African Aesthetic

These were part of the African art exhibit at SAM.  I thought it was really interesting how the shapes were strictly aristocratic European, but done in African materials.  Perhaps a commentary on colonialism or power struggle/identity.

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30 Years of Japanese Fashion exhibit

Some time ago, I mentioned that I attended Akiko Fukai's talk on her exhibit, 30 Years of Japanese Fashion.  I was finally able to go see it myself!  It definitely tickled my inner fashion geek.

 

The above is part of the 2D to 3D series.  When laid flat, they are very geometric and origami-like, but when put on the body they have a whole new life and drape. 

Managed to snap these two photos before they told me to stop... sad T_T haha I really hope they don't hunt me down for posting these...

Inward Facing Girl managed to get a lot more somehow!  Click the link to see all the awesome detail shots.

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Spikes on Pike Place

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I don't know about you, but I'm feeling 22

Beaded t-shirt dress: Runway Paris brand, bought at Oh La La boutique on St. Laurent boulevard, Montreal


Can't believe I used to hate this song! haha

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Boutique 1861

Can't believe I didn't post this till now, but this is from my recent trip to Montreal!  My aunt took me to THE IT store in town - 1861.  This is a picture of the St. Laurent boutique (it's a bit bigger than the St. Catherine, with some more selection.)  They were serving pink lemonade and maracons!  Some of the best I've had, mind you.  The music was perfect as well.  I just love cute, carefully curated shops.

Its signature is a pink and black cameo.

 credit: thestylespy

1861's style is vintage, romantic, and feminine, but nothing kitschy (check out their online store here.)  It's like walking into a dream of lace and bows which in my opinion is heavenly.  If only I had a tea party or wedding to go to every other day.  Of course, there are some edgy pieces as well - you can't go without that in a fashion-forward city. 

I thought their marketing strategy was brilliant: they only keep about one of each size per item in stock in each store (one XS, one S, etc.) so the things fly off the shelves, fast.  That also means that you might be out of luck with finding your size on your visit!  However, because they're constantly rolling in new merchandise, it keeps you coming back.  Tricky, tricky.

I actually ended up falling in love with a dress (that I didn't see on my first trip to St. Laurent) at the smaller boutique on St. Catherine, so it might be worth a try to visit both.

If you're ever in Montreal, you need to check out 1861.  I would recommend going early in the morning, because the shops get REALLY busy in the afternoon.  Most boutiques in Montreal close early at around 5 or 6pm at the latest so you need to get a head start on your shopping day anyway.  The sales associates are bilingual, but you can practice your French if you want!

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Fashion vocab: Flat top

Apparently these hats are called 'flat tops,' because of their brims.

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Humans of New York

I thought I'd share this site I found recently.  Humans of New York is run by a man who basically comes up to random people in the street and asks them one question - "What was the happiest moment of your life?",  "What is your favorite thing about the person you're with?",  "If you could give advice to a large group of people, what would it be?", or simply, "What are you doing?"  None of the people have any commonality in terms of his choice (it's not based on streetstyle or a certain age group or subculture), but they always give fascinating answers, or simple truths, and glances of a very humble, human story.  They're sometimes funny or saddening, but all very real.

I'm going to post some (okay, a lot) of the "fashionable" ones here for the sake of theme, but you should definitely check out the rest here.  Click the pictures to go to the original posts.

"We’re late for a wedding."

"It’s difficult for many people to pick a saddest moment, because they’ve had so many sad moments strung together. Same thing with a happiest moment. You can be very happy buying needles or postage stamps, or you can be miserable at a $3,000 gala. It’s not about a place or a time. It’s about a feeling."
"So what decides the feeling, if not place and time?"
"Who you’re with, I suppose."

"We just graduated."
"So what’s the craziest thing you learned in high school?"

"Choose your friends wisely."
"Mind your own business."
"Trig."

"I have time for a social life, but not a personal life."
"What’s the difference between the two?"
"Well, a social life is about going to events to meet acquaintances, for business and things like that."
"And a personal life?"
"… a personal life is when you’re around people who won’t judge you if you get wasted and do stupid things."

I took this photo just a few minutes ago. She was sitting outside of a bar. As I photographed her, she kept inhaling deeply, then exhaling slowly. “Man," I thought, “I’m really annoying this girl." Until…
"What was the saddest moment of your life?"
"Right now."
"What happened?"
"The person I love wants to take a break. He’s still inside."

Seen in The Meatpacking District.

"What’s the hardest part about being a Dad?"
“Probably just realizing that my time with him is going to run out."

She was resting after a dance performance in Washington Square Park. After I took her photo, I began with the interview, but she cut me short. “I’m not good with words,” she said. “That’s why I speak with my body.”

"It was easier than I thought it’d be."

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Scarlett's green velvet dress

This excerpt from Gone With the Wind (by Margaret Mitchell) is one of my favorites in literature, where fashion is greatly expounded upon in its minute details.  It acts as a representation of Scarlett's determined, resourceful, character - and her refusal to let life decide its course for her - that was in its own way a feminist declaration at the time.  It goes on for awhile, but the importance that Scarlett have a new dress is not represented as frivolous - it indeed is part of who she is.

  credit:  How We Do Run On

Excerp found at Project Gutenberg:

She walked to the long pier glass and looked at herself, her head
held high.  And she saw framed in the cracking gilt molding a
stranger.  It was as if she were really seeing herself for the
first time in a year.  She had glanced in the mirror every morning
to see that her face was clean and her hair tidy but she had always
been too pressed by other things to really see herself.  But this
stranger!  Surely this thin hollow-cheeked woman couldn't be
Scarlett O'Hara!  Scarlett O'Hara had a pretty, coquettish, high-
spirited face.  This face at which she stared was not pretty at all
and had none of the charm she remembered so well.  It was white and
strained and the black brows above slanting green eyes swooped up
startlingly against the white skin like frightened bird's wings.
There was a hard and hunted look about this face.

"I'm not pretty enough to get him!" she thought and desperation
came back to her.  "I'm thin--oh, I'm terribly thin!"

She patted her cheeks, felt frantically at her collar bones,
feeling them stand out through her basque.  And her breasts were so
small, almost as small as Melanie's.  She'd have to put ruffles in
her bosom to make them look larger and she had always had contempt
for girls who resorted to such subterfuges.  Ruffles!  That brought
up another thought.  Her clothes.  She looked down at her dress,
spreading its mended folds wide between her hands.  Rhett liked
women who were well dressed, fashionably dressed.  She remembered
with longing the flounced green dress she had worn when she first
came out of mourning, the dress she wore with the green plumed
bonnet he had brought her and she recalled the approving
compliments he had paid her.  She remembered, too, with hate
sharpened by envy the red plaid dress, the red-topped boots with
tassels and the pancake hat of Emmie Slattery.  They were gaudy but
they were new and fashionable and certainly they caught the eye.
And, oh, how she wanted to catch the eye!  Especially the eye of
Rhett Butler!  If he should see her in her old clothes, he'd know
everything was wrong at Tara.  And he must not know.

What a fool she had been to think she could go to Atlanta and have
him for the asking, she with her scrawny neck and hungry cat eyes
and raggedy dress!  If she hadn't been able to pry a proposal from
him at the height of her beauty, when she had her prettiest
clothes, how could she expect to get one now when she was ugly and
dressed tackily?  If Miss Pitty's story was true, he must have more
money than anyone in Atlanta and probably had his pick of all the
pretty ladies, good and bad.  Well, she thought grimly, I've got
something that most pretty ladies haven't got--and that's a mind
that's made up.  And if I had just one nice dress--

There wasn't a nice dress in Tara or a dress which hadn't been
turned twice and mended.

"That's that," she thought, disconsolately looking down at the
floor.  She saw Ellen's moss-green velvet carpet, now worn and
scuffed and torn and spotted from the numberless men who had slept
upon it, and the sight depressed her more, for it made her realize
that Tara was just as ragged as she.  The whole darkening room
depressed her and, going to the window, she raised the sash,
unlatched the shutters and let the last light of the wintry sunset
into the room.  She closed the window and leaned her head against
the velvet curtains and looked out across the bleak pasture toward
the dark cedars of the burying ground.

The moss-green velvet curtains felt prickly and soft beneath her
cheek and she rubbed her face against them gratefully, like a cat.
And then suddenly she looked at them.

A minute later, she was dragging a heavy marble-topped table across
the floor.  Its rusty castors screeching in protest.  She rolled
the table under the window, gathered up her skirts, climbed on it
and tiptoed to reach the heavy curtain pole.  It was almost out of
her reach and she jerked at it so impatiently the nails came out of
the wood, and the curtains, pole and all, fell to the floor with a
clatter...

...  He thought as he stared at Will in the shadowy hall that he had
never known such gallantry as the gallantry of Scarlett O'Hara
going forth to conquer the world in her mother's velvet curtains
and the tail feathers of a rooster.

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