past times

The National Library of Australia photo archives are such a neat little source for historical faaaarshion inspiration. And it's educational too- I didn't think 1930s gowns were ever terribly voluminous before seeing this photo:

Portrait of Madge Elliot, September 16 1935

There are quite a few rather poignant portraits of Aboriginal women from various parts of Australia, and I've noticed that for some reason they are often dressed in fairly funky repeat-printed garments:

Yuendumu, Northern Territory, 1958

Methodist Mission Station in Welpa, Queensland, 1957

Portrait of Nancy, Central Australia, 1946

Methodist Mission Station in Welpa, Queensland, 1957

I find the clothes quite appealing thought I suspect these weren't fashionable garments - perhaps missions gave them out?

p.s. How much does the woman in the last photo look like Grace Zabriskie?

toasty

My dad recently leant me his credit card so that I could buy a replacement for our old, kaput toaster. However after ascertaining that this toaster does not exist -

- I kinda lost interest in the set task. The episode has served to reinforce the fact that I should never, never never be given a credit card, though I like to think of myself as living in the tradition of Jack (of Beanstalk fame).

Behold my magic beans:

These matches are disappointing me!

Everyone shut up. Now, can we figure out how I can get my hands on these Alexander McQueen shoes:

The white is so beautiful and austere.

milk-fed

I recently became the proud owner of this sweet-as-pie swimsuit, The Dollar by local label Black Milk:

I actually hadn't heard of the label, designed by James Lillis, until Tavi of Style Rookie posted a picture of herself wearing Black Milk's sacrelicious Cathedral leggings:

Pretty dope, eh?

One of the things I find most interesting about the label is Lillis' accompanying blog, the surprisingly frank Too Many Tights. Remember in The Simpsons how Mr Burns finishes singing "See My Vest" by saying, 'I really like the vest!'? Well Lillis really likes the tights.

It's pretty incredible to be able to track the progression of the label, especially given that Lillis seems to have been largely self-taught as a designer and sewer (sorry, I can't for the life of me think of a synonym for that word). As someone who lives in fear of working with stretch fabrics, I was filled with jealous admiration while reading over Lillis' development as a designer and, I gather, the sole constructor of his garments during the early days.

If someone decides to write a history of this label, they'll have their work cut out for them. If the blog is true to real-time, then it seems that Lillis spent late-2008 and early-2009 creating the kind of metallic, often patterned leggings that are probably most readily associated with American Apparel. In fact Lillis makes reference to AA in one rather nice post in which he discusses the question of garment-pricing:

"And then you've got companies like American Apparel keeping guys like me honest. You know they're going to be doing stuff at a good price, and if independents like myself want to ask for more, we better have a damn good reason. You can't trade off your name - because no one's heard of you!"

Around about April 2009 Lillis' wares made great leaps in construction complexity, with the release of his Spiderman and Cage leggings:

And throughout the blog Lillis discusses in detail his approach to design and how he deals with the problems he encounters when trialing new fabrics and designs.

TMT posts range from being endearingly geeky to uncommonly (for the fashion world) canny. Take for example his October 2009 post, 'Let's All Be Racist!'

"Funny thing about talking about clothing manufacturing - a lot of people kinda go all racist on me.

Me: Yeah, got a lot happening at the moment. There has been a lot of interest in the Black Milk gear and I'm struggling to keep up with demand.

Person: Oh, I know what you should do - just hire and Asian for $2 an hour. Me: ... um... that's kind of racist, don't you think?

Person: No, not at all, those Asians, they'll work 16 hours for a bowl of rice.

I have had variants upon that conversation more times than I care to remember. "

After releasing The Dollar swimsuit in October of 2010 he blogged

'Now, I know what you are thinking: "Dollar leggings - you copycat! We all know Jeremy Scott did that like 2 years ago!!!" I know. However, (and don't tell Jeremy this) I think I can do them a little cooler.'

And I bet he could.

In June 2009 Lillis used a Star Wars metaphor to explain why he would no longer be personally sewing all the items he sold. While I do not doubt Lillis' dedication to creating well-made garments, I wonder if the shift to outsourcing labour has impacted on their quality output - I couldn't help but notice that the shoulder straps on my swimmers vary slightly in width.

But let's not end on a crud note. LOOK AT THESE RIGHTEOUS SWIMMERS.

buggy?

This editorial by Benjamin Kanarek from Brazillian Vogue's June 2o10 issue is keeping me warm at the moment.

It reminds me a lot of a dumb computer game that came free with my first laptop. It was about a bug who had to run away from other bugs. I think it was called bugsy or buggo, or something. Anyway, the grass and sky looked exactly the same.

The idea of not wearing colour during Winter is totally strange to me. Though I don't do too much non-virtual shopping anyway, stores filled with twenty shades of charcoal and one 'burnt orange' don't make me feel any more inclined to go into shopping centres.

The Ugly One.

I'm weirdly obsessed with this song and video:

I'm all about the lazy dancing.

I don't think Girls Aloud ever really made an impact in Australia, though for a while I thought 'Sound of the Underground' was the sickest thing I'd ever heard. Anyway, apparently Nicola Roberts was the ugly one of the group (so christened by Lily Allen, ooh hark at that!). I think she's the sickest thing I've ever seen.

All photos stolen from Red Carpet Fashion Awards.

made for talking

Current thing I want more than anything else in the whole wide world:

Metal-heeled cowboy boots a la Tybalt in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet. Remember the scraping noise they make as he stamps out the match flame? What a rockstar.

se7en

By Chris Hill, the seven deadly sins represented by Disney Princesses:

Neat, huh? I like the Art Nouveau fonts. And the concept. Also the execution.

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.

contrasts

Louise Brooks with her pearls:

Photoshop is fun!

Art History lols

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

'Your mate?'

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.