Category: Style adviser

Queens Day on the 30^th of April has always been a special day in the Netherlands. This year, however, it was not your average Queens Day, but also the abdication of the beloved former Queen Beatrix. Her son King Willem-Alexander and his wife Maxima are taking over the reign and they did so in true royal style.

It all started early in the morning when the now Princes Beatrix and now King Willem-Alexander signed the official documents to pass on the crown. Alongside the new King was, of course, the new Queen, Maxima. Dying to see what dresses Maxima would wear, Little Soho surely wasn’t disappointed. Not by a long shot.

First Maxima appeared at the abdication ceremony wearing a champagne coloured outfit designed by Belgium fashion house Natan. A special detail is that the fabric used in the dress was a gift from Princess Beatrix to her daughter in law. After the long-awaited balcony scene – where we saw a mother proudly presenting her son as the new King and a father supporting his daughter as the now crown princess – it was time for a change of clothes.

And with a new look also came a new location. ‘De Nieuwe Kerk’,was the perfect setting for Willem-Alexander and Maxima to present themselves as the new King and Queen. The first Dutch royals to walk in, were Amalia, Alexia and Ariane accompanied by their grandmother; Princess Beatrix. Their adorable royal blue dresses were a great pre-show for the real show stopper, Queen Maxima. In a stunning dress by Jan Taminiau she looked just how a queen should look like. As a finishing touch, the matching cape added some regal flair to the dress. And let’s not forget about the jewelry. She wore the Mellerio sapphire tiara that was created by Parisian jeweler Mellerio, with 655 South African diamonds set in platinum and thirty-three Kashmir sapphires that are nestled at the bottom of the tiara. Extra sparkle came in the form of a giant oversized sapphire that belonged to Queen Anna of the Netherlands. The tiara was a present to Queen Emma from her beloved King Willem III. Maxima surely set the tone for the rest of her career as Queen.

And just when you think you’ve seen it all, Maxima makes her final appearance at the ‘Koningsvaart’ in a beautifully deep red lace and nude gown, also by designer Jan Taminiau. This last piece truly was the cherry on top of a royal cake and literally showed the world that a new Queen has risen.

Maxima, we at Little Soho salute you!

Designer Brain Atwood has the ability to give a sweet and innocent shoe just a little bit of an edge. Surprisingly so, the designer is launching a shoe line especially for those sweet and innocent brides. And that means you can say ‘bye bye’ to safe wedding shoes, and ‘hello’ to the new and improved bridal footwear by Brian Atwood.

The great thing about this mouthwatering shoe collection is that you can customize your favourite pair to your heart’s desire. The line will consist of 13 pairs of shoes and one beautiful Swarovski encrusted clutch. We don’t the inside details on all 13 pairs, but the following two are very much promising…

Something blue

Looking for something blue on your wedding day? How about these amazing hydrangea inspired shoes. Hell, even if you’re not getting married these shoes would be amazing.  The shoes have stunning flower corsages around the ankle that would look amazing with any wedding dress. The sky high heels are encrusted with blue stones and look breathtaking. They are available in this beautiful blue version and there is also a white version that’s just as stunning but with a little less wow-effect.

Go for sparkle

Sometimes a girl can use a little extra spark, especially on her wedding day. The somewhat wider heel of this pair, ensures a little more comfort while walking down the aisle. The colour of the shoe is a beautiful pink/nude shade that goes perfectly with the amazing sparkly heel. It even has a peep-toe to show off your beautiful pedicure. As finishing ‘Atwood’ touch, it has a special ankle strap.

Not hearing wedding bells anytime soon? No worries, ‘cause Little Soho believes these Brian Atwoord shoes can just as easily be worn on normal night out as well!

Remember those annoying days when you would hear a song, have it get stuck in your head, but just couldn’t remember its name? The brilliant app Shazam has put an end to that agony and gave us a new verb in the process. Whenever you hear a great song, just record or Shazam a fragment and like magic, all the info you need is right there on your smartphone.

Now imagine that same principle could be applied to fashion.  That’s right, Shazam is taking the next step by extending their app to fashion.  Sadly, it’s not yet advanced to the point where you can snap a  picture of your co-worker’s outfit and instantly find out where you can buy that cute blouse, but hopefully that will just be a matter of time.

CEO Andrew Fisher explains that Shazam will have the ability to identify a product in a TV show when somebody ‘Shazams’ it. Like when you’re watching a television show and want to know what dress the presenter is wearing, where you can buy it and what it costs, identifying it is just a matter of one easy step.

The mechanics behind the new app feature aren’t as advanced as you would think. The app doesn’t use image recognition software, but instead uses the same technique that it uses to recognize songs.  When Shazam tags a song it takes a fingerprint spectrogram of the audio and matches it to a vast music library. When you want to tag an item of clothing, Shazam uses the same technology and applies it to the sound the TV broadcast admits and matches it to their library of information, like the brands used and the clothes featured in that TV-program. That way users can find the information they are looking for, like where to buy the outfit. The downside is that Shazam must have a agreement with the TV channel for the extra information to be provided. This means you can’t just ‘Shazam’ every piece of clothing you see on TV.  Fisher does hope that image recognition is possible in the near future. So who knows? In a couple of years we might by ‘Shazaming’ our butts off while taking a walk outside.

Music, theatre, lovely people, good food and drinks. The perfect ingredients for a fantastic day! This summer there are hundreds of great festivals to visit. We selected three festivals that we would like to visit ourselves and three outfits to wear to these festivals:

This year will be the 20^th birthday of the Over het IJ Festival. From the 5th till the 15th of July there will be special perfomances on unique locations around Amsterdam Central Station.

Dress     Bag     Sandals

Everyone who enjoys theatre and nature needs to visit the island Terschelling from the 17th till the 26th of June for the inspiring festival Oerol.

Top     Pants     Necklace     Wedges

The 16th of June is the day to visit the 12th edition of the Indian Summer Festival. The festival has 54 great acts in the categories pop, rock, dance, 80s and 90s.

Dress     Bracelet     Flip flops

We are big fans of the Spring/Summer collection from American Vintage! Just look at the bright summerly colours and you can almost smell summertime. The only thing you can do is wait until winter is over and in the mean while; fill your closet with COLOUR, COLOUR, COLOUR!