Buy (Almost) Nothing Day

Today is the day after Thanksgiving, aka Black Friday, aka Buy Nothing Day. While millions of people got up at 1am today to get to stores opening at 2am, I was sound asleep, and I hope you were, too.

Although I'm generally not a big spender anyway, and certainly not a mall shopper, I fully intended to comply with the anti-consumerist Buy Nothing Day agenda. However, I did walk to the local American Cancer Society shop. I figure it's not really spending if it's a charity shop. Is it? Or am I a hypocrite?

Anyway, I had amazing success, finding a silk DVF scarf...and a tablecloth/napkin set made of Gabrielle Cie fabric (that completely looks like it should be used in the mise en scéne of a Pedro Almodóvar film)...and for $1 this coffee table book on the innovative architect and Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius. Did anyone else succumb to consumerism?

Brief retraction, but only for André J

Okay, I know I recently ranted about magazines being underwhelming and just plain awful. But I've been seeing these pictures from French Vogue floating around the "Internets" for awhile and I can't resist posting them.

André J, the strangely attractive bearded "don't call me a drag queen," got a hot layout in French Vogue (with Carolyn Murphy, no less), thanks to Carine Roitfeld's farsighted creativity. He's often seen on the New York scene, but apparently Paris loves him, too.

He really has a model's physique, but Anna Wintour wouldn't dare.
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millinery musings

I see people wearing hats more and more. Whether bowlers or berets or picture hats, they're becoming ubiquitous. Because I always prefer retrospective inspiration to posting a picture of some flash-in-the-pan starlet in Us Weekly who just wears what her stylist gives her, I'd rather post pictures of the jaw-droppingly gorgeous Ewa Aulin. She looks like the Swedish lovechild of Brigitte and Twiggy, and boy does she know how to make a hat look good.

dark days

Sometimes I masochistically peruse the dress section on Net-a-Porter to see what I can't buy. It's a bit like strolling through a pricey art gallery, I suppose.

I notice they're taking a lot of dresses that could easily stand alone or function as summer dresses, and pairing them with dark accessories (belts, booties, tights and bags). It's a good idea if you aren't ready to pack up all your warm weather dresses. (Tear a page out of Kate Bosworth's book by adding big black boots and tights.)

Anna Sui
Mulberry


This Issa mini kimono is too lovely not to post. Although it's stunning as it is, it's a bit too chipper for the darker winter months. It, too, could be made to function by pairing it with black tights and black shoes. (But because I'm not subtle and I like color, I'd also wear it with excessive amounts of gold jewelry, red lipstick and red nails.)

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Style Icon: Michelle Phillips

I'm enamored of sixties fashion, particularly the more rock 'n roll fashion that came in the latter half of the decade. Take, for example, the stunning Michelle Phillips of The Mamas and The Papas.

Carsten Höller Slides

This time last year I was living outside of London. I had the opportunity to visit the Tate Modern twice, but never once ventured down the Carsten Höller slides. The lines were long and it seemed like a hassle because you couldn't take your belongings down with you. Besides, I'm not a fan of rides (or slides) because they generally underwhelm me.

Well, now I wish I'd just sucked it up and waited in line and gone on the damn slide. Apparently, Carsten Höller slides are really hip, and I could have been so much hipper for sliding down one.

Miuccia Prada has one installed in her headquarters that shoots her from her office to her parking spot. I kid you not.

In Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, the author, Dana Thomas, says

I was taken to a room I had read about often. It is officially Miuccia Prada’s office, and it is as stark and contrived as her designs: poured concrete, a slew of orange and yellow molded plastic Eames chairs; and, sticking up in the center of the floor, a metal tube slide - by artist Carsten Holler - that runs three floors down to the parking lot and is titled The Slide No. 5. Prada has whizzed down it when asked to by reporters.

Okay, I appreciate a slide for utilitarian purposes. And I suppose it would be fun, while your guests are gawking at your slide, to say, "What, oh that old thing? Why that's just my Höller."

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ridiculously lovely raiment

A while back I said my favorite show for spring was Etro. This photo of Kate Bosworth should explain why.

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Catherine McNeil Sort of Eats

Featured in NY Magazine's "Grub Street" is Catherine McNeil. For those of you unfamiliar with "Grub Street," NY Magazine asks famous and/or glamorous people in New York to keep a food journal for a week. This is what McNeil reported:

Monday, November 5
We were doing Versace. I had some banana bread for breakfast. I went out to lunch at Barolo with my booker because I was working in the morning. I had sea bass with Brussels sprouts and mashed potatoes. I had cheesecake for dessert.

Tuesday, November 6
I had Raisin Bran for breakfast. I usually don’t like eating first thing in the morning. For lunch I had a huge plate of green salad and vegetables. For dinner I had chicken noodle soup and a honey-and-oat bar from room service. I don’t like cooking because you cook too much and the food gets wasted.

Wednesday, November 7
I worked from 11 am to 7 p.m., shooting for Another magazine. I had a handful of nuts and some fruit for breakfast on the job. For lunch I had some vegetables and salad. When I got home, I was so tired that I passed out, so I didn’t eat dinner.

Thursday, November 8
I had some scrambled eggs and fruit on the shoot. For lunch I had salad. I worked late and then went home and fell asleep, so I missed dinner again.

Friday, November 9
I woke up starving. I had a toasted egg, ham, and cheese sandwich. For lunch I had salad niçoise — with tuna and carrots and stuff like that. That’s my favorite salad. And I had a chocolate-chip cookie. I try to eat healthy and clean food — not eat bad stuff. You can’t go and eat five chocolate bars every day.

As I read this, I found myself growing increasingly hungry. Then I read on Jezebel that Catherine McNeil is actually only consuming about 1000 calories per day. No wonder my stomach's growling.

Could you survive on this diet, or would you be passing out from "exhaustion" all the time, too?

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Check Out These Bodices

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Cavalli does Lagerfeld

The Morning After

Did you dress up last night? Or were you like me - cramming for a midterm while stealing candy from the trick-or-treaters' stash?

boot bravado

Are you struggling with your image, feeling like people don't take you seriously and often skim right over you? Well "don't sit there crooning like a bilious pigeon" – I have the perfect panacea! For only $400 you can fulfill your dream of becoming an urchin vigilante. Just put on these fierce Frye creations and, voilá!, you're Eliza Doolittle-cum-superheroine!

You're welcome.

Tom Sachs

What do you think of these Tom Sachs creations? He's obviously inspired by fashion, Marcel Duchamp and, um, grotesque objects.

Vogue: Out of Vogue

I should admit as I commence this screed that I've been going through a serious crisis of faith. As a fashion blogger, it's gauche to acknowledge flagging fidelity to Fashion. (I capitalize it because I'm talking about the institution and business of Fashion.) Here is my confession nonetheless:

Lately, reading fashion magazines makes me feel dirty. There is something wholly inauthentic and hypocritical about them. Fashion is expression - not giving a damn, as Gore Vidal so wisely said; but Fashion (with a capital F) is dictated expression (which is hardly expression at all). Magazines are mostly advertisements and pages and pages of nepotism in high gloss.

I've read magazines for many years and have even been a subscriber in the past. My beef with magazines arose and then sat stagnant at a liminal phase for sometime, but now I've officially crossed the threshold and am throwing down my gauntlet.

Magazines underrepresent people of color in a world where people of color are already woefully underrepresented. One might argue that magazine content is just a product of racial inequality, and I'd partially agree, but I think magazine content also perpetuates inequality. The spring runways were another embarrassing reminder of just how WASPy the fashion world insists upon being. (Jezebel did a nice article on the subject, calling out magazines by name. Click here to see the offenders.)

Second, and much less importantly, I don't even necessarily like the fashion that's being dictated to me. See the "Need It Now" section from the latest Vogue, for example, to see what Anna Wintour thinks we all need to be wearing: J.Lo circa 2002 Blahnik Timbs. Really? Anna Wintour - methinks you've got your head lodged firmly where the sun does not shine. No one wants 2002 back already, so don't try to make it happen. I didn't even want Jenny From The Block back then because, honestly, I was completely fooled by the rocks that she got. (Thanks to Jezebel for the scan.)

So I'm boycotting magazines for now. I'm boycotting them till I see some sort of noticeable increase in quality. In the mean time, I'll be watching old movies for fashion inspiration.

The Passion of Tara Subkoff

The New York Times has an interesting write-up on the new career path of erstwhile Imitation of Christ designer Tara Subkoff. Read it here.

I typically like the gist of IOC, so I'm curious to see what happens to it now.

Subkoff sure likes to keep the fashion world on its toes.

Marion Cotillard

Earlier today I was looking at a picture of my grandmother taken in the early 1940s. I was marveling at her hairstyle. She had glossy dark brown hair looped and waved complexly, then carefully molded into an massive bouffant.

French actress Marion Cotillard, best known in the U.S. for playing Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose, has a more contemporary version of my grandmother's coif. I'm glad, because it gives me the opportunity to post another picture of a stunning and talented non-blonde. If any of you receive the Sunday New York Times, be sure to read the interview with Cotillard in last week's Style Magazine in which she describes playing the iconic "sparrow." You won't regrette it.

Buy Nothing In One Month

Just a reminder to all you readers that Buy Nothing Day is coming up in under a month, on November 24th and 25th.

Dubai International Fashion Week

Designer Rabia Z. from the United Arab Emirates and a model
From Pakistani designer Hassan Sheheryar Yasin
From Dubai designer Raakhee Raipanchola
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Green With Envy

Eva Green, my favorite Bond girl, in Vanity Fair. She strikes me as an intelligent woman with gravitas, and, fortunately, Old Hollywood appeal. I get excited when someone breaks through who doesn't look like a generic Orange County girl.
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Thandie Eye Candy

Thandie Newton looking incredible in Matthew Williamson.

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I haven't covered any of the spring shows, not because I don't care, but because life is pretty busy. I've followed them faithfully on Style.com, and I'm pretty sure that Dries van Noten and Etro were the most amazing shows.

Any dissenters? Which were your favorites?

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The Socks Get Better!

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Plaid on Plaid, Red on Red

Perpetuating my obsession with red (see here, here and here), I've decided to start pairing red plaids. I never seem to tire of red experimentation. Because I live in the Pacific Northwest (home of Pendleton), I find myself attracted to a somewhat more chic version of the lumberjack look (note rhinestones and excessive eyeliner). Here's what I wore today (red flats on my feet not pictured):

James Rieck

I'm enjoying the paintings of James Rieck. Almost photographic and very retro, they could be clippings from a 1960s Bazaar.
Danbury II, oil on canvas. 2004
A Blaze of Glory, oil on canvas. 2005

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Stam looks like an older Frances Bean dressing up as her mother.

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I Couldn't Help But Notice...

Carrie on the Runway, and Dsquared in Milan

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SATC

I've been seeing a lot of pictures surfacing from the Sex and the City movie, but this is the first Carrie Bradshaw outfit I am excited about. Fabulous, fabulous socks.

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Vogue India

The first ever Vogue India hits newsstands today. There are so many stunning Bollywood women, I wonder why Gemma is on at all?

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Two New Thirty-Cent Dresses

Smart Shopping or Ersatz Elegance?

Smart Shopping or Ersatz Elegance? To be or not to be generic? Read more here.

Any opinions?

Computerized Chloë

I can't wait to see Chloë Sevigny's new line.

Gawker says: "Check out the umlaut! Judging from the analogue angularity of it all, we're looking forward to her early Gameboy fall collection. Who can say no to a Tetris camisole and a deconstructed minimalist Donkey Kong shrug?"

Could you say no?