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Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Still mulling things over with the zine so I won't bring it up now, instead I think I'll dedicate a full fledged post to it.

Here are some pictures from several weeks ago I had just chillin' in my camera. This is what my room looks like at night.



Saturday, May 22, 2010

Just really quickly what I wore last night, plus black lipstick I was just trying out from a halloween costume makeup kit I bought for a school project. I think I was going for a Courtney Love/Lydia Deetz integration with a bit of a Miu Miu twist (the bejeweled collar combo). It's a bit too simplistic considering what I normally tend to wear, but regardless I like it a lot.

I have some pictures of my room I took several weeks ago that I'm going to post soon, as well as my idea regarding a zine still in it's rudimentary stages of brainstorming. It's going to be about Dreamers - I don't mean all about the subconscious, I mean about people who approach art and language with a mentality that contradicts reality; they remove themselves from it to create something illusory and pensive that material reality constantly seems to lack. They thrive off the notion of a utopian world yet simultaneously acknowledge that this world we inhabit will always be tainted with imperfections. What immediately comes to mind that falls under this category is everything about Speed Levitch, Alison Scarpulla's photography, Richard Linklater films such as Before Sunset and Waking Life, and Tim Walker's editorials.

I will discuss this more in depth next post when I have my ideas regarding 'Dreamers' have become less hazy.





Sequin collared shirt is vintage. Dress from Forever 21.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Just a really quick write about this particular piece from designer Dion Lee's S/S10-11 collection at RAFW.


This blue pleated dress was probably my favourite (aside from the crystal heels). The architectural symmetry composed by the intricacies of the knotted pleats made my eyes literally widen (to be quite frank I almost audibly gasped). I’m constantly reminded of the almost rudimentary stages of a Roman soldier’s uniform when I see this dress, the shape the fabric over her shoulders and the taut wrap of the pleats a presumable catalyst of this reminder. Though the harshness is negated by the visual fragility of the dress. It’s almost as if the only thing left to make these uniforms out of was brilliant powder blue organza, so the Romans had nothing more to do but work with the resources they had.

(Photo via Jak&Jil)

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Sorry for being such a bad blogger guys; my Macbook broke several weeks ago and I've been busy weeping/petting it/moaning for it to revive itself. Since then I've been using my old pre-modern chunky desktop Windows which whurrs like a dying beehive whenever I turn it on. I sound ungrateful even though this is technology! and I should be grateful! (quote unquoting all of my foreign relatives) , it's just that once you've gone Mac it's hard to go back. I'm also hesitant to send it in for repair; the guy behind the counter at Future Shop said my entire hard drive has the possibility of being completely erased and when he showed me the price of a temporary hard drive I probably had all eyes in the store curiously glaring in my direction (wouldn't you glare too if you heard a little girl's voice frantically screaming FUUUUUUUU- in a basically silent electronics store?). POINT IS, I need to get it fixed so I can up some clothes photos STAT.

While I'm here for appearing to be the opposite of negligent's sake, I want to show you a few of my favourite stylists' works. I mainly post this on my Tumblr since I practically reside there whenever I find I am on the internet browser (which isn't Safari thus it angers me, but holy shit am I digressing), but I felt it was necessary to acknowledge them here as well since the tumblr is merely an inspiration board and not a very credible manner to cite my endearing sentiments towards the editorials they style. I'm going to narrow it down to three today even though I could definitely mention more (sorry Camille-Bidault Waddington :c).

NOTE: Clicking each picture for #1 and #2 will link you to a post on TFS which has the source + complete editorial.

1) Panos Yiapanis
I don't even know where to begin regarding my love for Panos' work. This dude's layering skills are absolutely incredible, and he does it without making it appear ostentatious. I first stumbled upon the editorials he styled via Tumblr (I'd probably discover more stylists/photographers/the like if some people credited what they were posting, in the cases where they consciously are aware of the source). I was in such adoration with the variety of textures, prints and vibrant colours so evident in the outfits he put together that I had to see more. His work integrates this sense of destruction and neurotic tendency within the aesthetics, and these contradictions work together to create this imperfect perfection which should overwhelm the viewer if successful. And his outfits without a doubt do (I can't stress enough how much they do). I'm really at a lack for articulating myself properly when it comes to his stuff. All I know is it makes my heart swell and my knees buckle. So fucking good.









2) Marie-Amelie Sauve
I came upon Marie-Amelie after I began getting really interested in who was behind all the outfits in my most cherished editorials. After extensively searching the "Behind the Lens" sub forum on TFS I came upon her thread, and after dissecting each post within I realized that she was the stylist for nearly every. single. editorial. I've swooned over in the past. I find she has similar stylistic tendencies as Yiapanis, particularly in the layering, which is probably why they are the stylists I am fond of the most. There are several blatant differences between their individual styles however; for example, I find Sauve approaches her work by manipulating the way she styles to coincide with the mood of the editorial, whereas Panos' manner of layering is so determined that I find it's actually his outfits which affect the mood, rather than the other way around. Also, Sauve evokes a femininity that Yiapanis' editorials lack - not to imply that this missing effeminity negatively impacts his work, there is just a notable difference which creates this distinct individuality in the manner that they style. Finally, I find Marie-Amelie focuses on appropriate colour schemes more than Panos does, but not as drastic as to go into detail about the fact of the matter. Regardless of these comparisons and contradictions, both of these stylists rock every fucking editorial they style. 10/10. They are literally untouchable.



3) Catherine Baba
With Catherine I find her personal style bleeds into her editorial work much more than the previous two. I know this is probably breaking some sort of artistic code, one which states that the artist is not a representation of their work; that although their creation, the work they produce is channeled through a different perception of understanding, extinguishing the artist's personal characteristics and acknowledging this mirrored version of their being; the removed version that creates the art objectively as much as the viewers see it objectively. What I'm trying to essentially state is that there is this inevitable rule, in music, in art, in literature, where the outer party see the work of the artist as an autobiography of their psychological state. And although I typically prefer art that contradicts this notion (where the artist removes themselves from their art), I find Catherine Baba is the ultimate exception. This editorial from 10 Magazine Summer 2009 highly exemplifies that.






Here are some street style photographs further exemplifying this integration. (Both photographs via Jak&Jil.)

Saturday, May 01, 2010

So several weeks or so ago, Melissa Luk emailed me asking if she could take some better quality photos of previous outfits captured with a bad quality cam (aka Photobooth on my mac), and I accepted. This project was extremely convenient for we both attend the same university, so we decided to meet up one day during finals week (procrastinating the efficient way) and just roam around and photograph and whatnot. It was a new experience for me seeing as I'm typically the one behind the camera and not in front, so it was a bit awkward at first. Eventually I got the hang of it though (I think I don't even know dudes). But the pictures turned out great and I'm happy lappy (thanks again Melissa!).






Outfit numba two!

Ghost World! Fun fact: I'm staring at ("reading") my favourite part from the entire comic.



You can see the entire set here (I'm technologically deficient and can't figure out how to blog all of these flickr photos at once using the Blog This button, so this'll have to do).