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)