One of my favourite trends of late 2010 and 2011 was the dapper and detached collars which then became glamorous pieces of statement neck pieces when made of silk with fabulous patterned prints or when combined with gold and jewels. I know I wouldn't be able to read these lovely edition of Vogue, being the uncultured slob that I am and having studied an Asian language over European but it would still be nice to pour my eyes over all the gorgeous photographs such as this one. The collar in the middle row on the left is my favourite with the soft-rounded edges- and the candy pink background against the crisp white collars and lemon meringue colour chosen for the title of the magazine is so girly and a bit of a surprise. That's what fashion is about though isn't it? Delivering the new, daring and unexpected in terms of styling and structure to awe-inspire the fashion hungry masses.
Whether they were detached from a garment and worn more as a necklace or part of a blouse itself- collars for the past few seasons have been big in terms of their detail and structure. I've come across a lot of very quirky blouses on Tumblr a lot lately, I;m not sure whether they're from the same brand or not but there's a similar style of printed blouses of pineapples and birds and I really want to know where they come from! You may be able to create this sort of thing yourself if able to find an appropriate and starchy material as well as being able to follow patterns for dress making and shirts. It may be a fun project to try over Summer- I'm also thinking of taking a TAFE course as well as university next year, TAFE would be maybe a language I haven't studied previously or something fun like photography or fashion something. It would save some money if I was able to make my own blouses like this freely and independently in my own styles and patterns.
As well as the structure of the collars and design of material there are added extras that can be thrown in as well such as collar tips, studded spikes on the corner ends or the fantastic classical styled wings shown above. The wing designs go really well with plastic platform sandals from Vivienne Westwood or the Adidas X Jeremy Scott collaboration which both features wings on the sides of their shoes. After reading a fair bit of poetry by John Keates with classical allusions I like the reminiscent and romantic feel of wings in clothing. 
The design and style of the birds is so like the pineapple shirt shown above but I have an inkling that the depth of the collar and the buttons are different. I can't resist hoarding photographs like this on my hard drive since they're just so modern and really represent the current trends in fashion. Every time I walk past the Miu Miu boutique I can't help but slow down and look at what I can of their gorgeous collared mannequins- but recently they changed they're displays and I think they may have gotten ride of the last of their collared collections. I wish I had disposable income to spend on great clothing with collars and sequins as well as having somewhere to wear them to.
After exploring the Opening Ceremony website for inspiration on brands and pieces to write about I finally discovered the identity of the brand who made this lovely skull necklace with dangling crosses- the culprit is Pamela Love x Opening Ceremony x Lane Crawford. There's so much great collaboration and style oozing from the website and the ranges and pieces are constantly changing; I only wish there was an archive section so I can get a look at all the glorious clothes and jewellery I've missed out on buying and styling like the photograph above. The pink collar shirt is cute with the sassy cross necklaces and cute Aztec styled skulls.
