suited and booted, a. from 10.17

I'm sure you've seen them popping up everywhere from fashion editorials to fashion blogs to fashionable street corners, & lately they've been popping into my head. & not surprisingly, as we sometimes seem to share the same thoughts, in stevie's mind too. & as much as i ooh & ahh over the inspiring filles that wear them; i have a hard time thinking of wearing them myself.

what am i talking about? well, doc martens of course.

perhaps its because i can't get the image out of my head of those grunge rockers of the 90s (& not the cool ones might i add) or maybe its the fear of all the odd looks i'll get with thoughts of "i havent seen those out in yeaarss!" or maybe it's as though i don't think i could quite feel like myself in them, but whatever the reason, i'm almost forcing myself to buy a pair & love myself in them (!)

so, for an extra push - i thought up a few little scenarios; each taken into account a favourite fashionable city of mine & inspiration from filles who are lucky enough to own an apt in that zip code what i think they might wear with them.

london

nyc

stockholm

i think i'm convinced.

tfs, topshop, urban outfitters, american apparel, stockholm streetstyle

thank you to one of my best mates, the lovely a. from 10.17 for putting together this lovely little post. sometimes i wonder if we were twins separated ala the parent trap. but cooler. preferably with chloe as our older sister. be sure to check out her blog, as it's a feast to the eyes and ears.

Queen Carine speaks

When those who are top of my list in my fashion brain make it into the pages of the monthly magazines, I get an excited tingle and know I'm in for a good read.

But it's a different matter completely when the goddess bursts out from the pages of one of the weekend supplements. Amid the usual sunday afternoon routine of going through the papers with the family I let out a little squeal of satisfaction as I flicked onto an interview with Carine Roitfeld. Slight frustration at the lack of appreciation from the others in the room (equal gasps would have been substantial) was overshadowed by some golden quotes from the Paris Vogue editor.

Quote of the day week month ? has to be when she was questioned about the other leading vogue editions.

hell, she comes up with such spectacular editorials, and she mirrors our views on the other vogues to a tee.

i'm gushing. dangerously. read on..

French Dressing


Above the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris, an assistant leads me along a winding corridor of glass cubicles into an entirely white room. This is the office of the editor of French Vogue, but how one might do any editing in it is beyond me. There are no flatplans on the wall or overflowing in-trays. There isn’t even a computer. Instead, there is a desk, two chairs, some white roses, a white scented candle, three white books and an unnervingly aggressive black-and-white Robert Mapplethorpe print of a woman’s quivering thighs. The only colour comes in the form of accessories. On the desk sit a discarded hat and handbag — relaxed, summery-looking efforts in brown felt and washed-out blue denim respectively.

This is the war room of Carine Roitfeld, 53, a perennial on the world’s best-dressed lists, who has taken the magazine (in terms of buzz, at least) to the top of the pile of international Vogues during her seven years at the helm. What about American Vogue, I asked a fashion insider. “Sterile,” she sniffed. British? “Low impact.” German? “Don’t make me laugh.” Vogue Italia? “Fabulous, but a tiny circulation.” And Paris? “Oh, darling — it’s heaven.”
Roitfeld’s trick was to take a magazine that had focused on the fustier half of haute couture and make it all about, well, Roitfeld. A typical Carine issue features women (not girls) accessorised in bondage, 4in heels and red lipstick, smoking cigarette after cigarette while covered in pig’s blood, all the time reclining on a chaise longue and sporting a diamond the size of an apricot on a leather choker. Yet somehow, the shoots — most of which Roitfeld directs herself — all come off as desperately sophisticated. Think Charlotte Rampling, not Miss Whiplash — though, of course, Roitfeld says her real muse is herself.

When I see her coming through the door, my first glimpse is of shoes — suede, spike-heeled, Alaïa — and then the ankles. Mon dieu! I can see why Roitfeld’s ankles are nearly as revered as she is: tiny, sculpted and just the right side of bony. She must know this, as, while she isn’t a great believer in accessories (previously declaring that most designer bags are “hugly”), she is obsessed with showing off her ankles in the best footwear going.
Lifting my eyes, I take in the elongated calves, the denim skirt hugging her thighs (she loves minis, but won’t wear them any more because of her age) and a cap-sleeved Margiela T-shirt that shows off her sinewy arms. There isn’t a lick of make-up on her face (save for her signature heavy mascara), which is shrouded in poker-straight hair that reminds many of Iggy Pop. For a thin gal seven years shy of 60, she is extremely sexy, and blonder than she used to be (her friend Tom Ford told her women need to go blonder as they get older).

As she perches on the seat opposite, the Helmut Newton facade suddenly cracks and she confesses to being in a tizz. Her August issue has hit newsstands complete with a shoot she did with Mario Testino in which a model is photographed in outrageously enormous animal skins while a gaggle of extras dressed as Peta activists harass her with banners reading “FUR IS DEAD”. In one shot, the fur-clad glamazon is giving them the finger.

“Do you think I will get a pie in the face?” she asks, surprisingly nervous. Yes, I say — never a good accessory. “Maybe they think it’s not funny to talk about dead animals,” she concedes, “but I like pushing ideas. I love clothes, but it’s not enough for me. I like to reflect life, society, and in my world, there has to be fun.” W It has always been this way. “If you give my stories of the past 20 years to a shrink, he would say, ‘She’s a bit dangerous, she is smoking, she has a knife, she’s in bondage.’ He would say I have a secret to say because, in my real life, I am quite reserved.” Hardly. She makes all the women in her shoots look just like her. “Well, if people think I’m sexy, I’m very happy,” she says, smiling. “But it’s horrible, because people are very disappointed when they meet me. I think maybe I look good from two metres away.”

Roitfeld was born and raised in bourgeois splendour on the outskirts of Paris. After a few early gigs as a model, she landed a job as a junior writer at the French magazine 20ans. She later progressed to Elle, where she was a mid-level stylist, but spent most of the 1980s raising her two children. She has never married their father, Christian Restoin, because this way, she reasons, they will never divorce. They have been together for nearly 30 years, during the first two-thirds of which he ran a successful business making shirts, meaning Roitfeld has never had to take a job for the money.

Her career took off when, in the late 1980s, Testino was looking for some kids to shoot for Vogue Bambini. “Because I am very selfish, I said, ‘Yes, of course. What a pleasure to see my daughter in the magazine.’ ” she laughs. Soon after, the pair started shooting together, knocking out glossy editorials and advertising campaigns. “Then I meet Tom Ford and he make me international,” Roitfeld says. The designer had been promoted by Gucci to energise the then flagging brand. Testino started shooting the campaigns, and Roitfeld became Ford’s muse, working with him to tweak collections and style the shows. “They reveal something in me,” she says of the pair. “They make something in me phenomenal.”

When, in 2001, she got the French Vogue gig, Restoin quit work to support her and the children. Now Roitfeld’s life is seemingly fabulous. The party pages of her own magazine feature pictures of her with her beautiful twentysomething son and daughter, she travels the world shooting with the best photographers, and she is plagued by delicious rumours linking her to the editorship of a big New York magazine — perhaps Harper’s, perhaps American Vogue.

Like most fashion editors, Roitfeld is an anxious woman at heart. Unusually, however, the insecurity is something she is happy to talk about. There is no Anna Wintour freeze-out here: “When I first get this job, suddenly everyone takes pictures of me. I smile — ’cause the picture is better, and I want to be good-looking — but I’m shy.

The reason I wear my hair in my face is because I’m not very self-confident. All the time I think this could be my last season because it’s fashion. People are not very faithful.”
To combat this, she visits an acupuncturist and is on drugs to help her sleep (“I love a little pill”). If it’s so stressful, why bother? “I love to have money to buy Balenciaga jackets, but it’s not the engine that drives me. It is for my father. He was my dream, my prince, my everything. He was a Russian film producer, very charming, all the girls were in love. I want to seduce my father” — she doesn’t mean sexually: too risqué even for her — “It was my ambition to make something he could be proud of. But he died 10 years ago, so he never see me get this job. But that’s life.”

So, is this the secret of her success? A daddy complex? “Mais non,” she laughs. “I’ve been with the same person for more than 25 years, my kids are working and not totally crazy, my skirts are not too short, and though I am very serious, I try not to take myself seriously. If there is a secret to me, this is the trick.”

interview from the sunday times

ps, remember the guest collaborator i mentioned? the post is up tomorrow..!

fashion brain

currently dreaming about alice dellal in ripped tights, fashion illustration by hannah metz, danny roberts and cedric rivrain, the dreamers and vain and vapid dresses..

click to enlarge

thanks to everyone who entered the fashion quiz. one day left to get answers in! i just stocked up on chinese cookies to whack in the prizewinners package. does that mean winning could change your life? haa..

also, over the next couple of days I should be posting an exciting collaboration post. the guest blogger is a dear, dear friend of mine, and her blog is quite possibly already in your blogroll.

goody bag up for grabs? fashion quiz? whaat?

sigh, older readers may remember back in the golden years, i would post the occaisonal fashion quiz. could you separate sasha from gemma? spot the cover star. match the dress to the cannes attendee..

seeing as i'm stringing out the birthday celebrations as long as possible (we all do it in "real life", don't we?..) it seemed a perfect time for a return of the quiz.

you may remember the met costume gala competition back in may, when the winning entry won the first discotheque confusion goodie bag? I sent it off to Tala, the winner, full of lovelies; a mix cd, jewellry, some perfume and a personal polaroid.

i'm starting to put together a package which i'll pop in the post to the winner.

oh the excitement! who's in?

just post your answers in the comment box.

the great hipster debate

I have this ongoing debate in my head about whether or not to feature rich hipster and it girl types on the blog.

because on the one hand, I roll my eyes thinking about these rich girls who smoke fags like it's a new trend, fill up the pages of nylon, and dress like they're poor while they're drinking chanel 2.5's worth of vodka.

and then i think; hell, sometimes these girls are annoying, and pretentious, but surely it's only their clothes that matter from my point of view as a fashion blogger.

i've brought up what i call "the hipster debate" briefly before, and i didn't really delve into it, but it's really been playing on my mind.

really interested to know what you think on this one. i love scanning the internet to see what the "real people are wearing"; it's my main source of style inspiration; but we're in an age where internet obsessions snowball out of control and it doesn't really seem right that it's so often the cocky kids of rock stars who are put on this high pedestal.

or maybe it's the internet that actually makes these girls appear in an unrealistic light? they pop up on sites like skullset and cobrasnake at parties, but maybe it's simply a case of them being captured at the parties they go to, and it isn't a case of them being these cold creatures who do nothing else with their lives.

share?

Edit: If this doesn't absolutely hit the nail on the head, I don't know what does.. Thanks Notes on Napkins! Case closed?

"I love people who have interesting style who play outside the trend rules... I don't like it when girls who just sit around smoking, hanging out not doing anything become it "girls" when really they are just girls with lots of money no ambition and dress well because thats all they have to do. I think girls who have a back story, something to go along with their style are so much better! Think Erin Wasson ,MK & A, fashion bloggers etc. I just think it so much better than a cory kennedy who looks dead in the eyes... we need more fresh faced hip girls that aren't rolling out of bed hungover reeking like alcohol and throwin on philip lim and being "cool" we need more stylish chicks with ambition!"

tea in tokyo

tea in tokyo, take me to japan.

japanese editorials? so many of them seem to have a stillness about them. everything looks very quiet and calm, with the cherry blossom barely moving and silent cups of tea.

sigh.

high fashion magazine

from scout holiday

two years of discotheque confusion; Q and A

Q: How long it takes you to do all your amazing collages. Seriously, I bet it takes forever!

A: It usually takes about forty minutes to do a collage, but i easily get lost in my own little world, flicking through pretty pictures and then wake up 3 days later.

Q: Do you see yourself working in the fashion industry?

Yes, that's where I'm heading. I've always written, but now styling and PR really appeal too. At the moment, my focus is to keep doing work experience; it's the best and most valid way to ensure it's what you really want to do.

Q: Have there been any downsides to having a successful blog? Nasty feedback for example?

Luckily, I've never experienced any nasty experiences with the blog. Sometimes I'll get snippy comments, but I prefer to hear people express their views and put a different spin in on things than to blindly follow the crowd.

Q: What is your priority if really pushed for time - showering or outfit? which would get neglected?

I actually find myself in this situation far too often! I'll scurry around fooling myself until the last minute that I won't shower but the fact that i'm often late just goes to show that sadly i'm too indecisive to choose!

Q: What concessions do you buy when you're at the cinema?

Good question! I've always been the pic and mix type: vast quantites of fizzy cherries, cola bottles, foam bananas, and then occassionally jazzies which i never know why i choose as they're always the rejects at the end. my pet hate is those idiots who rustle their bag thorought the film.

Q: What is your favorite outfit or fashion item of all time?

The YSL "Le Smoking" look from the seventies is important to me. My philosophy is very much about wearing clothes for yourself, and this androgenous look is prime example. Chloe Sevigny is pretty much this blog's muse(!) and I think she is the perfect example of someone who wears clothes for themselves rather than men and looks incredibly sexy no matter how stereotypically "unsexy" her clothes may seem.

Q: Will you still have a blog in 5 years and what will it be like?

It's always important to me that the blog continues to grow and I feel that it is an exciting time in terms of online magazines and fashion sites, so maybe the blog could end up expanding one day, who knows. But that's a long way down the line.

Q: Are you a student or what is your career?

I'm a student, at sixth form college. I study English, History and Art; they're the subjects I've loved since, well, before primary school. I've just taken up film studies purely because i'm such a movie nerd!

Q: Pinocchio said, “my nose is about to grow”, what would happen?

Genius question! "After much deliberation".. nothing would happen? Apart from general confusion.

what's going on?..

yes, this is still discotheque confusion.
sit tight while the blog undergoes a makeover.



i know, i'm nervous too..
but as a nod to the blog's second birthday, i felt a change was needed.
something a little more clean and fresh, oui?

excitement. paris vogue and pop magazine 2008.

wowwowwow.

paris vogue sept 2008. raquel zimmerman. ryan mcginley.



i'm so excited about these new issues and the perfect editorials that are streaming in.
the colours in the paris vogue shoot have that kind of end of summer feel; maybe because the sun always seems to be on it's best behaviour in september.

and i know the crocs have had quite a reaction. understandable. i'd still never ever wear them, but just for now, and only here, they look perfect.

pop magazine. autumn 2008. natasha poly.

this dress was made for peep shows.

1991 was the best year

In fashion, seasons and cycles may move fast, but really they’re mostly on repeat, looking back to an aesthetic from a previous decade, reinventing looks from years gone by. Usually there is a general rule that 20 years is the acceptable turn over time for an era to be reinvented.

So why does looking back to the nineties feel so so right when we’re only 9 years down the line?

Either way, we’re pushing on regardless, and yen magazine picked up on this mood this time last year, which depending on your stance makes them either ahead or very very behind the crowd.

For your fancy, a tribute to 1991 from yen magazine October 2007.

and ps, just so you know, i think baseball caps are the way forward (or back..)