thinking about clothes:

as the title suggests, i've been thinking about clothing and how i present myself to tha wide world a lot lately, and trying to find new ways to change my perspectives. here are some of the things that have been helping me along with that:

chalayan rtw13

Hussein Chalayan Ready to Wear Fall 2013 Runway Show

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hussein chalayan kind of has a reputation for doing beyond cool things with clothing, and i'll probably get into how much i love him in another post-- but right now, i'm really into this last set of transforming dresses where the models give a tug and go from daywear (to something beautiful in between) to eveningwear. the entire collection is just so spectacular and deserves something more coherent than me saying smashing my keyboard to say the same thing over and over again, but i would really love to know what you guys think of this.

tilda swinton's eternity dress

Eternity Dress (teaser)

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eternity dress is a performance art piece by tilda swinton and olivier saillard that shows every step of constructing  a 50s-style dress on tilda swinton's body that (i think) is supposed to remind us that in the midst of the fast pace of fashion-- there's an art to be reclaimed in the meticulous construction of what we put on our bodies. it exhibits the mathematics involved in the measuring, the cutting, choosing collars, hand sewing, draping. 

in the trailer there is a flash of a nude oil painting, which may just be for aesthetic purposes, but i have the feeling every moment of the video was painstakinly thought out-- so maybe its meant to add something about how clothing or a lack of it as art.  there's also a section in which tilda drapes bolts of fabric across herself which just made me go ASHJKFYughhh. 

 it's no longer being performed live, and so i have to settle for a teaser trailer. my new agenda is to become befriend tilda swinton, so that i can understand eternity dress and everything else she creates a little better. 

age and beauty

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of course its not a revolutionary concept- but there's been a crop of 2015 campaigns featuring older women that seem to represent an appreciation of age as beauty: joni mitchell for saint laurent's music project, iris apfel (and tavi gevinson!) for alexis bittar, joan didion for celine (eep). these women are cool and intellectual and interesting and i love it.

as i was looking at the celine photos, i found an article for the guardian that talked about "the line between celebration and exploitation"-- and how its a little strange to see a hero used to sell you something. i think this is a really interesting perspective, and leads to a lot of questions about what celebrity even means anymore (is your value in your talent or your image?). i'd love to hear what you have to say about this over e-mail (in the sidebar) or in the comments.

my only criticism for these campaigns is that age as beauty seems to be being embraced for certain women, and i'm hoping that these ads signal a 2015 focused on the meaning of our standards of beauty for all women. 

-=-

kani