Filed under: Lanvin
… except, actually, snakes. How did we miss Lanvin’s witchy-gypsy awesomer-than-McQueen pythons for S/S2012?! Eat your face out, also, Merry X-Mas and Happy New Year and all that sh*t.
-Elliot
Filed under: Musings
Yes, this jacket is Margiela. Jesus.
In terms of all things beautiful, check out our friend’s Tumblr – cdsd.tumblr.com. It’s spectacular. It’s color-coordinated-designer-eye-drugs for the young and graphic savvy.
-Elliot
Filed under: Givenchy
Givenchy literally taking the trend (Hawaiiana) to print in this S/S2012 campaign. I JUST wanted to tell you that I still love it.
-Elliot Brady
Filed under: Yves Saint Laurent
Maria Carla in drag-brows! Yves Saint Laurent S/S2012 campaign first ruh-lease:
Those cheekbones are telling you to go f*ck yourself.
YSL is lame. Everyone is LAME.
-Elliot Zhukova
Filed under: Musings
I wish I had the gumption to make a list like Isabel, but, I can’t, because I have OCD and can’t stop freaking out about EVERYTHING for some reason and not in a good way. Think hypochondria mixed with “I hope people like what I got them for Christmas” with a vague skepticism of my going-on-10-years drinking habit mixed with what the hell am I doing back in New York City? I hate it here! Well, no matter, I leave again in 2 days and will be gone ’til November. LIKE WYCLEF.
So instead of a list, I’m giving you the gift of song, by way of this bubbly little pop tart Jessie J. The song is called Domino and I’m obsessed with it. I was dancing so hard to it, in fact, that I almost totaled my Nissan Sentra into a Mobil oil truck today on the Long Island Expressway. I’m fairly certain that if that had happened, I would have ruined Christmas for a lot of people. And I should note, the Sentra is not mine, as I prefer cars that aren’t total pieces of sh*t. But, I needed something to get me to THE MALL so I could finish my gift shopping.
Now I’m home straight chillin’ and I’ve been looking through pre-fall 2012 some more after our Proenza review, and I’ve decided that I really like this look from 3.1 Phillip Lim:
Kind of cool right? I guess Lim isn’t the most tender cutlet of veal in the expensive Italian deli, but hay girl, he always has something going on which looks put together and not… annoying.
Threesomes are the new PS 1 bag… They cost 2000 dollars and Freja has tons of them.
KISSES, -Elliot Swanepoel
Filed under: Musings
I love lists. Ugh, I love them so much. These are The Best Things That Have Happened This Year in Fashion and Other Places.
1. This. 100 percent, no questions.
2. Guest DJ sets by The Knocks. Aviici/Knocks remix. Knocks up in the LES. The Knocks are never NOT DJ’ing. The Knocks are DJ’ing my wedding to Mac Miller.
3. I know Mac Miller’s not technically a “this year” thing, buttttttttt, hay, call me.
4. FAST FOOD ALL OVER YOUR DOLCE TUX.
5. This Freja/Arizona Tumblr. Check it.
After carrying her sad clown inside, Arizona said, “I have a joke for your act,” and Freja looked at her hopefully, “Tell it to me.”
“Okay,” Arizona said, “The joke is… Saskia de Brauw for Chanel.”
Freja was just getting to know Arizona. Life was changing so fast. There was the ghost of her old party nights and the excitement of her new butterfly filled days.
Freja was in love. All those afternoons, walking around the city with Arizona, looking in little shops and making fun of Arizona because she doesn’t book as much runway so she can’t afford nice things.
6. WONGS.
7. I’m so young money. Realllll ni**a whasssup.
-Isabel MUSE
Filed under: Proenza Schouler
At some point, the proliferation of seasonal and sub-seasonal collections is going to have to stop (as in, stiletto-brake-pedal-to-the-metal style). Pre-Fall? Soon enough the fashion cycle is going to see capsule collections with labels like, “January 15-Wear” or “Galaxy-Cruise: Sub-Orbital Sportswear for Tropospheric Flights” (Christopher Kane would go INSANE). Indeed, the breakdown from the standard calendar help keeps the top consumers interested (what’s the rule? 80% of your business comes from 8% of your customers?), but it’s getting to the point where designers feel they just have to throw something together, the realization of which seems, well, contrived. Cue: Proenza Schouler.
Proenza Schouler is usually NY’s proverbial money-shot, but they’ve slipped up as of late, and Pre-Fall 2012 shows no signs of stabilization. Perhaps it’s knowing they’ve got some 90 million dollars of Andrew Rosen’s money behind them, cushioning their confidence, giving them a bit of an invincibility complex. Or, perhaps, it’s the tired cliche of using the Himalayas as a literal reference point for designing clothes, let alone anything. An example? This tweed, emerald and neon blue parka (also, though previously praised on this blog, PS needs to do some unpredictable colors… these are so obvious!):
Basically, this is a winter jacket, just done-up fancy. Unlike, say, Jonny Johansson’s ACNE collection for S/S2012 which masterfully avoided the cliches associated with geographic inspiration (Marrakech, in Johansson’s case), Jack and Lazaro literally took prints of mountainous terrain they found on Google earth and printed them on silk. It is a sign of something many have overlooked – these guys are still only 10 years old, and in a way the press (especially New York based media) put them too high on the ladder, thereby rendering a whole lot of pressure and expectation in the backwash which they have not met. This collection especially looks a little like they’re back at Parsons. Utilitarian quilted cargo-pocketed dresses just seems… it seems young. Young in a bad way. Here’s hoping they transition soon, if not for their own sake, but for American fashion’s (at least these two are in better standing than the disaster that is the Alexander Wang empire).
-Elliot Mora Dyer
Filed under: Musings
Hi World,
I just got back to NYC last night. As soon as I landed I went to the Fat Radish and saw Liv Tyler sitting in that front banquette with her boyfriend who was wearing the Givenchy rottweiler shirt and kept photographing Tyler and other people in the restaurant with some big silver camera. The place I just got back from was Palm Beach. I kind of went to see my family, but ended up sitting at a table outside of ****** at one thirty in the morning plotting a charity Easter egg hunt a mile a minute and somehow I agreed to produce an actual Faberge egg as the prize for the person who gathers the most eggs. DID NOT mention cocaine. I was in New York before that (with Elliot!) and came to the realization that it’s becoming harder for me to try and have a serious conversation with someone without thinking what they’re saying is funny cause I could answer with some rap lyrics…or mock imitate those brilliant Chloe Sevingy videos. Before that I was in Paris. Elliot HATES Paris. That’s cause he’s an a$$hole. I bet if we did a Colette/Azealia Banks collaboration called 212 with an after party at the Ritz and invited tons of black hipsters from the LES and Harlem (hahahahahahahahahahhahaha what’s Louis mah killah?) Elliot would LOVE Paris again. I’m going back to Palm Beach Thursday and frankly, my mind is about to explode.
-Isabel Pitney
Filed under: Bottega Veneta
On a rare music kick today! I normally actually kind of hate music. But today I’m in to it, perhaps brought on by a just as rare RIHANNA MOSH PIT AT WESTWAY this past WEDNESDAY.
So, here, happy Christmas, I just bought you your next playlist AKA Bottega Veneta’s Intreccio Uno – a newly released collection of songs which, according to the press release, help “define” the brand – in-store songs, runway songs, office songs. Ya know how we do.
I’m just going to write what I scribbled in my SMYTHSON MONOGRAMMED PLANNER when I listened in, because it’s insane. Everything is entered exactly as it was written, no edits.
Jonny Trunk’s Sister Woo is a track (I think that’s how it’s named, ambiguity exists when Googled) which I can’t really wrap my head around but it’s awesome. Base and snare drums with a hollow jazzy beat. Almost anti-melodic but INSURMOUNTABLY cool. Screaming lady vocals.
LISTEN TO Francis Lai’s Un Homme et Une Femme – Parisian delicacy, like cake, like low-fat cake. And wind. But more of a breeze, and a coffee and a cigarette, sitting on the Palais de Tokyo’s steps and it’s F*CKING springtime.
How You Like Me Now by The Heavy – BIG horns, walk-it-out music for people who have to practice their runway strut at least 1x daily. Soulful voice! Jesus!
Chilly Gonzalez’s Apple commercial hit with the piano keys! OMG! Finger snapping. Hip as f*ck.
Lindstrom and Christabelle. You better know it.
See? I’m pretty sure this is the best review I’ve ever written of anything.
-Elliot Al-Khaled
Filed under: Musings
Jumping on the media-hypebeast bandwagon here a bit, but, I think it’s entirely necessary and appropriate to discuss Harlem’s newest ingenue Azealia Banks. Banks is, and we know she knows it. You know how some people have swagger? And some just don’t? Banks gots it.
She started takin’ over the blogosphere a few weeks ago and I didn’t think all that much of her. Then, I saw her at Le Baron in London straddling the Micky Mouse sculpture’s penis (Le Baron London has a statue by an artist I can’t remember of Micky Mouse with a gigantic d*ck) and making a V-shape with her fingers over her mouth. So there was a bit of LOVE thus starting to come around. Then, in the hungover wash of this week (as in, trying to piece back together exactly what happened after 10PM on any given night), a friend reminded me of “212″ – Banks’ “hit” release – so I gave it another try. It’s been 12 hours and I’ve almost got it memorized.
So what is it then about Banks’ kind of bootlegged EP that has the world going freaking crazy over her? I’ll tell you. It’s nasty. It’s soooo nasty. She’s born in 1991 and spitting fire about cunnilingus, transgressing conventional rap and basic-bitch-lyrics (sorry, Nicki, this girl has got you beat) with crazy rhymes, trip-up-but-delivered-clean word pairings and a whole lot of new phraseology that I am going to use #IN #REAL #LIFE.
She also is just so relaxed, like, standing against a brick wall and saying things like, “What’s your d*ck like n*gga?” in pig-tails and jean cutoffs. I get it. I get Azealia Banks. Let’s hope her pairing with Paul Epworth in London-done ends up as good as the hypesters think it will be.
-Elliot (Missing London!)
