#Fashion | Valentina Expressions

What People Do In The Streets

18 Oct 2025 5 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #CollierNecklaces, #Colliers, #Fashion, #OneOfAKindFashion, #ValentinaCrochetFashion, #ValentinaOnEtsy, lifestyle, Style

Going out the door is a question mark every day. One never knows what will happen or what one will witness. There are pleasant or unpleasant encounters. One can discover new restaurants or stores. Occasionally, one gets compliments from excited strangers. Admiring street performers is another possibility. One can walk at leisure, enjoying spending time relaxing. Others rush to get somewhere without noticing their surroundings and lose some of the street excitement.

A few years ago, I created an extravagant and original piece of knitwear. It was unlike anything I had made before. I needed to place it in my Etsy store. Still, I wanted to collect some reactions from people in the street first. This was a marketing strategy without paying for astronomical strategists’ fees.

I wore it over a black top and went out strolling in one of the upscale towns in my area. I strolled up and down the street. I looked at store windows. I sat at a cafe to pause and show off the piece I was wearing. Then I continued strolling up and down. I received a few curious comments, but nothing told me I was wearing a hit piece. I was ready to leave, almost disappointed that people didn’t react as I expected.

One woman changed my disappointment in a heartbeat. She saw me from across the street. She ran to me to ask where I bought the piece I was wearing. I told her I made it, and that was the only piece I had. Given the knowledge she couldn’t buy it anywhere else, she insisted on selling it to her directly from my body. I acted surprised, but didn’t let her insist too much. We went to sit in a cafe, made the transition and became friends. I never expected to sell it in that manner. I was only looking for strangers’ reactions as a thermometer for my next move.

From that moment on, I created one-of-a-kind pieces, which I called colliers. A collier is a term in jewellery making. It indicates a large necklace piece which covers a major part of the neckline and chest. My pieces are made with yarn and beads, and they fit the description of colliers. Their role is to embellish the neckline and keep the neck warm.
(open the picture to view it larger)

Streets are a theatre for humans to express and act out their lives. Anything can happen, just like in a scene on stage. Ciao,
Valentina
https://www.etsy.com/shop/ValentinaExpressions

Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion consultant, color analyst/therapist, author of 6 published books, a storyteller, and a longtime blogger. She was recently certified as a “Color Analyst.” Her books offer non-fictional, practical ideas. These ideas can be applied in the home, fashion, cooking, and travel.
Get a copy of her books here: Amazon and Barnes&Noble

The Beauty of Brown: Elegance in Fashion Choices

21 Mar 2025 4 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #2025Colors, #BrownColors, #BrownColorVibes, #Fashion, #OrangeFashion, Style

One of the 2025 colours is mocha mousse, a lighter tone of brown, almost like a cappuccino tone without milk, if you can imagine it. Brown is not a well-liked colour or at least youngsters consider it a colour for mature people. For most people, brown is one of the reliable colours, stable, earthy, traditional, dependent, wholesome and practical. Others might find a negative connotation: dull colour, cheap, unrefined and too predictable.

It is a common belief that combining tone-on-tone with any colour is an exquisite way to coordinate various pieces of clothing for an outfit and brown is no different. It can be paired with beige, white, khaki, camel, lighter and darker browns. I certainly agree with that, as tone-on-tone is easy on the eyes. However, I think that for today’s elegance playing with contrasting elements is more interesting and exciting.

This morning I was feeling the orange vibes, I could have worn the fluffy brown jacket with silver or emerald, but I decided to go with orange, as nature does. Tree trunks are usually brown and might have orange flowers, such as the African Tulip Tree, or the Canna Lily. It was a bright sunny day, it’s Springtime here, I felt to reduce the effect of a winter brown by accentuating the orange and emulating the sun’s warmth.

We don’t always need to look formal, at times we want to be casual-smart with accessories that look almost like they were matched by chance. That’s when we project an aura of freshness and confidence.

Following trends is for those who want to fit in. True style is knowing how to say no to what doesn’t represent us and it is always very personal. Ciao,
Valentina
https://valentinadesigns.com/services/#fashion-services

Copyright © 2025 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion consultant, color therapist, author of 6 published books, a storyteller, and a longtime blogger. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking and travel.
Get a copy of her books here: Amazon and Barnes&Noble

Layering Jewelry: Mastering the Art for Bold Statements

23 Jan 2025 9 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #Fashion, #FashionInTime, #FashionStatement, #JewelryTrends, #LayeringJewelry, jewellery, Style

Fashion is an up and down of ideas, the old creations become new and the new are archived in a flash until the next revival. Life is a merry-go-round, some go up and some go down. The power of the cosmos inexorably overwhelms us whether we like it or not. Today someone is in command of politics and tomorrow he/she is a perfect stranger. Are we truly influenced by events we create, or are our tastes, thoughts, and actions determined by external forces? What we thought was an established and strengthened way of life, suddenly changed our lives, as it happened with the advent of Mary Quant’s mini skirt, just to name a huge phenomenon that has affected entire generations. Suddenly, long skirts were soon forgotten and showing legs was no longer objectionable.
Fashion is a flag that flies where the wind blows.

Black and white layering.

Orange and green layering.

For a few decades, I have studied women’s jewellery trends. I could immediately tell which era a woman belonged to, by looking at what was hanging from her neck.
One strand of thin jewellery has been a prerogative of millennials, generation Y and Z women. Large and chunky jewellery identified Boomers and mature women.
The Boomer women layered necklaces, and bracelets in quantity and wore rings almost on each finger. They were part of the ’68 movement of the last century, rejecting every constriction, belief and conformism of the previous generation. Boomers connected with nature and boho style was the rage. They favoured large, chunky, statement jewellery, freely mixed stones, metals and other materials.

The new political climate is about bold actions, bold thinking and strong statements. Fashion in 2025, influenced by “the new bold” dictates heavy jewellery layers again, helping you not to be afraid of being seen.

Pearls and chains layering.

Light blue, silver and gold layering.

Layering is an art if done right. For an interesting look, pair the same colours; it’s better to use styles and shapes that complement each other; choose metals that go together with everything and add light to your face. Layering must appear as one creation of a large piece, not put together haphazardly just because you might have a lot of jewellery.

I love to be a maximalist. My personality is too strong to carry delicate, thin pieces of jewellery. I have been a maximalist since my younger days. My wind always blows where I want it to blow, meaning I am not easily moldable.

Ultimately, you do what is right for you and your body shape. Show your personality with your fashion choices, be confident, memorable, and unique. Keep being you. Ciao.
Valentina
https://valentinadesigns.com/services/#fashion-services

Copyright © 2025 Valentina Cirasola, All Rights Reserved

100 Years of Fashion

01 Jul 2024 4 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #100YearsOfFashion, #Fashion, #FashionCollection, #Style, Art, culture, museum, museums

Ah, Summer, the only season that allows us to be lazy! I used to travel in the warm months from June to September, as most people do, but the heat has become unbearable to me and now I take short local trips during weekends. I take the longest trips during the off months when it’s cooler, there are not many tourists around and prices are down.
Some of my Summer entertainments now are street fairs and visits to Museums.
As a member of many museums, I have access to all exhibitions before opening to the public and it is quite a treat. Lately, I have seen the “100 Years of Fashion” exhibit.

The collections belongs to the most known European and some American designers who produced astounding creations in the last 100 years.
However, I know the museum didn’t get the best of the best of this period, thus we must be content with their offering. The exhibition could have been better, so much more notable fashion was produced in this time period and was not on display.

I noticed that the visitors showed a little more attention to their own appearance, they dressed either in a funky, extravagant way or in a better than the usual casual, rundown way. I guess visiting a fashion exhibition encouraged them to play the part and leave the rag clothes at home. As an observer of social behaviors as I am, it was interesting to see the small effort people made not to be in their usual pajamas and flip-flops, as it is customary in these parts. Enjoy the short reel I made on my Istagram account.

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A post shared by Valentina Designs (@valentina_designs)

As the last treat, the museum offered the opportunity to be photographed in one of the attires in the collection and this is what I was wearing.

“Don’t be into trends. Don’t make fashion own you, but decide what you are.” – Gianni Versace
Ciao.
Valentina

Valentina Cirasola is an interior-fashion consultant, author of 6 published books, a storyteller, and a blogger of many years. Her books are non-fictional practical ideas to apply in the home, fashion, cooking and travel.
Get a copy of her books here: Amazon and Barnes&Noble

Fashion In Paradise

07 Jun 2024 2 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #Fashion, #PietroParadisoFashion, #SustainableFashion, #UpcycledFashion, Fashionand Spirituality

Fashion In Paradise was the title of a TV show I produced last week at KMVT 15. I played on words, my guest’s name was Paradiso, an Italian Fashion Designer. His way of working with women and making them beautiful really struck me. He is not a mass producer of fast fashion and he does not employ underage slaves. He works passionately, and his collections are one-of-a-kind spiritual creations.

The fabrics Pietro Paradiso uses are eco-sustainable, they come from different industries; he upcycles, reshapes and re-uses them for a new look. During the show, we enjoyed seeing and learning about a corset made from the leaves of a ficus plant that he shaped for a woman’s body and then painted it in gold.

Another top was made of jute recycled from old-fashioned mattresses when mattresses were filled with the wool of sheep.

“Soul Shirt” is a project he created for women afflicted with breast cancer. He doesn’t let women choose any new dress from his collection and goodbye. If a client suffers from cancer, he gives her seven coloured pencils that relate to each chakra and a mandala to colour. Based on the colours the client chooses, he knows which chakra to balance or heal and knows which colours are the best for that woman to wear, thus a dress or an outfit is created just for her to support her needs. At the end of a project, the client gets the soul t-shirt printed with her colours as a reminder she is a fighter and loved by many.
With the process of colouring a mandala, the client frees herself of all the pains, anger and frustrations deriving from cancer. How many well-known designers do that before selling a dress?

If you like to watch the show, here it is.

Kudos to Maestro Pietro Paradiso for being one-of-a-kind in his trade, for not following all the other designers and for not putting the profits in front of human feelings. He gives beauty back to women suffering from cancer “because living an illness does not mean identifying with it” says maestro Pietro Paradiso. It was refreshing to hear his words; now I am honoured to be in his circle. Ciao,
Valentina

The Language of Handbags

04 May 2024 14 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #Fashion, #HandbagDosandDon't, #HandbagsLanguage, #HandbagsTalk, #QueenLanguageOfHandbags, accessories, bags, Fashion, handbags, Style

Every woman carries handbags of all shapes colours and sizes, we collect them in the latest style or proudly wear vintage pieces, but does every woman know the language of handbags or their functions?

Every few hours of the passing day requires a certain size of a handbag. The large bags are appropriate for mornings, inside of which anything can be added for every need of the day; the medium sizes are for the afternoons and the smaller bags are for the evenings’ affairs. An evening bag might be added inside the daytime bag for convenience ready to come out at night together with an elegant pair of shoes.

In today’s time is no longer necessary to match the colour of shoes to the colour of handbags, unless one has an invitation to dine with the nobles and the upper class. Today we feel free to combine colours and styles interchangeably with shoes and bags and make creative combinations with the two items. Colours and texture determine the time of the day and the seasonality of a handbag. A yellow handbag is great for daytime but not for an evening event. A black leather handbag is perfect for winter but not for a hot summer.

Like garments, a handbag can embellish or break the body and the whole look. If you are a petite woman avoid carrying large bags, but if you are a tall woman don’t carry the smaller bags, it’s all about the body’s proportion and harmony. The shape of the body also comes into play when choosing a handbag. If your body is sinuous and curvy, choose square and rectangular handbags and vice-versa.

Does the hardware of a handbag matter in the making of your body’s architecture? Does it go with the colouring of the outfit and jewellery? Let’s look at a building designed in classic architecture. We will see a line of rounded top windows on one row and the triangle top windows on another row, then we see repetitions in the same order as musical notes in a refrain. If the hardware of the main door is brass, all the hardware of doors and windows will be brass. There will be people who argue that rules are made to be broken, I agree with that for certain things. However, if harmony in our look is what we want to achieve, those details that make us feel good and make others feel at ease when they look at us, following some basic rules is the way to do it, everything else is fantasy.

Portable bag hooks are a good solution to keep the handbag off the floor when in public places, a pochette or a clutch can always be placed on the lap or in a little space between the butt and the back of the chair.

I found it fascinating how the longest-reigned Queen Elizabeth II spoke with signals using her handbags.
I saw a documentary about her interesting language. The Queen shifting her handbag from hand to hand meant she was finished with the discussion and her aide’s job was to rescue her out of that situation promptly. If Her Majesty placed the bag on the floor, it meant she was not enjoying the chat with the interlocutor, the lady in waiting had to intervene. A handbag placed on the dinner table was a sign that the dinner had to finish in the next five minutes. How an elegant way to say to people “I have had enough of you”!

The handbags featured here are all custom-made by me and sold in my Etsy shop. https://www.etsy.com/shop/ValentinaExpressions

They are made of various materials: macrame’, metallic fabric cloth, metallic string, worsted cotton and much more. The language they speak is the language you attribute to them. Ciao,

Valentina

What Did She Teach Us?

04 Mar 2024 3 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #Fashion, #FashionExpressions, #IrisApfel, #IrisApfelFashion, #RedAVoyageIntoColorSecondEdition, dress, Fashion, fashion-design, lifestyle, Style

Fashion’s grande dame, Iris Apfel, known for her sheer brilliance in dressing up, left this world (Aug.29, 1921 – March 1, 2024). She has been called “The Queen of Queens”, The Maverick of Style”, “The Fashion Bird” you name it and all meant she was unapologetic about her fashion expressions. She was a purist of original style and didn’t care to follow trends as she trusted her own taste in clothes.
She combined new with vintage, modern with eclectic style and flea market finds, she had no limit to her fantasy. The most extravagant expression of her dressing up was the jewellery. She knew how to combine bold pieces of jewellery, mixing textures and metals in such a way to always look elegant, full of fantasy, witty and never vulgar.
She was “The Interior Designer” of the White House for eight presidencies, then became a fashion designer and a senior model in her 80s. She has inspired women around the world who love to dress up every day and dare to be different.

In her words:
“When the fun goes out of dressing you might as well be dead.”
“More is more and less is a bore.”
“You don’t have to be beautiful to be stylish.”
“Dress the way you want to feel and not as you feel.”

I searched for a photo of her free of copyright without any results. We all know who she is, I don’t need to take someone else’s photo.

In her honour and the red flamboyant clothes she wore, I came up with this red outfit with a long fringe in the front to elongate my figure. I found it years ago in a fabric store, sold by the yard, I don’t know what it was used for, I bought it to wear on the waist to embellish skirts and pants. This time, I will wear it on the torso and I will go to an outing with friends at a Chinese tea house. I thought the Chinese-style ankle boots made of silk embroidered fabric are appropriate.

Never like today has been so important to get out of the flat massification and become thinking individuals. Thanks for your undiluted love of fashion, Iris, your grace and the inspiration will accompany me. Ciao,
Valentina

Looking For Fashion Vibes

03 Mar 2023 6 Comments

by Valentina in Friday Fashion Tags: #CasualFashion, #Fashion, #PastelColors, #SpringFashion, #ValentinaCirasolaAuthor, #ValentinaCirasolaFashionDesigner

Roaming around one of the most fashionable zone in my area left me disappointed. After all the heavy rain, I was looking forward to seeing new Spring fashion and vibrant colors to give me fresh vibes, but I returned home empty hands. Shop windows showed no creativity in visual display and didn’t encourage me to go in and browse. The colors of the clothes hanging lifeless on mannequins were so drab, the shapes resembled pajamas or house robes and the style….what can I say….I would bury it at the bottom of the sea.

While I was walking in this fashionable area, I envisioned Via Condotti in Rome, or Via Montenapoleone in Milan. There, the streets of fashion are stylish, colorful and people dress as they are ready for a photo shoot in a fashion magazine. They stroll with poise and coquetry with the intent to be seen and be admired. A long trail of perfume follows them, they wear original jewelry and the well thought out outfits are the elements that makes each one of them unique. Italy is always Italy and will always be the top for fashion, perhaps I expect too much from other countries.

The fact remains that I have to make triple summer salt to find what I like. Boutiques, family-owned stores and various other stores, not just fashion stores are closing steadily since the economic recession in 2008, forcing everyone to buy online items poorly made in China that often don’t fit or are defected and have to be returned. In fact, the streets of every satellite town around the main cities in America are lined with nail salon, hair dressers, restaurants and bistros, nothing else. Perhaps, this is the government design…..

My day of window shopping or window licking as the French say it, was unfruitful. Looking for fashion vibes didn’t happen, I better continue making things the way I like. I returned home without any fashion items, but with a few pictures of the environment, flowers, food, architecture and curiosity. Give me your thoughts, please. Is it important to you get dressed everyday as it is for me or a simple sweatsuit will do? Ciao,

Valentina
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