Fashion | Gotta keep it separated, J.W. Anderson

I am not on it. I won’t even pretend to be. But as I said before, I like to watch. The good ‘ole Grey Lady, has a playlist going called In the Studio | The New York Times: “Where does a collection begin? In the mind and imagination of a designer, of course, but also in a physical space, an insider sanctum that is almost never seen by consumers: the office and atelier. In many ways, these private spaces reflect the choices and points of view that inform fashion as much as any runway show. If in doubt, simply consider the outtakes from a series of behind-the-velvet-curtain videos in which designers from New York to Paris invited The New York Times into their professional lives.” Beyond hearing/reading his name, I don’t know much about J.W. Anderson or the specifics of his designs for, as it turns out, two labels: his own and Spanish luxury emporium Loewe. However, I now absolutely admire how organized/compartmentalized he tries to be. See this still from his interview! Com’on – this mobile phone separation and labelling is something to emulate! Neat and sanity preserving.

Fashion | How To Pronounce The Hardest Names In Fashion courtesy of i-D

So you may NEVER sound uncivilized.

 

i-D’s playful take on pronunciation teaches you how to speak your international fashion alphabet, from Azzedine Alaïa (AH'ZE'DEEN AH'LAI'AH) in Paris to Zegna (ZEN'YA) in Milan. Director Barnaby Roper at Cadence NY.

Interesting Couple | Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin

You might be at least familiar with the commercial work of this Dutch duo, the one for fashion houses – like the ad campaign for Miu Miu where each photo is stamped with INEZ & VINOODH {city where it was done, date of when}; alternatively, it seems luxury magazines like them shooting covers and related editorials. Nice job if you can … carry it off. These two have a specific style in or feel about their work, commercial or not – just browse some. I find it crisp. Crisp enough that the fact retrospectives of their work are being held already kind of odd. But it has been 25 years plus. Like I said, nice job.

Fashion & Movies | If you like the combo, see Women’s Tales.

©PRADA | WOMEN'S TALES

		Right now Miu Miu gives us six Women’s Tales shorts to choose from. Each very different, compelling, always looking good.
№ 1	|	The Powder Room by Zoe Cassavetes (American), known for Broken English. Secluded. Codified.
№ 2	|	Muta by Lucrecia Martel (Argentinian). Surreal mute transformations. Eerie.
№ 3	|	The Woman Dress by Giada Colagrande (Italian). Ultimate change into desired.
№ 4	|	It’s Getting Late by Massy Tadjedin (Iranian-American). Getting ready to converge.
№ 5	|	The Door by Ava DuVernay, the “first African-American woman to win the Best Director Prize at Sundance Film Festival.” Smooth.
№ 6	|	Le Donne della Vucciria by Hiam Abbass (Palestinian). Vibrant “dolls” intoxicate with life.

Interesting Couple | Hello weekend! Rick Owens & Michele Lamy by Sofia Tchkonia

Fashion | Prada goes Julius and Gene for Candy

Shared it elsewhere, but this is just too cute to pass up!

Inspired by François Truffaut’s “Jules et Jim” falling for Catherine 1962 cool.

Fashion | Bits & bob that inspire men’s wear

As a follow up to How men get dressed, here is Patrick Grant of London's Savile Row based E.Tautz & Sons talking about designing A/W 2013 collection.

Fashion | How men get dressed. Short films by Chris Floyd

Chris Floyd takes pictures – still ones and moving ones. One day The Sunday Times Style Online commissioned from Chris a series of short films on dapper men’s rituals of daily dressing. Here to share and get you started.

Fashion | Ladies got vicious at Rick Owens

The whole S/S 2014 fashion hullabaloo was done back in September, but the photos and videos are still out there to inspire. Fashion cycles, and not just in the cuts and colors, but also attitudes – especially when portraying the modern/current woman. She is “strong”, she is “bold”, she is “power” – as long as she is pretty, still somewhat delicate which is not hard to achieve if she is very very slim, sexy, and up for ogling (nothing wrong with that; sometimes we dress to be ogled). Then every now and then a designer says, “F%^k this pretty skinny thing. Let’s get real. Let’s get amped!”  S/S 2014 had Rick Owens. The models came in not-typical-model sizes, i.e. women sizes, and step dancers moved, really moved. All were truly fierce – strong, bold, powerful. Meanwhile, men’s wear collection had an Estonian Death Metal band…  Ah Rick, rascal you!

Art | Jean Paul Gaultier at Brooklyn Museum

Paolo Roversi (Italian, b. 1947). 

Tanel Bedrossiantz, 1992. 

Digital print, 

15 x 12 in. (38.3 x 30.8 cm). 

Jean Paul Gaultier’s “Barbès” 

women’s ready-to-wear 

fall-winter collection of 

1984–85. 

© Paolo Roversi

No, there is nothing wrong with your internet connection. It’s just…

The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk

October 25, 2013–February 23, 2014

Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing and Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery, 5th Floor

$10 / $15 +

Brooklyn Museum

200 Eastern Parkway

Brooklyn, New York 11238-6052

 2    3  Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum

Work & Life | Albert Elbaz on creating and directing

“When you create, you cannot direct 

and when you direct 

it’s very very difficult to be creative. 

So I don’t think that creation and direction are good sisters.”

Elbaz has worked for the Paris fashion house Lanvin since 2001.

Fashion | The Fairy of Porn Chic called Carine Roitfeld

Who’d have thunk it. Me?! I didn’t. All I knew is that I gravitated to that je ne sais quoi on the pages of Vogue Paris. When I bought the December 2010 / January 2011 issue, changes were already afoot that I was clueless about. It was an issue that pushed buttons for some with its Cadeaux spread: kiddies made up for a late decadent night, swathed in major bling, all very grown up. The Cadeaux was, let’s say, provoking, creepy in fact, but to be fair the same issue contained Forever Love with very sexy, and also provocative, shots of two adults at the other age extreme. Equality for all age borders! Little did I know that December 2010 / January 2011 issue marked the end of a 10-year reign of its editrice – Carine Roitfeld. Supposedly, Cadeaux was the reason. Or maybe her final salve. Either way, controversy spread beyond the fashion industry. The dust might have settled by now, and you can draw your own conclusions. I found Forever Love quite welcoming and needed. Tit for tat, I suppose… Still, it took me a while to register the name in the middle of it all. When it happened, I was conflicted about the role of fashion editors as cultural mavens, celebrities, artistes in their own right, visual directors or dictators, poachers or patrons of talents, eagle-eyed aesthetes, or just a bunch of bulls**t.
Who’d have thunk it. All that thought about THAT?! But, I did gravitate for a reason, non? So couple of years later, courtesy of well thought out birthday present, I became an owner of irreverent and despite a well-meaning attempt at aloofness, curious of Carine. Oh, but it’s so easy to dismiss, to be disgusted, to laugh at the posturing of that world and the gluttonous triteness of it all; it’s harder to dismiss the quality of the vision and the titillating fantasy. I am sticking with “eagle-eyed aesthete” with a good dash of kohl-rimmed Rock & Roll cool and all the goodness that comes with that. She might’ve been The Client for W Magazine and fit the preconceived mold, but now we have Mademoiselle C and CR Fashion Book and I like to watch people at work, especially in artistic milieus. We all need trifles in our lives. Even me.

Read also: Harper's Bazaar “Fashion's Fairy Grandmother” by Anamaria Wilson

Food & Fashion | Make it a meal. Chanel encased meal.

I am not sure if this is quite the nosh Mademoiselle Coco would've indulged in, but let’s not forget that the reigning Kaiser, Karl Lagerfeld, knows about indulging in food. His strict diet was survived potentially only by Diet Coke, so much so that he advertised the drink. I am also not sure if “Fashion is the healthiest motivation for losing weight”, but boy, it can be a fierce one. Still, a burger meal encased in Chanel insignia?! I’d eat that with styling gusto!

Fashion | Tatler let your feet do the talking

Interesting Couple | Grace Coddington & Peter Lindbergh

She is a creative director at American Vogue with an eye and styling skills to rival, if not surpass, many. He is a prominent photographer of iconic proportions, cinematographic suaveness and black-and-white cool. For all we know, they were or are not romantically involved. They work together. Often. On the pages of Vogue. Together they create stories – with fashion and their models still prominently there (these are fashion editorials after all), but somehow animated and engrossing within the two-dimensions of a photo. That’s talent. Maybe they are a romantic couple of sorts. Partners in crime, so to speak. May they remain together. Frequently.

OBSESSION | SOURCE: VOGUE VIA DUST JACKET

BRIEF ENCOUNTER | SOURCE: VOGUE VIA DUST JACKET

STARDUST | SOURCE: VOGUE VIA FASHION GONE ROGUE

Interesting Couple | Catherine Martin & Baz Luhrmann

“ “You can’t divide them, CM and Baz. They blur—he helps her; she helps him,” says fellow Aussie Nicole Kidman, star of two Luhrmann epics, Moulin Rouge! and Australia. As far as Martin and Luhrmann are concerned, however, the line of demarcation is clear: The director, 50, is the visionary, the big dreamer, the story driver. Martin, 48, is the pragmatist, the one charged with bringing his schemes, no matter how wacky, to life. Over the course of a career, you come up with many ways to describe such an arrangement: “Baz is the author, the one who generates the kernel of the idea, and I’m an applied artist,” is one way Martin puts it. Or, “He’s driving the motorbike, and I’m in the sidecar.”  For his part, Luhrmann says CM—the nickname he gave her over two decades ago, now her standard appellation—is “my council on everything, my number-one debater, and my first-ever audience.” She’s also the person with the no-nonsense gumption to make it all happen. “She’s a general in the field,” he says, marveling. “I’ve seen her with some of the burliest building guys telling her, ‘Well, love, we’ll never be able to put a house in the jungle like that,’ and next thing you know there’s helicopters and moving trucks.”  ” SOURCE: ELLE "BAZ LUHRMANN’S LEADING LADY" MAY 3, 2013

At Home | Soiree in the Green Salon

Thái Công Quách is a fashion photographer
and a stylist based in Hamburg.

Stylish interiors are also his thing.

Fashion | Men shopping in style

Who said shopping for men’s wear cannot be done in style?!

JOHN VARVATOS, BOWERY, NYC | LANVIN, MADISON AVENUE, NYC

Design | Fashionably Jordi Labanda

He has profitable clientele. The fashion, lifestyle, design and interior publishers collaborate with him. Jordi Labanda has a unique style that can be owned by simply buying some stationary emblazoned with those girly silhouettes. Born in Mercedes, Uruguay, he has lived in Barcelona, Spain since he was a baby – although New York City, United States is where he is now. His renderings of the posh, the stylish and the hip wink and are on point.

Jordi Labanda at Illustration Division

Fashion | Cate Blanchett in a red dress snapped by Annie Leibovitz