HAPPILY EVER AFTER

i've been wanting to make a post about edmund dulac and kay nielsen for a while now. dulac is responsible for the first three images above, and nielsen the last three. they worked during what is called "the golden age of illustration", the belle epoque. the edwardian age when the rich were at their richest and that sense of opulence enveloped every idea.
you might be familiar with the pictures posted above. well if you haven't clued in yet the illustrations are based on popular fairy tales. now you get it huh? the first one is the princess and the pea, followed by the little mermaid and the emperor and the nightingale. the first kay nielsen illustration is my favorite fairy tale of all time, the twelve dancing princesses. it's not very popular, but who knows. disney might turn it into a full length animation feature someday complete with a soundtrack and a playstation game. i don't know what story the last two images are based on, but aren't they lovely?
if i ever have kids i will only buy them books with amazing pictures. no dora the explorer for them now way!
oooh i just had a marvelous idea. wouldn't it be top notch if dulac or nielsen were still alive and one of them (or both) illustrated all of roald dahl's books. that would've been fucking epic.

PAGAN POETRY

sarah burton has the unenviable task of being the successor to one of fashion's great romanticist. alexander mcqueen's vision was so potent, his work so deeply ingrained in recent memory that it was damn near impossible to expect anything but the worst so as not to be horribly disappointed. from rumours circulating early on after his death that the house was to close, then waiting with heightened anticipation for lee's right hand woman of fifteen years debut collection, it was safe to say that worries about the future of the house was well warranted. at last we can finally breath a sigh of relief because not only did burton live up to the challenge, she managed to inject a freshness, a feminine sensibility that was often lacking in mcqueen's work that had some criticizing the much lamented designer as a misogynist. the strands that made up the mcqueen DNA were all present: the printed dresses cut from a single piece of fabric, the corseted silhouette, immaculately tailored coats with the distinct sharp mcqueen shoulders slashed to give it a softness, and of course the showstopping dresses the summarizes the pagan story underlying this collection. it's only burton's first full season as head designer, but i think its safe to say that the house that lee built is in very capable hands indeed.



photo: style.com

RIVE GAUCHE

the most iconic of all iconics, there is no denying that monsieur saint laurent was the man! the master of subverted sexuality that dared to cross the lines of gender, social class and race. he was by and large, the most influential force in fashion in the latter half of the twentieth century. a heavy burden on his successor's stefano pilati's shoulders, who has had as much hits as misses as of late but vindicated himself with a stunning homage to the legacy of the house. from the rich jewel tones, the androgynous sexuality, the quiet erotic perversion of unexpected exposed skin, to an almost religious attention to cut, the left bank is still money in the bank!



photo: style.com

A PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST AS A MAD MAN

nothing like a proper mad galliano story to get us enraptured in an absinthe haze. and of course no galliano story is complete without its leading lady. this season it was maria lani, the saucy minx who tempted all the big shots of the twenties paris art scene and booted across the atlantic with their paintings stuffed in her luggage. perhaps galliano has finally found his archetypal heroine and it resulted to one of his strongest collections in years. cause when johnny-boy is on, he is ON! the clothes never got lost in the narrative, instead they were the script that gave life to this tale of irresistible seduction. and who better else can bring the clothes to life other than some of galliano's original muses. yasmin le bon, angela lindvall, georgina grenville, marie sophie wilson and suzanne von aichinger, oh my!! its like 1997 all over again.



photo: style.com

PUNKS JUMP UP

after years of digging through the balenciaga archives to source out inspiration, nicolas ghesquiere went back to the place where he started his balenciaga journey, he took it back to the streets. opening with a troop of riot girls straight outta 1977 london stomping the ground in teddy boy creeper shoes, it was a reminder to all that ghesquiere hasn't been swept away by balenciaga's storied legacy and his sci-fi/techno/urban girl of the early-mid noughties is still his most powerful statement. what ghesquiere shares most with the great master during his prime in the fifties is what he is capable of bringing in 2010, being relevant, being modern with an attitude that is all his own.



photo: style.com