Summer Favourites

Supremo fashion editor Hilary Alexander recently picked out her favourite big 'n bold looks of spring/summer. Of her favourites these are ours:

H&M silk blazer, Pied a Terre silk T-shirt, Akris maxi-skirt.  Jil Sander maxi-skirt, Linea T-shirt.

Photographs by Jonanthan Glynn-Smith

Get the look: Ocabini lemon tank top in merino, mandarin orange cashmere scarf.

Zone Zebra

Francesco Scognamiglio

Whether its leopard spots, zebra stripes or snake scales, animal print is a sure way to lift and transform your look. This spring summer Roberto Cavalli mixed zebra, leopard and tiger prints with chunky tribal jewellery while Dolce and Gabbana added lace to leopard-print and Burberry Prorsum toughened it up with a snake-print leather biker with spike embellishment.

Accessories are a great way to introduce animal print into your wardrobe. There are some great clutches and leopard print loafers available on the high street.  A great way  to wear this season's animal print trend is by introducing a splash of print and a scarf is a versatile way to do this.

At Ocabini we love the animal print trend and have designed a classic that will still be being worn when the trend comes around again.

Animal Print Classics: Ocabini cashmere zebra print scarf £195, Pucci Zebra clutch £895, Alexander McQueen Leopard print scarf £425, Miu Miu Zebra-print suede brogues $490,  Alexander McQueen Leopard bag £425.

A Splash of Summer

Just spotted this on Emily O'Brien's post on myfashionlife.com. Seen in New York this week launching her new fragrance, Jennifer Aniston wore a bright orange Vivienne Westwood dress and nude shoes. She looked sun-kissed and stunning in a splash of colour, complementing her Californian tan and newly blonde hair.

Wearing a bit of bight orange is up there with splash of sunshine yellow or sea-like turquoise. Look what we have here for you in a bright, bold summery mood at Ocabini: cashmere scarves in mandarin orange and emerald aqua and a super-lemon tank top in merino. 

Lace, Glorious Lace!

Erdem

Ocabini

'You don't have to be a bride to wear lace this summer', so say the Telegraph fashion pages. Kate's Sarah Burton wedding dress has reaffirmed lace's status as fashion royal. Like many trends that span multiple seasons, it has evolved, taking on a more classic look, with quality antique-style lace being the key. Think romantic and sensual.

Coloured lace, even acid neons colours, along with classic black are on offer along with must have additions to your 2011 wardrobe: antique whites and nudes.

The spring runways were packed with a wide variety of lace from bohemian styles through to lingerie inspiration and even ballet influences like those by Erdem, so whatever your style, you’re sure to find a way to encompass the lace trend into your wardrobe for 2011.

Ocabini has a cashmere and silk mix scarf with an antique lace print in classic ebony on romantic ivory. Find it here: Ocabini.com

The Kimono Cut

Louis Vuitton

Christophe Lemaire's debut collection for Hermès boasted kimono-sleeve cashmere coats, high-waisted tan leather trousers, jade silk evening kaftans and a great new dossier-style handbag – sheer luxe at every stitch and turn.

The kimono-cut also features at Louis Vuitton along with black silk mandarin-collared dresses with bold orchid prints and gorgeous jewelled shoulder bags in contrasting colourways: orange and yellow, turquoise and gold.

At Ocabini cashmere kimono cut tops feature in classic black and sexy mocha.  For bold summer colours there are luxurious pure cashmere scarves in mandarin, aqua and scarlet - perfect for embellishing wardrobe basics.

Ocabini cashmere kimono tops in Mocha and Ebony. Available here Ocabini.com

O is for Ocabini, Orange & Oriental

The Telegraph fashion column is running an A-Z of new season trends. We say O is for Ocabini, Orange and Oriental.

Orange is the colour: clutch, £250, Cacharel; Agatha, £820, Smythson; Bucket Bag, £355, MaxMara.

Oriental is hot: add a kimono jacket, mandarin collar, obi belt, or, like Louis Vuitton, a fan. See Ocabini's  Mandarin scarf, £130, in gorgeous chiffon cashmere. Our summer collection is due online in April, keep a lookout for our cashmere kimono-cut tops.

STOP PRESS: 

Fine weave cashmere scarves on sale 

Were £130 Now £70

10 DAYS ONLY 

21st - 31st March 2010

www.ocabini.com

Gucci Gucci

Gucci's Autumn Winter collection at Milan Fashion Week was a heady mix of jewelled colours in shades of purple, peacock blue and rust, burgundy and emerald, turquoise, orange and fuschia.

The silhoutte is very much Seventies romance for next winter and all the while super hot glamorous, inspired by Faye Dunaway in 'The Eyes of Laura Mars', and the style of the flame-haired, British singer, Florence Welch, of Florence & The Machin.

The emphasis was high voltage - patent leather and snakeskin pencil skirts, chiffon gowns with huge flags of fabric whipping up behind each model, split to the waist showing off matching hotpants.

Or settle for the day look:  kimono-cut top and below the knee swirl of skirt. Finish off with a pair of leather boots, skinny belt, designer sunglasses and an Ocabini emerald chiffon-cashmere scarf.

Empire of the Sun

Beckham AW11

Trend watch at  New York Fashion week has top tipped yellow for AW11. It comes in a gloriously happy palette range from egg yolk at Victoria Beckham, ochre at Marc Jacobs to what the Telegraph calls 'delicious curry spice' at Proenza Schouler. Yellow is eye catching blocked with  black at Victoria Beckham, with dramatic assymetric lines. Another asymetric hot trend on the cat walk is the poncho, seen to effect at Tommy Hilfiger, Marc Jacobs and Alexander Wang.

Get the look ahead of the game with Ocabini's ebony black cashmere poncho and pair it with one of these yellow dresses by Suzannah, Max Mara and Day Birger:

Mr Saunders' Dream of Spring

Jonathan Saunders SS11

I once traveled all the way to Paris and stood queuing in the rain to see a Mark Rothko retrospective. Rothko’s iconic paintings of luminous, soft-edged rectangles saturated with colour glowed from the walls in deep dark reds, oranges, yellows, maroons, browns, blacks, and greys.

I once studied briefly under Jonathan Saunders at London Printworks Trust in Brixton where I screen printed finely flowered camouflaged jump jets onto cream canvas. Saunder's gorgeously feminine dresses make me think of drifts of snowdrops and narcissus in spring meadows.

 
...A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line...

from William Wordsworth, Daffodils

Mark Rothko, Yellow and Gold

In Primavera, or Allegory of Spring, an elaborate pastoral scene by Italian Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli, fabulously dressed figures feature with a blindfolded putto in an orange grove.  In a floral-patterned dress and crowned in blossom Flora scatters petals collected in the folds of her gown. Her companion, the nymph Chloris, draped in diaphanous white, is being seized by winged Zephyrus, the biting wind of March. Clustered on the left are the three graces wrapped in palest chiffon,  Hermes draped in rust-red wearing gladiator boots and Venus in a bustier brocaded, barely blue empire line dress.

 








Accessorise Saunders' tangerine printed dress with
Ocabini's mandarin chiffon cashmere scarf

Primavera Plane

Love Me Tender

Gentlemen, send your lover the link to Elvis's Love me Tender on Valentines Day.  Dump her if she isn't moved and her heart doesn't melt a little to love you all the more. If you're looking for something more tangible, wrapped in fine tissue and finished with a red ribbon, I suggest a scarlet poncho. It's romantic red and made from the finest cashmere we can find.  It'll keep your lover snug and warm whilst together you dream of lazy sunshine days; and it's so deliciously soft on her skin that she won't object when you suggest she wears nothing else...

Ocabini.com/ScarletPoncho

Into the Wide Blue Yonder

Armani Privé Haute Couture SS11
Photo: REX FEATURES

This blog post is inspired by the talented Hannah Betts' article currently at telegraph.co.uk. In it she eloquently states what we at Ocabini have been saying for ages: that whether it's sapphire, cerulean, lapis or emerald aqua, 'it's time to sing the blues'. There is a riot of colour heading our way this spring and along with citrus brights, blue, especially, is enjoying a fashion moment.

Designers are all at it:  Miu Miu blue, Prada cornflower, DKNY turquoise, Moschino royal, navy and denim, Fendi bright, Yves Saint Laurent midnight, Dior tropical, Celine navy, Stella McCartney washed tones and Ocabini emerald aqua.

If strategic accessorising is your way of surfing the trend, then look no further than Ocabini's fab scarf and poncho. Made from the finest cashmere we can find they are gorgeously warm and snug as winter shrugs it's self; both will be spot on as spring rolls into summer. Wear them over slinky, skimpy sun dresses and if you are not on some exotic hideaway holiday with water the colour of emeralds, imagine you are.

Ocabini cashmere poncho and scarf

Ashley Greene, Irina Shayk, Rose McGowan and Kim Kardashian

Fabulous Miss Bardot

Love her look, adore the citrus orange! The best things don't
date - true classics. Those heavenly people at Fabulous
Magazine sure know how to create a great shot. Anyone off
skiing this spring take note: stylish and sexy, 'the softest
cashmere poncho adds a layer of luxury'. Easy peasy. You
can get one here: ocabini.com.

La Dolce Vita

La Dolce Vita, 1960

Shot in black and white, Fellini's La Dolce Vita tells of a search for both happiness and love that will never come. The Trevi fountain scene has become an iconic moment, pitting an electrifying Ekberg, with those waters caressing her impossibly voluptuous body, alongside a hopelessly infatuated, tuxedo clad Mastroianni. It's a fusion of eroticism, temptation and ultimately frustration, all encapsulated into a minute and 38 seconds of celluloid brilliance1.

 

While cinema, photography, TV, magazine and newspaper print may have switched to colour, Manga is one art form that hasn't and is still typically drawn in black and white. The Japanese word manga, literally translated, means 'whimsical drawings' and comes originally from the works of ukiyo-e or 'artists of the floating world' such as Hokusai, of the sailors-about-to-drown-in-a-big-wave-over-Mount-Fuji fame.

Chanel dress SS09

The first manga magazine as we know it was heavily influenced by Japan Punch, founded by Charles Wirgman, a British cartoonist.  It had a very simple style of drawing and wasn't very popular - it ended after three issues. Finally, in 1905, several incarnations later, Tokyo Pakku was created and became a huge hit.

Lara Stone in Chanel’s black and white sequined silk tulle dress is another triumph for monochrome. Isabel Marant calls Stone “a kind of alien—she’s a mix of a warrior and Brigitte Bardot.” She lives in London now and apparently avoids fashion parties, but when asked by Sarah Haight of WMagazine what she might want to do after her modelling days are over, she said “When I think about my job now... the people are nice and fun and easy and relaxed. You get to smoke at work. You make lots of money.” Stone pauses. “Where are you ever going to find another job where you don’t have a boss or responsibilities, really, except to get on an airplane and just show up? It’s a bit worrying.”

Monochrome Magic: 
Moschino Cheap and Chic cotton-blend bouclé cardigan, Tsumori Chisato basket jersey jacket, Ocabini tie-neck cashmere poncho, Alexander McQueen wool cape, Tsumori Chisato Slub cashmere fringe jacket, Alice by Temperley Trophy knitted cropped cardigan.

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1. Review by Duncan Kennedy, BBC News, March 2009

In the Begining

7 November 2010

Tracks of particles produced in a smashup 

of lead-ions in the Large Hadron Collider.

Background light filling the Universe holds a history that stretches back before Big Bang; the evidence is in the glow of Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation. New analysis of relic radiation from Big Bang suggests the universe got its start eons earlier and has cycled through a myriad of episodes of birth and death, with Big Bang merely the most recent in a series of starting guns.

Someone once explained the cosmos as sort of like soap bubbles floating in the air. Each time two bubble universes collide, rather than pop-you're-gone, it's crash-bang-splinter and a new universe begins from the bits blown off by the bump. 

Jonathan Saunders scarf, Resort 2010

November's mini big bang created in the Large Hadron Collider was incredibly hot and dense. Sub-atomic fireballs with temperatures of over ten trillion degrees, a million times hotter than the centre of the Sun, melted into a hot dense soup. In Ancient Rome the humble scarf was used not to stay snug, but as a sweat cloth to keep cool, worn in hot weather around the neck or tied to a belt.

Jonathan Saunders' graphic aesthetic for his Resort 2010 collection started as watercolors on graph paper and exploded into a neon-shot grid of layered lead-ion, collision-like printed streaks.

Shine the Light Fantastic

A star cluster bursts into life in the Milky Way.

Ocabini chiffon cashmere scarves in Silver Shimmer, Emerald and Mandarin.

 

 

Photo credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration.