11.10.13

Early Halloween

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh she's back from the dead! Mada Primavesi was spotted lurching from her grave and stumbling down the Miu Miu runway.
P.S. I promise I will stop doing tumblr sized posts soon.


30.9.13

Tube Socks and Dropped Shoulders

I'm feeling Thistle Brown and Prada vibes at Céline  It's like that dress is a giant tube sock - and I'm calling it, 2014 is the year of the tube sock it's our year man. 
And I promise my posts are going to get bigger once my essays have been handed in. It's a slow and painful process, right now I am literally writing about boredom. Why do I do this to myself?


runway images from style.com
Thistle Brown's from his tumblr

17.9.13

I love you, J.W. Anderson


Dear Jonathan Anderson,

You ignite the fire of my life.

Your fan forever,
                      Lois xx


So, a quick recap to remind y'all of how fantastic last season J.W. Anderson was, via the ugh amazing campaign:



And I gotta tell you, I was nervous heading to style.com yesterday morning to check out the new show ~something about lightning not striking the same spot twice~ But it turns out I needn't have worried, because for the entire show (or in other words, for the entire slideshow) I was all be still my beating heart. It was a magical, magical collection. It was that perfect, usually elusive marriage of fantasy and form.

It reminded me of John Galliano's graduate collection because of the similar calls to romantic peasantry via Vermeer vibes. But Anderson manages to be romantic and somewhat clinical and conceptual at the same time. How can romanticism and the experimental and the clinical merge? I have no idea but Anderson achieves it. Oh yeah, and even though these peasant silhouettes are practically a cliche now, Anderson manages to reimagine their construction to make them to feel new again.




Even when he moved in less neu-peasantry directions and into the realm of colour, it was still cohesive. In recent Reddit AMA fashion writer Robin Givhan said "when a designer puts on a show, they're essentially picking up a microphone: what did they say? Was it coherent or was it a jumble?" which is a wonderful way to consider and assess a collection as a whole, single statement. Which is what it is! Or at least it is when the designer elevates it more in the direction of art rather commercial (which has its place too). But to bring it back to J.W. Anderson, the collection's range felt broad but still absolutely cohesive. And, I will argue, equal parts wearable and absolutely not.




Those shiny skirts are going to fly off the shelves! (The trompe l'oeil camisoles not so much) And I actually want to swan around day to day in this blue look. But I just wanna say thanks Jonathan. Thank you so much for the beauty you bring to my world.




images from vogue.com

4.9.13

I WANNA FEEL HAPPY TODAY OK

If it's raining where you are like it is here, you need a pick-me-up. So here is the happiest Marc Jacobs collection, with three (THREE!) iterations of Beethoven's Fifth disco-fied, involving man-of-the-moment Robin Thicke when he was less sweaty, and Kanye. You're welcome!

1.9.13

RODARTE LOVE or HATE TO LOVE #4-5

So Rodarte has just relaunched their website. And it is turning my bitter disappointment in their lacklustre collections into a great love. For years now the Rodartes (I know I know they are the Mulleavys, but ever since Grace Coddington referred to them as the Rodartes in The September Issue I can't call them anything else (remember the line? "Those poor Rodartes" - magic)). Woah, let's start that sentence again. For years the Rodartes have been taking beautiful fitting photos for each collection, but as far as I know they've been hidden until now. By having complete creative control of how their collections are presented, outside of the constraints of the runway show, the Rodartes are conveying their intentions far more effectively. I didn't like Fall 2013 or Spring 2012 at all, but thanks to these photos I am now understanding. It's like you are looking into the heads of Kate and Laura and seeing exactly what they see in their clothes.


I want to stress again just how disappointed I was with Spring 2012, the van Gogh one. No longer, these photos are like the phoenix rising through the ashes, disappointment and ambivalence burnt away.



I don't want to just show the collections I have only come to love now. The fitting photos for Spring 2013, the incredible fantasy role playing collection, are the ultimate, and it is a collection that I have always loved and will now love even more. Pseudo action poses lend themselves to ultra staged fittings well!



all images from rodarte.net go there!

30.8.13

Runway to Page

The looks in this editorial are way better here than they even were on the runway. This editorial should be unremarkable but man I love it. What is it about it? Maybe it's the stylist. I looked up the lady responsible, Catherine Newell-Hanson and boy does she kill it on the regular. She does do that annoying thing of reproducing entire looks from a show, but there is magic in the air here so I don't mind. 















































images from Fashion Gone Rogue and vogue.com

6.8.13

Almost the Future

Malgosia Bela in Japan in Vogue Paris in 1999. I'd almost forgotten this look existed, which in its extreme form was straight blonde hair, sweaty orange skin, orange clothes and straight straight white teeth. With the same art direction as the Gossip Girl book covers. Anyway this was the more arty version, thanks Vogue Paris.


5.8.13

Awe and Despair

Watching To the Wonder was a confusing experience. Leaving the cinema I was elated and dizzy from two hours of intensely beautiful imagery, but I was also left feeling pretty cold. The love story is sad and horrible because it seemed so banally doomed, and the characters were very hard to like or empathize with. That could be blamed on the scene structures, which were fleeting, sometimes only mere moments, and layered upon each other in the same unending rhythm as waves against a beach. Each contain very little dialogue and are hard to grasp. But then it can be blamed only in small part. I couldn't understand anything about Ben Affleck's character or why these two women loved him, but then again I'm not sure if I was supposed to, he was one of the main mysteries (along with like, God).

Luckily for my blog the obvious success of the film is visual, and so the obligatory screencaps. Scrolling through them quickly will produces a similar effect as watching the film, I swear.


31.7.13

Designers who are Giving me a Headache

Aaaaaargh so I haven't had access to mine own computer for the last little while, which means I haven't been posting because my sister's laptop doesn't have photoshop and you wouldn't believe how much low level photoshop I use in all of my posts. So I've browsed through all my drafts and chosen the one which will be easiest to do without the ol 'shop. Basically, Raf Simons and Hedi Slimane are giving me a real headache at the moment.

Firstly, Slimane. There are so many reasons I shouldn't like Hedi Slimane at Saint Laurent, but god his art direction cannot be denied! It trumps any short-comings in other areas, such as design and attitude. Popping Cara in front of that window, bringing back the skinny musician male bob, accompanying it with shoegazey Interpol nostalgia, it makes me understand the vision that is Saint Laurent Ready-to-Wear 2013. I'm feeling that neo-neo-nineties now instead of looking on incredulously. He's wily and cleaver, and because of it (and despite it) he's starting to grow on me.


And then Amanda Seyfried, who has gone kinda badass since she's been promoting Lovelace (which I am super psyched for because that one clip on Youtube is awesome) is wearing the starry cardigan in Elle and she looks an absolute dream. All thanks to Hedi.


And then there is Simons who I have always adored but who is also responsible for all of the half 'n' half pants at the moment. I am trying really hard to be supportive of Simons because it is undeniable that he is basically fashion's future. That is a cliche but I mean it: he is the future. And currently he is getting that future sorted, but gosh with Spring 2013 Couture he's making it very hard for me to believe in him. Yes you are freeing up couture but does it need to be so uncomfortable looking? I do believe that he's on his way to achieving his aims. But I don't have to like every step of the process.


Anyway, the two of them are keeping me very confused. I guess what one should probably take from this is that the world isn't black and white, but uh, grey. The last time I learnt that lesson (man this one's really not sticking with me) was from reading the last book in A Series of Unfortunate Events. If, like me, you stopped being a pre-teen, tween, teenager and "young adult" in the time between Lemony Snicket writing the first and last book then you probably never reached the end. I think I petered out around 10 or 11. But you should read those remaining books! I sure am glad that last year I got back on that horse again because I learnt a very good lesson about how the world is not divided into good and bad, but rather good shaded with bad and bad shaded with good. If only I had remembered that, and I could have applied it to Hedi (bad shaded with good) and Raf (good shaded with really, really bad).

13.7.13

P.S.

By the way, I saw The Place Beyond the Pines and as I suspected, the costumes were great! Unexpectedly the best ensemble involved Bradley Cooper, a sports jacket, and mom jeans.
However.

It was the worst movie I have ever seen. Ever. It was even worse than The Town. Only go and see it as an exercise in reminding yourself not to take good movies for granted. I will concede something other than the costumes though, and it was this dude. Man was he great. He will make you want to puke so bad!


Fall Fur Frenzy

The fur this season was nuts. It was pink! It was blue! It was huge! It was cropped! It was wider than it was tall! It was real! It was fake! It was all this and much more. Fur has emerged gloriously into my consciousness, shedding its past life as the coat material of choice for both oligarchs and London girls with messy hair and a fervent nostalgia. Even though I am a meat eater and leather wearer, I have always, subconciously, without thinking about it too much, believed fur wearing to be a rather immoral activity, leaning towards PETA rather than Anna in these matters. But now that the proliferation of fur on the runway has brought the subject to the fore I'm thinking the matter through, and I've come to the conclusion that it is ridiculous that I eat meat/wear leather etc when I don't do fur. But instead of deciding to give up animal related products, I am going to greet another one with open arms (except for those poor animals which are killed just for their fur. I am not sure which ones these are, and which of these are endangered, but I endeavor to make sure any fur on my back is not it (that is if I ever have enough disposal income to actually buy a fur coat, which won't happen anytime soon)).



all images from vogue.com