Thursday, January 31, 2019

Shape Shifter

U.S. designers are often accused of not being creative enough. Having taught at F.I.T., I can attest to the fact that we encourage students to plumb the depths of their artistic inclinations but once they leave school and take practical industry jobs, their individual voices are often constrained in an effort to make clothing more "saleable." 

Sometimes it's just nice to appreciate original thought and artistic expression even if the audience is very limited. Looking past the specific styling and photography of each of the pieces below, I truly think I would wear almost all of these except perhaps the last one.

Dagmar Kestner
Jillian Carozza
Madame Germany September 2014
Tahir Sultan
Charlotte Muller F/W 2011-2012
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Monday, January 28, 2019

Suprematism

I'm decently knowledgeable about modern art but I had never heard of Suprematism until I meandered through a small exhibit at the MoMa a few years ago.  Since I'm always attracted to stripes, color blocking, and graphic patterning, the work resonated with me instantly.

Founded by Kazimir Malevich around 1915, Russian Suprematism is an abstract art movement which focuses on basic geometric shapes like the circle, rectangle, and square painted in a narrow range of colors. The Suprematists eschewed the typical depiction of objects in favor of what Malevich deemed the "supremacy of pure artistic feeling" in a quest to reach the point of absolute zero where art ceases to be art. (It's called "Abstract" for a reason.)

Suprematism is the kind of art that makes people who can't draw a stick figure say, "That's art? My 2-year old could do better!" But like all forms of artistic expression, it is the artist's mission statement, the context and time in which it is created, and the body of work in it's totality that defines and clarifies it's purpose.

Because the shapes are so simple, it might be hard to say there's a direct connection from Suprematism to contemporary fashion but perhaps through time and space, there's a connection of the collective unconscious from one form of expression to another.

Kazemir Malevich, The Black Square, 1923
No. 21 S/S 2015
Kazemir Malevich, Black Circle, 1915
Yohji Yamamoto
Anrealage Circular Cardigan
Akris as seen in Oyster Magazine, 2015
Kazemir Malevich, Hieratic Suprematist Cross, 1928
Damir Doma S/S 2014
Source Unknown

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Thursday, January 24, 2019

Pointelle

It's freezing here in NYC but I'm thinking about Resort 2020 for work.

Marie Claire Australia
Vogue Ukraine
Chanel

Thursday, January 10, 2019

Here Comes the Cavalry

American Western and cowboy influenced trends are still going strong.

Gioia Magazine

Värld Magazine

Elle Canada November 2018

An oldie but I still love it.

Scotch & Soda

Monday, January 7, 2019

Fantastic Non-Fair Isles

The use of "Fair Isle" to describe every geometric motif sweater of a particular style is just plain wrong. The origins of true Fair Isle sweaters come from one of the Shetland Islands off the coast of Scotland known as-you guessed it-Fair Isle. Everything else is just a nice jacquard.

Design Scene Magazine

Source Unknown

This Sacai knit outfit shot by Andreas Ortner for L'Officiel Switzerland is just stunning. It has fringe so of course I love it! And while its more Native American influenced rather than Fair Isle-esque I'm using a a little artistic license to include it.

Sacai

Thursday, January 3, 2019

Grungy

I spent my late teenage years in the age of grunge. The clothing we wore could not have been any less sexy. Oversized, boyish, baggy, and well...grungy they were a far cry from the form-fitting outfits I see on 13 year old girls prancing around NYC today. 

Fashion trends are often recycled but they never really come back around exactly the same way; and in my opinion, that's usually a good thing. It's been 25 years since Marc Jacobs was unceremoniously fired from his post at Perry Ellis so to commemorate the event, he's reissued 26 of the most iconic looks from his 1993 Collection. As a Generation X'er who worshipped Nirvana, it feels a bit inauthentic to see Gigi Hadid modeling the "New Grunge" so it remains to be seen if this is simply Marc celebrating Marc or if Millennials will be able to reinvent the trend and make it their own.


L'Officiel December 2018
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Marc Jacobs Resort 2019
Marc Jacobs Resort 2019
Marc Jacobs - The Redux Grunge Collection

Naomi Campbell and Kristin McMenamy in Marc Jacobs for Perry Ellis shot by Steven Meisel for Vogue December, 1992

Vogue

The Redux Grunge Collection 1993/2018 is available for purchase at Marc Jacobs.