Wednesday, February 18, 2015

the old and bruised, in stolen shoes, you feel the same

chicago is COLD and lame, and i'm surviving through episodes of parks & rec and looking at pictures of clothes online. another nice thing is the video for lost on me by peace, which in addition to having a really nice song is also hilarious (trust me). 






 


 
  the variations on this first outfit make me feel very #cool and #90s (basically how i feel every time i wear something that's oversized)

and this outfit makes me feel like a very #cooldad who's about to get on some type of yacht in head-to-toe ralph lauren.  i also just realized that it's loosely based on some combination of harry koisser's outfit in that video, and the outfit of a really cool guy i saw at my friend's house who i was too scared to talk to because me + cool people = ;(


oversized white shirt / dad's
dress / h&m
sandals* /  thrifted
white shirt / childhood
turtleneck / thrifted
mom jeans / uo
birkenstocks* / thrifted

*i definitely was not wearing these outfits out irl because it's literally 10 degrees outside. also, side-note: i've noticed that the word 'literally' for me has lost it's meaning. like when i want to make it super obvious that i'm being sarcastic, i'll say 'literally,' and when i want to make it obvious that i'm being literally, i'll say 'actually'. weird. 

i also feel like those last sentences might end up being quoted for some think-piece for the times written by a 40-yr old man about how my generation is going to ruin everything because we spend too much money on selfie sticks or something. oh well. 

on second thought, do those think-pieces exist anymore, or have they closed 

thoughts on nyfw: 
some of my favorite shows so far are thom browne, thakoon, opening ceremony, dkny, a detacher, vfiles, yigal azrouel, rachel comey, rag & bone, diesel black gold, adeam, public school and eckhaus latta. so far i've noticed a lot of: turtlenecks, tailored pants, layering, slit skirts, big coats, deep purple, checks and plaids, and really really interesting staging. 

comment what your favorites were so i can get to know more about y'all and steal your identity <3


-=-
kanyinsola


Sunday, February 15, 2015

steppin' out of these restless days of disappointed haze

i really wanted to start talking about all of the new collections that are coming out of nyfw, but then i realized that i might have blogger's remorse (bear with me and pretend that's a thing)  if i don't first talk ab out my favorite couture collections (that entire sentence was only half a joke). it sounds a bit like i wasn't amazed enough by the collections to be able to talk about them as soon as they came out, but i was-- i just was kind of unable to even put together thoughts on all of this. i tried though: 

giambattista valli



frills + jacquard + layers upon layers = *swoon* 


chanel





flowers. everywhere. at first glance it’s tiresome, but a closer look reveals a dystopian world where this animatronic, weary beauty is the closest we get to the real thing. anyways i thought the flowers were actually some of the most beautiful parts (in addition to the hats and veils), i didn’t love the silhouettes and the shoes, and while the individual garments were painstakingly crafted, the whole show just felt like it lacked that couture feeling.

christian dior

 



bodysuits, plastic raincoats, and a-line skirts were the beginnings of dior’s bowie-inspired exploration of reinventing the self with a look at the past and the future. those pieces were morphed and printed and sparkled, transversing decades and personas. there were carefully placed stripes and cut-outs, latex boots, and sequined shift dresses.  it felt like reading a carefully written novel. definitely my favorite, everything is just so dreamy and out-of-this-world.

armani prive



this collection was an ode to 20s glamour and elegance and to the "delicate strength of bamboo". it made sense then, that it was full of contradictory boxy shirts and flowing pants, and fluff and sparkles that were almost as  common as emblazoned bamboo sprouts.

ulyana sergeenko





the choice to show the collection in a hotel salon instead of on a runway ended up being for the better for clothing this meticulously detailed. some of the looks were embroidered to the point where you might confuse them with an entirely different fabric without looking close enough. a review written by nicole phelps says, “Why make tiny white stitches by the thousand when selecting a piece of white silk might do? Why not?” it’s undeniable that the beauty of this collection was in the detail.

valentino


this collection was about romance. there were high necklines, flowing and dramatic sheer with detailed floral appliques that danced on the edge between reality and fairytale, and lines from love poems running across faded dresses. the models looked as if they leapt straight off the pages of romeo and juliet’s “star-crossed love” (in part made possible by the elegant hair and makeup, and the almost floating way in which the models seemed to carry themselves). an interesting moment was a cut-out velvet dress with wings that (at least for me,) said something about the transformative nature of love.

--
in general, the collections were overwhelmingly wearable, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing, maybe this is just art imitating life as our culture shifts around our definition of dressing well, and maybe this leaves more room for strict craftsmanship and tailoring (the things that can't be scaled down for the mainstream market), which is arguably the beauty of couture clothing in itself. what did you guys think of these collections and the evolution of couture, and what were your favorites in couture?

-=-
kanyinsola

Saturday, February 14, 2015

61 ways to say yes

 in honor of v-day/baeday/day after galentine's day, i decided to talk a bit about jean paul gaultier's couture collection ("61 ways to say yes"), which has so many strong looks, and i was originally going to pick  two to show, but that was too difficult.  there were hybrid outfits made of tutus and trousers. nothing was too serious, nothing was too overdone. 


i'm such a fan of the simplicity and the silhouette of this. the scarf is a cool touch, and the makeup is so clean.


i'm screaming at how dramatic and honest and inyourface this whole look is. am i supposed to be thinking of grace jones right now?


the whole idea of ease in couture and being able to unzip your wedding dress is so interesting. the contrast is also really attractive.


this is just so fun, i mean come on, doesn't  lindsey wixon dressed as a luxury beecatcher combined with 17th century aristocrat just make you want to smile. of course it's beautiful and ornate, but a (maybe idealistic) part of me thinks that jpg is reminding us that we can laugh at clothing, at how elitist and detached from reality it can become.


this is absolutely one of my favorites because it feels like a whirlwind action movie in the 30s starring lauren bacall on the run from the cops in her convertible with the wind blowing her scarf or something  as aesthetically pleasing as that.


i really like the length(s) of the skirt and the detail in the jacket in this outfit. i obviously approve of the visor. 


this is the ultimate cool-girl look in this collection, and i feel like it does verge on becoming ready-to-wear, but there's something undeniably elegant about a really nice jacket and a long scarf draped like that. 


the hybrid i mentioned earlier that honestly leaves me speechless. 
--

let me know what you think of all this in the comments, and any other wedding-inspired collections you think i should check out. i hope your v-days are full of lurve and beautiful things. 

[love's young dream: jennie augustina brounscombe]

-=-
kanyinsola 


Wednesday, February 11, 2015

i want to dance like her, like nobody's watching

 i took these outfit photos last year when i was really into the concept of taking up space with my clothing (for various reasons)-- and of course they got lost on the computer for ages until now!


 

i would say that the whole idea of wearing one of my dad's shirts as a skirt is something i enjoyed last year way too much for it to have never been shown before on this blog. it involves buttoning the shirt so that the neck goes around your waist, and pushing in the sleeves to become pockets. 

also- i'm pretty there is a big pink blob on my shirt because it had the name of my school on there. 

/








 



 



another thing i did a lot last year was pinning up my skirts to create what i wanted to be commes-des-garcons-esque monsters with safety pins sticking out. 


i have no idea what's up with the sock/shoe combinations i was doing in 7th grade, and i think if i were to wear these again, i would do so with something less confusing, like these Birkenstocks which i got on impulse from a thrift store for like $3 last summer (ha).


button-up // thrift
blue t-shirt // school
express flower-embroidered shirt // thrift 
shirt worn as skirt // dad's
pinned-skirt // yard-sale 
birkenstocks // thrift

/


feel real by deptford goth is a good theme song for this because he plays around with the concept of space a lot in the video and in the song itself, putting emphasis on the beauty that comes out of the silences. 

When I wore these outfits originally, I was thinking about what it meant to wear clothing that didn't flatter, vaguely inspired by a designer like Rei Kawakubo, who makes clothing that intentionally distorts and destroys whatever a woman's body is "supposed to look like". These clothes are not meant to shrink a woman's size or presence in the world-- by giving license to take up as much space as you wish physically, they are also commanding you to be loud and present, and fiercely there. 


cdg ss13

-=-
kanyinsola

Sunday, February 8, 2015

there must be something in books, something we can’t imagine, to make a woman stay in a burning house

in january, i finished up the last few pages of Fahrenheit 451 after leaving it alone for a week, and i have to say that it's honestly one of my favorites now. it's a thrilling, beautiful, and terrifying dystopian story about censorship and a future without books- where Guy Montag is a firefighter whose job is to burn books and the houses that contain them.

*this is a semi-spoiler:* the idea behind the book is scary because the government didn't really decide that knowledge would be a threat to their authoritarian rule, but because people just became less interested in knowledge as the world became more fast-paced, and they started to fear the intellectual as the unfamiliar, as the enemy- and then books became dangerous and had to be  destroyed. *spoiler over*.

the book is full of in-depth descriptions of everything, like every single word and name was chosen for some reason (usually as some allusion to fire): the name of the book is farenheit 451- the temperature at which paper burns; the symbols of the firemen are the pheonix and the salamander- both mythical animals that are meant to find their power in fire. ray bradbury's metaphors are beautiful and extensive, and vivid enough to make you feel like you have a real role in the story. one sentence can go on for lines-- and then hours after that as its burned (haha) into your memory.

i should also say that the way i look at ray bradbury's writing has partly been affected by something he wrote in the afterword of my version of f451. in it, he seems to blame minorities in our society for the censoring (and eventual destruction) of books. he mentions  receiving a note from a woman who suggested that he "rewrite the book inserting more women's characters and roles," and a note "complaining that the blacks in the books were 'Uncle Toms'," and another note "from a Southern white saying that I was prejudiced in favor of the blacks and the entire story should be dropped". one of my issues with this is that he seems to imply that the only plausible reaction is to destroy every work that doesn't fairly represent every member of society-- and not to examine or reflect upon how his prejudices or privileges may have found their way into his writing. he also seems to equate the complaints of every minority, not showing any understanding of the systems of oppression that affect some people and not others. 

-

alexander wang's last resort collection reminds me of the book because some of the outfits seem to be directly inspired by firerfighter unifroms, but i felt like there was a connection with the pf2015 collection too. it's harsh and military(inspired) too, but i feel like there's a softer, more hopeful edge to this one.


"He saw himself in her eyes, suspended in two shining drops of bright water, himself dark and tiny, in fine detail, the lines about his mouth, everything there, as if her eyes were two miraculous bits of violet amber that might capture and hold him intact." 

I really like the pieces of white, the layers, the details.




the two looks above are just so relaxed and well-made-- you can see the loungewear inspiration but its so clean. my mind is racing with outfits for the top of that pajama set.



i'm not really a fan of this shade of green, but it does help to create a sort of utilitarian aesthetic. but i really do love the dress: the straps, the shape. 


i love monochrome looks, and this one looks really effortless and clean. the coat manages to cover the dress while adding to the whole image.





“He felt his body divide itself into a hotness and a coldness, a softness and a hardness, a trembling and a hot trembling, the two halves grinding one upon the other.”

this outfit is so expertly put together: the shape of the skirt, and the lines on the sweater falling in with the line on the boots. it's all really nice to look at. 




fahrenheit 451 takes place against the backdrop of war that's plaguing the country, and it's a part of the plot, but it's hardly ever acknowledged until the ending. i keep talking about how delicate all of the references are in this collection, and the military inspiration is a clear example. you literally wouldn't notice the patterns on the pants if you didn't look closely enough.


"The jet bombers going over, going over, going over, one two, one two, one two, six of them, nine of them, twelve of them, one and one and one and another and another and another, did all the screaming for him."



this isn't really a good view of the dress (which is no doubt amazing), but you at least get to see the hem.



look at that blue sticking out ahh. it's so layered and heavy and beautiful.



The jackets in this collection are so strong that they could stand alone as exhibits-- they're simple and beautiful, and the bomber jacket is so cool.

 

the draping and material of these dresses are really elegant, but there's something structured about them that reminds me a lot of mildred, who i see as one of the most interesting characters because she's so empty, but has no real desire to live her life any other way. 

"...in the millionth part of time left, she saw her own face reflected there, in a mirror instead of a crystal ball, and it was such a wildly empty face, all by itself in the room, touching nothing, starved and eating of itself, that at last she recognized it was her own...”

if any of you guys have read the book, i'd love to know your opinions on it, and any recommendations you have for similar books (in plot or writing style). 

-=-
kanyinsola