Friday, February 19, 2010

the uniform project

...is, with no exaggeration, the best fashion-related thing I've ever seen. One of the reasons why I started writing about style is to express my admiration for people like Sheena Matheiken: a New York based designer who pledged to wear the same little black dress every day for a year. The project kicked off on May 1st of last year, and Sheena put together a new outfit daily, accessorizing the LBD with a creativity that never ceases to surprise me. Most of the accessories are donated, many of them are vintage, thrifted, or hand-made out of recycled materials. The project is also a fundraiser: through the Uniform Project website one can donate money to a foundation that deals with educational programs for children in Indian slums.

I've been following this project for some months now, and it happened often that a visit to theuniformproject.com made my day. Hats off to Sheena and co for giving an alternative to buyism, for illustrating that fashion can be sustainable, for all the amazing accessories designers they made known, and for the charity work they're doing, all through one project. Finally, the project has been an inspiration for me in several ways (and for many others, too, judging from the comment section on the website). Drawing inspiration from Sheena, I put together a couple of outfits with my own little black dress, but i haven't decided if i'll be posting looks here. Ah, nevermind my own. Just look at what she wore the other day:



Love the tights and the wedges. And the jacket is made from vintage Italian upholstery fabric!

Ok, here's more. Some of my favorites:
















Alright, I'd be uploading all day if I were to post ALL of my favorites. The best thing to get an idea is to go to the source. When I first saw the website, I checked out the outfits she wore on important dates in my own calendar:)

Monday, February 15, 2010

Scarlett's flowered dress

...is very cute, if you ask me.



Of course, the fashion police thinks it's a 'matronly mess of a dress' and 'age-inappropriate'. Statements like this make me realize once more how desperately clueless we all are about what looks good, and how lucky that fashion police is here to enlighten us. I have an idea for what should fashion police do with their opinions, but I'm a lady and I would never tell anyone to stick anything up their ass.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

the uber-fashion-dolls

Mooqla is a Russian brand of porcelain dolls which look like aliens inhabiting half-Japanese teenage girls' skinny bodies. They have weirdness and growing pains written all over them. And they're ugly. So ugly that they're beautiful. Each one of them has a name and a biography -- from what I understand, they're all financially secure but very troubled young women (that section of the brand's website is in reconstruction) -- and a three digit price (again, from hear-say, since the online shop is also in reconstruction). They're being swept off the shelves, and high-brow magazines feature pictorials with them, sometimes containing nude photos. Below, my own favorite, Lora. After seeing her, you'll never be able to look at a Barbie again.




So far so good. Ready for more? The Enchanted Dolls: the most beautiful thing I've seen in months. Made of porcelain, the kind that NEVER loses color (how I love when material things are long-lasting). Some of them have gorgeous tattoos and costumes, but my favorite are the nudes. My heart skipped a bit when I saw this:







And they have silk hair. Also, pubic hair:



This is one of my favorite faces:



And when I thought it just couldn't get any better, I found the following - part of a project called 'State Property':



Well, after these breathtaking pictures, Mooqlas seem ordinary to me (I know they're not; I suppose they could hold a candle to the Enchanted..). Being ugly to be beautiful is, after all, the easier way. In times when beauty is supposed to be boring, the Enchanted enthrall with their old-fashioned handsomeness. Yes, yes, there's also the 'ugliness' of the deconstructed joints. Oh, but those faces...I wonder how long before someone claims that these dolls promote anorexia. What a dull statement that would be. Well...the master of the Enchanted, Marina Bychkova, organizes a yearly birthday contest: anyone can send her an artwork inspired by the Enchanted Dolls, as a birthday present. Anything goes: painting, music, poetry, embroidery, woodcuts etc. The author of her favorite gift will get a porcelain nude. Quite a reward, considering the doll's four digit price. If i had that money, i'd spend it on an Enchanted Doll without a second thought. I'm wondering if any of my baby-shoes could possibly stand a chance in that contest...cause my poetry definitely sucks.

Friday, February 12, 2010

RIP Alexander McQueen

No doubt, he put creative above pretty. I often get the sense that designers choose to purge their work of conventional beauty to prove that fashion is art, not embellishment. Be that as it may, McQueen outfits are interesting to look at, but also wearable. I'm not a big fan of his armadillos, but aside from them, in a perfect world I'd wear almost anything he's ever designed.