In normal fashion, Alexander McQueen's latest collection is amazing!
He was always one of my favorite designers because of the way that he would incorporate elements from fashion history, with innovative new elements.
This, his last, just reminds me how much he will be missed.
This blog is great. It has some really awesome images that I find pretty inspiring. Not to mention that Anya is from Russia and has that Slavic inspiration, which I LOVE!
This is the blog of the woman who wrote Vintage Hairstyling
The Minnesotan version of the Satorialist.
She has a ton of vintage images. Loves it!
I love this site. It has so many great links to places to get clothes for less. It's great to see their interpretations of celebrity looks.
There are so many things that I love about Dior that I just can't make into words.
I love how John Galliano keeps with the original style of Christian Dior. Utterly brilliant.
This is a must check out! Of course there are going to be the ones that you personally don't agree with, however the list overall is excellent.
Who do you disagree with on the list? Who should have made the list?
My # 1 should have made the list..... DAVID BOWIE!
The penultimate glam-rock star!! How could you forget the god among men?
I have had this conversation countless times, and every time we (those I am speaking to) come up with the same consensus. That is, fashion needs to go back to the way that it used to be. Don't get me wrong, I love today's fashion, and find it facinating, but I just think that there are somethings that should have never gone out of style.
I thought it best to show the products of what some of the conversations come up with. By doing so I think that many of you, it not all, will have to agree that we need the Way Way Back Machine.
We will start with Men's fashion. I won't lie, I pretty much hate what men today wear. I have to give designers props from trying so very hard to dress the male population of the world better, and there are some that they have had success with. But I digress.
Here are some looks that have been deemed worthy.
First we have a little bit from the Renaissance/Tudor England era, just because the flowy shirts are nice to looks at. ;)
Then we have the late 18th and early 19th centuries. I have decided that this look looks good on any man.
We of course have to go with something that the men folk would be far more willing to wear and fit in with. I have chosen Cary Grant to demonstrate this look. It's what basically what designers are trying to do today, only a lot more classy. Whatever happened to men wearing suits? I've never ever seen a man that didn't look bad in a suit. And the tie! What happened to the tie. No one wears a tie anymore. This saddens my heart greatly.
And the nice thing with this look is... you don't need jeans. What, blasphemy you say? If you are really having a hard time with this look at old pictures of you grandfather, or old hollywood movie stars. So much more put together! But I'll bend if you must wear denim, please make sure it is Dark and Fitted. I don't want non of this saggy baggy butt, wide leg, too long crap going on. Guy it may surprise you but, girls like it when we can see you butt in a pair of pants.
Now I shall speak of hair. I'm not much fan of long hair on guys. But that is a personal thing for every one (girl) I prefer the Dandy look. You saw this above with Jonathan Rhys Meyers and his cast mates form Vanity Fair. On guy today has this look down to perfection, and it just so happened he was also in Vanity Fair (Uncredited, and his scenes cut) Who it s the mystery man I speak of? Robert Pattinson. Go ahead, through things at me. but it looks good to me, especially since I am kind of a costume history nerd.
Now for the Women. I'm not going to give nearly as many parimitares as I did the men, because though the look of what we wear has changed over the years, it's just the basics that we are concerned with.
What do we want? Dresses! When do we want them? Now! Yes, We want to go back to a time when women wore only dresses. No, we don't want to go back to that time, we just want it to be more acceptable to wear a dress again. How and when did that happen? We go to a store and all we can find most of the time are pants. Dresses, and Skirts please!
Not to mention that we would also like to take back hats, cute handbags and gloves.
For visual aids on this one I've given a smattering of time periods. (They are generally my favorite)
And after that I feel better.
I would like to thank JRMFansite for the photos of Jonathan Rhys Meyers. I do not own any of these pictures (except the ones of my family)
It has been a few months since I've posted on my blog. I thought it best to focus on my school and design work rather than blogging. But now school is out, and I've GRADUATED! Now I must find a job.
So here is what has been going on with Cermakova.
Last week there was an event at the Minnesota Historical Society called Retrorama. This is something that they do every year, and it is just an excuse to get a whole bunch of people together and wear vintage and listen to oldies, and do all things retro. Very fun I must say. Via's Vintage on Hennepin was there with a bunch of there stuff, and one of the women was saying something about getting dresses from a woman in England in real sizes because vintage doesn't come in those sizes.
Light Bulb moment!
I'm going to try and start to make dresses from vintage patterns in modern sizes, and market them to local vintage stores, and clothing stores in general. I would also sell them online of course. I think that there is a really good market out there for this.
I was doing my daily check of "my blogs." And came across these wonderful images on the Satorialist, who I might add that I love. These are exactly what I needed a few weeks ago to show Jeff Turner. But thankfully I can use them as references for the shop-girls to pull stuff for me to choose from.
Right; Moon, only frumpier. Not so perfect looking.
A little inspiration for Magnus
Time to make my way to the commuters lounge to await my next class. My last semester in my school career started yesterday. It's kind of scarey and kind of exciting at the same time. I just hope that my head doesn't explode this semester. I want to have time to look for a job.
Three words that I thought that I never would hear in the same sentence. Alexander, McQueen, Target. But how very sweet these words are together!
I sit checking my fashion blogs, as I do multiple times through out the day. (I know, do I have a life?) And I noticed a cute dress on one of the preview
s, and I clicked the link. Then I think that I gave the largest gasp known to man. McQ Alexander McQueen for Target.
Here are some of the details:
Here are a couple links to more articles about the line.
Alexander McQueen Targets Midwest with One-Time One-Off Line
McQueen Makes Topshop Jab, Mermaid Tattoo Dresses for Target
I will say that I am a slight bit disappointed in some of the items in the collection. But then again, some of his more distinctive looks just would not fly at Target. I personally love his Fall 2008 RTW, and Spring 2007 RTW
"Talk about unrealistic standards.
Hottie Czech supermodel Karolina Kurkova has been under intense scrutiny and faced some tough criticism lately. Apparently, the thin model gained some weight last year.
The Brazilian media even criticized the 24 year-old in June for her supposed "cellulite and love handles" after walking in the Sao Paulo Fashion Week. They also called her "too fat" after she walked in the Victoria's Secret lingerie show in Miami last November.
In order to get "slim" for the lingerie show, Kurkova has said she dieted on mainly fresh veggies, protein, and salad.
And, even before last November's show, a source said she cut out all carbs and worked out for hours in order to get slimmer like the other Victoria's Secret models. The friend says, "She was exhausted and didn’t get down to where she wanted to be."
In fact, Kurkova almost didn't make it into the VS show due to her weight, they claim. It wasn't until the last minute that they decided to include her. That explains why her name wasn't on any of the pre-show press materials.
But, according to another insider, it seems her weight "problems" are attributed to the ever popular thyroid disorder which is said to mess with her metabolism.
Forbes states Kurkova is currently the eighth highest-paid supermodel in the world. So she's obviously doing something right!
We think Karolina needs to have a sitdown with Tyrannosaurus, on her show - of course!"
Courtesy of Perezhilton.com
When I saw this PerezHilton.com I was pissed. Seriously, this is what is wrong with out society. It's truly disgusting.
I am proud to say that I am a Czech woman too, and that we aren't shapeless sticks! In fact that goes for all slavic women. As thin as some of us may be there is no way that anyone can say that we don't have curves. In some cases these curves may be considered fat. It's not, it's just the natural human ideal of beauty.
This is the one thing that I hate about the fashion industry. But the thing is, it's not just the fashion industry, it's society. For some reason we have developed an unhealthy idealized body image, where if we can see the ribs in your chest, you are still too fat. The funny thing is that the vast majority of society isn't the size that they idealize.
Historically, the idea of beauty has been some one who had some meat on their bones, and had a figure, it meant that they could afford to eat. Yes, there may have been corsets to make the waist smaller, but that was all they were for; by making the waist smaller it in turn made the chest and hips look larger, creating that beautiful hourglass. People wanted to have a FIGURE not be rail thin. Now we try to be a skinny as possible. The ideal has completely flipped.
I could go on and on about how disgusting it is that this is how society views women, and even men, but I won't. I know that there is nothing that I nor really anyone can do to change society's mind, alone. It is just a matter of time, and popular view. There may be a shift in sight, off in the far distance, thanks to Spain and their new restrictions on models.
I personally think that we just need to look at the fact that we are healthy and fit, rather than skinny or fat. I'm a plus size buy industry standards; a size 8. (and women's sizes go by every-other number usually evens) It was just 8 years ago that I was a 0. It must be said I did jump all the way to a 12, but I decided to get healthy. I'd like to point out that I can't get smaller, my bone structure is maybe a size 6 at best. It's the way that we are made, we can't change that. But we can change the way we look at size and how we take care of ourselves.
I was flipping through the pages of last months Vogue and a new Jantzen ad slapped me in the face. I'm the type of person who usually skims over things in magazine. I guess I missed the times that Jantzen suits were mentioned the past couple years.
I can't tell you how many Jantzen ads from the 1950's I've come across in my searches for 1950's ads and photos.
