fashion

My feeling is everyone has a 'timeless' style they identify with and mine tends to be flapper/beatnik/jewel thief/preppie gone bad (Kate the Saint calls it Weimar Lesbian too). This was a good thing LAST year before the hippie deluge down the high street. My editor just buys her 3 outfits for the season in black, wears them almost nonstop for 4 months before binning them, and like all heavy girls makes the larger emotional investment (and financial) on SHOES.

Actually if I had one of those Cacharel skirts and a very small child's army shirt I'd be inside the current fashion without being outside my own.

but in answer to Toby's question he should try Subculture: the Meaning of Style. Or watch Unzipped, the mid-90s film about Isaac Mizrahi, which is GENIUS. Or read articles about/interviewing Boudicca, cool theoretical fashion designers. Unlike the Japanese, they are not plagued by fashion artholes being all kissass reverent in conversation and (worse) in print. As a Japanese fashion designer I knew said once, RESPECT KILLS.

I personally think all fashion designers are pretty lazy (unless you count *talking* about how hard they work) and have been waiting to PROVE that kitsch examples of sunday brunchtime hangover technicolour films are what inspire the lot of them. So if 'Freaky Friday' is on I expect to see the Jodie Foster Preadolescent Tomboy look manifest 9 months from then on some idiot's catwalk.

However street informs catwalk and vice-versa. Once caught Anna Sui, Martine Sitbon and ANITA PALLENBERG truffling around Portobello Market one Friday afternoon. It's a place they get ideas from, apparently.

Also, MEN: what will be in fashion is EASY-PEASY to predict for you. Just find out the age of any gay fashion designer you like, figure out what year he was 16 and then find out what evil male queerbashing thugs looked like THAT YEAR, generally speaking. WORK THAT LOOK! If you're gay, you might even pull the designer if you go to the kind of parties I do. I believe this is how the Ironic Mullet/Queensryche T-shirt came into fashion after the Ironic Skinhead/18 hole Docs.

so what's next in the skinhead/ironic mullet progression, then??

I think I care about looking good but perhaps not what's fashionable, having said that I treat the two as one and the same and TO HELL with anyone else who disagrees. Er actually I just have a vague look and I vaguely stick to it.

I suffer from style schizophrenia, fancy dress sense. Where do you want to go today? (maybe I am wrong and those who know me are saying 'But Anna always looks ...').

I love fashion/ style/ clothes and accessories etc. I would never make the mistake of taking it seriously though, that does bad, bad things to people (kiss kiss). But it still makes me happy if people stop me to take a picture of what I'm wearing.

I think the whole second hand old skool artschool trainer hipness (very unisex) is OVER its heights now?

girls will be boys boys will be girls tra la la lalala

what should i accessorize it with?

Anyway, you should definitely go with a bulky bracelt or multiple bracelets.

I have no accessory tips, though. Black shoes and handbag should do it.

i am not so fashionably inclined.

in fact, my co-worker found that dress online FOR ME, telling me it would probably look good. i just have no clue about things.

Shoes I guess depends on the rest of the accessories. If you go delicate route get a tiny handbag and strappy sandals. Not as good with picking if you go the chunkier route because I have never personally done that with a dress like that--maybe wedge style sandals?? It's difficult to say.

Yay! I agree. Those straps are pretty wide, and will already frame your neck nicely. I think any kind of necklace might distract from the you-ness of you.

I saw an ad for this new hip-hop streetwear kind of jacket thing colorful geometric patterns that look very North African. Any idea what I saw? I tried to remember the name, but now I've lost it.

Speaking of fashion, I see that 5 years ago ILE threads could still be titled with just one word. Making a slight bow toward the actual subject, a think of fashion in two senses.

Firstly, I tend to think of fashion as a kind of immoral racket that tries to manipulate people into buying idiotic items of clothing and accessories. In this sense of the word, fashion is something I despise.

Secondly, in its 'purer' form, I think of fashion as an individual's ability to harmonize their clothing and appearance with their personal aesthetic sense. In this second sense of the word, fashion seems rather admirable. Sadly, my fashion sense is pretty rudimentary. I keep everything simple to the point of simple-mindedness, because I can't be arsed to do the work it would take to find or assemble anything beyond the rudimentary.

I am in the midst of doing the same
I don't really get the concept of 'what's in this season' and all that horseshit then again being a man I'm not really subject to it, just starting to dress myself like a grownup is vaulting me in the 90th percentile of male fashionforwardness.

I tend to think of fashion as a kind of immoral racket that tries to manipulate people into buying idiotic items of clothing and accessories
It's easy to be cynical about it (especially the crazy purse hysteria - wtf) but I appreciate that aside from the hype there's always some degree of passion and artistic impetus pushing the fashion industry forward the same as there is in music or whatever. It's not my thing but it doesn't bother me.

I love fashion. the more I pay attention the more I find myself trying to anticipate.. what is the vibe & where is it going, and what does it mean when certain styles catch on.

like this season i got all the fall fashion mags and it's this buttoned up, formal 40's suit thing for a lot of it, when i saw the runway pix i didn't know what to think really.. and instead i'm really drawn to balenciaga which looks v on the money to me

http://www.style.com/slideshows/fashionshows/F2007RTW/BALENCIA/RUNWAY/00070m.jpg

i really want a fitted preppy jacket but don't know where to find a good one

That's one of the things I don't understand about fashion: the desire to fit oneself to some external standard of dress that is preset by some fashion designer who dictates "what to wear this season".

The people who really seem to succeed in dressing well seem to me to be following their own vision of what fits together, not fitting themselves into some predigested fashion, like some mannequin. Those folowers of fashion trends might look good, but they don't really fill their clothes soehow.

haha i've been catching up on sartorialist since i last posted, i think i could be in denial(it's my wife who catches every episode of What Not to Wear...I just happen to be in the room at the same time...watching) . To your point, I like it cos he places emphasis on the grace and confidence, sense of fun, bearing etc. that manifests itself in a striking 'presentation' rather than the concept of buying the 'correct' stuff and slapping on a great 'look'.

Aimless, but then you have to be knowledgeable about fashion to know whether they are slaves or doing their so-called own thing. Also, I don't think there's anything wrong with following fashion, per se, unless you're one of those Russian minxes who don't mix'n' match but just take the whole runway ensemble and put that on. It smacks of "look at my wallet" and a lack of originality, I think. It seems a bit sad, in a way. They think (and say) they're above us lot because they think that's the way it should be done.

Deep down I'm a sucker for fashion, although most of the time I fail miserably at being "hip" or actually achieving the look I want. I know what my "thing" is, namely lots of brown/blacks/... Casual chic if you can combine those two words. I definitely prefer, say, Prada (duh!) and Marc Jacobs over frilly Anna Sui or DKNY. In fact if my wallet was bulging, I'd probably be wearing most of those two designers. (Hah! But I would mix'n' match!)

Once caught Anna Sui, Martine Sitbon and ANITA PALLENBERG truffling around Portobello Market one Friday afternoon. It's a place they get ideas from, apparently.

haha Hey, Suzy, I think that Imogen Edwards something or other, who wrote Fashion Babylon, took that tidbit and spun it into a chapter. Yes, apparently, they go to Rellick (sp?) and Arkive (again, sp?) and steal their ideas from there. It was quite funny when she mentioned that some designers go to KingsRoad to buy lace. If she based that on factual info, I actually know the seller! For a split second I felt like you, Suzy. ;-)

These are the shoes that I "am feeling" (and apparently so have tons of other people as it seems to be selling like hot buttered cupcakes at Net-a-porter):

http://www.net-a-porter.com/intl/images/product/26107/large/index.jpg

More or less what I would want to look like:

http://www.net-a-porter.com/intl/images/product/26114/large/fr.jpg

(Well, with an attached head of course!)

Oh, btw, speaking of fashion online: I have rediscovered Net-A-Porter. Grebt site to drool over. Not so much a fan of Style.com although that place seems to be the place if you want to know what's up. *shrug* I don't know, I don't much like to navigate the sight, it seems a bit... *jungly*.

the desire to fit oneself to some external standard of dress that is preset by some fashion designer who dictates "what to wear this season".

i don't look on it that way. how to explain? people change! so whatever kind of vibe i'm sensing.. well.. i believe in change so i like to look a little different every year. i pay attention to what fashion's doing and pick out things that seem to suit me. or sometimes dig stuff out of my closet of vintage finds or get things at thrifts/ebay that seems like they work now and look modern.. i mean, i love vintage because you can get well made and unique things for not much money, but i don't want to look vintage, i don't like retro. you know? I have more than a few of those secretary tie neck blouses and they're pretty common these days so it doesn't look like it's an 80's thrift find for $1.50 (my fave is!) but in the 90's nobody would've been caught dead in it.

(i guess most days i end up wearing navy blue with black though!)

https://poshmark.com/closet/kaiyabear

Apparently women wearing baseball caps pulled down is a thing ？

This extremely oversized winter coat trend is funny af