Nanette Lepore
Nanette Lepore
Nanette Lepore
Nanette Lepore
Milly - Michelle Smith
Anna Sui
Anna Sui
Anna Sui
Anna Sui
Latest
NY Fashion Week, again
Tadashi Shoji
Rodarte
Oscar de la Renta
Oscar de la Renta
Oscar de la Renta
The top hat
Walking home on Saturday night, this couple passed me, and the guy was wearing the most amazing top hat. Continuing my walk home I kept thinking on top hats – how awesomely cool they are and how sad it is that they just disappeared out of our everyday wardrobe. So, this will be my attempt (the first of many) to encourage the top hat’s comeback.
The top hat “is a tall, flat-crowned, broad-brimmed hat”, which stayed in fashion for over 200 years, from the mid 18th to the mid 20th century.
They come in various colors and made from various materials, but they all have in common that they look smashing and can put the umph in any outfit.
Did you know that the Jägers in the Russian Imperial Army wore top hats as part of their uniforms for nine years? That’s so lovely! If I ever go to war (which, yeah, I can totally see happening) I want my enemies to wear top hats. There’s nothing wrong in fighting with style, darling.
Now, if my post can’t convince you, maybe some of these fabulous people can:
Glamour boy Anthony Eden
The glorious Helena
Henry James
Dior couture 2010
Marlene Dietrich
And of course, the ever lovely, ever mad, hatter
Love, Hanna
NY Fashion Week Update
Carlos Miele
Carlos Miele
Betsey Johnson
Carolina Herrera
Might be a bit boring with just an LBD, but I liked the tailoring on the skirt.
Donna Karan
Stella McCartney
From the glorious extravaganza of Christian Lacroix last week to one of his former interns this week – I bring you English designer Stella McCartney (1971 – ).
McCartney first became interested in designing clothes when she made a jacket at age 13. At 16 she interned for the wonderful Mr. Lacroix, before studying at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.
For her graduation runway show in 1995 she used friends such as Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss as models. From 1997 – 2001 she was creative director of Chloé. From Chloé she went on to Gucci, and also to launch her own fashion house, in 2001.
McCartney is a fervent supporter of PETA, and does therefore obviously not use fur and leather in her designs.
Love, Hanna
Sea of Faith
So I came across this poem and I really wanted to share it with you. It epitomizes a feeling I think so many teachers can recognize, especially those who teach at a higher level where one would expect people to be at least halfway enlightened. So please enjoy
Sea of Faith
By John Brehm
Once when I was teaching “Dover Beach”
to a class of freshmen, a young woman
raised her hand and said, “I’m confused
about this ‘Sea of Faith.’” “Well,” I said,
“let’s talk about it. We probably need
to talk a bit about figurative language.
What confuses you about it?”
“I mean, is it a real sea?” she asked.
“You mean, is it a real body of water
that you could point to on a map
or visit on a vacation?”
“Yes,” she said. “Is it a real sea?”
Oh Christ, I thought, is this where we are?
Next year I’ll be teaching them the alphabet
and how to sound words out.
I’ll have to teach them geography, apparently,
before we can move on to poetry.
I’ll have to teach them history, too-
a few weeks on the Dark Ages might be instructive.
“Yes,” I wanted to say, “it is.
It is a real sea. In fact it flows
right into the Sea of Ignorance
IN WHICH YOU ARE DROWNING.
Let me throw you a Rope of Salvation
before the Sharks of Desire gobble you up.
Let me hoist you back up onto this Ship of Fools
so that we might continue our search
for the Fountain of Youth. Here, take a drink
of this. It’s fresh from the River of Forgetfulness.”
But of course I didn’t say any of that.
I tried to explain in such a way
as to protect her from humiliation,
tried to explain that poets
often speak of things that don’t exist.
It was only much later that I wished
I could have answered differently,
only after I’d betrayed myself
and been betrayed that I wished
it was true, wished there really was a Sea of Faith
that you could wade out into,
dive under its blue and magic waters,
hold your breath, swim like a fish
down to the bottom, and then emerge again
able to believe in everything, faithful
and unafraid to ask even the simplest of questions,
happy to have them simply answered.
Love, Elin
More NY Fashion Week
Band of Outsiders
Duro Olowu
Duro Olowu
Christian Siriano
The favorites (so far) from New York Fashion Week
Jason Wu
Jason Wu
Jason Wu
Wuthering Heights
may you not rest as long as I am living; you said I killed you–haunt me, then! The murdered do haunt their murderers, I believe. I know that ghosts have wandered on earth. Be with me always–take any form–drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!
Since we are finding ourselves in a vintage vein, as Mari put it yesterday, I thought it fitting to continue with a book of yore as well. Allow me to take you back to 1847, and to Emily Brontë’s (1818-48) gothic masterpiece, Wuthering Heights.
I find it difficult to compose a short summary (or to find one to steal), as this is a story with lots of happenings. However, I will say that it centers around Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, and that it is a tale of passionate love and of revenge, of rain and darkness and mist and moors. You simply must read it.
Love, Hanna
The Philadelphia Story
Continuing in the vintage vein from yesterday’s post, today’s film is an old classic, George Cukor’s The Philadelphia Story (1940), starring Cary Grant, James Stewart and the amazing Katharine Hepburn.
The story revolves around rich girl Tracy Lord (Hepburn), who is about to get married. In the days leading up to the wedding, her ex-husband C.K. Dexter Haven (Grant) returns to complicate things, and with him are two reporters trying to get the scoop of the year: the inside story on the wedding.
Clever quips are wittily exchanged, and the self-assured heiress learns some important things about herself and her soon-to-be husband (not to mention her ex). In the mix is also Tracy’s amazingly cool little sister, Dinah.
I thouroughly recommend this film this weekend!
Love, Mari
Vili Flik 