designer crush: Isabel Marant #fashion

Brands are like a haircut: you can see lots of people fancying a brand and you want to try it on as well, only to see that it doesn't fit you.

My vote goes for Acne: I like or love it on other people because of their clean-cut directional image, but somehow it doesn't click with me. Somewhat strange, because I adore lots of clothes from COS and they have a similar aesthetic to Acne's

And sometimes the opposite, you really feel connected to a designer or brand. You either find your designer or it somewhat finds you.

the designer Herself: Isabel Marant

With Isabel Marant it started slow and cheap: I bought my first from her cheaper sibling of the Étoile line, and even from a previous collection from the Outnet. It is a brightly shouldered, almost fuchia jacket that is not too trend-fixed.

My second Isabel Marant was still from their ligne Étoile, only from the recent AW 2011 collection. Still relatively cheap, a sportish sweater that retails under €200.

Now it was time to venture on my real Marant from their grown-up line. Their boots, sweaters, jeans were luring me to buy them, even though I had to think of at least chilling out a €300 for them.

Until I saw her: Kelan!

Kelan is the jeans the girl on with the padded gilet, jeans blouse and fringed boots is wearing.

I was in dire need of a black jeans, after I realised my Primark version of €11 didn't fit the bill on the fashion front. Basically, Primark can make brilliant stuff that looks 10 times more expensive than they actually are, but this jeans wasn't a part of that selection: it looked like 11 euro jeans!

The fact that Kelan was high waisted instead of the contemporary bum slicing jeans these days that make curvy bums look like they have a dream of becoming construction worker one day, made my heart beat a bit faster.
 
Bliss, jeans that cradle the waist when winter arrives-> more warmth!

Remembering that net-a-porter gave me a discount of 50€ on every little purchase I wanted to make, made it more attractive. Soo, €185 minus €50 would be €135, which would be a reasonable price for a staple I am bound to like for some years to come.

My only doubt was that Isabel is a french designer and the largest size was 3 (?) that was described as L.

My fashion friends know that one L doesn't compare with another L. How L(arge) would it be? Would it be a French idea of Large (which is still tiny for a stout Dutch specimen such as I am) or an American image of large (which would be too large for a stout, but normal weight specimen such like I am).

To my amazement, 3 fits me perfectly on my first fitting. Actually, I can see myself going for a 2 when I really want to have a tighter effect, because it is a roomy kind of fit and not the skinny jeans that net-a-porter described her for.

Here is the label first...real pictures later...

My very first grown up Isabel Marant from the AW 2011 collection!

Incredibly black, sturdy like the catwalk picture suggest (the kind of cowgirl jeans) and actually not even too high-waisted, just confortably on the waist and not even a corset-like reach to the boobs.