These Three Things

"Every jacket I make has interior pockets big enough to store a book and a sandwich and a passport."
-Rick Owens, Rules of Style

Sometimes designers surprise you with surprisingly deep thought and integrated design.

And sometimes they don't:

"This outfit takes me to the gym, to work in the studio, and then to dinner with a mink coat over it," on his uniform of black sweatpants worn with black baggy shorts over them--and lean muscle mass. --Rick Owens, Vice

Louise Nevelson sculpture above, which Owens cites as his inspiration for layering basic blacks.

Nom-de-Porter

"Nada mas que plumas y pieles...ya lo sabes"
I can't take credit for that sage adage: the beautiful boys of Madrid (shoutout to ALT, Maddox, and Maldito) could not have said anything truer. Loosely translated (or rather, exactly translated) it means nothing more than feathers and furs, but you already know that.
I love (love LOVE) this coat spotted by The Sartorialist, though i'm thinking its a vest over a leather jacket. I'm also thinking it might be Ohne Titel, or if not, really similar to some of their looks. I liked their fall show, incidentally, nothing ground breaking, but good, solid, and interesting. Can't find their fur pieces on style.com, but these are worth seeing:




Also, i was talking to my brilliant friend Sarah, and we were thinking about the serious shift in attention to street fashion as the new source of editorial fashion (I know this isn't new, but it is to the point where its ultra-saturated that its leaking into ad campaigns). How come there isn't a blog that sources from everyone (Garance, jakandjil, et al) that breaks down the looks? Not where the clothes are from necessarily--i don't want to recreate the look, and i don't need cheap alternatives-- but decoding why the looks work. Or maybe even a magazine--I mean, that is the broader point of a fashion magazine? Hmmm? Though that kills all the effortless Parisian engima from the whole endeavor, doesn't it.

Off to Baltimore this weekend, lugging a huge suitcase of way too much of my own clothing on the subway this morning. Leaving some room in there though for some Baltimore thrifting, hopefully.

Cat Power

This is me, from when I'm not sure, in my mom's showroom (i need to get images of the sweaters she designed and post them here). I can't get over this outfit: talk about stylized. I looked at the polaroid through a loup and realized that it's a separate lion patch that we ironed on the skirt, so the ensemble covers most bases of the feline species (Phylum? Kingdom? does anyone remember those classifications?) Expect for the ocelot, which is a shame really.

An ah-wutta?

So mind the shoddy quality of my i-phone photography; but are you marveling at my decently impressive recent purchase, a crossbreed of Alaia and Louboutins? They're from Zara.
(It's not seamless, it's my sheets. And Chow Fun's paw--she too goes for white jazz shoes on her off days, just like me!)

Need a closer look?

I'm not being completely self-indulgent here, i deem this postworthy for several reasons. The first of which is that I've kind of resigned myself to not shopping cheap fashion unless its flea market-found or basics. Or rather, trying to convince myself to not shop over spending minimal amounts here and there for items that you wear three times and don't thrill you ever again. Especially at places like Zara and H&M where the "interpreted" items are practically directly copied and produced at much lower standards of construction. But at the heart of it, I think you should have pieces you love, simple as that, and nothing less. Not because they are expensive-looking-and-feeling, but because they are original. I feel hypocritical bringing up authenticity here, because what does that even mean in fashion...corrollary: the intense quagmire of trying to talk about fashion as art and image as power since it's all self-referential anyways...But i guess authenticity as measured by what the item means to you and the intent and how much you want it.

So the fact that I could not help myself at Zara makes me feel all strange and ashamed. They're not original though they are 'inspired' (um, directly). But they are SO good. Which brings me to my second post-worthy point. One of the things I've noticed, up until this year, was that the delineation between cheap shoes and expensive shoes is in stability and heel height and shape. You know what i'm talking about--like the Nine West spike heels that curve in and back out again (high school is coming back to me in a big way). And they're never high enough, because normal people don't wear hidden-platform-spike heels like they do in my industry, mostly because the high fashion exposure was limited to a certain group that would go for originals anyways. (Always kitten heels, which I don't see a point for, ever). And yes, maybe the turning point was Sex and the City blah blah--but i think the real reason why we're seeing such amazing knockoffs--with really high heels--is because of how viral the style blogging is, and how street style blogs created this new forum where images of Emmanuelle Alt leak to 16 year olds in tiny towns and then Net-a-Porter ships there. Kind of crazy.

But honestly, for me to invest in (real) shoes means they have to be all kinds of amazing, and then you know, you don't have tons, and you stress about ruining them, and then you just want a really fun Alaia-esque heel with naughty strappings and lo and behold you find yourself torn and then you justify it because Zara is Spanish! And you have lots of Spanish pride, from when you studied abroad in Madrid! Andre, can you weigh in here?

Anyways, any guilt i had was reduced this morning when I walked into work and one of the more fabulous editors i work with had these breathtaking shoes. And this editor only wears le top, (which is good for me since I bought a pair of Lanvins off of her, saving them from a fate at INA and her half-commission). And she blurted out, "Natalie, don't judge me, they're from Zara."

And there you go.
(KP's lovely feet)

Really, i think the moral of this story is that office carpeting is the greatest idea ever.

Smart Fashion

"One of the reasons fashion is a young person’s game is that older people keep wishing it were dead. Consider how often in this newspaper we’ve heard the groanings that unreal amounts of money, celebrity and marketing are knocking the more genuine stuff out of fashion. Yet even if the complaint seems valid, it is largely an older generation’s reaction to the speed and inorganic nature of change, and not a result of our changing relation to what we wear."
-Cathy Horyn, today's NYTimes

I like to pile on the layers. Not like Mary Kate, and not too messy, but my fashion sense has definitely shifted in the past few years from prim and clean to revealing slivers of white below grey below black that make their way down from my waist to my hips. Turning a dress into a shirt. Turning a skirt into a scarf. It's careless but specific. It's tough. It's insouciance. It makes me feel like me.

My french grand-mere, at a recent birthday party for her sister, accosted me with disappointment. "Your shirt is hanging out...why?" (remember to roll your r's). She of course proceeded to try to tuck my shirt into what was actually a dress underneath, complicated to say the least, and a very awkward scene in the middle of a dinner party. But my point is that what I perceive as empowering and chic--moreso the resolve to go out in artfully deconstructed layers, not necessarily the effect-- she perceived as accidental and ugly.

When i think about holey shirts with cigarette burns, distressed and destroyed denim, everything from the 80's and 90's that has been rebranded as fresh all over every style blog, my reaction is distaste, even though i love to wear all of it. I like everything from Alexander Wang and Balmain and would wear it (if they weren't unreasonably priced and ludicrously expensive, respectively). But i don't see either of these collections as aspirational; they're instant gratification. Don't give me kitsch and don't give me cool and don't slash something ridiculously pricy for the sake of it (I can turn to hot topic for that). That is what easy, viral street fashion is about. And folly and irony definitely have their place. But from designers, i want something worth investing in; give me something that changes my sensibilities about shape, proportion, tailoring, craftsmanship. I have no qualms about dressing sharper, or at least, working towards it.

This season I was consciously drawn to classic, sharp shapes that were deconstructed and then reconstructed smartly, excitingly. The moth-eaten wool suits at Calvin, the haphazard asymmetric natty sleeves at Dries, short-sleeve coats at Marni, just about everything at Comme des Garcons. I like challenging fashion. I like it directional, and maybe even a bit offensive. I like it when it says a bit more about our choices and our strength and our toughness to weather out ideas we deem worthy. Cue Cathy Horyn again:

"In this remarkable season of fashion, which for the first time in years saw continuity among New York, Milan and Paris, designers seemed to discover that if their clothes were just a little bit sober, just a little bit sharper and youthful, they might actually resonate more powerfully with women.

The recession could turn out to make designers better designers."

For fashion to be justifiably important right now, in the midst of this economic meltdown, it needs to be more thoughtful and whittled down while still forecasting that very tenuous, nervy, passionate kernel of what women will want to wear and want to say about themselves with their choices.

Subway Stories

These kind of stories make me so, incredibly, inexpressibly proud to live in New York City.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/18/nyregion/18subway.html?_r=1

The Red Rooster

The (very) brilliant Cesar Vega took these shots en route to our shoot at the highly scenic Red Rooster off of Route 22 (in Brewster!). Camera was a Contax, probably on Neopan 400 (Cease, am I right?)

Correction:

NOT Neopan 400.... its Fuji 400H

Any film with the word "pan" in it is referring to panchromatic spectrum sensitivity, ergo, it's B&W.

There's the photo lesson for the day.

© César Vega

Check Out: Haider Ackermann

I have this gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous friend Jeanne, who as much as it begrudges me to admit, is always one step ahead of me, as far as taste is concerned. It doesn't hurt that she's Parisian, and a fashion student (at Parsons no less), but still.

Anyways, yesterday we were talking about the amazing shows from this Paris season, and she counted down her top choices, to my blank stare of unrecognition, and she pulled a "you mean you don't knowwww Haider Ackermann." No, i didn't. But you can bet i do now. Brilliant.

Love the jackets, again with asymmetrical collars. Love the tassels, so rich. The embroidery seemingly growing up the sleeves and shoulders (!) and the refined sense of color, deep and saturated but not blaring.




Thanks Jeanne. Because even though i'm one step behind you, i'm probably still x number of steps ahead of everyone else. And i'm okay with that.

A Very Fashionable Monday

Just moments apart. Just moments after the Marc Jacobs show.

Don't look at him, he's famous

Homage to Andre

And i love every minute of it.

Let it be, CdG

So here's the thing: It's perfectly okay if you don't get it or don't understand it or don't even like it. Just look at it, and let it lounge in the back of your mind. It's so rare to see things, especially in fashion, that are inconceivable. And Rei Kawakubo at Comme des Garcons is the master at serving up just that.

If you just let it sit in your imagination for a bit, you may find yourself a month or two down the line staring at a multi-leveled jacket, gauzy leggings, or, you know, a rug, and register the influence of why these items are new and fresh and appealing! Ah, Comme des Garcons. To like/understand/appreciate the line is like receiving a virtual high five from the master scribe herself, Ms. Cathy Horyn.

I think I like it...

This is amazing. From facehunter

I don't even know how the fur is connected to the jacket, or what material the pants are, or why she's wearing a jacket tied around her waist under the coat with a batik scarf. But man, does it work!

I'm sure if she wasn't so pretty, it wouldn't have the same effect. Or maybe the reason it did catch my eye is precisely because she's so pretty and takes risks (masculine, shapeless, unusual silhouette) and doesn't look like every other blogger or model off duty in their mesh dresses and studded shorts. Just saying. I would totally want to know this girl.

Good use of color no?

Assault!

Such a great word for a horrible thing, no?

I've had a very torrid relationship with fur.

When i was younger and oh-so-righteous, i apparently used to harass my father who had a Russian rabbit fur hat. He told me it was fake; I refused to let him wear it in my presence.

About a year ago, i had the hugest penchant to get. my. hands. on. that. hat. I called him, he said no way. And besides, he had given it to my brother for the arctic temperatures of Michigan. Erik: you are the most stylish boy on campus and I WANT THAT HAT. I am no longer righteous. And i like rabbit ravioli.

See, somewhere between then and now, my adamant distaste for fur, well, reversed. I started buying vintage fur coats on trips to Paris and stuffing them in my luggage, which now look like puppy carriers. I have three coats that allow no room for anything else in my closet. But am I fearful of angry fur protesters? Luckily i live in Harlem, where EVERYONE wears fur (that's men, women, and children).

In the building where i work, i was once told that our souped-up security was a relatively new phenomenon. Not because our building is the notoriously souped-up arbiters of luxury, but because of the need to protect one bobbed-fur-loving-woman from angry, angry PETA members.

See the story below from NYMag:

Perhaps PETA skipped New York Fashion Week to save some energy for Paris Fashion Week. In a noisy protest outside Jean Paul Gaultier's show, they threw eggs at editors entering the show and ripped the sleeve of French Vogue editor Carine Roitfeld's Balenciaga dress in an attempted attack on her lilac goat-fur coat. “I am a fashion martyr now,” Carine said. But, were they soy eggs?

Gotta give it to Carine: I love her quote, she handles la tragedie with such aplomb. Plus, its not like Nicolas won't replace it right away...

(photos from Garance Dore, neither of them is the wounded Carine, but you know what she looks like. Bandaids and all)

Stragglers

(from Purple diary)

I also live for these two photos. Pattern, color, texture, luxury from the front rows. How come my camera doesn't mute richness like this?

Lo Mismo

Just Olivier and Milla having some fun.

Color

This past weekend I went to my neighborhood laundromat and dropped off two shopping bags-full of dry cleaning. One of the particular joys of living in Harlem is that two shopping bag-fulls of dry cleaning amounts to $19. The drawback is having to have a full conversation in Spanish each and every time about the many god-children of Dona Francesca (not really that terrible, just time consuming) and often submitting myself to sartorial criticism. This ??? This can't be your size, its way too big. This??? This is a man's blazer. You wear things muy raro...

This saturday I received a full-on scolding though. Por que no te llevan colores?? She took me through my bags--blanco, blanco, gris, negro, negro--so deprimante! (depressing). Its true, I have items with color to liven up the rest, jackets, mostly, or say, a yellow cardigan, but i'm usually happiest with black, white, grey (my favorite), and nude-beige. It's almost as if color has lost its edge; its chicness. Editorially, in my industry, in New York, whatever.

Until now. Dries Van Noten, Wow.

Dries uses pastel colors that look more Eggleston than Miami Vice, rich, beautiful, sunny and greyed at the same time. Nothing contrived. Color with dimension instead of a flat pop. Couple that with splices--like origami folding papers--of DVN's signature patterns, and with every progressing slide, I am falling deeply in love.

A fait accompli of giving me something I wasn't looking for and didn't even know I wanted.







I'm not a full on convert yet though, these are still my favorite looks from his collection:

Lets just be chic about it and call it the Great Depression

Before the Prada show, the architect Rem Koolhaas, who has designed a number of stores for Miuccia Prada and her husband, Patrizio Bertelli, was asked how creativity may be influenced by the recession. One result could be more projects that focus on the social rather than on the private sector, he said. Mr. Koolhaas also noted that in New York he has sensed a shift from “civilization to comfort.”

“Rather than smart,” he said, ”things have to be comfortable.” He saw an opportunity for designers to “assert the sublime in a really efficient way. In the past, it was smothered by luxury.”

...Afterward, Ms. Prada referred to city-girl glamour, but said that “it’s no way to feel alive.”

-Cathy Horyn, New York Times

Good Shoulder

Partly because i like to pretend that this post is for Andre, partly because i can't help myself.




She's just like us!


Mostly because even in this (especially in this) it's embarassing how chic i find her.


Also, just a sidenote. Bandaids make an appearance at fashion week Milan:

(Photos from jakandjil.com, catparty, and Olivier Zahm's purple diary)