Check out this short film entitled ‘TAKE MY PICTURE’ from GARAGE Magazine, exploring the warp speed rise of the fashion bloggers + street style stars phenomenon juggernaut, during the fashion shows.  Initially, the film started as a voyeuristic project to study this phenomenon, yet, during footage review, two trends became apparent – the incessant frustration shared by fashion editors due to the chaos outside fashion shows + the ‘peacocking’ street style stars, hence the title.  Style.com’s Editor-At-Large Tim Blanks even goes on to question why there are so many more cameras outside + for what – what do they plan to do with the content?  True, this commotion brings a whole new brand of dialogue to fashion + injects it with a new sense of vitality, but, does it bastardize it too?

(via GARAGE) 

Deep in Vogue on Nowness.com.

Fall deep in love with the short ‘Deep In Vogue’ featuring New York Ballroom Legend Dashaun Wesley, of the House of Evisu, turning it out!  Directed by photographer + filmmaker Michael Hemy, the essence of voguing is perfectly captured through a narrative conceived by NY journalist + entrepreneur Robert Cordero.  Through every floor slam, dip and layout, as Dashaun manages to captivate + engage you, you are transported to a smoke-filled room full of sweat, lots of love, pumping beats + plenty of shade.

‘You can almost feel the camera shaking and hear the crowd go wild when you see him perform a drop,’ says Hemy of Wesley’s Vogue Femme technique which evolved from generations’ previous methods.

In the Eighties, while Willie Ninja, the grandfather of Voguing, was tearing up the NY scene, this dance style was part of an underground movement among the city’s black + Latino gay communities. Yet, it’s not so much about style as much as it is about telling a story through movement – the moves might all be the same, like the flick of your hand or the twirl of your head, yet, everyone’s own personal space is unique + therefore, interpreted differently, every time.

(via NOWNESS)

For Fall, COMMES des GARÇONS Beautifully Demonstrates How Tailoring Has No Limits

Conventionally, we are used to pants only having two legs + jackets only having two arms, but when there’s any change involved that affects either, it usually includes a change in width, draping, length, stitching + fit.  Yet, in Rei Kawakubo’s hands, she redefined + challenged convention, resulting in pushing the limits of tailoring, where such rules were broken, with artistic bravado, for COMMES des GARÇONS RTW Fall 2013 collection.  According to WWD, backstage post-show Kawakubo mumbled,

                                                      ‘The infinity of tailoring.’  

While her husband Adrian Joffe added, ‘Everything you can do with a jacket + pants.’

A longtime fan of the iconic label myself, I especially loved how the majority of the looks used men’s wear fabrics like pinstripes + gray Prince of Wales, giving it that feminine masculine edge.  There were pants that were the length of schoolboy short, like a uniform, cinched in the front as if done so by staples, while having another pair with a half-skirt, made of  swatches of fabric stitched together, giving off the look of unfinished ruffles. Then you had these other pants, in what appears to be red velvet, with a front slit + giant rosettes, a detail that was present in a lot of the other looks (rows2-3, look3).

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Some jackets took on a puffer look, with ‘blown-up’ sleeves with the lapels purposely folded in, which was a nice touch.  Others looked as if they were attacked by bows, which were strategically placed, creating a beautiful effect.

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There were also other jackets that looked like they had flotation devices running up along the sleeves, covered in the same fabric.

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The collection stuck to a palette of grays, blacks, navys + pockets of deep red until the end of the collection, where you’re smacked with color + pattern, but boy, what a feeling.  The cuts + folds were classic CDG + the patterns, maybe the florals in look1.  But Kawakubo did not create these prints (as they could easily pass as her work), but rather, the work of outsider artist Dan Michiels from Creativity Explored, an organization in San Fran that works + aids artists with developmental disabilities (revealed to me, thanks to Susie Bubble), reinterpreted into prints for CDG’s confections.  For some, they could have easily been viewed as tacky, but the complexity of Michiels mind, made real in color + shape, as print on clothing by master shapeshifter Kawakubo, was just destiny waiting to happen.image

(photos: Giovanni Giannoni)

(via WWD)

The Humorous Most Comfortable Heel Ever Made By Be & D

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The ‘City Sneakers’ designed by Be & D, were invented as the most comfortable heels to not hurt your feet.  By taking an American classic such as the high-top sneaker, then hand-painting a pink stiletto on it’s side would make even René Magritte LOL – ‘ceci n’est pas a talon’ (‘this is not a stiletto’) don’t you think?  

Available at Colette.

Junya Watanabe Redefines The Biker Jacket For Fall

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For Junya Watanabe’s RTW Fall 2013 collection, the common key denominator was the biker jacket but in several variations.  You had leather, tartan + denim pieced together to create moto dresses like the beauty above whereas in other cases, you had wool versions with leather sleeves and vice versa.  The best, I think, was the biker + varsity jacket combo as in look 1 below – very clever.  I loved the primary tartan throughout the collection in bright orange with navy + white.

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The other dresses and skirts ranged from fishtail to asymmetrical, in wool + in stitched denim, which looked great with a cognac color leather biker jacket with tartan sleeves (above, look4).  There were also patchwork jeans with swatches of tartan + leather, which I’m sure the DIYers will be all over, creating their own versions come Fall.  This was also an opportunity for Watanabe to debut some bags + looks from his capsule collab with Spanish luxe brand Loewe.image

(photos: Giovanni Giannoni)

(via WWD)

Motocross & Brocade Inspires Jean-Paul Lespagnard For Fall

Interesting cuts + brocade translated Belgian designer Jean-Paul Lespagnard‘s inspiration of a woman obsessed with motocross who gets dressed to join her lover as he returns from fishing, for the RTW Fall 2013 collection.  Now one might question how this inspiration could be made into a collection but in Lespagnard’s case, it came easy.  The romanticism of the love story came through the more delicate looks including the pairing of a white blouse with draped trousers that tied at the waist + ornate knits paired with matching scarf.  The motocross aspect was slightly apparent through scarf covered mouths, while a motocross suit made of black + gold brocade, incorporated both.

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(photos:  Dominique Maitre)

(via WWD)

Viktor & Rolf Only See Black & White For Fall

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And rightfully so, with looks like these.

For their RTW Fall 2013 collection, amidst a backdrop of wilted black & white flowers, Viktor Hortsting + Rolf Snoeren paired many looks in the same colorway, with lots of leg + lots of details. One such detail was that of a black pant suit, where parts of the suit looked erased, revealing white underneath (row1,look1), which in fact was a ripped trope l’oeil effect created through embellishment + embroidery.  The bow was another prominent detail from dresses to shirts, my favorite being the obnoxious one on the fitted leather motorcycle jacket (row2, look7).  I then found myself grinning at the detail of chiffon inserts preciously showing skin as in row1, look4.  A lot of the other looks included very short dresses which could call the Sixties their home.  

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(photos: Giovanni Giannoni)

(via WWD)