La Mia Boutique 10/2012

If you go back to my first reviews of this magazine on my blog, you'll notice that I had a newfound interest in La Mia Boutique, which instead had never appealed too much to me. The fact is, the patterns were very often "weird", for lack of a better term.

With this latest October issue, I got that old feeling again. While there are some nice and ok patterns, quite a few of them feel unrelatable to me, clothes I'd never see myself wear and, in some cases, that I'd never see anyone wear.

But let's start with the good stuff:

The focus this month is on outerwear, and these two trench coats patterns are really gorgeous, both feminine and flattering at the same time. I especially like the collar of the second one and the length of both.

And there are also coats, both nice although not earth-shattering. The pockets of the second one are very interesting.

I like this dress, although I'm not too crazy about the proportions and I wish they had tied the little scarf-thing in the photo to see how it looks.

And here's the outlandish stuff I was talking about.

The jacket, I quite like, but the quilting totally kills it for me. The dress is not too bad; I don't see myself wearing something with asymmetrical sleeves too soon, but, personal taste aside, there's something in the proportions of this dress that is not working. Maybe that sleeve is too long and the skirt too short?
Anyway, the real problem here is the fabric choice. While a pleather outfit can make a beautiful editorial, I don't think it could inspire the average woman or make these patterns alluring.

This is the perfect example of one of the issues I have with sewing magazines: they should tone down the fashion magazine aspect they so desperately want to convey, because as much as we all like to look at nice pictures, I think their average client is more interested in clear photos of the garments in all its details.

And on the same note of what I was writing above, who would wear this dress? I mean, there is nothing wrong with it (maybe except for the poor fit on the model), but when would anyone wear something like this?

Finally, I wanted to give you a peek of the plus size section, which features mostly knit patterns. Size apart, nothing here is really my cup of tea, and I find most of these outfits on the line between demure and matronly.
As always, all the technical drawings are here.

What do you guys think?