Stylish Diva Studio

There is no doubt that Marc Jacobs is one of the most talented designer, I loved the crazy ideas that he brought to Louis Vuitton, even though sometimes I may not necessarily agreed with his design for the brand, I should say the handbags in particular.  Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved his design for the Louis clothing, he definitely created trends for every season.  I am not going to concentrate on his premium lines today, not Louis, not his own Marc Jacobs line, nor Marc by Marc Jacobs, but his Jacobs by Marc Jacobs line.  I’m not sure if you are familiar with the Jacobs line here in North America, I never really see it available, at least not in Canada, but it’s actually very popular in Japan.  If you ask me what’s in this line, to be honest, not much, it’s all about the totes, and may be a few wallets.

"MY OTHER BAG IS LOUIS VUITTON" mini tote, USD$45

I subscribed newsletters from a couple of Japanese online stores at Rakutan so that I can keep updated with the latest Japanese fashion and trends, and I realize that Japan is very fast in terms of screaming out their they unique trends and styles.  Anyways, so I’ve the newsletter e-mail from a store, I opened it and I can’t stop laughing about these canvas bags…the letters written on the bag as “MY OTHER BAG IS LOUIS VUITTON.”  I thought this must be some kind of joke from the Japanese, I clicked into the website and see if there are other selections, I saw the same bag with Hermès, Chanel, and Gucci…and then I found out, the bags were actually designed by a New Yorker – Jessica Kagan Cushman (JKC).

Pump Highlighter Pens, £0.90

While waiting for the Muji-like Margaret Howell Fall/Winter 2009 collection, let’s take a look at the Muji lifestyle.  I’m not sure if a lot of people know about Muji in North America, but it really is a big impact in Asia when they first launched the store in Japan in 1980.  Soon after Muji launched their first store in Hong Kong in the 90’s (I was still at school), I started seeing my classmates using Muji highlighters and they had becoming extremely popular amongst  the students, and this is where I began to use  Muji products.

Margaret Howell

ZOZOTOWN in Japan has been doing very well in their distribution network, they’ve always offer good stuff from the international designers other than just the local Japanese designers.  I always keep my eye on the ZOZOTOWN website for these updated trends and new brands that are entering the company.  British designer Margaret Howell will launch her line at ZOZOTOWN on Monday, 22nd June.

From a make-up artist point of view, the packaging of product doesn’t help to make someone prettier, good products with good application do.  However, from a consumer’s perspective, packaging makes a huge difference, they actually got us quite addicted in collecting them.  Simply looking at Anna Sui and Paul & Joe cosmetics, both of these lines are very successful in packaging their products, their make-up accessories have also becoming very popular in the past couple of years.  Notice that these cosmetic lines were inspired by their own clothing line, so as Jill Stuart Beauty.  Jill started the beauty line licensing with Kosé Corporation, a Japanese cosmetic company and launched in 2005.  Since then it has becoming extremely popular in Japan because of its “princess crowned jewel packaging”, and promoting as “innocent, sexy, elegant, fun and savvy.”