The Fashion Breakdown

It kind of just hit me that the cool thing about fashion is that we’re not always going to...

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 23:36:19 -0500

It kind of just hit me that the cool thing about fashion is that we’re not always going to like it. We get the choice to decide whether something is worth our time or not—it’s still meaningful because someone took the time to create it, and we’re lucky enough to decide how we feel about it.

"Dream is forbidden, nostalgia is forbidden, to be too sweet is not good. Everything we used to feel..."

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 23:34:32 -0500

“Dream is forbidden, nostalgia is forbidden, to be too sweet is not good. Everything we used to feel historically, now you can’t enjoy. The clothes are the expression of this impossible dream.”

- Miuccia Prada

fashion obsessions past and present

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 23:20:22 -0500

You may or may not have noticed that artists never seem to like something halfway. Designers describe their collections by talking about something they’re currently “obsessed” with, and how they took that fixation as a jumping off point for their pieces.

As a close to my 5 month hiatus from posting, I realized that although I’ve felt an extreme lack of inspiration lately, there will always be those amazing pieces that I’ve been obsessed with, that make fashion what it is for me. Everyone has them.

One of mine is this Heatherette dress worn by Alexis Bledel from ElleGirl, probably close to ten years ago (if my guess is correct. I could google it…) I was OBSESSED with the textured floral bodice of this dress and dreamed about getting married in something similar. I no longer dream about getting married. I’d probably just wear it to WalMart.

My next most memorable obsession is this pink taffeta skirt by Oscar De La Renta from Spring 2005. I LOVED the idea of a tshirt tucked into a couture skirt.

My next obsession is a bit of a cop out because its an entire collection: Christian Dior Spring Couture 2011. This collection is perfection to me—it encapsulates pretty much everything amazing about the 1947 New Look by Dior…on crack. Everything about this collection is magic and perfection. Completely worth obsessing over.

What are your favourite fashion obsessions?

Kiran’s back in Canada, and I’m feeling (hopefully) fairly inspired these days. How can...

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 01:24:03 -0400

Kiran’s back in Canada, and I’m feeling (hopefully) fairly inspired these days. How can any gal NOT feel inspired with the number of fantastical resort collections popping up every day? Here’s hoping you’ll see more of us soon!

"If you don’t have confidence, you’ll always find a way not to win."

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 01:23:00 -0400

“If you don’t have confidence, you’ll always find a way not to win.”

- Carl Lewis

A Shocking Revival

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 23:03:48 -0400

As I’ve already mentioned, studying fashion history has brought me fairly up close and personal with a certain Elsa Schiaparelli. SO, I’m very excited about The Costume Institutes exhibition “Impossible Conversations”—which revolves around two infamous italians: Elsa Schiaparelli and Miucca Prada. Even more exciting was opening up this month’s Vogue to find a spread dedicated to this event. See the slide show here.

It’s strange to think that during the Second World War, Schiap fled France for America. There, she was able to feel not only safe, but proud, not to have catered directly to the Nazis during the war. Interestingly, her fashion label was one of those to go out of business in the postwar years. Coco Chanel, famous for having had an affair with a Nazi functionary still sells a bottle of Chanel No. 5 every thirty seconds worldwide. This revival of interest in Schiaparelli’s work and infamous love affair with the colour pink makes me think that everything does come and go. We might not see it from afar, but when a fashion house closes its doors for having held onto its morals (for the most part) it’s never really the end.

"Only boring people are bored. When they say they are bored, the only thing I can say is, “It’s..."

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 22:54:26 -0400

“Only boring people are bored. When they say they are bored, the only thing I can say is, “It’s right, you’re boring, too.” Because there is so much to do, to read, to know, the idea of being scared of being bored doesn’t even enter my mind, because the day only has 24 hours, my dear.”

- Karl Lagerfeld

"Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion..."

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 07:41:07 -0400

“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.”

- Coco Chanel

"To him [Lelong], preserving Parisian fashion was a triumph. To keep it in Paris was his form of..."

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 02:24:31 -0400

“To him [Lelong], preserving Parisian fashion was a triumph. To keep it in Paris was his form of resistance.”

- Collaboration or Resistance?: Parisian Fashion Designers during the Occupation, 1940-1944.

Un Chapeau Darling?

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 21:34:00 -0400

Who doesn’t love a good hat? Today I decided to be inspired by these lovely chapeaux. Enjoy, mes petites!

Kangol

Eric Javits

Eugenia Kim

And, in honor of the anniversary of the Titanic/because it’s just so fabulous, an oldy, but a goody:

What's in a Name?

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 21:15:56 -0400

I’ve spent the past few years studying fashion history in Paris and New York, and something that has always struck me is the longevity of labels like Dior, Chanel and Balmain. Coco herself stated, “the war helped me. Catastrophes show what one really is. In 1919 I woke up famous.” Nearly a hundred years later, her label lives on. Having changed artistic hands a few times, now helmed by the infamous Karl Lagerfeld, what really makes it Chanel anymore? What does the rocker chic aesthetic at Balmain have anything to do with what Pierre envisioned in the 1940s?

Perhaps more topically, what allows the Dior brand to have anything to do with Christian himself, the man who struck out on his own in 1947 to create his New Look? That label, too, has famously changed hands a number of times. As we know, one of its most controversial creative directors, John Galliano was ousted last year, and Raf Simons (previously of Jil Sander) has officially stepped in to take Galliano’s place. And, impressively, Simons declared, “when I’m married to a house, I will fully embrace its original intention, its original heritage and meaning.”

Does this really matter? Part of me thinks so. If designers are not prepared to continue the brand as originally intended (and Lagerfeld has indeed done this, in many ways for Chanel,) why continue the name? The other part of me thinks that art is endless—its evolves and we take the torch of those who came before us, hoping that what is created is something they’d have approved of, if they could see it now. After all, De Vinci taught all sorts of people how to paint.

dknyprgirl: Would you wear a hat? Quite the statement...

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 02:29:13 -0400

dknyprgirl:

Would you wear a hat? Quite the statement no?

#DonnaKaranFall2012

But Paris...

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 02:21:26 -0400

I finally watched Midnight in Paris. It’s not like I was avoiding it—although nearly everyone I know has told me that I was going to love it. I’m just not much of a movie buff, and hence, it has taken me this long to peruse Netflix, realize that it was available and hop into bed, ready to take in the sites of Paris from the comfort of my own king-size.

Everyone was right. I loved it. It was one of those movies during which you wear a constant smile (just like a certain Before Sunrise/Before Sunset does…) More amazing than the the chance to revisit my favourite city in the world was Gil’s appreciation of it. I loved the movie because we think the exact same way. The charm of Paris is not only in the fact that you can turn your head any way and be mesmerized by the architecture, but also because we know the legends that have strolled the streets of Paris. It’s so haunted but so magical.

The key theme to the story, no matter how overstated, is the fact that no matter when we have lived, we all look back, wearing our rose-coloured glasses, to another time. When we look back, we see a time that we’ve never actually known for ourselves, and we choose to believe that time, unlike our own, is somehow more majestic, the people more alive than those we know today.

I’ve spent much of my life believing that I should have been born in the late 1940s so I could catch the whole 1960s and 1970s rock scene. Is it a bit cynical to say that now I know, had I lived then, I would have been just as dissatisfied as living now? Perhaps. But, as Woody Allen reminds us, there is nothing to be dissatisfied about when you’re wandering the streets of Paris.

boygirlboygirl

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 01:38:51 -0400

Hannah Sung recently wrote a wonderful piece for Flare magazine, pointing out that it was not the cool kids who went on to become fashion’s most heavy hitters. It was the weird kids. My 14-year old self and her blue leopard print petal pushers would have to agree. She goes on to discuss the role of gender in fashion, stating that it doesn’t really play a part, per se. Instead, as fashion shows us, forms are meant to be bent—fashion exists to allow us to push the limits on what human silhouettes can really look like. It shows us which designs can push the limits on the human form. Women can dress as men and men can be women, because the in the world of fashion, we can again the push the boundaries of what it even means to belong to a specific gender.

I think one of the most poignant things I read as that fashionably adventurous adolescent was that during the early 20th century, women were actually arrested for wearing pants during their protests to gain the vote. I was dumbstruck—what did a garment that separated a person’s legs have to do with anything? As I further discovered through my years of formal historical training, laws were enacted throughout history to control the ways in which people dressed. Peasants were arrested for wearing the clothes of those people above them. Certain colours were reserved for royalty only. Only recently have people been free enough to move beyond those boundaries of class and gender to simply wear what they feel. Today the fashions that are created refute those rules, proving that what we wear is more than just what we’re wearing. Every day I realize that even the most absent minded of scribbles by a designer which will someday become a couture garment or a piece in the 25cent bin is a piece of art that flaunts an individual’s right to be whomever they choose.

"Fashion is a leader, not a follower, and is at its best when norms are challenged in order to..."

Thu, 05 Apr 2012 01:28:56 -0400

“Fashion is a leader, not a follower, and is at its best when norms are challenged in order to redefine what’s beautiful.”

- Hannah Sung

I haven’t posted in this blog in over a month. I also haven’t contributed to the...

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 01:20:26 -0400

I haven’t posted in this blog in over a month. I also haven’t contributed to the lingerie blog I write for in quite some time either. I could chalk this up to working at my day-job far too much (I’ve been pulling 7-8 day weeks for quite a while.) But really, I think I’ve just been feeling uninspired lately.

The odd thing is, I’m LOVING the Fall collections that have been released. My adoration of fashion hasn’t waned. Perhaps I’m just looking to write that one review that hasn’t been written, but knowing how difficult this can be, I’ve decided not to bother.

My favorite thing about designers is that they allow themselves to be inspired by ANYthing. What I love about fashion is that it is the art that is created by a person who has opened themselves up enough to let anything spark a vision inside them, which they have then chosen to share. The spark that woke me up recently was an email from a reader asking me some questions about 1940s fashion in New York. I realized how much I miss talking about fashion, history and art.

So really, I realized that I can’t let my job take over my life. I have to let all the little things inspire me to get back to doing that thing I love—poring over the slides from fashion week, and looking beyond the clothes to see the art.

"If you don’t think about fashion, you just do clothes. Fashion needs culture or it becomes..."

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:03:05 -0500

“If you don’t think about fashion, you just do clothes. Fashion needs culture or it becomes empty.”

- Pier Paolo Piccioli

"It is only women who do not know how to dress that are afraid of colors."

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:47:37 -0500

“It is only women who do not know how to dress that are afraid of colors.”

- Marcel Proust

Latest Love: Designer iPhone Cases

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:07:00 -0500

Ever notice how designer iPad cases usually cost as much as an iPad itself? The same can be said for other technology accessories, but at the same time, that doesn’t mean you can’t rock a designer iPhone case for less than $50.

Here are some favs:

MARC by Marc Jacobs

Kate Spade

"I hope to have a few girls one day. If not girls, they better be trannies. Because I have some..."

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:10:35 -0500

““I hope to have a few girls one day. If not girls, they better be trannies. Because I have some amazing shoes and bags and stories that need to be appreciated.””

- Blake Lively