(Accessible) high fashion #1- Chanel

It is a beautiful summer afternoon by a deserted beach, and an impossibly lovely girl reclines nonchalantly on a threadbaren lounge chair. Her blue eyes, enhanced by lashings of mascara and false eyelashes, glitter with a ferocity to outdo the backdrop of turqoise sea waters behind her; and her legs; a deep golden tan, are endless in a pair of gold-fringed high waisted shorts. Her toned but miraculously curvaceous midriff is exposed in a gold seashell top, and her feet are encased in towering stilettos. She pouts seductively at the camera - the ideal woman, an All-American girl, embodying the American Dream - as luxurious and expensive as cream, wholesome, inspirational and yet, paradoxically, totally and utterly unattainable. For this is where the fantasy ends; for most of us do not possess 24-inch waists at a 5'10 frame. Most of us would not be able to don a 500-dollar pair of booty shorts while looking as though we were without a care for the world (I'd personally be more worried about the baliffs showing up to arrest me for credit card fraud, or worse still, my cellulite showing). And most importantly, most of us (or the more sensible of us anyway) would not dream of wearing sky-high Jimmy Choos while trudging through sand. For that is the reality of it - much of high fashion is, try as they might, unrealistic, unaffordable, and unflattering on the common folk. More often that not, what appears to be devastatingly gorgeous on a runway model would look flat-out ludicrous in real life.

The key to embodying high fashion in your day-to-day life can be split into two elements: the first is by practising subtlety, and the second is by doing so in moderation. For example, underwater mermaid-inspired fashion is a huge trend for Spring/Summer 2012, with the Chanel show being the place-to-be at Paris fashion week. The stage was transformed into a landscape of impossible chicness, with oversized corals and stones as well as clamshells opening to reveal brooding models. It was a dazzling array of whiteness, featuring models in all-white assembles, some looking iridescent and ethereal in long flowing garments, and the others looking quintessentially Chanel-chic in structured pieces, with tell-tale details such as shirring and ruffles to pay homage to the underwater theme. Case in point:

                                                            
                                                          (image courtesy of fashiontelegraph.co.uk)

While the model no doubt cuts a striking figure, the combination of the booty shorts and midriff exposing top would attract the wrong kind of attention on the street. To remedy this, swap the shorts for a pair of crisp white trousers (stay within the white colour palette as the outfit would otherwise be made too complicated by the gauzy sheer silver jacket). It may seem like a minimal change, but you'd be surprised at what a difference this would make. Play up the underwater theme by letting the jacket and adorable pastel clamshell clutch be the focal points of your outfit (as Karl Lagerfeld intended). Instead of the harsh updo that the model sports, let your hair tumble around your shoulders in loose waves for a subtle mermaid-reference, and apply a dash of coral pink lipstick to feminize the outfit, making it a more conventional mermaid-in-lagoon look rather than the futuristic mermaid-in-spacecraft of Lagerfeld's creation. You may choose to don a pair of gold stilettos or even flats for a vintage Chanel vibe à la Audrey Hepburn, but to add a playful twist to the outfit, don a pair of crisp white tennis shoes. While the latter fashion tip might make you more of a high-street Guess girl than high-fashion Chanel, it is one of the many ways to incorporate high fashion trends and items into real life without looking like a walking fashion accident. It is a look that many self-respecting fashionistas have perfected, with icons such as Kate Middleton and Oliviaà laPalermo leading the wolf pack. Who was it that said high fashion couldn't be wearable?