When we first heard about this idea, we just loved it. It brings together two different components and mixes them together to create the ultimate buzz. It can’t get any hotter than this.

Setorii is a Los Angeles based fashion designer and car aficionado, whose current focus is to bring imagination and inspire beauty through her work. She brings together the best of the two industries’ creative vision: 110 antique beauties in pristine condition, and flowing, ethereal Couture gowns — a must-see vision, indeed…p>

The gowns’ flowing fabrics, vibrant colors and patterns, and intricate beading combine feminine classic elegance with curve-conscious designs for the modern woman. Her gowns have graced many a celebrity and runway model, with whom she has a loyal following.

Setorii’s creative pursuits run across numerous fashion and automotive projects. Her first art book featuring the cars and the couture gowns, photographed by some of the world’s best fashion photographers, is due to land on our coffee tables sometime in 2012, to the delight of all our male friends…

Setorii’s celeb fan base all came in style to support her, at the exclusive, invite-only fashion show…Alyssa Milano, Sophia Bush, Bridget Marquardt, Jayde Nicole, Bai Ling, Peggy Tanous, Corey Feldman, and Jessica Hall, watched the beautiful models bring Setorii’s creations to life, as they walked down the runway at EM & Co…Here’s the link to the video…enjoy!

Jayde Nicole, Setorii, and Bai Ling at the Setorii “The Resort & Spring Collection 2012″ Red Carpet Fashion Show

1. Formal Attire (at a casual dinner)

Relax ladies, you’re not out competing with other ladies on who’s got the best outfit. You’re heading to a casual or dressy dinner, relax and have fun. The only time you would need to wear formal attire is if it’s specified in the invitation.

2. Anything too tight

There is a reason why we gain pounds during the holiday season, the food! (Yum!) Don’t wear something so tight it’s hard for you to breathe and eat. You’ve got enough stress throughout the holiday season, you don’t need to worry about whether eating that extra pie will bust your seam or not. Enjoy those delicious food and put that little tight dress away.

(Picture from SheKnows.com)

3. Club attire

It’s too revealing, it’s not the right attire to wear. It’s time for the food to show off their deliciousness, not the time to for you to show off your assets. So put that sexy attire away and save it for the next girl’s night out.

Kim Kardashian in club attire
(The Hype)

Lindsay Lohan wearing a club appropriate tight dress
(Picture by David Tonnessen; PacificCoastNews.com)

4. The dinner

A roasted chicken on the table and chickens on your dress? Don’t wear any prints that contain the food on the table. It’s one thing for Lady Gaga to wear her meat dress to the 2010 MTV Video Music Award (with a meaning behind it) and another for you to wear the food on the table on yourself. Exceptions to this rule include any summer/spring Dolce & Gabbana 2012 featuring vegetable prints. Also, stay away from those food stains.

Lady Gaga in meat dress for MTV Video Music Award 2010

Spring/Summer 2012 Dolce & Gabbana
(Picture from Zimbio)

5. Fashion-Forward

It could be THE attire, the most fashionable and stylish attire you own for the season, but it’s probably not the best outfit to wear to a holiday dinner. Save your fashion forward outfit for a fashion event. After-all, it is the most fashionable outfit.

From left to right: Lady Gaga wearing lace mask, Lady Gaga with turquoise hair and Lady Gaga in yellow bold print
(Picture from SheKnows.com)

Kate at the age of sixteen

Aside from her modeling career Kate has become an icon in the world of fashion, winning many awards and being featured in magazines, blogs and newspapers for her own personal style.

The concept of the shoot was White on White. Clean lines, interesting textures, and subtle-yet-strong makeup.

photographer: JP Agustin

styling & wardrobe: EM & Co

model: Jordan Poppovich – Next Models

hair & make-up: Joel Sebastian

• Less is more. Don’t wear too much perfume.  What is too much? Generally, 2-3 sprays, on the skin (never on clothes), and on the pulse points, is plenty enough.  Someone should be able to smell your perfume if they’re within 1-2 feet of you, not much more…And this applies to women and men alike.  There’s nothing more off-putting than a man walking by, smelling of cologne from 5 feet away, regardless of how good he looks…
• Don’t spray fragrance on your clothes, the perfume might cause a stain.
• Don’t rub perfume on your skin, always dab it.  Rubbing the perfume will damage the perfume molecules and may alter the smell.
• Don’t wear perfume if you are going to sweat.  The scent might combine with the fragrant compounds and alter the fragrance unpleasantly.
• Don’t re-apply perfume too often, it might be overpowering, best to wait at least 2 hours before re-applying.  Remember, less is more….

As much as we love the fashion that designers create for the runway, they can’t always be worn the real way.

Designer for ISM Mode, Inka Sherman, blends just the right amount of style & sophistication into her designs.

ISM Mode’s first collection for Spring 2011, features asymmetric cut dresses, comfortable jumper and rompers, and great fitting shorts and jackets.

Their design explores the geometry of form and classic simplicity. Their choice of fabrics look choice of fabrics for a soft hand and elegant look.

More about ISM Mode…

Where are you from?

Berlin, Germany

How long have you lived in LA?

Since end of 2006

Where did the name ISM Mode come from?

-ism, suffix: action, process, practice, characteristic quality, distinctive trait, system of principals.

We translate this to a unique and recognizable design and a lifestyle that includes principals of social consciousness and environmental awareness.

When did you start ISM Mode?

ISM started in 2010, Spring 2011 is our first collection

What was your inspiration behind this collection?

I take a conceptual  approach to designing by blending comfort with sophistication and structure with flow. I want to create clothes that are concerned with the wellbeing of the person wearing them.

What do you think of the fashion industry?

The fashion industry is a tough business. But also exiting and the only thing I want to be doing at the moment.

What do you think of fashion in LA?

There is a brought spectrum of fashion in LA. There are a lot of amazing brands here. LA fashion seems like the underdog to NY fashion but I think LA has a lot to offer.

Where would you like to see ISM Mode in the next couple years?

In high end boutiques all over the country as well as internationally.

What are you most proud of?

Moving to a city knowing no one with no connections and creating a label with limited resources.

The re-constructed tee-shirts look great: they all have a wrapped-thread effect, it works well with the tribal style. Could see wearing these around town…

The white-painted grass skirts are fun, but they’re hardly wearable in ‘real’ life, unless it’s a costume party…As for the jewelry, that’s easy, it’s all available at EM & Co.

The white body paint — now that’s tempting, it’s a nice change from the typical black body paint one always sees associated with tribal style… We may just have to try it this summer — bet it could look amazing with a good tan! Stay tuned for a body paint ‘how-to’ in the near future…

In the meantime, enjoy these fabulous, inspiring pics!

But beware, the fragrance you choose could cause people to be attracted to you, or the contrary. Choosing a perfume is often the most difficult step in wearing fragrance, so choose wisely…

Here are some tips on choosing a perfume or scent:

• Subtle and pleasant. Choose perfumes that enhance the space around you. The scent should be subtle enough to not invate anyone else’s “personal space”, but pleasant enough that others will want to stay around you.
• Complement your skin. Find a perfume that complements your skin and natural aroma of your body.  In order to do this, you must try out the perfume on your skin.
• Narrow it down to 2-3. To narrow down what scents you like (floral notes, vanilla, citrus, herbal, etc.), in what blends, spray them on tester strips (fragrance blotters).  You can only try 2-3 perfumes on your skin, so use a ‘process of elimination’ to find your top picks…If you can, get tester containers of the top picks so you can try it a few times outside the shop, see how you like them,  and how people respond to you.
• Sample perfumes on your skin. Sample perfumes by spraying a couple of fragrances on your skin, located far apart from one another.  Don’t spray more than 2 fragrances on each arm.  Let the perfume stay on your skin for about half an hour, to see how it interacts with your skin. The fragrance should blend well with your normal body aroma, as well as with your deodorant, clothing detergent, shampoo, make-up, and whatever other scented product you may be using.
• Choose a perfume based on the base note – perfumes have three notes: the top note (initial fragrance that you smell upon spraying),  heart or middle note (occurs after initial note evaporates); base note (what remains on your skin after the initial ½ hr)…The middle and base note are the main ‘theme’ of a perfume…
• Parfum or Eau de Toilette? Choose the concentration of perfume that will work for you.  More oil content in the fragrance will make it last longer, but it will also be more expensive or heavier.  In order of % of fragrant compounds, here are the various options: Cologne (7%), Eau de Toilette/Eau de Parfum (15-25%), and Perfume/Extrait (30-40%).
• Trademark fragrance? If you’re looking for a ‘trademark’ fragrance that you will always be wearing, choose a perfume that wears well in all temperatures, during winter as well as summer.  You might want to have two different concentrations of the fragrance, a Parfum for evening, and Eau de Toilette for daytime.
• Heavy or light? If you change your perfume with your outfits, the general rule is heavier perfumes are for the evening, lighter notes for the daytime.  For work or places that are enclosed, lighter fragrances are better, as too heavy a fragrance can be overwhelming, or inappropriate.  However, if you prefer wearing heavier notes (like mosses, musk, chypre, and oriental notes), during the daytime, wear the lightest concentration of the perfume available.

And what is ‘heavy,”  or “light”?  Heavy fragrances are those in which the least-volatile ingredients, such as mosses, musk, chypre, and oriental notes dominate.  Perfumes are between 30-40% fragrant oil, so the greater the concentration of fragrant compound, the heavier the fragrance. Light fragrances have mainly fresh, citrus, floral, fruity, and green components.  They contain practically no sweet, balsamic, or sultry elements.  Also, the more diluted the fragrant compounds, the lighter the perfume.   This Perfume Glossary has a wealth of useful information on all perfume terms.

• Splash or spray application? A spray bottle, being sealed all the time, may have a longer shelf life, is easier to carry, and easier to apply. In the higher concentrations of perfume that have more oil content, a spray bottle becomes more inefficient, so a splash top might be better.
• Cheap or expensive perfume? A cheap perfume will have a few, readily available (more common) notes.  A more expensive perfume will be more complex, and will have base, middle, and top notes, using rarer, more expensive ingredients.  If unsure, stick with the more established designer labels: chances are, you will have a more sophisticated and complex product, than if you went for a cheaper perfume.  Also, a lighter, more diluted version of the perfume (Eau de Toilette, Eau de Parfum, or Cologne), is cheaper, if price is a factor.

And as always, remember that less is more…

Wearing a fragrance adds another dimension to an outfit, appeals to yet another sense: the sense of smell.  Whereas color and shape appeal to our visual sense, texture appeals to our sense of touch, and the soft rustle of taffeta or click of heels appeals to our sense of hearing, perfume brings an unseen, but memorable note to an outfit…

Smells are almost magical – you can’t see them, but a smell can travel through your nose and enter the cognitive part of the brain, where it becomes associated with memories and emotions.

Our memories of odors and smells have strong emotional qualities and are often associated with good or bad experiences when they were present.  The sense of smell is handled by the same part of the brain (the limbic system) that handles memories and emotions.  For this reason, we immediately recognize and respond to smells from childhood such as fresh-baked cookies, the smell of new books, or a favorite flower in Grandma’s garden.  Very often, we cannot put a name to these odors, but their emotive association is very strong.

And the memories of odors do have a lasting power: people recall smells with a 65% accuracy after a year, while the visual recall of photos sinks to about 50% after only three months.

Here’s a few more interesting facts about our sense of smell:

• Everyone has their own unique odor-identity or ‘smell fingerprint’, which is determined by many factors, including genes, skin type, diet, medicine, emotional state and mood, and even the weather.
• The average human being is able to recognize approximately 10,000 different odors.
• Our sense of smell is so powerful that when you smell skunk, you are smelling 0.000,000,000,000,071 of an ounce of scent. Dogs have about 200 million olfactory receptors. That is about 20 times the number of receptors that humans have.
• No two people smell the same odor the same way. In other words, a rose may smell sweeter to some people than to others.
• The sense of smell plays a vital role in our sense of well-being and quality of life.
• A woman’s sense of smell is keener than a man’s.
• Your nose can smell directionally, telling you where an odor originates.
• It is important to understand that throughout every day and night of our lives we smell a wide variety of odors without being aware of them at all.
• Your sense of smell is least acute in the morning; our ability to perceive odors increases as the day wears on.

A lot of research has been done over the last two decades in this area.  A newly-minted science, “aromachology”, is focused solely on the study of the psychological effects achieved through the use of ambient odors and the olfactory pathways to the brain they stimulate.  Aromatherapy, a centuries-old practice, focuses on treating physical and psychological conditions through the use of smells and aromas.

And here are the Latest Top 10 Scent Trends, as compiled by the Scent Marketing Institute:

1. Feel safe, secure and nostalgic: Talcum powder
2. Be more alert: Peppermint, citrus
3. Relax: Lavender, vanilla, chamomile
4. Perceive a room as smaller: Barbecue smoke
5. Perceive a room as bigger: Apple, cucumber
6. Selling expensive furniture: Leather, cedar
7. Buying a home: Fresh baked goods
8. Good shopping atmosphere: Tailored floral/citrus scents
9. Develop road rage: Unpleasant smells (rotting rubbish, air pollution)
10. Become sexually aroused: for men – pumpkin pie/lavender; for women – the sweat of nursing mothers…

Hmmm, not sure about the sweat of nursing mothers – how do you bottle that?…

But just in case, here’s how to make some more ‘common’ odors work for you, based on their effects: (assuming that we have no negative experiences involving any of these odors):

Relaxation: lavender, basil, cinnamon, and citrus

Invigoration: peppermint, thyme, rosemary

Romance: Ginger, cardamom, licorice, chocolate

Anti-depressant: rose

If you want to see an amazing, beautiful story about perfume and how it can affect human emotions, check out the movie “Perfume” based on the novel with the same name, written by Patrick Susskind…

Stay tuned for fragrance do’s and don’t's…

It seems to have gone a slightly unnoticed this season, and we want to give it the credit it deserves.

One of our favorite things about wooden jewelry is that it goes with almost any attire. You can use wood to tone down a brightly colored outfit, or add a very rich, organic quality to your favorite cocktail dress.

It’s far less ephemeral than any other jewelry. Considering all the threats to our environment today, it can seem overwhelming. But if we all make small, everyday lifestyle changes, like wearing wooden jewelry, we’ll make a huge impact on the planet’s health.

Check out this amazing wood/plexi bangle by MM6 Maison Martin Margiela.

Image via SSENSE.COM

You can still connect deeply with the earth and nature’s elements and still look super stylish with necklaces like this by Stephen Dweck.

Image via BergdorfGoodman.com

Go green with reclaimed wooden from stores like Via Nativa.

Images via ViaNativa