Made of Scarves

All the Pretty Clotheshorses

2011-01-26T22:21:00.000-08:00

I've often wondered about the particular sort of media magic that conspires to create style stars out of rising actresses. The phenomenon often results in a new career for the anointed girl: suddenly she is no longer expected to act or in some other faculty appear in films, but instead she just graces red carpets and perches on the front row at every international fashion week for the style blogosphere and glossy press to photograph and gawk at. Her calling card is What She's Wearing, and the most coveted poll positions seem to go to the fashion 'it' girls who ostensibly don't employ a stylist.

The trajectory of said girl's career is usually quite formulaic and can be traced through simple repeatable steps, the order of which can vary:

1. Appear in B or C list film, usually aimed toward a youthful, female demographic.
2. Date young, rakish male costar/actor/musician or combo of all three.
3. (Optional) Appear in subsequent forgettable films.
4. Start wearing really killer designer clothes and perfectly curated 'street style' ensembles.
5. Hang out with Karl Lagerfeld.
6. Be photographed as Karl Lagerfeld arm candy.
7. Launch some sort of clothing line/design collaboration/branding effort that doesn't really seem in line with your personal style, but we all sort of shrug and forgive the transgression. You've got to pay for all of those wardrobe changes, after all, and acting ain't doing it.

Eventually her identity as a clotheshorse totally obscures the B or C list film that shot her into the limelight from obscurity to begin with: she is just there, an established character on the scene -- her presence is anticipated because her sole role has become wearing clothes well. However, I'm always left with a vague distaste, the wool has been pulled over my eyes by fashion publicists: I search in vain to recall why I started caring to begin with.

Of course, there is the odd exception: the gal who the fashion flocks adore whose career happens to be humming along:

And then there's the freshly-anointed:

Emma Stone seems to be the newest object of affection for the image-makers. Will be muy interesante to see if she transcends her 'bro' and teen movie origins to become more than just a pretty clothes hangar.

In the mood...

2011-01-16T20:24:00.000-08:00

I've lately revisited a favorite film: Wong Kar-Wei's In the Mood for Love:

The film is notable for the storytelling, pace, romantic tension...and the clothes.

Maggie Cheung's cheong sam are the film's visual signature. My mom had an orange silk cheong sam, slit scandalously high, in a florid '70s pattern. I would kill to still have that dress.

Also, his time-traveling follow-up, 2047: Same saturated palette, 1960's, vaguely Palm Springs motif, and the high-collared cheong sam costume. Love a film with a great wardrobe!

Carey Mulligan's Deeply Resonating Nothingness

2010-09-20T18:00:00.000-07:00

I wasn't hugely shocked to see Carey Mulligan was on the cover of Vogue, since she's fallen into Anna Wintour's Brit starlets hall of fame (these girls land Vogue covers irrespective of their career trajectory; Sienna Miller and Keira Knightley have like 10 covers between 'em). Still, it was a curious profile. The writer, Joan Juliet Buck, paints a portrait of a very simple, plainspoken gal with simple, plain pop tastes and a 'tude so unpretentious it's practically flat. Said her costar in "Never Let Me Go," Andrew Garfield: “We were asked to name our favorite films, and everyone was showing off about which Michael Haneke they loved the most. Carey said, ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade,’ and I woke up.”

Comments on her acting describe the exact opposite and this is precisely what is so fascinating about Carey: she can convey such profound emotional depth while having very little emotional depth personally. Even as she says she has almost no heartbreak/failure/drama to draw on, she had some brilliant turn as world-weary in Chekhov's The Seagull that was described as "almost unbearably affecting." From whence comes the power of her style? Mark Romanek, who directed her in the aforementioned "Never Let Me Go," described her essential talent as a "deeply resonant minimalism." OK, now we're getting somewhere!

The photos contribute to this theory significantly: Mulligan is pretty and yet sort of nondescript or blank. You take nary one look at her curious little face before moving right over to the clothes or the costume. This beauty that's easily overwritten by other things seems like it could be really useful for an actress, if you consider the inverse: when I saw the trailer for "The Tourist" yesterday, I found, at this point, the effect of Angelina Jolie's glamour and celebrity so overwhelming as to be unnavigable. As the viewer, it's enough to make you want to throw in the towel.

Blog to brand

2010-09-02T13:44:00.000-07:00

Watch out GOOP...seems that lifestyle sites named with memorable, if not lyrically-pleasing acronyms are the new brand-building bling of choice. Welcome NAAG. Naaagggg. Named for model Agyness Deyn and her friend Fiona Byrne. One thinks they could have synthesized the more lovely 'Fioness' or even 'Agna'. A double 'A' to me recalls professional associations or affinity groups.

NAAG is no doubt the brainchild of some big city PR agency and should serve as the first step toward the personal-brand-building of its model founder. Not that there's anything wrong with that. 'est scooped that GOOP was produced by a PR agency. We were disillusioned yes, but maintain the blind conviction that Gwyn is heavily involved (except for the San Francisco bucket list which killed the suspension of disbelief by having Gwyneth recommend the Clift Hotel...ewww).

I like NAAG's rough photo collages and the kooky downtown kid vibe is cute, but not something I'd readily identify with. Stuff is 'off the shizzle' and the claim that 'So there's a couple things we think you should do once in your lifetime. Eat a meatball...' is just befuddling. Since when did meatballs become a singular life experience? A few posts read like flat-out advertorials and I doubt Agyness has much to do with what is going on here besides lending her considerable hipster/cool kid currency (which I assume the lingo is meant to recall??), and maybe she passes a cursory glance over the selection of smoking slippers.

Conclusion: Might not earn a spot in my Bookmarks menu but I'll check back in a few to see if the content starts to hit its stride.

Freedom ain't free!

2010-09-02T08:47:00.000-07:00

Jonathan Franzen and JPMorgan Chase's "Sapphire" in the September issue of Vogue:

The best bit:

Romance might seem like an odd—even dangerous—word for a male author to use with regard to his female protagonist. But writing full-blooded women of complexity and fallibility has never been a problem for the 51-year-old author, whose deliberate manner, salt-and-pepper hair, and classic tortoiseshell glasses belie a certain essential boyishness.

This is what is so lovable about Vogue: you'll never catch 'em straying too far from their basic duty -- to find the romance in a subject's looks.

Go Tavi go!

2010-08-25T13:20:00.000-07:00

The baby stylist the world has been waiting for! Watching the behind the scenes of Tavi's first pro gig on a shoot for BlackBook magazine that stars the Real Housewives of New Jersey's Christine Staub. The use of Native American blankets throughout is inspired indeed.

Swan Song

2010-08-25T09:11:00.000-07:00

Very excited for Darren Aronofsky's new film, Black Swan:

Ballet costumes by the Mulleavy sisters!

More digital ramblin'

2010-08-15T19:18:00.000-07:00

Come September 2, you will be able to shop Zara online. Despite my pledge to do '6 items or less' in September, this development could be destructive to the minimalism I am trying to cultivate. (Also, perhaps purchasing new all 6 of said items negates the anti-consumerism principles of such a campaign...)

I don't particularly enjoy the process of shopping in retail chains, so I welcome Zara's foray into the online space. I only wonder why it took them so long. Zara is a Spanish company and when I lived in Madrid I remember that they seemed as ubiquitous as Starbucks does here. You couldn't walk a block without running into a Zara, or one of it's spinoff brands - Home, Kids, Homme...and so forth. Also the look turnover is unprecedented -- every week brings seeming truckloads of new wares.

Some other online retail sites I've enjoyed:

-Madewell (all over the retail zeitgeist lately)

-Agent Provocateur (not very sfw, but the best "is-it-swimwear-or-actually-lingerie??" swimwear - comment provocateur!

-Archive Vintage (expensive but very well curated)

(Editor's note**: Though she doesn't wear much black, I picture 'est in this number.)

-Azalea SF: (a Hayes Valley boutique with an eCommerce arm)

J'aime mon carré (part deux)

2010-08-11T19:43:00.000-07:00

Just discovered the knot tutorials on jaimemoncarre.com and subsequently had a manic episode of doin' 'em all.
Fruits here:

J'aime mon carré (I love my scarf)

2010-08-11T17:11:00.000-07:00

Hermes has launched such a hip homage to scarf-dom with http://www.jaimemoncarre.com, which marks its collaboration with Colette in Paris. Interestingly, some of the most traditional brands -- most notably, Burberry -- have been first to experiment with bringing the playfulness and creativity of clothes online. Unlike other, static forms of marketing, websites make fashion fantasies interactive (e.g. when Joscelin was lured into branding herself with a Uniqlo puffcoat). Plus it's always a treat to see It Girls wearing scarves without abandon!

Cool dad update!

2010-08-05T14:12:00.001-07:00

How did I miss this? Not only has Liam Gallagher's menswear line, Pretty Green, launched, but it's wildly successful?! Just took a gander at the look book and it is as gloriously nondescript as anticipated. Liam's modeling the absolute hell out of it, though!

Thankfully his sights are set beyond this corner of the camo parka/graphic tee market: "A lot of girls are asking if we will be doing a range for them and the answer to that is yes, once we have got rid of all the lads' stuff." Additionally, he said his new album will be “the best record you’ll hear for the next 50 years.” God bless 'im!

Liam, thank you for giving me so much to LIVE for.

Made of Hungry Scarves

2010-08-05T11:41:00.001-07:00

via Jak & Jil

American Pastoral

2010-07-31T17:23:00.000-07:00

Ah, farm living.

I'm housesitting a lovely cottage and farm, post grad-school dress rehearsal, and part of the package involves the care of a herd of sheep, two horses, two dogs, and about 15 chickens. For an urban-dweller reared in the suburbs, taking eggs from laying hens is quite exotic - also strangely guilt-inducing. (Note: Chickens may have tiny brains but they look at you with a knowing resentment and semi-hostile capitulation when you take their eggs.)

Why the strong resurgence in interest in farming, urban agriculture, and living a provincial, organic, back-to-nature lifestyle? Karl Lagerfeld (now famously) affected the 'farm chic' sensibility with his 2010 spring show, staged in a faux barn. Models in deconstructed 'rustic' Chanel tweeds and (horrible) heeled clogs is quasi-parodic, which I guess could be the point:

Very Petite Trianon. Of course, M. Antoinette was the original city-girl-gone-country:

I suppose the fetishization of all that is natural could be evidence of a larger societal move back to the essentials. With our bubbles burst, recession un-surmounted and finally coming to terms with the consequences of decades of excess, city dwellers are finding solace in the trappings of simpler times. This trend has had sartorial reverberations too:

Trendy, yes -- especially if you are a British model attending the Glastonbury music festival ('wellies' tag). But mostly practical.

The boyfriend jean makes great work-wear.

And who knew that 'plaid button-down' is its own category on ShopBop?

Rabbit Rabbit

2010-07-30T10:36:00.000-07:00

A new month's bout to dawn, which means a new installment of "Today I'm Wearing" on the UK Vogue site. It's a simple enough concept: they pick a girl with compelling style to chronicle her outfit every day.

It's everything I want in a blog: consistency, scopophilia, a cute lil' It Girl, mind-numbing personal style details, etc. In theory, I find vanity blogging to be the pitiable offering of an overindulged and narcissistic generation, but in practice, I rather enjoy it!

UPDATE: the greatest espadrille of our time

2010-07-28T12:00:00.000-07:00

Somewhere between distressed and delighted to discover that MYMU espadrilles (which I'd previously called the greatest 'drille of our time) were on GILT sale today for a fraction of the cost.

I didn't buy them, nor had I ever really planned to, but I've uncharacteristically plotted their brief career -- from appearing in the Wren lookbook (after which I emailed the Wren designer to ask for their name) to following the birth of their website (dutifully checking back til their launch) and becoming crestfallen at their absurd price (somewhere in the $150 range, originally, if I remember correctly). The reason for my distress over their slashed cost at Gilt is that it confirms the sad meditation of consumers today: what are things really worth? Certainly not what they say it is. It's a burden and an opportunity.

I should probably embrace a less consumerist mindset, though, like Jos: she just started the "six items or less" project!

Gender Trouble

2010-07-22T17:44:00.000-07:00

If I had said anything of the kind I should have been prying and searching into the secret economies of a house which to the stranger wears so fine a front of gaiety and courage. - Woolf

Amazingly sparse Jil Sander ad. Looks like the architect uniform.

Bonne fete de la Bastille!

2010-07-14T22:15:00.000-07:00

How better to celebrate the birth of modern France than through pics of its cinematic threesomes? Vive la France!

I had a jukebox graduate for first mate

2010-07-12T19:08:00.000-07:00

She couldn’t sail but she sure could sing
I pushed the b-52 and bombed em with the blues
With my gear set stubborn on standing
I broke all the rules, strafed my old high school
Never once gave thought to landing
I hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd
But when they said come down I threw up
Ooh-ooh growin’ up

Celebrating AMERICA at Cordarounds.

BREAKING NEWS*

2010-07-08T08:20:00.001-07:00

* This might not be breaking news at all.

Today, I noticed a momentous thing at the bottom of the weekly GOOP mail: "GOOP is made by Reindeer at 30 Vandam Street, New York, NY, 10013." Noooooo! Say it ain't so, Gwyneth. I love faux first person as much as the next, but this shattering of the fourth wall is devastating.

Reindeer is a branding agency. Their tagline is something about connecting your brand with your heart and your business model with your brain. Sounds all well and good but will they be able to capture the contradictions and idiosyncrasies of dear Gwyn? For example, she did a couple of things up until her first pregnancy: followed a strict macrobiotic diet and yoga regimen; smoked a pack a day. She has seriously studied meditation and kindness-based mindfulness for years; she recently called herself "the queen of passive aggression" and also said she's mean and knows how to "ice people out."

GOOP was the fruit of this delightful mix of things! E.g. one week, she'd talk about how to help in the Gulf and the next, an account of a more or less unnecessary renovation of a space in Nashville into a luxury loft on an "independent film budget" for her brief stay there. Those were the days!

Sigh, Gwyn. We hardly knew ye. Here are some pics of her in the Talented Mr. Ripley :(

That shrewd and knavish sprite

2010-07-07T17:46:00.001-07:00

Are not you he
That frights the maidens of the villagery,
Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern,
And bootless make the breathless housewife churn,
And sometime make the drink to bear no barm,
Mislead night-wanders, laughing at their harm?
Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck,
You do their work, and they shall have good luck.
Are you not he?

God bless you, Stam! You are truly a glorious lil' sprite.

Tie Dye at the De Young

2010-07-01T11:51:00.000-07:00

Ahoy! Finally - a fashion exhibition befitting of San Francisco! "To Die For: A World Saturated in Color" is opening at the De Young Museum at the end of the month. Looking forward to seeing some funky textiles of yesteryear. Good color therapy for me :(

The architect uniform

2010-06-25T21:25:00.000-07:00

Tribes use symbols and markings to identify themselves, project their beliefs and value systems and as a means for creative self-expression. In the world that most of us inhabit these days, tribal allegiances may be more fluid and less visible, but alas, they still exist. I've identified tribe Architect, and have been fascinated by the very faithful allegiance to a signature style. This tribe shares some visual cues with tribe Graphic designer. As I've blogged, signature style, and having a uniform, are good things! What's remarkable about architects, is how little they deviate from the standard uniform. Yes there is variation on a central theme, but generally a style is strongly adhered to. I credit this standardization in dress to long work hours in close contact with other architects. Observe -- you too can identify the architects in your midst from their signature markings:

1. Architects wear black -- either one statement piece in black, or uniform black:

2. If an architect needs glasses, he or she invariably wears these glasses:

Exceptions are extremely rare but Le Corbusier's owl glasses are a brave statement departure:

3. Architects are fashion-forward but demure. They use color strategically. Accessories are minimal. They are notably more minimalist and less on-trend then the fashion crowd:

(suggestions for architect wear from Net-a-Porter's 'Workwear' boutique section)

Felines of a Feather

2010-06-24T17:25:00.000-07:00

Stumbled up on this stunning gem while poking through openingceremony.us: an outfit simultaneously modeled by woman and cat! Life isn't half bad.

New Hedonism

2010-06-24T16:42:00.000-07:00

"If this girl can give a soul to those who have lived without one, if she can create the sense of beauty in people whose lives have been sordid and ugly, if she can strip them of their selfishness and lend them tears for sorrows that are not their own, she is worthy of all your adoration, worthy of the adoration of the world. This marriage is quite right. I did not think so at first, but I admit it now. The gods made Sibyl Vane for you. Without her you are incomplete."

'Disco' at the GSD

2010-06-20T20:27:00.000-07:00

I'm one week into a summer program at Harvard's Graduate School of Design (career disco). My brain is a bit frayed from 14 hour days attempting to resolve design problems in foam board. However, despite the lack of sleep, the degree of immersion that the program requires has kept me abuzz.

(from The View on Harvard GSD, Vol 1)

The 6 week program is designed to provide an introduction to architecture, urban planning, urban design or landscape architecture. The core of the program is the design studio, where we're given assignments of increasing complexity. After completion of each assignment we pin up our work for an informal critique with our instructor, fellow students and guest critics. The experience mimics the structure of an architecture graduate program, which is centered around the studio environment as well.

Most of the participants are quite young (still in college), though some, like me, are here to contemplate a career change.

(The View on Harvard GSD, published by Tank Magazine.)

First off, some background: My undergraduate degree is in Comparative Literature and Spanish Literature. I have no design background, aside from some light Adobe Creative Suite dabbling and a passable ability to draw and paint. As evidenced from this blog, I am a typography geek, obsessive about interior design and fashion, and possibly, a future architect.

Initial impressions:

- I'd heard legends of studio culture - sleeping 'feet to head' with one's studio mates, all-nighters, frantic deadlines and the like, but nothing really prepares you for the actual experience. When on day 1 I found myself in the studio till 10:30 or so, obsessing over a simple intro project, I began to understand studio culture on a visceral level. Another pleasant revelation: I love the work!

-The complexity of the problems posited by architectural study, the layers of metaphor and meaning, the divergent reasoning required to arrive at your personal solution are what drew me to architecture. AND (I think) that although a good deal of hubris can get wrapped into this process, the beauty of architecture is that the opus is ultimately about making a solution that works for people, that is determined by program, and that hopefully makes life better and easier for the inhabitants and visitors to that space.

Responses to the Curriculum and Lectures:

-Leland Cott was our first lecturer. Mr. Cott teaches at the urban design school and is a principal in the firm Bruner/Cott. Since a core component of design school is the pin-up and presentation of one's work, he shared invaluable tips on how to present well. The information was applicable to anyone who has to speak publicly -- generally one shouldn't turn one's back on the audience, or gesture awkwardly, or speak too quickly, ect. However, I would have liked that he spend more time talking about his work.

His firm's body of work includes much restoration or renovation. He told us the story of how he received permission from the George W. Bush to take on the restoration of Hemingway's house in Cuba. Approval finally came after Senator McCain recalled his fondness for Hemingway's characters, despite earlier resistance because the Cubans had been his interrogators in Vietnam. (And also, due to the obvious political reasons and the economic embargo, of course.)

Cott's renovation work engages in very clear dialog with its surroundings. He shared several projects in which he was asked to design within or around and on an existing, older structure. The resulting projects take their visual cue from the surroundings, paying a particular attention to the tectonics and allowing the history of the buildings to show through.

I particularly liked how the original brick was showcased in the interior architecture of the Mass MOCA conversion project:

I'm curious about how one balances designing within the existing vernacular and adding more contemporary elements when creating a converted or repurposed space. Also, working in Boston, a city with such a distinctive visual signature, presents numerous opportunities for newer building to reinterpret traditional uses of materials such as red brick, and riff on the city's more classic aesthetic.

I also attended John McConnell's lecture on American architectural history and the walking tour of Harvard Square. His lecture provided a refresher on some art and cultural history that I hadn't touched since college and also provided some vocabulary and context to a current reading - Robert Venturi's Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. I found Venturi's text at times difficult to get through because I wasn't familiar with all of the building terms (triglyphes, metopes, pediments...), so reviewing the major epochs of European architectural history was useful.

Harvard Memorial Hall

(American 'gothic' - the Swedenborg chapel)

The walking tour around Harvard square included a look at buildings from several time periods, but most were from the late 18th and 19th century. I wasn't as familiar with the Gothic and Classical revivals in American architecture and how those movements aligned with political activity and the larger framework of art and literature of the time period.

Queen Anne 'stick style' house

What I'm reading:

I haven't had too much time to do extracurricular reading, but here is a sampling of what I am perusing:

Informal, Cecil Balmond -- "...chaos is a mix of several states of order. What is an improvisation is in fact a kernal of stability, which in turn sets sequences that reach equilibrium."

Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture -- Robert Venturi

A View on Harvard GSD, Vol 2

Design Drawing -- Francis DK Ching