The Diastema Diaries

Are you there Yahweh? It's me, Margaret.

OMG, I could just DIE! Mom and Dad just took me to the dentist, and even though he said he could put a bridge in...they decided to just leave the gap in my teeth.  The HUGE, ugly gap that's so ginormous I can stick one of those big McDonald's milkshake straws in it.  Seriously, like, I bet Mom's just being tight, or maybe this is part of Dad's diabolical scheme to prevent me from dating until I'm like, super-old... like, 20!  ARGH. 

***flash forward 12 years***

W Magazine "Mind The Gap"

Vancouver Sun "Gap teeth the latest beauty trend"

The Guardian "Lara Stone and Georgia Mae Jagger make gap teeth the new face of fashion"

Etc...

Georgia Mae Jagger is the face of campaigns for Rimmel cosmetics, Versace, and Hudson Jeans.

Lara Stone, possibly the busiest model of 2010

Ashley Smith

 

ANTM's Chelsea - during the makeover episode, they actually shaved down her gap to widen it.

Lindsey Wixon - current runway darling

Ah, looks like the Japanese philosophy Wabi-Sabi is back, come to impede our Western quest for aesthetic perfection.  Wabi-Sabi seeks to find the beauty in all things imperfect, incomplete, or transient. 

Wabi-Sabi sound a bit too much like a cousin of the spicy tuna handroll?  Then try: Jolie-laide (which literally translates as 'pretty ugly'), oft used to describe women who are stunning, but not classically beautiful.

Whatever the linguistic stylings, this dialogue is everywhere.  New-age phraseology like "self-love, not self-improvement" has been embedded in the magazine racks since last fall.  As a gap-toothed gal myself, I've made sure to page through the Lara Stone spreads and 'inspirational' beauty editorials.  In a couple glossies, I even found the just-as-you-are philosophy being preached in the monthly 'Trend' column, without the slightest ironic undertone.  Yes, kiddies, self-acceptance is IN this season.  Phew!

Well...

Take heart, fellow diastema dames, for trends may come and go

but Lauren Hutton is forever. 

Don't Fade Away

These were a near miss on eBay last week:

Cacharel 'degrade' sheer pants (retail ~ $775) from eBay seller edropoff, one of my favourite online consignment boutiques.  I stalk them relentlessly for unique pieces from seasons past.  Auction-style listings tend to start around $20, which always gives me the tantalizing illusion of having a shot.  Turns out my meager bids never had a chance with these translucent beauties, and now I'm stuck wearing my usual opaque trousers... like a sucker.

Cute Dudes + Snazzy Duds = February GQ

GQ has a great spread this month - the nominees for Best New Menswear Designer in America dressed up some of TV's cutest casts:

Vampire Diaries cast wearing T by Alexander Wang

I have a few pieces of the "T" range and they do have a softness and worn-in look, even from day one.  I'm not a 'Wangster' (hipster + follower of Alex Wang) by any means, but these pieces are like those cargos/hoodies/tanks you've had since Junior High that are STILL in heavy rotation.  They're just that comfy.  Once an underpinning, we now exist in the era of the designer T-shirt.  Get with it.

Friday Night Lights cast wearing Riviera Club

Love the show, guys, but you're all 30 year olds playing teenagers.
This is a much better look.

Riveria Club, previously unknown to me, is apparently a label blending golf course prep with beachy non-chalance.  The mixture reminds me of another brand popular with the surfers-with-a-day-job set, Trovata.

Treme cast wearing Patrick Ervell

Note the club-collar shirts, button right to the top.  Very dapper.

Patrick Ervell is new on the scene but is going to be huge.  Ryan Gosling's torso, deftly swathed, is all the advertising this brand needs.

Community cast wearing Gant

I prefer Gant's take on classic Americana to most of the competition: Kors, Lauren, Lacoste, etc...  Designer Michael Bastian cuts a bit tighter and the palette is brighter - the result is ironic golf club meets The Prisoner village uniforms.  Very cute.  And even cuter, the cast of Community (Perhaps the best scripted show on TV right now - it's a half hour nerdgasm of pop culture referencing and genre-bending satire).

Nice job, Benn Watts on the beautiful shots.

NYFW Crow-eating - Diane Von Furstenberg

This week at Racked, Diane Von Furstenberg apologizes for allowing Under 16 models to walk in her NYFW show.  Of course, the public apology included multiple references to the bumbling underlings who failed to do their diligence.  Damn those "production and casting people" for failing to follow rules that don't really exist.  Somehow a 15-year-old girl "slipped through" Diane's bevy of security measures.  To tighten up for next year, the company will take the extraordinary measure of "demand[ing] ID" from their employees.  Well, bully.

This public "oops" comes on the heels of another PR mishap, a bad case of Obama-bashing.  DVF, the Baroness of Wrap Dresses, called Lady Michelle out for wearing an Alexander McQueen dress to a state dinner.  It became quite the thing.
 

Here's a tip: Spend a little less time policing the First Lady's designer duds and a little more time ensuring you aren't anywhere near violating your country's child labour laws, Diane.

Sidenote: I love her designs and know she's a competent businesswoman.  She launched her own label some 40 years ago and currently manages/mentors other successful designers like Alexander Wang.  So, get it together DVF.  You're better than this.

Name to Know - Dree Hemingway

nice Loubs, girl!

Before you ask, yep, she's THAT Hemingway.  She's the great-granddaughter of literary genius and mojito enthusiast, ol' Ernie Hemingway.  Despite this enviable pedigree, I've come to like her.  Fashion or film industry nepotism usually leaves me pretty cold (Liv and Gwyneth, I'm looking at you), but Dree is slowing climbing up into Stella McCartney/Eva Amurri territory. 


Eva Amurri with mother, Susan Sarandon

Dree's been doing good, quiet work.  She's still legitimately in her 'field', which as far as I can tell is 'looking pretty'.  She hasn't cut an album, spawned a clothing line, or been sucked into the toilet-bowl vortex of reality TV.  Atta girl.  I'm impressed that's she's not a five-alarm freakshow, considering she attended a grade school in Idaho where her last name was on the building.
I have had a hard time identifying her in pictures, though.  Dree's so generically good-looking she looks like a sketch artist rendering of 'that hot girl from the bar'.  I guess this omni-attractiveness lends her versatility. 

She's a frequent subject of street style blogs, with her moody scarves and mile-long legs: 

Since emerging on the scene in 2009 (she's only 23 now) Dree's been in plenty of print campaigns, most often half-naked and on a bed...

Salvatore Ferragamo's fragrance spread



joyous for YSL



Dree's a belle du jour who's definitely here to stay.  My new favourite?  Check out the awesomely campy House of Holland video campaign, in which Dree makes a candy-colored retro dream seem all too 'now'.

watch the home-shopping spoof here.

Wiki That Girl

Sell Me, Baby, One More Time

Wowza, the Britney Spears video helming her latest comeback is just a 4 minute product-placement-athon.  I don't know what I want to run out to buy first, the Sony electronics or the Makeup For Ever cream eyeliner.  The stylist to blame for this rhinestone-studded extravaganza is B. Ackerlund.  I don't know who's responsible for brokering all the deals and ensuring they'd be cut to in the most blatant way possible.  Sorry, Brit, I think all the product-pushing just makes you seem desperate and cloying.  Hope you won't Hold It Against Me.

Check out the list of everything she wears at InStyle.

Meant to be broken - Spring Stripes

Kate Moss 'Liquorice Stripe' dress for Topshop

Some rules, eh?

I'm sure at this very moment girls everywhere are carefully concealing this love handle and that bit o' arm fat, dutifully noting Stacey and Clinton's every word.  Turns out that style doesn't = skinny, though.  It's much more democratic.  There's at least as much cache, if not more, in dressing well with your smaller wallet, wider waistband, or weirdly long femurs.

So, don some stripes for spring.  'Nautical' always comes back around every April, so get a jump on it now with some simple shapes done in bold stripes.  Thick, thin, tall, small - it's all good.  Same goes for you, ladies. 

Alexander Wang tailback shirt, eBay seller: edropoff

DVF



Tory Burch



Alexander Wang

Robert Rodriguez



Torn by Ronny Kobo

Worth A Thousand - Leona Lewis puckers up

F*ck Yeah Menswear

If you read my post about Nudie jeans, and thought "what's this raw denim thing all about?" you're in luck.  F*ck Yeah Menswear is about to explain it to you.  In the latest installment:

For the uninitiated, FYM is a very popular and unique street style blog.
It's stream-of-consciousness-poetry meets Lacoste catalogue meets hardcore rap meets Wes Anderson movie.
So, basically, it's gold.
The fabulous combustion that is FYM means you get to see great street style snapshots (above) paired with lyrical gems like this week's take on denim drugs (below, abridged):
     You MADD, son?
         Mothers Against Denim Debate.
          Bought my first 14oz off some shady sufu kid.
            Gave it to me dirt cheap.
       APC.
           The gateway denim....
  But I was hooked.
       It took more and more to get that same feeling.
              Started getting into some heavier shit.
      16oz.
        21oz.
           32oz.
       Getting so fucked up.
            Getting so faded.
      Jeans so stiff.
       They were the only things keeping me on my feet....
  One night my bros found me.
                     Curled up in the gutter.
                              Rubbing sandpaper all over myself.
        Screaming.
             Into the darkness.
   MOMOTARO!...
Stop calling my brothers and sisters.
     I call my dick my pussy.
          My crotch got so many whiskers.


Still don't get it?  Better head on over there.

Best in Show - Beauty from The Tents

BEST DOABLE HAIR: Rodarte's super texturized throw-em-over-yer-shoulder-like-a-regimental-soldier tresses, finished with mini-braids and knots.

BEST left to the professionals hair: perfectly polished 70's blowout at Marc by Marc Jacobs

BEST new eye look: exploded bright shadows in the Family Orange

Thakoon

Jeremy Scott

Donna Karan

BEST workday camouflage: Max Azria does an office appropriate 80's redux with slick ponies, soft lips, and dusty eyes

photo by Anna Fischer for Racked

BEST homage: Betsey Johnson's gilded cleopatra clones

photo by Anna Fischer for Racked

BEST all around: Pamella Roland's sculpted updos, glamorous lips, and impeccable cateyes

photo by Anna Fischer for Racked

Baby, It's (Still) Cold Outside

February is to the year what Wednesday is to the week.  It's limbo, so close yet so far.

We just had a quick cold snap here.  As always, I felt defeated when I had to reach (again!) for my black puffer coat.  It just feels like such a failure, such a mistep - "I was just layering a jean jacket and sweater last week", I grumble to myself as I grab Old Blackie and lock the apartment door behind me.

Maybe it's time for a new down-filled Blackie, one so style-forward that I actually look forward to wearing it - just in case it's going out like a lion.

Mackage "Chloe" coat, eBay seller: allure700



swirling Patagonia puffer, eBay seller: edropoff



Elizabeth and James cocoon coat

Rihanna wears this Marios Schwab peplum puffer onstage