Hear/Say

I can’t help but reblog this fantastic fellow shot by the Sartorialist. Can’t tear my eyes away. I’m not even usually one for bling, but… he dunnit so gooooood…!

yum yum.

Graceee

There are certain color combinations some people can’t stand; but who’s to prove they never-ever-work?

Yellow and black brings up a bee-like emphasis; but Jane of Sea of Shoes makes it pop dark and sassy with black lace and a yellow puffy winter bolero:

via seaofshoes.typepad

Lascivious clash of colors… a conflict killed by class.

Graceee

Everyone knows how terrible American advertising can be. How terribly overwhelming, and abrasive, and unnecessary… eating up my quality Jersey Shore fix, yo.

via itsnicethat.com

A friend used to ask me if I was going to kill the industry from the inside, when I pronounced my interest in advertising– and it’s nothing like that. Others also sneer at the idea of “manipulating others” for profit. But isn’t that life? You socially maneuver yourself to get what you want; if others are dumb enough to be used, well, they need to pay more attention. It’s all in taking nothing for granted, except maybe gravity, which is practically guaranteed to stay with us– but even that assumption doesn’t need to exist in our dreams, our nightmares, and our goals.

If you take less things for granted, you have less limits to box yourself in. If I feel that advertising is damaging, harmful– I wouldn’t be interested in the industry. I do believe that advertising is an extremely practical (and at the same time, oddly romantic) art– with the pressure of generative constraints (i.e. market audience, current events, timing, the temporality of social agendas, public feelings about this-and-that, etc. These constraints on the art of creating a commercial, or a campaign that appeals to a public– these constraints are what force the best advertising agencies and marketing divisions to appeal and relate products to people in a most innovative and creative strategy.

Incidentally, I think print pants are so back in btw--

Fashion is the same. The tick-tocking of pendulous forces in a laissez-faire market is no different than the swinging popularity of fads, symbols, and era-themed styles: the 80′s, the 90′s, the modern, the retro-modern, the avant-garde moving into the mainstream.

Remember bell-bottoms? Now, remember the transition from bell-bottoms to hip-to-ankle hugging jeans to the ever-now-popular j’eggings? How we went to oooh, scrunchies to UGHHH SCRUNCHIES?

The point is, if the social atmosphere and attitude of acceptance is so fickle, the generative constraints change as well– and, with my obsession in referencing the Rise of the ‘Net- you got it; the Internet speeds the rate of this change with a digital fierceness.

Which makes it too easy for terrible commercials to happen. Because people get lazy, and their creativity factory sort of shuts down. You have to work twice as hard to keep up with the hip, the happening; in two nanoseconds, you might enjoy the glory of being first-to-know–, first-to-copy, first-to-link, but after those two infinitesimal moments pass– who knows if it’s already gone ancient in chat rooms and forums across the globe. Being too early for a meme to be understood by a wide audience can happen as well.

See my rant on "Mother Nature"

Saying all of this, I believe commercials need to be more than flashes of information; obvious cheese-ball lines hinting at domestic happiness with a wave of a Swiffer duster or the stench of lavender aroma plugged into your wall. With this whirlwind of morphing digital media, perhaps commercials that are successful need to be deeper and more subtle with meaning. Simple, appealing, and non-intrusive in a way that you enjoy watching the commercial, or engaging in the campaign. The audience arrives with the power to pull the material they’d like to view; it is now more than ever that commercials need to be salient and interesting enough to be pulled.

Now… I don’t really have any experience making commercials, or sketching out campaigns for, I dunno, adhesive spray– but people are taking dumb commercials for granted, and it’s my observation that who can change this will be king of the hill.

Some great pieces of media I think that really achieve this genuine feel of interest or emotion:

Tavi’s “A Shaded View on Fashion Film” contest winner did well in subtly weaving an emotional narrative between the clothing, setting, and characters. Kudos to the engaging soundtrack and cinematography:

Spike Jonze’s “Tainted Love” for Levi’s commercial; clever, unexpected, entertaining.

A more serious topic: Amnesty International and their message to support “Death to the Death penalty”. The visual is impressive– it allows them to illustrate the mortal issue at hand while leaving an emotional-sans-horrifying impact. I guess you can say it’s emotionally graphic, without being visually so.

Click HERE for an online campaign on amotrophic lateral scerlosis, or ALS.

Er… possibly tactlessly following, my favorite AIDS commercial that advocates safe sex. It’s pretty awesome, slightly graphic, but fun (which is generally not the typical hype around safe sex):

Generally, it’s such a simple concept: make your commercials more interesting, fun, creative, and cool, and a successful campaign or PR stunt will follow.

Graceee

My friend and I love to go thrifting. Quite often, we find ourselves transported to the aisles of Value Village, where all the values make a village of a mess in our garages. Anyway, we never really  look for designer pieces; it’s nice to snap up a vintage Dior cardigan, or a silk flower print tunic from Theory– or commonly, some sweet Ferragamo shoes. It’s more of a free-for-all for fun designs, or fun and sleek pieces for our ever-ailing wardrobes (the next season is always a few weeks away… ). After a weekend of heavy plunder, we both discovered that many of what we chose was, embarrassingly enough, from Talbots– which is, as Bryanboy says:

Talbots is renowned for no nonsense “REAL American” womenswear. We’re talking about real real as in real real South Dakota or Wyoming or Idaho or something like that.

And it’s true; which is why the surprise cream of our crop was so startling. Talbots is so 90′s, with the whole vibe of “independent women” goes along with a contradictory “independent housewife” feel– definitely not fierce, glamorous, or remotely glorious to be caught shopping in their traditionally white and red wicker-chairs-faux-modern- designs stores. We figured dressing old was hip ( if you’re under 25 and look like you’re in high school or college). Recently, however, Bryanboy posted about Talbot’s changing style: how it is trying to be fierce, independent, career-women-oriented… their new tagline? We Believe in Tradition Transformed.

Check out Bryanboy’s post for the comparison of then and now.

It’s interesting to see how they’ve shifted from elderly ordinary ladies to young but mature vixens. Where will REAL American women find their clothing now?? Chico’s?

Graceee

via thestylenotebook.com

for Tavi of Style Rookie at her recent Idea City talk. 14 years old, and already giving speeches. She was sweetly nervous, but still articulate for a young lady of her years– check her speech out HERE.

Some takeaways:

Sassy magazine

Does counterculture still exist with the real-time of the Internet picking things up and spreading things around?

Is there an underdog, when people can find others they relate to over the net?

Fashion as dressing for fun, for yourself, rather than impressing a boy or make other girls jealous.

A call for teen girls to speak up and participate!

Wise, Tavi is. What an inspirational being. There is an urge to deface her power with scowls of jealousy– rotten envy– but that just shows how successful she is. Who cares about how other people dress? Being pointlessly critical and snarky reveals your own weakness and insecurities. Being fashionable should be about positive appreciation for the aesthetic– not a competition of brand names, designers, or “fads”. Besides, things from each era cycles and recycles; being the mainstream definition of “unfashionable” can just make you way cool and avant garde.

Graceee

is still slammin’.

Check out his rock or fashion diary at HEDI SLIMANE.

Graceee

via ponystep.com

Venetia Scott has been all the buzz on the Innernetz lately; this is surprising, as she has apparently already established herself quite successfully in the fashion world as a fashion stylist and photographer.

A true Conde Naste darling, she began at British Vogue, and continued tos tyle shoots for several prominent magazines– Italian Vogue, The Face, another Magazine, W, and Self Service.

She then became the Creative Director of Marc Jacobs and Marc by Marc;

in 1999 Scott became fashion director at Nova, and has worked with professional photographers Juergen Teller (who did the last Marc Jacobs campaign– and with whom Scott also shares an ex-marriage and a daughter), David Sims, Mario Sorrenti, Helmut Newton, Steven Klein, Glen Luchford, and Stephen Shore. She has also done multiple advertising campaigns for the Marc Jacobs brands, Calvin Klein products, and other designers.

Most recently, Scott has been working as a photographer for several publications and on advertising campaigns for designer Margaret Howell.

As a veteran of styling, photography, and the glorious creative heights of magazine editorials, Scott has witnessed the overwhelming of magazines for advertising purposes:

“I find magazines less and less interesting — I don’t really buy magazines or look at magazines. I mean I’ve got a twelve year old [daughter with ex-husband Juergen Teller] and we were talking about it yesterday — she’ll go on the internet and probably look at something like your [online] magazine [Ponystep] more. She would not ever go to a newsagent and buy a magazine. And even here when we get sent ones that I’ve got work in, she’s not really interested in it. In a way I’m doing less editorial because it seems a bit tired now.” –Ponystep

On styling and how it’s changed as well:

“When I first started at [British] Vogue [around 1987] you’d get all the clothes in, have your rail and you’d make looks. Whereas now the designers do the looks. You can’t mix Chanel now with other designers — the power of advertising is that if you don’t do it in the way that they want you to shoot it then the magazines become scared that they’ll lose the cash. When I first started there wasn’t really any bargaining power between the advertisers and editorial; they were two completely separate things. Now it’s ‘I’ll take out a couple of pages and you give me a couple of pages.’” – Ponystep

Most recently, I’ve uncovered her Self-Service Magazine “Nature Seems to Be Fashionable Again” shoot for the Fall/Winter 2005 as it is blogged and re-blogged over several fashion and/or photography sites. Scott both styled and photographed the shoot:

She styled Devon Aoki, shot by Juergen Teller, for Vogue Russia, October 1998…

You can see the parallels of the au naturel, care-free innocence shown in this shoot and the current Marc Jacobs ads…

And some pictures from the Margaret Howell campaign:

I love her crisp lines, subtle textures… fine photography and styling indeed!

Pictures and information sources provided by forum.thefashionspot.com

Graceee

listening to: “Sprawl (Flatland)” by the Arcade Fire, The Suburbs

Actually did something actual today: visited the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, and then skipped to the side afterward to visit Shilin Night Market for din-dins. Took all day; at least, whatever was left of the day after I woke up.

The Museum was small as far as museums go, but the exhibits were awesome– more modern than fine arts in my opinion, but I’m sure they take what they can get. There was the Philadelphia traveling exhibit “From Manet to Picasso” featuring pieces from various established European artists (i.e. Matisse, Degas, Van Gogh, Manet, Monet, Picasso, Miro) and impressive exhibitions from several Taiwanese artists. We were also  lucky to catch the Jean-Paul Gaultier exhibit on the ballet/fashion show Le Defile, featuring Gaultier’s pieces for 12 modern ballets (1983-1994) by collaborator and choreographer Regine Chopinot. Ballets included “Le Defile”, “Delices”, “K.O.K”, and “Soli-Bach”.

A little about the two:

Jean Paul Gaultier was never formally educated in fashion, but was recruited by master fashion designer Pierre Cardin (I WILL post on this wizard soon!) at the age of 18. Most know him through Madonna, when he designed her costumes for the Blonde Ambition tour in 1990– coned bras and what-not.

Regine Chopinot is a French choreographer; she collaborated with Gaultier on 12 ballets that were “anti– fashion/dance” in an avant garde– er, fashion.

... "horny"?

A list of things I spied while perusing the costumes on display: a cloth-sculpted clitoris, cloth-sculpted penis, pillow penis, cut-out tux, cone bra, ribbon-beehive headpiece, a fringed lampshade ballerina skirt, gold spray-painted flower-sculpted sneakers, leather bomber jacket studded with aviator sunglasses and pierced with key chains, knit-couch costume with knit skirt and booties, a bride’s costume consisting of a mesh upper torso, ruched jersey tunic, and long jersey skirt with a beehive wig topped with bride and groom cake tops, and sculpted costumes made with thick, layered textured tulle. There was a quilted body suit, tulle sculpted boots, medal-adorned chaps, and beaded nipples.

As sexual as it sounds, the surprising amount of partial-nudity and obvious exaggeration of genitalia facilitated the viewing of these pieces as costume art; obscenity was marveled and hailed as craftsmanship, especially when blatant and confronting.  Little girls were dancing around their mothers and gazing at whatever there was to see, and their mothers whispering “Now think of how they made these, honey…”– art is funny like that. Proves that any societal norms or rules can be suspended, depending on people’s perspective of context…

Anyway, here’s some clips of the ballets– you can definitely sense the “anti-fashion” and “anti-dance” baffle you, but the aesthetic is wonderful enough to keep you watching.

Le Defile:

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And some pictures I took outside of the exhibit:

Cointreau-papered disc-hat

Fully knit couched-hip costume plus knit skirt and booties:

Tulle sculpted thigh-highs:

Detail on back of a costume-jacket:

There were several rooms in the Mobilité, sons et formes exhibition from the GRAME Centre National de Création Musicale that were enchanting:

A room ornamented with delicately turning panes of glass painted with gold notes, rigged with tiny echoes of speakers tinkling the slightest notes to the attuned ear.

A room filled with sand became a textured and engaging projection screen for a video featuring a girl dancing her own pattern into the sand-floor. My favorite room by far– people were coming in but for some reason weren’t up to actually dancing and pushing the sand with their feet, sinking in with their toes: they wouldn’t even take their shoes off. Michael and me ended up wrecking it everywhere, dancing and twirling with the girl’s projection, sometimes violently sliding all over the place, through the projection and back, making rows of dunes across the screen, while everyone else watched from the side and gingerly nudged the sand with their shoes. It was so obvious the point was to dance or make your own design… but everyone was so meek…

I wish I could find out more about Thierry de Mey, the artist, but to no avail– for once Google has failed me.

By the time we got done with everything, we were well-famished, and made a bus stop away to Shilin Night Market. Shilin is so old, it has it’s own food court. The area that used to be the night market has been entirely converted to food stands and vendors, and the local specialty is oyster scramble and tian-bu-la. Which we devoured; dessert was even more delicious– gourmet mochi.

Most people in Seattle know of mochi at least in the ice-cream sense; the sticky rice-paste covered ice-cream (mango, vanilla, mango, green tea) can be purchased at any self-respecting Asian grocery. The mochi is traditionally filled with red-bean paste, peanut-butter, or black sugar. We visited a stand at the Shilin food court that served them hot and delicious: baked mochi lends a crunchier outer crust to the sticky, pasty consistency. The black sugar dish had the sugar sauce hot and drizzled over the mochi and the red-bean mochi was served in a small bowl of red-bean soup (sweet). I’m usually overwhelmed by the stickiness, but this place was spectacular…

YummRz!

After that, I went shopping, bickered with my brother, and headed home on the MRT.

Dunno what I’m doing tomorrow, but I really need to send some postcards out…

Graceeee

ps aaahhh new pants

I LVVVVOEEEEEE THESE! So much so, I can’t rightly spell.Thanks to ever-inspiring fash-logess StyleBubble.

via stylebubble.com

via stylebubble.com

Made by Cooperative Designs for their spring and summer 2010 collection (but who says you can’t wear it on some doubled tights for the wintertime?) check it here.

So cute!

Graceee

Sometimes you catch yourself checking every reflective surface for a hint of weakness within yourself– some days, you can’t be touched; others, it seems like you embody the world of ugly. Everyone else is probably just as insecure. If you make enough of a statement, maybe it’ll make you feel better to know exactly what people might be staring about, instead of self-consciously second-guessing. It’s why people get crazy piercings, right? You don’t have to get tattoo’d or stuck like a pin, though: it’s what make-up is for. To look a little more like you want to, and it’s completely under your control. So make it funZO.

Here’s some awesome ideas for some fresh looks—granted, they’re not very traditional (done as fashion show presentations), but good taste consists of the balance of “just so”—a coherent look—will help make your style pop sass and style. Confidence helps: resigning to “that’s not for me” or “I can’t pull that off” simply makes the sentiment true. Go out on the town and paint it whatever goddamn color you want. Remember when you dreamt of “When I grow up…”? Well, you’re grown up. And you can do what you want.

Drastick lips: Black, Dark, Or Eye-Popping Neons
Dramatic yes, but fierce as Tyra Banks (…before ANTM). Makes your eyes pop and draws attention to your edginess…. your dark side.

Too Two Toned Lips
Bump up the sass with an extra pop in your color: two toned lips made a coy appearance at the Nanette Lepore Fall 2010 show. Dress them up, take them out, kiss the boys and make them pout.

Knot (NOT) so Nappy

Fendi features some sweet knots in their Autumn/Winter show. Let your hair take a break from the reliable but tiring ballerina bun– a desperate variety is in need.

Fendi via style.com

allure.com

If the boys don’t know how, lead by example– down to the detail. Don’t fear the tie.

via style.com

There are no faux pas– do what looks good, quirky, fun!

facehunter

Reinvent and appreciate the special pieces; reinvent any persona and make the look yours. Tavi inspired by C. Love.

stylerookie.com

Truth is, haven’t been shopping lately. The sheer amount of clothing and competition is overwhelming over here, not to mention my dad and Michael ragging on about dinner or going home. But when I get back to Value Village…

Graceee