Collage

Collage is my personal favorite art form because it's so easy to create something visually compelling. Interesting image juxtapositions lend themselves to greater meaning, even if at the time I have no idea what the hell I'm doing. The work of a genius artist has layers of meaning that are carefully planned, but right now I have no interest in being a genius. Thank god.

Do not go gentle into that good night

I can't believe I'm even writing this. McQueen took his own life? After releasing one of the most innovative, critically-acclaimed, beautiful, genius collections in recent memory? After surviving Isabella Blow's suicide? Terrible news.

CDG F09

I am honestly not a big fan of Comme des Garcons - Rei Kawakubo and Junya Watanabe create innovative works of art, but I like my clothes to be comfortable and wearable - I like when I don't notice my clothing because it isn't restricting my movement in any way.

That being said, the CDG Fall 2009 collection has (retroactively) blown my mind. This fall, I went to Barneys to creepily peruse/touch/lust over the fifth floor ready-to-wear stuff, and I saw some of the blanket-coats while I was hysterically trying on Rodarte. I remember not liking the design, because the coats over the blankets frequently ended at awkward lengths, with the ballooning fabric of the blankets resulting in an awkwardly pregnant-like silhouette (part of this neurosis around fit comes from my having a larger-than-usual chest. Girls with A cups can wear anything and look cool-cute. Girls with C cups risk looking pornish, cheesy, awkward, and a whole host of other bad adjectives).

After reading this article by Robin Givhan of the Washington Post, my whole outlook on the collection changed. Givhan uses an anecdote about a homeless woman she saw begging during the Paris shows, and astutely connects it to Kawakubo's intentions when creating this characteristically inscrutable collection. Givhan's observation is spot on. Although I would have never associated homelessness with high fashion, particularly because the more obvious sensory aspects of it are removed in a runway context (let's face it, eau de Colt 45 and Crack-Cocaine wouldn't sell very well), the bundled coats, bare-foot-painted shoes, and swaddled-kiss face coverings of CDG's show are distinctly homeless-inspired. I can't really summarize the genius of this collection or its review: reading and viewing both is required to really get them.

Fashion is rarely successfully intellectual, but Kawakubo's collection makes an adept portrayal of the hypocrisy of a society where fashion shows can coexist with those begging to survive.

*photo courtesy of Style.com

Rodarte x Target Giveaway

The (in)famous Tavi Gevinson had a Rodarte for Target giveaway on her blog a month or two ago, and I was fortunate enough to win one of the sweaters she gave away. This is what I wrote to win:

"the clothes the mulleavy sisters make look like some kind of evanescent floating magic that's chosen to sit on your body because it wants to- and might take flight any second. Their clothes remind me of swimming in a river where decaying leaves turn the water red, listening to punk rock while driving around with all the windows open in the cold, and exploring abandoned hospital buildings. Basically, these clothes remind me of how imagination and thinking outside the confines of every day life can allow you to experience life in ways you never thought possible. Pretentious as hayl, i know. BTW your blog is fun to read!"

Rodarte has been an obsession of mine since I read a feature on the Mulleavy sisters in the New York Times' "T" Women's Fashion magazine a few years ago, called Scissor Sisters, by Mark Jacobs (no, not that one). I was largely disappointed in their Target collaboration, mainly because it looked nothing like their high fashion collections - the subpar quality was just to be expected (it is Target).

I'll add pictures once I find my camera charger.