Beth Gibbons still is one of the few reasons it’s not entirely pointless to have a look at the pop-rock shelves…
Unfortunately, as it happens in more than few occasions, her huge musical talents do not really translate sartorially. It makes me kind of sad.
C’mon Beth, would it really be beneath you to sport a decent pair of shoes? Like these deliciously punkoid Jen Kao high wedged platform sneaker booties (!)
Punk's not quite dead. It just turned expensive.
… about a painting from french artist Thomas Saliot.
Street Light
1. Contemporary figurative painting owes much to Photoshop filters. It’s kind of sad.
2. Shorts and micro skirts look much better if your thighs are thin enough to let the light shine through.
3. Don’t do T-shirts. If you do anyway, mind the bag: it should blend with the rest of the rags.
4. Booties still look good at the warm end of spring.
… (as you should) that this girl and her fur
Badass, next generation
are shit-hot (pardon my French), then you probably want to hear Lika Volkova, who designs with Alessandro DeVito under the label SANS and did the above jumpsuit. The girl is smart, and not like in smartphone. She’ll give you something to think about.
A piece of tailoring maestria (AW 07)
... and a piece without, but no less interesting (SS 10)
…they don’t do it in bimbo pink. That would make a statement.
Peacekeeper x James Piatt
Spiced-up handbag
… to any of you, but there was a fashion orgy at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute Gala Benefit earlier this month. Many celebs did their best to impress, which unfortunately often translates as re-enacting the prom night (deeeep sigh). Just a precious few caught the message of this year’s theme (Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty) by either going McQueen or savage…
But let us be fair, there was a lot more real fashion on the red carpet this night than usual. Looking at the pics, I found two of these women deserved special mention.
#2: Christina Ricci in Zac Posen
Morticia's true heir
The pixie won a special place in my heart as Wednesday Adams, a literal killer. She often goes back to the gothic chic of the Adams universe, with much brio. Here in a fabulous Posen number, with the designer himself as the non plus ultra accessory.
(Wanna be cruel? Look at the sorry excuse of a prom-queen behind Christina…)
Fashion hot tip: don't go out without your dress' designer
#1: Anna Wintour in Chanel
Chapter XXI: How A Prince(ss) Should Conduct Him(Her)self As To Gain Renown
What a lesson in class! No matter how hard the competition, Anna Wintour still rules the red carpet queendom with an iron fist in a sequined gown. She totally wins the title and you won’t find a better picture to illustrate chapter XXI in Machivelli’s The Prince (a great read by the way), which begins thusly:
NOTHING makes a prince so much esteemed as great enterprises and setting a fine example.
… on Van Beirendonck. He may sometimes transcend his camp-LGBT manerism, and reach genius.
Color madness
… than sheer capriccio, I decided today had to be dedicated to the infamous Antwerp Six.
The way they were, all badass
From left to right: Marina Yee, Dries Van Noten, Ann Demeulemeester, Walter Van Beirendonck, Dirk Bikkembergs, Dirk Van Saene. The guys rocked the 88 edition of the LFW, making fashion like there’s no tomorrow, and some of them still are quite the ass-kicking mavericks they once were.
Fugit irreparabile tempus
Now watch me as I arbitrarily single out those I find still alive:
Ann Demeulemeester. Taking goth up to real fashion, and it’s not even kitsch (it’s a miracle).
Patti Smith's league
She’s not that much into Spring and Summer stuff… fun and sun? I don’t think so.
As summery as it gets
But as I say, she does miracles. Like she takes a nurse’s pair of birkies (ie an abomination) and make them sexy.
Can you believe it? I can't.
Walter Van Beirendonck is so gay it hurts, but in a good way.
Papa Bear
He has a quite distinctive take on male aethetics, one I find refreshingly at odds with the mainstream.
The real guys
Dries Van Noten‘s face is not that interesting, and I’m not sure he lives up to the reputation of the six pack. Yet he’s good at fluid and effortless.
An acid drop on a restrained look
Like said: fluid and effortless
And this is precisely what you want to wear for a late afternoon smoke looking at the birds over the harbor.
… and I want flowers on my dress. Am I so literal I’m lame?
And no thanks Miuccia, I don’t want bananas. I even think they’re a friggin‘ disaster these bananas everybody seems to praise. Do I need to check my head?
It seems so if you look at SS11 collections. Those designers seem to think that flowery springs are below them. Except the English ones, that is. God bless the Brits, who still have some sense of what May is all about. My wealthy counterpart minds her own business in some alternate universe wearing any of these:
Vivienne Westwood
Sarah Burton for Mc Queen
John Galliano for Dior
A girl may dream, doesn’t she?
I owe you all an apology. I’ve been extremely unwell, hence missing for an month and a half, without a warning. Some of you expressed concern, which touched me a lot. I won’t go into details, but I hope I’ll be fine now.
Anyway, let’s not stay on such a note, for as surprising as it may be, things happen even when I’m not around. I know, I can’t quite believe it myself. And what happened? I hear the sleepiest of you wonder.
Shoes happened! And especially this pair of Camilla Skovgaard:
Skovgaard FW 2011
The connection between the leather of the ankle strap and the upper material is not exceedingly virtuosic, yet it works in its brute way. But the sole geometry is really good. I’d love to try a pair and check whether function follows form here. And I love the rust. This is as close a shoe can be from the poetry of decaying cargo ships.
… does really good things when not trying to incorporate furniture references in their shoes. Witness, the absolute wonderfulness of the product of their collaboration with Iris van Herpen. It’s called Crystallization:
Hyperlaced
Another gem in the new collection, the Haiku:
Simplicity, geometry, bondage
Which_is_Good 