Cool: 2005

Gwen Stefani - Cool‏ from morimoto shintaro on Vimeo.

When it comes to music videos, this one is my favorite of all time. The mix of high and low fashion and the eclectic prints provoke a sense of nostalgia in me for some reason. It's disorienting. And I love that I can't locate the time period that the flashbacks take place in. They just exist somewhere in the ideal past, in the old world.

What's your favorite, stylish video?

3 Reasons You Should Love Rooney Mara's Dress

Alright, I confess: I haven't watched the American version of the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. And I may or may not have even known who Rooney Mara was before Oscar night. But now, after seeing her on Sunday, I've decided to hop on the Rooney bandwagon...and will be riding it until the wheels fall off.

So here are 3 reasons you should love her Oscar 2012 look.

1. Choice of color: White was the hue of the night, seen in two stylish extremes: lavish detailing (Milla Jovovich, BingBing Li) and restrained draping (Gwyneth Paltrow). Rooney's floor-length dress straddled the middle ground, shying away from expected silhouettes. Not only did the look pay homage to the film of the night, The Artist, but it went beyond 1920s flapper and into art deco territory. I'm not sure the dress would have been as striking or as classic in another color.

2. Minimal styling: To me, the ensemble had the elements of an old Hollywood look--punch red lips and high fashion hair (which was exquisitely severe in this case :-).

3. Design: The transparency of the dress (which revealed its structure when Mara turned her back to the cameras) modernized the look. I really loved the little lines of symmetry across her skin.

((In other news, Berenice Bejo's hair looked fantastic, n'est-ce pas?))

Blackness

What a great thing it is to be young, gifted, and black!

Over the past few years, natural hair and prints inspired by the vast continent have been widely embraced in America. Afros, bantu knots, and curls are literally blossoming from the heads around us. Instead of mere attitude, we now carry something like...negritude.

Concurrently, the borders of race are continuing to blur and along with them, formerly distinct aspects of American culture. More aware of race as a social construction, some young Americans are rejecting prescribed roles (that to be black is to behave like x, and to be white is to behave like y) and instead, are asserting who they are and what they like by embracing eclectic interests (untethering these interests from the categories of race and class).

Now, fashionistas like Solange and Janelle Monae create pop art within a boundless context enriched by blackness---and it's anything but monolithic. As they've shown us, blackness is performative and almost always, beautiful.

Janelle Monae serves us androgyny:


Marie Claire 2011

Rihanna, the gamine:


Italian Vogue 2009

The earthy Esperanza Spalding:



These ladies demonstrate how limitless cultural identity can be.

Of course, such an increase in popularity is not without its drawbacks. I hope that one day, we will be as mainstream in the fashion world as we are in music, not treated as topical themes but as eternal muses.

In the year 2000...er 2012.

The end of yet another year is approaching us, like a friend in little kitten heels at a New Year's Eve party. As usual, we are pledging to become better versions of ourselves, staring into mirrors before going out, willing beauty into our features. Soon, some of us will start a diet. Others will end one. And most won't even attempt it, remembering last year's failure.

It's time to put away old things, those Christmas sweaters, for example, and don all those clothes you bought during the holiday--that gingham scarf from H&M, or that knit top from Forever 21. The winter will be cold and since it's 2012, you'll have to be more mindful of what you're wearing at any given moment. The apocalypse is happening after all, and you don't want to die wearing a fanny pack, do you?

Predictions: Next year will be a monumental one for fashion. Michelle Obama's high-brow aesthetic will take prominence again with the presidential election (not to mention our increasing obsession with the royal couple overseas). And somehow, being 2012 and all, a refined form of grunge will find it's sloppy way into our closets. Yes, I can see it all now.

Whatever happens, remember to enjoy yourself. Dress well and prosper.

Upcycling

The other day, I was browsing collections on this site. As I examined the Fall 2011 and Spring 2012 collections of great artists like Jenny Packham and Michael Kors, it occurred to me that each collection was somewhat insular--designed without a strong sense of interconnection.

Designers like Panichgul Thakoon used plaids and trippy silhouettes for the fall, for example, while others, like Collette Dinnegan, explored airy colors on varying lengths of light fabric. And of course, heavy, dark pieces dominated most collections. 

Thakoon, Collette Dinnegan, Isaac Mizrahi, and Badgely Mischka.

As we approach 2012, the 1960s takes prominence again...which makes me wonder why we keep consciously recycling (or "upcycling") the past four decades, along with the pesky '20s. How many times will the 80s will be reinvented? Will crushed velvet be en vogue soon? And for goodness sakes, who brought the fanny pack back?

Often, when spotlighting trends, magazines will indicate the origins of said trends. When beaded cross sweatshirts are featured, for example, you'll usually see Madonna's photo somewhere on the same page. And although it's fun to think about trends, it's impossible to know why certain items are popular while others are not.

Sometimes, fashion just seems like one big spinning wardrobe that the-powers-that-be turn to select the latest piece. It's arbitrary.

I guess that's the nature of this postmodern era. There are so many random, competing ideas (all of which seem to be expressed on the hipster's body these days). ;-p

Anthony Ryan Auld Spring 2012 Tumblr

Blush

When it comes to clothes, I've always preferred colors that make a statement (preferably, slapping me across the face with it :0) --dark, solar purples; bright, spring greens; or vibrant prints.

Lately, however, modest shades have held increasing appeal to me, though I've always been conservative when it comes to dressing myself.

Now I can say that I appreciate the advantages of subtlety more consciously. I have seen the light! (which guess I should have seen this sooner, as my favorite color is quite mute).

In their July 2011 issue, InStyle Magazine featured the color "Blush," a light pinkish beige, and probably one of my least favorite colors, besides red.

(InStyle, July 2011)

Blush has always reminded me of salmon (which I find disgusting), or a piece of clothing whose color was drained during a rinse cycle.

Like carefully groomed eyebrows or glossed lips, however, understated accents highlight one's beauty without being pushy about it.

One drawback is that blush may be difficult to pull off, as the wrong shade of pink can be as damaging as the wrong shade of foundation. Judging by the flattering shades of pink on the racks, though, I probably won't be running into this problem anytime soon:

(H&M, July 2011)

Happy blushing :-)

Steampunk

Re-purposed fashion has gained considerable popularity in our environmentally-conscious era. Especially with the rise of hipsters and eco-friendly clothes.

If I'm honest, however, I sometimes find that re-purposed things just look like plain junk. (Consider the amount of raggedy cotton t-shirts or patchwork pants for sale online, for example.)

Quite often, clothes are recycled just for the sake of being recycled.

However, when entire concepts, like whole eras, are re-considered with a true purpose in mind, great things emerge.

Like Steampunk fashion.

Steampunk is described as "the adaptation of advanced technology into a steam age context, producing a society that looks like the Victorian world but which enjoys an even greater level of complexity."

Some of its fashion intersects with the Gothic Lolita, Cybergoth, and industrial music set. Which means you'll see lots of corsets and scarves if you browse the Google search engine under the term.

The aspect I'm most interested in is Steampunk's emphasis on transparency and re-imagining of the past with a new lens.

Basically, its explosive anachronism.

Or the examining, unraveling, and reconstructing of the Victorian Age.

(Picture lots of self-made contraptions--brass trinkets, pantaloons, and watches)

Unfortunately, Steampunk (if such a broad, unwieldy term can be grouped into a single category) has the tendency to be costumey. I'd like to see some of its more prominent trends updated a bit and combined with some of the trends of our modern age.

A hair comb by Ghost Love

Corset dress by Battyazac

With its decidedly Western stamp, Steampunk has the potential to expand its influence (much like...erm...imperialism) to other concurrent fashion trends. I'm very interested in seeing how steampunk plays out.