Playing Dress Up #1: Alexander McQueen

Fashion is fantasy.  Fashion is playing dress up.  Fashion is role playing.  Fashion is time traveling.  Fashion is fun.  Fashion lets you be whoever you want to be...

Today I am a Renaissance Queen:

Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen Fall 2013 ad campaign

Coveting for Fall: Celine

"Really elegant but weird; almost nerdy but perverse."
Jurgen Teller, photographer, of the Celine ad campaigns

One of the things I am most coveting for fall is an inexpensive Chinatown shopping bag in a colorful red plaid - no, wait, that is not right - one of the things I am most coveting for fall is an expensive Celine Chinatown shopping bag inspired coat in a colorful red plaid.

okay, truth be told, I am also really coveting the skirt and the funnel neck top

and did I mention the squishy bag?

and I love the ad campaign with Daria Werbowy

from humble beginnings

Fred and Ginger and Dries

When I was little and watching my Saturday morning routine of old movies, I always loved when a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie came on.  Boy could she dance!  But, of course, I was really more drawn to the gowns.  One of my favorites was the feather dress from  Top Hat.  I am not sure if you have ever worn a feather anything but if you have, you will know that feather pieces tend to 'molt'. You leave a trail of fluttery feathery bits everywhere you go.  

So I can imagine that Fred was none too pleased when Ginger showed up - unexpectedly - in this feather gown which, when they rehearsed the scene, saw feathers fly into his face, against his tuxedo and onto the dance floor.  But Miss Rogers was not to be deterred from wearing the gown and it  became one of their most famous and striking dances.

But there was also one part of me that wanted to be able to bust the moves like Fred Astaire:

So I was super excited that for Fall 2013 Dries Van Noten, one of my favorite designers,  was inspired by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers mixed up together, a little masculine, a little feminine and, of course, a whole lot of feathers...

Images from Style.com and Tumblr

Merci French Vogue!

I really think my favorite haute couture show so far is Giambattista Valli.  The inspiration was porcelain  made by Capodimonte in Naples, Wedgewood, Meissen and Sevres.  The gowns were simply beautiful and highlighted the handwork of haute couture that is involved in creating "winter flora in a winter greenhouse" from bits of lace, organza, ribbons and silk.  Merci French Vogue for the lovely video!

Dans les coulisses du défilé Giambattista Valli... by VOGUEPARIS

Pretty Is As Pretty Does: Giambattista Valli

I loved the spectacularly beautiful collection from Giambattista Valli!  Gowns galore but modern and sexy.  It reminded me a little bit of early 1990s Dolce & Gabbana...

Giambattista Valli Autumn/Winter Fall 2013 Haute Couture

Lacroix is in the House of Schiaparelli!

Have you ever been offered a big ol' bowl of Ossetra caviar, creme fraiche and tiny blinis?  And just as you say, "Why that looks delicious!  Thank you!" the caviar, creme fraiche and blinis are whisked out of sight.  Well, that is what happened today in Paris at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs.  Christian Lacroix's capsule collection for the House of Schiaparelli was unveiled and was as amazing as I imagined it would be BUT you can not order it.  It is just to ogle.  So put that credit card away...

For dreaming...  (which is very surrealistic and very Schiaparelli)  Christian Lacroix for Schiaparelli Autumn/Winter 2013

Is that a lobster or a Schiaparelli?

To pouf or not to pouf?  Lacroix of course decided to pouf...

and a beautiful video of creating the collection on Style.com... enjoy!

Images from Tumblr and Style.com

Your Body is a Wonderland: Azzedine Alaia Fall 2013

Have you seen the Alaia Fall 2013 collection?  It is beautiful - and I absolutely love the new longer length.  I confess, I was getting a little tired of the short flared skirt - but maybe that is just because I don't love the way it looks on me : (

I have always been a fan of a 70s midi length.  It's super sexy, in a less obvious way, and looks great with shoes or boots.  And it's really comfy - you can run, skip, bend down to pick up your bag and you don't have to worry about your knickers showing. 

This dress is cut close to the body through the waist and falls gently away to a fuller skirt.   

Wish we could see the heel on those studded boots but it looks promising.  I am in agreement with Andre Leon Talley and also abhor the "Cult of the Ugly Shoe'.  Alaia has done some outrageously high shoes and boots for the last few years - and that is why whenever I see a vintage pair of Alaia in my size, I snap them up... I have been patiently waiting for Alaia to return to a much more reasonable and better looking heel and this may be the season!

Blood red midi:

Love this one with a bootie:

Waffle weave midi:

This reminds me of vintage Alaia. So chic with the gloves. There are those shoes again... but otherwise totally classic and forever:

Alaia Fall 2013.  All photos from the New York Times

And some exciting news!  One of my favorite curators, Olivier Saillard, will reopen the Musée Galliera - which has been closed for a long renovation - with an Alaia retrospective in September!  

The Dior is in the Details

What a beautiful show Raf Simons presented for Christian Dior!  I was just writing about the collaboration between artists and fashion designers and for the Autumn-Winter 2013 collection Raf Simons worked with the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Viusual Arts and was inspired by Christian Dior's own interest in art and in particular surrealism.  And the result left me feeling like a bonafide surrealist:  full of yearning, desire and dreams...

Magritte's clouds floated above and around the runway:

Rene Magritte.  The Large Family 1947

Objects of desire.  Andy Warhol's A la recherche du shoe perdu drawings and Raf Simons for Dior.

"See a shoe and pick it up, all day long you will have good luck"

Andy Warhol.  From the series A la recherche du shoe perdu.  1955

Wonderful and whimsical:

A rose:

Is a rose

Is a rose

Salvador Dali.  Meditative Rose.  1958

Of dreams and memories

"Memory Dresses"

The night before.  A key.  A bouquet of flowers.  False eyelashes...

Sweet dreams...

The Ous-Ness of the Prada Woman

The Prada woman is

voluptuous, sensuous, gorgeous, ambiguous, luxurious, maybe a little dangerous.  Is she pious? A little imperious?  Mischievous?

The Prada woman may be all of the above but she is most of all, a woman.  No one has mentioned this in any of the reviews I have read on the exceptional collection Miuccia Prada presented for Fall 2013,  so I don't know if it is just me but does the model above look a little more womanly then the usual extremely thin girls we see on the runway?  So many designers design for a girl.  A very young girl.  A very young girl who most likely can not afford to buy what they are designing.  

And many designers don't design for a woman's everyday wardrobe.  Nothing makes my heart go pitter-patter like some unbelievable fantasy ball gown but then, sadly, we can not wear a ball gown every day.  Even if we might want to : )

But times have changed and a little night has crept into our daywear and a little day into our evening wear. We can throw on a beaded dress for day but maybe we grab a practical cashmere sweater to layer underneath it as we are rushing to get dressed in the morning.  Miuccia Prada understands the romance and practicality of the modern woman.  She is ambitious but she also wants to feel fabulous.  She is not fastidious and just a little frivolous. She is very glamorous.

Welcome to the world of the Prada woman.  Beautiful. Romantic.  Practical.  And a little askew.

She rushes out the door with her dress slightly undone:

Her hair is still damp:

She is a powerful and feminine:

She wears her fur coat for day

and for evening

She mixes day and night

She is inspired by Downton Abbey but is thoroughly modern

She loves the unexpected mix of gingham and chinchilla

And she loves dressing up