demon of shallowness

What if H.P.Lovecraft characters were trendy?

2011-08-11T11:15:00.003+03:00

I saw this chair by Spanish artist Maximo Riera on Thrift and thread:

I think it's breathtakingly gorgeous but I couldn't help giggling to myself, thinking octopi monsters are pretty damn fashionable now. Though I'd take this chair anytime over those fake "steam punk" , Made in China, octopus rings they sell on Etsy.
Anyway, I'll leave you with a short comic about the Octopus monster above all octopus monsters, Mr. Cthulu himself:
http://www.behance.net/gallery/Your-glory-days-are-over-mr-Cthulhu/1595051

Romanian version/ Versiuna in lb. romana:

Am vazut scaunul de mai sus, creatie a artistului spaniol Maximo Riera peThrift and thread.

Cred ca iti tai rasuflarea de frumos ce este dar nu m-am putut abtine sa nu rad de una singura, gandindu-ma ca monstrii caracatita sunt al naibii de la moda. Desi as prefera oricand scaunul asta inelelor caracatita fals "steam punk" , Made in China, care abunda pe Etsy.

Acum va las cu un comic scurt featuring taticul tuturor monstrilor caracatita, dnul. Cthulu insusi:
http://www.behance.net/gallery/Your-glory-days-are-over-mr-Cthulhu/1595051

Cutesy and ...subversive? It's all in the attitude

2011-08-11T01:10:00.002+03:00

*I've decided I should also write in Romanian, since I'm in Romania right now, so you can find the Romanian version after the jump. / M-am hotarat sa scriu si in romana, daca tot ma aflu in Romania acum, asa ca am pus versiunea romaneasca dupa jump.

It's weird how I write entire blog posts about "sticking it to the man", about being different and anti- systemic, about being though and preserving that Rebel without a cause attitude that some 195os teenagers had....and then I go to work wearing a baby doll dress, braids and animal shaped accessories.. I'm a huge hypocrite, ehh.

But what if said accessories are not only cutesy but pretty darn cool like my hedgehog ring ...

I got it from a shop on Breslo, the Romanian equivalent of Etsy.

The shop's name is Maia Grozavescu (sounds like a typical Romanian girl's name) but, if I remember right, Maia Grozavescu doesn't exist. Well, she exists but she's a collective character: several girls with a rich imagination and, united by having lived in the infamous Bucharest student neighbourhood, Grozavesti.

I like their accessories because they don't really resemble anything else on the local market. And because they remind me of the pictures from children's books and of Wes Anderson's movies.

I should also add the stuff is pretty affordable between 20 something and 40 lei (5 and 10 euro). And that usually the girls are nice enough and include a little surprise with your order. My hedgehog came together with to pig earrings. Hmmm, if I think a bit, maybe my wish to stick my tongue out at the stuffy system did come true when I showed up to a kind of official meeting wearing two naughty pigs as earrings, with their pink skin marked by a zipper, just like some kind of overalls.

Romanian version/Versiunea in lb. romana:

E ciudat cum scriu ditai postarile pe blog despre lupta pentru a fi diferit si anti-sistem, despre dorinta de a fi tare si de a pastra atitudinea aia gen Rebel fara cauza a unora dintre adolescentii anilor 50...si apoi ma duc frumusel la munca purtand o rochita baby doll, cozi impletite si accesorii in forma de animale.Ehh, sunt o mega ipocrita.

Dar daca totusi accesoriile cu pricina nu sunt doar dragalase, ci pur si simplu foarte misto, cume e inelul meu arici...

L-am cumparat dintr-un magazin de pe Breslo, varianta romaneasca la Etsy. Magazinul se cheama Maia Grozavescu dar daca imi aduc eu bine aminte Maia Grozavescu nu exista. Sau, ma rog, exista dar e un personaj colectiv: mai multe fete cu imaginatie bogata, unite la un moment dat de viata in faimosul cartier de camine studentesti, Grozavesti. Imi plac accesoriile lor pentru ca nu prea mai seamana cu ce gasesti pe piata la noi. Si pentru ca imi aduc aminte de ilustratiile din cartile copilariei si de filmele lui Wes Anderson.

Ar mai trebui sa adaug si ca sunt rezonabile la pret-intre 20 si ceva si 40 de lei. Si ca, de cele mai multe ori, fetele sunt atat de dragute si includ cate o surpriza in pachetul cu comanda voastra. Ariciul meu a venit, de exemplu, insotit de doi purcelusi cercei.

Hmmm, daca stau sa ma gandesc bine, poate ca dorinta mea de a scoate limba la sistemul batos s-a indeplinit atunci cand am aparut la o sedinta foarte scortoasa in urechi cu doi porci obraznici, cu soriciul rozaliu inchis cu fermoar

The best swimming pool ever!

2011-08-04T15:09:00.001+03:00

If I'll ever have enough money to afford a custom made swimming pool, this is what I want:

Kitschy and surreal!

Where has all the crotch bling gone?

2011-08-04T13:04:00.002+03:00

Thanks to the always cool Sister Woolf I discovered the photographs of Karlheinz Weinberger. Most details of his life are still a mystery, yet one thing is clear: Karlheinz Weinberger was a misfit trying to document the lives of other misfits.

Weinberger's images of teenagers posing with an air of unaffected coolness manage to singlehandedly dis-spell the myth that Swiss people are some weird leather pants wearing, yodeling goat herders.

And isn't it weird how little the way of showing one's idols and appurtenance to a group have changed?

Though if there's one thing today's angry youth is missing fashion wise is strong, statement male clothing. I mean the heavily eye-lined, poofy haired, skinny jeans wearing girls are one a dime today. It certainly shows how far we have come in accepting different and equal social roles and norms for women.

But young boys with giant phallic bullet necklaces and leopard cuffed jackets? Or jeans whose crotches are held in place by giant screws or marked by horseshoes? Not since the cod-piece loving Renaissance, had men been quite so bold in making a statement with their clothes.

If not for anything else, Karlheinz Weinberger's subjects are amazing just for having the huge balls for being so different in 1950s Switzerland. Rock on, guys and girls!

PS: my source for these photos is amazing and worth a longer visit, http://lalettredelaphotographie.com via http://www.godammit.com/

Apolitical braiding

2011-08-04T02:05:00.003+03:00

"Ha ha, I see you're sporting a Yulia Tymoshenko look!" my friend said as I was squinting at the Skype chat window.

"Erm, what's that supposed to mean?"

"Relax, I only meant it as a compliment. Regardless of her political issues, one thing we all have to admit is that the woman's got great hair. And her braids are cool. Mmmyeah, that's what I meant. I like you with the braided hair. You look cute...and very, ahem, Eastern European."

So, after almost 20 years since last having braids, I started wearing them again. When I was a kid, I hated my braids after some kid in my class told me I looked like a "rat with weird eyes" wearing them. Whatever, as if a rat with braided hair ever existed. And if it did, it would have been totally awesome. But that's not what I believed back then so I gave up the braids.

Fast forward some 19 years later. It's really hot outside and my curly hair is impossible to manage. I read on http://www.curlynikki.com/ about different tips for dealing with curls. Braids...really, huh? And because I'm essentially lazy, I not only braid my hair before I go to bed to make it settle into a nice pattern, I wear my hair styled in 2 braids of varying width (make them thinner like I did today and you also need to pin the hair at your nape) to work and when I go out.

And no one compares me to a weird rat anymore but... with a Ukrainian politician. (and oddly enough, they mean it as a compliment.) Although I swear my hair hides no political message, just plain old laziness and a desire to not deal with a hot, frizzy mess.

Anyway,

?!
Semi narcissistic pictures taken with my webcam and http://www.laphotocabine.com/

Fashion poetry

2011-08-03T13:30:00.002+03:00

How nice! Maybe I should sew little poem tags onto my clothes so I can read them when I feel down.

Dress love

2011-08-03T10:06:00.002+03:00

I want a dress or a t-shirt like these ones here:
http://vimeo.com/27144134

Romanian Apparel-Teasing from julien britnic on Vimeo.

Dresses by http://lanaa.ro/.

Romanian fashion in the 60s: imitation, inspiration and politics

2011-08-03T03:06:00.003+03:00

Part of my new job involves reading all the important local newspapers and selecting the talk show worthy topics. I normally keep my eyes peeled for political topics but today I spotted an article about a couple of vintage videos, from the 60s, showcasing Romanian fashion. It didn't include the links but I managed to find them on the British Pathe site. The videos are not embedable but I'll just insert them as links. (I'll link to the article as soon as I find it again)

This video is from 1966:http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=71242.Not that one couldn't immediately guess from the plastic go-go boots, short, short dresses and Paco Rabanne inspired chain mail couture. Also, the airplane runway is hysterical and had me laughing out loud. I think it was the editing of the same 2 models that did it.

There are a couple of videos presenting the fashion forecast for fall 1969. I think it's amazing that the more fashion forward, coordinated with what was happening in the art world abroad is the 1966 video. The other ones are showcasing a much more stern, even a tad anachronistic style. And it's not for lack of inspiration. Elsewhere, 1969 was one of the years marking the beginning of the hippie movement. However, Romania was a communist country where jeans were unavailable and being a guy with long hair could get you arrested. And the Prague Spring of 1968 and its bloody repression were not easily forgotten either. Not to mention that Romanian politics had taken a turn towards extreme conservatism with the 1967 decree severely limiting sexual rights. (forbidding abortion and contraception, monitoring women, more can be found here.)

So, everything, fashion included, was kept nice and prim. Cutesy bows, little blouses, pastel two piece suits with coordinated hats abounded. The most daring item was the mini skirt. Typical 60s fare or what most people today would call "Mad Men" style. It was only several years later that hippie style would arrive in Romania. Heavily filtered, of course, with the main focus being on cheese cloth blouses and fur jackets, exactly those elements that could be found in the national costume and thus easily matched the party's nationalistic ideals.
A kind of random aside, I remember seeing that second to last black and white coat from the second video in an old "Femeia" ("Woman") almanack my mother had salvaged from her parents' home.If I find it, I promise I'll scan the fashion pages. They really fascinated me as a child.
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=73219
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=73407What I find interesting about these videos is that they present creations from UCECOM. This was a sort of fashion house which belonged to the state. I grew up across the street from it and remembered my mum buying her clothes from there. As a matter of fact, as UCECOM survived into the early 2000s, I still own a couple of awesome 1980s and 1990s custom made hand me downs from my mum which I intend to start wearing really soon.

True style

2011-08-02T15:21:00.002+03:00

Video inspiration from Advancedstyle

I keep blabing that "granny chic" is the biggest trend right now and that we'd better shop the closets of our grandmothers and mothers rather than the malls. However, if there's one thing we should really pay attention to is the way older women totally "own" their style. Most of the people I have seen daring to experiment with color, volume and shape were older people, those people who have grown so comfortable with themselves that they know there's no use trying to fit in and look just like everybody else. Embrace your quirks, embrace your personality and stop giving a damn about what others think! Only then you'll have found your style.

Skirting the issue

2011-08-01T23:41:00.000+03:00

Pleated skirts are the new "It" items. I know this because besides the constant editorials showcasing granny-ish pleats, Pinterest pins and blog posts, I even get those annoying pop-up ads letting me know that "now- I-can buy the "It" item of 2011, the pleated skirt, at an incredible price".
Not that I ever clicked on a pop-up ad or cared too much about "It" items but seeing these recent Prada ads got me thinking.

Pleated skirts in pastel colours? Hmm, I had bought a similar one during a recent second hand shopping spree. Mine isn't yellow or that pretty melon-y colour but lavender. Still a cute pastel shade. And it only cost me 5 lei (something like 1, 10 euro.) whereas I don't even want to think how much the Prada skirts cost. Probably something close to "1 flight to South America" which, as I have already written before, is my new imaginary absolute currency.
Here are some (pretty bad since I haven't yet fixed my camera) pictures of my skirt. I really like the grainy texture of its fabric.

Moral of the story is why pay a fortune for something if you can either diy or find it in a second hand store for a fraction of the price? And since I seriously believe I am spotting a new trend, "granny-ism", dressing like your grandma, that is, second hand, vintage, thrift or whatever you wish to call them stores are the places to shop. Just keep your eyes wide open because the shabby skirt or dress you're ignoring might look like the coolest designer item if paired with the right clothes and accessories.

Links à la Mode: The IFB Weekly Roundup

2011-07-26T17:04:00.000+03:00

Style is what you make it. We are all different and beautiful in our own ways. Many of us have different techniques to display how we want to present ourselves. Some people are very “structured” “prim and proper” and live by a color scheme while others go wild with mixing patterns and have the “unpolished” and “don’t care” look. It’s all about where you get your inspiration from and your personality in general.

Here are some classic quotes on style:

“Fashion fades, style is eternal.” -YSL
“Fashion is not something that exist only in dresses. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” -Coco Chanel
“‘Style’ is an expression of individualism mixed with charisma. Fashion is something that comes after style.” -John Fairchild

Links à la Mode: July 21st

a tout le monde: When You Smile, I Smile
Adventures in Refashioning: FFB: Fashion, Social Class, and the Ethics of Thrifting
Angela Osborn: Considering Color
Beyond Fabric: Pea(k)ocking
Blogging for Bucks: Why I Don’t Just Blog “For Me”
Castle Fashion: Fashion Blogging…In This Economy?
fashioned by love: Seaside glamour
Fish Monkey’s Writing Stuff: Project Runway returns
Forever Amber: Blogging for Bucks
i am sugar-stoned.: What’s Inside My 11’ Cambridge Satchel
Independent Fashion Bloggers: A Guide to Using Your DSLR for Bloggers
Leia’s Delights: Sunday Musings: Why Outfit Posts?
Kirstin Marie: DIY Floral Mary Janes
LAW OF FASHION: i wore this…to work [cocktail dress + marni coat]
Lifestyles of the Thrifty and Shameless: Can You Handle Me the Way I’m Are?
Lily Pepper: Figure Templates
{morbid glamour}: One Shot: Olsen Twins
QQueen of Hearts: Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty
Sugar and Spice: Style Inspiration from Kate Middleton’s shoe rack
The Fashion Igloo: Geishas like Sushi (Part 1)
TheStylishButterfly: How Becky Bloomwood’s Wardrobe ended up on my side bar

SPONSOR:
Bikini Sale at Shopbop: Parker bikinis, Tori Praver, Salt Swimwear, OndadeMar, Naelie, Zimmerman, Juicy Couture, Rosa Cha, Vix, Tyler Rose, & Brette Sandler

Green dress

2011-07-26T10:56:00.000+03:00

The other day I saw an old lady wearing a dress just like the ones in this F/W 2011 ad.

I contemplated for a minute the thought of attacking her and stealing her dress. Then again, it would be the most ridiculous reason for getting in trouble with the police, so no. Not gonna do it. Besides, if I check enough vintage stores I bet I can find a similar dress. It's not like Romanian girls are fighting over grandma dresses, no matter how green or how reminiscent of fashion campaigns they might be.
And while I have always loved foxes I think they only belong in forests where they should be left alone. Killing an animal just for its fur or skin is wrong. So no fox-y companion for me.
Unless I resurrect that fox fur stole my grandma used to wear.

But, taking into account my love of foxes, I always found her stole extremely creepy with its still glass eyes and odd, dry parchment like muzzle and paws . (see above, super creepy, right?)

Or maybe I can use my cat....he does look a bit like a polar fox with those pointy ears and fluffy tail. Though I bet he's gonna be mighty pissed.
So, dress and fox substitute- I might be able to get but what about the bag, that beautiful, beautiful bag?

Fashion vs style (or why I'll always buy/ search for the cheap alternatives)

2011-07-25T16:43:00.001+03:00

I was browsing The Youthquake.com today for some inspiration (seriously, that site's a goldmine) when I saw this:

Ugh, that's so cool, I thought. I couldn't pinpoint exactly what drew me to the image, otherwise an image borrowing heavily from the California goddess cliche, with the US flag in the background and the blonde model with Lauren Hutton hair.
I even pinned the photo on my pinterest wall, under the "crispy clean style" header (ahem, ahem, sorry for the shameless self promotion).
Then the answer clicked in my mind: flow-y blouse, skinny black jeans and...the goddamn black fringed boots! Sure, they were all things I owned and wore a lot of times. Admittedly, I never looked as glamorous as the Vogue model but I owned several variations of the outfit she was wearing. Not to be bragging here since I suppose most women my age probably own at least a pair of skinny black jeans and a chiffon/silk/whatever blouse....And s*&t, those damn boots! I had owned two pairs of those: one leather pair which had disintegrated after a week of intense clubbing and running around in rain in Berlin and one which looked exactly like the boots in the picture, side fringe and all. They were obviously not leather since they cost me 5 euro and I had bought them in Real (for those unfamiliar with the name, Real is not even a shoe store but a somewhat cheap German supermarket). Sadly, the boots were a size too big and I had to give away to a friend.
After regretting not being able to wear those boots without getting terrible blisters and thus having to give them away, I looked at the caption of the Vogue photo. All the clothing and accessories were from Isabel Marrant. They cost about twice as much as a plane ticket to South America. I equate everything to plane tickets to South America because I am trying to save money to return there. What?! I had payed 5 euros for my boots! I'm not saying the price should have been the same..but still. They were lovely boots but nothing out of the ordinary or even a remotely new idea since I had bought mine 2 years ago.
Then I remembered this article, which I had posted about before. And this video of Isabel Marrant showing her closet . I love the video, it's pretty inspirational. The woman clearly has amazing taste and a unique knack of putting together extremely simple yet beautiful outfits with clothing and accessories which look like anything we can find in thrift stores and even our own closets. But maybe exactly because of this, I'll forgo buying her probably beautifully crafted pieces and instead look for cheapo alternatives.

Red and black

2011-07-24T22:47:00.001+03:00

I've been meaning to return to blogging for a while since I've been super mega busy in the past months and had a lot of things to talk about: I've done a couple of nice diy projects, resigned from my horrible job, got a new job as an assistant producer for a local TV station, traveled to a film festival in Transylvania, decided to almost exclusively buy thrift store and second hand clothing and so on....but my damn camera won't let me download any pictures. And just when I was getting really good with it!

Anyway, I wanted to post a picture of a dress I got from a second hand store in the Crangasi area in Bucharest. I paid 5 lei for it or 4 euro and a bit. It seems handmade as the red hearts attached to the frills still show their rough, cut but not sewn edges. I love it so much that were it not obscenely short I would probably wear it a lot. But since my ass can be entirely visible when I wear it I've decided that:
a) I'll wear it with tights for Halloween as part of my Queen of Hearts costume. (so what if it's only July, I looove, looove Halloween and it's never too early to plan my costume)
b) put a pencil skirt underneath it and wear it as a peplum dress.

Did I mention the dress is red and black? I normally steer away from that color combo as it can often seem vulgar but this time I love it. So, until I get my camera to function again and take a picture of my dress, I'll leave you with some literary inspiration. Not Stendhal's romantic novel but a 1967 book illustrated by Yves Saint Laurent: La Vilaine Lulu (Evil Lulu). The illustrations are entirely black and red. Conspiracy theorists claim that the book promotes satanism(wtf?! in this case, so do the stories by the Brothers Grimm) but I think La Vilaine Lulu promotes just a mean sense of style.

Desde bien guacho siempre he tenido una tendencia a la espantajeria y a la mamarrachez

2011-03-21T12:31:00.003+02:00

I've had this link for a while in my un-posted blog musings.

For those of you who understand Spanish:
Isn't it amazing how a comedy sketch that's 3 or 4 years old sounds almost exactly like the real deal? I've always loved Muchachada Nui but now I think of re-watching all their old "ceeeeelebrities" videos just in case they contain more hints about the future. Because you can't get more real than having (a fake) John Galliano proclaim: " Desde bien guacho siempre he tenido una tendencia a la espantajeria y a la mamarrachez!" ( extremely approximate translation, I'm afraid English isn't as rich in slang words as Spanish: Ever since I was a kid I've always had a tendency towards being a jerk and making a fool of myself)

You should also see this Dorian Gray inspired sketch- pure genius!

Mess

2011-03-20T16:04:00.000+02:00

It's not that I'm lazy (well, maybe a little or just a huge procrastinator) but the reason I haven't made any blogging appearance lately, despite my earlier promises, is that I've been incredibly busy and...well, just plain tired.

I am currently going through a "fuck this crisis phase" as I've worked on average 12-14 hours/day this past month (with no extra hours payment, ugh) and struggled to write my MA thesis (I admit it's so boring I'm still struggling with it).

I miss my old nomadic life (2 years, 4 countries), I miss having my own place (living with your family sucks), going out 4 or 5 times a week and dancing (I'm scared to think when was the last time I did that), my friends...Yeah, I know some might say what I'm going through is called growing up and that nostalgia is inevitable but I just wish I had more time for myself and/or a better paid, less tiring job. Anyway, enough with the whining!

Here's some pics of what a huge, gigantic mess my room is:

it's the result of the aforementioned struggle to finish icky thesis, very little sleep and the sudden realization that when moving into a new home while I was abroad my parents mixed all my art books with my poli sci ones.Lots of things need rearranging: from my bookshelf to my life

Inuksuk and beautiful novel by Roberto Bolano. I love the book and it's author but Bolano had such a specific, heavy narrative style that I'm still working on finishing the book.

My hair is also in need of some tlc, here's me looking like a zombie afro-sporting fraggle on Saturday, before heading off to work.

This is a postcard of Der Kleine Prinz or Le Petit Prince/ El Principito/The Little Prince/Micul Print etc. next to some random postcards and objects from places and people I love. Some people have mood boards, I have a mood mess :)

I found this weird little photo hidden in some old school papers. It's transparent because it's been ripped off some plasticized ID. I like how I look like some sort of ghost in it. The teenage angst visible on my face also adds to the ghostly feel.


Speaking of teenage angst, this is the ancient(10 yrs old), stained t-shirt I've been living in this past week. Can you see what it says? "I want to be the girl with the most cake."

So, I end this rant/post with an anthem of my youth and I suppose current state of mind and the promise that I'll try and clean up the mess.

Looks good enough to eat!

2011-02-07T18:35:00.001+02:00

    Ta-daa, I make my triumphant return to blogging and my first post of 2011 is about 2 of my favourite topics ever: fashion and food! Whenever I am trying to procrastinate as much as possible I spend time browsing fashion and food blogs. Fashion-wise, I admit I can't do too much besides write (and I usually do that only when I like something a lot). However, I can cook and one of my biggest dreams, never mentioned so far, is to go to culinary school and also take some molecular cuisine classes, then open my own restaurant.
     Despite my passion for both fashion and food, I'm usually not that impressed when I read about edible clothes. They're either those corny type of diabetes-inducing underwear made of pink candy or some equally high on sugar "couture" dresses meant to showcase a chocolatier's prowess.
   Needless to say, I was incredibly impressed when I saw Emily Crane's "Micro-nutrient couture", a collection of garments made from the same gelatins, agar-agar, food coloring, water or glycerin on fastcodesign.com . Not only are her creations beautiful, having a sort of imponderability or frothy lightness to them but they're also eco-friendly and I bet they they taste good, too. Besides, I really like the premise of the collection, the idea that in a (post-apocalyptic) future with resources being scarce we won't be wearing bacon dresses but molecular foams made out of water and gelatin.
Credit:
fastcodesign.com, http://emilycrane.co.uk/micronutrientcouture.html

.
Micro-Nutrient Couture from Emily Crane on Vimeo.

Marina,Marina, Marina

2010-12-23T22:28:00.002+02:00

Do you know that awful song? Well, thank God I'm not going to write about it in this post!
Instead I'm going to post the beautiful Elle Serbia cover and editorial with Marina Abramovic. Not familiar with her? Well, she's not a model or an actress but one of the most influential contemporary artists, a woman who's been repelling and attracting the public with her performance art ever since the early 1970s.

Magazine covers are usually reserved to models, actresses, singers, mostly young, attractive, styled and photo shopped within an inch of their lives. It's a well known complaint that the covers of Vogue US are getting harder and harder to tell apart and just check out the weird, "icon with halo"-like image of superimposed Vogue covers:http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2010/december/vogue-covers-2010.
Naturally, I think it's awesome that Elle Serbia decided to feature "the grandmother of performance art" on its cover. And she might be styled to boot but would you believe she is 64?

Oh, and this was not the first time Marina Abramovici was featured on the cover of a fashion mag. In September 2010 she appeared next to male model Tyson Ballou on one of the double covers of V Magazine (the other cover featured Lady Gaga and Tom Ford, which isn't that surprising taking into account Gaga has cited Marina Abramovici as a major influence http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVY4Whayw0s)

credit: designscene.com

Hermes finger skateboard

2010-12-22T08:58:00.000+02:00

I collect finger puppets, remember? And this might be the only Hermes product I could ever afford, hehe!

video found via http://woads.blogspot.com/

Flower invasion

2010-12-22T01:26:00.001+02:00

I saw this Stella McCartney dress

and thought to myself: uff, one can never escape work!

...because I dedicated a lot of today to writing articles and doing research on the best sold works of art on the Romanian art market in 2010 (luckily they were all sold by the same auction house so my research wasn't that difficult). Anyway, my conclusion was classical art sells the best in this country and a lot of the top ten art sales (5 out of 10) were "still lifes with flowers". Not the most encouraging news concerning our art market and buyer's tastes but the paintings are still really beautiful. So, here's a selection of what I found by typing "flowers" in that auction house's search engine (I'll borrow more of their images and those of other auction houses, never thought they had way more pictures than museums):

CREDIT:

I labeled all the images with the author's name and title (in Romanian). All images taken from: http://www.artmark.ro

Provocative habit

2010-12-21T21:25:00.000+02:00

Today when I saw the Who, what, wear newsletter I was reminded of the YSL A/W '10 collection and the inspiration it drew from nun's habits.

There's a great article in ANOTHER magazine about YSL, wimples and fashion so I won't dwell on the subject of head covers as frames for the face or on their erotic potential.
I'll just talk about Stefano Pilati's inspiration. A lot of bloggers have said he was inspired by Audrey Hepburn in the 1959 movie "A nun's story", or by one of Yves' old collections, others have pointed out that it must be again one of those years when we toy with religious provocation since Gaga herself appeared as a nun.

Of course, it's been several years since the Queen Bee herself donned a nun's suit- and she didn't even bother to do it for a special video, just for a costume party.

However, I'd say the original provocative nun was Theresa de Avila.
Not the Spanish saint herself, although one might be inclined to do so if one reads her account of her mystical vision:

"I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the iron's point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it. The soul is satisfied now with nothing less than God. The pain is not bodily, but spiritual; though the body has its share in it. It is a caressing of love so sweet which now takes place between the soul and God, that I pray God of His goodness to make him experience it who may think that I am lying^{." (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecstasy_of_Saint_Theresa )}

or parts of her poetry:

"....All that I fear is but loose thee.
Love's whole possession I entreat,....
What more desires for thee remain,
Save but to love again,
And all on flame with love within,
Love on, and turn to love again."
(If Lord Thy love for me is strong)

But Gian Lorenzo Bernini's masterpiece "Saint Theresa's Ecstasy"!

Yeah, it is a religious statue which can be seen in Santa Maria della Vittoria church in Rome but just check out the details and tell me if this sculpture done in the mid-17th century isn't the most provocative image of a nun ever. Things are never as new or as tongue in cheek as we think they are yet I think Stefano Pilati had a little touch of genius when referencing a nun's habit and some rather intriguing moments in art history (movies on nuns included) in these confused and confusing times.

hard times: low cost living - second hand shopping

2010-12-19T19:54:00.001+02:00

I suppose I'm gonna make this post bilingual since I'll link to a weekly Romanian cultural magazine, Dilema Veche, which discussed "low cost living" and of course, shopping at second hand stores and fairs.
The articles really resonated with me because:
1. I'm a young person trying to figure out how to make the best out of la vida low cost- I almost exclusively fly either low cost or with special offers, buy most things from cosmetics to food on sale and thrift, thrift, thrift!
2. Speaking of thrifting-the reason for my absence is that I've been away on work for the past weeks. And what struck me the most at the small, Western Romanian (that's Transylvanian, for all non-Romanians wishing for some extra chuckles) I was visiting was the sheer number of second hand stores. On one street alone, I counted 12 such shops. And while waiting in the car for a coworker I counted around 60-70 people entering a store in less than 15 minutes. All of whom I saw leaving with full bags. Curious, I got out of the car to see what kind of store it was. A second hand one, of course, and running a special offer of 3 lei=70 euro cents=92 US cents per item. I didn't think I'd get any time to visit the stores but one evening one of my previously sturdy boots decided to give up and fall apart in the snow so after work skipped to one of those small, narrow streets filled with second hand goodies. I only had 1 hour and little hope but for a grand total of 70 euros I got: a previously unworn, still with tag, pair of black suede boots with special, anti-sliding soles, 2 leather skirts, 1 pair of leather pants, 1 green pure wool skirt, 1 pink boucle skirt, 1 virgin wool scarf (pressed in front of my eyes by the store owner for extra warmth!), 2 pairs of Sisley office pants, 1 office cotton shirt, 2 over-sized shirts- one in turquoise corduroy, the other in checked flannel, 2 pullovers, 1 snowboarding jacket, 1 pair of Fornarina jeans, 3 pairs of Cavalli jeans (a bit trashy, I know, but I think I can make them work if I pair them with a crisp, white shirt), 1 cotton t-shirt with hand sewn decoration, 1 blue Anthropologie wool cardigan, 1 brown Elena Miro wool vest and 1 houndstooth Kookai jacket! Need I mention they were all in pristine condition and, unlike most items in thrift stores in Bucharest, did not smell of old, stale clothing? I'll need to arrange some longer shopping sessions in that part of the country.
Too bad there's still some social stigma associated with second hand shopping and most of my co-workers would have looked down on me had they known I got so many of my clothes there. Maybe I'll talk about it in another post, in the mean time those who speak Romanian enjoy these articles:

-"The second (hand) history of my youth" in which the author reminisces about her 1st contact with second hand clothes (anyone remembers the post 1989 Revolution aid packages from abroad, filled with clothing and toys?), her first trips into the colorful world of second hand bazaars and her almost OCD relation with the clothes she has bought over the years. http://www.dilemaveche.ro/sectiune/tema-saptaminii/articol/istorie-second-tinere-ii-mele

-"Second hand for who?"- an anthropological study of the diverse customers of thrift stores, from grandparents trying to make their pensions last longer to hipsters looking for cool, retro clothing. http://www.dilemaveche.ro/sectiune/tema-saptaminii/articol/mina-doua-cine

-"The second hand bazaar"- a recount of the things one sees, hears and does and of the wildly heterogenous crowd one meets in a Romanian second hand bazaar aka targ de vechituri aka talcioc. http://www.dilemaveche.ro/sectiune/tema-saptaminii/articol/tirgul-vechituri

Andrei Plesu... despre moda

2010-12-19T12:48:00.000+02:00

http://www.dilemaveche.ro/sectiune/situatiunea/articol/moda

"Andrei PLEŞU | nici aşa, nici altminteri

Despre modă

- întrebări și răspunsuri -
Redacţia Dilemei vechi, la propunerea colaboratoarei noastre Maria Iordănescu, a lansat, către tineretul şcolar din România, o invitaţie: invitaţia de a imagina un set de întrebări cărora să le dau răspuns în paginile revistei. La urmă, vom alege seria interogativă cea mai coerentă şi mai provocatoare şi o vom publica drept cel mai bun interviu al anului. Deocamdată, pe măsură ce întrebările vin, mă voi strădui să le răspund una cîte una, în funcţie de răgazurile şi de competenţele mele. Le mulţumesc, oricum, tuturor celor care au reacţionat deja.
Domnişoara Cristina Nicorici de la Liceul „Traian Lalescu“ (din Bucureşti? din Brăneşti? din Reşiţa?) mă întreabă, printre altele, ce părere am despre modă. E limpede că o interesează domeniul şi că se gîndeşte chiar la o micro-rubrică la Dilema veche pe această temă. Îi voi răspunde, mai întîi, că subiectul în sine este pasionant. Departe de a fi un moft „consumist“, o frivolitate oarecare, vestimentaţia este o marcă subtilă a omenescului. Ea stimulează şi exprimă mutaţii importante ale imaginarului colectiv, ale răsturnărilor de mentalitate, ale modului în care personalitatea umană înţelege să se pună în scenă pentru sine şi pentru ceilalţi. Pentru ilustrare, mă voi mărgini la două exemple. Jakob Burckhardt, în cartea sa Cultura Renaşterii în Italia (pe care o recomand călduros domnişoarei Nicorici, amintindu-i că a apărut şi în traducere românească în 1969) semnalează drept simptom caracteristic al civilizaţiei renascentiste interesul fără precedent pentru personalizarea vestimentaţiei. Descoperirea individualităţii, a profilului irepetabil pe care fiecare ins îl propune lumii, consolidarea valorii de unicat a „personalităţii“ – toate atribute definitorii ale modernităţii incipiente – s-au manifestat public printr-o spectaculoasă atenţie acordată modului de a te îmbrăca, aşa încît să te deosebeşti de ceilalţi, printr-un stil, printr-o opţiune vestimentară cît mai pregnantă. Cu alte cuvinte, modernitatea a apărut pe scena lumii printr-o revoluţie a îmbrăcăminţii.(Vezi partea a cincea, capitolul 2 din lucrarea lui Burckhardt.)
Despre un efect similar al schimbării de „modă“ se poate vorbi şi în cazul modernităţii româneşti, înmugurite şi consolidate în a doua jumătate a secolului 19. Un text caracteristic pe acestă temă aparţine lui Alecu Russo şi se intitulează Studie moldovană. Trecerea de la costumaţia orientală a sfîrşitului de veac 18 la hainele „nemţeşti“, care cîştigă teren după 1848, nu a fost o simplă modificare de „ambalaj“, ci una de atitudine, de viziune civică şi politică, de comportament. Iată minunata analiză a lui Russo: „Precum primăvara rupe gheaţa, umflă pîraiele şi porneşte puhoaiele, aşa schimbarea costumului fu semnul pornirii duhului de deşteptare. Ideea şi progresul au ieşit din coada fracului şi din buzunarul jeletcii; repejunea revoluţiei fu măreaţă, furioasă, dărmînd în dreapta şi-n stînga bunul şi răul, clătinînd toate obiceiurile şi toate credinţele oamenilor vechi; şalvarii încurcau slobozenia mişcării, calpacele şi işlicele îngreuiau capul, de aceea rămaserăm în urma civilizaţiei; am trîntit tot la pămînt, să alergăm mai iute, prefacerea hainelor a prefăcut de îndată condiţiile sociale ale lumii noastre, precum şi relaţiile familiei. Emancipaţia copiilor de sub frica şi palmele pedagogului se trage de la pantaloni... Înrîurirea morală a pantalonului a fost nemărginită... De cînd pantalonii, sistema educaţiei s-a schimbat! Frica, varga şi ciubucul au lipsit.“
Subiectul merită dezvoltat şi o voi face, poate, într-un articol viitor. Pînă una alta, mulţumesc domnişoarei Nicorici pentru întrebare. Cît despre rubrică, mai vorbim. Nu e, întotdeauna, bine să adopţi, la 16 ani, vestmintele maturităţii. Deşi rezultatul poate fi simpatic. Dacă, totuşi, vă simţiţi îndemnată să produceţi ceva, riscaţi! Trimiteţi-ne o mostră!"

Here's a new batch of IFB'S links a la mode

2010-12-01T03:05:00.002+02:00

Uff, I haven't been so busy since...forever! I'm working overtime and trying to convince some co-workers to lay the bitchiness aside, I'm not their competition! So, please bear with me, I promise I'll post a very cool new story on Meret Oppenheim, Surrealism and fashion asap! In the mean time, here's the newest batch of Links a la mode! Enjoy1

Giving Thanks

Edited by: Holier than Now
It's Thanksgiving here in the U.S. and many of us are looking forward to the Black Friday sales - oh wait, I mean spending time with our families and friends! But it's wonderful (and kind of weird) that so many of the people that influence and support us on a daily basis won't be gathered around our table; they'll be hanging around our web address, retweeting our (sometimes) witty comments, liking our latest post on Facebook, etc. Whether or not you celebrate turkey day, as a blogger it's hard not to be full of gratitude for the resources we share on a regular basis. This week, Tickle Me Chic helps ban the blogging blues, Previously Owned does your holiday gift shopping for you, and Make the World a Prettier Place sums up the reason so many of us are grateful just to be alive (hello? fashion!) with a visual history.

Links à la Mode: November 25th

Be Fabulous Daily Applying old-school academic standards of original content and citation of sources to fashion blogging
Boheme Noir Best outfits 2010 of style icon Giovanna Battaglia
Fashion Butter: How to DIY Fur Collar with Chains
Fish Monkey's Writing Stuff Lanvin + H&M: Is there a downside?
Frock and Roll A code of ethnics for advertorials on your blog
Grit and Glamour RSS and Sharing for Dummies—and Lazies
Haute Halifax Out of sight, out of mind? A look at the impact of the textile industry in Africa
Holier than Now The Under $50 Gift Guide: Fashion, guy-friendly goods, eco and charitable finds and more
Independent Fashion Bloggers: Are you addicted to blogging?
Make the World a Prettier Place 30 Vogue covers from 1922 to 2005
Mary Van Notes A vintage style post from a tree house
Pancake Stacker Lessons from "Changing Fashion: Internet and Blogging" featuring Liz of Late Afternoon, Yvan Rodic of The Face Hunter, and more
Positively Bleak Tips on staving off the winter blues - with a bonus compilation of free demos and EPs from alternative rock bands!
Previously Owned A carefully selected gift list for the foodie, fashionable, beauty obsessed and generous
The Chic Curve Winter coats for everyBODY. No matter what size or shape, there is a fabulous jacket just for you!
The Coveted: Frock Luxury Vintage: A local NYC discovery
The Fashion Pawn The Business of Blogging: Your Blog Brand
The Lingerie Addict: 5 things Every Woman Should Know About Her Lingerie
The New Professional A bloglover's tips for keeping up with your blog reading
Tickle Me Chic: Get rid of those blogging blues: Tips and links to ban discouragement
Wanderlost 10 things to look forward to this winter

SPONSOR:
Shopbop bags: Burch, Matt & Natt, Minkoff, IRO, Botkier, Gryson, LAMB, Chloe, BE&D, DVF

IFB Links a la mode -November 18 edition

2010-11-23T14:04:00.000+02:00

A bit late, I know, but I just started 2 different jobs and I've had almost zero time to blog. (will try to finally write a big fashion history post about animal print this week, promise!)Anyway, here's what usually goes on my mandatory fashion reads list every weekend:

When fashion teaches you a lesson

Edited by: Marie Denee of The Curvy Fashionista

As fashion bloggers, we are often the ones sharing and giving advice about fashion. But what happens when fashion turns the table on us and teaches us a lesson or two? From learning how to be thrifty, coping through a crisis, or the economy, these fashion bloggers took a cue from fashion’s lessons and turned them into a delicious and delectable read- and I have rounded these up for you…

Links à la Mode: November 18th

Almost Sober Mag: Pull It, Push It and Come Back When You Proved It: Direct experience from a newly established independent publisher: a week as a fashion editor.
Beyond Fabric: On the relation between Body Language and Fashion Photography
Dedicated Follower: To Write Love on Her Arms – I join the movement and write love on my arms in honor of a lost friend.
Exiled from the City: Throughout the past few years, there has been a paradigm shift in consumer variables and the function of fashion.
For those about to Shop: Society must take some responsibility for the dangerous obsession to be thin.
Freeda Style: “Appropriate Attire” Are ALL the old rules of fashion dead? Or should some survive?
Haute World: Grace Kelly Exhibition: How a royal style icon can teach us a lesson in thriftiness.
Heathers Design Blog: Musings on fashion now and fashion then, based on the exhibit “Fashioning Fashion” at LACMA.
Independent Fashion Bloggers: Self-Promotion 101: It’s not about you
LivLux Mag: ComfortZones: Even Fashionistas get insecure when trying new styles.
Make the World a Prettier Place: History of Fashion: The New Look (1947)
Miss Vinyl Ahoy: I’ve read some negative comments about the 30 for 30 challenge, and wanted to explain more of what it is and why people should care about it, from my POV.
Modesty Theory: Welcome to Hijabi Fashion Week- showcasing the style of Muslim women for various occasions.
Oh My Massila: Reflections on the crossroads between fashion and feminism.
Previously Owned: The tale of the “00s” Vintage and the mockery of the consumer… Are we becoming victims of the mass media?
RetroChick: Why Fashion isn’t Frivolous
Return to Sender: Sometimes life gets in the way of fashion. How I Survive A Crisis
Searching for Style: Fashion 101: Who Owns What. The lowdown on the big fashion conglomerates and the companies they own.
Socialite Dreams: Sparkly, glam shoes are a must have for the holidays! Twinkle Toes: The Holiday Shoe Guide
Taste and Style: Keep Being YOU.
The Curvy Fashionista: How to determine quality in plus size fashion

SPONSOR:
Shopbop Boots:KORS, Joie, UGG, Coclico, Frye, L.A.M.B, Hunter, Frye, DV, Ash, & 12th St.

Tom Ford is back!

2010-11-18T01:08:00.001+02:00

Isn't this exciting news? I still remember the impact that sleek black suit with the unbuttoned silk shirt, double G belt and Amber Valleta's smokey eyes had on my 10 year old self when I saw it in one of my mum's magazines. It was probably on of the first times I actually got a sense of what "sexy" might be.

And the new collection doesn't disappoint. It's got plunging cleavages both back and front, 70s bell bottoms, beautifully tailored tuxedos, silk, lurex, sequins, fringes, not to mention the tongue in cheek phallic necklaces (check out the 1st pic!)- all trademarks of Mr. Ford's. The biggest innovator in the business he's not, but he readily admits that's not his goal. After so many years helming two legendary fashion houses Ford has become one of the most market savvy designers.

“There’s a continuity from what I was doing at YSL at the end; that’s the customer.” he says in his interview for Vogue. And when he states his "goal is to be like Armani and Chanel.” I think he further proves he wants to make beautiful, practical, well designed and well cut clothes. After all Chanel did advocate a "uniform" of little black dresses, boxy tweed or boucle jackets and was among the first designers to proclaim her love for menswear while Armani is known for his clean cut, fluid designs.

There was one thing that puzzled me in the interview. Ford declares“It’s about individuality. Real clothes, real women. For a fashionable woman aged 25 to 75." while the Vogue writer says "Still, it was the human aspect that let delight and laughter loose in the room: seeing women from age 67 (Miss Hutton) to 22 (Miss Joan Smalls), and of so many shapes and heights."

They might be correct about ages and heights, but shapes? If you look at the list of Ford's "muses"/the women who presented his collection you'll see: Lauren Hutton, Liya Kebede, Rinko Kikuchi, Rachel Feinstein, Lisa Eisner, Beyoncé Knowles, Marisa Berenson, Stella Tennant, Amber Valletta, Natalia Vodianova, Karen Elson, Lakshmi Menon, Karlie Kloss, Abbey Lee Kershaw, Julianne Moore, Rita Wilson.

So, a lot of supermodels (Miss Hutton might be 67 but I doubt there are many women that age who look like her), a singer, socialites and actresses, all drop dead gorgeous but none bigger than a size 4 (European size 40) or maybe a maximum of a size 6 (42). This all happens in a world where people can't stop gushing about Christina Hendrick's curves yet she complains no designers make dresses in her size.

If it's all about "real women" and let's face it, a lot of "real" women are saving up money to buy high fashion then why not try and represent them properly? I am certain that a famous designer "getting real" about clothing sizes would have a fantastic effect on high street fashion, and that's what makes the bulk of the market these days.

credit: http://www.vogue.com/magazine/article/tom-ford-returns/#

Loubutins+measuring tape= measuring our addictions?

2010-11-17T22:06:00.001+02:00

While getting my daily dose at Notcot.org I stumbled upon these shoes (this shoe?! it's only 1 in the picture, promo images be damned) from the s/s '11 Christian Louboutin collection.

    Loubutins are currently THE shoes to wear for any red carpet appearance. I can't even count the number of blogs where girls sallivate all over them. The shoes with the royal red soles are such a fashion and status icon that they even have (sadly kinda crappy) pop songs dedicated to them.
     So what to make of this particular style? Should we assume it's a nudge to the diet obsessed Hollywood? I once saw a snippet of an E! Access Hollywood show where the obnoxious reporter who looked a bit like Gollum was bitching about some actress/ singer's"cankles". Did we reach that part where we actually discuss about how fat one's ankles are? Are there any actual diets to trimm them down (I thought ankle width was a matter of bone thickness and muscle)?
      Or are they symbolizing the sacrifices and pain so many women endure for the love of shoes? How many times haven't we wished we had a different shoe size, wider or narrower feet, different shaped toes etc.? Cinderella's ugly step sisters- we've all been them at one point or another, all least in thought!

credit: http://rawshoes.wordpress via http://www.notcot.org

Kazumasa Nagai-the universe encased in a poster

2010-11-17T10:30:00.002+02:00

It seems today I really am in a mood for color& graphics.

I was searching for the name of some artists on the site of the Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe (Museum for Arts and Crafts) in Hamburg when I found the amazing work of Kazumasa Nagai. Well, "found" isn't really a proper term as this man, born in 1929, is Japan's foremost poster and graphic design artist. Obviously, he is a huge influence on youn artists all over the world but there's little information in English about him online.The MKG blurb mentions that he has a special interest in environmental themes, which is actually pretty visible from the sheer number of natured themed posters he designed. They also say that each year Kazumasa Nagai creates 6 silk screen prints centered around an environmental related motif.

Good old Google helped me find this wonderful post on the blog of artist Rob Dunlavey as well as another one, chock full of images, on the really cool Animalarium. (both blogs added to favourites list)

The artist was quoted as saying: "My style and idiom have changed from the abstarct and universe-related themes that I worked on for many years to living things and plants. What I pursue, however, has not changed. The universe and mankind both have a uniform order that I express." (taken from the Komori calendar http://bit.ly/dDueJS ).

I am in awe of his ever changing techniques, his mixing of traditional Japanese wood block prints with modern elements, of the intense visual impact his precise shapes and bold colors have, especially when paired with a powerful, extremely simplified background!

I couldn't stop adding more and more images so because of the huge size of this post, you'll see Nagai's work after the jump.

*So interesting that a preference for the work of a certain artist can mean very similar tastes. I've discovered many incredible websites and blogs, which are all know safely bookmarked. Click on the pictures if you're in the mood for exploring.

Marimekko-ekko-ekko!

2010-11-17T09:00:00.001+02:00

Colors-no matter how bright- make me happy! And my OCD tendencies tend to manifest themselves a lot when it comes to clothes with stripes, polka dots and any other geometric shapes.

For someone as supremely unorganised as myself, I guess the marriage between bright colors or the two non-colors and any graphic print seems like the perfect mix between chaos and order, the wild, pulsating energy of the color being contained by the precise outline of the geometric shape.

It's only normal then I dream of getting my hands on some Marimekko dresses and shirts. Marrimeko being a company founded in 1951 by a Finish couple called Armi and Viljo Ratia. They asked some graphic designer friends to help them launch a clothing line inspired by contemporary art and the newly emerging interest in wearable, practically shaped garments.
Americans associate Marimekko with the groovy 60s. One would assume it's because of the often psychedelic prints but actually it's because of Jackie O, who wore some (wikipedia says 8) dresses back when she was called Kennedy and her husband was campaigning for the US presidency.

In time, Marimekko branched into home furnishing and, especially around Scandinavia, it's a huge, household name. It's products are not exactly expensive, but neither are they cheap as I sadly learned 2 years ago in Denmark when I went inside their store one rainy day to buy matching polka dot umbrella and boots and promptly left when I realized they cost the same as one month rent for my student room.

Still, here's the adorable video of their newest collection, which makes me wish I had a green thumb and straight black hair cut a la garconne.

Marimekko Spring/Summer 2011 from The Cool Hunter on Vimeo.

Spread around the post are the clothes from the current Marimekko collection I'd buy if I had the money.

credits:
http://www.marimekko.fi
http://www.thetrendygirl.net/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marimekko

Miss Illy - have a vey coffee addicted holiday!

2010-11-17T02:02:00.001+02:00

What do these images of

Anita Ekberg in "La Dolce Vita"

Deborah Kerr in "The Innocents"

or this painting called "Seaside" by 19th century artist James Tissot

have in common with about 80% of the cafes in Bucharest and with the sartorial misshaps of a lot of starlets as chronicled on Gofugyourself ?

The answer is coffee bags, filters, cups, spoons and everything else coffee related, all shaped into a special dress.
(Seriously, I've long been worshipping the two brilliant ladies behind Gofugyourself but I never knew they had the power to tell the future. To wit: the very long list of coffee related fashions one gets by using "coffee filters" as search terms on their website, http://bit.ly/8Xr906 )
And in the case of Romanian cafes- it's more, it's also Illy coffee, a brand that really seems omnipresent here.
In fact, Illy is a pretty huge brand, so big they got Simon Doonan, Barney's creative director to create a Miss Illy wearing a coffee bag ball gown for the store's famous holiday window display.

Doonan is right to try and attract attention to“ the dissonance between fashion and food” by naming this year's theme "Have a foodie holiday". And I am quite happy with celebrity chefs- actually talented individuals- hogging the spotlight instead of some random reality stars. Which brings me to the only point where I don't agree with Doonan. When he says “We were going to call her Contessa Caffeina, but we decided she’s no Italian aristocrat, she’s a nice Jersey girl." I really hope he doesn't have any of the RHONJ or Jersey Shore stars in mind.

credits:
http://www.ecouterre.com
http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/

CLUMSY DIY- Salamander puppet bracelet

2010-11-16T12:02:00.003+02:00

*After the previous, oh-so-serious post I feel I should lighten up the blog atmosphere a bit and start with what I hope it might be the first episode of a ridiculous series for clumsy DIY-ers.

DIY never was my thing. As a kid I almost failed home economics several times, which is absolutely ridiculous in Romania. I couldn't sew, knit or crochet and even had problems when it came to glueing bits of shapes on paper.Oddly enough I love cooking and can easily diy around the house, but anything that had to do with this other type of more fashion or deco crafts flew over my head.

Until last week, when inspiration struck! Like any 20something on a low budget but with (hopefully)decent taste in furniture and decoration I also worship at the altar of that obnoxious Scandinavian deity, Ikea. Sure, Ingvar Kamprad might be a hypocritical s.o.b. but he sure knows how to pick his designers. So, after buying the storage boxes and "belly-sleeper" pillow I needed, I wandered into the kiddy section. Blame it on me being a kid-dult or on my kindergarden teacher mum, but I collect toys. I might loathe those annoying teddy bears with mushy love messages as well as Barbies and their ilk but I love marionettes and finger puppets. Every time I travel somewhere I try to buy one that might symbolize my new experience, like Al the Alpaca I got in Chile, Lupe & the girls from Mexico or Karl the Bunny I bought on May 1 at the Work Museum in Hamburg.
This time, I found herr Lindhorst the Salamander hidden in a metal basket full of toys. (He is named after a character from E.T.A. Hoffman's novel The Golden Pot, the trippiest book a child can ever read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Golden_Pot ).

Anyway, as I was walking home with Lindhorst the Salamander attached to my finger, I thought he looked pretty neat perched on my hand. And somehow, the thought of having a reptilian or amphibian on one's hand reminded me of the amazing Art Nouveau jewels Alphonse Mucha and Georges Fouquet designed for actress Sarah Bernhardt.

Hence my "clumsy diy" (tm), which is nowhere as beautiful or classy but good old kitschy fun. If you're a frequent DIY-er, please don't feel offended by my idiotic attempt, it's only some light hearted fun.

1. I turned the salamander on his back and decided where the ribbon would go.

2.I cut the nasty Ikea apendage aka giant tags.

3. I got a black ribbon. As I'm not a frequent diy-er, I found one with polka dots attached to some cosmetics box and just turned it around.

4. I sewed the ribbon to the puppet's tail.

5. I tied the ribbon around my wrist.

If you have followed the same easy steps you are now the proud owner of a finger puppet Salamander bracelet! I should add herr Lindhorst had a lot of adorable siblings in his Ikea cage and all could be suited to different zany DIY projects.

Photo credit: all pictures were taken by me except the one of the Mucha/Fouquet bracelet which was taken from this awesome blog http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/ .

Mini Prix- a Romanian discount obsession

2010-11-16T09:00:00.002+02:00

Warning: long winded post about a Romanian discount retailer, read at your own risk if not Romanian or interested in this business ;)

    I still remember one of the first Mini Prix stores I first set foot in, it was in downtown Bucharest, in the Piata Romana area- not upstairs from the McDonalds, but across the street from it, where Terranova is nowadays. I was curious and a bit wary: it smelled a little of old clothes, the light was barely entering the warehouse-like store and my mum had heard some nasty rumours about cameras installed inside the changing rooms. Still, I was pretty content: I had found the cool, Goth style dress I had spied on the Zara website (yes, this happened during those ancient times when Zara didn't yet rule the Romanian malls), tag still intact, with the old price ostentatiouly pushed aside by the new one: not 40 euros anymore, but 90.000 old lei or 9 RON, meaning exactly 2 euros! This was well within the bounds of my teenage budget so I didn't even wait to get to the changing room but instead slipped it on overhead. Next to me, my friend, pissed that she hadn't spotted the dress first, begged me to break the rule of not wearing the same clothes and let her buy the other mythical Goth dress on sale. I relented, of course. I might like "Mean Girls" a lot but in high school I was definitely more Janice Ian than Regina George.

      Back then, Mini Prix- a discount store stocking high street clothing from a few seasons ago- was a bit of an inside secret. The most faithfull customers were middle class mothers who could buy cute clothes for their growing brood, the impoverished class still trying to survive in the re-gentrifying downtown area, a couple of secretive fashionistas and mostly high school students like myself, who could satisfy our craving to be fashionable yet not completely blow our allowances on clothing. I googled Mini Prix and stumbled across some forum conversations from a few years ago, in which many fashionable young ladies professed their disdain for the "old", "damaged" and, oh, the horror, "second hand" clothes that could be found in these stores.

      Around the same time, the retailer was also involved in a political scandal. One of the main stock holders, alongside her (ex ?) husband, was a woman named Ana Maria Cristina, then a 30 year old graduate of the Bucharest School of Medicine and Pharmacolgy, member of the Democratic Liberal Party (then and now the party in power) and president of ARIS or the Romanian Society for Foreign Investment. While she accused the society's vice president of accepting bribes, she was accused herself of favoring some of her business partners through ARIS. Both her and the vice president were told to step down from their official positions and the scandal died down. If the corruption rumors were true, I can't really tell. Cristina declared she was the owner of the rights to the Miniprix franchise and that she conceded those rights to those interested to sell under a franchise, therefore she wasn't involved in the merchandise aquiring game. It should be noted that the company stayed out of scandals afterwards. It's possible the stock changed hands or that the stock holders changed parties, as the company appears on the list of Liberal Party donors last year. Regardless of these tidbits of gossip, I feel politics didn't really play that big a part in Miniprix's market ascension.

      Fast forward 10 years and the situation has changed - a lot! While most fashion retailers are negociating rents, Miniprix has decided to branch out, shut down some of their small town franchises and sell their merchandise online. The site- despite what the web developers at MB Dragan.com claim, is terrible. (Btw, the boys& girls at Dragan should also hire someone to double check their English. I might make the ocassional mistake but this usually happens when I'm tired and writing on my crummy blog. Writting on the company's website about "the most important clothing online store in Romania" is "zah kind of misteik zat iz unahkseptabahl and soundz very Rumeniahn", if you catch my drift.)
Now back to the website: it's slow and outdated, sometimes the most simple queries -say for a particular dress size- can't be performed and you can never be 100% certain all the clothes you've ordered will reach you or if there's only 1 product in stock and 3 people are trying to buy it at the same time. Yet, the guys at MB Dragan state that Miniprix is the no. 1 online retailer in Romania and, according to webarbiter.com , they're right. Miniprix.ro has reached a local rank of 526 while a similar website, like Mycloset.ro , is situated at 745.

      Still, it's not the website, it's the prices. Again, my simple Google search revealed the frenezy with which people across the country await the Miniprix caravans. Not sure if I understood right, but I think this caravan consists, pretty much like a travelling circus, of cars and tents filled with merchandise. Nothing surprising, if one thinks a blouse averages at around 5 euros, winter jackets and jeans at around 10 and leather goods such as jackets or boots at aproximately 70 euros.

     I live in Bucharest so I never got to experience the caravans, however I've been trampled many times by the hundreds of shoppers searching for bargains at all the 3 Miniprix locations in the capital. To avoid what a Portuguese friend who was visiting called this "insane claustrofobic madness", I, of course, like many others order online. I usually team up with my mum and sister while ordering. They're happy the outlet stocks clothing that can also fit chubby, respectively tall people and if our order is more than 100 RON (25 euros) Cargus delivers the package to our door for free.

     There is, nonetheless, a downfall to the site's popularity. Last week, when Miniprix announced 50% off on all the clothing and accessories posted on line, the site crashed. People ordered more items than thre were stocked (again, I think this can be easily solved by the web developer, just try and get inspired by any of the big international retailers, like Asos.com) and the online receipt didn't show the discount. To be honest, I'm curious how this issue will be solved. I also ordered 2 Noa Noa dresses at 5 euros a pop and I really hope to get them, so fingers crossed.
    Do I think that because of the site crashing and some delivery hiccups Miniprix will loose their customers? Definitely not! Actually I would be really curious to see how many visitors the site registered during the sales and the profit they 've made. I kinda have a feeling they're some numbers that will blow the competition out of the water. I'm certain Romanians will shop there as long as:
1. there's something that satisfies their Communism-rooted pathological need to buy. As the Mad Hatter rightly commented on a previous post "There is a subconcious fear that not buying it - it being basically anything - will consequently lead to it dissapearing. It's a form of protective behaviour...they (we) can never be on a lower level that our respective neighbour/friend/family member, etc. If they buy, we must buy." And Miniprix offers not only a lot of merchandise, but also pretty darn cheap one while in the mean time it's also ticking the "X or Y brand" box.
2. there actually are some genuinely good quality items to be found and for really good prices, too. I won't deny I felt an almost perverse satisfaction when I bought a 100% silk dress and some special, hand dyed pants, looked at their original tags to see they retailed for over 120 euros each and realized I had payed no more than 10 euros for both.
I think it was Simone de Beauvoir who once said: "Buying is a profound pleasure" and she was spot on the money!

Must reads- Little Auguri's post on Leonor Fini

2010-11-15T22:23:00.000+02:00

Maybe anyone who stumbles upon my blog won't understand my excitment, but honestly, sometimes following random links is like a treasure hunt with amazing things to be found at the end. In my case, this post on Leonor Fini: http://littleaugury.blogspot.com/2010/11/chez-fini.html .
I wrote my Bachelor thesis on women artists linked to the Surrealist movement so my joy is clearly understandable but honestly go and read the post, be inspired by her awesomely eccentric lifestyle, listen to La Fini purr her explanations of how and why she paints in her great Italo-Argentinian accented French and tell me this wasn't a must read!
All hail La Leonor Fini, santa padrona de los gatos y de las mujeres eccentricas!
credit: http://gnerdy.tumblr.com/post/102795688
http://littleaugury.blogspot.com/

The red beret -Bucharest street style

2010-11-15T17:58:00.000+02:00

So I've done a really bad thing...The sun is shining and the weather's so nice that I've had my (sister's) camera on me all the time. Mostly I take really random pictures of street signs, old grafitti and posters, houses, stray cats and towers. (I've got a pet project called "Bucharest- obsessed with towers" after seeing some archive footage about architecture.)

But the other day I saw this girl waiting on the steps at Universitate (something akin to the main meeting point in Bucharest and not so coincidentally the place aka as the km 0 of the city). She looked so nice and season appropiate in her mostly grey and brown outfit but what I really liked was her red beret. It's both very vintagey and hipsterish alike and perfect proof that accesories really do make or break a look.
So I sneaked a picture of her. Hope she won't see this and feel like kicking my ass. I will take the picture down if she/anyone she knows asks me to do it. Whew, this feels kinda stressful, I just have a lot more respect for the street style photographers now.

Happy days- what I wore

2010-11-15T17:22:00.000+02:00

The Fonz might be a great sartorial inspiration (I already own a brown motorcycle jacket and plan on buying a black one...and water ski over a shark someday, hehe) but I won't talk about fashion inspiration today.
I'll just say that I've been quite happy lately. Sure, the job hunt is still going terrible and I still am procrastinator in chief when it comes to my MA thesis. But the sun is shinning and the weather is in the 20s (degrees Celsius)- pretty strange for November around these parts, not that I'm complaining.
All this sunshine has inspired me to start wearing my vintage dresses (oh how I cried when an aunt gave them to me years ago, these "unsexy", "old lady" dresses) and even take pictures and post them on my blog, a gesture akin to Fonzie's shark jumping for someone who's still got a teensy bit of an issue concerning her looks.

Leaving aside the fact that I look about 12 in these pictures (I am much, much older than that) I have to say that I love that turqoise dress. It has pale lilac polka dots and is made from crepe, but it also has a sister made of cotton, with white dots.

My shoes are those Chinese canvas ones old women sometimes wear in the countryside. My grandma would say they give me footballer legs but after running around in heels all week for job interviews wearing these guys felt like walking on air. Plus, the have a really cool kitschy print!

I paired the dress with a navy Zara pullover, my battered H&M bag and a Russian or Ukrainian scarf which I bought from my fave A'dam store, http://www.hetgroteavontuur.nl/. (Don't worry, I'm not one of those insufferable bitches who jet sets across the world to do her shopping and "curates" stuff, I just got really lucky as a grad student and got to live and study in several countries. )And, though it's sadly not visible, a little mirrored belt I got from one of my grandma's sisters. The belt just might be one of the most valuable items in my wardrobe: it's about 100 years old and it used to be worn by Transylvanian housewives on special days.

There's something really funny about this dress. On the hanger, it looks like one of those kitschy plastic table covers, it even has a bit of a golden thread running through it for added tackyness. But once I put it on, the print seems more subdued and it even looks classy. I couldn't believe it when a couple of my guy friends asked why I looked so elegant. I chinched the waist with one of my mum's belts from the 80s and added an orange wodden bangle I got for something like 2 euros in Hamburg.

I wasn't smart enough to take my pic in the mirror or ask any of my friends to photograph me so you get my own lame attempts at self portraiture while I was waiting for the bus. This dres is a wiggle dress, so it's pretty va-va-voomesque. But the white collar adds a school girl touch, just like the little breast pocket with the button like a milk caramel makes it a bit more serious. I was headed towards a job interview, followed by present hunting for my uncle's bday and then an art exhibition -I had a lot of walking around to do so I was wearing my Zara flats. They look a bit like Roger Vivier knock-offs, with the square buckle and matching piping, don't they?

Still, despite my stupid facial expression, the sun was gloriously shinning and I was wearing short sleeves in November!
Photo credit: all pictures were taken by me(as if the crappy quality wasn't a dead giveaway)

I see Paris, I see France, I see Carine's underpants!

2010-11-12T12:57:00.000+02:00

I saw this photo of Carine Roitfeld at the Victoria's Secret party and my first thought was: girlfriend's really branching out, trying to make both herself and Vogue France look less arty and posh and more commercial. However, my second thought was: is she wearing a see-through skirt? (it could also have been an unplanned transparency caused by a camera flash but given that his woman is an uber stylist, I doubt it)

I know, madame Roitfeld is perhaps the very definition of that very savant mix of avantgarde and chic only a chosen few can pull off. And I've seen her rocking transparencies and mini skirts quite a lot, which frankly if I had those amazing legs at 56, I'd do too!
The only reason her skirt really bugs me is because it reminds me of this Japanese monstrosity:

Alors, non, non, please don't encourage the recycling of a stupid gimmiky novelty item! We know just how fragile and susceptible to trends many young fashionistas are, so please, Carine, s'il te plait, let it be an accident and not an ironic chic hipster-ism!

Marketing's the answer- re-"inventing" the 4th dimension

2010-11-12T05:24:00.000+02:00

I've read tonight that Ralph Lauren staged a 4D show both in London and New York to celebrate the online store's 10th anniversary.
I won't deny, massive multimedia nerd that I am, I was pretty impressed with the making of video, which you can see here http://gizmodo.com/5687268/4d-cracked-as-ralph-lauren-stages-massive-visual-and-perfumed-show , together with bits of the full show. The short movies they projected on the walls were quite stunning and I thought adding a fake breeze and perfume was a very smart touch. However, spritzing perfume into a wind machine does not a 4th dimension make! Check ou what good old Wikipedia says on this matter: "In mathematics, the fourth dimension, or a four-dimensional ("4D") space, is an abstract concept derived by generalizing the rules of three-dimensional space. It has been studied by mathematicians and philosophers for almost two hundred years, both for its own interest and for the insights it offered into mathematics and related fields.
Algebraically it is generated by applying the rules of vectors and coordinate geometry to a space with four dimensions. In particular a vector with four elements (a 4-tuple) can be used to represent a position in four-dimensional space. The space is a Euclidean space, so has a metric and norm, and so all directions are treated as the same: the additional dimension is indistinguishable from the other three."
Sounds a bit complicated so I'll put in the link to the full page for those with a more mathematically inclined mind http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_dimension .
Suffice to mention, us humans can't actually visually perceive anything 4D because we are 3D beings with 2D vision.
So yeah, cool idea, people working at Ralph Lauren but stop bragging about the 4D thing. I can totally see why you are doing it, after the whole Avatar madness that even sparked 3D porn, magazines or cooking shows...but maybe, like the people at Gawker suggested stick to those 60 retro-futuristic 3D glasses.
And since we're on the topic of suggestions I would pay good money to see a multimedia show that mixes live action videos, animation, live performances and "animated" or directed smell- kind of like the dancing smell from the Tom and Jerry cartoons or the one that always accompanies Pepe le Pew.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEdBndu0YUM
Could this ever work or am I tripping a bit after a very stressful day and insomniac night?

In times of crisis...shop, shop, shop?!!

2010-11-10T01:20:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I posted about how the vintage and second hand movement seems to be gaining momentum here, in Romania. Not that surprising, as we are currently going through an economic crisis and thrifting mixed with a bit of nostalgia seems like a good solution.
However, I was reall surprised when I saw this story being broadcast by one of the main TV stations here:
http://bit.ly/9DgZvs

For non-Romanian speakers, I'll try and summarize it: the economic crisis that's beeen hitting Romania really hard is seen as a God-sent by the big foreign retailers. The rents- which were previously high inside the real estate bubble- are now more than afordable. Inditex, the Spanish retail giant already has 46 stores in Romania and is still expanding, with only Zara making a profit of 1.3 million euros in 2009. It has little competition, mostly from the Israeli group Solmar (owners of Mango, Marina Rinaldi etc.) and the Greek company which owns the Gap, M&S and so on. Only cheaper brands, like the German shoe retailer Deichman can say they're doing even better, with an annual profit of almost 15 million euros.
Their success can only be explained by the Romanians' constant obsession with shopping. People queue for hours and even fight just to buy something, in some cases even entire looks picked from the display window, from newly opened trendy stores. As evidenced by the young couple interviewed they'd rather be indebted to several banks than cut their shopping sprees. A normal monthly shopping budget was estimated at around 1000 RON which is around 300 euros. This in a country where the minimum wage for a college graduate is 900 RON! And it's not only young people who spend a lot: the Catalans at Desigual count mostly middle aged ladies as their main customers (imaginando la tipica senora de 40 y algo u 50 un poco rellena, con el tipico peinado de "mama" y las gafas llevando una chaqueta patchwork con el mensaje "La vida es chula!" es bastante descojonante) while the French manager at Kiabi says parents with small children are the key to his success.
No one seems to care about the manufacturing conditions of the merchandise in these stores, whether it was done in a sweat shop in China or maybe in your neighbouring factory town in Romania (check out at least 25% of the H&M tags and you'll see they're made in Romania), whether it's environmentally friendly or even well made. What is important is to accumulate as many of these objects as possible.
Is this escapism or insanity? I for one can't seem to make up my mind.

V for Vintage-a vintage fair in Romania

2010-11-09T02:57:00.000+02:00

This post has been long due but with my beloved notebook crashing and with the internet connection acting up I only got around to posting it now.
Last week- on Sunday- I went to a vintage fair, V for Vintage to be more precise. I think it's held about once a month in a restaurant called Villa Rodizio (sadly, I think they stopped serving delicious Brazilian rodizio food, sniff) and it normaly follows a certain theme. Last week the theme was Italian style but the themes vary from Lolita to Green style.
What I liked:

the genuinely vintage clothes some sellers were displaying. There's a lot of controversy surrounding the vintage phenomenon here in Romania. Many people seem to be peddling second hand goods, labeling them as genuine vintage. And I'd say that with the public's current obsession with high street fashion (I am scared to think what will happen when H&M will open their first store in Bucharest next year) there is not a great deal of knowledge about what really constitutes vintage and a general disdain for buying or wearing old/worn/second hand clothes.
the costume jewellery. I liked that there was a pretty decent selection of authentic vintage costume jewellery- reminded me to ransack my mum and grandma's collections. And that the knock offs were cute and cheap.
the indie designers! And that they showed some very distinct styles and inspirations. I am already planning to buy (if I finally get a decent job, fingers crossed!) a cool grey with semi-attached sleeves that can be worn in 3 or 4 different ways and a baby doll dress with a cute lace collar that reminds me of the collars my mum used to iron and attach to my school uniform every day.
the small scale producers of leather goods. I'd rather wear some sturdy, custom made shoes than buy any more crap from Zara, my feet are still recovering from wearing those python print Zara booties 3 weeks ago, ouch!

What I didn't like:

high street brands being sold at a vintage fair. Not to mention the fact that I find that some of them were grossly overpriced: you can't sell a F21 jacket for the same price as a 1970s silk dress! Don't get me wrong, I like high street stores like Zara, H&M, Mango etc. as much as any other girl, I just wish some people would stop labeling them as vintage. Though I suggest keeping them as they might become more prized "vintage" posessions to our children and grandchildren ;).

All in all, I'm completely sold on to the idea and will definitely visit the next V for Vintage fair. I think that, as one of the lovely vintage sellers at the fair mentioned, the vintage phenomenon is one to watch in a country so badly affected by the economic recession as Romania. I really hope something good, like a possible change in the general taste would come out of that, that people would start abandoning their mass market uniforms. Maybe I'm naive, but I wonder if a vintage fair caravan visiting other Romanian towns and cities (and I don't mean Cluj, Iasi or Timisoara which already have their fair share of similar events)and involving local sellers would be a good idea?
Anyway, I leave you with some of the pictures I took. Excuse the crappy quality and randomness, my photography skills are a work in progress.

Stomping and clomping in clogs

2010-11-08T05:07:00.001+02:00

En passant par la Lorraine,

Avec mes sabots,

En passant par la Lorraine,

Avec mes sabots,

Rencontrai trois capitaines,

Avec mes sabots,

Dondaine, oh ! Oh ! Oh !

Avec mes sabots.

Rencontrai trois capitaines,

Avec mes sabots,

Rencontrai trois capitaines,

Avec mes sabots,

Ils m'ont appelée : Vilaine !

Avec mes sabots,

Dondaine, oh ! Oh ! Oh !

Avec mes sabots."

I used to sing this song in French class when I was a child, always wondering why the 3 captains the heroine of the song meets while passing throught the French province of Lorraine have something against the sabots or clogs she is clomping around. Why else would they call the poor girl ugly?
And after Kaiser Karl and then Marc Jacobs sent girls on the runway last year stomping in clogs just like our friend in the song it's only normal clogs in all their variations are becoming ubiquitos on the high street.

I never imagined this but there's even an entire blog dedicated to clogs and their variations http://everycloghasitsday.typepad.com/every-clog-has-its-day/boots/ and the very informed blog owner couldn't be happier with the current clog fad. Seriously, though I wouldn't wear clogs because I would probably break my neck in them (I can even trip when wearing sneakers so clogs would pose a really high risk) I recommend you check out the blog for some cute selections.

Anyway, the point of today's post is not to talk about my clumsiness and styles of shoes but about a bit of intriguing history.
How did the clog transition from sturdy work shoe- still used today in kitchens, farms or factories- to highly impractical yet covetable fashionable item?

The Dutch made clogs famous but versions of shoes with wooden soles always existed. After all, they were cheap, rather easy to make and provided good isolation from mud, pebbles etc.
While visiting the amazing http://www.shoesornoshoes.com/ where the Dutch collector and expert William "Boy" Habraken showcases his collection I was surprised to realize that the Dutch, the French and the Swedes weren't the only clog enthusiasts.

Farmers in China wore them,Koreans wore clogs resembling tiny boats on stilts, men in the basin of the Congo river wore a style of wooden flip flops and so did men in some parts of India, the Japanese had their geta" sandals to wear with tabi socks, Cantabrian farmers in Northern Spain wore triple heeled clogs, women in the Middle East wore a style decorated with abalone inserts, filligree and embroidered upper parts (these type of pattens or wooden over shoes was also worn by nobility in 17th and 18th century Romania and was called "nalani", something my ancestors obviously borrowed from the Turks).
But my favourite clogs are those from the Bethmale Valley, Ariege, France. With their incredibly pointy toes and meticulous nail decoration these shoes are fabulous. My Bally book of Shoes mentions that these shoes were given as presents to young women by their fiancees (hence the heart shaped nail decoration on some) and the higher and pointier the toe, the greater the love. On line I've found a story which veers from romanticism into pathological jealousy: a young man uses the pointed toe of the clogs to stab his supposedly unfaithfull fiancee and her new (and foreign, oh, some French people, always a bit xenophobic) lover.

I'm not the biggest fan of the last tale but even I have got to admit that such dramatic shoes deserve a dramatic background story.
And the answer to my question? Hmm, I suppose clogs became mass produced and marketed in the 70s when the hippies, fans of everything nature related, harking to a simpler life saw in the sturdy and surprisingly international clogs the perfect shoes. From here to "it" item it was just a step, a step \with a distinct wooden clang.
credit:http://www.shoesornoshoes.com/

The emperor is naked!

2010-10-18T20:59:00.000+03:00

Love her or hate her, I think Cathy Horyn deserves a lot of respect. Fashion might be a bitchy world (at least in my quite sad and very limited experience in the tiny Romanian one) but more often than not people don't voice their opinions out front. Think of fashion as Andersen's emperor with "new clothes" and of Horyn as the little child who dared shout " The emperor is naked!"
Racked made a list of the most controversial things Cathy Horyn has said in the past years:
http://ny.racked.com/archives/2010/10/14/the_emotional_rollercoaster_that_is_cathy_horyn.php

Pencil scrapings and burnt paper

2010-10-17T23:25:00.000+03:00

I've always thought there's something exquisitely beautiful in the way a pencil scraping curls after you've sharpened a pencil, like a weird rose or maybe a carnation judging by the undulating, colored tips.

And burnt paper...when I was in kinder garden I used to spy on the porter burning old books and useless documents. When the papers had burned and the fire had died I would go and jump around, trying to create small gusts of air that would make the tiny burnt pieces float around like woody, crunchy smelling snowflakes. (Bare with me, I know the depiction sounds contrived but how does one describe the smell of burnt old papers?)
Turns out I'm not the only one fascinated by these things only Hungarian artist Flora Vagi,unlike myself, is very talented and can create wonderful jewelery out of the tiny scrapings hidden at the back of our minds.
The blog www.bijoucontemporain.unblog.fr has some very interesting quotes from the artist : “It is important for me to stretch the idea of beauty, to put the eyes of the viewer to a more complex task, where it is essential to look and feel at the same time, to notice the hidden aesthetics of an injured or worn out surface and to consider the impossible possibilities that the 'rebirth'of an object can offer. They are part of a world where objects can decide what to become and who to be owned by. They are words in a 'distinctionary'.“

credit:http://www.dezeen.com ,
http://g13.hu/:http://bijoucontemporain.unblog.fr/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/suchodolski/

Addicted to children's books illustrations 1

2010-10-17T19:19:00.000+03:00

I have a BA in Art History which means I tend to collect an ungodly amount of art books. On top of that, I also collect magazines,though I am trying really hard to wean myself off this habit, marionettes and finger puppets from around the world, scarves and postcards (when I lived in Denmark I used to raid the postcard/add rack of every bar we entered in search of cool, new designs). Wow, never realized how OCD I am! Anyway, in spite of all this, my first collection ever was my illustrated children's books collection. Having a mum who was a kinder garden teacher surely helped and I remember that by the time I was 6 I took weekly trips to a neighbouring book store and always emerged with at least one purchase. Being a huge nerd, my books were also in various languages( mostly Romanian, French and English) and I would pester my parents for translations and lectures.
My passion continued as an adult-I remember my friends being appalled at me blowing 50 euros on some French book about little princesses. So, starting today I'll be posting various children's illustrations I found on and off line. It might not be fashion related but it's pretty, creative and always make me smile.

Today's find is French artist Nouchka who published a really cool book of Andersen's fairy tales. Love her princess and the pea and tin soldier! Also, check out her school book illustrations- wish mine were this creative and colorful! I have a weak spot for collage and mixed techniques so you can imagine how happy these pictures make me!

credit:http://www.nouchka-design.com

Uncertainty

2010-10-17T03:04:00.000+03:00

A month or so ago Jezebel ran these pictures from the new Urban Outfitters f/w 2010-2011 catalog.

The title was "12 depressing ensembles from Urban Outfitters' Apocalyptic Wasteland" and the photos were your typical fare of tall, skinny teenagers dressed in plaid, woolly knits and faux fur, looking bored or wistful. But there was something about the pictures, a strange air of familiarity...and then it hit me: their "apocalyptic wasteland" which many Jezebel commenters thought looked like straight out of a Cormac McCarthy book was in fact Romania, my home country. And here comes my uncertainty.

On the one hand, the scenery, apocalyptic or not, is beautiful. And the photographer, the Ukrainian Yelena Yemchuk, treats it with a sort of quiet reverence, integrating the young models into the atmosphere. Plus, one of the things I hate the most are ultra-nationalistic types who use any possible platform as their soap box in order to rant about "our beautiful country, our unspoiled landscape" and how photographers should only focus on the beautiful, "pure" aspects and ignore the ones related to poverty or communism. So, clearly I liked the mix of fashion (even-or especially if it is mass marketed) and ugly, 1970s matchbox style apartment buildings with peeling paint and old tar on their roofs.I actually recognized a few familiar locations in the UO catalog, locations which are ever present in Romanian commercials and magazines but which looked different and more fresh in Yemchuk's takes.

On the other hand, I found the whole "oh, this horrible tapestry is so bad it's awesome in a totally ironic kinda way" rather annoyingly hipster-ish. Maybe because I am Eastern European I learned that things like PVC table covers, tapestry with scenes from "1001 nights" or depicting deers drinking from an uncannily turquoise mountain stream, ugly crystal fish statues, family photos spotted with grease and with frayed, yellow edges clumsily stuck to the walls are a horrible, reprehensible kitsch. Yet a kitsch we might view with a bit of corny nostalgia because it's the kitsch from our grandparents' house. So, the question is, do I want my grandparents' kitsch, which appeared as a mix of a certain lack of formal education coupled with the scarcity of the Communist market, to be adopted and re-purposed by some hipster teens?

I don't know.And even if I had any answer, would it really matter that much?

credit: UO FB page

Good reads-1

2010-04-22T03:10:00.000+03:00

"Fashion is permission. You may give it to yourself; or if you’re rich, you may entrust your choices to the care of top designers.[...] The point is to recognize a meritocracy in things of value, regardless of their low points of origin, current trendiness or future invisibility. Quality is quality, period. All else is corporate fear, hype, vanity and vexation of the spirit. Foolish is as foolish does. " This is a quote from probably one of the best written style pieces in the NYT! It should be a cutesy review of the new Isabel Marrant store in NY but instead turns into an insightful critique of consumer culture and the obsession with trends and brands. Well done, Cintra Wilson!
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/22/fashion/22CRITIC.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Bear In There

2010-04-16T01:54:00.000+03:00

The other day, while talking about clothes we had as children, my friend N mentioned a fur jacket her mum had made her when she was 12. She hated it not because it wasn't nice or comfortable but because she knew 12 year olds are some of the worlds' bitchiest creatures and would compare her to a bear.
Ha, those silly 12 year olds obviously had no idea how fashionable bears would become!

and here's a Shel Silverstein poem to match the Chanel runway:

There's a polar bear
In our Frigidaire—
He likes it 'cause it's cold in there.
With his seat in the meat
And his face in the fish
And his big hairy paws
In the buttery dish,
He's nibbling the noodles,
He's munching the rice,
He's slurping the soda,
He's licking the ice.
And he lets out a roar
If you open the door.
And it gives me a scare
To know he's in there—
That polary bear
In our Fridgitydaire.
(Bear In There)

credits: oldpoetry.com,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/itsonlyforev3r/

5 legendary fashion shows

2010-04-15T02:34:00.000+03:00

I have a lot of uni work to do and I'm already running late. Naturally, I've been procrastinating like crazy, spending 99% on line. I've followed a link from some French blogs and got to this, a small slide show featuring extracts from a new fashion book, Histoire idéale de la mode contemporaine by Olivier Saillard.
http://www.lexpress.fr/styles/diapo-photo/styles/mode-beaute/mode/5-defiles-mythiques-decryptes_884568.html?p=3

Great way to start exercising that long forgotten French (I honestly think they should impose French classes to anyone going to a fashion & design related school)!
This also gave me an idea, or rather reinforced a previous one. I realized that while this shows are amazing and really left their mark on fashion history, they're almost exclusively from when before I was born (4 out of 5). So, next time I'll post some shows that really influenced me (and my generation, of course. Who am I to be so important?)

PLM magazine

2010-04-14T20:08:00.000+03:00

This will be a post about a free, on line, indie, Romanian fashion magazine (!) so I guess it's only natural I write it in Romanian (omg, such a long time since I've done so, hope I've still got it). Anyway, it's still pretty interesting visually so feel free to take a look at http://plm-mag.com/ .
Cam tarziu dar asta-i viata cand ai alte prioritati (academice, bleah) decat bloggareala scriu si eu despre PLM mag. De citit, citesc revista inca de la aparitie, de cand am adaugat-o la Favourites. E singura revista romaneasca de moda pe care o citesc, mai ales ca e gratis si online, mana cereasca pentru cineva cu o viata nomada ca a mea. Ca sa fiu sincera, si daca as trai in Romania, tot singura ar fi! De ce? Simplu: e unica aparitie de gen care nu vorbeste despre "gentuzte", "rochitze", "ghetutze" si alte "utze", care nu incearca sa-mi bage pe gat cure de slabire, tratamente de infrumusetare sau cosmetice speciale, ale carui pictoriale chiar au legatura cu arta si ale carui articolele vorbesc despre altceva decat despre viata magnifica a celebritatilor (autohtone sau nu). Sper sa continue sa apara, chiar daca reactiile au fost- cum era de asteptat, tipic romanesti. Inteleg sa critici acolo unde crezi ca poti aduce un aport pozitiv. Uite, ca sa nu-mi iasa faima de pupincurista, o sa spun ca PLM mag are nevoie de o editare mai atenta a textelor, ca am dat peste cateva cacofonii si inadvertente, nimic grav.
Ce nu inteleg e de ce sunt unii care se declara ofensati de numele revistei? Brusc, aceiasi tipi care se adreseaza unul altuia cu "c...e" si care probabil folosesc expresia "plm" la fiecare 2 propozitii, devin puritani.Ca sa nu mai spun ca le iese toata homofobia gretoasa la suprafata! Ca deh, o revista de moda tre sa contina numai pi..e bune, ce-s astea poze cu un barbos cu nush ce chestii in cap, frate?
Uite cum sta treaba: internetul e mare (aproape infinit, cica) asa ca daca nu iti place o revista oferita moca online, n-o citi! Trage aer in piept, viziteaza un site care-ti convine si incearca macar sa interpretezi titlul revistei in sensul ala mai "jemenfiche-ist": PLM!

Icon Shmicon part deux

2010-04-11T16:58:00.000+03:00

Last night, my friend Thomas suggested that maybe Kim Jong-Il really is a fashion icon after all. "Duuude, no way!" I shouted. "Well, think about his huge glasses! Instantly recognizable! Hipster glasses!" "Hmmm, could the pocket sized dictator be responsible for the hipster glasses craze? What if we'll start seeing Kim Jong-Il glasses market as such in the American Apparel catalogs? I mean, if Vuitton used world leaders like Gorbachev- with an over all positive image in their campaigns, going "evil" might fit AA's hipster irony?"

There you have it, if we'll ever see anything dictatorial inspired in AA catalogs or stores then we'll know Dov Charney owes us some money! Besides, if I were Charney, I'd rather pay royalty fees to some starving grad students than to a country that's part of
the "Axis of Evil."

Icon Schmicon

2010-04-10T02:35:00.000+03:00

Yesterday I read this in the HuffPo: Kim Jong-Il-Fashion icon? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/07/kim-jong-il-fashion-icon_n_528767.html
The official party newspaper in North Korea had an article saying

"The reason is that the august image of the Great General, who is always wearing the modest suit while working, leaves a deep impression on people's mind in the world....To sum it up, that is because his image as a great man is so outstanding."

And even featured a (made up, I suppose) quote from a French stylist:

"Kim Jong-Il mode which is now spreading expeditiously worldwide is something unprecedented in the world's history."

Hahahaha! Seems pretty normal fare for a mad dictator, but maybe it's just my experience speaking as someone born in pre-1989 Romania . One has to admire his timing though, spot on with the oh so popular military inspired Marc Jacobs and Balenciaga collections.

Of course, the Daily Fail sees it the other way around, claiming that celebrities and designers are being inspired by the dictator.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1264798/Dictator-chic-How-celebrities-taking-fashion-inspiration-worlds-notorious-tyrants.html Then again, what could you expect, it is an article from the paragon of journalism, the Daily Mail!
Anyway, coming back to our Asian tyrant: I'm sorry, Kim Jong Il but you're not even a fashion icon among communist dictators and political figures!

Did you ever appear on millions of t-shirts worldwide? Where you ever painted by Andy Warhol? Can you smoke cigars and wear Adidas tracksuits and look this effortlessly cool? I'm afraid not! Fashion icon? Keep on dreamin, little man!

Photo credit: http://futeboldebotao.files.wordpress.com, scrapetv.com, digeratimarketing.co.uk, http://pictures.deadlycomputer.com/d/10927-1/Fidel+Castro1.jpg, nettonet.org.

Punk's not dead!

2010-04-09T03:25:00.000+03:00

Malcolm McLaren might not have invented punk but he sure as hell did play a hug
e part in the birth of the movement. He managed the Sex Pistols and together with his then partner, Vivienne Westwood opened the legendary Let it rock/SEX store.
Sure, many might say McLaren, who died yesterday, aged 64, thus ignoring the last part of the "live fast, die young" rule ultimately betrayed punk rock. He became rich and influential. But if punk is all about breaking the rules, then the old bastard disproved of all expectations by doing so. Can't get more punk than that!
"To be bad is good... to be good is simply boring", McLaren's nan, you couldn't have been more right!

The Ecstasy of Things

2010-04-07T23:54:00.000+03:00

The image above is called "Masturbine". It's from a project by Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss. And yes, both the picture and the title are evocative of the circle of consuming fashion I wrote about in the previous post. I found this image while browsing through what has probably been the best 12 euros I've spent lately: The Ecstasy of Things, edited by Thomas Seelig and Urs Stahel, published by Steidl. http://www.steidlville.com/books/56-The-Ecstasy-of-Things.html

Besides an absolutely breathtaking collection of images, the book also has some pretty interesting essays. Reading it I was able for the first time to understand a bit of what one of my old professors used to call "that most obscure language, Heideggerian". In 1950 Martin Heidegger published a book called "Das Ding"(- The Thing in German). And while it might sound more like a pulp novel it's actually a philosophical work dedicated to the then budding consumer culture. "Until now, man has no more considered the thing as thing than he considered closeness." wrote Heidegger.
The 50's were only the beginning of the fetishization process. Seeling and Stahl write in the intro to "The Ecstasy of Things": "Consumer intoxication and the compulsion to consume: we are able to consume, and we are driven to. Newspapers no longer offer the item of the month but rather the fetish of the month. Things become cults, life-style overshadows how we feel about the world." Norbert Bolz adds: " You are a devotee of some object, some cause, some ritual, in which you find the security, the behavioral and existential certainty, that the cultural perspective of our enlightened way of life has failed to provide." You "want a product loaded with meaning, with a kind of sensual promise -the sensuality that religious symbols used to have."

What goes around comes around

2010-04-07T23:18:00.000+03:00

...including girls who tried their hand at blogging then gave up after a while due to lack of time (and/or sheer laziness mixed with a bit of insecurity).

Anyway, remember those moments when you suddenly become aware of something? Take fashion. I've always had an interest in clothes and even played with fashion magazines a a child. However, I only realized designers, trends, models etc. existed when I was around 11 years old. Suddenly, I felt uncool if I didn't own that tiny crazy pink top with sparkly, silver stars on, bell bottoms that were too long or sandals with at least a bit of a platform (ideally, wooden or cork and not too tall- at 5.6/1.7 I'm the midget of my family so Spice Girls style platforms were always looked down upon as something "shorties" would wear. I know, we're a charming and very politically correct family.) I was suddenly trapped like a teenage fly in the honey jar of consumerism. My mum tried rescuing me, but when did parents ever win when being confronted with wonderful glossy images? Nonetheless, I still remember her snorting disdainfully when looking at fashion editorials: "Ha! These jeans- they're just like the ones I wore 20 years ago! And platforms- I was the first in my class to own a pair. And this blouse- hehe, I had a couple of similar ones, except mine were all a bit see through. What goes around, comes around!"

Yep, they say the last words never ring truer than in fashion. Still, I never imagined my turn to say them would come so soon. Yet, the other day, as I was leafing through a trend supplement I was stunned:

-military jackets- No way! My sister and I collected anything khaki and martial throughout all our high school years

-overalls- Wore them in every possible way, including with the straps tied around my neck- how very "avantgarde"- in 7th grade

-baggy, stained, holed jeans- By the time he was 16 my friend Dani could have taught a masterclass in achieving this look

-midriff baring tops- How could I ever forget them, I got so many sanctions and even one expulsion for wearing them at school

-sweatpants with heels- Wasn't this the look Gwen Stefani sported in her glory days with No Doubt?

-clogs- Bish pls, all the older girls at my swimming pool rocked those- in 1997!

I'm not pretending to be the little kid who shouts: The Emperor is naked! All I'm saying is that karmic cycles- yeah, they also happen to clothes!

Pic credits: style.com, electricasfashion.blogspot.com, taistoisoisbeau.com, refinery29.com, highsnobiety.com

P.S.: I'll only admit to dancing to Justin Timberlake when I'm drunk so now, I won't add that annoying song of his to this post. Sorry.

Infinity is just a string of polka dots

2009-03-26T22:26:00.000+02:00

I've never seen something that spells total design, fashion and art in such a way! Trompe l'oeil to the max!
Yayoi Kusama is just beyond awesome. And Shawn Mortensen's photo of her manages to capture her obsession with polka dots and the polka dot infinity nets in the best manner possible. I remember reading a NY Times article about her some time ago- she is a super star in Japan (and all over the world) but lives in a psychiatric hospital.

Photo credit: Shawn Mortensen, shawnmortensen.org

Sniff, sniff

2009-03-04T22:20:00.000+02:00

Yesterday I scored a really good deal: I got a bag full of Lush products for 10 euros (normall price would have been around 50!). I was showing it to my classmates (girls) and they were all going crazy, smelling all the jasmin, ginger, candy, orange, coconut or milk and brandy scented soaps ( I told you it was a biig bag!). Then one of my guy friends comes over, curious what all the fuss was about. "Yuck, crazy scented soaps! I hate the store where you got them from, it gives me headaches! What's wrong with you girls?" And he isn't the only guy showing his distaste for scented soaps, scented candles, sachets etc. most women love. However, I've always been complimented by men for the way I smell. And untill recently, I was surrounded by men of all ages (including my own dad) obsessed with all sorts of cosmetics and ready to even recomend you a nice smelling and effective product. But now, I don't get it anymore. Is the age of the metrosexual coming to an end?

Size issues

2009-03-03T10:14:00.000+02:00

No, I'm not going to switch to writing about sex. After all, this isn't Cosmo magazine. Instead I'll talk about clothes (no surprise here, huh?), pretty fashionable ones.

This Sunday I was grocery shopping in one of Amsterdam's open air markets. (Little side note: I'm living in Amsterdam right now, after spending half of last year in Arhus, Denmark.) I reach into my wallet to pay for my tomatoes when I discovered I had left all my cash back home. So, off I go in search of an ATM. However, I get sidetracked from my "quest" when I see an American Apparel store. Now don't get me wrong, I'm definitely not one of those hipsters who couldn't live without AA gold lame leggings. In fact, when I used to live in the US I thought AA was just another over-hyped and over-priced store. But...this one had this dress in it's windows:

Ever since I saw it on the Sartorialist I thought it was just amazing. Sure, it's a great picture and the woman wearing the dress is stunning, but the dress itself is hotttt! Besides, it reminded me of the little white & blue stripped dress I got as a teenager and of the new feeling of confidence and power it instilled in me. That was it! A decision had been made! Screw the price, I wanted, no, I needed that dress! I go inside the store, completely ignoring the ethereal sales girls giving the stink eye to my tattered jeans, t-shirt and Converse combo. I head straight to the rack where the dresses are. I grab a size small..."Omg, is it made for Barbies?". No way I could fit into it. Undeterred, I take a medium size and go to change. I wriggle into it not as easy as I thought. I look at myself in the mirror and the result isn't the sexy, confident glamazon like in the Sartorialist picture but something more like this:

Shocked, I keep checking the tag for mistakes, but no, it is a size Medium. I'm already angry but I decide to try on a size Large, just for the sake of it (or out of sheer masochism, maybe). Yep, the Large kind of fits but it still looks like I could use some breathing space.

Now a lot of fashionistas would, after reading my account, imagine I'm in denial about my weight and picture this kind of scenario:

However, I'm 1,71 metres and 56 kilogrames (after the incident, I weighed and measured myself for accuracy) or 5.6 and 124 pounds. Nowhere near a model, but perfectly healthy and average, even fit. And anyway, even if I were heavier, who's to say I wasn't allowed to get a nice dress in my size without feeling like a stuffed sausage?

I left the AA store a bit sad my lovely dress casting its siren call from the window proved to be a disappointment. But I'm still thinking: what the hell is up with AA sizes? Luckily I am a grown up who has no body image issues. But what about all the teenagers that make up most of the AA clientelle? Will they end up thinking they're fat or unshapely if they're the equivalent of a European size 38? My visit to the American Apparel store started with a recollection of my teenage glory days and ended up with a rememberance of all the teenage angst, insecurities and anxieties.

Well, all reet, well, all root, well, all right

2008-10-21T12:37:00.000+03:00

http://www.style.com/slideshows/fashionshows/S2009RTW/DGABBANA/RUNWAY/00270m.jpg

"Step out with a zoot suit, with a drape shape and a reet pleat.
Wear an ankle length jacket with 3 foot shoulders, pants that begin at the chin, zoom to a 54 inch knee, then fade softly to a 3 inch victory cuff.
Get hip. Get one. Get lost in a new zoot suit."

The possible inspiration for this Dolce & Gabanna look:

Great in times of economic depression! Now where did I put those clothes hangers?

Fashion is for idiots (like us)

2008-10-16T20:26:00.000+03:00

Spotted in Copenahagen, while strolling around with my friends:

Fashion is for idiots (like us)

"We're all slaves to fashion
We're all fucking idiots.
Sometimes

Mary had a little lamb
but like the rest of the
flock it ended up at
the slaughter house...
only dead fish follow
the stream...
blah, blah, blah.

But true.

Mass uniformity will
never get us noticed,
admired or desired.

Individuality
is what turns heads...
gets us laid...
brings home the bread
blah, blah, blah.

But true.

Let's dare to go green
when the rest go red.
Let's dare to use a
different compass to
navigate us to
a different conclusion.
Let's dare to stand out.

Let's do it now!"

Unsurprisingly, the t shirts aren't by some big fashion house but by an ad agency, Reputation. Great work!

Karamel Karl anyone?

2008-10-09T21:53:00.000+03:00

"He lives in a house, a very big house in the countreee...Oh, it's like an animal farm, that's the rural charm, in the countreee" says a song from my teenage years.
And now it seems to be the refrain of choice for Karl Lagerfeld who announced backstage at his Chanel show that he just bought a house on Lake Champlain, in Vermont. I am so jealous! After spending one year in Vermont I have to admit it's one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen but...I'm afraid Kaiser Karl might have a heart attack after seeing all the hippies and sport addicts and realizing that Vermonters care more about the latest snowboarding gear than about the latest IT bag. But who knows- maybe we'll see a Chanel show where the footwear is inspired by snowshoes and the clothes from what UVM students wear during their finals :)
And a collaboration with Ben and Jerry's is always welcome. Mmmm, "Karamel Karl"- it doesn't sound too bad, no?

Street style and globalization

2008-10-08T17:42:00.000+03:00

How can some people blog at least once a day? I haven't blogged in months and yes, partly the blame falls on my laziness but to be honest, I've also been busy. Since my last post on this blog I've spent a month traveling around Mexico with my friends and have moved to Denmark. And, what struck me, besides the obvious culture shock, price differences, food and language etc. is how distinct street fashions can be. You'd think that with global trends and "fast fashion" being available in malls worldwide the streets would be filled with similarly dressed people. I used to think that in 10 or 15 years I'd look at old pictures from any street style blog, smile and say: Omg! That's sooo 2008! Now, I'm not so certain. Because I've realized that while it's true that street fashion reflects global currents (you can find emos and hipsters in absolutely any corner of the world) they also reflect a national or maybe a local identity.
Like most people, I tended to dismiss Romania as a country with no style or maybe just filled with a lot of pitzipoance (aka valley girls aka chavs). Actually, if you take a look at street style blogs such as http://www.urbnstyle.blogspot.com/ you'd realize that most stylish Romanians like colorful clothes, a bit on the hippie side, are fond of matching their accessories, like looking polished but also value their comfort. I'd also say most girls fancy a sweet, feminine look rather than an overtly sexy one.
Most of my friends would associate Mexico with folk blouses, bold colors and jewelry and flower in the hair styling a la Frida Kahlo. But, if you actually visit most of Mexican cities you'd find a pretty vibrant urban style. It's true, they love color but they use it on cool t shirts matched with form fitting jeans and edgy haircuts. Just take a look at http://ciudadlaberinto.info/, http://www.deepcitydive.blogspot.com / or http://www.diariodefiestas.blogspot.com/.
Finally, Denmark where they love their leggings and their skinny jeans, are addicted to scarves, where boys seem to put as much effort into their outfits as girls and where sleek, muted Scandinavian style shows its face even when it comes to a simple tank top. See for yourself at http://www.copenhagenstreetstyle.dk/ or at http://www.gademode.dk/ (Aarhus maybe small, but it's a student town therefore packed with cool style).
Where do I position myself in the end? I'd love to say my own personal style is a mix and match of all these but I am afraid currently it's more of student on a budget style, than anything.
Anyway, at least when it comes to fashion the conclusion is that globalization comfortably co-exists with regional and individual style.

YSL

2008-06-02T12:51:00.000+03:00

" This is what true elegance means!" said my mom, pointing to the screen, where a group of tall women, with big jewelery and hair up in sleek buns were parading down a runway, dressed in rich colored clothes. It was an Yves Saint Laurent fashion show and my first ever memory of designer fashion. Little did I know that the tall, bespectacled man who took a bow at the end of the parade was one of fashion's masterminds.

Yves Saint Laurent took the fashion world by surprise by following into the steps of another great master, Christian Dior, in 1957. It's him that we have to thank for making ready to wear a wearable form of art, on a par with haute couture. He invented a new dress shape- the trapeze, championed the chic hippie look, made safari vests appropriate for the urban jungle and turned "le smoking" into one of the sexiest clothing items ever. On June 1, 2008 Yves Saint Laurent passed away, at the age of 71. Fashion will never be the same.

Last but not least, a snippet from a French documentary on this legend of fashion:

Speaking of muses...

2008-05-27T00:28:00.000+03:00

Anyone seen the cartoon Gay Purree? Kate Moss seen through so many eyes reminded me of the part where Musette is being painted by all the great artists of the Parisian Belle Epoque. Strangely enough I have a cartoon to thank for introducing me to the history of art :))

A contemporary muse

2008-05-27T00:02:00.000+03:00

Art critics might roll their eyes, but they can't deny it: Kate Moss is one of the contemporary world's muses. And I'm not talking just fashion or music here, but also painting and sculpture. And why not? I'm not gonna discuss here whether I think she's beautiful or not. (Although, as a funny aside a boy once told me when I was 14 "You look like Kate Moss!". "Gosh, thanks", I replied. "No, no"he said, "I mean you're as ugly as she is!". I still took it as a compliment in spite of actually not being even remotely similar to Miss Moss.) A muse represents inspiration and someone who can hold such a powerful fascination on the public and still be a bit mysterious is definitely worth being a muse. Here she is as seen by contemporary artists young and old:

Kate Moss by Marc Quinn

Kate Moss by Katherine Bernhardt

Kate Moss by Stella Vine

Kate Moss by Lucian Freud

Kate Moss by Banksy

Kate Moss by Alex Katz

Kate Moss by Gary Hume

Kate Moss by Gerald Laing

Kate Moss by Julian Opie

Expressionistic/Post-Pop /Fashionistic Art

2008-05-25T13:41:00.000+03:00

I like to hang on to my fashion magazines partly because of nostalgia partly because I believe that in time they will get some artistic value and they won't look so childish on my walls. But what if someone decided to take those magazines as inspiration for real pieces of art? That's exactly what American painter Katherine Bernhardt does. One of her most recent paintings is entitled Kate Moss on the Cover of Japanese Vogue. But there's also Natalia Vodianovoa (pink & purple Dolce & Gabanna), Giselle plays with Vogue or Metallic Calvin Klein. Her works are both Expressionistic and Pop. Her attitude seems a bit tongue in cheek but she also shows the characteristic wild fascination with today's icons.
Images from http://www.canadanewyork.com/artist/katherine_bernhardt/
From top: Kate Moss on the Cover of Japanese Vogue; Natalia Vodianovoa (pink & purple Dolce & Gabanna); Metallic Calvin Klein; Giselle plays with Vogue. Technique used: acrylic on canvas.

Brancusi -costume designer

2008-05-22T19:36:00.000+03:00

I promised my friend Val ages ago that I'd post the tidbit I have about Constantin Brancusi and his short brush with fashion. So, excuse the crappy photos but they're finally here. They're the costumes Brancusi made in 1922 for Eric Satie's ballet: "Gymnopedies". The "Gymnopedies" was a set of 3 piano pieces composed in 1888 and orchestrated by Claude Debussy. In 1922 the avantgarde gang in Paris had the idea to use the music as illustration for what might have truly been one of the first steps towards contemporary ballet.
The model is Lizica Codreanu (b. 1901), a Romanian dancer and member of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. She was a constant fixture of the avantgarde circle of artists, favorite of costume designer Sonia Delaunay and soon impressed Brancusi with her elegant moves. She met him in Paris, where her sister Irina had come to study sculpture. The sculptor nicknamed her the "gypsy" because of her brunette looks and during her visits to his atelier took photos of her and played with the notion of the costume as sculpture.
In the article from my vintage La mode en peinture magazine the author asked: "Can the headgear be considered constructivist? Is the dress an example of proto-surrealism? Or the shoes neoclassical? It really doesn't matter..."

Photos from La mode en peinture magazine

The body as a work of art (in progress)

2008-05-22T14:14:00.000+03:00

We live in an age where body modification is the norm. And I'm not referring here only to those interested in tattoos and piercings or to the ever increasing number of plastic surgery fans. I guess that we all (or at least the vast majority) modify our bodies even temporarily by coloring our hair, reshaping our eyebrows, drawing fuller lips or bigger eyes, pumping our breasts with push up bras, artificially tanning our skin etc.

But what if we surgically modified our bodies to attain a different type of beauty? Like the beauty of classical art or of Pre-Colombian sculptures. There already is someone out there doing it. Her name's Orlan and she's a pretty famous French artist. She dubbed her brand of art "carnal art" as she's constantly working with her body to challenge our concept of beauty. In 1990 she started an ongoing project called "The Re-Incarnation of Saint Orlan". The initial plan was to obtain through surgery the chin of Botticelli's Venus, the mouth of Boucher's Europa, the eyes of Gerome's Psyche, the forehead of Mona Lisa and the nose of a school of Fontainbleu sculpture of Diana. She chose these inspirations because she wanted to provoke, to make us think of symbols and because she wanted to "bring together the internal and the external image". The surgeries themselves were turned into performance art with stage props designed by Paco Rabanne and Issey Miyake, filmed and photographed for further showcase. The remaining skin grafts as well as the bandages were incorporated into subsequent art installations, called reliquaries of St. Orlan.
Later on, Orlan got implants normally used for cheeks inserted on her forehead which also inspired designer Walter van Beirendonck to style his models in a similar manner. She dyed her hair black and white to remind people not of Disney's Cruella De Ville but of the way we see race and ethnicity. Most recently, she started her "Self-Hybridization" tour in which she alters her photos in order to resemble images belonging to the Pre-Colombian, African, American-Indian and Chinese cultures. And she came up with the "Harlequin Coat", a coat made from skin cells grafted from people of all colors and ethnicities, including the artist herself.
I know she stated before that she she has no intention whatsoever of starting new trends in beauty but I can't help wondering if Orlan's vision of the human body as a work of art in progress isn't what the future has in store for us. Martyrs in the name of beauty or reshaping the standards of beauty? Is the body itself a ready-made, like the Surrealist objects?

Some videos containing an interview of the artist (in French) can be found here: http://www.3declic.net/FR/magazine/N5/orlan/orlan.php

A video collage featuring Orlan's work:

Hermes paper bag

2008-05-11T02:08:00.000+03:00

Probably the only way I'll be getting my hands on a Hermes bag any time soon: downloading a paper one from their website. It might be a bit trying to hard to be ironic and falling into place with the trend of faux/real but I still like it. I think I'll download mine on recycled paper just for the added green points.
Image via notcot.org

Super fashion

2008-05-02T00:39:00.000+03:00

I'm amazed that the people churning out trend reports for the fashion magazines didn't see this one coming. Or maybe they did but I got too lost in all the possible ways one can re-phrase ever-lasting, more general trends such as bohemian/hippie or minimalistic androgynous. With everybody and their mothers talking about this summer's influx of movies like Batman:The Dark Night, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and Hellboy 2 and even the MET Costume Institute's Annual Gala (THE event to attend) choosing superheroes as it's theme it's crystal clear that capes, leggings and fetish inspired onesies are here to stay. I know, at first I groaned when I thought of onesies/overalls. They must be the most impractical and possibly unflattering clothing ever, even for superheroes- see Superman's unfortunate undies over onesie combo. And capes seem like a pain in the ass to wear, especially if you use public transport a lot. Imagine how often your cape might be trampled over by the poor idiots not understanding it's fashionable appeal or getting caught in the doors. Not to mention leggings, an item of clothing that's been overused almost to death the past two years. But then I remembered Catwoman's impossibly sexy attire (I'm only referring here to Michelle Pffeifer's Catwoman) or Wonder Woman's star printed shorts, so Chanel s/s 2008. And I also saw the previews from the exhibition at the Costume Institute and was totally awed. Wouldn't it be amazing if you could dress sexily yet reassert your strength at the same time? All with just the right amount of humor? Oh my god! To me it would be like it's Halloween every day! And that's no small statement to make, because Halloween is my favorite holiday of all times.

PS: I remember seeing the biker, beer carrying Thierry Mugler outfit in George Michael's Too Funky video and desperately wanting to go out wearing something like this. Guess I was one weird 7 year old.
Credit: pictures from: nymag.com

Art =Fashion

2008-04-19T17:29:00.000+03:00

Artists have always taken a keen interest in fashion. We've had Salvador Dali collaborating with Elsa Schiapareli into making his art wearable and Andi Warhol setting up the new rules of fashion. But never have art and fashion been so intertwined as they are now. Sure, some of the critics may say it's just another way of cashing in found by business savvy artists. But a lot of the times the end results have more meanings than what transcends from the glossy pages of magazines.

I've recently taken an interest in the art of Sylvie Fleury. When I saw her Prada boots sculpture I remembered how my friend Virginia once suggested I decorate my house with shoes. I guess she was part laughing at my shoe fetish part being serious and realizing that certain objects sometimes gain different values, surpassing the sheer commercial or practical aspects.
And this is exactly what Fleury does: she plays with the new found values of status symbols such as Prada shoes, Chanel bags and perfumes or Gucci leather goods. A pair of shoes might stand for money, morals, power, ego, compromise and even crime while a gilded saddle does hark back to Gucci's beginnings as a saddle maker but also suggests the brazen sexuality of the Ford-era Gucci woman. And the bags- well, I did grow up in a communist country were carrying around a plastic shopping bag with a foreign logo equated with coolness and mysterious possesions so obviously her shopping bag installations say a lot to me.

The Chanel/ Shazam work of E. V. Day tells a different story. It might be centered around the theme of clothes obscuring or shaping one's personality but it also reminds us that the clothes designed by Mademoiselle Chanel were meant for the strong, rebellious women.

Besides works exploring the different meanings our increasing obsession attaches to objects I find myself attracted to the ironic sculptures of Tom Sachs. If we care so much about brand and logo would we also buy Chanel guillotines and rat traps or Prada death camps? And if so, what would we make of them?

Condom-a-porter

2008-04-08T03:13:00.000+03:00

Best sex is safe sex! So try your hand at designing your perfect condom carrier. Hot prizes involved! More details about the competition on www.faccevreau.ro .

Imitating imitation, faking fakes

2008-04-06T20:40:00.000+03:00

I haven't posted in a while, being sick and overcrowded with work for almost a month now. But there's so many interesting things going on at the moment that I guess my boss won't mind me sending in late some stories.
I wish so hard I were in the US, jumping on the first flight to NY just to see Takashi Murakami's show at the Brooklyn Museum. I know that as a soon to be art history grad (2 more months, yey!) I should have been well acquainted with the Japanese mastermind, from long ago. However, my knowledge comes from the same source as Victoria Beckham's: Louis Vuitton. And, even though some art snobs would frown, I have to hand it to Marc Jacobs: he's got an excellent eye!
Some have dubbed Murakami the "Japanese Andy Warhol". But I don't see the resemblance, except for the marketing approach. Murakami has a way of mixing seemingly cutesy Anime prints with darker, grittier themes (Mr. DOB exploding, his soul transcending between existence plans etc.). I'm not sure how many of the socialites sporting LV's with Murakami prints fully get the message behind the works of art. But somehow, I doubt that Murakami strives to be fully understood by everyone. And his amazingly successful partnership with Louis Vuitton just stands to reaffirm his "Superflat" theory, of mixing so called high and low art.
Oh, and the mock "fake LV" stands and street vendors in the exhibition? In a way, maybe it's Murakami's "Superflat" translated to fashion design. No more posh interiors and haughty shop managers but the real deal taking to the streets- at least in the exhibit!
I'm convinced the LVMH managers would like to think of the "fake fakes" as a blow to the blooming commerce of counterfeits. Takashi Murakami himself seems to take it easier, he knows the fakes will never die but is well aware of the complex value of an original fashion/art object. He also adds, connecting himself not only to Pop Art but also to Duchamp's Surrealism: "The shop project is not a part of the exhibition: rather it is the heart of the exhibition itself. It holds at once the aspects that fuse, reunite and then recombine the concept of the ready made." (gothamist.com)

As for me, I just love the idea of imitating imitation or faking a fake. Irony reigns supreme!

Images from gothamist.org. notcot.org
PS: Great article and video on the exhibiton in the NYT! Really gets you thinking.

Turning Japanese

2008-03-02T18:43:00.000+02:00

A whole new trend of architectural shoes is emerging. Last week I wrote how the folds of the Prada shoes reminded me of Origami but today I discovered the EIN/TRITT (ONE/STEP) shoes designed by Catherine Meurter. These are shoes that you receive as flat patterns and which you assemble on your own, following the reinforced contours. So, they're just like wearable leather/ man made materials Origami! I love the geometric shape and the oh, so trendy "air heel" resembling the ones seen on the Marc Jacobs and Antonio Berardi runways.
Now all we need is for someone to design a sort of Origami shoes that can also convert from flat to high heeled and those would be the perfect travel shoes!
Pics and info via dott-com.com

Birds of a feather

2008-03-01T01:02:00.001+02:00

At Zucca (top, left) models were sporting faux hawks made of feathers which resembled the head dress of Kayapo indians from some Amazon tribes(top, right) and the decoration of hats from Bistrita (W Romania, right).
Hmm, maybe it's time to find a new creative use for my collection of old feather earrings?
Pic credit:nytimes.com, indigenouspeople.org, tlt.ro

The Devil in Miss Roitfeld

2008-02-29T16:00:00.000+02:00

I admit it I am quite attracted to Carine Roitfeld (though in a totally non sexual way :)) ) Her gaze is hypnotic, her style very much her own and she doesn't seem to belong to the same category of capitalistic robo-bitches as Ms. Wintour and her acolytes. Besides, " it is her ambition to look like the subject of a Helmut Newton photograph", bears a striking resemblance to Iggy Pop and talks like Elmer Fudd ("vewy gweat lighting, Vewy flatter.”) She drinks espressos, has the eyes of someone who parties hard-or at least doesn't sleep too much and likes the smell of men who smoke (ahh!). Her look is “very sexy, but very woman, and always some rock and roll, eh?” which I believe is one of the looks we should always strive to achieve. Not to mention that Carine Roitfeld was one of the main promoters of the idea of innate style and charismatic, interesting rather than clasical beauty.
But then she goes and declares something like this: "All my girls are very skinny and very chic and very beautiful. And if they are not beautiful, well, then they are very charming. So people always say that I weigh them, but no. I don’t weigh my girls.” " Then she says this: "You think this will be so glamorous," she sighs. "You have the idea in your mind and then you get there and the people in the hotel ..." She grimaces and gestures hugely in the hip area. "There were lots of people who were so fat and like that.""
And to make sure we got the point she repeats the info on her editorial team: “I told you, all the girl who work at French Vogue are vewy skinny and beautiful.” "
Are you kidding me? This sounds exactly like a line from The Devil Wears Prada!
Oh, sure, she doesn't weigh "her" girls but she chooses the skinny ones. Because she does imply that skinny equals beautiful. And this is just wrong! Extra kilos are not good, but neither are minus kilos. Obesity and anorexia are both potentially deadly diseases. I know that beauty does not reside in height or weight but in having confidence and accepting oneself.
Oh, one more disappointment from Madame Roitfeld. She says about the relation of French president Nicolas Sarkozy with Carla Bruni: "For us it is good. She is very glamour. She can fit in the clothes." Right. Can you say superficial?
In the end, it seems the people at NY Mag, from which all the quotes are taken from, were mistaken. Carine isn't the Anti-Anna. They might differ in looks and aesthetics but the way they think is essentially the same. The Devil does not wear only Prada but also Yohji and Balenciaga...

Credit(pic and quotes): nymag.com/fashion/08/spring?44215/

I do believe in fairies, I do, I do.

2008-02-26T14:58:00.000+02:00

Apparently, sprite is the key word right now in the fashion world. And by sprite I don't mean the soft drink, though it works wonders combined with tequila but what Horacio Silva defined in the New York Times Women's Fashion Spring Magazine. "A small or elusive imaginary being; an elf or a pixie, as in <>; the supernatural muse of the season as designers practically sprinkled fairy dust over the runways and sent out a wonderland of pouting Ariels, e.g., <> Magique c'est chic!"
I like it- I'm not sure I can pull it off but it sounds so fresh and feminine! And taking about inspiration, let's divert our attention from Miuccia Prada's prepubescent Alice in Wonderland style fairies (they look so young they really appear to have popped rightout of the mind of Lewis Carrol) and think of older muses. Think of Loie Fuller, the Chicago born Parisian sensation once dubbed the Magician of Light. She fascinated the public with the hypnotic moves of her Serpentine Dances and was both muse and patron of Art Nouveau figures such as Toulouse Lautrec. Loie Fuller (her name pronounced like in the Motorhead song :P) was a revolutionary who gave up tutus and ballet slippers in favor of pastel colored veils and bare feet. What is more, she wasn't your typical bohemian artist- she hang out with Alexandre Dumas Fils, Anatole France, Auguste Rodin, the Curies and...Queen Mary of Romania( she was amazing, Queen Mary).

Pic credit:artsalive.ca, elsaexarhu.wordpress.com, treadwaygallery.com, content.cdlib.com

Saving money for this

2008-02-21T16:07:00.001+02:00

I know where I'll be on March, 1: at My Grandma's Back Yard! The fair will be held at La Scena Club in Bucharest, Calea Calarasilor, nr. 55, between 12 and 19 pm. It's a must see for all those who like indie clothes and accesories, vintage objects and everything selfmade and second hand. Bring 10 lei with you (they cover the entrance fee plus something to eat and drink) and put on your best, scratch that, GEEKIEST face!( I think I'll do a reprise of my sexy librarian look back from my UVM days) Be there ...And be square!