Sunday, January 27, 2013

Sunday, Sketch Day


I fell in love with this street shot of Edie Campbell on the Jak & Jil tumbler.  She looks so chic and mysterious...I kind of had to draw her....

Friday, January 25, 2013

Exaggerated Proportions. Favorites from Pre-Fall 2013


When I watch new seasons being loaded on my Style.com App (in my top 5 favorite Apps), I begin to see things I really like and then begin to put them together, trying to run a thread through them to explain what they have in common and why I like them.

Above we have: 3.1 Phillip Lim (I want to be in all Chloe next Spring and all Phillip Lim in the Fall!),  Acne Studios,  Kenzo (all too adorable), and always a favorite, Rochas.

All these looks are really special because of their PROPORTIONS (kind of a pun on the caps...oops, maybe silly, oh well).  Nothing is classically put together. And nothing is expected.  There aren't rules as you can see: Rochas is big all over, usually a faux pas; while Acne has only an over-sized coat with tall skinny boots; Kenzo's look is loose on top and on bottom but the pants do become defined at the waste. 

NO RULES.  It's ALL STYLE. And those are the two reasons why I like this play-on-proportions for Fall.

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Remembering My First Love (suprise, it's Marc Jacobs)

This is the look that inspired it all.  Well, ‘all’ may be be a bit of an exaggeration because liking clothes and wanting to make them, somehow always seemed innate.  No, this look opened my eyes to Fashion!  That is capital ‘F’ fashion.
 
It was home economics class, 10th grade, North Henderson High School, Hendersonville, NC.  Flipping through magazines (part of an assignment that I can not remember), I found this look, part of the Marc Jacobs campaign of Spring/Summer 1999.  The memory of this moment is so clear because my world came to a stop.  "What was this? " I thought.  "It is so amazing, so wonderful, a little impractical, a combination I haven’t seen before...?!"  I tore the page out and taped it up in my vanity, where it staid the remainder of high school and college.  I craved more of this ‘Fashion’ and started buying Vogue, learning designers and following the world of Fashion.  In this image, I had found a little bit of heaven and at the time, I thought, there must be no greater genius than Marc Jacobs.

This memory is what always brings me back, remembering my first love.  As I have been delighted by what Marc has been doing recently, in his own collection and at Louis Vuitton, I am once again inspired by him and I recall this memory and the Spring/Summer 1999 campaign that started it all. 

Wish I could locate the campaign photograph, but I can’t, therefore, the runway shoot will have to do.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Longing for Spring

























These photographs are from a test shoot that I styled last spring for a very talented friend and photographer, Patrick Kolts.  I love the beauty in their simplicity.  The concept for the shoot was Patrick's and we had a very talented make up artist and model who completely nailed the looks.

I remembered these photos as the weather has been cold and I've been longing for spring.  They really invoke a sense of beauty, innocence and nature.  They give me the remembrance of sun on my skin and the care-free expectancy that spring brings in a simpler place.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Baby, It's Cold Outside....

During my first winter in New York, a very fashionable friend told me that she could not wear a puffer, “they are just too ugly”.  I watched this girl put on three layers of cashmere sweaters under her cute wool coat.  Maybe it’s because of this advice that I don’t seem to own a down coat and have become the queen bee of layering.  But probably not, I probably don’t own one for two other reasons: one, I have never wanted a down coat and I don’t buy things I need, I buy things I want (not a great strategy, but it kind of works for me, most of the time); secondly,  I like to LAYER! 

My layering has gotten a little extreme.  People love the way I look but laugh when they realize how many pieces I have on.  When the temperature is below 40, any given outing for me will have countless layers... a flannel shirt, wool sweater, leather jacket, down vest, jeans, short socks, tall socks, boots, gloves, maybe two hats.

When layering, each piece can be transformed into something else. By wearing multiple pieces, the variables are widened and more options arise.  How pieces are put together can make winter dressing about more than just pure functionality, it can make it about style and creativity.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

New Sight for the New Year


Happy New Year!  It’s here.  I am always so thankful when it comes around, not because it erases the past year, nor because it is a chance to start over- honestly, every day is a chance to start over (every day is fresh with no mistakes in it)- I think I love the change of year, because it always brings me into new sight. 

The change of year makes me take inventory of the past year, see the value in it, itemize the successes, the lessons, compare where I thought I would be last year at this time to where I am today.  When I do this, I see growth and I see the opportunity for more growth - which is the exciting and fresh part!

I’m not a big resolution person - as I said above, every day you can change your life.  What I am big on, is understanding what this year will mean for your personal journey in life; if you understand that, you make the minor changes along the way that people often categorize as resolutions (running more often, seeing more movies, making time for friends, writing, etc.).  I don’t like resolutions, if at some point you stop going to the gym because your life gets busy, your resolution becomes a failure.  We have to be adaptable because we can never be certain what life will throw at us.  What we can control in the next year and in our life, is the kind of person we want to develop into.

Put on fresh glasses! (I actually found a steal on my new Balenciaga’s, so I think this metaphor was meant to be).  What kind of a year is it for you?  Who do you see yourself as?  Let's make positive life choices and be gentle on ourselves in the small things, and let's grow on the greater whole.