fever dreams

Listen, I know I haven’t posted in forever and odds are I won’t be posting again until August, and I just wanted to say I’m sorry. I have taken ill and I am going away to convalesce.

Take that 60 Minutes!

I just watched the 60 Minutes profile of Anna Wintour, and I  am (needless to say) disappointed. I find it a bit boring (and not just a little cliche) to present a woman who holds a position of power as a cold bitch.

Also disappointing is the need to appear as if above this thing called clothing. Being dismissive of a multi-billion dollar industry and pretending somehow that you know better is lazy journalism. As is the lack of wherewithal to go beyond caricatures and to actually listen to what people have to say. Yes John Galliano looks ridiculous, but I’ve seen a lot of interviews where he is nothing if not charming, articulate and thoughtful-fruity pirate or not.

Perhaps I’m being defensive, it’s not always easy being involved in an industry that is dismissed by others who look at fashion as a petty and inconsequential. And the industry does not always help itself. Don’t get me wrong, there is ridiculousness, but have you looked at the British Parliament lately? Anna Wintour may get a lot of perks from her job but she’s not charging tax payers to clean her moat.

You can watch the 60 Minutes segment here.

DeLorean

Can I just say that there is something almost sublime about the DeLorean. I mean it’s the coolest/douchiest car there is. I know what you’re thinking, what about the Lamborghini Countach? The Countache is just douchy. Period. There’s nothing cool about a guy driving a Countache.

I saw a DeLorean yesterday parked on the street- it was almost invisible- that’s how strangely little attention it brought to itself. But the brushed steel exterior combined with the grey leather seats and the grey carpeted floor and the smokey glass was so perfect it was like looking at Richard Gere in American Gigolo.

I only wish I could have seen the guy who drove it. I waited around for a while because I wanted to see him open the gull wings and also I wanted to see how soft his hair was.

Buy expensive, cry once. Buy cheap, cry every day.

Are people not buying new clothes? I mean, I know there is the recession/swine flu/Stanley cup playoffs. But don’t people still need new clothes? I do.

Small boutiques are having a hard time so quit being such a cheapskate/complainer and go buy a new stripey t-shirt and support your local business owners. These people employ your friends, tip you at the bar and go to your art shows.  They need your support.

Thomas Hardy: Cool Hunter?

From The Return of the Native: “To his astonishment there stood within the room Diggory Venn, no longer a reddleman, but exhibiting the strangely altered hues of ordinary christian countenance, white shirt front, light flowered waistcoat, blue spotted neckerchief, and bottle green coat.”

That’s a good look for men. And it reminds me of the green from this post.

Below, a picture of a different, but equally handsome,  Diggory Venn.

tarpaulin, beard and knife

I’m thinking more about interiors than about fashion these days. Trying to make inferior materials look new, customizing ikea furniture with other ikea stuff… brought me back to this guy who I took a fancy to a few years ago. Piet Hein Eek. Always up to something crafty.

Which then reminded me of this art by family collaborators Cedric, Nathan and Jim Bomford.

Which then made me think of these collaborating brothers: Eli Hansen and Oscar Tuazon (watch an interview with them here)

Which then led me (as always) back to the Yukon.

What is it about shacks? Too much time spent in the north? A love of survivalist men? A secret belief in peak oil?

What a girl wants (cookies) vs. What a girl doesn’t want (brown)

There’s a lot of gloom in the shows this season, which I can kind of get behind. I don’t see myself wearing the big shoulders (already finished before they even began?) or the heavy fabrics and torture shoes, but I can appreciate the challenge of just trying to accept these things.

But I gotta tell you, I saw this Sofia Coppola ad for Miss Dior and I thought, this girl knows girls. Because really, do you want to drown in layers of brown fabric? Or do you want to wear flat shoes, eat macaroons and buy new sunglasses?

I hate to say it but, for all my love of a challenge what I really want are some new sunglasses. Also long straight shiny hair.

buyers rule #1: good prints always sell.

I think fashion editors look at collections as concept albums. Buyers, on the other hand are looking for hit singles (especially in this climate) . It’s not that buyers don’t have the patience to listen to the whole record, it’s just… well you need something to sell. Because I was a buyer for a long time, I have a hard time looking at the shows without a bottom line in mind, I think this is why I get grumpy and impatient. Where’s the hit? Where’s the goddamn single?

Erdem  has an album full of singles this season, it’s insane. It’s like the Steve Miller band or something.

Erdem Fall 2009 photos from style.com

Sweater girls

I have been watching a lot of good movies lately, trying to make up for the string of blockbusters I rented over Christmas (Step Brothers, Baby Mama, Wanted) but really I’ve been trying to regain the respect of my neighborhood video store guys who had lost faith in me during this dark period. And so I’ve been renting a lot of Italian neorealist films and finally getting around to Yasuhiro Ozu.

I rented Late Afternoon and from a colour perspective it was a knock out; there are a lot of those Gourmet magazine blues with red popping up somewhere, but also the inclusion of a bright margarine yellow. There is an amazing moment when a girl is walking towards an apartment building in a red sweater, and for a brief second in the background another girl is walking down the apartment staircase in the exact same sweater but in the margarine colour. Incredible.

Below, images from the film and a great Chris Ware poster and here are the closest sweaters I could find to the Ozu ones.

not that green, the other green

I was looking at the sartorialist this morning and I noticed a couple of shots of this fantastic shade of green (see gloves and jacket below). Even though I love the mustards, chartreuses, and puces that have been around lately- this colour doesn’t seem nearly as over-exposed as all those sickly bodily fluid colours. Hunter green? British racing green? Forest green? Jag green?

Photos from The Sartorialist

You have to be careful with this colour though. You can very quickly get into “genuine british pub” territory.