Inspiration: Vintage Loft NYC

Vintage has never been so entchanted sexy

Bodice cut from a 1940s dress and Yves Saint Laurent resort crocodile leather boots

Picture via Vintage Loft NYC, an  antique and vintage clothing store/ studio in New York open to designers, creatives, stylists and fashion lovers upon appointment. They offer clothes and accessories from all periodes for rent, sale and research. I would love to sneak in that studio!

Valentine’s Day

For some Valentine’s day is the day of commerce – only there to fill the store’s cashbox. But for others it’s the day of love. I am torn between the two. Somehow I like the idea of a day for love but at the same time it gives me a chill when I see all this sob stuff in some stores sold for Valentine’s Day.
Thus to find some less kitschy things for Valentine’s Day was quite necessary for my taste conscience.

Things to wear:

left: Karen Walker, right: Truely, Madly, Deeply, both available via Urban Outfitters

left: DEPT, right: Pepe Jeans both via frontlineshop

left: dress by LP.BG, right: top by Lerario Beatriz via Amélie Boutique

And at last a very pinky suggestion

left: Modcloth “Be my Valentine” dress,  right: Topshop

Accessories

Lost love compass by Digby and Iona via Amélie Boutique

Lovebirds hat by Leander & Swann – my very own Valentine’s Day creation

And most important: cards

All available via Etsy

Pearl & Marmalade

Alicia Bock

Here you get a postcard set!

The spotted sparrow

This is a coupon book including several tickets with things like “1 breakfast in bed”, “1 weekend getaway” etc. There’s also a naughty one available.

diskgrunt

Flapper Doodle

The text is a inside greeting option the seller took from a Valentine’s card her grandfather send to her grandmother in World war II.

Both by Two Guitars

Why I hate fashion…

… is an article written by Tanya Gold for The Guardian, published on Friday 22nd of January. The subtitle is “High heels are painful, designer clothes don’t make you beautiful and even the most successeful models are thoroughly miserable“. It sounds like a good load of depressiv, negative thoughts of an unhappy lady railing against the evil world of fashion. Well, I’m acutally thinking of myself as a passionated fashion lover but the further I red the more I understood her.

Tanya Gold writes about her personal fashion history – what a joy it was for her when she was young and how it slightly became a more or less horrific relationship:

“I thought I looked just like the effortlessly beautiful girls at school. Except I didn’t. And, very soon, I realised that I didn’t. All that weekend job money and childish angst and still I looked like me. That was the first seduction – and the first betrayal.”

But the authoress did not give up and went on trying to fullfill her fashion dreams:

“Run towards the ever-­receding sense of self-acceptance and the promise of love; perhaps this ­collection will fix you! Or this one! And if it doesn’t, there will be two more next year, like a bad clock.”

Getting fat is what rescued her in the end Tanya Gold writes. From that moment on nothing was made for her anymore so she could ignore fashion without a guilty conscience.

The ambivalence lying in fashion and in fashion business in general is shown in the article quite well. On the one hand lot’s of beautiful clothes renewing themself every second on the other hand a kind of keep up pressure, overwhelming offers, unachievable beauty ideals…
I have had many of these bad fashion moments she describes- thinking that I look like I wanted and being absolutly unhappy about my apperance the next minute- running from collection to collection, but never being quite satisfied etc. But what is the reason behind it – is it me or is it society only?

I would suggest it’s both: personal and enviromental factors are resulting in a multicausal interaction pattern. Imagine a person with a weak self-confidence and a passion for clothes. This person might be very sensetive to  common beauty ideals and react in a negative way if he/she has the feeling he/she can not fullfill the demands.
One can imagine a lot of such examples but this one already shows my point: certain personal factors make us more sensetive to pressure, stress etc. These are factors which can be changed by ourselves.
And besides this I would say that fashion is quite an open business in our society. You can spread your own style, our own fashion ideas etc. easily if you have the courage to do so.

Thus it is not necessary to hate fashion because it seems to demand a crazy ideal etc. Just change it in a way it fits your own life. Or to say it in other words: play with fashion, don’t let fashion play with you.

I outpaced many bad fashion moments by beginning to develop an own style. It is a kind of compass through all the offers, trends and collections.  And with the time one is getting more confident about oneself and becoming more immun to ideals, pressures etc.
There are still times where everything goes wrong but this is life.

Lena Hoschek HW 2010/ 2011

A sassy, classy, boyish wounderful collection, full of references to the roaring 20’s and 30’s. I love it!
The models look adorable, their smiles, their hairstyles and the red lips and nails! Everything is just fitting perfectly together with a right pinch of sex appeal.

Before this Berlin Fashion week I had never heard of Lena Hoschek – what a shame.

Here some pictures from Berlin:

Lena Hosckek’s website is also worth to have a look!

All pictures via vogue.de

Toile de Jouy

Once in a while I stumbled over clothes or accessories made from this obviously French fabric: toile de Jouy. Lately I saw these accessories for spring 2010 by Wunderkind:

Mostly I’ve seen this fabric as ubholstery, tapestry or as covers for cushions etc. and always asked myself what is these fabric’s history as it seems to have a certain status. I found out some suprinsing facts via Arte’s Karambolage.

These fabric is indeed a very classical one from France but was invented by a German. You might even know his name if you have ever used Paris’ Metro. There is a station called “Oberkampf” and this is the last name of that German man from Württemberg, a part of southern Germany who began to produce toile de Jouy in Jouy-en-Josas around 1760.
The paintings on this fabric are by Jean-Baptiste Huet and presented  what French aristocrats imagined when they thought of nature and the simple life in the 18th century.

Toile de Jouy was immediatly a success. The French aristocracy loved it and used it mainly for home decoraction where it is still to be found. Oberkampf himself was even decorated by Napoleon for his successful fabric company since Napoleon wanted to have strong French fabric industry to slow down the Englisch dominace in this field.

Here some examples from the old times:

Some more exaples from the fashion world:

Christian Lacroix for Jean Patou hand-painted toile de jouy cocktail dress, 1987. By Francois Hallard courtesy of Condé Nast Archive

From left to right: Kumiko Watari (2009), Paul Smith, Kumiko Watari (2009)

pictures:

Wunderkind via wunderkind.de
fabrics via toiledejouy.com.fr
bed via museedelatoiledejouy.fr
Kumiko Watari via kumikowatari.com
Paul Smith via paulsmith.co.uk

Christian Dior cocktail dress via vanityfair.de

Noa Noa Spring 2010

Happy New Year!

I am back from my lazy holiday weeks and hope that everyone had a great time around Christmas and New Year.

The new collections are appearing in stores now and the first delivery of the Noa Noa spring collection 2010 is available since yesterday. There was also a small pre-spring collection available in December but the design of that collection was not really convincing. I did not like the colours and styles.
The upcomcing spring collection is more interesting. There are a lot of ethno inspired styles which are simply not what I like (cute but to much) as well as some more elegant pieces with innovative cuts and details.

E.g. this dark blue trousers with pleats in front and a noticeable waistband made of jaquard fabric.

Or this long slipover with ruffles – I like the combination of the fine knit with the casual cut and some ruffles as exentric detail.

Of course there is also a belt in an Art Deco style available – this time a small version. As I kind of collect these belts, it would be a nice addition!

Extra cute is this mini cross body bag – I need to have it!

And a nice reminder for spring are the colours of this scarve!

And there is also a new line in this Noa Noa spring collection: activewear.

It looks as it should be: comfortable but not really exciting or special.

And here are some pictures from their campaign:

all pictures are taken from the Noa Noa lookbook and promo booklet

Snow

Finally snowflakes are gliding silently through the air again – what a joy!

From the past: Blumarine’s homage to the 20’s

From the perspective of the fast changing fashion scene these clothes are quite old since they are from the 2003/04 ready to wear collection by Blumarine. But in my opinion they are worth to step back for an eye candy overload: Glittering glamour, preciouse stoles, plunging back necklines, dancing stars,  bows & skirts plus lot’s of charming faces & smiles!

New Year’s Eve outfit

I am done with my outfit for Christmas – but with New Year’s Eve I am still struggling.  So Les Mads’ “show me your New Year’s Eve outfit” call was a good reminder to start early…

Here is a first idea in a kind of vintage style. I am wearing a midnight blue silk dress (Kookai), a bolero (vintage) and lace up pumps (Miss Sixty).

Currently in love with…

…an outfit by Filippa K. better: big crush. black velvet, slightly puffed sleeves, midnight blue, satin, sophisticated lace up ankle boots, long scarf, dark lavender grey – perfect ingredients. prefectly matched. no money. swan song.

Vicky velvet jacket (not in production), drapy Nomad pants, slinky rip tank, Joline laced ankle boots, cashmere shawl

everything by Filippa K

Close ups: