Accessorize For Your Health

An interesting and life saving new trend hit China's fashion week in Beijing. Yes, we said it: life saving. The air quality has been dangerously poor in the beautiful and large city of Beijing. Forcing citizens to adorn their faces with dull medical masks. Designer QIAODAN Yin Peng tore away the dull lifelessness of the life saving facial pieces and designed masks for his sport wear collection. These high fashion styled masks even made a brief appearance in Paris. Chinese designer, Masha Ma, adorned models at Paris fashion week with Swarovski crystal-studded masks to go with her urban-chic collection. 

QIAODAN Yin Peng Sports Wear
Credit: That's Mags

The force to make the pollutant protection masks an accessory to talk about is not just for the high end world. A cosmetic company, Max Factor, promoted a selfie photo contest for its consumers of their Sina Weibo makeup. The contest called for consumers to pair their masks with elaborately applied eye makeup. The Jing Daily reported, "more than 33,000 Weibo users have tweeted the campaign's hashtag, showing off a range of stylish masks paired with meticulously applied eye makeup."

Helping yourself live a longer and healthier life, never looked so good. 

Qiaodan Yin Peng Sports Wear
Credit: The Fashion Spot

Masha Ma Urban-Chic Collection
Credit: AP Photo

Riding In The Caboose

As the year of 2014 charges down the tracks towards its final resting place, we see the final trends hitchhiking along. Even though the winter market has arrived and will vanish quickly; let us look at the November and December flash trends. Thanks to AW14 we are already pretty aware of what will sell at retail. So lets look specifically at the peak of retail: Holiday time. Elegance meets a dash of fun with a variety of trends like PVC and plastic, hints of pink, two tone and contrasting colors, and hues of the horse. It sounds like every valley girl's dream, but the fashion world is turning it upside-down and rightside-up to bring the class back to these styles.


PVC and Plastic:
Not so oddly enough, this trend falls under the title of luxury embellishments. Not entirely replacing other lux embellishments, but they're definitely on board. Plastics and wearable PVCs are less heavy, a bit more less expensive, and can be found in a myriad of hues and shapes. PVC will sell great on pants, coats, and headpieces. Inspiration is found from raincoats, but brought to you with style.

Hint of Pink:
These hints are not the usual splash of pastel that have been flying off the shelves since spring. This hint is hinting towards a future 2015 trend. Barbie and Legally Blonde can only come to mind, but for now they're slightly muffled. Pops of pink in hemlines, borders, pinstripes or a petite top underneath a coat layering will work brilliantly for merchandisers. Don't hold back on popping it in where you can. Soon enough, it will be smeared across your whole store.

Two Tone and Contrasting Colors:
They're back; dresses that look like two pieces and shimmer a million different ways depending on the light. Basically the 90s have hit us again. This time the two tone dresses have found a friend in contrasting colors. Dresses that appear to look like two pieces joined forces with garments such as sarees that feel like a scarf. Matching bold with subtle. A little refreshing twist to something we've seen before.

Hues of the Horse:
Neon took the backseat on a whole other train by now. Finally, we can stop squinting. With hues like brown, beige, white, and gray we can relax and enjoy the view without the need of sunglasses. Focus will revolve around the fabrics and workmanship of the garment instead of the bold coloring. A classic charm for a classic approach.

iPhone 6 Vs. Denim

The coming of fall brought more than a new style, and an overload of pumpkin. It brought us the iPhone 6. Thanks to Apple we have the best technologic accessory on the market. Yet, the accessory has its faults when paired with a particular garment.

iPhone 6 nestled in a denim jean pocket

Denim must be the sworn enemy of the iPhone 6. The magnetic stripes on the back side of the phone strip the denim's dye and take it on as a tee-shirt; so to speak. Be forewarned all you swavy iPhone users and abusers. This high tech accessory may fit in your pocket, but you'll want to hide it in your purse. 

iPhone 6 magnetic stripe turning blue

What does this mean for retail you're now asking? Well, all you shop owners who like to sell a variety of accessories should think about selling iPhone 6 cases. The only way to prevent the dyeing of this phone is to protect it with plastic. We can smell a great Black Friday deal coming on...get a iPhone 6 case half off with a purchase of denim!

A Glance Into The Future

As the stores fill up to the brim with fall and winter items, the buyers are moving on and jumping into the spring transition market with a splash. Immersing themselves with the ideas of flowers budding, colors sounding off like trumpets, and the feel of stepping away from the overdose of layering.


At Love Blind, we keep in stride with our buyers. Knowing that a buyer shouldn't stop to play in the snow. That they are thinking so far ahead, sometimes they need a reminder of what year it really is. As we design, buy, and produce clothing for the glamorous boutiques all around the world; we do stop here to put forth a tasting session. Since the spring transition hasn't hit with thunder and lighting yet, let's get the buyers excited for what will be happening in the near future.

This is the calm before the storm. The break in the clouds and the last bird chipping for most boutique owners and store buyers. Fall is in full flight. Winter is coming in strong from the back and soon will take the lead. Take a breathe and enjoy the sweet feel of those hooded cardigans with way-too-cute pockets. Snuggle up and take a tiny peek at what the transition into spring will look like. Afterall, the internet is comparable to a crystal ball.

Long sleeved, flowing, short lengthed, white (or spring colored)
dresses. Thigh high boots with laces, buckles, or strong detailing. 
Vests, short sleeved dusters, or sleeveless coats.

Plaid, plaid, plaid. Boyfriend styled, button down plaid tops. 
One strong statement piece, such as a belt. 
Midi skirts with thing split. Booties with buckling.

Matching different tones of the same color. Long sleeves,
lace, pleats mixed with basics. Pleated midis, palazzo (or any flared/wedge) pants.
Jeggings (and leggings). Closed toed booties, heels, and casual flats

It's A Tribal World

                           



Go ahead and shed that last tear for summer as we say goodbye to daisies as well as the wild, bright floral prints that have been dancing and spinning across every store. Temperatures are finally starting to drop across the United States. Which means Europe is getting such a chill! As we race to get our pumpkin coffees and tasty fall flavored treats we take a moment to analyze October's key trends. After taking a good look around the stores, can you guess the theme?

It's a cool blast of tribal-esk vibes all around us! With a slight kiss of boho, because we just can't completely part with it yet. Staple pieces to this tribal printed boho feel are wide brimmed hats, palazzo pants, and embroidered kimonos. Don't fear the mix pattern layering this month. Layering up outfits with different tribal prints is the perfect way to merchandise your mannequins. Throw on some antique appeal with blue and red stoned accessory pieces and you have a master piece. 

We can't emphasize enough how every store needs a handful of matching sets. As we move into cooler weather; the sets are consisting of heavy fabrics, knitwear, cropped sweaters, midi skirts, and trousers.

Go out, grab a pumpkin spiced venti latte and enjoy the dark feathered atmosphere!