers hand cream, body lotion, perfume, scented candles, soap and shower gel. The collection is now available in L'Occitane boutiques and corners. The makeup line will only be available in the L'Occitane boutiques.
Rituals will be launching some new fragrances created out of natural ingredients. 5 For women and 3 for men. Also a new Body Splash was introduced.
They also updated the look of their popular incense sticks. Instead of just displaying them in the glass bottle, you will now be able to purchase a design tube made out of wood over them. The bottom will be sealed using magnets. The tube gives the whole look the elegant touch it needed.
Another new thing is the Rituals homewear collection. The fabrics are light and comfortable, wich makes the clothes perfect to come at ease when you've come home after a hard day of work. The homewear collection will be available in the Rituals shops.
Here's one of my favorite makeup brands, M.A.C., presenting 2 of their upcoming collections: Cham Pale (January release) and Peacocky (February release). The makeup artist also told me they will soon open a new MAC store in the Brussels area.
The highly desired Cham Pale: Caviar Dreams eyeshadow quad featuring 4 colors: Brule; Et Tu, Bouquet?; Caviar Dreams and Retrospeck. I'll post more info on the collection later.
M.A.C.'s makeup artist working her Cham Pale magic on Melissa. The result is a natural look with a nice shimmer to lighten it up and add a little glam. Loves it!
Belgian brand Professionails sent one of their nail artists to show the new nail trends of this and next season. For the holidays, they released a Jewels collection, in which we see a lot of metallics like gold and silver. Shimmer is the key here. The shades of red are back (when do they ever go out of style?). They also offer various kinds of complementary nail art decoration, to make the nails look more festive. There were diamonds and shimmer stickers in all kinds of shapes to make your nails look like real pieces of art. Even some statement rings were added to make the look complete.
This collection has 2 shimmery nail polishes that look like gemstones (ruby and sapphire). They kind of reminded me of the ones from the MAC Venomous Villains collection. The third one is black, intended to use as a french manicure (nails black and the top white), which is considered to be the new trend.
The Some Like It Hot collection for next season is based on the fifties and has a lot of bright colors and shades of brown like we've seen this summer. Metallics are also still key colors next season. http://www.professionails.com/ 
Next up is Pepe Jeans, a lovely young brand that uses famous models to star in their campaigns like Sienna Miller, Daria Werbowy, Ashton Kutcher and Alexa Chung. Again, the brand made use of ethnic accents like animal prints, fringes, busy floral prints and lots of different colors.
Lots of cute and colorful bikinis with floral and etchnic prints. Love the red floral one with the ruches on top. These really make me long for a hot summer's day at the beach.
By the way, notice the card with the number on one of the bikinis? This means this item was chosen by a stylist to appear in a shoot for a magazine. Some pieces had lots of numbers written on them. The more numbers, the more popular it was with the stylists.
The overall look of the collection (and as it turned out, a lot of the collections we saw that day) is retro. We're going back to the seventies next season with lots of stripes, flowers and denim. The denim on denim trend is still going on here, it might be even stronger than last season. There was no escaping all those denim jackets, blouses and dresses. Also, don't put your military and safari items away, because they will still be hot next season. We saw lots of khaki and sand colors, military blouses and jackets.
http://www.pepejeans.com/ 
Tommy Hilfiger stays true to his roots. The classic preppy American style with lots of stripes and checkered pieces. Blazers, v-neck cable sweaters and lots of blue and red colours. And roll up those sleeves because the fun details on the inside should not be missed!
There were were also some 70's inspired pieces; floral and ethnic prints will be all over the scene.
The Denim line is aimed for a younger audience and has pieces that are fun to experiment with, like jeans with braces. Like I've said before, the nerdlook is going to be hot next season!
What really got me excited is this, the new Tommy Hilfiger fragrance, Loud. It's coming out this November and Daisy Lowe will be starring in the campaign. The bottle is shaped like an LP record and the bottle cap looks like the volume control. Of all the new parfumes I saw yesterday, this one stands out the most. If you're planning on getting just one fragrance this year, you should definitely get this one! Both for men and women, this scent is simply devine!
Kipling is returning to it's roots with new versions of the nylon bag. We particularly found these two bags very interesting. The big trolley is designed specially for deejays, so it's easier for them to take their equipment and cd's with them. The bag above it is the festival bag. The name says it all. The fun bright color print is perfect for festival occasions and it has a lot of space to take everything you need with you to the concert of your favorite band. I also like the updated monkey mascotte, it really depends on the kind of bag, but it comes in steel, plastic and a plush version now.
Another thing I was excited about is seeing the new season collection of the collaboration between Kipling and the Belgian designerduo Peter Pilotto. The theme is still galactic. The milky way prints come in grey, yellow and blue and are printed on different sizes of travel bags. Again, Belgian model Anouck Lepère is starring in the campaign. Notice that the monkey mascottes on these bags are the 'old school' brown ones with the fuzzy hair.
Another great discovery was Karin Nuñez de Fleurquin. This Antwerp-based jewelry designer with Peruvian roots offers an original and fun collection of jewelry. I particularly loved the necklaces with the lashes, the one with the glasses and also the one that you can actually use as a soap bubble blower. The red shoe is her trademark.
Next up is the eyewear of Fendi, Jil Sander and Emilio Pucci. For the glasses, we see more of a fifties trend, with thin frames like we saw at the Prada show of this season. Very 'mademoiselle', as I like to call it. For the sunglasses, we still see big and bold frames. The new thing is, that they work with different materials. For instance, the top is matte and the bottom is sleek. The aviator trend has still not reached is endpoint. At Pucci, we see some butterfly models, inspired by the famous Tom Ford sunglasses.
Here's another thing I'm enthusiastic about, the decorated scarves of Francis & Pi, a young Belgian brand created by 2 sisters. The idea behind it is to make people wear a scarf in spring/summer by attaching a jewel to it, so that the scarf serves more as an accessory than something you need to protect you from the cold. The scarves and jewels are handmade in Marocco, and that's reflected in the style, which is ethnic. The scarves and jewels are sold seperately, so you can combine them however you want. My favorite is the coral red scarf, with the flower shaped jewel that's on the yellow scarf. I can't wait until it hits the stores. http://www.francisandpi.com/ 
Liu Jeans has 3 main colors in their s/s collection: red, white and blue, which reminds me of the sailor theme we had this summer. They also have fun prints of famous icons like Coca-Cola or Olive Oyl from the Popeye cartoons. There were pieces with floaty chiffon, body-concious denim, heart prints, sequins or ruches which made the collection have a very girly look. I also loved the accessories that fully complemented the collection, especially the multi-chain necklace.
While Liu Jeans had a lot of sequins and embellishments, Liu Jo is more minimalistic and sticks to the good old classics in neutral and blue shades. There were some light dresses with really nice prints, knits with a silver wire, tops with elegant draping and some pieces with a touch of embroidery.
The accessories on the other hand were full of embellishments, to use as a contrast. Whether it was a handbag, a belt or a pair of shoes, they all had jewelry attached to them. It's all about the 'diamonds are a girls' best friend' at Liu Jo next season.
The Scandinavian label Filippa K has a lot of light and comfortable jersey pieces in it's spring/summer collection. The color palette exists of soft, powder pink colors and dark neutrals. As a contrast, the pieces have a more masculine silhouette so it doesn't become too sugary.
Maison Vandenvos is one of those labels you definitely should check out if you're looking for a romantic top or an elegant, feminine dress. For example, I loved the romantic blouse with ruches in the picture. Therefore I'm also pleased to announce they will be opening a concept store in the Huidevettersstraat in Antwerp in early Spring 2011.
Boss Orange used a lot of thin materials to create maxi dresses, like the one in the picture. Also military inspired jackets are part of the collection. They also offer amazing shoes. I loved the buckled boots and the grey wedges. Boss will be opening a concept store in the Huidevettersstraat in Antwerp in early Spring 2011.
Twin-Set (to the right) and the younger label Scee by Twin-Set (to the left) are two of my favorite brands for a couple of years now. They're known for their very romantic, feminine style, because they use a lot of floaty fabrics, ruches, bows and draping in their collections. And for the next season, this is no different. As you can see, the key colors are black & white, blue, red and shades of beige.
By the looks of it, the future looks bright. But that's not all of it! Next up is my second stop, Making Waves!
***Pictures and info thanks to UPR***
Cool dat je daar naartoe bent kunnen gaan! Die nagellak spreekt mij vooral aan :)
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