Why People Should Wear Hats More Often: A Photographic Essay

Photos from The Sartorialist and Garance Dore.

Spring 2011 Couture: Alexis Mabille

I love whimsy, I love fashion, and I love style as a metaphor, so the Alexis Mabille collection sort of surpassed my wildest fashion dreams with its concept: each look was produced twice, once in virginal white crepe and again in bold, brilliant color. Everything was constructed around the idea of lightness vs. darkness and the presentation provokes serious thought on what kind of woman would wear each dress - or what things a woman could have done to transition from one color palette to another.

Spring 2011 Couture: Chanel

There were 66 looks in the Chanel show, and honestly, I only truly loved a handful of them. The collection, when viewed as a whole, is very beautiful; everything is diaphanous and shimmery and the permeated with the hues of a winter sunrise. However, I didn't warm up to most of the individual looks. I was surprise by how many models came down the runway in variations of the same tweed coat/shiny, skinny disco trousers/flats. It's hard to top the Byzantine show, obviously...I almost wish that collection and this one had been swapped for couture week. But these looks were quite beautiful:

I really do love the idea of wearing a blousy, embellished silk t-shirt with a crazy skirt that shifts and swirls around you as you walk. A modern-day fairytale princess would wear these.

Spring 2011 Couture: Givenchy

Three things:

1. Soon, I am hoping to turn this blog into a quasi-vintage store of sorts. I have so many items of clothing that I cherish but, for one reason or another, rarely wear. I think they deserve a good home!

2. I'm just going to start bringing a camera to school and have my friends take my outfit photos during the day. By the time I get home from play practice it is pitch black outside and I am much to lazy to set up a tripod.

3. IT'S COUTURE SEASON!!!!

I love Givenchy precisely because the overall effect is so very different from last season's gothy vibes. Everything is so freshly futuristic, and the melding of a million different themes (birds, traditional Japan, sheer sections, ancient armor-like detailing, and headpieces that look like roofing) is so seamless that the amalgamation of influences is barely perceptible; all you see is the overall effect. Ricardo Tisci's creations just serve as more proof that fashion truly is art.



The person who wears one of these gowns to the Oscars will earn my lifelong admiration.

cozy up

I guess I took a sort of unanticipated blogging break...oops. Since I last posted, I have:
1. Applied and subsequently been accepted to college
2. Learned how to play the ukulele
3. Cut my own bangs, twice.
4. Bought the PERFECT black blazer
5. Inherited a ring shaped like a whale, and
6. Turned 18!

Tomorrow, I am going to move my bed into my closet and my clothes into my room. First things first, people.

The weather right now is what one would expect from January in Seattle. I've become somewhat inured to the omnipresent, low-hanging greyness and constant need for an umbrella, but my favorite feeling during these long winter months is cozy. I love feeling safe and warm and snug; I've become somewhat of an expert.

This is what I'm all about right now:

Photos from vi.sualize, sweaters are Proenza Schouler and Rag & Bone from La Garconne.

my stars

THIS post by Elizabeth of White Lightning is incredible. Read it, ogle the pictures, and die a million little deaths from all the awe and jealousy and inspiration coursing through your veins. And note the variety of ages, genders, races, and aesthetics amalgamated in that little room...the times they are a changin'.

insight.

I'm not sure when the people around me will realize that when I get up in the morning and pick out my outfit and do my makeup and blowdry my hair, it is solely for my own benefit. I'm not even attempting to attract or impress anyone with the way I present myself. My chosen form of expression is my style. I wear "weird" things sometimes. So what?

the view from where i sit is rather grey

In drear-nighted December,

Too happy, happy tree,

Thy branches ne'er remember

Their green felicity:

The north cannot undo them

With a sleety whistle through them;

Nor frozen thawings glue them

From budding at the prime.

In drear-nighted December,

Too happy, happy brook,

Thy bubblings ne'er remember

Apollo's summer look;

But with a sweet forgetting,

They stay their crystal fretting,

Never, never petting

About the frozen time.

Ah! would 'twere so with many

A gentle girl and boy!

But were there ever any

Writhed not at passed joy?

The feel of not to feel it,

When there is none to heal it

Nor numbed sense to steel it,

Was never said in rhyme.

Seattle winters could crush you with their interminable grey-ness. Poem: In drear-nighted December, John Keats. Photos: vi.sualize, Pringle of Scotland Pre-Fall, Rag and Bone.

proserpina

I just LOVE a good holiday gift guide. Around this time of year, I comb retail websites for present-giving advice and then fantasize about being the kind of girl who winkingly gives Proenza Schouler wallets and Mongolian lambswool tippets to her bffs. Perhaps the day will come when that is actually feasible, but until then, here is my FANTASY HOLIDAY WISH LIST/GIFT GUIDE FOR PEOPLE WHO WANT TO GIVE A PRESENT TO A DESIGN/ART OBSESSED (NEARLY EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLD) GIRL:

1. THIS incredible J.Crew skirt, but in a magical looks-like-the-real-deal fake leather, in keeping with my veganism. It is perfect. PERFECT.

2. The dress Eliza wears to the Embassy Ball in My Fair Lady, so I can save it and wear it for my wedding. Obviously.

3. THOSE floral Docs. Because I still do not own them, and that is a cause for great distress. They are apparently unavailable for purchase anywhere in the whole universe because believe me, I've tried.

4. An original Miranda July. Ha.

5. A singing voice like Pricilla Ahn's.

6. A purple Proenza Schouler PS1. I'm not even a bag person. The PS1 is just flawless.

7. THIS ring.

8. For my fringe to look like Alix's (The Cherry Blossom Girl)

In reality, I'll probably be asking for donations to the Central Asia Institute and a book of Keats poetry for Christmas. But a girl can dream...

baby

Oops...I missed my blogiversary! Idyll turned 1 year old on November 24th. I'm proud of my baby. Here's to another year of style evolution and extracurricular musings!