a tribute

Yves Henri Donat Mathieu Saint Laurent: August 1, 1936 – June 1, 2008
'Following Chanel, Balenciaga and Dior, Saint Laurent had emerged as fashion’s "fourth force."' (WWD)
With personal loss, I am — we are — likely drawn into a vortex of a more intimate pain or sadness. Today, it's more a revered awe (selfish) as I think that this last force of (French) fashion has passed in my time, in my burgeoning foray into the fashion industry. My mom even called to mention it (from Nigeria). I'm appreciatively aware (and still learning) of his radical innovations and immense contributions to women's fashion — he was absolutely amazing, what made him tick??!! Proust was reportedly St. Laurent's author. Remarkably, about two weeks ago, I'd put down the first volume (of which there are six!!) of Proust's¹ translated "À la recherche du temps perdu": "In search of Lost Time" to read Micheal Tonello's "Bringing home the Birkin."²

In continuing homage to Mr. Laurent, I figure a pair of Tribute sandals is only appropriate. Really :). I do so love these shoes though I've kept my distance because I'm afraid everyone's buying them; especially the cognac and red ones!! (Need I say I never want what everyone has??!!) Still, at my furtive vantage point, I've been eyeing these two in particular (haute!!)... (I'll go try them on at the end of the week. *cheshire grin*)

Le Smoking (the powersuit):
It debuted on YSL's runway in fall 1966, and has been especially recreated every season since.
Just the way I like it: refined, severe; the silk chiffon underneath — a touch of knowing elegance.

St Laurent thought it fitting — a transfer of power. A balance. The world agreed, and followed. In his own words: "For a woman, le smoking is an indispensable garment with which she finds herself continually in fashion, because it is about style, not fashion. Fashions come and go, but style is forever." Oozing a powerful sex appeal, no?? (Pic: Helmut Newton)







L: YSL closing the door on a historic career (2002). R: Running exposition ad of YSL's life and works that ended in January.









Elegant kisses.



Footnotes:
1. I can't even say why I started reading Proust?!! I need a life!!
2. Review of the latter: eh. Tell you more later. (My Hermès curiosity/obsession continues though.)

ms banks, if you're nasty

Tyra on next week's cover of NY Time mag
Of course...
...this picture has been photoshopped to within an inch of it pixel-worthy outline so that there's nothing real about it anymore.
...she's been made to look like a size four; a size two would really be pushing it now. (I mean we aren't blind?! Just willing to lap up a little white, illusory lie every now and then.)
...Tyra has found a new way to hide her blooming arms by twist-strangling herself from behind.
...that hair — I'll just leave you to your thoughts on that one.
...she used the f-word a thousand times on set. [The word of which you'd never heard until Ms. Tyra herself spoke it into being; and which has now become the sickening catch-all-word of every fashionably (or not) gay man and wannabe model (or not)] F.i.e.r.c.e!!
But all of these — it's not why I love her.
And yet it is.







Deep, erotic, mouth-searching kisses... because I feel like it.

cheery suckers

I woke up this morning and thought, "seersucker". I don't know if I'd been subconsciously awaiting the passing of Memorial Day Weekend — which unofficially marks the start of summer (here in the US); but, it simply popped up in my head. A pleasant, billowing thought I chose to indulge. I absolutely love the airy feel of the fabric, and the casual chic simplicity a pair of shorts, say, gives off. So darling!! And sweetest serendipity! if it's a pair of shorts on a man with deliciously sculpted calves?? — cheery heaven!!¹
pic: Moschino Cheap & Chic Jacket


There is one teeny thing however — I desperately need seersucker (keeping the traditional stripy pattern) made in edgier cuts. HA!! I realize its seeming absurdity, or maybe NOT, but I think it'd be worth a try. *shy smile* I busied myself — for a full hour — searching for an out-of-the-ordinary piece. Laughable. I even looked up the history of the fabric (dork?!) so I could think up a few designers that may have worked with it; that is, excepting darling R. Lauren and the requisite pieces that turn up every time this year at Jcrew and Brooks Brothers — love, love, but... Turns out seersucker is all American!! Should have figured, but yay?! all the same. Since my search proved painfully pointless, I'm thinking I'll start with the classic pieces I already have and work something out with my tailor... Decidedly unusual (or ridiculously shorter, maybe) hemlines; outward facing zippers running through the length of a fitted skirt... I'm positively gagging for pairings with silks and chiffon² on the top; yes, nipple action is so risque, but so very appropriate for the avant-garde look I'm channelling. And certainly, print pairings. It'll require a very delicate flair but I'm up for it. *Excited*

L: Jcrew gets it right although it's still very reserved; I'm waiting a few more weeks for more pieces to hit the stores;
L ctr: Lela Rose's decadent but the classic stripes are lost;
R ctr: Moschino Cheap & Chic, cute!! but not that price tag cute.
R: Back of Moschino C & C dress. I admire the Rosella Jardini's initiative, but I think the candy-colored buttons (on the dress and jackie above) are more indicative of extreme ADHD than anything else. :(








Cheery kisses.




Footnotes:
1. Let the very delicate art of pursuing male hotties in shorts commence. *Naughty grin*
2. Not just cotton, the fabric of our lives...

model moment

Unofficially, resort season¹ kicked off Monday with collections from Messrs. Galliano and Lagerfeld for C. Dior and Fendi, respectively.
Officially, Arlenis Peña is the hottest model at the moment!! She's simply stunning. The Dominican model walked at Dior and Oscar de la Renta (who showed two days later); ummm, she'd even accompanied Mr. de la Renta to the Met Costume Institute Gala last week. And she's featured in the 'all black' Vogue Italia (June 2008) along with Iman, Jourdan Dunn and Alek Wek that's driving everyone wild. Ms. Peña has managed to accomplish all of this in... oh, just under a month on our radars.
Gobsmacked!! In your face!! LOL.

L: Christian Dior. R: Oscar de la Renta





Darling kisses.


Footnotes:
1. I love resort collections, honestly I do... But isn't it really geared toward women who sail into Martinique to in the middle of December?? Dom P. Rosé Guitar Cases (£75000, by the way??!! *hiss*) — Karl Lagerfeld's rocker-chic collection — on board??

spring dresses (I)

Darling sexy boobies,

I'm obviously way too excited — A post!!


A perfect bricolage of trivialities, elaborate contrivances, ideas, nuances and an overwhelming desire to be "good": this is me. It's most of us, I think. I struggle — constantly — with the ornateness that is fashion and a Buddhist-monk-like need for the pursuit of simplicity, for instance. For world peace.
Naive.

Most times, all is well. These seemingly alternate universes exist harmoniously within me; other times, like the proverbial warring factions, I'm torn by conflict. I'd be minding my business, dreaming up a modern day Audrey Hepburn: skinny ankle-length pants, hair up in a decadent chignon, walking down Fifth — okay, so Audrey really transcends time!! Sheesh!! — when an alter ego would pop up on the sidewalk knocking down my Audrey?!! Then she, my alter ego, with a disapproving look on her face, would go on to remind me of the catastrophes around the world — umm... there's just been a cyclone in Burma!!! and you're thinking of Audrey; shaking up my pleasing reverie and almost causing me to panic. It's unhealthy. Really. Allowing the world's troubles to affect my psyche like that...

I rebuild my Audrey, replace her cigarette holder precariously — seductively — between her lips. She peers at a window display; reflecting, perhaps, on the prettiness of a quilted 2.55 in a fleshy peachy pink. (Spring is in the air:))

I sound like a patient in therapy?? Yikes!!

It's just life, huh??



Anyway, that's not what I meant to write about.
I'm back in love with patio/lounge/maxi/long dresses, whatever you call them. Last summer, it was all I wore during the day, practically everyday, and I'll be at it again soon!! Yay!! Well, as soon as the weather permits. While barely-skimming-my-thigh short dresses are a delightful rationale for a major part of my existence, long patio dresses are just so charming, I can't help but fall in love with them again. I just want to host a little soiree wearing one of these dresses in my non-existent backyard — okay, I'll settle for my non-existent flat balcony since I'm a city gyrl, (leaning casually over the balustrade, the breeze against my face).

The DVF pieces are my faves!! They're just so divine and I want all three. I love, very terribly, the chic simplicity of Caroline Hedaya's dress; for fall, she switches the colors, so that the navy blue is the primary color on the top and the cream portion is the lower portion. And yes, I need them both in my life, so screw me!! Ha!! Besides, I've simply taken to anything Ms Hedaya constructs, she is one of my adored new designers.

Actually, so maybe I lied. The Fendi psychedelic circle pattern dress (bottom right) might be my most fave, it's just that I obviously can't afford it at $2500. I don't know how Mr. Lagerfeld does it, but I think I want to a roll of silk fabric in his hands in one of my next reincarnations.

Top: All DVF
Bottom: L-Caroline Hedaya R-Fendi








Kisses and more decadent kisses.

hi. *shy face, eyes peeking above sunglass rims*

No.
You haven't even asked where I've been. You haven't looked. Wondered... I could've been kidnapped — willingly on my part *take me darling*
Would you have known??
No.

I'm stalling and trying to deflect blame on my part... [insert plausible excuse for unexplained absence]

I've been busy.
Honestly.
I've been doing a fair amount of traveling, and working. It's delightful and blah blah, but it's also very tiring. This, accompanied with rather frequent episodes of manic love and desperation as well as a general slacking off has kept me away from you, you see. Life, eh??

I'm awful, I know. So while you sit there — with that smirk on your face — trying to think up a befitting punishment (or your adoring kisses, perhaps?? please??) ponder this:

...Never too late to apologize (for my absence). I've been around the world — okay just three steps into my kitchen; yesterday however, that mean sidewalk on Fifth. But, as I recall you like to show off too — I'm wearing your Rolex, right?? (*whisper* Typical douche ...rolex!!) [I] believe in Choos and couture, and?? Yeah, some think I'm in over my head, but I'll always keep it flying high in the sky. You, me, my Choos forever!! So check my body language, I need that drink!! Then, perhaps we can dance cheek to cheek, right after I'm done sleazy dancing in the mirror *wink*.
One Love.

Okay I need some 'gyrl power' songs!! I went from apologizing to talking to a boy??!! To one love for the world?? HA!! But I'm proud of my mediocre pop culture babble. I'm not completely out of touch after all. Yay!!


Fashion raves will continue (and you will forgive me).
Smile.








Double hershey kisses!!

style icon: Carine Roitfeld

No question, French Vogue's Carine Roitfeld is chicer than I could ever pretend to be. It's compelling when a fifty-three year old¹ woman — an international fashion mag editor, albeit — serves as the perfect archetype for le beau monde; more so than the contents of her magazine, or any others for that matter. Ms. Roitfeld seamlessly blends sophisticated glamour with a cavalier French chic in a manner that mere (non-French — ha!!) mortal women could only dream!! I mean she's single-handedly resurrected the elegance of Givenchy² footwear — the (ankle) gladiator sandals in particular, and made oh so very chic last season's Manolo Blahnik silver tipped ankle boots (for Christopher Kane); all the while donning couture, essentially.

Lord help me if I ever complain about five inch heels ever again as it's obvious Ms. Roitfeld wears them right out of the tub and for 23 hours of each day!! And her confident dislike for accessories and makeup dares me to put my best nude face forward. NOT happening!!³ (I still wish she'd tend to those eyebrows, however. Shhh... I know, how dare I even think it??!!) Anyway, I terribly want to be her when I grow up :).

Footnotes:
1. I know, I know. Age ain't nothing but a number... Still...
2. After feeling like pathetic saddo for continuously disregarding the oh so delightful banalities that take place on MTV's The Hills, I actually tuned in one night last week to watch some reruns. And what episode did I happen to watch?? The one in which the girls have arrived in Paris: while been chauffeured, they're deliberating, with such passion, which stops to make when Lauren's friend blurts out Give-nchy!! Poor Mr. Driver winces — as if in physical pain!! — as he corrects her pronunciation and I practically blush with embarrassment at the comical sadness of it all. I must admit, however, that I was totally in lust with Lauren's huffy-scruffy French admirer!! Eeewww!!!
3. I just love make up, I'm sorry. I love the natural look that says I-may-look-like-I-have-great-skin-and-my-cheeks-just-catch-the-sunlight-so-but-I'm-really-wearing-expensive-makeup.







French kisses (ha!!)

Thanks for all your votes over at the Glam Network Annual Awards. Love you!!
P.S. I may be back to label her outfits. Or... I may not.

'Buns'dchen

Even as I anticipate when wearing this deliberate variety of shorts would ever be appropriate — FWD's Chic Report intimates shots in the July fall preview of V mag — I must say I'm developing a strange predilection for Gisele Bündchen's butt!! So, I decided to document it.
So very sad, I know. It's just so errr... lovely??






Kiss. Kiss.

P.S. Vote for me in the annual Glam Network Awards FASHION category.Thank you very much!! :)

for Giambattista Valli

Of course it's naughty and I'm totally up for anything Mr Valli wishes... à la Henry Holland:

Half-nude in your alley
'Battista Valli.

Seriously, only a man who successfully juxtaposes ruffles and rock chic is capable of understanding the complex nature of a woman's mind. Body. Both.
(Available at one of my fave across-the-pond ports: Luisa Via Roma should you want to get it for me. As it is, I'm contemplating a foolish thought that will involve that dress shipped to me and going on a new diet of ramen noodles for at least two months. I'm biding my time for now, however...)


I still dream of last summer's famously photographed fuschia-pink mini-dress!! Chichi chic!! (Don't know the dress?? You better ask somebody!!)








Intricate lingering kisses.

Gilt Groupe: men

I've neglected my wonderful male readers who dare to love my notes because they're just as vain as I am. *giggle* The neglect continues, except that I'm posting a gilted announcement: Gilt Groupe’s Men’s Sales which will premiere on April 16th, starting with John Varvatos!! There'll be two sales a week for the guys (women get four sales a week!! ha!!). Dolce & Gabbana, Hickey and Rag & Bone sales will be coming up thereafter. I strongly advocate treating yourselves.
Here's the email/mini-press realease.
I should do a post on men's shoes :)






Friendly kisses.