dream glossy aggregation

With the unfair unveiling of the bi-annual LOVE in the UK, I am spurred to (a) cry and beat my fists in vain (b) pout and kick around my boring old american mags (c) petition for someone in the UK to send me a copy and dream of my very own magazine mini shop. Obvs it would include LOVE...and POP...and FACE....PURPLE...Paris Vogue...Phantom Paris Teen Vogue...UK Elle...ID...AnOther; maybe even a cardboard cut out of Katie Grand for aesthetics. HRM! all mags from off yonder. Why could this desire be? Maybe because, among other casualties of the economic fuck up, american magazines and american print individuality are suffering leaving huge swaths of culturally attuned social groups with out print diaries that both speak to and with them. Magazines are a specialized form of media, they have the ability to be as finite as possible, which act as and reflect a cultural barometer and encouraging the fissure and generation of ideas. A large swath of people will still, like myself, and those in the 'creative arts', seek out tangible glossy full bleed papers, but they will have to source them in other locations that are not exactly speaking directly to the end viewer. Additionally, seemingly without fail...well often inevitably WITH fail... groups of design minded youth imagine and spread 'zines through out the sub cultural channels. Idealistically, we would mash up corporate conglomerates with trend forward youth zin-ies and a specific, driven, consumable iteration of culture would be available to feed brains every where. Though, the underlying values of the two parties are in such opposition that a group meeting that did not result in blood shed would be a miracle of biblical proportions. Likely, or hopefully, with increased globalization we will have global iterations of our mainstay magazines that will then have enough money to subsidize 'continental' specific editions filtering into increasingly more unique area of interest. Magazine distribution channels mimicking early early newspaper propagation..except with better quality of paper and foxier moddles. I mean look, we even have our own modern (critiques of) yellow journalism! Until then, I'll just have to re-read and rely on local museums aggregating super publications on my behalf.
Jez does a great take on the recent upswing in Katie Grand interviews and the love over LOVE. Including some choice quotes from Grand herself, "‘‘I think as an editor you have a responsibility to do an interesting, commercial magazine that people want to look at. We need a readership as well as advertisers,"...''with the economy as it is, I wanted to do something that was a reality check on many levels.''" word up kitties.

isaac loves liz!

How appropriate and adorable is this s/s09 ad for Liz Claiborne? Isaac Mizrahi really had his work cut out for him when taking over creative helm of the dusty icono-house, but this ad and spring preview looks like bringing back Liz could really work. Every day clothes for everyday women; all shapes, sizes, colors, and ages. Really, it's just good design, something I.M. is no stranger to. I never considered myself a Liz customer, but even my royal salti-ness can't find fault with this approach.

In other news, I am currently pouring over thumbnails from fw09 rtw, mostly boring, somewhat sad, a few good new comers, but this sartorial gem from style.com is choice. "(Tracy) Reese worked a schoolgirl vibe for Fall, adding nerdy specs (one of this season's mini trends)..." Style.com... when CHET from the real world is adding urban outfitter's gleaned nerd-ocles to his crispy fresh new 'cool dude' wardrobe that is kind of the swan song of a trend. I am just hoping he starts sporting uggs or crocs so those can jump off the radar along with fake glasses and keffiyah scarves.

there is nothing sadder than shopping in your own closet

Lots of lady mags have been touting the super idea of shopping in your own closet. Below my friend and sister discuss this depressing thought. I'm red, she is blue.
click to enlarge

So there you have it; shopping in your own closet is sad and our mother is cray-cray. Also sad: clothing swaps, but that is an entirely different animal.

big earrings! neutrals! and PANTS!: all that is hot for S/S 09

Harper's Bazaar, one of the last American fash mags that I will routinely read has an out of this world innovative fashion run down for S/S 09. You, dear consumers, when not 'shopping' in your own closet should be thinking about all the great outfits you will be rockin' in the coming months that you can fashion together from such 'it' pieces as:
-big earrings! H.Bazaar is sure you haven't thrown yours out from when big earrings were cool even though they suspect you have been demode and wearing them all along.
-shorts! You also probably have these lying around along with, a jacket, a white shirt, or even a cardigan!
Though, my favorite is their revelation that PANTS ARE SO IN! Long pants! Short pants! Anything that covers your lower half and separates your legs! You've got to have some of these! See, we are keeping your wardrobe current and being fiscal friendly!
In all seriousness, the issue is ukranian-model-slim due to the somewhat unnerving absense of advertisements. So, I can't hate for them trying to drum up an increase in readership by offering fashion bon mots for the 'rest of us'. Spring fashion in magazines always has had a repetative, cyclical, bent; one season it's nautical, the next it's safari, the next its some combination; whether it be travelling african pirate or coastal multi-culti set on a boat or beach. Never fear though, Harper's Bazaar does have some suggestions for those lucky enough to change wardrobes so frequently that they banish such items as pants from their closets to ensure they are following the latest fashion tenants to the letter. Namely, if you happen to be lacking cardigans for spring, Marni and Burberry make nice ones. Also, dear section of still moneyed readers, no need to buy a new bag, just use one of your old Chanel 2.55s or Hermes totes, you can even reach for that 'vintage' Balenciaga Le Dix. If you dare. Time's are tough, but now is the best time to reach reader's through sartorial escapism in the upper tiers of the fashion mags. If I want to find cheap, cute cardigans; I'll go to Jcrew. If I want pure nonsense of the outfit variety; I go to the glossy glossy pages of upper end and forward fashion mags. I am not saying they should tout the best hotel to stay in on your yearly sojourn to St. Lucia, but I do feel that keeping an element of fantasy in fashion is what will be the real hottest trend for the coming seasons.

praying for sunrise

E-FUCKING-NOUGH, Twilight nerds! Ok, Twilight, the book cum movie that is spreading throughout teen-dom like the plague has now spawned even more nonsense-ry; most recently a fan crafting, from felt, the teen heroine, Bella's uterus WITH THE FUCKING MUTANT BABY INSIDE. Target women's Sarah Haskins went to the Twilight poster signing and asked the googly eyed girls and their mothers how they would feel if their daughters came home with a drug dealer, murderer, or vampire boyfriend. They all said they'd be totes cool with it, one mother even offering up that she wants 'illegal and immoral' in a relationship. NO NO NO. I am all for fantasy and escapism, but even on my most liberal of days do I take issue with the fairy tale-izing of teen pregnancy and the glorifying of the notion that, with enough love and hard work, you can change the 'bad boy' and make him love you back. Please, raise your hand if this has EVER worked for you. No? Anyone? Bueller? This is the fantasy equivalent of saying, "hey, if I love Kevin Federline hard enough he will clean up his act and be epicly faithful and subservient husband for life!" Lofty hopes, goals, and relationship desires are not bad things for young women to have; they wholly shape how a young woman can take charge of her life and autonomy to become a healthy, happy adult. However, I feel that in a present age where sex-ed consists of 'don't do it' and ABC Family has the series Life of an American Teenager, where the main charachter, pregnant at 15, is able to continue going to school, go home to a loving family, and is not at all having to worry about the financial and social struggles of actual pregnant american girls; there needs to be more reality grounded media for teens to help balance what is becoming a very one-sided fantasy existance.

on the shoe horn

Recently, economic experts have been trying to determine what consumer product category is "recession proof". Firstly, I am so glad they are doing this and not something that might actually be productive outside of newsprint fodder. Secondly, no doye. Yeah, people need to cover their feet and especially since people tend to use shoes frequently and are perhaps, due to monetary restraint, using their cars less, shoes would appear to be a practical purchase. Though, the always loveable NYmag informs that the sub sector of shoes to have bogglingly positive growth is, dun dun dunnnnn, UGGS. Like 57% sales growth from last year. For the love of all that is (design) holy, will people please, PLEASE stop wearing/purchasing these monstrocities. Their trend cycle, by all reasonable accounts, should have crested and faded into oblivion YEARS AGO. But instead now our millenial time period will be remembered on 'blast-from-the-past' compilation shows as the generation whose brain was eaten by an australian SLIPPER company. THEY ARE SLIPPERS. NOT FOR OUTDOOR USE. My only consolation is the news that Victoria's Secret stock is falling, making for less PINK sweatpants to be stuffed inside the sheepskin socks that are masquerading as footwear and giving me recurring sartorial nightmares.