there's no time to lose, i heard her say

a few weeks ago i watched the 4 adventures of reinette and mirabelle, a french film that follows the friendship of a country girl and a city girl and their interactions with the people of paris. i know that sounds incredibly cliche, but believe me when i tell you that it was good. it was sweet, strange, and honest in the way that it represented their relationship. that movie was the first i've watched in a while that moved really slowly and softly, in a nice contrast to some films that try to contain as much action and character development etc into a short period.

my sweater is from the uniqlo store and the dress is thrifted.

the shirt is DIYed and the dress and belt worn as necktie is thrifted.

shirt, belt, and necklace are all thrifted, and the jeans are UO. 

jw anderson ss16

the outfits worn by reinette and mirabelle reminded me a bit of isa arfen's latest show:

 

 

 

• the looks are a really nice balance of eclectic and clean
• those glasses... have changed my life since i saw them, and my latest goal in life is to find something exactly like them. they're so perfectly zenon girl of the 21st century/retro futuristic/60s cool older sister, that i'll probably have to give away everything i own but... you know.
• i've never been a big fan of ruffles but maybe that's because i've never seen them presented exactly like this before

you're my right hand, you're my go-to

 

 

  

my outfit today was inspired by the leather, stripes, and silhouettes of acne pre-ss16. i also somehow ended up focusing in on the blue, which is a color i've been into lately. (no, i cannot stick to an aesthetic for longer than a week, if you were wondering-- i think i'm over it).

i'm thinking a lot about color theory, and the use of analogous colors (blue, blue-purple, and purple) in the first two looks really appealed to me. the patterned overlays looked really modern and clean with that camel skirt. the red peacock-y dress reminded me of something 3.1 phillip lim would do/ something out of the 90s grunge revival. that red trench coat is the light of my life, fire of my loins pretty great too.

-=-

kanyinsola

ain't no rest for the wicked

a garish confrontation between the corporate and creative london is  the inspiration behind claire barrow's aw15 collection.  silky pieces screen-printed pieces with the designer's notes and scribbles, and gelled hair dance in the wind of office fans placed next to each model. these fans create an artificial outdoor experience in the grey-carpeted office space. 

the gloves add something victorian to the all-velvet look. i really love the pegasus drawings on the bottom. 

 

i was also reminded of the creepy schoolgirlish (coraline, the shining twins) vibe from the doodles on the tights on the right. the line drawings make me think of karolina koryl's drawings:

the aesthetic of the hand-written notes (scrawled and panicked) is very #relatable to me and the way i try to keep my life organized. i also am a big fan of the color and material of the skirt. 

 

the "high flyer" theme built on a desire to fly away from the bustle of the city was also seen in the windswept hair tied up and leather aviator pieces that make up the uniform of an amelia earhart character. 

the outerwear in this collection is incredible too: the scribbled scarves, 70s suede jacket and billowing coat manage to be both practical for windy cities and really cool.

thanks 2 everyone who stuck through my 3 week hiatus while i was at a hippie summer camp where they took our phones away ;(. if you're wondering, it was a great experience, and i'm excited to get back into my regular rituals and schedule.

-=-

kanyinsola 

through the french quarter by erin armstrong / by karolina koryl  /commes des garcons shirt 

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