Bye, 2009

Here's to everyone kicking up their heels tonight like the Toulouse-Lautrec-inspired lady in the picture...or not, if, like me, what you really want is some noodle soup and an anime/movie marathon. Either way, have a lovely time, and I hope 2010 will bring you good things!

illustration by Rene Gruau from artnet

Speaking of Amelie (no, not THAT Amelie)..

I'm so used to fashion photography these days being high on gloss and the occasional slightly OTT-storyboarded-fantasy*, that I think my eyes actually let out a small sigh of relief when they spotted these images by Amelie Chassary in the fashion section of her website. Their vibe swings somewhere between the dreaminess of an open-air swing in summer and the energy of small children on sugar, and whatever she's doing with the lighting (cool in some pictures, beautifully filtered in another- though I know little to nothing about photography) is lovely. I'll also take the opportunity to say that I love the way she uses the backgrounds in her images- they complement the subjects (and clothes) so well...

*though I love those too. Life would be a bit dull if there was no gloss.

all images by Amelie Chassary

Seriously Underrated 90s Movies: The Hairy Bird, aka Lots Of Other Stupid Titles

I've said it before (and mentioned the subject of this post in passing, too) - I have a serious soft corner for school stories, especially boarding school stories. I'm also a bit of a 90s teen movie junkie, and will admit to the blasphemy of not giving a shit about Molly Ringwald . Which is why a pre-Christmas rewatch of one of my favourite horribly underrated early-00s loves is prompting me to write this, in the hope that someone, anyone, will actually read the text of this post, and leave the movie a tiny bit less unknown- even if it is just by one person.

For starters, there's the name: this movie goes by not one, not two, but three of them. In descending order of how much I like them, they are- The Hairy Bird (the best, and true, one, based on a snort-inducingly crass joke between the characters), Strike! (not as funny, but still ok) and All I Wanna Do (sounds like it should star a Disney Channel starlet- ie, like a generic godawful teen flick). The plot is simple: it's 1961 and teenage Odette Sinclair's parents banish her to boarding school to get her away from an unsuitable boyfriend. The school in question, Miss Godard's, is in New England and all-girls, aka Hell as per Odie. But her mostly WASPy classmates- played by Monica Keena, Heather Matarazzo, and Kirsten Dunst, among others- turn out to be, to use an archaic Wodehouseism, good eggs who are nicer than Odie assumes at first sight- and much less stuffy too.

So far, there are more shades of St Clare's* than St Trinian's to the story- until the school's headmistress, Miss McVane (played by Lynn Redgrave) is forced by financial necessity to agree to a merger with a nearby boys' school. The news of this is greeted with outrage by a large chunk of the student body who feel like it's just another attempt at male domination and violation of their space +preparation for their subjugation in later life, while others like the idea of having boys at the school. In the middle of all this, ('all this' including a pervy male teacher and a snotty prefect played well enough for me to want to slap her face by Rachael Leigh Cook) is the attempted loss of Odie's virginity and the stories of the other girls, along with a planned rebellion against the merger. But the real magic lies in the chemistry between the girls, and the dialogue (sample: "Real life is boy-girl-boy-girl!" "No, Tinka, real life is boy on top of girl!").

It's really, really rare these days to find movies that discuss gender-related issues even obliquely, and even rarer for such movies to be targeted at teens. This one has had criminal injustices inflicted on it- first that horrible name, then a very limited release which means that, ten years after it was originally made, hardly anyone knows about it. It's probably too obscure to even have cult status, which can sometimes be pretentious and stupid but is at least one way of getting a good movie known.

Re: the acting, Gaby Hoffman (who plays Odie) does a nice enough job, but she's not enough to carry an entire movie. The real sparklers of the cast are her co-stars, particularly a then 15-year-old Kirsten Dunst, and Heather Matarazzo. Also, anyone keeping a sharp eye out will probably spot Mad Men's Vincent Kartheiser aka Connor from Angel, and Hayden Christensen in a bit part. And if you like the idea of a movie that feels a bit like Dead Poet's Society+St Trinian's with a 60s setting, do watch.

Not a sight expected in your regular chick flick

*Enid Blyton fans should remember this

Comme Again, Store It All Up

I'm not normally a fan of store/business-run blogs, mainly because 9 times out of 10, they're devoid of character and full of badly written puff pieces (this goes for certain magazine-run blogs too). Tokyo Bopper, which I discovered via momus in 2007, is one of the shining exceptions to that rule. It might be written by the staff of a Tokyo shoe shop with a clear agenda to show off the shop's offerings as modelled and styled by them (see pic immediately above), but still manages to look like it's a blog by people, and not by a shop*.

My other recent find of a blog-truffle has had a very, very recent start on the other end of the world from Tokyo- this month, in fact. The BLACK Comme des Garçons store in New York has only been open for six months now and is only intended to last until the recession lifts. The blog written by the shop employees- who don't identify themselves by name but blog as BLACK Comme des Garçons- is mainly about the merchandise, and beautifully-taken shots of it as well as of The Girl With The Topknot (I call her that because I envy her ability to do that with her hair and have no idea what her name is). It'd be very easy, under the circumstances, for this to be just another collection of pretty pictures- but I admire The Girl With The Topknot's styling a great deal, and in fact it's her presence in blog pics that made me take a prolonged look at it all in the first place. I do hope the staff keep on at this- I'm not at all averse to looking at lovely pictures, and I have high hopes of future enjoyment from this blog.

*It also helps that Yama-sama (in the first pic), who models most frequently for the blog and is- like her coworkers- a FRUiTS regular, is unafraid to go against blogland trends, which more often than not feature a sea of high heels. And as a longtime fan, she must get points for consistency on that score.

pics from is-mental.blogspot.com and the BLACK Comme des Garçons blog (pics used with permission of the authors- I was so kicked to get the mail telling me I could use them)

Great Reads, Gorgeous Looks: My Favourite Dress

Anyone who knows me even vaguely probably knows that I'm an absolute nut for a good read, and even more so when the reading material in question concerns clothes. Which is why, when the blog email inbox was found to contain an offer from Michelle at glassloves to review My Favourite Dress by Gity Monsef, Samantha Erin Shafer and Robert de Niet, it didn't take me longer than a preliminary flick over the text and a few images to say yes, please, I'd love to.

Hamish Bowles, Chanel Printemps – Été 1926
Diane Pernet, Haider Ackermann Autumn-Winter 2009-10
Margaret Howell, Spring-Summer 1982

The concept is a pretty simple one: the authors ask a wide range of people (male and female) involved in the fashion industry(predominantly, the British fashion industry) just what their favourite dress is, and why it is so. A picture or illustration of the garment in question, the date when it was created/acquired, and the material used to make it, accompanies each interviewee's contribution.

Giles, "Carwash" dress, Spring-Summer 2009

Peter Jensen, Spring-Summer 2009

Joe Casely-Hayford, Spring-Summer 1987

The names involved are some of fashion's greatest and most interesting: a tiny handful of the people whose favourite dresses are featured include Alexander McQueen, Daisy de Villeneuve, Diane Pernet, Louise Goldin, Oriole Cullen (of the Victoria and Albert Museum!), Issey Miyake, Mary Quant, Stephen Jones, Boudicca, Bernhard Wilhelm, Romeo Gigli, Rick Owens, Roland Mouret, Hamish Bowles, Vivienne Westwood and Zandra Rhodes. As would be expected, the accompanying photographs (of each person featured, as well as of their dresses) are beautiful, but the real joy lies in two things: the accompanying explanations, which explain the choice and meaning of the dress, and the sheer width of the range of dresses chosen. Not only do they span different styles, from Peter Jensen's almost t-shirt+skirtlike SS2009 pick to the ethereal floatiness of John Galliano's 1996 couture piece and the cagey beauty of Romeo Gigli's choice, but also a long, very long period in time- from the 1920s (Hamish Bowles's winkled-out truffle of an unlabelled Chanel dress from 1926!) to this very season (Haider Ackermann, included courtesy of Diane Pernet). It's quite a lot to take in all in one go, which is fine by me because it's nothing short of an absolute treat- and very importantly, not faffy-sounding like the average coffee-table book. I'll be heading back to some happy browsing after this...

Romeo Gigli, Autumn/Winter 1992-93

Boudicca, Autumn-Winter 2003 "Darko" dress.

In Which I Skewer Incompetent Reportage

My expectations of the Times of India (TOI) on most days, are pretty low. I've called it a tabloid disguised as a broadsheet staffed by idiots and twits with questionable journalistic ethics before, and that opinion still holds good*. Most mainstream media in India, in my experience, have no idea how to deal with the existence of blogs, or how to report on them, or any form of technology-related new developments really.

Which is why the Tabloid of India's attempt to show that it is indeed with the times is not only badly botched, but flat-out laughable. The article in question was a piece about fashion bloggers, which ran in the TOI's weekend edition in Bangalore last Saturday. Leaving aside the supposed tendency to 'narcissim' of people who 'are trying to inspire by 'mixing and not matching', I found it astounding that, in a piece that made constant references to about five different blogs, not a single url was mentioned. It's all very well to tell your readers that the fashion features director of Vogue India blogs, but where the fuck at? It's the online equivalent of, IMO, writing a restaurant review and leaving the address of the restaurant completely out of it. In addition to which, not all the blog authors mentioned are even based in India- the writers of High Heel Confidential write about Bollywood outfits, but they're US-based.

This goes above and beyond the incompetence of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times in their blogger coverage, as pointed out by LLG a couple of months ago. In that case, the WSJ failed to mention blog names and blogger handles in a piece that was about blogs, and both papers made glaring factual errors. The TOI just went one step further by leaving off the urls. I'm happy to know that there are other Indian fashion blogs out there, and it's good that they're getting attention. I just wish the bloody TOI had done its job properly (always a pointless thing to hope for, I've found).

*following an incident at a book launch some years ago. The book in question was edited by the mother of one of my friends, and was an anthology of the work of a dead author. At the event, S (my friend) was cornered by a reporter who wanted to know if she could get an interview with the author.
S: Er, it's a posthumously produced work.
Reporter: Yes, but can I get an interview with the author?
S: *has a hunch, decides to follow up on it*
S: Are you with the Times of India?
Reporter: Yes!

Real-Life Style: In Which I Introduce TC

I've wondered, in the past, why most of the people Vogue and Elle India etc cite as style inspirations of any sort come across as fashion victims whose idea of style is piling one big-name label item of clothing over another, and then adding expensive accessories(answer: they probably are). Most real-life people of my generation don't quite have the label-whore tendencies (can't afford it) but tend to dress in a rather formulaic and unimaginative manner*. Which is why, when I find a style 'bright spot' of sorts, they must be appreciated- like in the picture above. Blog readers, all eighty-odd of you per day, meet TC.

It's not hard to say why exactly I've had a bit of a style crush on TC (my classmate, so nicknamed for her own initials and those of Top Cat) for years. Her look is as varied as it is distinctive- she's dressed as everything from girly to rock chick to relaxed to preppy to whatever, and looked at home in all of it- and she has an excellent eye for colour, silhouette and detail*** (if you don't believe me, look at the picture). Also, in a campus full possible death traps and hilly, pebbly ankle-twisting terrain, it really, really helps that she rarely wears heels. Which flies in the face of fashion wisdom- she's petite- but can make for awesome style. As does the fact that her wardrobe isn't crazy designer expensive stuff - just well-chosen. For the sake of my own eyes, I hope she keeps on with it.

* sample boywear: t-shirt+jeans/baggy pants (maybe a button-down shirt for the adventurous). sample girlwear: kurtas/kurtis/tight t-shirts with skinny jeans or harem pants. I could be missing something, but people here really do all dress alike.
**casually used to the point of seeming instinctive- I've hardly ever seen TC with a fashion magazine....

***picture from Facebook, taken at a concert of sorts. Used with TC's permission. Just so it's clear, the girl in the picture is TC, not me.

RIP Daul Kim

This is heartbreaking news. She was one of my favourite models, not just for her wonderful, unusual looks but for her attitude and ability to express herself- her personality, really, and the fact that she just seemed so interesting - something rare in models these days.

I loved her cartoons (the ones she put up on daulmonster until it became invite-only) and poetry, and the fact that she was so opinionated and unafraid to speak her mind- whether it was to tell off racist show casting policies at Undercover, to weigh in on the question of which was better-Murakami for Louis Vuitton or James Jean for Prada, to talk about Korea, or even to tell off people who called her pictures for i-D pornographic and criticised her for dyeing her hair blonde......she will be missed. My heart goes out to her family and friends- it's always horrible to be the ones left behind.

UPDATE: Daul's blog has now been set to 'private'....way too many irresponsible journalists were taking quotes from it out of context. It's hard not to feel sad about that- the fact that she blogged so much and so often (for a busy model), right till the day before her death, makes it feel like we've lost one of our own even if we didn't know her personally.

Pics from I Like To Fork Myself (Daul's blog) and Kingdom of Style.

Yohji Yamamoto Files For Bankruptcy, Is Saved

It takes no genius to know that the recession absolutely blows for fashion- these are hard times for everyone. But truthfully, being smacked on a Friday night with news of Yohji Yamamoto filing for bankruptcy was a hard blow- hard enough to be the first piece of fashion news to ever bring me close to tears- and I'd have been well over the verge if the article hadn't confirmed that his firm can operate as usual since it found itself an investor.

The NYMag piece said nothing about what was to happen to Y-3 and Limi Feu (I wasn't clear whether the lines were owned by Yohji or not), so I decided to do a little digging around on Integral Corporation, the firm named as the aforementioned new investor. Turns out Integral is a Japanese corporation, and is indeed going to invest in both Yohji Yamamoto Inc. and Limi Yamamoto Inc, allowing them to continue business while the restructuring takes place .

It's rather a huge relief, really. Not only is a rather important design legacy going to carry on, but on a personal level, I'd have been heartbroken if Yohji had to close down while some other houses hired possibly-coke-addled starlets to give "artistic advice" to trained designers and sold unimaginative perfumes and leather rubbish ... but all's well that ends well, and I shall have my wardrobe of romantic angularity and non-traditionally sexy clothes to look forward to when I earn a salary to pay for them with...

And here is the press release announcing the entire thing (click on the link to read the PDF)

PDF version of Integral Corporation press release

Also, RIP Irving Penn.

Inspirations and Preoccupations

The result of stupid weather that can't make up its mind (scorching in the afternoon, rainy and cold all night), discovering the best adventure/fantasy series I've read since first discovering Harry Potter, being left little-toenailless by a freak accident with my doorstop, and being sleepless and almost 25. Also, somewhat underwhelmed by a lot of New York Fashion Week, and by pastels- though they might grow on me yet, and I rather like the braided hair that's been showing up all over the place.

Image credits: (clockwise from top, L-R) The Sartorialist. Jill Furmanovsky, Who Are You, Polly Maggoo?, Style.com, Corinne Day via foto_decadent, wikipedia. So-En magazine, fashionologie, Style.com, Audrey Kawasaki.

Spot The Resemblance, Yet Another Edition

Ann Demeulemeester SS07 Menswear
Screencap from Roswell , episode #1.0 (Pilot)

I suppose it'd be beyond bizarre to think that Ann Demeulemeester, of all people, decided to take inspiration from a long-extinct teen TV show about everyone's favourite silver-handprint-leaving aliens, but the thought was too funny to pass up. Besides, I watched Twilight a couple of weeks ago and honestly cannot see what the fuss is for- if anyone wants sensitive forbidden small-town teen love between a one-part-human, one-part-not-human couple that is absolutely impossible and all the more desired for that, it was done ten years ago, and better -Season 1 is still one of the best things I've watched on TV, ever*.

And as for Cedric Diggory (I cannot think of Rob Pattinson as any character but that, blame my Harry Potter addiction), if anyone has got this far down the post you should definitely watch the video pitting Edward Cullen against another of my 90s/early 00s TV loves- it's brilliantly put together and funny too.

*admittedly, Season 2 went a bit haywire with all the alien stuff- I couldn't bring myself to like it as much, until the end. But it was still Roswell, and I still loved it for that.

picture credits: nymag.com (Ann D.) and crashdown.com (for the screencap)

Ad Campaigns AW09/10: BURBERRY

(c) Burberry/Testino. For bigger pictures, click here.

Given that I was actually not looking forward to the rumoured idea of Chanel ads featuring Emma Watson a while ago*, the above shots of the Burberry AW09/10 campaign featuring, in what's probably become classic Burberry format, that very same young lady decked out in trenchcoats and bags by the Thames, came as a bit of a relief. I can't help thinking she's really a much better fit for Burberry than she'd have been for Chanel- Young London seems like a good thing for her to represent, methinks, if she really has to model (Young Posh London, seems like). And she looks much better here than in a pile of other magazine shoots in couture clothes- more herself, maybe, as opposed to Hermione Granger dressing up - I adore Hermione, but I think outside of the movies, it's nicer to see Emma. And the pictures have a nice London-in-early-fall/winter vibe which I really like, notwithstanding the house checks, which I am no fan of. Besides, it's also probably good publicity for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which I'm rather excited about.

On a side note: I can't be the only blogger to have got this stuff in the inbox (and this is for a blog that went two months without being updated). I know more people got this- what do you guys think of getting all the PR emails and ad stuff? I honestly wasn't planning for this to be my first proper post in donkey's ages, but it just popped up and begged posting about, given that I whinged about the prospect earlier.

*Just to clarify, I think she's lovely. Just maybe a little young and doesn't seem sophisticated enough for a Chanel ad yet.
And if anyone wonders at the teeny-tiny size on the pictures, the email containing them all but ordered all manner of copyright acknowledgements (which I'm happy to give), and the squitty resolution. Fair enough, I guess.

One of those notes I hate leaving..

If anyone is still reading this, posting will resume in ten days. It's been hard of late, given that all my free time seems to have disappeared into a black hole and nearly all the fashion-related news I've been reading is bad (i-D- i-D- going bimonthly instead of monthly, Veronique Braqinho- whose clothes I always dreamed of owning once I started earning a salary I'm now increasingly doubting I'll ever get to- thank you, recession- is closing down, and doom and gloom prevails). But The Force remains with me, and this blog will restart posting fashion-related things soon, instead of silly notes like this one.

Steampunked Up

I can't pinpoint when exactly I developed a soft corner for steampunk (the why, however, is easier to figure out: apart from the obvious aesthetic merits, it was introduced to me by someone I'm really fond of). At a time when anything futuristic was generally imagined as clean lines and pale colours in the vein of the average modern Apple product, I rather liked the throwback feel to it and the slightly rougher, less sanitised look all the gadgets had. It was just a pity I had no idea where to get to see things looking like that in real life, and even less of a chance to acquire them.

Which is why it came as quite the surprise when, on flipping through old articles on Pingmag (my favourite online magazine, and now a victim of the recession- RIP), I found a feature on Haruo Suekichi, real-life maker of steampunk-style timepieces, whose watches are not only beautiful and unique, but innovative too- I bet not too many other watchmakers make watches that don't need two hands to strap on. And even if I can't buy them, I do appreciate the fact that they fulfil the one condition any watch MUST fulfil in order to be loved by me- large faces! It's a wonderful lot to lech at, even if they're not sold outside Japan..pics are above and below.

pics from pingmag.jp and chiefmag.com

In Which I Vociferously Object To Internet Snobs

It isn't exactly breaking news to anyone who's been to Chictopia in the last couple of days, but I was really rather kicked to know that three of the site's users (Karla, Melissa and Linda) had been picked to feature in an American Apparel campaign run in collaboration with Chictopia. I'm not a regular user of the site, but there's no denying that a lot of the girls on it are really incredibly well-dressed, and (as with most personal/streetstyle sites out there) complimentary comments on the outfits invariably follow. And the fact that a lot of bloggers use it as a way to share outfit pictures makes it a fun site to browse- I haven't really see Go Fug Yourself-ish fashion criticism on anyone's pictures. And although American Apparel has more than its fair share of controversy (esp. regarding sexual harassment charges against CEO Dov Charney and their rather, erm, risqué adverts), there's nothing about the Chictopia-collaboration shoot- or what's been seen of it, anyway- that makes me think the images are exploitative, or otherwise suspect.

Which is why I was more than a little surprised to find this post on Jezebel- longtime anti-AA stanceholders, if I remember correctly- with the enlightening caption 'American Apparel Now Sponsoring Bloggers And Porn Stars'. Turns out the 'porn stars' bit of the title referred to some ads run by AA in December, featuring three girls who actually were porn stars, in a rather more advanced state of undress/non-dress than the average American Apparel ad. And I'm not even going into the whole objectification-of-women argument in that particular part of the post, so I'll just (finally) cut to the chase and bang on about why that post irritates me so much.
Simply put, the answer is that it's bloody patronising. Please do tell me if you could read the following lines any other way:

"Chictopia, a fashion social networking site whose genius idea is that users can upload pictures of their outfits for other users to comment on so everyone can feel comfortably supported in her precious online fashion-maven status"

"Chictopia is one of those places where the internet telescopes and distends to the extent that being on Chictopia for other people to comment on and rate becomes prima facie evidence of supposed fashion expertise, which supposed fashion expertise becomes a reason to be on Chictopia for other people to comment on and rate. "

"The entire vain and mindless feedback loop was aptly (though unwittingly) summed up by Mashable, which noted newly minted American Apparel model, Chictopia girl Karla "is a beautiful stylista actively pursuing her passion via Chictopia and creative expression on her own blog." Actively pursuing, people!" "And just as blogging and uploading self-taken pics of your original hipster creations is an ersatz kind of fashion activity.."

"It's unethical to paint this experience as some kind of entrée into fashion modeling. It's just another chance to get your kit off for Dov Charney, only now to even do that, you're expected to be an internet Somebody who can write a gushy post about it."

I suppose the writer really intended to call out American Apparel for exploiting women in its ads (and I can see her point there), but the wording of everything I've placed in italics is just IMO horrible, snobbish and when taken in conjunction with the title, misleading to boot- the post was illustrated with two sets of NSFW photographs of the AA ads featuring porn stars, with no images of the Chictopia shoot- so anyone reading the post could probably assume all the images were like that, if they wanted to. And outfit photo sharing is nothing new- TFS, MyStyleDiary, Modepass and a whole range of sites including personal fashion blogs have long been places for people to do exactly that.

But what really surprised me was the snarking about the Chictopia participants themselves- none of whom were directly quoted (even if someone else's gushy post about Karla was used as evidence that Karla needs to be snarked about, too). That, and the bitchiness about Internet outfit-sharers. Apparently our vain, mindless feedback-loop-stuck wannabe hipster fashion-maven selves (wow, we wear a lot of hats don't we? though I must admit, I'm no outfit sharer) haven't any business engaging in 'ersatz fashion activity', and somehow active pursuit of one's interests via a blog isn't really active pursuit, or any kind of creative expression, at all. By the time I got to the middle of the post (which is where the last line quoted came from), I was wondering just why the writer sounded so bitter- and then I scrolled up and discovered that it was Tatiana, The Anonymous Model, Jezebel's (it's self-explanatory, really) anonymous contributor who is in fact a real-life fashion model.

To be honest, it makes a whole pile of sense that someone who is a professional model would feel annoyed that a bunch of regular girls with nothing more than their cameras and computers, are doing something that resembles her job (posing and making clothes look good) and doing it well enough for a large clothing company to sit up and take notice. Sure, maybe no one's getting a modelling career out of this, as Tatiana pointed out, but it's well and truly possible that no one even assumed that this was going to lead to anything of the sort. And IMO it's rather blindingly obvious that the 'ersatz fashion activity' Tatiana seems to hold in such contempt is intended to stand- at least, so the article seems to imply in direct contrast to Tatiana's own- more legitimate, by inference, given her professional status- 'genuine' fashion activity, the kind girls with cameras don't (and shouldn't, is the feeling coming off this) get to engage in.

I'm all for questioning suspect professional ethics and the objectification of women, and sexual harassment in the workplace is not cool AT ALL. But frankly, Tatiana's post on Jezebel seems to direct more bile at Chictopia and at the bloggers from there who participated in the campaign, than at the murky workings of American Apparel- and I don't buy the bullshit that any of it was somehow cool, or feminist in any way. I've enjoyed many of Tatiana's behind-the-scenes accounts of what it's like to be a model and a girl working in fashion, but this time, really, shame on her, and shame on Jezebel.


picture from Chictopia

Hoods Up

I've always been a big fan of hoods on clothes, and living in a place with next to nothing by way of a proper winter tends not to be a good thing if one is fonder of wearing winter clothes than summer clothes. Hoods have had a bit of a bad name in recent years thanks to their sweatshirt avatars (which I love anyway, so-called chav/other associations notwithstanding), but a slightly structured hood is, IMO, one of the coolest ways to add drama to an outfit while simultaneously letting it be practical. In fact, no one puts it better than Dreamecho, who once said, in response to my drooling over the lovely Prairie Underground hooded jacket she'd showcased on her blog:

"The drama of the hood...where at one moment we can cloak our faces in shadow and at another be visible to all the world."
That pretty much sums it all up, really- it's odd that a simple attachment to a garment has so much potential to look austere (I keep thinking of monks) and relaxed at the same time. And I suspect this dichotomy is what keeps my fascination with hoods going (that and the fact that they saved my ears from freezing off through five successive North Indian winters), and it's unlikely to stop any time soon. Spring might be not too far away, but large chunks of the Northern hemisphere are still cold, and sometimes hats are just too much of a pain to take on and off.
And now, in pictures:

Needs no explanation, really: probably the first character one thinks of when thinking of the word 'hood'.

Though I bet Queen Michelle could kick a wolf's ass: the hood might not have been the main focus of her outfit here, but I do prefer her version of the look for its lack of 'scared little girl' vibe.

Hoods are whimsical, cutely worn, and above all, they look warm.

And dramatic, too (L: by Michelle Lowe-holder, R: by Prairie Underground)

And who says they're for girls/winter only?(Yoshio Kubo SS09)

pictures from: (1: elfwoordart, 2: Kingdom of Style, 3:The Facehunter, 4: pic from Michelle Lowe-Holder via Bored&Beautiful, pic from Prairie Underground via dreamecho, 5: pic from The Imagist).

And Look Who's Back..

LLG returns! I'm grinning like a loon at the thought of one of my all-time favourite bloggers making a comeback to the blogosphere...2009 is awesome :). And if you've read this far, click on the link already!

A string of paper submissions, viva voces, and now exams in quick succession have officially shot my resolution to blog (like, actually blog) more into little bitty pieces, but someday when I'm less tired, I shall blog (and now I understand why Fops and Dandies shut down on heading off to law school, though my law school is nowhere near as taxing as hers).