material concern

bumped into this artist. i love the clothing.

Since the location of the 2008 olympic games was announced fashion has been having an emperor-has-no-clothes flirtation with the event . I’ve heard it discussed in meetings, power-point presented by the head of the fashion office for a huge retailer, and disseminated in countless magazine spreads.

however, i think this trend has no legs (forgive the kinda pun).

i feel no desire to get sporty or to wear active gear: this is a trend in a vaccuum. there was a brief blip on the real fashion radar in winter of last year with some active fabric qualities, silver meshes, etc: but mostly this has been a trend talked about that no one wants to get behind.

which leads me to two points:

1. does anyone actually care about the olympics other than my mom and my boyfriend?

2. when the fashion industry randomly picks an event that has very little effect on society and culture as a whole and proclaims it a major fashion event: the resulting spreads, collections and looks lack any bite or relevance.

Exhibit A for point 2:

teen vogue: ping pong is about as cool as those yellow glasses

exhibit B for point 2:

china vogue: at least a little interesting…but actually not so much….

exhibit C for point 3:

american vogue: this is almost the worst: implying that women compete through fashion or grooming and men compete as athletes. or that models train hard too? ps. apollo whatsisface is a winter athlete, btw.

Exhibit D for point 2:

its not just vogue, bazaar had a pretty bizarre spread with Lucy Liu pretending to be an athlete in like the shopping olympics or something.

ps i found all the pics online: i was honestly too lazy to scan these myself:) no gold medal for me:)

Sometimes new labels get tons of press and you are like: wow, their pr company must be amazing (because the line isn’t).

but sometimes, awesomely, the attention is warranted.

Current/Elliot, a new line of denim by two stylists lives up to all the hype: the line has every pair of pants you wish you’d find at the thriftstore, and then some.

So, I know i’ve been bummed out on vogue for awhile, as have many of you: we are not alone: portfolio magazine listed magazine’s sales decreases: and for Vogue (among others) it’s not a pretty picture. Sales are down 15%. Surprisingly to me though, teen vogue is also down almost 16% (teen vogue is a guilty pleasure of mine, and much better than its big sister.

Elle’s down around 7%…which is dissapointing.

i have been meaning to post for a while that Elle looks amazing lately: is it due to Joe Zee: the creative director? hats off!

new interior graphic design, inspiring spreads…see above from photographer carter smith and stylist joanne blades and below from photographer: stephen shore and stylist kate lamphear:

both these shots are inspiring, complex, alluring, and beautiful and even thought or imagination provoking…all the things i want from a fashion spread.

However: whoever’s in charge of the inside doesn’t appear to be in charge of the person who is in charge of the outside: the Elle covers appear to be trying to challenge Cosmo for ugliest covers ever.

i came across Kaliflower on one of my favorite blogs: nothing is new.

Kaliflower was a magazine put out by a commune of the same name in San Fran in the late sixties, that were into the diggers: into communal property and anti commercialism. i love this naive, free flow doodley unconcerned type of illustration…its really hard to fake…

the museum of jurassic technology in culver city is

strange

otherworldly

perfectly presented

and a great way to wander for hours.

wheni was at the rose bowl flea market i saw this girl wearing an awesome tank…and like a crazy stalker i walked really quickly to catch up with her to see the label that (lucilky for both of us) was on the outside of the tank.

the brand is insight…and here’s my favorite pic from the Fall 08 collection….

To add to Lizz’s comments, uh this is way better…

works for me

so maison margiela did it for spring (and in seasons past, too), as did wowch (tongue in cheek style), and stresis is doing it for fall: old school airbrush-look nature tees are all over the place.

I grew up in milwaukee, where this and some mom jeans is a pretty good bet in a lot of the city, and has been for a couple years: but all the above designers escape keeping it too real

through shape (margiela),

juxtaposition (wowch)

and treatment (stresis).

i’ve also attached a couple real options you can get at the harley price and make your own,

online here:

and here: