the verdict

the other day i had a pretty tense discussion about stylists with my friend g., in which i was forcefully - with the fury of a person who sees her, um, way of life threatened - making the point that i would never ever ever ask a stylist to create me a lookbook. while i was waiting for the belligerence to wear off so i could write a calm post about it, i came across boutiques.com, a service that scrambles together a lookbook based on the preferences you manifest in choosing among many many pictures. Sometimes i was faced with Anna Wintour vs Rihanna. yes, luckily there was a 'skip, not my style' button, and i used it a lot. the pale Twilight chick popped up often (hello Fredi), i skipped her a lot too. when i was getting bored and annoyed i was suddenly invited to choose between a glass of red wine and a martini, and began suspecting they were taking a more holistic approach than I had been crediting them with. however, the choice between 'The Magic Mountain' and 'Anna Karenina' never came, nor anything like Bud Powell vs. Keith Jarrett. Anyway, voila:

Casual Chic

Your style is a blend of cosmopolitan and California casual. You're a master at mixing beloved basics with contemporary pieces. A vintage leather jacket and boyfriend jeans could be your daily uniform. You don't accessorize unnecessarily, choosing your frills wisely for a pared-down femininity. Not afraid to add a healthy dose of glamour when dressing up, you've cultivated a Casual Chic signature style that flaunts your simple sophistication.



Close enough so far, but the pictures were a total miss. can't copy them here though. moving on...

based on a sufficiently close to exhaustive grid of shape and color choices (tops, bottoms, shoes), they came up with a crapload of stuff for me to buy and like. for starters, most of the shoes were chosen according to my 'hates' list (they asked for one): very high heels, open toes, ugly strappy stuff. because i said i sorta like Calvin Klein, they rained a bunch of boring black sheath dresses on me. and if it wasn't black, it was like this. then many, many, many black skinny pants, a few feathery dresses, some stuff with shiny butterflies. plus a dozen of gorgeous Alexander McQueens which I doubt I'll ever have the class to wear. out of 150 or so styles, about 130 were no-brainers, and I hardly picture myself in 3 or 4 of the recommended looks. This little dress, for instance, which I'd wear as a tunic perhaps, and this Vivienne Westwood skirt, if my life looked a lot different.

i can't leave this post without a single picture...here are two of the mesmerizing McQueen dresses. the first one is a little encouraging, in that lovely DYI-Uniform Project sense (and it's called 'distressed woolen dress'). the second is unapproachably beautiful.





this isn't a 'toldya so' post, by the way. to be continued.

(&#^&%(*($^@%#

when in crisis, go back to the basics. one of my first posts here was about dolls. i love dolls. always have. they're one of those things that can wind me up when i'm in a puddle of apathy.

so, i'm having a cuteness attack and i'm nearly crying here. just look:





Yes she's conventional, no i don't care. partly because i'm convinced she keeps a grotesque little diary and has a parrot whom she taught various puns. i know i've been demanding, Santa, but not like you brought me anything anyway...!!! I could actually afford to buy her, but isn't this supposed to be one of those hints that everyone turns a deaf ear to and you always remember it as that wonderful wonderful doll which would have changed your life if only dad cared enough?...

I'll sleep on it. But seriously: the effect would be double in the event of a surprise (said she with a sigh and poked the pillow).

And one more, for sweet dreams.



and they all live here.

Comme des Garcons Fall 2010

For months I've been looking at this collection and I haven't come up with anything better than the jumble of associations it stirred at first sight. I thought of protect-me-from the world jackets. This can well be idiotic but I have nothing to go on with, and yet this is one of those intrusively problematic collections that demands to be interpreted. So anyway, could it be a commentary on the protective role of clothing, considering that padding is used for protection as well as figure shaping? Part of the thrill of deconstruction - a method often used in CdG collections - is making visible that which is supposed to remain invisible. The exposed seams point out the distinctions of that which is supposed to be an organic whole. Dare I assume that this collection puts into the limelight the protective function of clothing, another aspect that's supposed to be elegantly concealed by style?

Could it be that the heavily padded structured jackets are pointing at the comforting/empowering role that formal clothes bestow on the wearer? Are the convoluted strips of padding supposed to evoke large prints (perhaps rose patterns)? If yes, are they trying to say that in fashion even decoration is a shield? And the protruding padding, is it supposed to look unfinished or, to the contrary, torn, undone, and exposed? Is it, perhaps, a hint that this collection is about the various protective roles of clothing which are expected to be overshadowed by design?

heels step into a higher cycle

There was something about this on Salon a couple of days ago: somebody who goes by the name of giddyspinster makes flower pots out of stripper heels, and sells them on her etsy page:
































After having their top removed, the shoes are drilled for drainage and sanded. Giddyspinster's plants of choice are cacti and succulents, which, we must understand, are her best metaphor for the 'the increasingly artificial nature of American femininity, and the impossible images that women face in our society. It's a prickly, spiky, sticky situation...'.

And if books on feminism overflow your library, why not stack them neatly in this book holder made of upcycled stilettos?














For a moment there, I thought these objects claim to be art. If they did, I'd write a longer paragraph saying that it's cliche and I'd also insert that video from Ghost World about the tampon in a cup pretending to be an art object. I don't quite follow the logic of this metaphor, and I think that heels can't help being cliches even when they're mocked. At the same time, I like the idea of making them into something else. What rubs me the wrong way about giddyspinster's approach is that it perpetuates the shoe fetishism instead of dismantling it. Either that, or the fact that in my eyes these shoes are kitschy beyond salvation through upcycling.

hues

My friend F. is invited to a wedding with the following dress-code: everyone must wear one color only, and it can't be black nor white (the creatively challenged are threatened with a punishment). Ton-sur-ton outfits are actually more interesting than they sound. Coincidentally, the style site has a selection on the topic (apparently this is a trend), of which I made a selection (ton-sur-ton? selection-of-selection? get it?):







These were: TSE, Richard Nicoll, Oscar de la Renta, Margiela, and Charles Anastase. The next one's Bottega Veneta, and the difference in the hues makes its placement in this selection disputable, but who wants to be pedantic. As it happens, my friend F. has a beautiful pair of pink trousers which she could build on to replicate this outfit, but she's partial to yellow these days. So, Bottega Veneta:



The next two are from Vivienne Westwood's Fall 2010 collections. This dress looks like it's made from a huge supermarket plastic bag. The folds are both sculptural and light:



And this one I selected because I was surprised how well wine and yellow go together, but ironically I'm placing it here: if we make abstraction of that little yellow cardigan, we see an interesting hue-on-hue outfit.

Fucking Amal

'Fucking Amal' (sanitized version: 'Show me love') might be my favorite film about adolescence (and a few other things). Small town, depressing provincialism, quietly beautiful misfit Agnes loves Elin, the popular blond whose spirit is too big for her clique. Earnestly assumed growing pains deserve the happy ending, which is just a beginning, really.

I like the use of red in this film. Granted, red for non-conformism isn't all that original, but the details make all the difference. Elin's dissent is raw, unbound energy. Although the strap of her bra showing from under the glaring red camisole is probably deliberate, the ensemble looks vulgar. The interesting thing is that Elin seems uncomfortable in her skimpy outfits: too exposed, shivering in the evening cold on the bridge, or doubtful, in front of her mirror preparing for the party. Agnes, on the other hand, is a 'closeted' free thinker who, wisely, doesn't make a point of standing out. Her khakis and red sweatshirt, her classical haircut are respectfully conventional yet beyond passing trends: she could be from the late seventies or the eighties or the nineties. Maybe it's a case of using convention as a shield, though I doubt it: militancy isn't her thing, she wants to live and let live. We never see her trying to decide what to wear. Comfortable and secure within convention, Agnes doesn't need to wear statement clothes to be herself. But there are symbols of serene superiority, too, like the air balloon pattern on her shirt.

Chanel's Fall 2010 Couture

Yes, everyone's raving about it, and I'm jumping on the bandwagon. The first half of the collection was kinda boring. No really, it was nice and all, but way too wearable and less than couturey. Some of those furry hems and golden mid-calf boots made me think of Russian fairy tales, but I flipped to the next picture thinking 'It's just my imagination trying to fill in for Karl's.' The first seriously weird outfit came about halfway through the show, but still, it was kindergarten matinee kind of weird, which is good enough, but still, depending on what else is there. Well, there was ...tapestry! At least it looked like it. Some of it had roses and went with lace and tulle:





And some of it - or was it still just my imagination? - looked like what Vassilisa the Beautiful might wear to a business meeting:



To give you an idea, here's Vassilisa's everyday get-up:



Towards the end of the collection, however, came something which cannot - I don't care about Karl's actual inspiration, which seems to have a lot to do with lions, whatever - cannot be anything but Vassilisa's Sunday best:





And happily, the bride's dress was a variation on the same theme (it's probably good that the groom's not wearing a caftan; it would have looked corny, I guess. But so did the tuxedo, in that context):



Right, and there were a few dresses which seemed to be decorated with frog skins: