Elly Jackson

Photo: Dave M. Benett/Getty Images, Ivan Gavan/Getty Images, Neil Lupin/Redferns

 
From The Cut:
 

She cites Michael Jackson, Prince, David Bowie, and Tilda Swinton as her style inspirations.

“I don’t want to be a man,” she says. “I very much enjoy being a woman — I love my body, and the sexiness of being a woman — but I like men’s clothes.”

 Oh yes, those influences come through very clearly. Especially Tilda Swinton, they look hella similar.

“I am pretty ready to get rid of the hair, but I am kind of attached to it,” she says. “At the same time, I am kind of fed up with talking about it.”

It's such good hair! But I would be interested in seeing what would be next...

AND: SHE'S ONLY 22!! Ahh, makes me want to be a star too.

Reblogged from The Cut, which reblogged from WWD.

MUSE

The newest fashion icon is an unidentified homeless man in Ningbo, Zhejiang, China nicknamed “犀利哥” (Xi Li Ge) or "Brother Sharp" for his deep, piercing gaze. He literally embodies 'homeless chic'.

 

"Look at him wrinkle his brow ... nothing needs to be said ... sexy ... ", 

writes one internet follower

 

Brother Sharp v. D&G Fall/Winter 2010

A look from the street

A look from the runway --

Vivienne Westwood's "Fashion Made Homeless" line

Not sure how I feel about all this, but I'm just putting it out there. 

The Independent
Baike

Balenciaga

I love the shoes in this collection. Post-modern in its deconstruction of classic silhouettes (look for the torso-encircling fur) and allusions to popular media, Balenciaga stands out from other fall collections. Pant suits and dresses allude to late 1960's/early 1970's aesthetics of modern architecture and futurism. Could see it as a mixture of "2001", Warhol and "A Clockwork Orange"? I'm not sure how I feel about the collection--it's certainly making me think, but I'm having trouble appreciating it, especially with the newsprint shirts. It seems rather self-indulgent. Or is Nicolas Ghesquiere a genius for digging up these styles again?

I've included my favorites below (just realized how much I like pale/pastel colors...), but here's the rest of the collection (including the more deconstructed, segmented looks):

Ferré

I really, really need this for ________ occasion. No, but really.

Vivienne Westwood

One of my favorite designers. Go England.

Westwood, along with former husband Malcolm McLaren, has been called the creator of the punk aesthetic, starting at their store "Sex" in London and carried through their relationship with the Sex Pistols. Westwood took off as a designer who pushes the envelope and breathes excitement, insecurity and discomfort into fashion. Combining S&M, British history (tartans) and romanticism into her collections (see Anglomania), Westwood has intriguing vision and never bores. She makes a great show. Basically, Britain wins in terms of designers (Westwood, Galliano, McQueen...) Her shoes are stunning, too; one pair caused Naomi Campbell to fall in the 90's (12" platforms, nbd).

Check out her newest collection here.

My favorites:

I love everything about this.

shoes and jacket

mixing everything. so whimsical

i want to wear this outfit

tie headband, jacket, tights, uneven skirt

LOVE THIS! shoes are so fun

i die. bananas.

Dissipating Confidence in the Runway

“Fashion today is an unstructured landscape in which ideas and trends exist concurrently,” said Simon Doonan, the creative director for Barneys New York. The notion, he added, of deconstructing and interpreting the runways for directions is stale, if not archaic. “It just doesn’t work anymore.”

- From a NYTimes article

This is exactly what I've been thinking recently -- re the majority of what I'm seeing on the runway in the past seasons (much less magazine editorials), I've had the feeling of "oh, that's pretty... but nothing I've never seen before."* Granted there must be plenty of designers doing new things, but they're not showing in the fashion tents to Hamish, Anna, Carine etc. I know I've logged quite a few posts on NY fashion week recently, but I don't feel like NY Fashion Week runways have conveyed anything new yet. I'm still waiting for something this season - something amazing, something fantasmical. Maybe next season...

*Exception: McQueen's amazing alien dresses last season. RIP.

DVF

“I always wanted to live a man’s life in a woman’s body,” Ms. von Furstenberg said in her show notes.

Verdict: Liked DVF show overall. Disliked most of the prints. 

Good:

 Every detail excellent except maybe the shoelaces and shoes.

 Beautiful. But a little Dries Van Noten circa 2 years ago, no?

 The shoes are perfection. The outfit, slouchy casual luxe.

Suit/Skirt look is a strong contender.

Almost:

Very, very, very slightly problematic -- is it the rosettes? The hemline height? The cut? So close.

Bad:

Please don't tell me ugly bubble prints are going to be in next year...

Jason Wu Fall 2010 Verdict

Verdict: Not a want-it-need-it-gonna-die collection, but I don't think Jason Wu is that kind of designer, anyway. His clothes are all very wearable, especially compared to other designers who show on the runway. Nothing revolutionary or too exciting in this collection, and it seemed a bit disjointed. In fact, some items were downright fug -- see this dress below... doesn't it remind you of Anna Sui for Gossip Girl for Target circa last year? Or Vera Wang for Kohls? Neither is a comparison Mr. Wu would want anyone to draw, I'm sure.

I thought he did show some strong wearable pieces. For example, these trousers I both want and could/would wear:

 And I very much like how he paired it below... near perfection. But again, nothing I haven't seen in a Vogue editorial before.

 

This paint-splattered suit got me wondering if I could wear this (as separates, probably) to work... do you think looser-cut suit skirts will ever catch on? 

 

Unsurprisingly, his strongest suit (ha) was his dresses. Each was Jason Wu-pretty and wearable. I'm sure every girl would love to have one of these in her closet.

 

And finally, the man himself: 

 I like his smile! And I like that he is wearing a suit! Although does that right sleeve look a bit long to you? ...

Jean Paul Gaultier Spring Couture 2010

The designers are doing AMAZINGLY this season. Love the juxtaposed structure and exoticism. So clever. JPG is a freaking genius. Check out the slideshow here.

Go Blog Go

Quote from NYT article today:

Designers are thinking differently in response to consumers who want instant gratification. Doo-Ri Chung, for example, describing her new basics collection in The Financial Times this fall, said her customer has a "blog mentality, not a magazine mentality."

NYMag "The Cut" Reports: Magazines Nowadays Lack Creative Covers

So true.


(ugly cover that looks like the four actresses were photographed separately and slapped onto an artificial background...)

I'm very tired of seeing actresses on the covers of magazines. I understand the appeal of celebrities to editors because they not only get advertisements (movies to debut, aka Vogue's recent issue with four stars from this Christmas's "Nine") but a pretty face, too. But what about social commentary? What about the experimentation with photography? I feel like every photo spread has some 15 year old in orange lipstick pouting and jumping in the air with some kind of absurdly neon or spikey shoe and a ridiculous hairstyle. But how is this sort of playfulness and whimsy (2009's version of "surreal") relevant? Escapism isn't the right answer because fashion mags have been in this rut for years now, not just during the recession. What happened to the days of Helmut Newton and Irving Penn? Oh wait, they died (sorry to be so insensitive). Are we expected to believe that Mario Testino is a replacement? Or that noted fashion photographer from ANTM? Their work lacks depth, experimentation and mystery. In other words, fashion photography and magazines that claim to be high-end and edgy have, in fact, become stagnant in their own commercialism.


"Le Smoking" by Helmut Newton for Yves Saint Laurent, 1966


"Le Smoking" by Helmut Newton for Yves Saint Laurent, 1966 (version 2)



And now that the economy has plummeted and Conde Nast and other companies have no $$, they will be tempted to sink into the abyss of CoverGirl and Sketchers ads.

Fashion magazines should become more extreme, edgy and controversial if they want to sell. Not endorse Hollywood with boring interviews with Kirsten Dunst for the fiftieth time, or show a stupidly photoshopped picture of Demi Moore. I want to see no-name models pose and let the human body speak for itself without the constructs of communications and business deals shrouding them. But perhaps that's an impossible desire. Who knows.

This isn't to say, though, that NYMag is better than other magazines--it's just of a different breed, so I wouldn't necessarily include it in the same group as W, Elle and Vogue. Oh, and I love French Vogue. Nobody can touch it. Favorite issue=Lara Stone. Great photo spreads.

What do you think?

Nicholas Kirkwood

makes some of the most architectural, beautiful, interesting shoes I've seen.

Sick silhouette exhibited in the entire Autumn/Winter 2009 collection. Well done. Proof that shoes can always be reinvented.

edit: haha look what else I've found online [after I posted my comments]: Nicholas Kirkwood debuted his shoe collection in 2005, and has been a force in the industry ever since. His shoe philosophy follows:

“It’s about silhouettes… It’s about the shape of the last and about the shape of the actual pattern that’s drawn onto the last, and color or material combinations. I don’t use anything that’s stuck onto the shoe. In certain ways it’s architectural, I suppose. Old-fashioned buildings like to be very decorative on the outside, but the basic shape is still a block, whereas modern buildings are more concerned about the actual shape of the building itself, rather than what’s put on as ornamentation. That’s sort of the way I try to think of my shoes in a sense, especially when it comes to the heels.”

Project Runway Finale

Before having seen any collections, I had predicted that Althea might win because she isn't mean (Irina) or one-note (Carol Hannah). But I was wrong! Having seen the collections, it was pretty clear that Irina's was the only cohesive one with a vision--though Michael Kors had a point that the warrior-woman has been done (over and over--Balenciaga's flower warriors; shoulder pads from the 80's; 1940's wartime womenswear) and apparently her T-shirts had some controversy about them concerning copying (ironic, right?) but other than that, I did like her helmets and that chain. No, Tim, it wasn't too costumey. Sometimes you don't give the best advice.

So, mean girl wins, nice girls lose. I still would've liked to have see Epperson's looks.

Carol Hannah's best look

A representative piece of Irina's collection. I thought it was cool...and I would wear that jacket...

Oh, and the web design at mylifetime.com really sucks. Bravo's websites are so much better! This is the worst slideshow I've ever had to try to use to get these pictures.

NM falls as UO rises [from LVC ticker 11/18/09]

On the other hand, nearly everything from the Urban Outfitters 2009 Holiday Catalog is beautiful, wearable, modern, and not terribly out of price range. Over the past few years, I've grown to like their clothes more and more. I can't tell if it's because my taste has changed or if theirs has. I think it's a little of both - they've gotten a bit more luxe in their styling and I think the prices have come down a bit, too. That, or I've managed to find some great pieces from their sales rack (and online sales) a few times. 

I think their clothes are increasingly clever -- a sort of intelligence to it that you don't normally see with mass-market brands. It's that slightly different cut or strategically placed zipper. It all makes a difference, and it's the thought that's put into the making of a piece of clothing -- the R&D (research & development), to be nerdy about it -- that gives it value. Because at the end of the day, almost all clothes are made with the same materials, and aside from the R&D that goes into it, the only differenting factor is the craftsmanship (Is it made by hand or machine? How many hours did it take? Was it by a grizzled Italian man in the mountains of Naples [I just made that up, I don't even know if Naples has mountains], or by a 12-year old Indian boy plunging his hands in scalding hot water to retrieve silk cocoons?).

It's not always a hit at UO, and I'm rather picky about pieces of clothing if I'm buying them retail, but their stock is definitely rising in my mind.

Take a look for yourself:

How beautiful is this? Unfortunately I don't love the way the front looks [on the model, at least] and such is the problem that befalls a lot of their pieces, for me. That and the fact that I'll never truly know how they'd look on me because a lot of their models are uncommonly thin.

This doesn't even look like U.O., really. I think a lot of their pieces don't "look like U.O." to me anymore, and that's a good thing. I quite like this skirt. I'd want to see the material in person though, if it were heavier material it'd just be perfect.

They've got the right idea with this velour top. I want a velour top. Maybe not this exact one, but this is pretty directionally on point for me.

And the ubiquitous sparkly sequin skirt. It's still pretty.