material concern

We are watching “I’m not here.”

I think bob dylan is fantastic. we all do, don’t we? Which is basically the gist of this film.

I remember horrible middle school and having to find a poem for the excuse of an english class and I found desolation row: I hadn’t even heard of bob dylan (my parents had a donovan record and some phil ochs and lots of opera and classical and thats it), and I was blown away and probably embarrassed myself by not knowing who he was when i went home and asked about this awesome poet i found.

but I digress; this movie is good if only to point more giant neon arrows at how awesome bob dylan is, and cate blanchett does a transformative job.

this is her as bob dylan.

the best part is when dylan goes electric: I ‘ve always found it so attractive and strong that he just did what he wanted to do without regard for his image or for perhaps for a brilliant understanding of the future of his image.

also, for those of you who don’t know me: i kinda look like bob dylan when i wear my sunglasses, esp if i’m having a bad hairday:)

kinda.

 Yves St. Laurent died this Sunday. To be quite honest, I thought he died a long time ago: he hadn’t designed his own line in a while, and i think the timelessness of those big glasses he wore actually made all recent photos I saw look dated. My bad. 

YSL was the king of high/low and one of the first designers to take things out of their context and elevate them to something that was noticed and cherished (like his mondrian shift above).

 His rich peasant collection of the 1970s (i could only find this picture on the internet, from the victoria albert museum in london) was amazing and continues to be influential: (hello foley and corinna, anthropologie, free people, anna sui, matthew williamson, (my closet) and every other designer every couple of years).  

He also managed to cause a fair bit of controversy, posing naked in his own perfume ads (above) and naming a fragrance Opium, which some felt glamorized drug use. 

When he started in fashion in the fifties: trends and hemlines changed drastically every season. However, in his obituary in the NY times, a 1983 interview was quoted against this idea of quick change: saying: “A woman’s wardrobe shouldn’t change every six months. You should be able to use the pieces you already own and add to them. Because they are like timeless classics.”

I was reading the NYTimes this weekend and caught a glimpse of Karen Allen, reprising her role as Marion, in a promotion shot for the new Indiana Jones flick.

In case you don’t have the Indiana Jones films in constant rotation at your house; Karen Allen is the coolest love interest in an action movie. She set the stage for Sandra Bullock in Speed: so you understand how serious this is, and I’m pretty sure, inspired the whole opening sequence in Charlies Angels II.

As a style (and personal icon) Marion owns her own business, drinks dudes under the table, defends her own honor and kicks some serious butt. Throughout the movie she wears either her chill nepali army fatiques, or when sexually harassed by that lame nazi dude: she is forced to wear a dress. Doesn’t matter: she still kills some snakes and escapes a near certain death . When #(*&(*#&% kate capshaw showed up in the second installment I almost lost my 4 year old shit. Indy goes from awesome chick partner to dumb blonde? Major bummer, even if Spielberg got the girl.

I don’t care if Marion and Indy get together in Indy 4: he didn’t deserve her anyway and I’m sure she’s had a pretty good time since then.

because i love him and who doesn’t other than johnny? really. liberal and that tall? c’mon.

When we first got to LA we went to a very lavish Bollywood themed party. Everything was exact: the bindis, the fortune teller, the henna artist, the food, the decor…and there were belly dancers: but they were dressed a bit more like the romany/uzbek/persian branch of belly dancers.

they were the best dressed people there, and I was even wearing a turban.

I’ve been searching for maybe three years for the perfect bellydancing belt: kuchi weaving, tassles galore, and silver coins a janglin.’
Miguel Andover—the designer who was briefly the next big thing in 2000 when he did a reversed Burberry jacket and made a jacket out of his neighbor (who was a famous writer)’s old mattress after the neighbor died—i remember the model who wore it got a skin rash but i dont remember the writer: i read about this in probably 2000, and I couldn’t find any of it on the internet anymore—well anycase, he fell out of favor when he released his burka collection in…yep, fall of 2001.

I can’t help but wonder if the whole ikat thing is the start of an attachment to our current political situation. Perhaps its not as positive as the popularity of surplus army gear in the late 60s: but it could point to a stylistic reach-out.

I predict large silver cuffs with blue stones, large necklaces and hippie type earrings coming back soon, but not in a faux boho way, people turning to antiques. What do you think?

While, in general, I prefer the simple, I also am a little prone to the over-the-top. Mostly, I hate things that are “safe.” Mass-marketed design and fashion are liberating to a certain extent: but a little constricting too: we need some risk-taking now and again.

the nytimes today wrote about Tony Duquette, interior decorator extra-ordinaire.

he’s definitely the cure to the ikea home, and a major power player in the start of the high-low mix-up we all live today. I love the idea of Mr. Duquette balanced on a ladder spray painting twigs hot pink in some fancy movie star’s home.

There’s a new book coming out on Mr. Duquette: you can pre-order it on the cheap on amazon.

Gertrude Bell was a fascinating woman, and her middle-eastern wanderings shed light on the current shapes of the runway and current political state as well.

She grew up rich in England, and among other things, was one of the first foreign women to travel the middle east, refused to join the suffragette movement (for interesting semantic reasons), and is maybe part of the reason we’ve got trouble in the middle east: she and “lawrence of arabia” (t.e. lawrence) helped draw up the boundaries of todays iraq. And then she commited suicide with sleeping pills and died alone.
However, I’m always in support of adventuresome women: and those that leave their comfort zone. We can’t go into the problems of western paradigms interfering with other’s norms on a style blog, but we can recognize the traveler on the runway recently: looks like she went to asia and africa: balenciaga to anna sui: we’ve got a bit of west meets east.

who knows how much more trouble we’d have been in if gertrude’d helped out there as well:)

all pics courtesy of style.com and wikipedia.com

i’ve been trying to get my head around dressing for Fall in LA. i finally decided my look will be fall colors, layers and a bit of boheme. basically, a cross between an ex of bob dylans and a crazy 70s high school art teacher. The new coach ads go quite well here (once you draw in the ray bans).