Ever wonder what models look like without makeup? They look like tired, pretty girls. Surprise!
Photo is of Jessica Stam. This and many other images (from Alessandra Ambrosio to Coco Rocha!) were posted to the Love Magazine blog. I can’t find the original source, but let me assure you - it didn’t make us feel any better about ourselves.
Need a new style icon? I recommend Annie Clark (aka St. Vincent). Talent, style, Arrested Development references, and she wrote her latest album to sound like a surrealist soundtrack to a Disney movie.
Love this woman.
Lest you think there is anything new under the sun: witness the “ways to wear it” photo spread, Elle magazine, January 1946.
Via myvintagevogue.
After years of tough ankle boot dominance, the ankle area is getting, well, a little more coverage. You’ve seen it on Alexa Chung, but if the Fall 2010 runways are any indication: scrunched socks layered under ankle length shoes (and shoes with the sock layer look!) are here to stay.
Are you ready for the new ankle?
(Pictured: Erdem Fall 2010 runway, courtesy of nymag.com)
What is a trend?
| S: | I think my biggest fashion challenge of this year is going to be learning that just because something is really cool and unique and would look good on me is not a reason to buy it. It also has to be highly wearable and fill a stylistic hole. |
| N: | I've been having that thought too, and it's really hard - especially because I value/have valued showy, attention-grabbing clothing. |
| S: | Do you think this is the way fashion in general is moving? Or is this a matter of stylistically growing up, in an individual way? I just wonder about the personal decisions of smart people, re: their relationship with the decisions of the general population. When Chloe Sevigny wears x, it eventually trickles down. So when Charlotte Gainsbourg, you, and I take a new approach to buying and wearing clothing - is it going to trickle down? Or is it a niche we're simply fortunate to inhabit? |
| N: | I think the answer is that it will get vulgarized and distorted - rather than a unique approach to what looks good and curating a small wardrobe, it'll just filter down as a trend for tousled hair and shrunken leather jackets. You know? I think a trend has to be almost a caricature of itself to trickle down all the way, and that new approach will get filtered out pretty quickly. |
| S: | So trends are just intellectual movements narrowed down to their most easily copied aspects... I think I can get behind that. |
| N: | Yeah! And also think about the mediums in which we learn about fashion - MAGAZINES. Who want us to buy things. So of course it gets conveniently pushed out. |
| S: | I don't think that's true anymore. We learn about fashion from people who want our attention. Our wallets are secondary. What gets our attention is what is flashy, easily understood, and shiny-new. IE the watered down version of an intelligent movement ie a trend. |
| N: | I like this theory a lot. |
Cathy Horyn - New York Times journalist and our personal hero - brought some remarkable observations to light in this interview with a “Product Specialist”:
If you’ve ever been disgusted by Forever 21, or ever wished for vintage-quality construction in modern-day clothing - this is a must read.
I also went to Korea for this company. What I saw there was discipline and self sacrifice at an extreme level. I would ask people to work over night to get the line done and they didn’t flinch. They had no choice. It was kind of clear to me then that it was over here in America—that it was finished.
