Read Between the Lines

Two weeks ago, I posted about the growing strength of orange as a focus color in both fashion and home. I continue to see hues of orange emerging in both worlds, from plates, to chairs and runway gowns. This week orange appears as a part of intricate geometric designs in home decor.

The focus of the latest issue of Traditional Home magazine is on intricate Eames era style patterns, used from rugs, to sofas, to scarves. However, rather than being crafted in the pop colors of the 50's, the patterns are in alternative color hues that are more reminiscent of the 70's and 80's. These designs paired with classic pieces, create a home and fashion design that is both elegant and modern. I believe that we will continue to see these types of patterns as the year continues.

For seasonal, we have used geometric patterns in our packaging in the past. The mix of fine line detail with alternate hues of red and green create a pop modern holiday look.

They Call it Puppy Love

People debuted the long awaited photos of J. Lo's twins, Max and Emme, this week complete with photos of their extravagant nursery. Decorated in soft beige, the babies' room comes complete with two ornate cribs and a crystal chandelier. As for some of their welcome presents, the two tykes received custom fur wraps, Bonpoint outfits, silver rattles and matching baby books. In order to properly store the twin's new baby clothes, J. Lo herself purchased 500 each of the hangers below personalized with each child's name from the Great American Hanger Co.

Apparently if something can be personalized in Hollywood, it most certainly will be.

For those who only have four-legged babies to spoil, the market has plenty to offer as well. Gwlittle.com specializes in fashions and gifts for small dogs including celebrity inspired chew toys such as Angelia Grrrowlie and Brad Pittbull.

For a special keepsake to show your furry friend how much they mean to you, we offer genuine pewter angel dog keepsake ornaments in 10 different breeds with Swarovski crystal accents.

Genuine pewter beagle available at GloriaDuchin.com

Bathed in an Orange Glow

The latest issue of Vogue magazine covers the wedding of fashion editor/socialite, Lauren Davis, to Andres Santo Domingo in Cartagena this past January. The entire day was a lavish affair complete with a $200,000 wedding gown designed by Olivier Theyskens and over 500 guests. The nine bridesmaids wore flowing gowns in a series of beautiful pastels: peach, orange, lavender, silver, yellow and pale blue to complement the church.

I think the photo below of them in their gowns is a wonderful showcase of colors to come. I have previously noted that lavender is going to be a strong color in the upcoming seasons, but orange and peach are following close behind as even stronger accent hues.

The New York Times Style Magazine also came out this week and featured fabrics, dishes and furniture in a similar color palette of brighter shades. You can see from the photo below that orange is a lead accent color in the swatches, paired with fuscia, red and yellow.

Back to Lauren's wedding, the gift she chose to give to her bridesmaids were gold necklaces engraved with each maid's initials. The popularity of personalized clothing, jewelry and giftware seems to be growing, especially in Hollywood, baby and bridal markets.

On our own website, we have created a special store for customization that features our top selling engravable designs as well as our new baby and wedding collections.

Dressed to Kill

The Going Green movement persists and along with it, fashion evolves with a newfound respect for nature. The New York Times Sunday Style guide this weekend featured a look at fashion from the streets of Paris. Surrounding a photo of a spindly-legged spider sculpture by Louise Bourgeois, is a collage of women wearing form-fitting black jeans, leggings and opaque tights. The slenderizing effect of black legwear makes legs look as a deadly as a Black Widow's.

Leopard and Zebra prints are also back on the prowl again. Leighton Meester was captured in a D&G Leopard print mini-dress, while Lauren Conrad was caught in LC's Foley + Corrina Zebra dress.

In my own home, I had a leopard themed tree decorated in my living room this past season. The tree was decorated with safari themed ornaments and leopard print ribbons with coordinating fur accented packages below. We're also working on some new Wild Designs, so be sure to hunt for them next Christmas!

Mamma Mia!

The stork continues to drop A-list babies throughout the Hollywood Hills. J. Lo’s twins arrived just last week, and first images of Nicole Ritchie’s bundle of joy appeared on magazine covers nationwide. Not to mention the slew of expecting stars, Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett and Jessica Alba, who all displayed their growing midsections on the red carpet at the Oscar’s. The paparazzi even caught signs of Brad and Angie’s rumored twins at the Film Independent Spirit Awards. If baby fever is contagious, then it is indeed spreading. CNN reported earlier this year that the country is experiencing a baby boomlet nationwide, which means the market is sure to be flooded with fashionable onesies and trendy baby gear.

CNN - Baby Boomlet

As a result, our collection of engravable baby gifts have become more desirable than ever prompting us to launch a custom store on our website. You can now purchase all of our most popular silvertone and pewter baby ornaments and keepsakes with custom engraving right from our site. We only have the top baby gifts posted at this time, but as sure as the stork will continue to visit, we will be adding more and more throughout the year.

Silvertone Engravable Baby Bootie by Gloria Duchin.

As an addendum to the previous Oscar posting, I read an interesting note in the Financial Times this week. Apparently as the price of gold continues to rise, the honor of earning an Oscar becomes more valuable as well. This year Oscar cost $500 apiece up from $400 last year. We just hope that Emma Thompson was joking when she said she keeps hers “in the loo.”

Seeing Red

We find our creative inspiration from the world around us whether it is nature, art or architecture, but nothing seems to impact pop culture color trends more than from our celebrities walking the red carpet. With the writer's strike complicating many of this year's award shows, there was a shortage of celebrity couture. We were all expecting the stars to shine on the red carpet for the 80th Annual Academy Awards Show, but it seems that many of the celebs played it safe and left us seeing red.

Images courtesy of wireimage.com

The pairing of red and black is nothing new. We had predicted the color combination as a strong player for the holiday season last year. The celebrity showing at the Oscar's just confirms that red, black and white will continue to play a strong role in the upcoming season as well.

Red, Black and Silver trees by Gloria Duchin, Inc.

Metallics also glittered the red carpet at the Oscar's with Jessica Alba bringing gold back as a metallic hue and Renee Zellweger sparkling in a silver gown. We feel that both metallics will continue to shine into the 2008 holiday season, but since the price of gold continues to rise, it will be thought of as the more exclusive and upscale metal accent this year.

Images courtesy of wireimage.com

Jessica's gold earrings were paired with a deep plum, plumage topped dress. Penelope Cruz was also wearing a feather lined gown this year. We think that feathers will be appearing more frequently throughout the year as both fashion and home decor accents.

Design Directions

Last week in our local paper, the Providence Journal, the home section devoted an entire feature to upcoming design and color trends. One article in particular, taken from the Wall Street Journal News Service, covered the latest from Paris, featured at the Maison et Objet homefurnishings trade show.

What's New In Paris? Honesty, fantasy and Everything Shiny

The highlights of the Maison et Objet show reiterate much of what we have found in our trend research. The prevallence of metallics in fashion, accessories and home accents have expanded into upholstery and complete furninshings. Metallics are also warming with copper and brass taking the place of silver and stainless steel in the home.

Some other growing color combinations include purples and lavenders, especially paired with gray. A medium blue with a touch of iris is toted as Pantone's color of the year. Brighter yellows and whites were also featured at the show, as well as a pairing of fuscia and lime green which we have been using as a color combination for our packaging since last year.