Brush and Palette

Jackson Pollock made a name for himself through his belief in the collective subconscious--or rather unconscious--that permeates his signature drip paintings. The spectator's eye is supposed to crystallize as it attaches itself to the many strings of splattered paint, lending purely visual sensations and appreciation of the mere medium as it was made. Critics of Pollock's time criticized the emphasis on illusion over representation--a concept that de-isolated itself in the latter part of the 20th century. As I was thinking about this lesson learned in my modern art class at Columbia, a place where the merging of ideas is as fast-paced as the movement of undercover fashion figures on the street, I wondered if the art of style is only relative to something greater, or something on a different side of life. When pieces are intentionally stated and displayed out in the open, does their wearer measure their worth based on the conceptions of others (pieces and people)? Who writes the novel of the personal dress code--one meant to suggest exterior influences, or express the inner core of oneself? I do firmly believe fashion can exist to question and confront one's aesthetic sense rather than to represent a larger meaning.

Maybe the garment designs the individual?

The Week That Higher Fashion Powers Exist--Fall 2011 Runway

Two months ago, fashion disciples flocked to the urban center stage of style in anticipation of a timeless show. This biannual event has the ability to evoke a worldwide art—a worldwide discourse—that so perfectly describes the eclectic nature of high fashion. The style-hungry and word-loving alike, ranging from Hollywood celebrity to media agent to street-smart trendsetter, gathered in a world far from that skyscraper-filled metropolis covered in snow. The world came from within materials, color palettes and emotions, embracing each designer’s personal story. This Fall 2011 Fashion Week, personal flair and creative interpretation were the main themes to grace the runways.

Striking the right balance has always been a priority of the fashion industry and this season’s display was no exception. Designers produced work that was dramatic while also being down-to-earth enough to inspire the fashion worshiper. While this balance between drama and wearability seemed to be the common denominator this season, each show could not have been any more diverse in their individual approaches.

Badgley Mischka’s berry-colored gown struck a chord in many hearts through its majestic structure, vivid black bow sash, and flowing length. Equally idyllic in style was Gucci’s collection—graced with an aquatic aura of oceanic patterns and deep blues. Many pieces on the Gucci runway also included the theme of temperature, particularly through their assortment of fuzzy scarves and velvet necklines. Some of MaxMara’s featured looks were the perfect merging of Scandinavian royalty and everyday practicality in her pure, clean pieces that at times appeared ghost-like. The New York Times’ T Magazine Blog found that several of Versace’s intricate designs played starring roles. Some of the best examples featured bold color contrasts, asymmetrical straps or flowery silhouettes, demonstrating a clear devotion to the craft of fashion. The Times highlighted another remarkable circumstance of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, namely the fact that the fashion shows ran alongside the Westminster Dog Show. Oddly enough, the shows were integrated as one designer, Isaac Mizrahi, included real puppies and poodles in his catwalk displays. One last genre of the stunning collections possessed a foreign, exotic flavor, something that legends like Marc Jacobs and Ralph Lauren communicated through stark and exotic black-on-white ensembles, embellished blouses, and the models’ statuesque poses. And no one can forget the hair and makeup that adorn that completed each runway look. Fiery nails, French-style buns, and cosmic eye glitter all played into the overarching eclecticism of the Fall 2011 Fashion Week.

Over the course of the weeklong, wintery show, fashion was analyzed as art historians analyze paintings, looking for where the aesthetic qualities really come from and why certain aspects of fashion are still so abstract to us. Collectively, Fashion Week spectators glowed with new ideas about muses and material, remembering that fashion is an ongoing story, and this was just one of the many illustrations.

~Sources~

http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/mizrahi-let-them-eat-cake/#more-8517

http://runway.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/ralph-lauren-into-the-east/

*~Freshly Grown Crops~*

NY Mag is one to acknowledge the fashion disciple's shifting focus from skin tight to cut and cropped. Real trendsetters know that this budding trend doesn't have to stand alone. With extra room between the bottom edges of a pair of cropped pants and soft ballet flats, or high heels, other style staples can be integrated and strikingly subtle. When the ankles are left bear, the ensemble can be adorned on top with a textured blouse, sweetly flowing sweater-shawl, or layered necklaces. Thankfully, endless creative impulses have set forth many variations of the classically tailored cropped pant in the billowing "Aladdin" look and neutral cargo style.

<---photo courtesy of elle.com

Honeysuckle is Justice

Colors and shades of colors take shape and form in our moods and in our thoughts. They paint the human silhouette with aesthetic truths and reveal abstractions. One color per twelve months seems to define a collective attachment to pigment in order to interpret the fashion world. In the year that has just begun, Honeysuckle pink does not glisten but revives wearable palettes with a musty glow. Quite fairy-tale like. Think soft blushes to pair with accented eye makeup. In long sheer tops that flow over dark skirts and tights. Among the runway hierarchy, in sun-catching hats, intricate chiffon blouses, and feathered and ruffled gowns.

image from http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/galleries/TMG8192113/Honeysuckle-on-the-catwalk-for-2011.html

"What We Wear" feat. Donatella Versace and Stefano Part I

A piece I discovered in the seam of my manila fashion folder, inspired by a style seminar held at Times Center Theater in Manhattan:

May 4, 2008--I anticipated looks of scorn from an expectedly all-haute crowd over my clashing wardrobe of an ethnic Michael Kors top with white jeans and floral sandals. I was worried that my artistic, vibrant, but not yet European high profile style would not exhibit my appreciation for the renowned connoisseur of fashion making a special appearance for the New York Times. I was mostly wrong, seeing as there were only a select few pious worshippers of the fashion gods present in paper-thin stilettos and Dolce. This closet was more street-smart; one could recognize the dark-colored, funky garments endemic to New York.

This special seminar titled "What We Wear" was hosted by the Style section of The New York Times magazine and is part of a series of Sunday affairs "With the Magazine" in which hedonists, epicures, and fashionistas, and just the artsy or hobby-oriented public alike flock together to watch interviews featuring prominent editors conversing with eminent pros in the fields of art, food, culture, and of course, fahsion.

Donatella Versace took center stage. Before her entrance, animated sketches of her clothing designs and old family photos in black and white were oscillating on screens. She ascended the stage in gargantuan pumps, probably around 9 inches. Thick, chunky, and off-the-beaten path fabulous. When Stefano Tonchi, the narrator and editor of T Style magazine asked Versace how many hours a day she thought she could last in those shoes, she replied "24." An intensely shimmering frock in distinct charcoal hues was draped around the fashionista.

"What We Wear" feat. Donatella Versace and Stefano Part II

Versace talked about her mother's love of pattern making as ripe colors were (and still are) such a significant part of Southern Italian character. Growing up, Donatella learned to love the present yet had a keen sense of time as she prepared for future trends. She still works alongside contemporary artists, analyzing their work and absorbing the creative process. The future is truly her inspiration, and the Versace design company is anything but nostalgic. She pointed out "the company dies when you fall in love with the past." She idolizes today's young designers and has made a point of traveling to foreign cities just to witness the pulsing energy of young people there.

Stefano the editor inquired of the dazzling fashionista how she would characterize the ideal Versace model. She proclaimed, "the 3 'F,'s 'Free, Fearless, and Forceful."'

Tribute to Roses

photo from sarahklassen.com
Lost in fields of thorns and moments of foregiveness. . .

The first sign of love, the center stage of a song, an excuse for words. . a knight's prized possession.

No, they don't just belong in teabags and clay pots. Or in the glittering arms of a performer. You might think your scented pillow was soaked in their perfume.

Roses. They are stitched on to every surface of material these days. Sweaters have wire rose petals growing out of their pockets, and these romantic stems are plastered on to the most basic of blouses.

You can't get any more mystically Shakespeare or secret-garden than pairing rose with lace and tulle.

Turn away from the new hardware-style accessories for the time being.

Though the fashion industry has never been entirely sweet, the innocent summer nights have.

the perfume of September issues. . not as strong?

There was an article published today in the Wall Street Journal about the much more skeletal-looking September issues of high fashion magazines. No more nearly 5-pound Vogue's. But are these ads getting stuck on the style web? Fashion advertisers have turned to proclaiming their messages on prominent fashion and beauty blogs, lifestyle newsletters, and even Vogue's high fashion site, Style.com, dotted with many videos of ready-to-wear and couture runway footage from the last several years' fashion weeks as well as individual interviews with designers. Will true fashionistas fall for it, or will the haute be hidden on the screen?

~*2 Elephants & a Mannequin*~

The most talked about ensembles in high fashion are draped right below the Manhattan skyline. Two fake elephants and a simply dressed mannequin at the front of the installation guard the braids, silk, and tulle cuts that have been imported from the catwalks of Europe and beyond. The Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s and Marc Jacob’s Model As Muse: Embodying Fashion display presents masterpieces of the twentieth century crafted by the world’s most innovative fashionistas. The Upper West Side gallery is currently exhibiting ornate and metaphorical fashion pieces, photographs, runway video footage, and old magazine covers until mid August.

Leading the line of elegant ensembles is the “Gift of Chanel,” put together by Karl Lagerfield. This piece is a vampy dress with white cotton on the top and black silky tulle strewn from the bottom edges. The ensemble is finished off with an orange and black braided belt and matching charm bracelet. Charles James’ models were dressed gracefully in red velvet and taffeta. Another piece astounding to the eye is Versace’s “Evening Dress,” completed in 1991 with multi-colored embroidered human faces. The Met depicts the dress as a “silk crepe” in a caption under the mannequin. Model As Muse loves the colors gold and ivory, as seen in the Charles James Wedding gown made in the late 1940’s and the Madame Grès evening gown made in the 50’s. The “Youth-quake” part of the presentation displays the colorful and non-conformist themes of the 1960’s on the dresses and jumpers created by Yves Saint Laurent. YSL’s always-enchanting designs were also made of wooden beads and unrefined neutrals that decorated his 60’s style laced boots and petite trench coats. Some “muses” were draped from the walls in the Italian mesh of Giorgio di Saint’Angelo, while others were balancing on transparent glass floors and dressed up in Scandinavian-style layers of fox fur and wool arranged by Miuccia Prada. One more striking scene at the Model As Muse is Anna Sui’s “Ensemble” collection, showing a blackboard of the classic model names in graffiti adjacent to mannequins posing in bohemian head-scarves, twill skirts, and crocheted florals. The minimalist, yet “rebel chic” (metmuseum.org) 90’s collection features designers such as Giorgio Armani, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, and young, up-and-coming Belgian and British designers.

The Met’s dazzling fashion kingdom is the home of the theatrical and royal, the exotic and the classic. Colors and prints did not dissolve into a signature theme, rather styles merged dramatically and contrastingly by the hands and eyes of masterminds. According to the UK’s Telegraph, experts in fashion think that models must “assume their former roles” as Hollywood celebrities enter the high fashion world as designers of luxury brands. The supermodel is like an artist’s palette, a centerpiece of beauty, with proportions and colors often transforming.

images from http://www.metmuseum.org/special/se_event.asp?

*~c o u n t e rculture festival~*

Non-comformist pieces are flocking to Woodstock once again. Stone pendants balancing on gold wires, unusual drapery for le corps, baggy cargos, and jumpsuits with gargantuan bows take a somewhat natural-looking stand against summer's neutral colors, cuts, and textures.

(photo from shopbop.com) --->