Fashion Trend - Spring and Summer 2006 (Con't)

Here is the answer for the previous post :

Trends (Features)

Hi Dolly (Puffy sleeves, Pure white, Cotton lace & eyelets, Empire line)
Sweet Dandy (Shirt & tie combo, Boyfriend jacket, Trilby, Braces)
Couture Dance (Volumious, Latino ruffles, Tulip skirt, Floor sweeping)
Golden 80's (One shoulder, Drainpipe, One-piece swimsuit, Bling Bling)
Go Geisha (Kimono, Simply wrap, Oriental print, Obi)

If you can get all these correct, congratulations. You must be a master of fashion.

We will further explain the details of each trend at later posts. Just add the RSS Feed to your news reader to keep up with our latest posting.

Happy New Year!

Fashion Trend - Spring and Summer 2006

Before we talk about the fashion trends of Spring and Summer 2006, we would like to play an interesting game first. There are 5 key trends for the coming Spring and Summer and we will provide the names of key features below. If you can group them into 5 trends and give the name, you must have a great knowledge in terms of fashion.




(Hint : each trend should have 4 key features)

1. Puffy sleeves
2. Latino ruffles
3. Pure white
4. Trilby
5. Kimono
6. Braces
7. Floor sweeping
8. Empire line
9. Cotton lace & eyelets
10. Drain pipe
11. Oriental print
12. Simply wrap
13. One shoulder
14. Shirt & tie combo
15. Boyfriend jacket
16. Volumious
17. Tulip skirt
18. One-piece swimsuit
19. Obi
20. Bling Bling

See if you can do it! :P

What If Santa Clause Follow the Latest Fashion Trend?

Traditionally, Santa Clause will dress in his standard red and white uniform to go to everyone's house to distribute Christmas gift. In everybody's mind, the uniform represents Christmas and Santa Clause. However, if we hold a Santa Clause fashion design competition to design a new uniform for Santa Clause and let Santa Clause follow the latest fashion trend, what would be the winning uniform? Let's have an imagination to predict the outcome. From the view of fashion trend this year, the trendy color is black and the fur / faux fur is the original wild color. So it is quite natural to imagine that the red color should be changing to black and the white fur collor and trimming should be change to original wild color. A black coat with wild color fur trim? It's really trendy but shall we still call him "Santa Clause"? Will you welcome him to come into your home? I think most of the people will answer "No way...!". Why? Because the uniform is a part of Santa Clause and Santa Clause is a part of Christmas. The most important is Santa Clause is where the Christmas joy comes from!!!

PS :
The latest posting date of items from our boutique to different countries in order to receive before Christmas is as follows:

Australia : 12th December 2005
Canada : 3rd December 2005
France : 14th December 2005
United Kingdom : 13th December 2005
United States : 9th December 2005

For cut off date of other countries, please email us before purchase. Thanks!

Dress for Christmas

Christmas is coming... How to dress for the parties is quite an annoying topic for ladies? To follow the tradition : dress like Santa Clause or like an angel? To follow the lastest fashion trend : dress like a Russian princess or like a Victorian queen? So many ideas flowing around to make you crazy. Here are some suggestions to make you look elegant and attractive for all these precious moments :

1. Color : Black is the all time favourite and the hottest picks from fashion designers this year. However, all black may cause you to be lost in the party crowd. Some shiny rhinestones or beads decorations mounted in the black would be prefect for drawing the attentions around.

2. Fur / Faux Fur : To dress with elegance, fur or faux fur decorations should not be omitted. Fur / faux fur trim collar or clothes trimming would be great to give an elegant effect. T0 be more, a fur / faux fur shawl or cape covering the inner evening gown is an all time favourite for popular movie stars and it is also an excellent dressing for every lady.

3. Sexy : A little bit of sexy in dressing would be like the addition of delicious dressing to a ready-to-serve dish. Don't waste the attractions brought to you by the God. A deep-V inner wear or see-through lace top would show your attactive body shape to everyone.

What else? Let's think more for Christmas later...

Fashion is general; Style is individual

"Fashion is general; style is individual. Some people have it. Some haven't" These words came from the first chief editor of "Vogue" fashion magazine, Edna Woolman Chase which truly reflect the real meaning of personal fashion style. Many ladies try all their efforts to follow the latest fashion trend from world famous fashion brands.However, many of them may find that even they wear the designs from top fashion designers, they cannot draw much attention from other people. Such cases often happen to popular movie stars. This may be due to "style is individual". Everybody has her own style which is unique. Blindly follow the latest fashion trend but ignore the harmony of fashion and individual style will lead to a mismatching effect. Therefore, to dress best is to identify your own style first and pick fashion which can best fit your style. This is the key to have an attractive outlook. Remember "simple" does not mean lack of taste. This is also why we have the boutique name "CM Style Fashion". Style always comes before Fashion...

General Features of Chinese Style Clothes

The modern Chinese style clothes are mostly originated from the ancient Chinese royal clothing as the royal clothing is considered as the best for the time being. The general features of these clothing are listed as below :
1. Fabric
In the past, the high class clothes were mostly manufactured from silk or silk blend fabric. General cotton fabric was only used by ordinary people. Therefore, the silky material would be considered as good Chinese clothing and most of the modern Chinese style clothes adopt them as major selection.
2. Embroidery
Chinese people like the idea of lucky. The images on clothing should be lucky symbols such as dragon (for men), phoenix (for women), flowers or some other Chinese lucky symbols. These images would be embroided on fabric with traditional skills. The major color of threads used would be golden, yellow or red.
3. Color
The generally prefered color is yellow and red color series. Yellow was the royal color in the past which represents superior and power. Red is the general lucky color for Chinese poeple. Therefore these colors are more preferable for Chinese style clothes. However, in modern design, the most favourite color nowadays ie black is also a popular selection by Chinese style fashion designers.

Cultural Background of Oriental Style Fashion (Con't)

In the previous blog, we talked about the background of ancient Chinese style clothes. These kinds of style of Chinese clothes have been lasted for a long time over the Chinese history with minor modifications in fabric and styles. The general idea was just to make them more elegant but not revolutionizing the dressing styles. However, after the invasion and rule of Manchu from the northern part of China ie the Qing Dynasty (1644~1911), the Chinese style clothes has been changed a lot due to the mixture of different cultures. Manchu was established in the northern grassland of China and the ladies have been grown to be stronger and took up some of the responsibilities of men such as herding sheep and cows. Their dressing styles are more casual and open. The mixture of two kinds of dressing styles during the rule of Manchu over China then laid the foundation of the modern well known Chinese dressing : cheongsam / close-fitting woman's gown.

Cultural Background of Oriental Style Fashion

After discussing the western style clothes for several times, we would like to shift our focus to oriental style clothes. There are two countries which have strong impacts on oriental culture in the history of Asia. One is India and the other is China. From the clothes point of view, it seems that the influence of China is more important than India as India has more influence on the religious side. The countries around China eg Korea and Japan have a very similiar culture as China and their clothing styles in the ancient times are very similiar to the Chinese styles. For the long time, the Chinese people live in a very conservative environment and the ladies dress in clothes with fabric wrapping around most of the body. Even the elbows should not be exposed. This style may be originated from the general concept that women should stay at home and handle the family issues while men should go out to gain a living and fight for their country. Therefore, women should learn more cultural knowledge such as music and drawing to entertain their husbands instead of their body shapes.

Fashion for Work

For modern ladies, much of the time is spent in the office and this is a place where they need to show their best in order to get the best out of work. Therefore, fashion for work is really an important topic in women's dressing nowadays. The way of dressing is not only affecting the image from other people's eyes but also a kind of feel up for own confidence and comfort. This year, fashion for work goes back for the classic "HLINE". The "HLINE" style is originated from the giant in fashion - Christian Dior in Fall 1954. The "HLINE" design no longer goes for the direction of emphasizing the curve of ladies' chest and bottom but replacing them with simple straight line cutting. Such change enables women to have a dressing with comfort and free them from sexy tightness. This kind of style is back in this Fall and the most favourite color should be black and white. Have a try for such dressing which may make you the center of attention in the office!

p.s. Our own design shawl is selling quite well and thanks for the ladies who have a similar fashion favourites as us. Hope you will draw every attentions in your precious occassions with our shawl.

Fashion - A Dreaming Industry to Work In?

In the past, fashion seemed to be a very beautiful and easy industry to us as we saw famous fashion designers working with beautiful models in fashion shows and highly respected by movie stars and ladies around. After each show, they were all warmly greeted by their audience. Everyday, fashion designers can work creatively to design whole new clothes to lead the trend and working in the industry seems to be riding on the latest trend. What a wonderful thing! When thinking of starting a new business, most of the girls will select fashion as their top choices. It may be the common dream of many girls. However, after working in the industry for a while, we have tasted the bitterness of it. For example, creating a popular and trendy design fashion is not easy and there are many factors laid behind to the success. From selection of fabric and materials, creating the right design, managing stocks and production to final marketing and sales, all require high level of professionalism, market senses and the ambition to success. We are now more respected to those successful giants in the fashion industry such as LVMH and GAP etc. Creating a successful brand in the fashion industry is really not easy! But whatever the hard work we need, fashion is still our dreaming industry as we are working to make people dress more beautifully!

Faux Fur Shawl - A New Design from CM Style Boutique

In our previous blog, we have mentioned that we were developing a new design faux fur shawl. The design objective of the shawl is to provide a gorgeous design outwear that can be worn in different precious occassions. We have come up with a design that both side can be used. One side is pure color faux fur and the other side is a silk blend fabric with traditional oriental flower patterns. A traditional pattern design fabric clip has been mounted on the flower pattern side for a matching of oriental tone. The shawl comes with the three most poplular colors this year ie Black, White and Burgundy. It is our first brand new design and should be a good matching with any lastest design inner wears to give an elegant outlook for any ladies. These shawls will be available in eBay store (http://stores.ebay.com/cmstylefashion?refid=store) Please take a look at the burgundy shawl in the attached photos.

Velvet - The Element of High Class Fashion

One of the most poplular fabric this Fall should be velvet. Velvet has been widely used for a long time by the noble class in Europe and it has been treated as one of the basic elements of high class and noble fashion. Its soft texture, elegant outlook and wide range of applications also made it the essential choice of modern fashion designers. Of course, a mix and match with other materials such as lace, silk, beads and sequins would be the trend for recent years. A well matched velvet top will surely well present the feminine and elegant character of a lady in her precious moments.
Here, we would like to provide 3 tips in maintaining velvet garments :
1. Velvet garments should be hanged in the closet instead of packed to avoid uneven surface of velvet.
2.Wash with gentle alkaline detergent by lightly pressing into the water. Drip dry and avoid direct sunlight.
3. Avoid direct iron. Using steam iron at a distance of 2~3cm will give an excellent effect.

Ways to Dress in Russian Styles

We have talked a lot about the fashion trend going for Russian styles this fall. However, how to dress in the Russian styles would be more interesting. As the Russian styles involve the mix of different elements, we would like to suggest some for reference here:

1. Russia is a country consists of many different nations. Many of them are closely related to agriculture and nature. Therefore, their clothing designs consist of folkloric elements such as simple flower patterns. But these decorations should not be to fancy.

2. Extremely cold weather has driven the Russian styles to be furry like. Fur jackets, fur shawls and even little fur decorations over bags and hats are popular in every fashion show.

3. Years of instability in the Russian history has made Russian women stronger and these have been reflected in their ways of dressing. Military like styles such as Napoleon collar and shoulder strap mounted on long jackets give a solid feel out of feminine.

4. The arts of royal embroidery, brocade and beads attachement have been developed rapidly in Russia history accompanied by the extreme status of Russian Imperial. How can we missing them when dressing like a Russian.

Another Trendy Style - Victorian

The word "Victorian" may have climbed on the top 10 search key terms for fashion in Fall 2005. Apart from the revival of "Russian Styles" from their gorgeous ages, "Victorian Styles" are also back from their times through the hands of fashion designers this Fall. The typical promoter brands should be Rochas and YSL. Their designs are all filled with Victorian elements such as turtlenecks, lace and ruffles. Beautiful and grand outlooks were brought to us by two marvelous and great Queens from Great Britain. One of them powered its kindom and showed its strength to the world and the other empowered the dressing styles of women's clothing. People at the time focused on creating the best fabric and producing the best fashion for ladies. Though the styles are rather conservative to enclose most parts of the body, the clothing is really a classic and unforgetable masterpiece in fashion industry. Nowaday, Victorian clothing is one of the most valuable to collect and we believe every lady dressing in Victorian style clothing would be delighted with their attractive outlook. Up to now, we really feel that we need to know more about the European history in order to fill up the contents of those classic designs brought to us by respected fashion designers.

Russian Dressing from "Anna Karenina"?

In our blog about fashion trends in Fall 2005, we talked about "Russian Dressing" will be one of the key trend. Just read an essay from Cosmopolitan suggesting that this Russian Dressing trend may be originated from Oprah Winfrey who recommended the famous Russian novel "Anna Karenina" last year and generated an enormous impact to the western society. The book sold nearly 1 million copies in a single week. Such Russian enthusiasm may have influenced fashion designers in their 2005 design to incorporate the classic Russian elements in their lastest design. To us, it is not surprising that classic Russian styles come to the trend as we believe fashion is also a cyclic industry just like economy. Trendy elements repeat themselves after certain years. For example, after years of vivid color design, fashion designers go back to the basic black and white and maybe after some years, vivid color design will be back again. As Russia actually has a great influence in western culture and played a key role in some moments of European history, people adopted Russian fashion into the modern design would not be surprising especially the Russian styles are broadly thought to be gorgeous, elegant and high class with some royal feelings. So maybe we need to thank Anna Karenina bringing us back to the enclosure of Russian royal pieces.
By the way, do you really know what Russian styles are?

Our Own Design Fashion

These few days have been the exciting and also busy moments for us. After accumulating years of experiences in the fashion industry, we are setting up our own fashion design in the coming winter. The first design will be a faux fur shawl with two sided usage. It will be a combination of Western and Chinese design styles. The idea of setting up our own design is to further differentiate from our online competitors and build up a brand loyalty to our own products. However, design our own fashion is quite a different job from our past work. First of all, a simple market research will be much helpful. We need to find out the best selling items in the past winter and mix the ideas of latest fashion trend. After selecting the correct product and come up with a satistied design, we have to source the right materials for production. Then it should be the sample production and modification before we can mass produce our own design products. Now, we have completed most of the processes and the first product ie our CM Style Design Faux Fur Shawl is expected to come to the market in the middle of October. Hope we can catch up with the schedule and have great success from our first design products!

Remarks :
Will post the new product photo in this blog when launching. Please give us some comments on it.

Lace - An All Time Favorite

"Lace" has been an all time favorite for many ladies in their dressing style selections. The "Lace" element can enhance the feminine effects of a well designed fashion and this element has been frequently used by fashion designers around the world. In the past, "Lace" has been interpreted to give a more mature and elegant image for women and mainly used in the design of fashion for mature ladies. However, nowadays, "Lace" design is going in a more casual direction. Lace shirt from Chloe and the latest lace dress from Miu Miu all go for a younger and casual idea. They are welcomed by young ladies around the world and become their favorite fashion in their daily life. We also love the lace design and maintain a certain portion of our stock with beautiful lace design.
Another good news is that we have generated a feed for our fashion blog in rss. You may generate an automatic update of this fashion blog by pressing the buttons at the right of this blog to add this blog into your My Yahoo and My MSN. For the others you may add the atom or rss feed into your news reader by getting the link from XML and RSS button. Enjoy your day!

Ladies Watch Goes for More Feminine Design

"The world of watches is so huge." This is my first impression after attending an internation watch and clock trade fair. Within the fair, the latest design trend of watches have been clearly reflected. For a long time, watches have been serving the function of time indication for human daily life. In the modern world, you may find time indications everywhere such as palm, mobile phones and car etc and the need of watches should be shrinked as a result. However, people still wearing watches on their wrist. This can be a typical MBA case study. The functions of watch have gone far beyond time indications. It is a kind of decoration. It is a kind of social status. It is a kind of personal image. It is .. it is.. etc. With these expanded functions, watches still serve to be a necessity for human life. It's really amazing.
With the addition of functionalities, it can be easily observed from the fair that besides some well established brands, the majority of ladies watches adopts a more feminine design approach with crystals, colorful leather bands and mother of pearl watch faces. Exaggerated numeral marks with fancy colors also presents a trendy effect. Furthermore, dual time zone seems to be with growing needs as the world is going more and more united. A well designed watch can be a part of fashion.

What fashion is about?

It can't be denied that wearing famous brand fashion walking along the street really give someone more confidence in presenting herself. From design to cutting and to quality, these brands have accumulated years of reputation and with successful marketing strategies, they have won the hearts of famous movie stars and rich ladies. Wearing them really gives a feeling of behaving like a star and wins the admire from people around. However, the attraction of fashion is not solely from brand itself but the combination in fashion and the person who wears them. Therefore, some simple design fashion clothes can also give an outstanding effect as long as they fits you well and presents well for the occations. Sometimes some minor adjustments or accessories can be the magic rod for a whole new feeling. A small ribbon tie at the front of tops gives a more feminine effect. Ethnic tops can be enhanced with the matching of mixed color beaded or special shape necklace. Give more creativity in your dressing today will generate an exceptional outstanding effect without spending a lot.

Remember, fashion is about feeling and matching! Dress up to give your best in outlook!

I Love U

"Love" seems to be a forever topic in all aspects of human life. People grow up with "Love", wish to have "Love" from others and give "Love" to others. Therefore, each time a designer presents a new fashion design around "Love", it seems to be one of the attractive elements to be highlighted in fashion magazines for their readers no matter it is a heart shape logo or a simple slogan of "I love U". In the coming fall, these elements still not be omitted by fashion designers. The red "I love you" slogan on Viktor & Rolf white shirt and the big hollow heart shape in the design of Stefano Pilati for Yves Saint Laurent (YSL) both attracts the eyes of many ladies in fashion shows. Anyway, if we not just wear the "Love" on body but also show more cares to the people around us, it should be more meaningful and give the "Love" design more content in its future.

I love U all, our most respected readers!

"Paris 6" = Future Fashion?

The key to the success of a famous fashion brand relies on its fashion designer. Every year, people working in the fashion industry all focus on the fashion shows in Paris to get the latest idea for coming fashion trends. Besides the Fashion Master - Karl Lagerfeld who has gained respected position in the industry, the upcome of "Paris 6" also draws a lot of attention. The "Paris 6" includes Marc Jacobs of Louis Vuitton， Nicholas Ghesquiere of Balenciaga， Phoebe Philo of Chloe， Stefano Pilati of YSL，Olivier Theyskens of Rochas and Alber Elbaz of Lanvin. They represents the future of fashion industry in many people's eyes. However, I also find a tremendous potential from a truly new star who is Lars Nilssen of Nina Ricci. He truly reinvented the brand. This season his renowned design red ethnic dress has occupied the minds of editors of major fashion magazines. Let's see what his future will be?

Ladies Fashion Trends Fall 2005

At every turning point of seasons, to catch up with the fashion trends of the coming season is the major challenge. After a serious observation of fashion shows held by different famous brands, it has come out with some clues for the ladies fashion trends in the coming Fall 2005. We would like to share with others for these trends such that we all can catch up with the upcoming rhythms of time.

1. Back to Black :
Black color and minimalism has been the fashion classic throughout twenties and nineties. This year these elements will be back for the upcoming trends. Designers went dark for Fall with little dresses, swingy coats and column gowns - all in attention grabbing Black color.

2. Edie's Sixties
Newsboy caps, stripy sweaters and flat crocodile boots, elements of Sixties have been in the fashion spotlight for over a decade.

3. Russian Dressing
Tactile embroideries, satin bloomers, glam furs in deep claret and frosty white all gives a folksy flavor to luxe Russian looks for Prada, Giorgio Armani and D&G. Fashion keeps reinventing old Russia's folkloric embroideries and cozy furs.

Any more?

Market Niche

Running the fashion business for some time and really tasted the fast moving character of this business. We have to manage the business with the most trendy items while maintaining the stock at reasonable level. To achieve this, we have been trying hard to find a market niche for our targeted customers. Our online outlets are selling ladies fashion clothes. However, even with this category, there are still many other sub-categories within. We have to find the right products to fit our targeted customers who are women at the age of 25~45 with the highest spending power. In addition, we try to be more unique in our product selections to avoid competition with general chain stores which sell casual wears. After years of trial, we are now heading to a more successful way of doing fashion business online. Please take a look at our ebay store : http://stores.ebay.com/cmstylefashion?refid=store to give us more comments.

Froogle Listing (Fashion Blog)

Today is a happy day for us as our CM Style Fashion store listings have been successfully uploaded into Froogle and made active. We have been trying this new way for a while and the uploaded file has been modified several times to make the data format be accordance to the Froogle file requirement. Now they can be viewed on Froogle though there are still problems in displaying the images and product page. At least we are successful for step 1. We will work hard to solve the displaying problems in the near future. We hope that Froogle can be a new way in promoting our own website : http://www.cmstyle.com.hk . Let's wait to see what the effect would be!

Blog about Ladies Fashion

Today, we start our first blog which is a whole new experience to us. The internet is really an amazing innovation and creates a lot of revolution to human lifes. We started an online business of selling women's fashion clothes, ladies crystal watches and hair accessories etc in the view of catch up with this kind of turning point for which we may not have seen for the whole life. On the other hand, this business also incorporates our interest in Ladies Fashion. Right now, we have two online sales outlets including http://www.cmstyle.com.hk and http://stores.ebay.com/cmstylefashion?refid=store for which the latter is an ebay stores. This business is really amazing and challenging and we really like to share our experience (both happiness and sadness) through this blog with other interested people about fashion and online selling. We will post one beautiful item each time when posting a blog.
Anyone who want to share your opinion please feel free to email us your ideas and comments.