sketchy.

Do you remember June, when I had loads to write about? 'Tis but a distant memory now.

August is a slow month, and I've been preoccupied with moving and making as much money as possible from ebay and car boot sales to help with that (and I'm moving countries, nonetheless - I'm off to Berlin next Tuesday for seven months or more, so hopefully I'll have more to write about there... *shrug*)

Anyway.

Enough about me.

I came across illustrator Rachel Meckling on tumblr and instantly loved her sketchy illustrations - the pencil faces are adorable and the colours and patterns on the clothes are fantastic. Some of her drawings below include looks by House of Holland, Band of Outsiders and LAMB, and her blog contains lots more sketchy girls with cute faces and abstract photography.

uncle karl for the masses.

Karl Lagerfeld for Macy's.

Chanel style for the everyday American (I assume it won't be available outside the US... does Macy's online ship oversees?)

etc

etc

pics from tom&lorenzo

I love the first dress. The leatherette trousers/high necked top combo is awesome, if a little something-Rachel-from-Friends-would've-worn-in-the-late-90s, and that last coat seems - teehee - a little familiar (sos, but black/white/grey flecked wool coats with a military whiff are always gonna make me smirk in a knowing fashion from now on.), but everything has the kind of look and feel of Chanel on a budget. Which makes sense, since Karl is so much more known for Chanel and his sunglasses than he is his own label anymore...

PS, you have seen Karl-sans-sunnies by now, yes?

hailee vs elle.

imgs from Tom&Lorenzo & fashionista

That is, Hailee Steinfeld (for Miu Miu) and Elle Fanning (for Marc by Marc Jacobs), both shot by big name photogs (Bruce Weber and Juergen Teller respectively)
These have been around for a while, and I've seen a lot of opinions on the subject. Since it kind of ties into my dissertation subject*, I like to think I have something to add.

Both labels are aimed 'at the younger customer', so from that point of view it makes sense to feature teen actresses, but the main negative point I've noticed around (in comments, if not in blog posts etc) is that 'they look like little girls playing dress up' or 'do the designers think these girls can sell clothes to adult women?', which is never something I hear about 15-year-old professional models...

Anyway, I think Elle Fanning has rather an Olsen vibe, if anything. Yes the clothes are too big, but it's all down to the styling, non? That is the look? I'm sure they could've found sizes (or made them up for the campaign) which would've fit Elle better, but the look in the ads reflects the feel of the collection, and it works for this season.

Hailee, on the other hand, veers from looking far too smartly dressed, to looking younger than her age, to looking much older. That second shot, for example, makes me stop and double take. Whether the styling or her pose, it suggests a much more mature model than Hailee's years. And the third shot's pose suggests a little girl lost and crying... I wouldn't be surprised if the aim of either campaign, after having secured such stars, would want to embrace the 'little girl playing dress up' theme - if everyone knows who these girls are, then we're going to comment on their age in relation to the target market anyway...

Alright, so, I have chosen the best shots, and in some of the others both girls does look a lot younger (or, yknow, their age), but if they were models, rather than actresses, and we didn't know their ages, would we question it?

*what, I wrote about celebs and fashion and ads were part of that. Perfectly qualified; shutup.

baby love.

Perfect editorial alert.

I've already spotted this on a blog or two (these imgs came from cat party - a great inspiration blog, if you don't know it) - Baby Love from V Magazine.

As the name suggest, there's a 60s girlgroup feel to the styling, and the coats in the first shot are espesh wonderful (need the houndstooth/checky number on the right, plz.)

Love the print/texture mix throughout, too.

shoes, hats, etc

fashion156's couture gardening issue is out - a bizarre title, but accurate with all the trees in the shoot and florals on the clothes. I'm mainly blogging this for the styling - some great pieces, some great show/sock combos and some fantastic hats/headwear.

Must take a closer look at the hats in Rokit next time I'm London-bound; as all the hats featured here are from there (apart from the Silken Flowers turban in img 7), while stand out shoes from Claire Davis (the comfy looking - probably deceptively so - shoes in img 1) and Tessa Edwards (img 2) are not helping my shoelust ONE LITTLE BIT.

Great pieces featured are from old fave Hermione de Paula (imgs 1&5) as well as Eugene Lin (img 2) and Ostwald Helgson (the gorgeous skirt and shirt in img 6).

Y'know what's hard? Looking at nice clothes and shoes and hats when you have no money and (currently) no job prospects.

all walks.

All Walks Beyond The Catwalk launched almost 2 years ago - London Fashion Week, September 2009. In their own words:

"All Walks Beyond the Catwalk is an initiative founded by Caryn Franklin, Debra Bourne and Erin O’Connor working with influential Catwalk designers and top industry creatives to celebrate more diversity within the fashion industry."

I bring it up now as this year, All Walks had a stand and did some press at GFW (they did last year, too, but I wasn't there in 2010), and beforehand, Caryn Franklin made the trip up north to give a (really interesting) talk at Northumbria.

That was, of course, some months ago (April, I think? Maybe even March...) but that's when the work started to pile up and I never did get round to writing about the project.

It's an inspiring one, though - the mission is, ultimately, to change the way the fashion industry works, encouraging diversity in the industry, changing the way the media presents fashion, and showing women everywhere that the beauty standard is not the tall, thin, young and white look set by the industry (for the most part) today.

Rankin shoot//i-D shoot - from allwalks.org

In their two short years, the project has launched high profile campaigns - features in i-D, events at LFW and GFW, and at the National Portrait Gallery - and has attracted big name designers (Vivienne Westwood, Matthew Williamson, Stella McCartney etc) and other big industry names (Rankin shot the first big campaign, above) as well as new names on the scene (Mark Fast, David Koma, Hannah Marshall etc). With the big, influential names of the future now getting involved, it's easy to assume that progression has been made, but only time will tell.

At Northumbria, Caryn talked a little about All Walks, but also about women, media, fashion and beauty in general and raised some points I couldn't ignore. Trying to decipher my months-old notes is a challenge, but my scribbles include points like:

- caucasian women, on average, have lower self esteem than those of colour, and are more represented in fashion. Coincidence?

- manipulation of images damages mental health, but while it's illegal to misrepresent a fridge, for example, in advertising etc, you can change a man or woman's body beyond recognition without anyone batting an eyelid.

- the availability of catwalk images compared to 30 years ago means we are now reaching a global audience, which means model's looks are too.

Most impotantly to me, I think, she asked, do designers not have the skills to dress women of different body types?

I can assure you, we aren't taught such skills. We aren't taught to grade patterns (how hard can that be?) or what flatters someone who isn't model-sized. There isn't time, I suppose - on my course, there wouldn't be the time/money/resources to produce a collection in final year for anyone who wasn't model sized, for example, but somewhere in the 4 years (or even on a 3 year course), would there not be room for a project for a plus-sized women, or a petite women, for example? I've certainly seen a couple of jobs advertised for plus sized designers which I haven't applied for, knowing I'm not confident that I could design successfully for such a customer.

That isn't to my advantage.

In fact, it's to no one's advantage.

All Walks is doing something important and necessary; something I hope any other bloggers reading this can appreciate. The majority of bloggers are real people with real body shapes; a lot of you work in the industry, or are hoping to at some point. You can get involved and raise awareness with a quick visit to the site (linked at the top of the page). I can only encourage you to get your tutors/bosses involved too, or spread the word if you can.

In the meantime, follow All Walks and Caryn Franklin on twitter...

shipley lates.

well, this is a week late...

last friday was the Fashion Fix event at the Shipley art gallery in Gateshead; it was pretty cool. there was a talk from Kim Howells (more below...) and a couple of 'vintage fashion shows', plus a pop up shop from Hey Baby Chief Panda, which is a vintage shop run by two ex-art students which is just down the road from me (i bought a huge army jumper and a duck-egg blue calf length skirt from them...)

pics below include lots of paper dresses (as made by various members of my class/other people from around uni. one of our tutors was working on these at the event); the DJ; a sign attached to one of the pieces in the pop-up shop and some illustrations as done by our illustration tutor, Ann, some 1st&2nd year students and me; and some bridges from the walk back to where i left my bike...

click the pics for a bigger image (hopefully)




Kim Howells (and her blog) is a stylist based in London, and she's worked at Dazed&Confused, and with Nicola Formichetti, and now consults/works with David Koma, Atlanta Weller, Craig Lawrence, Hannah Marshall and Fred Butler, as well as styling for Coco Sumner and Skunk Anansie. AND she's responsible for the House of Organza project (which I've written about before; as with Craig Lawrence...), so I was kinda a fan without realising it; and it was great to meet her, and a great night.

lates at museums are a pretty regular event at the Shipley/around Newcastle, though not fashion related ones particularly - i talked to some women who'd been to the pottery one and they'd made pots and everything! - but i assume this isn't a Newcastle specific thing at all; so i'd recommend any fashion-based (or indeed, any) lates at a gallery near you if you can!

orthodox.

it's been a while since i wrote anything vice-based, but this was on vice style recently and i was intrigued.

copenhagen based design duo uncommon creatures were inspired by hasidic jewish fellows for this collection; and though the inspiration is clear in these pics (both from vice style), i also find quite a cool and inspiring look.... hmm.

of their inspiration, uncommon creatures say, "it’s simple, mystical, and has a monochrome color scheme and great silhouette we can make use of." - exactly. it's almost universal, like, if you hadn't been told the inspiration, would you have seen it? or would you have made the leap to "cool, easy, monochrome layering"?

exactly.

amusing fact: my draft of this was saved as 'vice jews', in lieu of thinking up a proper title until posting time...