Cruise into retro chic

A French label is looking back in time, writes Kasmiah Mustapha

PRETTY and prim, pink took centre stage at the unveiling of Louis Vuitton's Cruise 2013 collection in Singapore, where a huge pink neon wall and pink floor greeted guests. Since the colour did not dominate the collection, it was probably chosen to bring out the fun factor of the line, which was inspired by a trip to the past.

The line, suitable for our hot and humid weather,Cheap Yves Saint Laurent burberry bags High Quality Replica Bags。 is inspired by French actress Catherine Deneuve's tanned and bleach blonde character in the movie Le Sauvage,Why not buy Canada Goose Kensington Parka Women in our Cheap Canada Goose Online? as well as her more elegant and well-groomed roles in Indochine and Mississippi Mermaid.

For women who love the retro chic look,I compare {} dre in ear tour headphones.monster beats cheap the collection is perfect. Flowing skirts, cropped pants, cropped jacket and three-quarter culottes — which were the rage of that era — had been given a fresh look by the French luxury house.

And since Cruise collection is all about travel wear, the design and style suit women who want comfort yet still look fashionable during their journeys. Some of the designs even look good for casual days at the office or lunch meetings with friends.

Using white as the base of the collection, the pale shade is mixed with warm shades of brown and gold with touches of pink, lavender, sky blue or indigo. With cropped pants and sleeveless tops, paired with straw visor, the ensemble looks suitable for a Safari adventure. But when matched with platform shoes, it is perfect for cruising on a yacht in the Mediterranean Sea on hot summer days.

The contrasting style and colours are never out of place especially for summer wear. Instead it makes the collection more attractive and eye-catching. For the collection, Louis Vuitton deliberately clashes the style, playing with different lengths and creating a free-spirited luxurious look with the combination of designs, and colour.

LAYERED LOOK
Whether it's a short jacket worn over a long blue and brown dress, or a summer coat over a calf-length dress or a sleeveless gilet over a sequined T-shirt with culottes or cropped knee-length trousers, layering is the key word for the collection. The proportions deliberately clash, playing with different lengths and creating a mix of colours, which looks refreshing with different layers playfully peeking from underneath.

A tunic with glittering stones on the neckline, worn with short pants or long flowing skirt in brown and blue, is just one of the creative designs in the collection.

If you are looking for something smart and casual,This is my review of my Canada Goose Womens New and how it . choose the pink polka dot long skirt with brown sleeveless top and pink jacket matched with a pink handbag. While the idea is more for summer wear, this ensemble will also look good in formal setting.

Some of the designs are plain but others boast of graphics that capture the essence of the brand. Contrasting, geometric and paired with tweed embroidered with sequins or eyelet embroidery, such pairings give the collection an elegant look.For sale is a Canada Goose Chilliwack Parka men's jacket.

Another cool option is the embroidered shirt in white or brown, a nod to the 1970s. When worn with culottes or cropped pants, the look is still in style, decades after the fashion was en vogue. The variations on this theme form an essential base for the interplay of layers that distinguishes this collection.

Symbolic renderings of a country at war

Violence in Syria has escalated. Tens of thousands more refugees have fled across the border, and the loss of life is reflected in the destruction of the country's historic patrimony – as when fire partially destroyed Aleppo's historic souk in October.

Such uncertain times can inspire more than literal representations of violence.

Though Syrian artist Guilain Safadi does not seek to depict contemporary events in his country directly, the work in “Ashes,” a series of black-and-white acrylic-on-canvas paintings and ink-on-paper sketches, does captures some of the horror of these events.

These monochrome images, now up at Artlab in Gemmayzeh, are a stark departure from the range of bright colors employed in Safadi's earlier works: “All I see is black and white. Everything is burned – the cities, our memories.”

With the exception of two sketches, all the works on show in “Ashes” were completed in 2012, a year after the outbreak of violence in Safadi's country. Though his work clearly references recent events, these are symbolic rather than literal.

The artist does not paint the harrowing scenes which have grown all too familiar over the past 20 months. Instead he paints people from his past – old friends and lovers, animals, masked figures and mythical creatures.

“I think when you have a hard situation you're trying to go back to the past because it gives you a break,” he says. “I see my cities burning, my memories with them. I try to catch a moment to remind me that we are [still] alive.”

Many of his roughly daubed paintings, all of them untitled, feature sad looking women, their hair jet black, their skin impossibly white, their squat bodies bare-breasted and adorned with the inky-feathered wings and scaly-looking legs of crows – like an allusion to the destructive harpies of Greek mythology.Canada Goose Whistler Parka

“I think the Arab woman is like a bird,” the artist opines. “She doesn't have freedom, she is in a cage. Therefore when I draw a real girl I try to use parts of a bird ... because they all want to fly.”

Another symbol in Safadi's work is the fish, a motif that reappears in many of his paintings. In one work, black-robed figures hold the body of a giant fish in the air, as though carrying a coffin at a funeral.Canada Goose Langford Parka

The fish, Safadi explains, is a reference to a Christian miracle, when Jesus is said to have fed 5,000 men from five loaves of bread and two fish.

“We need something like this because the children are all homeless,” he continues. “In Syria even the miracles are dead.”

The high point of the exhibition is a series of sketches that Safadi has titled “Nightmare Series.” These surreal works capture scenes from the artist's dreams. In spite of their complexity and detail, the sketches were completed in a matter of hours, he explains, while the memory of the dream was still fresh.

One sketch shows Safadi himself sitting at a long table, his hair falling around his shoulders, a halo around his head, a glass of wine in hand. Two swathes of cloth to either side suggest the scene might be taking place on stage.

Though the composition does not mirror Leonardo da Vinci's famous “Last Supper” exactly, the masterpiece is recalled in the relationship between the subjects. Like da Vinci's Jesus, Safadi sits at the center of the table, surrounded by people who are turned toward him, yet somehow isolated.

The figures around the artist are no 12 disciples. At his left there sits a frowning woman, whose long black hair matches the black feathers of the huge raven perched on her hand, beak stretched wide as though emitting an obnoxious caw. Facing the couple across the table is a man in a collared jacket.Canada Goose Womens New The back of his head looks human, but his face is grotesquely elongated – evoking the muzzle of a wolf, or perhaps the beak of a giant toucan.

Toward the back of the scene,Canada Goose Kensington Parka other masked figures loom out of the darkness.moncler down coats One woman is a traditional sad clown. Another is a terrifying creature with vacant, bulging eyes like ping-pong balls. These figures are the artists' friends, he explains, wearing masks from the commedia dell'arte.

Safadi's pieces may not depict scenes of violence, but sadness emanates from every canvas. Though they are by no means photojournalistic representations of the Syria's civil unrest, for those inclined to decipher the symbolism they provide perhaps just as valuable an insight into the psychological horrors of a country at war.