Inspiration 9.20.10

I’m so very much in love with this page from Vogue Hommes Japan 5. I’m completely inspired by the palette, with the shades of cream and pink and red against the charcoals and other shades of gray. It’s a very painterly effect– I had to hold the screen of my laptop to make sure it was in fact a photograph and not a painting, and I’m still inclined to hedge. I love the androgyny of the model, with the almost surprising discovery that he is male despite the pinks and the sheers and the lace and his delicate arm. It’s Caravaggio with a splatter of yellow and a grey fuzzy toy stuck into the frame. Instead, just good ol’ Matthew Stone, who I want to revisit later. I’m almost tempted to go track down the magazine for the sole purpose of tearing this page out to put up on my wall. Gorgeous.

[via]

PS, because I like to overshare and you are big boys and girls who can click on something else if you don’t care: Now that I’m in Parts European, the number order for the date caused me AAAAGONY, hopeless neurotic that I am. 9.20.10 or 20.9.10? All those silly little differences that never even come close to entering one’s thoughts are now ISSUES for me. I really need a life. Anyone hiring? Pretty please?

Anouk Aimee

Random Acts of McQueen

I’ve discovered what dress I’d wear if I suddenly found myself in a fairy-tale.

Actually, screw fairy-tales. Knowing myself, if I owned that (and the shoes!!!) I’d wear it every chance I got. Like to the grocery store. And the laundromat. To walk the dog. (This is also an imaginary reality wherein I actually have a dog. Specifically, an old, fat, grumpy English bulldog. Named Bruce.)

((What? I’m on topic! British dogs are the perfect accessories for British-designed dresses!))

Point being, it’s a magical dress. I want to run my hands all over it and put it on and twirl like the foolish little girl I am. Gorgeous.

Alexander McQueen A/W 2008. [via]

Lighter shade of pale

I really find myself lusting after romantic, diaphonous light-coloured blouses these days. Here are a few of my favourites that I’ve pulled together while wandering around the web. Sadly, they’re mostly out of my price range, but they work as good inspiration pieces.[Lanvin]

[Marc Jacobs]

[D & G]

[Stella McCartney]

[more Stella] (I actually would look terrible in this shirt, but I have a friend who would look amazing in it. It’s up in her honour.)

[Anna Sui]

[Celine]

[Maje-- check out the link for close-ups of the beautiful lace insets.]

And because I went there with the title, here’s the accompanying music video:

Valentino A/W 2009-10 ramblings

Valentino has always been one of my favourite designers. My mother has a couple of his dresses from the mid Eighties in her closet, and when I was a little girl, I would always sneak in and stroke them with a finger, awestruck by their beauty. I daydreamed about what it would be like to be a grown-up woman and be able to slip into one of those gowns. I imagined going out and looking beautiful and glamourous, everyone unable to tear their eyes off the mysterious woman in the fancy dress.

Fast-forward 18 years, and sadly I find that, as I inherited my figure from my grandmother rather than my mother, those glorious gowns refuse to fit. (I did get the boobs, though.) Still love Valentino, though, so it’s been interesting seeing where Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioliare going with the line. I’m not 100% enthused with what I’ve seen, but I did think there were some definite hits in the A/W 2009-10 collection. Vintage-inspired lace is a swift route to happiness in my book.

Lace sleeves and mask. Love.

Despite my love for vintage lingerie, I tend to be iffy about lingerie-inspired detailing on things, but this dress does it in an original way. I’d wear this in a heartbeat.

I actually am not crazy about this dress, as I find it boring. My opinion might be revised if I saw it one someone possessed of a breast or hip or two, but for now it stands. Not a Gigantic Bow fan. I had to put this up, though, because I am simply in love with this particular mask.

And in that line, the two below are all about the gorgeous headpieces, beautiful though the bodices pictured may be. They’re what I would wear if I were the beautiful but badass spy-heroine of some OTT steampunk novel, attending a ball to stop the heinous, be-monacled Baron von Pfumfenhumfen from realising his plans to unleash his steam-powered minions on  the known world. Then, having saved the world with a combination of my brilliance and mad skillz, I would change into the outfit at the very top and stride into the meeting of the International Cabal of Bigwigs and Nabobs, brazenly showing off my anachronistic bare legs, and stun them all into having an iota of sense in their heads, through sheer display of badassery.

Ahem. Reality check. Purty hat-veil-thingmabobs. And bodices. Yes, purty bodices too.