Mercedes Benz Fashion Week 9/11/07- Milly

Milly by Michelle Smith, launched in 2002, the Milly website calls the youthful designs: "sexy, feminine, glamorous, and sophisticated." This delightful, 40-piece collection managed to combine both wearable fashions for chic women, with a playful sexiness. The inspiration for this collection was Grey Gardens, mixed with the sassy and a bit devilish attitude of a pampered EastCoast princess, summering in Connecticut or perhaps, the Hamptons. Note the cute blue sky and green rolling hills backdrop in the photo below.

Preppy, brightly colored cardigan twinset-type sweaters were tucked into skirts and pants, making the preppy look pretty and relevant to today's woman. There were plenty of patterns in classic springtime colors such as the navy and white zig-zag prints you can see in the photo above on the right. Also lots of lime green, yellow, navy and pink.

Accessories included cute, cotton "cloche" hats tied in the back with a silky ribbon, and (less successful but obviously a Springtime trend) were turbans. The shoes, by Manolo Blahnik, were quite pretty and worked with virtually everything from swimsuits to dresses, although the high heel with the thong between the toes on such a strappy high heel might make these "sit down" shoes for most women.

Pretty, bright nails are a must-have with fashion. The models are moving on the runway, and it's often difficult to appreciate the role that manicures and pedicures play in creating an entire look. In the photo on the left, veteran manicure professional Angelina, from Creative Nail Design, told me that for Milly she was using a bright, cheerful pink called "Trophy," on both finger and toes. It simply screams "Spring! You can see how effective this color is from the closeup photo of the Manolo Blahnik sandals, above. Creative Nail Design is the nail company of the runways. We talked a bit about trend forecasting, and how the public relations team, stylists, and designers decide what's hot, and what's not, for the coming season. For details on the products used and what's going to be hot for nails, for Spring 2008, check our FEATURES page http://www.advicesisters.net/Features/Features.html in mid-September

Makeup for Milly was created by Romy Soleimani (in purple on the left) to show a woman with confidence but also with a bit of spunk. The eyes were beautiful, blending two new new MAC paint pots in lime green and a gorgeous turquoise, with creamy white, that was blended, blended and blended some more. The pink lip gloss called "Fulfilled" was shiny, but without shimmer or glitter. The foundation was moist and fresh, with just a hint of bronzer. To see the actual colors and see lots more photos of hair, makeup, nails and clothes, check out the MILLY feature --I'll post the link to it on our Features Page http://www.advicesisters.net/Features/Features.html when it's created, probably mid-month.

On the left you can see the charming hairstylist Kevin Ryan, who has formed his own company with fashion stylist Frank Rizzieri, putting their 40 years of experience together. Their new company, RSession Tools, has some unique hair styling tools, including a dual-tonged curling iron called the Nalu waver, which Kevin is using on the model on the left to create the amazing, natural looking waves seen in the ponytail on the right. By "weaving" strands of hair under and over the Nalu waver, the curls are soft and loose and look incredibly natural, as if their own hair cooperated without any intervention from mechanical devices! I hope to bring you reviews of RSession Tools in an upcoming What Works Beauty, Cosmetics & Fashion review column.

As I was heading for the "cheap seats" I spied my friend, fashion designer/actress Esther Nash posing for eager photographers in the front row. She posed for me as well, making sure I could see the beautiful, elegant, Judith Ripka jewelry on her wrists and fingers. Esther is not only talented and lovely, but sweet and gracious, too. If only all the front-row-ers would act like her!!!