Wednesday, May 25, 2011

the littlest matryoshka




So Australia has spat out another crack-eyed lovely for the fashion world to feast on. Anja Konstantinova was born in Saint Petersburg but migrated here at the age of twelve so that her mother could join the Australian Ballet Company.

I think there's a whiff of North by North West-era Eva Marie Saint about her:

- but Eva didn't have those eyes.

And yeah, she's short. Who cares.

Whatta scoop!

I don't really believe in the word 'flattering', but...

Portrait of the Marquise de Pompadour by Maurice Quentin de La Tour


There are few things that look nicer on a lady than a good scooped, rounded-square neckline.

Mr De La Renta knows what I'm talkin' 'bout:


gnocchi is potatoes

One of my (many) favourite moments in Napoleon Dynamite:

Why did she put three exclamation marks? And why did she put hearts in them??

Summer Wheatly is a stone cold bitch.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Monday, May 23, 2011

Art History lols

Drei Männer am Tisch Date Deutsch (1618) by Diego Velázquez


'Your mate?'

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Elegance is refuse.

From US Vogue, September 2006.

Undulating black aluminum foil - a very pretty description indeed, but in my mind it's definitely the Garbage Bag Dress.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

It's Hedley!

Dita Von Teese is looking beautiful in the February edition of InStyle magazine:

But that's hardly a surprise since she's channeling Hedy Lamarr in Ziegfeld Girl:

Monday, May 16, 2011

please please please me

Honestly, there aren't many people I wouldn't kill for this 1970 Lanvin skirt:

#sothat'swheremiucciagotitfrom #whyamiusinghashtags #Idon'tevenunderstandwhathashtagsarefor

You know exactly what it means to me.

Weird thing: I own one VHS and two different DVD releases of Michael Powell's 1948 film The Red Shoes. Mostly this is because (back in the day when it was just the VHS) I caught the movie playing on TV and found, to my astonishment, that one particularly beautiful dress had changed from green to blue. Anyway, here are some screencaps from the blu-ray release:

I probably can't justify buying a new entertainment system for one movie, but would you believe that the dress in question has yielded yet another colourful surprise:

I never noticed that purple tulle petticoat.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

So my feet made it onto the US Vogue website...

But please don't rush to get my autograph.


Fame ain't easy.

p.s. The extraordinarily beautiful dress/ shoes/ gams to my left belong to the extraordinarily beautiful Chelsea Whitbread - undoubtedly a street-style favourite at this year's RAFW.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Ksubi's first Fauré into film. Shut up.

Watch this. It is outrageously beautiful and probably the best Australian film since forever.

Every time I watch a movie that features the Bach/Gounod 'Ave Maria', I wish that Fauré's 'Requiem' had been used in its place.

Shit son, Ksubi don't put a foot wrong, huh?

snark snark snark

In 1998 Vogue Australia's then-editor, Marion Hume provided side-by-side comparisons of the work of Australian fashion labels at Fashion Week and that of the international designers who had - ahem - inspired them.

Also in Australian Fashion Week's early years, the event's indomitable founder, Simon Lock often boasted that we had the advantage of showing the first of the international Spring/ Summer collections. Going by the calender year this may indeed be the case, but as anyone with an awareness of fashion trends will know, Australia is seldom the source of directional collections. Perhaps it is because of this that I often approach AFW with my rip-off radar on high alert. Personally I think that it's just as well that these days local magazines maintain the general policy of, 'if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all'. Better to leave the snarkiness to broadsheets and bloggers.

On that note...

It was in October 2009 that Phoebe Philo sent this leather blouse down the catwalk for Céline.

It is simply disappointing that Gary Bigeni would bring down the tone of his otherwise stellar collection with a style of garment that has long-since hit the High Street sales racks.

What's the point?

Similarly there was a whiff of Lanvin's Fall 2011 greyscale roses in one of Limedrop's prints:

Limedrop

Image from fashionising

Lanvin

In fact I don't think Limedrop's print is terribly problematic - yes they have taken inspiration from an international look, but they've also brought something new to the table via the painterly zig zags. I can't help think, nevertheless, that there are more than a few Australian designers who would do well to put in place a self-imposed ban on viewing international collections. We can do better.

Paper Skye

My favourite garments at the New Generation show came from Paper Skye, and it was nice to see a designer choose to whisper rather than roar. Pleats were everywhere this week but Paper Sky's workmanship with this tricky fabric surpassed that of many local fashion stalwarts.

Images from fashionising

And perhaps it's silly consideration, but I was so glad that, unlike in the majority of other shows, the models were wearing substantial undergarments beneath the sheer fabrics. I mean honestly, what does an entirely visible nude g-string have to do with fashion?

Mok Theorem

Mok Theorem was one of the labels to produce a collection for the New Generation show. While I would have preferred slightly different styling in a few instances, there were some very nicely tailored shirts and jackets. I though this blouse was particularly clever:

And I don't know what's going on with exposed belly button and bulky belt, but how cute is this lace collar?:

Images from fashionising

One to watch, I reckon.

Really?

So there's two things a swimwear model needs to do...


Images from fashionising

...walk and wax.

As if the Resort Wear group collection wasn't bleak enough already.

Friday, May 6, 2011

Who are you trying to get crazy with, ese? Don't you know I'm loco?

Follow my blog with bloglovin
Even though the song is revoltingly bad, Lady Gaga's "Judas" video is by far my favourite of her offerings so far. The New Testament/ Chola aesthetic works on every level and the shots of Gaga and Jesus have a stunning tableau vivant quality.


Gwen Stefani also rocked the chola/ chicana vibe in her stupendous "Luxurious" video.


A friend tried to describe this video to me before I had seen it, and I remember she used the phrase 'a plethora of piñatas'. This remains one of my favourite groups of words ever.

A guide to Fashion Week bullshittery.

Thankfully there appears to have been some improvement among Fashion Week lasses in the area of gracefully receiving a compliment. A smile and nod (yes, we're still working on 'thank you') is a vast improvement on last year's state of affairs. In fact my dear friend has bit of a problem in this area and I tried to train her, to no avail, to follow Liz Lemon's lead:

Jamie: And now I'm getting attitude from the sexy librarian. 
Liz: What? Sexy? Shut up. You are. 

The new, and far less vexing, mode of bullshit-talk identified at this year's Fashion Week was subtly perplexing. Apparently it is now not the done thing to admit how much pain your killer heels are causing your feet. For example:

Me: Awwww, owwwwww my poor tootsies, owwww.
Fashion Lady: Oh really? My heels [Louboutin Pigalles. Seriously, fuck off.] don't hurt at all.

Is it just me or is there a funky odour in here? Isn't it a little ripe? Oh yeah, that's the smell of BULLSHIT.

While we're on shoes, Ellery's lucite heels were quite ubiquitous this week, so hooray for a local designer creating some seriously lusty shoes.


Bet they hurt but.

Gail Sorronda

Gail Sorronda is such an exceptional talent that sometimes I wish she would diverge from her signature black and white palette - surely she would have more commercial success that way. Oh well, I suppose I'll just have to let her hold onto that aesthetic integrity. I was pretty surprised (and let's face it, horrified) to see balloon hemlines popping up in a few shows this week. Sorronda was the only designer who made it work:

The weight of the fabric stops the hemline from looking like a rehash of a too-recently passed trend. For me, at their best, Sorronda's designs hint at the monumentality of Renaissance garments:

Portrait of a Gentleman by Giovanni Battista Moroni, 1550

Il sarto by Giovanni Battista Moroni, 1570-1575

Michael Lo Sordo

Probs maybe some of my favourite prints of the week came from Michael Lo Sordo.

On first viewing it looks like smoke but now I'm thinking it's a little more like ink in water. And if you're into that, you must check out Mark Mawson's photography:



Just a leetle beet awkward.

Does this Gary Bigeni outfit look a wee bit familiar?


Well here's a something from Lisa Ho's Winter 2011 collection.


I think this is probably an unfortunate coincidence and nothing more. After all, why would Bigeni rip off Ho? Let's just forget this ever happened.

Oh no! Did a Korean person die?

So by now everyone knows that this year's Fashion Week was awash with white.

Yawn.

What few interesting whites there were came from Josh Goot, Lover and Gail Sorronda.

This Goot suit in particular reminds me of Joseph Losey's magnificent screen-adaptation of Don Giovanni:

But on the whole the whites we saw were a tad insubstantial, not to mention a little mournful (and no, I'm not just saying that in order to justify using a 30 Rock quote in the title of this post, though this does make me happy).

Dhini

Butterflies were a motif of Dhini's show and it was therefore an uphill battle for me to love this collection, but love it I did. The undeniable standouts were three sheer dresses, cut in the style of a 1940s trench coat.



I love the rather bulky, masculine lines of early 1940s clothes, but admit they may have limited appeal in a contemporary context. Dhini's use of ultra-feminine sheer fabrics in this style is therefore a lovely and clever conceit. One is given the impression of viewing the ghosts of fashions from a bygone age - and what could be more lovely.

More like Camilla and Snark.

I've had some pretty snarky rants about Camilla and Marc's collections in the past, but today I'ma hang up my cranky pants and admit that this year they presented one darn-cute collection. Yeah yeah, there was a bit of Gucci's Spring 2011 colour palette but there weren't any egregious rip-offs. In fact there were some really original moments, this Neoprene blouse in particular a total winner:


And, could it be, a black dress that doesn't have everyone in the room narcolepting? I think so!

What's more, that looks like the first viable drop waist I've seen in a long time.

Oh well done to the siblings Freeman, well done.