global gathering: from how to spend it. (ft style mag)

These have got to be the one of the most beautiful styled works I've seen in a bit. Okay, quite a lot of people do sweet things with editorials; so it has to be the vibrant colors and patterns that made me gasp with pleasure upon seeing the images, there's no way to describe it. I want to be the woman who owns half these clothes.
Mission impossible sta(r)ted.
Go.
(The sweater Alex Wek wears in pic 5, (maroon, white print is by Duro Oluwo and available on Couture Lab, not too crazy expensive considering.) Maybe I'll try to do a replication of each in more affordable prices. I hate when people do this, it is never the same thing. Never.)


I do wish, however, that editorials that pay homage to the dynamic prints, patterns and colors that can by these very characteristics classified as inherently 'african' would use more african designers, and just as especially, use a variety of sets or settings. Barns or the open wild are just so passé, in my view. Does the woman who wears a pair of the issey miyake geometric socks (pic 1) look like she forklifts bales of hay?? I. don't. think. so. Okay maybe after she's done with her farm chores and is settling down into a high back Victoria Hagan chair to a cup of coffee.

Photographs: Andrew Yee
Stylist: Damian Foxe


Be back to append the names of the designers to the pieces. I've turned into one of those girls who goes to the hair salon every. week. (in my old age). I should do a hair chronicles... blah blah
x.xx.

pretty knits. mark fast.

Last fall, I fell for this Mark Fast skirt (pictured left). Given that I've a love-hate relationship for hair/hair-y textures as adornments or clothing attachments, this skirt was one piece for which I fell hard and, decidedly, without any reservations. Brown's — which carried the skirt at the time— was the only place that any of the designer's pieces anyhow back then; I'd searched, but while there was a slowly whirring buzz with each successive search, I'd never find actual pieces. I never bought the skirt (I regret it), rather expensive so I kept putting it off; but I always came back to look at and admire it. Retail lust therapy.

While the 29 year old designer has collaborated in the past with fellow Central St Martins alum, Bora Aksu, for three seasons, Mark Fast's first eponymous collection was Spring last year (September '08 show-date-wise). In a rather exhilarating and pioneering effort,  Fast has turned the notion of knits as we'd previously known them into alluring, form-fitting garments that are just so beautiful to look at and even more so to wear. He explains that he designs by hand on a domestic knitting machine; his work formed onto the body!! as he knits. His innovative stitching techniques, blending lycra with viscose, angora or wool explores the endless possibilities of using yarns in sculpting areas of tension and areas of volume over the body that result in his sensual designs.

As I was saying, rather expensive — it's terribly labor-intensive as one would imagine. Enter: Faster (by Mark Fast). No, I can't even say the name without a mischievous grin forming on my lips. It's the high-street-priced version of the premier label, a dress costs about a mere ₤500 in contrast to about ₤2000 for dress under the brand name, Mark Fast. So, we are talking relativity here, in terms of price.  (Wait for the sales, I say.) Faster's pieces are less intricate and so produced more quickly than pieces in the eponymous MF line, but I suspect they're made with as much love. You simply can't look at them without feeling warm and fuzzy. I mean that skirt! I really loved it.

In a bold testament to his love for women of all shapes and the incredible fit of his clothes, Fast features plus-size models on the runway and his editorial pictures. Model Hayley Morley is one such fixture and is one of the two headliners for the Faster collection, the other being Anouck Lepere.  Knit never looked so sexy.

And since words could not begin to describe the exquisiteness that is each piece...

Faster Pre-Collection 2010.

Mark Fast A/W 2010.

Mark Fast S/S 2010

Let's plot how to lay our hands on one or two. 

(Also available at Luisa Via Roma and Colette)

Pretty kisses.

fashionable transduction. iris van herpen

There's something in the North Sea waters, which presumably supply the Swedish, Dutch, Danish and Norwegians etc. How else do I explain the intoxication with intricate lines and symmetry of a significant number of designers from the region; which it turns out they're very capable of incorporating into beautiful articles of clothing. And very wearable too. Sandra Backlund (oh my!) and Viktor & Rolf pop to mind immediately.

With such abstract terms as Synesthesia (A/W '10) and Radiation Invasion (S/S '10) describing the themes of her recent collections, award-winning newcomer, Iris van Herpen has managed to create the most intricate futuristic pieces of clothing. It's quite a feat when you consider that terms such as minimalism and simplicity dominate any conversations that hover around the idea of futurism. I think Ms. van Herpen's pieces are so out of this world, they loop right back around and envelope your consciousness. In some ways, that's what she's trying to do, I suspect. Only she's not "trying". Her cuts and designs are intrinsic to her style, she explains. I just re-read her interviews with Dazed Digital and Marian Kihogo after her S/S and A/W showings, respectively, at LFW. I actually remember reading Ms. Kihogo's interview earlier and had to go digging in the dungeon that is my saved bookmarks. Sad. There's got to be an easier way...

Anyhow, just w.o.w!! Bravo for Ms. van Herpen! It's easy to look at her pieces and say, "a great jacket" "a lovely dress" "nice pants". For such complexity, no is-it-a-skirt-or-dress?? guess work is needed; the fundamental structure is there for all to see, and yet...
I just. love. it. Every bit of it.

Radiation Invasion. S/S 2010 

Synesthesia. A/W 2010

Oh and she's working on a line of shoes 'jewellery for the feet', she calls them.
Pretty kisses.

in print. prada.

Since we're on the topic of beautiful prints, and all and sundry is clamouring for the a ride on the mix-print bandwagon, I thought I'd share the prettiness that is a capsule in the Prada SS 2010 collection (UK Vogue). It's simultaneously delicate and elegant, and the dresses!! — for the name — are relatively well-priced. What's with all these a-tad-above-reach-but-not-completely prices?!!
I do so love the quilted bags (£710).
Okay, and the dresses (£425-£475). and ballerinas (£235).
Well that's it then.
I appreciate Anita Leclerc's recent print mixology guideline (NYTimes). But let's face it, it can hardly be much help when you faced with a wardrobe of prints, an eager attempt to be part of it all. I say mix and match to your heart's delight.
Inside the comfort of your house.
If you must leave the house, phone a friend, or two, and ask whether you look like a little old lady trying to avoid paying excess luggage at the airport — whatever excess luggage means nowadays.
If you are assured that you look fine, call me.
I'll tell you the truth. Just kidding. or not.
I really do love the accompanying print pictures. ALOT. Very pretty, really. There's even another slideshow of pictures sent in readers. On that, not much comment. Oh dear, I'm not terribly hard on people am I?? Truth is, I'm keen on Peter Lappin's and Margot Miller's photos. However, I must say I do think Chitrangada Maitra Somaiya's photo ought to be disqualified. Uhhh.. she's from Mumbai, India. Need I say more?!!!
Yes I'm still dreaming of my trip to India to pick out fabrics for my wedding, thank you for asking.



Pretty kisses.

revolve. recycle. save.

I stopped wearing jeans about five years ago. Actually let's make that all trouser or pant pieces — I've tried to make the preceding phrase sound less dirty/odd. Imagine if I'd said, "...stopped wearing all trousers or pants..." uhh what?!¹
Anyhow, after a series of spring-cleaning battles last month, I unearthed heaps of jeans that simply hadn't seen the light of day in years. They are now neatly folded. In a box. In the spare closet in the living room. I think I can remember which just by looking at it.
What??
I didn't say they'd get an airing only after another five years have passed. *groan*
When I get back home, I'll set about errm... giving them a new, caring home?? I hope.

But if you're in CA, you should do this:
[I wonder if they accept mail-ins-cum-online orders. (Online everything is how it really should work. It's 2010 for crying out loud. Err... Monsieur Chanel, s'habituer avec, peut-être?!!! Should I have said that in German?)]

As part of its recognition of Earth day, Revolve Clothing is hosting a Recycle your Denim event between Apr 20 and 30th. In which one brings in a pair of one's (old) jeans and gets 20% of one's entire store purchase. Sweet deal.
But I'm struck... by the fact that there's an actual RC (and perhaps, more importantly, über cool ForwardForward) boutique!!
How did I not know this? HAHA.
Seriously I just thought... well I didn't think... I ordered what I wanted and it arrived. C'est fini.

Ahh I learn new things everyday.



Footnote:
1. And yes indeed, I'm still surviving the harem/djibouti pants craze, although I've bought one or two pieces. Ha!! They remain unworn.
And... I still crave this by Marc Jacobs, Resort 2009 (left), and have tried this Matthew Williamson, Resort 2010, pair (right). Twice. (Love them even though they're too big and make me look like a fledgling hippie.)






X.XX.

sheer serendipity. rachel freire.

Incoherent.
I wished I smoked. Gauloises?

Is there an easier way to upload pictures unto my memoirs or am I just terribly stupid and masochistic?!! (That's not the term I'm looking for; I'm not deriving any sort of pleasure from the annoyingly tedious and (ulna)bone-twisting process!)

I can't bear to be hot (temperature-wise) at bedtime. Has the ash made London warmer?? I'm almost holding my breath; waiting for a plop of rain drop on my nose each time I step out (into the deceptively cooler air).

~ Three am: After a regular bout of insomnia, I drift into the Land of Nod with a little smile formed at the corners of my mouth. I love the South African FIFA 2010 World Cup commercial, something about "you've never felt this kind of rhythm" and all the happy South African — I presume — faces. Later, I awake to the beautiful chocolate-y bronze god that is the model in Chimere Skin Care for Men commercial. These glimpses into the African continent and of delicious blackness momentarily fill the gap that only seem to develop at that precise moment and make me love Brit tv. just. a. little.

All of this is neither here nor there.
Forgive me. I did warn you.

Anyhow, if you do know me, you know of my decadent love of sheer fabrics and ummm... my uhh...*whispering* boobs. So this morning when my thoughts fluttered — incomprehensibly — unto the the frilly mesh peasant blouse bound by the Kara corset, both by Rachel Freire, I knew I had to indulge. A knowing sense of delight — I could've said sheer delight! groan...I'm keenly aware of fighting a losing battle as a maddeningly repetitive series of puns involving the word "sheer" stream into my consciousness. Arrghhh!! — spreads through my being as I re-immerse myself the frilly crevasses of her A/W 2010 pieces. The mesh blouse is making the rounds in my head and I dreaming up all forms of possible layering; I won't exactly leave my house with my boobs in plain view! (Some of my wicked friends may beg to differ. What.e.v.s.)


London-based designer, Rachel Freire, has a background in fine art and made her debut collection at LFW with On|Off in February 2009. For such a new comer, Rachel Freire's unrestricted application of materials in developing all manner of restrictive pieces from the specs neck collars, to the corsets and suspenders is enthralling and spirited. There's simply so much to enjoy and contemplate...

Oh... I am dying for the glow-in-the dark!! frill and armor jackets. I want. now. Please... Thank you.x
Immerse yourself.

BRB. Or not.
There's so much I feel I want to say about these pieces.
I need a drinki, however.
Air kisses.