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