snow day

the elle italia december 09 editorial featuring six wide eyed fur and puffer vested models i spotted on the lovely fashion copious's blog are just so fitting for todays massive snow storm i just had to re-post. the editorial kind of reads like an ad for united colors of benetton, but i shouldn't be so surprised considering how many of the stores were scattered about italy last time i was there.









the inspiration for the shoot might not have been among the most revolutionary but considering how winters can seem to just drag on and on once the magic of the holidays has passed, it's nice to come across a charmingly simple editorial like this one, where all that's served up are fun alternatives to the usual drab winterwear that seems to plague us all come january. today happened to be the first official major snowfall in montreal, and as i've mentioned to the point of exhaustion, i'm a bit of a snow bunny...but even i succumb to winter blues when the dead of winter veeres it's icy head. it's images like these that get me to snap out of my mid-winter trance and actually make an effort instead of succumbing the whole "shlep" vibe (the worst kind of vibe there is.)









i forgot to mention how hyped i am about the burst of color that has been creeping into editorials lately. yay for that! (and ignore that the last image i post happens to be all black...) another black winter might have put me over the edge, as fierce as last years winter trends were. there are a couple of images i left out, to see them head over here

twin

the magic words here are creative director at lula. that would be the previous creative director at lula, rebecca smith, who has gone to start her own magazine: twin. not really a glossy, but not really a book, this first issue came out in hardcover based around the idea of strong content (always a plus in my books,) geered to fashion and art lovers. the pages are said be thick, and glossy (yum) and from the looks of it, the editorials aren't too shabby either.

one step forward two steps back



correct me if i'm wrong, but does this shot from 1998 of gisele bundchen, frankie rayder & fernanda tavares not scream spring 2009? i love fashion so much for just this reason. i can have serious déja vue moment - the petit bateau striped top has been everywhere, and is still going strong, the non-pants bottoms have been sported by everyone recently, even carin roitfeld (total omfg moment that was...) and then the eerily chloe-esque shorts that a very young gisele bundchen pulled off to a 't' - only to take a second look and see just what has changed since the 90's...i was pretty fashion-ignorant back then and for the life of me do not remember the pantsless trend having a run, nor do i recal petal trimmed shorts having any kind of moment...but then again, i listened to hanson back then (yes i am referring to the brothers from tulsa, go ahead and judge but it was definitely a step up from my previous days spent singing along to nsync...) and didn't wear much past runners and soccer shorts. all that said, in giving the photo a second take i noticed how the dimensions have changed, as well as the material and cut of each style. as small as the changes may be, so goes the evolution of fashion. part of what makes it special is definitely the 360 degree change of pace that fashion has a tendency to take, but half the fun is also in reworking old silhouettes and trends to make new again. besides how would i ever get to revisit styles from my period of fashion-ambivalence if not for the fashion cycle?

oh, and for those wondering, mario testino took the picture (big surprise) and the lovely and ingenious grace coddington styled it.

blonder = better

sorry to dissapoint, but it seems the extreme sun shining in through my window kind of canceled out how blond my hair actually is these days. but its blond folks, i swear! and if i ever manage to capture its blondeness in a better way i'll be sure to post it here first.



in other news, forgive the quiet blog as of late. this past work week had me raking up some major overtime hours (and pay :D) and this weekend i was at a craft fair helping out my lovely soap maker friend sell her wares. as if she needed helping, but more on that later, including all the fabulous purchases i made whilest at said craft fair. so. much. cuteness.

some curent inspiration (a proper december mood board to come soon) being drawn from all things hooded, sparkly and loose:

young hearts

watching the trailer for bright star (because i can't seem to find it in any montreal theaters yet) had me completely involved in every second that i spent watching, so much so that i found myself scowering the net for more trailers, excerpts of scenes, anything to keep the visuals coming! i've always kind of loved period films, but in recent years my appreciation for them has dulled a bit and i couldn't put my finger on why until i saw snippets of bright star.



























i bow down to janet patterson, the costume and set designer in charge here. she manages to synthesize the emotion of the actors performance through the clothes they wear, something i find often lost on costume designers working on period films - in many cases so many keep the focus on being 100% true to the period only to fall short in the end anyways, loosing out on an opportunity to enhance the story through the clothes instead of washing it out or worse, having costumes stand out as overbearing props. she definitely lucked out in that the young lady in love here (character name fanny brawne, played by abbie cornish) is a 'fashion student' from a well-off family. she's quite young and so very willing to test boundaries and discover herself and all that, which i'm sure made for some fun brainstorming sessions among costumers. on the flip side, her love (john keats, played by ben whishaw) is of course, a struggling poet whose costume reflects his economic standing but also his mood.

i'm always a stickler for a good love story too, and this one is kind of epic for those of you unfamiliar with it. i've got my fingers crossed that it turns up in theaters soon - definitely want to see this on a big screen. i don't want to miss a single detail!

focus



even though the model is totally out of focus, she's all that i can look at in this photo. completely mesmerizing that i am so drawn to her even though i can't really make her out.

inside my carry-on



whew! home again, and it feels good. a two day jaunt to toronto definitely proved to be more tiring than i expected. love love loved the people at porter airlines though - and the airline itself? love it even more: the cute mascot, the free latés (or cappuccino, espresso, tea, juice, water, newspapers - like, every one published in each city they fly out of...) the little round blue hats cocked to the side that the hostesses (as much as they probably hate wearing them) wear as they walk down the aisles handing out cute little lunch boxes embossed with their fuzzy animal friend the mascot on the cover and did i mention they give out actual glass glasses for you to drink out of? clearly i've never flown first class if this is what impresses me, but hey, i give appreciation where it's due.


needless to say that i was recently traveling for some pleasure-filled business and had the most charming of experiences. funnily enough, everyone i encountered while on my trip brought up how flying has changed over the years. once it was a whole affair, an occasion to dress up and look one's best while now most people worry about finding the stretchiest coziest pants to wear as they wedge themselves into the (increasingly) tight quarters offered by most airlines.


however, as i looked around on my recent flight i noticed that not only were the air hostesses wearing wonderful vintage-feeling little hats but everyone around me was well put together and looking quite daper - mostly men on my flight as it was a business shuttle, which i guess explaines the lack of cotton sweats ... i've found that it's mostly the ladies who pull out the most comfy of comfy outfits for plane rides, myself included which of course left me feeling quite out of place on my ride home. then again i simply don't see the point in dressing up to sit in a cramped space for a few hours (or just the 1 it took to get home) unless of course you're running from office to office, which i wasn't, so there we go...


a random update i know, but more fun news to come soon - a photo of my newly blonder hair to come in the next few days for all who asked for it. in the meantime, i'm totally obsessed with this song at the moment:

blonde ambition



not to harp on about hair over and over again, but i finally took the time to go and plunk my butt down in front of my beloved hairdresser and left a few hours later feeling lighter in every sense of the word - yes, my natural hair color is blond, but it hasn't been quite as baby-blonde bright as it was when i was a baby since, well, since i was a baby. duh.. but anyone who was a natural blonde only to watch her color fade over the years understands my plight, so at this point it's about as naturally (looking) bright blonde as it'll get short of me bleaching it, which i will never ever do again (read bad hs experience...it looked like a sun had set on my head - no joke, there was a degradé of bleach blonde to orange on my head for months. and not in any kind of edgy or cool way either. sploches galore. gross)

yay for new hair and how awesome it makes old, boring outfits look by default of its newness. another perk - it offsets my natural vampire-like paleness. woot.