VOGUE SAYS MODERN TRIBAL TREND WILL BE SUMMER HOTTIE

We're excited to see that international style bible Vogue has caught up with us here at DeviDoll in highlighting the modernised graphic tribal print as a top trend for Summer 09.

The current issue of Vogue dedicates a full page to what it's calling a minimalist take on maximalism, or in other words, a more subtle, wearable and urban version of full-blown tribal patterns. We spotted that star of the season during our trend-scouting six months ago.

While the cold weather was biting, we DeviDoll stylespotters were gloriously indulging in the most gorgeous summer dresses, tops and swimwear, picking out the perfect ethical pieces for effortless and sophisticated summer style.

Vogue is calling this fashion story a "vital burst of colour and exoticism for those of us dwelling in colder climes". We absolutely agree!

This Mociun Caravan tie-front dress, one of several on-trend Mociun items to choose from right now in our dresses section, is a perfect piece. The 'Caravan' print is in the season's boldest colours, and it can be easily accessorised for day or evening. In fact, it would work wonderfully for a summer wedding.

Caitlin Mociun, designer and founder of the label, uses her imagination not just in fabric prints, garment patterns and silhouettes but in the sustainable materials she uses – yak, hemp and organic cotton.

See this Mociun Caravan dress on DeviDoll

If you like this dress, you may also like:
Mociun cotton tie-front dress
Mociun zig-zag swimsuit
See all Mociun pieces on DeviDoll

WELCOME TO YOUR 2009 FASHION LIFE.

In the US - southern Florida -- for Christmas break. All around us life swirls in ways that can only happen in America. Say what you like but this is a country with a very very deeply ingrained sense of hard work, hope, 'anything-is-possible' mentality and astonishing belief in happy endings. It seems like NYC apart, America cannot understand cynics. Of course, all this comes at a (sometimes huge) cost to individual and nation, but still, the innate positive mentality -- cranked up to full volume during the 'holidays' -- is something to ponder and, in places, admire.

So 2009 is here. Just this fact signals 2008 is over which, in itself, is cheering. Not that 2009 will be easy - nope, not at all -- but at least the deep economic pits we are most certainly going to visit will be expected...very little of the precipitous falls of 2008 were expected at all (Lehman gone in 72 hours....no one saw that coming).

Some important questions with which to look into the new year:

1) What will the relationship between money and fashion in 2009? As has been said before on these pages, fashion, ie, the desire to adorn and dress ourselves is a fundamental part of human self-expression. So we should be clear that the importance of fashion isn't going to recede because of the recession -- although we can expect a crescendo like baying from the usual naysayers who bang on about how fashion is essentially frivolous and not connected to any 'real' need etc etc. Be that as it may, the key thing to note is that, more than in a very long time and for some years ahead (at least), the relationship between money and fashion is going to be thrown into sharp relief.
Anyone who deals with fashion -- selling it, writing about it, marketing it and making it -- MUST contend with this issue. For the consumer, its not anymore just about looking good....its about looking good on a budget and this is going to reverberate all through the fashion food chain. The fashion industry will have to understand and accomodate less spendy shopping behaviour. The Guardian tells us that Chanel in Rue Cambon - that bastion of luxury and symbol of fabulous, untouchable wealth -- has cut 200 jobs as even it feels the pain of the economic downturn and that Prada advertised price cuts in the windows of its Milan boutiques (yikes!) last month. Yup, everyone's gotta re-think.

2) How to spend money on fashion when money is tight? Mindfully....that principle of conscientiousness and balance that Gautam Buddha gave us over a thousand years ago works very well anywhere you apply it. For sure. The re-working of our finances that we most definitely will feel this year should push us to purchase what we want having saved for it and to keep and wear our purchases for yonks. The good, old fashioned way to shop for our wardrobes. We need to remember the joy of waiting to get and the exhilaration of receipt.

3) Money can buy fashion, but can it buy style? No. Real, actual style is something that originates within a person, is indelibly peppered with stuff about them, feeds off individuality, evolves over time and is/can be as fresh as every new thought the individual has. None of which can be purchased.** The paucity of credit must force us to evaluate each purchase within the context of our style and be confident in this. Use the current economic situation to learn about your fashion self.

**While advisors like DeviDoll (for example) cannot decide your style for you, they very much can offer inspiration and content. In 2009 DeviDoll will take this role very very seriously, providing many opportunities for style inspiration and style experimentation...stay tuned).

There are many more questions to be sure but I thought these 3 are good to start with. And added to them a sage snippet from Cintra Wilson in the (very well written) New York Times on the first day of 2009, which (under the auspicious eye of Ganesha, Lord of Auspicious New Beginnings), I am going to use as a road map for keeping my fashion life alive in the hard economic times ahead:

"At the finish of any regrettable life episode, we invariably go back to basics to distinguish values that are real and indissoluble from those that are false and temporary. In doing so, we rediscover joys we forgot during our manic race to the dead end."

Happy New Year, indeed.

DEVIDOLL STYLE FILE I

FINALLY SAFE TO SPRING INTO SPRING

Another week, another trend. 'The' weekly glossy says neutrals are 'in' and neons are 'out' but flip a few pages on and you're shown a clutch of 'must-have' dresses bright, neon flowered dresses. And so it goes. The treacherous weather of the last few weeks hasn't helped...what sort of trend can cover hail, rain, sunshine and everything in between?

Here's the thing about trends -- there are only a few that really mark a season...everything else is built on that or recycled from the same time last year (not least because, global warming notwithstanding, the weather tends to require
similar stuff) or just made up as the fashion-world goes along. Nothing wrong with any of this, say we. Its just good to know.

But what's truly handy is knowing what marks a season definitively and incorporating that into one's wardrobe. And this, happily, is exactly what our first (ever) style file brings you. Now you can dive even more joyfully into the 'thank-God-its-finally-arrived' spring that is all around us:

1) THINK FLORAL -- Prada, always one to set the mark, many months ago set the catwalks abloom. And so it has remained. With good reason....nothing says 'Spring' like flowers. Just look around you.

2) THINK GEOMETRY -- Stripes, triangles, circles, all of them together. The non-floral equivalent of channelling spring in all its bustling, busy glory.

3) SHOW SOME SKIN -- You know its the only time you really can...at least if you want to avoid the 'clubbing-in-short-skirts-and-bare (red) legs-in-freezing temps' chav look. Plus you know you've been buffing, exfoliating, sloughing, depilating, and tan-spraying just for this weather since March.

4) BE A COLOURFUL PERSONALITY -- All across the globe spring is celebrated with colour....in usually dreary climes like ours, this calls for double the effort. Not too much, you understand - just a single splash of arresting colour. If you want to go with a neutral/pastel shade then combine with white and add colourful accessories.

So there you have it - nothing standing between you and springing into spring now (except the weather, perhaps, but we like to focus on the positive at DeviDoll).