Fashion might need to do some travelling...

We are almost getting bored if of the term credit crunch and it has merely started (get used to it, might become a classic). Even more boring is what it did to fashion these days. It seems like designers in the world of fashion, and by world I mean Paris, Milan and New York have decided to take either the very safe road or the not so genius escapist world. Truth is, both of them are very much about selling in tough times and very little about design. It all becomes a little too desperate and as we did with the boy who liked us in high school , we can’t avoid being a bit blasee. Big houses have numbers to keep, small ones have investors to meet and when cutting costs creativity is the first one to be crossed. But the starving design lovers, need to be fed somehow, where to turn to?
Perhaps it is time for fashion to go Global.
Alexander Wang Pre-fall

Calvin Klein pre-fall

Egyptomania at Balmain

Sandra Backlund, Berlin Fashion Week

Dyptique on Bleecker

Before I fell in love with the dyptique scents it was there bold yet simple packaging that cought me. The french brand has finally openned a shop in NY. Definetely worth a visit, if not for the increadible scents, at least for the fabulous chandaliers.

Parachute pants

Acrylic Glasses

Garance Dore

One of the prettiest fashion blogs out there, fashion illustrator Garance Dore mixes street pictures with her illustrations: www.garancedore.fr

Nerd

Always a fan of the Nerd look...

Cowboy Chaps

I am not sure I like it but this is the third time I see a girl wearing cowboy chaps. Maybe it means something? Definetely caught my attention..

Design is not always pretty

In the walls of MOMA, the explanation to their current design exhibition: "Rough cut: Design takes a sharp edge". Very inspiring.

Calder jewelry

Throughout his career American born artist ALexander Calder explored the concept of movement as a sculptural element and is credited for the creation of mobiles as an art form.
Best known for his monumental abstracts and mobiles also made inventive pices of Jewelry. Starting today, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will show 90 pieces of his jewelry, including necklaces, bracelets, earrings, rings, brooches and belt buckle. Peggy Guggenheim, Georgia O'Keeffe and the French actress Jeanne Moreau were among the artists and collector friends who wore his work.

The Russian Invasion

<Chanel Pre-Fall 2009

A silver gilt thread coat from Emperor Peter II's wardrobe

Did Mr. Lagerfeld take a sneak peek at Victoria and Albert's exhibition the "Magnificence of the Tsars" opening tomorrow? Maybe...or maybe we are just going through a Russian invasion in the world of style.
"Magnificence of the Tsars" will feature more than 40 superb ensembles from the collections of the Moscow Kremlin Museums, Russia's oldest national Treasury.
It is a display of unimaginable opulence, from pearls smothering the cuffs of a costume ball outfit to the extravagant heraldic tunics, one that is even more interesting when viewed through the prism of a tragic ending.

Finally...

Some good news: Doo-Ri plans to launch a secondary, lower-priced line next year. The line will pick up on many of her signatures — the jersey, the draping and the feminine silhouettes — in fabrics more suitable for everyday. While we have already decided that we love it, the designer is still deciding on a name.

Its official

Ok...we saw this one coming but now its official.
Here is an article from nymag:


"IT" BAGS ARE SO EMBARRASSING

Along with the economy, the luxury market faces a major upheaval. Yes, really. Former Morgan Stanley luxury analyst Claire Kent, who is now an industry consultant, spoke in London last week at the Luxury Briefing conference (where, we imagine, attendees examine each other's summer yachting photos on their Prada phones … through monocles). The luxury market has been booming for fifteen years, but all good things must come to an end. Sound scary? Fancy this:

[Kent] pointed to “luxury fatigue” and the growing fear of debt, and said consumers would increasingly be spending more money on fewer items. As a result, “masstige and aspirational brands will suffer the most,” she told the audience, adding that the handbag bubble is bursting now. “An ‘It’ handbag will become an embarrassment — a clear sign that you don’t have your own view of fashion,” she said.

Ho ho, Upper East Siders. If you don't feel embarrassed about your money yet, you may as well start now. And eBay your Birkin bags before the rest of the world catches on to your bank account.

To be or not to be...tasteful

So I heard Hermes is offering clients two choices of shopping bags: the classic chic orange one and a plain paper one. It seems like not everyone wants to stroll down Madison avenue announcing their last splurge in times like these. Bravo Hermes! This business, so much about taste, has to sort out how to be tasteful again.

Wake up Punch!!

Coffe with an attitude! The piece was just released from the mad lab of P.A.D., the Los Angeles design duo comprising of architect Thomas Robertson of Ripple Design and Eli Bonerz, a founder and art director of the XLarge streetwear brand

Only in Miami..

Calvin Klein and Takashi Murakami: the minimalist and the theatrical...only in Miami!

She actually has a fashion sense?

“And when I see the photographs I think, crikey, my boobs are up round my neck again.” - Victoria Beckham, on why she understands how a dress should fit, to Vogue UK.

Mr Lagerfeld's Czarinas

For the Chanel pre-fall collection Mr. Lagerfeld presented one of the most beautiful collections I have seen in months. Inspired by Russioan folklore and constructivism the show was a perfect moment of escapism, a journey to a different time and place, a McQueen style fairy tale voyage. But what's up with all the rich embroidery and golden details in a moment where most of us are worried about the world (and our own) economy? It turns out a little dreamming would do us all good and because Mr. Lagerfeld is wiser and smarter then us he hid some very classic pieces under the heavily stylized show.

Messaging Madonna

Text massaging is important in fashion as it was in politics this year. "How would you like to be in our campaign" Jacobs asked Madonna "I'd love to", she replied a few minutes later. Here are the results. A very cliche parisian bistro setting shot in LA. But who is paying attention to the settings? Its Madonna!

Contemporary (Chinese) Art

The SAATCHI gallery in London reopened in a new venue after a three-year closure with an exhibition showcasing China's leading young artists entitled: "The Revolution continues: contemporary Chinese Art".
It seems that Contemporary Chinese art is having its "moment" within the art-world.Why? Perhaps because this growing giant sparks curiosity from people around the world, or, as I prefer to believe, because a country that is going through such dramatic changes is a vast topic for reflection. I am amazed at how edgy some of the pieces in the New Chinese Art are, and how they are able to make you think.
In fashion as in art forecasting people's feelings and what would best symbolize the Zeitgeist of a given moment is a hard task. Charles Saatchi seems to be consistently ahead of the game. Who else could spend three years planning a new gallery, fill it with symbols of the eclipse of western power by China, exactly when we are watching our markets collapse?
I know this is "Chinese art", but I think we should just call it "art".

ahhh leather...

The Thinker (wait, what does that make all the rest of us?)

I don't know if I how I feel about Bernard-Henri Lévy (and I dare ask any of my french friends), but I am definetely sure how I feel about Interview magazine and there he was, in one of the first pages of this month's issues. This is one of his quotes:

" People always say that we must remain faithful to tradition, to family, to our class, to our ideas, of course not! That would be equivalent to zero brain activity. If you really want to think, to seek truth, to advance intellectually you must turn your back on cliches, on preconceived ideas."
For BHL the intellectual's true duty is not to fidelity but no infidelity. I think the same applies to fashion.

Absolut & Lang

Helmut Lang may have abandoned the fashion world for years but he never fails to reappear. His recent exhibition "Alles Gleich Schwer" is now available online in a collaboration with Absolute Vodkaon its website. Visitors on teh site can download free, limited-edition posters until December 31st. An early chrsitmas gift for all of us who never get tired of the Lang aesthetic.

Nursing a fetish

Galerie Patrick Seguin, Paris, in collaboration with Gagosian Gallery, presents a new series of work by Richard Prince. This new series of sculptural assemblages was born out of Prince's avid book collecting.
For many years Richard Prince's extensive collection of rare books has inspired his work, most notable the Nurse paintings. The chair above is the Nurse Hat Chair. The chair is an edition of 7, designed by Richard Prince, and based on a nurse's white hat, appropriating his own icon from the series of Nurse paintings. Now, there's certainly nothing new about the fetishization of nurses. The naughty nurse is one of those deeply ingrained stereotypes that just keeps surfacing—on soap operas, on Halloween, in the pages of glossy fashion magazines.
The chair reminded me of something and as I scratched my head to figure out what it was Balenciaga's Spring 2008 popped in my mind. Perhaps the idea of purity is so sexy because it triggers one imagination -in the exact opposite direction. Prince and Ghasquieres seem to agree on this one.

West Village Sailor

Morning coffee in old Jeans

16eme lady

I was walking down the 16eme cartier when I found this lady sitting on a bench. Her shoes are sexy and t there is something very military about them, which she made more evident by her choice of pants and jacket, both in different shades of green. I like how the loose, baggy pants are "funneled" into the shoe, highlighting its importance in her whole outfit. Very harmonious in the end.