Distracting NYFW Trend - Bad Black Hats

So that was New York Fashion Week, folks.  More posts to come on the good and the bad, but first things first... The Ugly!

At least those twins at The Row gave us something functional (fur) as did apres-ski favourite Moncler Grenoble (earwarmers, yeah!).  A host of other designers must have held a little roundtable and resolved to do inappropriate, incongruous black hats.

I'm not real eager to top my graphic DVF wrap with an obsidian matador hat:

Diane Von Furstenburg tightens them bolos

The Vena Cava models looked like pretentious art school dropouts, doing the walk of shame, all black berets and smeared eye glitter.

Vena Cava - Brooklyn's finest does bondage tops and black berets

It was really progressive of Victoria Beckham to hire an entire lineup of epileptic models, though.  I haven't seen anyone look this chic in a rugby helmet since Natalie Portman's turn in Garden State.

Victoria Beckham, great show, 100% ear-free

Karen Walker puts her girls in beanies, giving them that dockworker's-daughter-on-a-Saturday-night-vibe

And my Malandrino, so classy, so smart, so schlumpy:

At Catherine Malandrino: keep the sliced booties, lose the hobo hat

Presented without comment:

Anna Sui

And at the mother of all NYFW shows, Marc Jacobs, the hairdressing budget must have been spent on set design instead.  All the models came out with rakish saucer-caps, like so many synchronized swimmers:

Marc Jacobs - verdict: saucer-caps not so saucy

Worth A Thousand - 2011 Grammys

Which came first?  The:

or the:

Archer, Sterling Archer

I'm really feeling this new show, Archer.  It's a mature-audience-only spy spoof on Fox that features a host of famous voices (including a trifecta of Arrested Development alumni) and swinging 60's styles.

Between this and the upcoming X-Men First Class movie (set during the Cuban Missile Crisis), I should get enough of a beehives-and-bakelite-bangles fix to make it to Season 5 of Mad Men.

So throw on your Kinks LP and zip up them go-go boots, we're going baaaack:

                                                                                                   



Silver FX hair dye



eBay seller: cookingcatlady




eBay seller: cupcake vintage





browline glasses



plaid bowtie, Etsy seller: dasiylaine

BCBG sweater dress                            leather hip belt                                      hammered silver hoops         

Christian Louboutin boots




<> 

ebay seller: 1918james                                     J.crew suit                   

 

Shine On, You Crazy Diamond

My favourite way to do metallic for day: a slouchy, gold or silver sweater.  I always reach for mine on Monday mornings after a weekend of lounging in, and acclimatizing to, a comfy old sweatshirt.

Joseph ($460)

It's infinitely wearable.  A golden version I got from Mexx years ago has been everything from a beach cover-up to a date night jumper.  Old girl's on her last legs; the last time I wore it out I got Weezer's Sweater Song stuck in my head.  Thankfully, lots of brands are turning out shiny knitwear for the coming Spring.

Vince ($220)

Temperley ($475)

Whistles ($380)

Bonus points for playing off the texture,
pairing with combed cotton cargos,
distressed denim,
leather vests, or
anything tweed.

Lida Baday

Lida Baday is a Canadian fashion icon, much beloved by your average Holt Renfrew shopper, but a virtual unknown to the Under-30's.  She's been running her own label since 1987, which is about as long as I've been sucking in air and expelling CO2.

Above and below are some looks from recent spring shows.  Very minimal, in a Costa-era Calvin Klein way.  Everything is clean, spare, and monochromatic (which isn't meant to read as "boring", but does to us more experimental youngsters).

I can see why office-appropriate Baday isn't a strong seller to the girls who shell out bigger and bigger bucks the higher the hemline travels.  Cocktail dresses are now like fine dining, in that the more you spend the less you seem to get.  I, too, thought I needed a party dress with a little bit of Zazz! to it: gotta show off those adductor muscles, otherwise what's all that bike riding for, my health?

Then, I found this demure navy number at Value Village (which I say in a Pepe le Pew voice so it sounds like a French Boutique.  Hope you do too.)

The picture doesn't do it justice, although the wrinkles really do look defined.
It's incredible.  I still feel like I stole the darn thing since I got it for $6.99.  Whichever V-squared peon priced it clearly didn't know what it was; the wretched Old Navy apron dresses were running you $7.99. 

The cut is meticulous and the fabric is high quality.  Even the lining is so silky, I just want to rub it on my face.

The construction is 'just so'.  Corsetted bodice/cap sleeve combo is super flattering.

Best part = whoever this Lida Baday woman is, she must be cutting on a dress model that is shaped exactly like me!  It fits so well it's almost creepy.  I am now her biggest fan.  Must.  Buy.  More.  Baday.

Name to Know - Andrej Pejic



Pejic was just cast in Yoana Baraschi's runway show.
Yoana is known for her ultra-feminine frocks.


ANDREJ PEJIC is suddenly everywhere.  Still in his teens (that's right, HIS), Pejic has already featured prominently in many runway shows, magazine editorials, and print ads.  His two big 'gets':

Watch out for him (yep, HIM) in Marc Jacob's soft focus. stripe-heavy spring campaign:

He'll also be appearing in Jean Paul Gaultier's new ad campaign, with lookalike blondie Karolina Kurkova:

It's tough to tell the Czech supermodel apart from her costar, no?  Pejic was born of Serbian-Croation parents, but the family fled their war ravaged homeland and settled as refugees in Australia.  He (I know! I would kill for HIS lips) now catwalks in Paris and Milan.  No wonder this confusingly cosmopolitan upbringing has the fashion world enthralled.  I too adore anyone with a story or personality so unique it deflates the abstracted cliches that form the fashion industry and associated marketing, bringing it back down to me.  Humanized.

I bet someday Andrej Pejic will be at the heart of actual debates.  He'll function as a jumping off point, a pop culture reference in some tweedy professor's Powerpoint Presentation.  Androgyny is nothing new in fashion.  Yet, the extremes to which Pejic takes his look and the success he achieves because of (or in spite of) it, are an Emeritus-Professor-in-Sociology-with-a-focus-in-Gender-Studies' wet dream.

Wishing him (I tripled-checked and we're talking XY) all the best.
Now the boy just needs himself a Wikipedia entry.

Hell hath no fury...

Last week someone was selling "an ass that won't quit" on eBay.  Clicking on the item didn't exactly yield one taut booty, just one Egyptian dictator in pre-owned condition.  The joke-listing of Murabak was quickly quashed by the eBay Fun Police, but I think this one's still going and is 100% real:
"My Ex-boyfriend's Closet" is getting rid of all her ex's junk, just in time for Valentines Day.  The seller states her old beau chastised her for dressing provocatively, hence the increasing flesh content of her posts:

$20 with three day to go?!  That's pure profit, people, with the value-added bonus of giving your ex a very public "look at what you're gunna be missing" pose.  I'm sure enterprising girls everywhere are rifling through the remnants of relationships past.  Warning, gals: check the legislation and caselaw in your jurisdiction first.  The abandonment principle means that his bowling shirts, travel mug, and Hootie & The Blowfish CD become your personal property, but not for at least 30 days.  Score!

She sells sex - used Ed Hardy T-shirt, classy!

You know, I could sure use a little extra scratch this month, and I am skilled at cultivating imaginary boyfriends, usually in the service of plus-one occasions and family inquisitions dinners.  Better head down to Value Village to stock up on 'my ex-boyfriend's' clothes.  His favourite colour was blue.