Monday, September 27, 2010

GRAND INTERIORS


you might've noticed that lately i've been quite obsessed with interior design. when i was jobless i spent loads of time coming up with projects to pimp out my house. now that i'm finally employed and have a paycheque, i've become even more obsessed with my house. i've even finally settled on which couch to buy. that's like the most grown-up thing i'm going to buy to date! the couch is based on fifties danish modern design with clean lines and a wooden frame. cause it's pretty obvious that my aesthetic tends to lean towards that direction. which is why i was so surprised to go mental over the eighties, california tackiness of mary katrantzou's prints. it's like watching those gaudy mansions from beverly hills walking towards you in high heels. but that's the brilliance of katarantzou. how she manipulates images with the help of digital technology to come to life in fabrics. whether inspired by vintage perfume bottles or in this case exuberant, over the top interiors of million dollar mansions, she finds a way to relate it to the female form. as much as i applaud her ingenious way of using prints, i'm kinda curious to see how she would handle clothes that doesn't rely on their graphic punch. then again who knows, next season she might base her whole prints on something bat shit crazy like battle scenes from lord of the rings and it'll be fucking amazing and i'll be eating my words. so i'll just shut up.

PRETTY PLEASE


pardon me for being bitten with a little bit of hometown pride, but its not everyday that i can use the words canadian, fashion, and proud in one sentence. if you've ever had the unfortunate experience of mistakenly clicking on a link that directed you to toronto fashion WEAK then you'd understand what i'm talking about. thank god for designers like erdem who can vindicate some of the unsung talents who are in an unfortunate position to be stuck in a city that considers contestants of project runway to be the highlight of canadian fashion. but enough of the bitterness. it doesn't bode well with erdem's saccharine disposition and ridiculously charming dresses. my friends are always rather surprised that i have taken a liking to erdem's hyper feminine sensibility, but it's not the lace and the florals and the little girl naivete that characterizes his clothes that i have developed an affinity for, its how he uses old couture cuts and techniques that really intrigues me. every time i go to the room the first thing i go to is the erdem rack just so i can touch the fabrics, salivate over the hand embroidery and be wowed by the construction of the garments. i also can't help but notice something perverse about his clothes. not that i'm a dirty perv or anything, but there's something really naughty about a shift mini-dress worn over a lace button down shirt with a white peter pan collar. i'm sure there's about few dozen manga comic books in japan dedicated entirely to that fetish. think about it, if sailor moon had shit loads of money to buy clothes she'd totally be wearing erdem.



photo: style.com

Sunday, September 26, 2010

BARE NECESSITIES


calvin klein holds a very special place in my heart. as a teenager in the nineties (i'm betraying my age here folks), i witnessed first hand how his minimalist vision defined the decade. as much as i loved galliano and mcqueen's theatricality and drama back in the day, the purity of calvin klein's work and its quiet confidence tantalized me. it's like looking at a massive rothko painting. there isn't much on the canvas, but the balance achieved within the frame and thought behind the work projects a powerful image. and i'm glad that klein's successor francisco costa is capable of producing the same grand statement without the glitter and sparkles. yes the balmain girl with the tight slutty dress might get the most attention. but like all sluts, they eventually get boring. but a calvin klein girl, even though she's wearing a white pleated, long sleeved, mid-ankle length jersey dress is like light entering a room. it weighs nothing, but it fills up the space. and that is the kinda bird guys are intimidated by. and we all know that when it comes to boys, intimidation is the most effective aphrodisiac. cause boys are dumb.



photo: style.com

INTO THE WOODS


i'll be the first to admit that i'm not the biggest rodarte fan. seriously, those webby knitwear that they've been doing for a million season in a row got tired really really fast. and i found a lot of their reference points to be sort of, pretentious. let's be honest, when the mulleavy sisters talked about mexican border towns, and ghosts, and missing women assumed to have been murder and rape victims as the main source of inspiration for their last collection, don't tell me you weren't rolling your eyes. my main problem with them is that their inspiration is so different every season, yet the collections always look the same. i'm all for a slow evolution if the integrity of the house is being solidified, but with rodarte i just found it stagnant and boringly redundant. so you can only imagine how hard i bitched slap myself across the face when i first saw this collection. there was not a cob-web knit in sight. there's still that magical element that is inherent to the brand, but all that tailoring gave it a border to contain all those ideas. and their influence, the redwood forests of northern california was actually visible in the wood panel prints on the garments. and the models looked like tripped out wood nymphs with beach babe golden tans. who knew rodarte had it in them to make models pretty and not scary looking?



photo: style.com

Sunday, September 5, 2010

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dear blog,

sorry if i've been ignoring you, but summer is winding down and i had to take advantage of the outdoors and all the fun times public drinking in the afternoon is able to provide. i'll give you a cuddle soon i promise.

yours truly,
roybot