Organic's spring 2010 presentation

The dark recesses of the famed midtown steakhouse Keens hosted Organic’s spring 2010 presentation earlier today. The collection is designed by John Patrick and in just a handful of seasons, Patrick has created a label that has a strong voice as well as a CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund nomination under its belt.

Straight out of a scene from Louis Malle’s Pretty Baby, Organic’s troop of models lolled and lounged on a stage area and nearby leather banquettes while Shalom Harlow stood nearby at the century old bar in a crisp cotton suit. The girls were mesmerizing, with lush pin-curled hair (courtesy of hairstylist Odile Gilbert), matte red lips (by Gucci Westman) and holding stares (their own). The atmosphere as well as the clothes was highly addictive. Cotton seersucker was abundant and appeared as a casual blazer with rolled up sleeves (an Organic staple) and as a shawl-collared jacket complete with matching shorts. A Laura Ashley lilac floral print graced a 1940’s day dress silhouette finished with shoulder pads. Heavier fabrics were offset by a gorgeous sheer camp shirt in a washed silk chiffon cut splendidly with fuller sleeves. Sumptuous and sustainable, Patrick’s line goes entirely beyond the notion of the organic cotton t-shirt, producing a full collection of beautiful clothing that just happens to be good for the Earth as well.

Shalom Harlow at the bar

All images by the Totam

Visit Organic by John Patrick

Tags: 2010 fashion week, John Patrick, Organic, organic clothing.

Partygoers outside of Oak in Williamsburg

A ‘zine party held at Oak NYC’s Williamsburg, Brooklyn store was the perfect way to start the weekend last Friday night. Fake Orange, a smallish flip book style ‘zine of xeroxed artwork held an art show of a dozen or so rising artists in the back room, while music was provided by DJ Japanster (spinning Depeche Mode and Talking Heads). Edward Gorey-esque illustrations of odd amorphous creatures by Megan Galante hung near Ellen Frances‘ curious black and white photography and graphics. Projections of a fashion shoot flickered above the makeshift bar which served champagne to an overflowing room of guests. Oak which is known for its tightly curated clothing and accessories by Alexander Wang, Acne, and a long roster of other indie designers proved their adeptness at blending fashion with art and music as exhibited at this multimedia event.

Photography and graphics by Ellen Frances

Fake Orange's artwork held court in the back room.

Copies of the Fake Orange zine

Projections and champagne

Lots of black clothing at the Oak Williamsburg outpost

Oak is located at 208 North 8th St in Brooklyn, NY.

Tags: Acne, Alexander Wang, art, art show, champagne, Ellen Frances, Fake Orange, Oak NYC, Photography, shopping, Williamsburg.

Two looks from Kate Spade's new clothing line

“She packed her tote and hit the road,” the Joan Didion-esque caption reads next to one of the looks from Kate Spade’s new clothing collection. The wool A-line marigold shift worn under a boxy short sleeve jacket is part of a fashion time machine that is firmly parked in 1962, the year Kate Spade herself was born. Polka dots, sequins and scalloped lace are also abundant, adorning classic shapes which are paired with unexpected colors (lilac for fall?). Ironically for a brand which heralded the minimalist accessories movement in the early 90’s with boxy black nylon handbags, Kate Spade has evolved into one of the few labels that does color and print very precisely.

The Madeleine Dot Ruffle Placket Dress

Over the years the brand has slowly introduced a scattering of tops, dresses and coats to complement their wildly popular handbags and shoes, though this is definitely the largest and most thought out clothing collection so far. The looks are all very office appropriate, that is if people still dressed this way to go to work. The culture of contemporary work attire has somehow allowed for things like flip-flops to make their way into the office and Kate Spade is notably addressing this issue one ladylike trench coat at a time. A standout piece is the Bisous Stella Chubbie, a plush faux-fur jacket with a removable collar and three-quarter length sleeves.

Zooey Deschanel seems to be their unofficial muse (note the model’s bangs, blue eyes and quirky vintage style). Though avoid the literal vintage over-saturation and stick to one piece at a time. The look book’s suggestions are paired with dark denim, crisp white shirts, a smattering of costume jewelry (Kate Spade as well) and above all a sense of humor.

The Bisous Stella Chubbie

The Embellished Gail Dress worn under the Bisous Michelle Jacket

The Debora Peacoat worn over the Dot Maggie Top

Kate Spade clothing is available at Kate Spade.

Tags: 1960s, accessories, color, costume jewelry, faux-fur, Joan Didion, kate spade, minimalism, print, vintage-inspired, Zooey Deschanel.

Stella McCartney's Cloud Dress / image courtesy of Netaporter.com | Disney's Up / image courtesy of Disney Pixar

Inspiration has been known to come from the sky at times. Though lately it seems to come directly from the sky: clouds in particular. Disney’s Up took charmed viewers into the clouds, a film floating among the stratosphere. Now it seems Stella McCartney has also been uplifted by the fluffy droplets - an exclusive collection for Net-a-Porter features a printed silk jersey with a Sir Peter Blake cloud print. Among the collection, a draped sleeve dress, silk shirt and even sky-high espadrilles all feature the animated design.

Cloud and airplane necklace, image courtesy of Minor Planet via Etsy

Perpetuating daydreaming and faraway travel, clouds are an instant mood brightener. A polymer clay necklace from Etsy swirled into curlicue clouds has a tiny airplane charm attached and is aptly titled “Leaving.” What could be more uplifting than a delightful trip into the clouds?

Tags: clouds, Disney, Sir Peter Blake, Stella McCartney, travel, Up.

Lemons in the night

The lemon has long been a most versatile fruit - on its own, the small citrus isn’t much to consider, but when harmoniously united with other ingredients, the lemon’s properties become unparalleled. In its most basic duty, lemons added with sugar will give us refreshing lemonade, while adding the juice to baking soda provides a natural cleansing agent. A lemon can even give us light (a funny science experiment where by attaching electrodes to the fruit will generate electricity).

Edibles and experiments aside, I have long loved Fresh’s Sugar Lemon fragrance, which I pull out every year when the temperature warms up. The scent is summer to me and smells brilliantly like a fizzy lemon beverage, Lemongina if there was one. Somehow the summer heat also has a way of magnetizing the scent, enhancing it even more. Therefore when I heard about a new fragrance by C.O. Bigelow simply called Lemon, naturally I ran to test it out. If Sugar Lemon evoked a crisp lemon soda, Lemon was its grown-up counterpart: a complex lemon infused cocktail. I loved it immediately. My wrist suddenly had the essence of lemons in the night (which is the only way I can describe this wonderful new smell).

Later while I was in another store, I kept smelling what I thought to be a burning Diptyque candle. After poking around the entire store, I realized there was no candle. Yes, it was my wrist. A Diptyque candle (it doesn’t matter which scent) has an elegant complexity that is incredibly hard to place. Even though you have smelled a rose a million times, you have never smelled a Diptyque rose. Which is exactly how this new fragrance responds. Lemons, this scent is simply not. Again, it is the smart lemon that blends itself (white musk with green lemon leaves), turning a common piece of produce into this distinctive lemonade.

Tags: C.O. Bigelow, Diptyque, fragrance, Fresh, lemons, perfume, scent, Sugar Lemon, Summer, white musk.

The X-Girl catalog, winter of 1996

So few celebrity fashion lines are actually cool and wearable and the list of tacky brands thought up by famous folk (or their money-minded managers) could fill a small phone book. Do we really want to wear Lindsey Lohan designed leggings? Probably not. A high-waisted skirt thought up by Chloë Sevigny? Perhaps. A pre-cursor to these many lines was X-Girl, Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth’s casual streetwear line which was launched in 1994 (when Lindsay Lohan was eight). Gordon and her partner Daisy Von Furth were asked by their friends at XLarge to start a sister line and X-Girl was born. It was the summer of 1997 when I first visited the X-Girl store in NYC (later that year the label would be sold and moved to Japan) and one of my first boutique experiences. The store was a small whitewashed room on Lafayette Street across from the old XLarge store. By far the best part of visiting the boutique were the die-cut X-Girl stickers that were doled out for free with the Tron-inspired logo in a heap of shiny colors. I spent my two weeks in New York that summer snapping up every possible color each time I walked by the store.

Surprisingly the designs were very basic and wearable: slim-fitting boatneck tees, crewneck sweaters, cotton minis, all in two or three solid colors every season and most discreetly branded with the X-Girl logo patch. A gray raglan-sleeved mini dress could have been picked up at Uniqlo yesterday. It was the t-shirts though that were the main draw. Mike Mills, the graphic artist and filmmaker (director of Thumbsucker) designed many of the t-shirts and posters for sale every season. Silkscreened with a slew of cool monotone graphics (cameras, the Earth, birds) and always a punchy phrase, the tees were hard to come by and always sold out. A memorable graphic featured a crudely drawn horse smoking a cigar with “Good Luck” imprinted below.

Two of Mike Mills' X-Girl graphics

The aesthetic of X-Girl was influenced by skateboarding, the mod sixties, and downtown New York in the era of Larry Clark’s Kids. The then unknown Chloë Sevigny also served as a model for the first X-Girl catalog. Even the name was brilliant, with ‘girl’ having so many connotations at the time - X-Girl may have had a slight reference towards the Riot Grrrl movement but ultimately referred to a more cleaned up grrrl and with the coolest letter ‘x’ all but summing up the entire feeling of the brand with one letter. Gordon sold her shares to a Japanese company in 1997 and the brand shuttered in the US until a store briefly opened on the same patch of Lafayette Street but with none of its former élan. Fans of X-Girl can see Gordon’s designing talents once again with Mirror/Dash, a line which she has designed exclusively with Urban Outfitters. Elements of X-Girl can be found in a zip front mini-dress and a simple rolled cuff tee, though overall, fans of X-Girl will just have to relish the pieces they already own and watch the fashion show that started it all in 1994.

Tags: celebrity fashion lines, Chloe Sevigny, Daisy Von Furth, Kids, Kim Gordon, Larry Clark, Mike Mills, Mirror/Dash, New York, Sonic Youth, Urban Outfitters, X-Girl, XLarge.

Peter Lindbergh: Naomi, Linda, Tatjana, Christy and Cindy, British Vogue, Jan 1990.

If the 1990’s symbolized the end of the supermodel era, the forty years before that was a steady climb of pretty girls, each decade giving us a set of faces that served to define an era. Then the 2000’s made it abundantly clear that models were simply mannequins again, nameless girls, still beautiful, though none with the stature of a Cindy, a Christy or even an Amber.

The Model as Muse exhibit at the Met is a a beautifully organized history lesson of those names and their Vogue covers (support is provided through Condé Nast), illustrated also with the important fashion designs of each period from the 1950’s until today. The exhibit design feels very similar to a fashion version of It’s a Small World, with each room revealing a reconstructed decade through mannequins in various dress and pose, projections of films and videos starring models and loudly looped music reaffirming the Disney ride atmosphere. However kitschy, it is an immensely guilty pleasure to read about each model’s life (Jean Shrimpton actually graduated from a modeling school) and to watch an enlarged Freedom ‘90, George Michael’s seminal supermodel music video.

Left/ Irving Penn: Jean Patchett, B&W Vogue Cover, 1950. Right/ Carmen Dell'Orefice, Vogue Cover

The grand hallway leading into the exhibit recreates the famous 1955 Richard Avedon photograph of the model Dovima posing with elephants at a Paris circus; the actual photograph follows later down the hall. To have been a model in the ’50s, one had to have carriage, posture that was as physical as it was mental, an air of elegance and refinement. Hallmarked by Irving Penn’s luminous black and white photograph of model Jean Patchett and Avedon’s 1949 image of model Dorian Leigh, the 1950’s monochromatic-ness was soon to change.

Richard Avedon: Dorian Leigh, evening dress by Piguet, 1949. Gelatin silver print.

Leaving carriage far behind in the ’60s, modeling changed drastically. We are treated to a snippet of William Klein’s art house film about fashion, Qui êtes vous, Polly Maggoo? (Who are You, Polly Magoo?) where a heavily eyelashed Dorothy McGowan is fussed and hairsprayed in a stationary metal dress (an early rendering of fashion as immobility). The aluminum alloy dresses in the movie are center stage here in the 1960’s room, on rotating mannequins, along with Yves Saint Laurent’s Mondrian dress and Rudi Gernreich’s topless swimsuit. Subsequently, the ’70s-’90s explode with name brands and inflated modeling contracts, the dawn of Sports Illustrated and then grunge. Brooke Shields’ iconic Calvin Klein pose, photographer Peter Lindbergh’s supermodels in Chanel ballgowns and leather jackets. Then a strange thing happens at the end of the exhibition: the model disappears. Instead a glowing cabine of minimalist designs from Prada and Helmut Lang cap off the forty plus years that we have just seen.

The name of the show, Model as Muse hints at this complex relationship, whether it is between model and designer or model and photographer, however, never quite examines either working marriage completely. Fashion has always been regarded as that hollow medium, and this exhibit does little to discredit this notion. In showing movies about models or the fashion world, what is notably missing is Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up (1966), which highlighted the elongated limbs of model Veruschka and explicitly detailed the notorious relationship between photographer and model. These relationships are only hinted at here and never entirely dissected. What is fully illustrated though is that models are the paradigm of the values and movements of each time period; their faces, body types, pedigrees, and attitudes adjusting accordingly. The age old question of whether a model is merely a clothes hanger or a cultural icon was best addressed by model Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn in 1949. Quoted in a Time magazine article she stated, “It is always the dress, it is never, never the girl.” Though Naomi Campbell may heartily disagree, it seems nowadays the sentiment rings true again.

Model as Muse: Embodying Fashion through August 9, 2009 at the Met

Tags: Blow-Up, Chanel, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford, Dorian Leigh, Dorothy McGowan, fashion photography, George Michael, Irving Penn, Jean Patchett, Jean Shrimpton, Met, models, Naomi Campbell, Peter Lindbergh, Polly Magoo, Richard Avedon, supermodels, Veruschka, Vogue, William Klein.

Vintage clothes shopping can be extremely satisfying or exceptionally frustrating. The hopes of stumbling upon an ’80s Alaïa miniskirt or pristine Charles Jourdan heels from the ’70s at the local church thrift has become increasingly difficult. Enter curated vintage - where hard-to-find designers and amazing pieces are sourced and presented under one roof or website. Brick and mortar vintage stores can be a great introduction to finding designers that fit your body type and to also research and understand vintage sizing. Ebay is still the go-to source to find vintage online, however vintage e-boutiques have become more popular as well, allowing store owners to create an entire aesthetic that eBay cannot provide.

A couple of newcomers to the online vintage scene:

Vagabond NYC is like V magazine come to life. Slick studio fashion photography highlights special pieces each month in editorial spreads with a very downtown aesthetic. Vagabond’s goal is to find pieces that illustrate current trends while staying away from items that are too retro. There is a focus on very current designers (Alexander Wang, Marni, Balenciaga) while uncovering many forgotten designers of the near past (Kansai Yamamoto, Stephen Sprouse), many of whom have directly inspired the very current designers. The current drop-crotch pant craze is one such example - Vagabond has uncovered the originators of this trend, Yohji Yamamoto and Issey Miyake, respectively.

With a more upscale bent, British site Atelier Mayer’s aesthetic is more glamorous day dresses, sparkling costume jewelry and one gorgeous Bob Mackie evening gown. Pieces are presented in a visually clean way with pop-up “style sheets” detailing the fabric, and editor’s notes discussing the fit and even the time period of the piece. Also, for a brief history of each period in fashion (from 1900-2000), visit the Decades in Fashion editorial section.

Tags: Alaia, Alexander Wang, Atelier Mayer, Balenciaga, Bob Mackie, British, Charles Jourdan, downtown, ebay, fashion photography, Kansai Yamamoto, Marni, online boutiques, Stephen Sprouse, thrift, V Magazine, Vagabond NYC, Vintage Fashion, Yohji Yamamoto.

Inspiration comes in an unlikely form for Celine’s glossy Panton shoe/boots. The four and a half inch heel strangely resembles a horse’s stout hind leg complete with hoof. Think of them as centaur-inspired footwear. As designers become more creative with the heel of their shoes (think Chanel’s recent gun heel and this season’s YSL cage heel), Celine’s strappy version remains decidedly uncomplicated, if curiously equine.

Available at Net-a-Porter

Tags: cage heel, Celine, Chanel, gun heel, heels, horse, YSL.

My obsession with macarons hit a feverish point last week as I visted Ladurée, the fabled patisserie in Paris, credited with inventing the double-decker delights. Macarons are little sandwiches, sugar-filled cookie sandwiches and as delightful as they taste, their optimistic demeanor is just as significant. Fluffy, colorful, small and round - really they are the happiest cookies you could ever ask for. Ladurée also made the macarons for Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette which has undoubtedly added to the allure of these petite pastels. I myself waited outside and then in a small twisted line at the rue Royale location, feeling silly as a half hour, then forty minutes passed, thinking about the times I had laughed at people waiting in line outside the Magnolia Bakery in New York. Well there’s no good way to travel with a cupcake, but the macarons were surprisingly adept; at Ladurée, they sit nestled side to side in decorative boxes, with crinkly tissue paper protecting the lot. Wonderful! The packaging happens to be just as covetable as the merchandise.

Another obsessed macaron fan:

Just Macarons Flickr Page

Tags: cookies, Laduree, macarons, Magnolia bakery, Marie Antoinette, package design, Paris, patisserie, Sofia Coppola.