advent season: day nine, rehab is for quitters

If you didn't cotton onto the fact that 2007 was the year of Rehab, god knows where you where.

Uh, unless you were in Rehab of course.

The return of a painfully skinny and even more drug dependant Amy Winehouse and the release of her now infamous song at the end of last year seemed to predict an issue that became somewhat a trend, with the LA It girls popping into Jail and Rehab for a bit of the action as if they were new happening clubspots.

The ever forward-thinking Vogue Italia published on-the-ball spreads this year, using not only youtube, but also, you guessed it, Rehab were used as inspiration.
The shoot, which you will already know was shot by the very seldom disappointing Steven Meisel featuring numerous worthy supermodels (Pivorova, check, Rayder, check, Van Seenus, check) was very reminiscent of Girl, Interrupted.

Dipicting unashamedly cool model addicts being dragged kicking and screaming by doctors or glamorously slumped in baths smoking seemingly harmless fags. The shoot playfully poked fun at the nonchalent attitude that young celebrities seem to have in regard to their addictions, while worryingly creating a gloriously fabulous fashion story that readers wanted to be part of.

Harpers used Sevigny as their "young starlet" who is preyed on by Paparazzos whilst staying in Rehab, in the unoriginally titled fashion editorial "Tried to make me go to Rehab".

The shoot, with a more modern feel, and with less of the 1960's straightjacket, mental illness and electric shock connotations that Vogue Italia's shoot had, was bizarely similar to some of the real life rehab shots taken on the

summer of Ms Lindsay Lohan. Rehab is another topic that seems to have been trivialised by the media this year, so understandibly Meisel's "Supermods Enter Rehab" shoot raised more than a few eyebrows.

However, I am of the opinion that fashion is fashion and will inevitably manage to take the most gritty or unsuitable subjects and turn them into something glamorous (Um, W Magazine and that overtly controversial "Into The Woods" spread, anyone?)

Underage drinking, vodka stowed away in Red Bull Cans, personal trainers, drunken candids, it's all part of celebrity life, you know..

.

Advent Season: Day Eight

A Weekend Roundup.



Using the blustery weather as an excuse, today has been spent indoors, with me being blissfully lazy (yes, I'm still in my pyjamas). Have a peek at some of these fantastic posts that I know will inspire you and make you giggle as much as I did. Happy Saturday!

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• Heather pays tribute to those who are, er, paying tribute to Kind Wes.

• Tinsley got a job at Paris Vogue.

• Guess who Alexa gave the Best Dressed Crown too?

• Insider advice from Roller Girl who banishes the Devil Wears Prada assosiations from the magazine life.

• Gryphon has a giggle at just how much Lagerfeld loves a Rat.

And be sure to check out my December reading lists, for some fantastic blogs that will no doubt leave you excited.

December Best Reads

The Clothes Horse
Glam & Tonic
Let's Go For A Walk
The People's Republic of Style
Starbucks and Jane Austen
Today I Like
Whimsical Delights

Advent Season: Day Seven

Best dressed of the week: Six dresses and a tux

Thankfully the christmas season has spurred those rich socialites into planning plenty of charity bashes, meaning that the Best Dressed of the Week posts may continue without having to consider the Gossip Girl crew and Lauren Conrad as contenders (pheww).

A mention to Julianne Moore and SJP.. better luck next time, bitches. J, how could you have not understood the need for red lipstick? And SJP, you were doing so well until you decided to wear a long coat under your cropped fur, chhh.

Rachel Bilson (Is it bad to wish that she would have an off week so that I wouldn't have to feature her all the time?) and Keira Knightley (thoughts on her new fringe. Not a fan myself, but it may..ahem.."grow" on me. Oh dear) both demonstrated how to travel in style when they were passing through LAX airport. And not a pashmina in sight, thank god.

Lets all applaud Maggie Gyllenhaal who stood out from the rest of them in a feminine tux, looking effortless and too cool.

Advent Season: Day Six
Dev Hynes Interview

I had a little chat with Dev Hynes, who is these days also known as solo musician Lightspeed Champion (named after a comic strip he used to made), rather than one third of the his old band, the short lived yet triumphant Test Icicles.
He's now making music that he truly enjoys, working and touring with a band mostly made up of his friends.
The setting? An old church, which was venue to a fantastic evening with Patrick Wolf performing, with Dev there to support.

Ask him about Marios Schwab or what he thought of Hedi Slimane's last ever Dior Homme collection, and you may get a somewhat confused response, because as Dev confesses, he has "no idea" what is going on in the fashion world at the moment.
"So you wouldn't fancy yourself as anyone's muse, then?" I ask. "Well, it would be flattering to be a muse..", it's clear that Dev doesn't make concerted decisions about how he dresses. As he simply put it, he'll wear "whatever I'm in the mood for in the morning." Dev is perhaps being modest; he has been known to don a Spiderman costume at his gigs and his trademark thick black glasses must appeal to the spectacle obsessed Cobrasnake collective. He and Mark Hunter are "mates"; infact when Mark last visited london he crashed at Dev's flat in Dalston and one of his snaps was used for the cover of one of the Lightspeed Champion LP's.

"So what do you think of Cory Kennedy?" I ask cheekily, not so subtley dropping in a couple of words that some people may use to describe her, to see if he'll succumb to bitchiness. He doesn't. "No comment" he replies with a knowing grin. "she says shes a virgin" he shrugs with jokey innocence mixed with doubt "but I don't know!.." Apparently he has a few Cobrasnake tees but he doesn't really wear them. He agrees that he should give them a bit more wear out of them after I suggest that he could make a small fortune out of them on ebay.

If he could collaborate with any artist, he doesn't hestitate to say that it would be Amy Winehouse, and it would be "singing something upbeat yet depressing". A good choice and she has certainly had enough experience to fuel that sort of material.

When I drop that cliched phrase "modern day style icon" he names states that Brandon Flowers is someone who he thinks dresses very well indeed. It turns out that Dev is a huge Killers fan, and is one of a select few who is a fan of the bearded western look. "I am influenced by their music and then how I dress just follows.. I'm actually a little obsessed". Funnily enough, a couple of weeks back while staying in a brazilian hotel in spotted the band huddled outside having a smoke. "I hate meeting people that I like" so he chicked out and "had to walk straight past them." A shame, they could have chatted about facial hair "With mine, I'm basically just copying what he's doing!"

check out the short film version of the video for "Midnight Surprise". Directed by a mate Ferry Gouw (of band Semi Finalists), it's prettypretty, so I know you'll all like it.

Advent Season: Day Five

The real Vogue Queen Carine Roitfeld had a little chinwaggle about last Fall's shows..

with subtitles for us uncultured non-frenchies.

"I usually don't like Handbags"
Who'd have thought?

Advent Season: Day Four

Enough time is spent picking apart and analysing what these twins wear, but, ever my Mother's daughter, I would never pass down the chance to have a nose around a "sleb's" pad. Virtually, you must understand. Sevigny, Jacobs and Ward all had photographs of their appartments doing the circles of the internet during 2007.

Though she hasn't yet moved in, below is a little sneaky peak at Ashley's new place in sunny Cali. (Dahhling, she can have two houses, just as long as she doesn't leave NY for too long). A very cute place, and not bloody bad for a 21 year old..

Lets play a nice game of guess the decor, shall we? Will the older Olsen mirror the chic Hollywood home shown in the Trania-styled video for The Row Holiday collection preview, with fur blankets strewn on her bed (clearly she doens't like to limit herself to only wearing fur on the street!) and minimalistic whitewashed walls?

Advent Season: Day Three

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Pfft, forget forward planning what to wear on Christmas Day. All you really need is an elasticated waistband, and you're good to go.

Instead, think about New Years Eve. Whether you're hitting the town or sprawling like a cool kid in front of Jools Holland's Hootenamy with a load of drunken oldies (this idea is becoming more and more appealing..), face up to it, the last day of the year is always something of an anti climax. So you may as well ensure that you'll feel good about what you're wearing.

Sure, you could wear plaid this New Years, like everyone else (and his great uncle's wife's next door neighbour), but why not branch out a little and release your inner Hiawatha. Grab the face paint, blusher, hell, even the tomato sauce, let go and paint yourself happy.

[this image has gone on holliday and will be back shortly..]

Advent Season: Day Two

The Return of Cool Like Chloe!

I can't tell you how excited I am. May I introduce to you my inaugral and alas, the best guest of the advent season. I managed to tempt Cool Like Chloe out of hiding a share a bit of her amusing sarcasm and fashion wisdom for one last, weep, time.

"I'll Keep This One, I Promise..."

To start off this post let me introduce myself: I am Cool Like Chloe (not a real name, it's an alias. Only one person has been smart enough to figure out my real name) of the now defunct Cool Like Chloe blog. Now what made me come out of hiding and decide to do a post for Discotheque Confusion? I figured it's the least I could do for one of my first blogging friends and to all the people that I left behind at my blog...

Enough about me though - on to the post. With the holiday season coming around I've been thinking ahead. And I mean way ahead. Please, I made my wishlist in September. SO now I'm thinking of resolutions - you know the promises that you always make to yourself but always break. This year though my resolution is to help other people - particularly the ones who've been in rehab, shaved off their hair, lost a stylist or taken it a little too far with the fake tan.

1. Britney Spears

Basically Britney in herself is a resolution. Admit, y'all. Like deep down inside y'all, like right at the very bottom you still love her. And don't try to tell me that you still don't sing Oops, I Did It Again in the shower... We need to group together and help this poor lost soul.

See, there is room for improvement. Homegirl got herself a new weave! And even though the makeup looks like its from a 2 for 1 at least she's got some on, right? Right?

2. Fix People's Notions of Gossip Girl

Oh god Josh Shwartz. What have you done to Manhattan? Just to make it clear, people in the Upper East Side do not dress like Harajuku girls. We don't wear headbands 24/7, colour-coordinate with our friends and we don't look like Scotland threw up on us. I'm sorry but I don't remember being inspired by Waldo, Christmas tree's or the smurfs when picking out outfits. And we elitists certainly don't carry around zebra print fendi's (unless your the kind of socialite who wears clothing that screams "Daddy's credit-card!".

And we do have dress codes at school (meaning no knee high boots). And we're more inspired by the likes of Peter Som and Oscar de la Renta, then we are by the zoo...

3. Fix up those Mug Shots


The world should have probably ended by now - since when does Paris Hilton end up looking like the sober one in mug shots? Paris, good job on the playfully tousled "I'm-so-bad-I-can't-bother-with-a-brush" hair, and the coy glance. Lindsay and Nicole... Better luck next time. Cause we know there'll be a next time.

So when the police pull you over and ask you to step out of the car, make sure you look in your handbag first.

4. Get Lindsay the Help She Needs

With skin care we mean. The rehab routes already been done and I think the shrink is next but until then I'll make it my goal to help this girl with the skin. Remember, pale skin is your friend. And if you'r not for the pasty route, then there's always Jergens Natural Glow.

See Lindsay, we don't want to end up looking like this guy, do we?

5. Rehire Rachel Zoe

Let's face it Lindsay and Nicole aren't the trend setters they were before. Today it looks like they had a bit too many shopping sprees in the pree-teen section of Forever 21. Let's keep those clothes buried in the ground, shall we? So I vote we all grab the wrinkly-foreheaded-no-more stylist to the stars Rachel Zoe(Did you hear? Someone got botoxed!) and drag her emaciated Halston dressed body to these former best dressed starlets.



Sure their current outfits aren't the worst in the earth but we're all lacking the inspiration we got from looking at their pictures from before. Richie will be having her baby soon and I hope she'll be going for an image overhaul. And now that Lindsay's out of rehab, she'll need someone to guide her little lost soul to the Fendi section in Henri Bendel's.
So that's it. I hope you all loved the post. God, it was long. My poor little fingers are so unnaccustomed to typing this much. So ciao babies and read it up, because it's the last you'll probably be reading from me.

Advent Season, Day One.

Once again, December is upon us, and this morning, December 1st will no doubt be a date of panic for many people, believing that this year (although they promised themselves they wouldn't) they have left the present shopping too late.

Chh! Chill! There really are more important things going on in the world, you have nearly a month left.

To celebrate the festive season, I at Discotheque Confusion am presenting you with your very own tooth decay free (eye) candy over the next 25 days in the lead up to Christmas. A couple of exciting guests, lots of outfits to analyse and a nice dose of seasonal sparkle, so remember to check back each day and have a peek at what's going on.

It's all very well opening up the latest issue of X glossy magazine and being greeted by a 20 page gift guide, but when it features custom made perfume and dover st market goodies that cost more than a deposit on a small flat it's not all that helpful. If you're hoping for some inspiration and funnil enough don't have the budget of Carine Roitfeld (highly likely) I have compiled four mini guides of stocking fillers and presents for your girlfriends that not only have a friendly price tag but are genuinely nice and are from places that are easy to get hold of them (if you live in the UK, mostly..)

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pic credits
all shops stated and googleimages