ch-ch-charley harper

charley harper kicked the bucket (awhile ago), which is incredibly sad as he was a wonderful illustration artist. flat, simplistic renderings of animal life with textural twists and sometimes devious layout at most other times they are just serene and inviting. todd oldham is putting out a compilation book of all of harper's illustrations and i need it.

good-ness

e·the·re·al·i·ty:
–adjective

1.	light, airy, or tenuous: an ethereal world created through the poetic imagination.

2.	extremely delicate or refined: ethereal beauty.

3.	heavenly or celestial: gone to his ethereal home.

4.	of or pertaining to the upper regions of space.

thank everything on this earth and beyond for alber elbaz et co. (s/s 2008 lanvin ads feat. olga sherer shot by sir meisel)

willkommen and bienvenue!

ref29 you rule my brain. i'm stilll catching up on my internet news and refinery29 fashion interviews were on my list of things to read last night. and they did not disappoint! chitchattin' about the hinterland's newest babies kaviar gauche and the newest crop of artist edition tee's pay close attention to brendan donnelly's too cool mummies n' daddies near the bottom. now back to thirsty thursday. jeah.

so creessy

pre-info: just this year designers have shown pre-fall runway looks. this is new. new new. and entirely retail, not vision/design, driven. you see, in real life time, january-early march and late june-early august are death for the retail world; it's those times referred to as 'winter' and 'summer'. generally, no high-end or directional lines set in stores in those months so buyers rely on late or replenishment shipments of already owned goods to carry them through to the big fashion seasons of fall and spring, but now with the release of pre-fall retailers have 'fresh' goods to bolster their profits in the summer death months. this can also be construed as an optimistic look for the next years economy with designers betting on people wanting to buy medium weight coats and pre-fall-y luxury goods in july. fyi: there is no pre-spring because resort exists, but it generally is not a big enough draw to be carried in stores outside of the 3 b's: bloomingdales, bergdorf, and barney's. so far only a handful of designers have shown pre-fall looks, most showing 12-24 looks posed in look-book/resort style and true to their purpose they are more conservative and would be appealing to a bigger selection of potential shoppers. however, chanel showed as well, and it's as if karl lagerfeld said 'homie dont play that' . chanel showed 64 (sixty four!) separate looks, menswear included and is said to be influenced by amy winehouse. some of the looks seem to be influenced, at least a little, by marc by marc jacobs circa 2003, but that is just me, you can compare yourself. he said she said aside, 64 looks is a ridiculous amount of clothing to produce, even just as samples for a runway show, especially when chanel already shows full 60+ look shows for fall and spring with resort clocking in with over 40 looks. so creesy.

white magik

i recently was informed that VBSTV (viceland tv) was/is owned by mtv. kind of a bummer but bills are bills. vice's fashion however is on the upward climb. no gratuitous nudity in this particular feature, but it's enough to make me want to get off my ass and go seek out the actual magazine so i can possess the prettypretty images of spooky babes with tight threads. photo by stacey mark from vice web spread

more on t.koh and the gold leggings

ok, if that below didn't make sense deal with it. however if you really got to the end and wondered what the fuck i was talking about with terrence koh and the balenciaga leggings i'll enlighten you. koh was interviewed in the fall/winter edition of purple (which is so good you should buy/steal/own/re-read it) and over the course of the interview he possibly gives maruizio cattelan ecstasy, has them both dress up in slick leather and chiffon s+m women's underwear that his boyfriend made for the interview, sings yellow submarine, declares he will stop reading at age 35 because he loves it too much, tells how sometimes he takes tranquillizers and goes to the museum of natural history just to look at all the animals, and notes that some of this art is made just so he can buy expensive clothes, like the balenciaga leggings which he plans to wear while he rides his bike. now, that may sound really shallow and coarse, but 1. he delineates shortly there-after that money, like everything else is a thing and the value of an object is null because the happiness that obtained object gives you is the most important thing in the equation. and 2. if someone really wants to give you tens of thousands of dollars for something you made with the intention of selling for clothes that is just smart business practice. he notes that he makes more expensive art for buying more expensive clothes as well as more personal art for change and impact on life.
and 3. he sounds like the best party friend anyone could ask for.

if you like miami so much maybe you should marry it

art basel is going on right now and i'll admit, i've been lazy and the only thing i've read the past week were the instructions on big brain academy, but i've caught up somewhat. fyi: art basel is a week long gallery show in miami's new museum of contemporary art, but like miami itself, it's pretty beat and no one in their right mind would voluntarily go there unless they really like tanning and hair gel. new york times wrote a kind of sad article on it, depicting how the gajillion artists involved display in booths not unlike those in a craft fair and comment that
"the art is heavily scripted, raucously colorful and monstrously proportioned. Parties and people-watching crowd the field of vision"...."Statement-making works are otherwise scarce. A few halfhearted gibes at the market, like the fake A.T.M. by Elmgreen and Dragset, are quickly absorbed into the briskly commercial atmosphere. Merlin Carpenter’s slapdash text painting “Die Collector Scum” sold the first day." it gives the vibe, also, that the only people buying are art-nouveau-riche, but i think the comment on merlin carpenter half ass painting i just put down shows that pretty well.
on one hand the artists who's work is selling are making out like bandits since the majority of attendants are better versed in spotting the richard prince for vuitton nurse outfits than any of the nurse paintings, even if they had a lit up sign and a free martini bar affixed on top of them. on the other, for the artists that aren't doing so well, the excess of the whole debacle glosses their work into the booth next to theirs and next to theirs making it unidentifiable and really just wasting their time. i mean, i'm not saying everyone who professes to be an arrrteeesteeee should really put effort forth and pursue that (i think you can follow and conjure my references), but even i am not so cruel to put a young, possibly naive, person into a situation where someone could easily throw candy colored liquor up on or crash into their work all while potentially destroying their ideas of their works worth and giving them a harsh introduction to the art world. over-all the whole situation feels like some bizarre real life pretending to be real life reality show in a microcosm where-in the known winners win despite their flaws and no matter how good your work is you are presently a nobody and nobody cares about nobody. however, the whole deal being in miami (have i let you know i have nothing but contempt for miami? because i do. i hate it. big time) should set off red-flags in anyone trying to be serious about anything. though, deerhoof and iggypop played and terrence koh was there so now he can buy a spare pair of balenciaga gold leggings or maybe the new latex robot outfits for spring 08? j/k i love t.koh

the train wreck that is project run-gay rant

so i gave instant message commentary on last nights episode of project runway (which only served to infuriate me) where the contestants had to take 'out' trends and make them faaaaaaabuuuulloouuussssss. such trends as: overalls, leggings, neon, poodle skirts, and 70s flare. all of which the contestants were embarrassedly sporting. the winning outfits were facemilies of 20$ rags i saw two days ago at a suburban forever 21. the losing outfits more closely resembled to couches off of a bad telemundo version of Dynasty.
everything was all set in sleeves and straight grain shifts. the techniques are remedial and the concepts are tired, but i can't fully hate on the cast because they are so pitiful; they got excited to work with horse face herself on a line for steve and barrys. not exactly a career move to catapault you into the fashion stratosphere.
the show is nothing but bad news; you go on under the guise of showing your *~taLeNtS!>!~* to the WORLD on the TEE-VEE, but really you come off as a slyly-edited caricature of yourself and are better known by the fights you are in or the flops you send down on your elderly models every week. you earn nicknames such as: big gay party monster, smurfette, or tiny cut-rate paris hilton with hideously out-moded scene mullet and brain dead fall out boy lovin' alterna girl side-kick, or that-imbalanced-bitch.
the only lucky ones are the people who are eliminated right off the bat because you won't be recognized on the street as that guy who can't sew a slip dress or make a button down shirt or continually wears s&m inspired hats or got drunk that one time and fell off a subway platform; losing allows you to still have a chance at defining yourself by your talents and not by editor approved sound-bites.

weirdo rippers

listen up: keyboardy, scratchy, down-beat, ambient sounds with some surprise dancey bits. no age- weirdo rippers. good titles and good jams. too bad i've missed them playing both times they have been near me. bummer.

mina mine

do you need to relax? do you want to feel inferior about your design prowess, but some how not be bothered that much by it because what you are looking at is so enjoyable? do you like fluffy embroidered cats? then i have the bizz for you.
mina perhonen is a japanese designer who melds incredible textiles with the spare-functionality of skandi and japanese design. each piece is hand crafted, from beginning to end; the fabrics are first illustrated, then woven, then cut and sewn by members of the atelier. the website focuses more on letting the viewer enjoy the clean simplicity in the dense fabrics rather than constantly reminding them to consume their product. tune on tune in tune out. mina-perhonen.jp

the wonderful wizard(ress) of OZ

alice mccall is an australian designer who previously worked with buddhist punk and did a lot of styling. that's the short version. the long gushy version is that she now has a name-sake brand where she makes really of-the-moment wearable clothes. the current fall/winter07/holiday07 collection is available at honey in the rough in the lower east side(helpful i know) and its ridic cute,sassy,rad,tight,and necessary. these are photos from s/s 08. feelin' good feelin' great.

kate the great

jez posted an article about the versatility of the world's greatest model. and i agree whole heartedly. just look. you'll see. and if you don't, well than twain us two two shall never pass

OMFG KITTIES

OMG! KITTIES! this guys cats love to eat so much! if that article on andre j didnt cheer you up then watch this video of these two cats chowin down on people food to some pretty epic ambient bittersweet music. description of this video: 'my cats are pigs'. that speaks to me. if this doesnt make you smile well. you are even colder than myself, which is cause for medical concern.

really fucking heartwarming

ok so my internet is jacked and ive been boozin' so! not full write up, but! read this! its inspiring and may make you hate your current status in the world a little bit less! fyi:"Anything you love you can sell, honey, and I sold it" p.s. how sultry is the guy center image right!?

lazy news

+ phillip lim won the CDFA swarovski award
+ marimekko is doing a colaboration with H+M to be in stores in April
+ jovovich-hawk is will be a GO!International designer for target to also set in April
+bindi irwin, the croc hunter heiress, is gettin in the rap game
+answers to why black friday is so black; hint its not because its into metal. even though it was a poor turn-out for non-electronic retailers
+sam davol cellist of the magnetic fields and his wife quit their jobs and bought a 1$million dollar loft in boston. which was purchased and renovated with profits off selling their greenwich village place. damn gina. also new mag. fields album in january which means they should be touring soon if not already.
+nymag's annual holiday gift guide; always humorous and mostly informative

whyred

refinery29 wrote an insightful article about swedish brand Whyred. both the article and the brand are nice and well fitting.

sunshine and shadow

FYI/PSA/OMG: sunshine and shadow is a sick line of silky tops, stern but loving skirts and dresses, effortless layering pieces, and playful accessories. the garments have the kind of unstructured structure that always seems to be only seen in editorials or your very own clothing related dreams. and to top it all off, they are easily stand alone pieces. which i have been really critical of in my own choices, but have the versatility to play well with others which is pretty key in the winter months. we spent some time at work lusting over the pieces we didn't get in and trying to find a way to get our grubby paws on the tie-dyed silk scarves which are selling like mad. p.s. the designer is totally cute and friendly which only makes it sweeter

for the person who has everything; a fancy version of something common!

i'm all for subversive design and am even a little indulgent by using clu tee shirts as lounge wear, but let's get real. 435$ for a 90%wool10%cashmere deep-v? i would really like to encounter, not necessarily meet, the person who purchases this item at full price.

flavor of the moment

i acknowledge my impatience when it comes to hunting for accessories. usually it stems from my attention span hovering on something for a few extra nanoseconds and i decide i need this possibly/probably ridiculous item or i just might die; please see bag and shoe A and B respectively. for winter holidays i feel like i need a supple black bag and some white buckskins. i've spent the past month hunting for similar versions of the ones below to no avail and at the original items respective price points it's an either/or situation. either i need to win the lottery or i need to get some adderal for my shopping adhd.

its friday night an i feel alright na na na party na na west side

please look and shriek in delight at this picture of worlds largest dog meeting worlds smallest dog; things are ok on earth sometimes. also! surprise! amy winehouse apparently probably keeps drugs in her bee-hive hair-do. uh duh, this is the musician who's manager quit because her drug use was so out of hand that he had second hand smack in his bloodstream. but i mean, wouldnt you, rather, dont you keep your narcotics in a clever hiding spot too?

TGI-never

I've been ruminating on whether I like being bored to death or overwhelmingly busy and riddled with anxiety. Truthfully, I like neither, but if I had to choose it would be a happy medium of bein (and gettin!) busy and maxin and relaxin. Waking-up, throwing some layers on that smell clean enough, braving the day, then going to bed exhausted can be as satisfying as waking up, rolling over, and watching some jolly, visually interchangeable women cook couscous, marion berry cobbler, and chicken with forty cloves while never leaving the comfort of your underwear/bed/living room floor. I live fast 'n die young...or something. Really, I am just grasping for some sentences so I could post these images from winter07 acne. Also, last nights proj runway, wtf are you kidding me? Since when do people with careers or careers in failure want to be on a reality show that has been proven to further ruin lives? I guess Heidi Klum said it best when asked what's in store for this season; "same shit. different people". word. guten-tag girl.

let's get 'em!

shoes. omg. shoes. i, like 99.9% of all women, am inexplicably drawn to shoe departments even in stores that i loathe. shit, i would look for shoes in home-depot if they had them. i 'just want to look real quick' and i'm sure my boyfriend gets tired of trying to follow me while i weave in and out of other-less-vicious-shoe-shoppin-women looking for perfect shoes that never seem to exist. i've snatched shoes right out from some other, less decisive, woman's nose and then watched her pout to her mother while the clerk rang up my purchase. however, for all my shoe affairs, i only wear three pairs, sven swedish single wood block sole 3" maryjanes, acne for tretorn high-tops, and frye veronica short slouch boots. all comfortable; all distinctly me, but nothing slinky and subtly vampy. there-fore i am reinstating the hunt for these nico pumps from brian atwood.

pretty leather

a growing trend in the norse regions is the application of pretty leather. red leather skirts paired with white button ups whose peter pan collars are buttoned demurely all the way up. capped off with a loosely draped skirt-hem-length cardigan, ankle socks, and flat shoes. juxtaposing what could and should be tried and true street walker pieces against strongly young and chaste garments makes for an outfit mind fuck akin to an adult lolita; all grown up and legal but still inherently bad to the bone. acne will show you whats up:

pied piper of ice y'all

i need to work on my general sorcery abilities because if i could gain some sort of magnetic pull for these little babies i would be-more-jeweled than all of the cash money millionaires. jeah girl, MJ mice ice is nice.

fashion nerd excitement

so! judging from the shown accessories for s/s08 there may be a new shape in balenciaga handbags! i am honestly excited for this because balenciaga makes some incredible shoes, handbags, small leather goods, and jewelry, but none of them are ever seen in favor of the ubiquitous and throughly played out motorcycle bag. the real ones are nice, but can never be carried lest you feel like looking like a mid-western college sorority sister with a love of all things celebretarded with only worn copy of Star! to introduce you to new fashions. now, balenciaga will obviously still produce and make truckloads of money off of the motorcycle bags, they just will, but these new bags are appealing; they have compartments! patent and matte leather! shoulder straps! good hardware placement! lady like but not stuffy! smart but not unwearable!

you know what they say

they, or maybe just me, say. those who cant design pay way too much for shit. some of these items below i honestly don't know the price for, but given their provenance and the fact that they come from s/s08 it's safe to guess that its more than my rent. so, arts and crafts will rule my life this winter. so here are some projects ranging from easy you know what peasy to may-need-some-time-or-booze-aided-patience-and/or-a-brainy-friend to make this work. you can even make an arts and crafts party of it if you are feeling particularly hostess-y. if so. invite me, i'm a good party attendee and have some applicable craft skills.
(braided metal necklaces: gemma redux; beaded necklace: carlos de souza; woven leather clutch: chloe; linen and patent tote: lacroix)

5th ave shoe repair: marry me

Fifth Avenue Shoe Repair is a swedish design company that makes me really consider paying the exorbitant prices to get it for my very own. The clothes are made from the softest fibers and are all hand crafted with couture techniques with attention to drape and form. the kinds of tee shirts and sweaters that really do send the message that someone really loved making that garment and didnt make it to fill a style quota. each piece is wholly personal and smart. the kinds of garments that you really have to assess if you are mentally ready to wear. please note this origami draped tee (yes its from bird. we only have two left. )

see bad things do happen to bad companies

not to say that Crocs is an illegal operation that suppresses struggling children in third worldcountries. making them toil over the gurgling foam molds and organize and pack Crocs off to people who dont have enough sense to spend 30$ on something that isnt essentially a sponge for your feet. but! sunday their stock dropped 36%. THIRTY SIX. that is incredible and has the potential to wipe Crocs off the face of the planet or atleast out of sight out of mind. I guess their design update to line the foam monstrosities with shearling for winter 07 wasnt a huge hit with consumers...

john waters films: trove of sick outfit ideas

is there a box set of all the john water's movies? why not? they would make a killing because 'omg i luv hairspray john travolta dress as a woman is so funny!' and then tens/hundreds/millions could be shocked and/or offended by the other, better films and also i would be able to have it for my very own! hairspray, not really my deal; pecker, cry baby, and serial mom are my jams. i have yet to see pink flamingos so i cannot speak on what i am sure is its fantastically bizarre visuals and perversely hilarious dialogues.
oh my point: graphic colors, blissfully awkward pattern mixing, and 90s proportion aesthetics are something to think about and incorporate, i mean if you know what is good for you. please see these examples in both extreme and toned down forms.