Even Sweden's Paper Dolls Are Awesomer

Further proof that Sweden produces the most fantastic things.

I got Twitter-friended the other day by Blogue & clawmoney* and went to go check out their latest. Am super into the Blogue posts... same kind of schizophrenic fashion interests and penchant for amusement as mine... plus treasures like these FANTASTIC 1960's SWEDISH PAPER DOLLS. omg. I'm convinced that Sweden is the coolest country around, producing only the very most stylish and badass people (except me, I'm only half Swede. Damn shame.), fashion, art and Vikings. These prove my point. Tom Tierney, reigning American (English?) paperdoll king of the 20th century, whose dollies I had a zillion of as a child, somehow manages to make all his dolls reek of stuffiness. I doubt he ever did anyone particularly cool (though I did get his Obama family as a gift last month...). Sweden, on the other hand, churned out paper dolls of Brigitte Bardot, Twiggy, CHER...along with some pretty bangin' outfits. I would happily take mini Brigitte's outfits, above, any day.

*(clawmoney = cute streetwearish brand with the most amaaaazing peacock feather earrings in silver and gold. I die.)

**anyone know what DE UNGAS SIDOR means?

Proof That Appearing On Cobrasnake Is Not Necessarily A Good Thing

Q: Is it true that smoking keeps you thin and drinking makes you less socially awkward?

[cobrasnake via hipsterrunoff]

A: No.

"Fuck Off Diamonds" : Sally Singer, Rodarte & Adriano Goldshmied @ UCLA Hammer tonight

[rodarte backstage. photo: hammer museum]

So, I and about a gazillion other ladies went to this tonight at the Hammer Museum:

Conscientious Consumption: Sustainability and the Future of Luxury

Los Angeles has always been the fashion world’s barometer of lifestyle shifts. Sally Singer, the fashion news and features director of Vogue, asks four leading Los Angeles designers about their strategies, aesthetics, and philosophies in response to extraordinary environmental and economic changes. What is the modern relationship between the ethical and the luxurious (for designer and consumer)? Singer will be joined by renowned jewelry designer Tom Binns; the "Godfather of Denim" and Goldsign designer, Adriano Goldschmied; Dosa founder and designer, Christina Kim; and Kate Mulleavy, one of the design duo behind Rodarte. The discussion will be followed by a Q & A session.

I decided to go at the last second and barely got off work, but I screeched in just in time to join the high-heeled hordes and get seated in the "overflow room." This meant I had to watch all of the above on a video screen...but I still got enough of a view to become instantly obsessed with Sally Singer's Rodarte heels. They are ridiculous. I wish I were Sally Singer just so I'd be the owner. I also wish I were she for lots of other reasons, like, oh, having worked with Andy Warhol and being the fashion news director of Vogue and getting to organize fashion dialogues at the Hammer. I got a little excited hearing that she'd gone to Yale for American Studies. Yay, supremely cool people have majored in that too! Maybe American Studies and fashion go way back! Or something!

ANYWAY, so it was cool. Glad I went. You don't really get to hear designers converse (vs. just display their collections) too often.

Kate Mulleavy from Rodarte, in rare sans-Laura appearance: very sweet. So unassuming, for being so staggeringly innovative and influential. Love that their latest collection was inspired by "the idea of the deconstructed house...which to us then led to Frankenstein. Which isn't the best thing to have to tell beauty editors." Hee! Her tactic for adjusting to the recession was to stop making pants, which no one ever buys from them ("So, basically, don't make what doesn't sell"). Pants are an extraneous extravagance. Love it.

Tom Binns, jeweler, Michello Obama fave: what a bizarre man. Wouldn't answer Sally's questions and then talked over her...hilariously though. He lives in Venice, which means he's orbiting very close to me most days. I should make an effort to casually run into him more often. Subtle stalking must ensue. But yes, right, his pieces are based around found objects and the idea of reinvention. "I don't think about fashion, really. It's too transient. I think about art. Fashion has no value." He explains his tongue-in-cheek pendants that read "FUCK OFF DIAMONDS" by saying, "I don't think about luxury. People think about luxury, but I don't. People have very wrong ideas about value. If you tell them it's a diamond, it's a diamond." Works for me.

Adriano Goldshmied, founder of denim companies Diesel, Replay, AG, Goldsign...: so very Italian. Very sure of his opinions. Which I like. I also like that he himself only wears vintage Levi's and Wranglers. Kind of a theme here, not wearing the couture you make; the Mulleavys, frothy-dress-makers-extraordinaires, are famous for only wearing jeans and tees. AG predicts that the trend in denim will be looser and more traditional in this recessed economy; the equivalent of "running to Mama" in the world of jeans is a return to comfort, familiarity and security (i.e. heritage brands and fits). Noooo, I like my skinnies! Come on, man. He says that "the Bush era was about the sexy jean," but no longer. Oh well, I guess I'd rather vintage than ass-tight and bedazzled. My self in 20 years will certainly be glad for recession chic, I'm sure.

All the designers seemed to agree that the fashion world's adaptation to the recession is going to be greater attention paid to quality and originality - that mass-produced is going to be way uncool and that the focus will be on value. Basically, that people won't stop buying high, but they will stop expecting low.

As for me, my recession adaptation involves searching for little Keds & Vans tennies in rainbow colors on sale. I'm determined to do tennie chic...wish me luck.

p.s. for a more up-close-&-personal report, i know because i'm addicted was there too!
p.p.s. who knew the Hammer had a Twitter?? now following!

blogging @ MAGIC

Hi hi,I thought I'd be able to post all kinds of fun while in Vegas atMAGIC, but I have neither a solid interwebs hookup, a camera cable nortime. Post-show ridiculousness wrapup to follow!
In the meantime, live commentary (hah) is at www.twitter.com/amaterialworld

Golden Oldie Fashion

I visited my wonderful 95-year-old grandmother recently, and she gave me the fantabulous gift of a dress from her younger days. She used to work in the fashion industry and has a deep and abiding love for beautiful clothes. Her neighborhood in Florida doesn't give her much in the way of fashion eye candy, so she's convinced that NOTHING is made the way it was back in the golden days of yore, and that NO ONE knows anything about design and that fashion is a bunch of garbage in this heinous rotten present. Usually I argue with her and throw issues of Vogue and show her Calvin Klein's latest, but when she pulled out this example of a normal, nice dress from 50 years or so ago, I had to admit defeat.

[note the old lady shoes, from a real old lady]

The dress is incredible. Look at the detailing. It's UH MAY ZING. All appliqued by hand. And all those little hooks and eyes! Nothing terribly difficult, but certainly not your average Loehmann's find nowadays (and my grandma got this dress at the equivalent of Loehmann's). It does make you think, wow, maybe disposable fashion and whiplash-fast trends are really not worth the price of sacrificing quality like this. You can't even see the grey pearlized buttons that face inward down the center! Such a pretty detail, to be seen only by your ribcage! Love it.

It was so sweet how excited my grandmother was to see that I could wear her old dress. She's littler than I am, so the hips are a little high (note awkward gapping...will have to baste shut!), but I think it's doable.  I do need to find a replacement belt for the grey one she said it used to have. Any tips for where to search? I have a big problem finding good/affordable/simple belts.

Anthropologie Targets Crayola Lovers, Thesaurus Fans

[anthropologie's welcoming message. ooookay. just wait 'til you find out what they have to say about that sweater...]

Many of my friends swear by Anthropologie, extolling the virtues of their dresses.  The stuff my discerning amigas have scored there is definitely lovely, though the actual Anthropologie stores are a little cloying for my taste (all that shabby chic makes me want to go take refuge in an Eames museum). But I had no idea how far "cloying" could be taken until I started getting their catalog in the mail.  I'm not sure why, since I've never ordered anything from them, but maybe it's thanks to the wonderful grey boots I got from sister company Free People. 

Anyway, what started as a casual catalog flip-through ended with my jaw hanging open and my mind completely blown by the insane descriptions Anthropologie attaches to its perfectly sane clothing. INSANE! The sentences sound like something Bai Ling would come up with to describe her state of mind after a nice evening of Ecstacy and goat-herding. For instance:

The Unbloomed Bulb Necklace ($218): "flattened orbs of amber resin crave the warmth of the sun." Do they, now? If that's true, they sound a little scary to have living on my neck.

What's going on on the "Chiffchaff Cardi," you ask? Ah, here we go: "a wee warbler and delicate shrubbery roost on golden sweaterknit." Excuse me? "A wee warbler"--are we in Ireland now? And since when does shrubbery roost on things? Also, I'd like to point out, "sweaterknit" is not a technical term. Sweaters are knit, but there is no "sweaterknit." Christ.

How's life over in the land of the "Hushed Hamlet Dress"? I hesitate to ask, but... "Dobby stripes nestle cozily 'neath the ruched poplin bodice of the strapless sheath, as a neighborly self-sash circles the charming scene." Now we're going with a cute Shakespearean linguistic twist? But I thought we were in Ireland! Oh wait, no, hamlets ARE British, aren't they. And Hamlet. Apparently, in Hushed Hamlet Dress Land, ribbons are neighborly, and dresses are "scenes."  Got it. But wait, how is it again that the stripes are nestling, exactly? I guess I didn't read the Cliffs Notes....

Now for my favorite, the "Stretching Acres Cardigan." Looks cute enough. Seems a little odd to give it a name that implies such immensity, but that's easy to overlook...until you discover that its "wrapped linen-cotton is vast with gentle draping and softness." GOOD LORD. "Is vast with"? SERIOUSLY? That's not even a PHRASE, and if it were, what in hell would it mean when referring to a short-sleeved wrap sweater?!  I don't think they're trying to imply plus-size here, so what on earth the Anthropologie copywriters think is appealing about this sentence truly mystifies me. I give up.

The thing is, Anthropologie is an enormously successful company with loyal customers and scores of retail stores. They must have done market research, pinpointed their target customers, and written this drivel with that target audience in mind. But I can't imagine that my Anthro-fan friends go into dreamy fantasies and whip out their credit cards in response to this stuff...so who does? Someone must. I have to imagine it's the upper-30s-sorta-hippie set who aren't quite old enough for J.Jill or whatever, but are they truly into the Calgon-take-me-away nonsense? Or has the market research failed, and everyone thinks the blurbs are baloney but likes the pretty clothes enough to keep on getting the catalog, thereby convincing the Anthro text dept that they've succeeded? Anyone with answers, please enlighten!

And You Thought Your Plaid Shirt Was So Current...

[opening ceremony gets crazy, countryside-style.]

Feel like you've seen latest fashion trends somewhere before? Like, on a farm?
The latest Trend Central report confirms our suspicions:

"Heritagewear: The low prices, fleeting trends, and poor quality of the fast fashion boom have left some consumers in search of the exact opposite. A renewed interest in quality, comfort, and dependability has led many to the "functional" brands of the past. Items such as Hunter Wellington boots (aka "Wellies)", Sperry Topsiders, L.L. Bean duck boots, Filson tin cloth garments, and even Hanes white t-shirts and Levi's 501s represent an authenticity and durability missing in many of today's closets. Reflective of the trend, Opening Ceremony will be releasing a collaboration with Pendleton (whose blanket coats, and those inspired by, are hot among hipsters this winter) in August, while Barbour is issuing a limited edition collection of redesigned classics this fall and Woolrich Woolen Mills' modernized outerwear is being scooped up by shoppers at Barneys and Steven Alan. In a time when flashy, over-the-top looks and luxury labels are almost frowned upon, we expect to see old school brands known for quality and comfort to acquire a new generation of fans."

Refinery 29 agrees that

"Right now, and especially in this economy, guys should be getting back to their old-school American roots—think functional pieces with an eye for the details. 'There's a nostalgia for 1940s and '50s blue-collar commuter wear, the characteristics of which were functionality and sustainability,' says Jared Flint, the Men's Market Editor at Nylon." Ref29 also provided the pix of the OC/Pendleton collabos above, which "include Navajo blankets refashioned as bell skirts and patchwork plaid shirts with contrasting color sleeves. The line hits stores in August, and everything is made in the U.S.A., so you can support the homeland and look good doing it."

Is this really about getting back to basics? Or is it about spending just as much money as ever on the same big names as always, but in a way that LOOKS more socially aware? I mean, "support the homeland and look good doing it" is key here; just like my Obama tote, this is some intense broadcasting of the idea that the wearer is, like, totally in favor of all the sexiest principles and current policies. No one has ever gone to Opening Ceremony for old-school basics, and if they do in August, it's only because old-school is the new new-school. If you actually want to support traditional Navajo art, wouldn't you get it from...the Navajo? [Also, man is that skirt ugly.]

New Pepsi Campaign Confounds Me

I just passed, for the millionth time, a newish Pepsi billboard that reads "LOVETC" with the Pepsi logo inside the "O.". It's part of the latest Pepsi we've-been-with-you-through-the-generations campaign, and it bugs the hell out of me. The new Pepsi billboards all feature cryptic words with the Pepsi logo inserted somewhere convenient, and they make so little sense that the first couple times you see them, you just think, "huh?" and when you finally figure out the gist (the words represent generational themes, or something), you're just annoyed at the time Pepsi has stolen from your life.

[note: I'm not even going to start on the new Pepsi logo, which is apparently supposed to represent a smile, and which is totally a ripoff of the Obama logo, and which I think is going to be a massively misguided step away from their signature branding.]

SO: has this new billboard campaign failed because it just makes us pissed off? Or succeeded, because of the amount of time we've spent rolling the  Pepsi name around in our brains?  I can't tell.

[source: emilychang]

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Brand New's readers' reaction to new Pepsi designs is, uh, less than positive.

Corporate site: Pepsi Gallery