Pictures from Style.com

Haute Couture is the ultimate in sartorial luxury. The most expensive and exclusive clothing available. Most of us mere mortals will never get to wear Haute Couture clothes. ’Haute Couture’ means high cut or tailored and describes made to measure clothes. In order to use the Haute Couture label, a fashion house  must have at least 20 staff on the premises and show at least 50 garments consisting of day and evening wear twice per year. Haute Couture  clothes are painstakingly hand crafted by highly skilled couturiers ensuring that the client gets a one off piece beautifully made of the highest quality fabrics. 

The Haute Couture fashion shows are lavish affairs with outrageously flamboyant clothes.  The fashion houses spend millions on them, but Haute Couture usually only makes up a small percentage of their sales. So what is the point of Haute Couture? For most of us it something to dream about. For the fashion houses, it is an advert for the clothes, giving the brand an exclusive and luxurious feel. One of my favourite couture collections for Spring/ Summer 08 is Christian Dior, purely for its eye-catching wow factor .

Only  a few thousand women in the world buy Haute Couture clothes. If you are not one of them this Pure Silk Aftershock Dress makes a great alternative.

Pictures from Elleuk.com

I love the designer collections for spring summer 08. Of all the designer collections there are a few that particularly stand out for me as the looks I will be looking to recreate this summer. One of these is Etro. Their Spring summer collection had a strong feeling of global style. With Fringes, pom-poms, ethnic embroidery,  brown leather belts, sandals and bags. The key to this look is in the mix of neutrals and bright colours and accessories and details. There were also some beautiful maxi dresses with beautiful bright and psychedelic prints which definitely had a seventies feel about them. So this is what I will be looking for in order to achieve the Etro global style this summer:

• Good basics in black and khaki.
• Bright  multi coloured accessories or key pieces such as skirts, scarves and bags.
• Brown leather belts with metal plates
• Fringes on anything
• gorgeous leather sandals
• Neutral blazers with contrasting trim
• Gorgeous floaty maxi dresses with bright prints

This Guerriero Belt is a great way to add a bit of global style to any outfit

I really love dresses by Sara Berman. She studied fashion design at Central St Martins College in London, and trained with Maria Grachvogel, before her fashion-designer mother, put her in touch with buyers and manufacturers and taught her about the business. Her sister Amiee joined Sara Berman her as co-creative director for the fashion label two years later. As well as having her own fashion label, Sara is the creative director of the luxury cashmere brand N Peal, designer for Urban Outfitters and ASOS.  Their clothes are inspired by art deco and music with clean elegant lines. Sara Berman clothes are shown at New York fashion week as well as frequently appearing on the pages of Vogue and they now also have a diffusion line, Berman Black.

Recently, They were approached by Lenor to design a machine washable dress to celebrate the launch of their new Infusions range of fabric conditioners. Their creation was a £1500, empire-line, floor-length gown with layers of ruffles that can be machine washed.  

 One of my favourite Sara Berman Dresses is this Cocktail Dress.

This season the clutch is an absolute must have accessory. If you want to have bags of style, go for bright, bold and eye catching. Team these bags with a cool neutral outfit for maximum impact and to be sure that nothing can take the attention from your gorgeous bag.

Prada red dip dye patent clutch bag - The dip dye effect is  a key trend for Spring / summer 08 with accessories in bright patent being a great and very eye catching way to follow this trend.

Yves Saint Laurent evening gold brass and stras minaudiere - This is the ultimate clutch bag for accessorising a beautiful black evening gown or just to add some extra glamour to that little black dress.

Fendi Spray Middle Size Baguette - This is a great upto date version of the classic Fendi Baguette. Another bright bag, this time in this seasons abstract art trend.

Miu Miu Pink Leather Clutch Bag - Jewel colours are really hot for spring and what better way to brighten up a neutral outfit than with this gorgeously soft looking deep pink bag.

Alexander McQueen Snakeskin Clutch Bag - This bag is super stylish and great for everyday use.

Derek Lam gold metallic goats leather multistrap ’Celest’ purse - This bag is pure arm candy. Great for a night out.

Christian Larcoix clutch with perspex detail - this clutch bag has a real sixties feel to it and would look great with shift or mini dress.

Picture from Elleuk.com

If you want bags of style get yourself an eye catching clutch bag. I love this Cheet Troy Clutch Shiraz Leather Handbag

The tea dress seems to be constantly popular and always in fashion. It has been around since the thirties and perhaps it is the massive popularity of all things vintage that is responsible for the constant re emergence of the tea dress each spring.I think tea dresses are great, I buy one almost every spring and I have already bought myself one this year and teamed it with an old fashioned petticoat for the spring. The beauty of the tea dress is that it is universally flattering. I love wearing girlie feminine clothes. The tea dress is both girlie and feminine and easy to wear.