Update! (Look I've been on here long enough to warrant an update)

New favorite modes!
I was just looking at my old post of favorite models. Oh man, has it changed. Jessica Stam, I have since learned, is a major cootie queen-slash-kleptomaniac. When she fell on her face on the runway, I felt a little sad, but also kind of happy, because she's mean.
Lily Donaldson, as I've mentioned, is not all together that attractive anymore. Which really doesn't matter, but it's why she's unattractive: sickly thin! Which means she doesn't value herself and her health, and doesn't love herself completely. Which are very unattractive things in a woman.
Lily Cole was kind of too naked in a past issue of W, and I lost taste for her... She kind of bores me?
Why do I keep saying "kind of"?
New additions:
Ali Michael. You may have seen her on "The Today Show", and probably other shows having to do with days of the week, speaking up about anorexia nervosa. She's 18, and was 16 when diagnosed. Since then, she has recovered, and is using her voice to make an impact on the fashion world. Everyone else has tried to add pounds to runway models, but I think a real difference can be made once the models themselves start making a scene.

Caroline Trentini might just be the cutest thing ever. You'll know her because she's always jumping.

Du Juan is Asian, so I immediately liked her. Her name means "cuckoo bird".

Carmen Kass is president of the Estonian National Chess League, and once ran for European Parliament. And she looks just like that girl from Top Model.

Stanford Blatch in all his Plaid Glory

I've decided that there is no way to properly introduce a post about the Sex and the City movie. Every single woman is talking about this movie, and if I had a really good prize I would urge you to find a woman's blog that isn't talking about this movie. There is too much going through my head at this point for me to even form coherent thoughts- I am just too overcome by Charlotte's "I curse the day you were born!"; by Miranda's no-warning, terrifyingly sudden and far-too-long sex moment; and by the devastating lack of Aidan that I can't even speak about the movie yet. I have to let it all sink into my head first.
But this post is not about the movie. It doesn't matter what I think of the movie; what matters is the CLOTHES.
I hate to say it, and you all (I know there's more than one of you reading this!) probably hate me even more, but the clothes didn't thrill me; in fact they disappointed me. I went into the theater expecting to be floored by gorgeous Dries van Noten summer floral dresses, Carrie in one of those Balenciaga armor suits, Samantha in that satin-bow-equipped Louboutin of last spring. But instead, I got Charlotte in polka dots (Oscar de la Renta polka dots, but dots nonetheless), a lot of too-huge belts, and three of the only three Peter Som dresses I haven't liked. Ever.
What went wrong? I mean, Carrie will be Carrie, but Charlotte wouldn't wear black to a wedding. She just wouldn't.

And I understand that this is Vivienne Westwood, but does it have to look so '90s?

What I DID appreciate was Carrie's use of one of those insanely-huge clutches (I don't remember who it was by), and some components of her white Ralph Lauren suit in the opening.
And I understand Carrie's wedding dress. Most people just guffaw at it (look I said "guffaw") and call it ugly. But come ON, the thing is Vivienne Westwood. It's not going to be "pretty", it's not going to be normal or expected or wedding-y, or flattering. I even understood the bird on her head. If you noticed, everyone had plumes on their noggins this past Fashion Week, and Carrie would totally fall right into that trend. She's Carrie.
There was one dress that I loved! I don't know who it's by, which is totally lame. But this dress is a beautifu, toned-down, wearable version of her wedding dress. And Holy Manolo, Stanford, you're cuter than pie.

Just one little thing... Her "Something Blue" Manolos, you know, THE Manolos. In the movie they were said to have cost $545. In reality they cost $945.

Would you want to be proposed to with something you know you'd gotten a $400 deal on?
Well, I guess anything would work.

Time to Pay a Visit to Lululemon

"Overdressed travelers pay less attention to the surroundings and more to themselves." Thank GOD my best friend gave me this great quote because my blog-inspiration river was running dry as a milkless cow. (Also let's all be sure to thank God for Wicked, from whence this quote came.) I am about to venture on a couple trips that will involve airplanes, and because of that, I have been thinking a lot about travel wear. Mainly: airplane wear. Seems like most people think of the airport as that one place where it really is okay to wear their pajamas in public.
THEY ARE WRONG.
Not only because you can never wear your pajamas in public, but also because that is downright disrespectful. People are cramped into some pretty close quarters in airplanes, and inadvertently, a stranger's leg will brush against yours. If I were that stranger, I would go through every contortion possible to avoid brushing up against a pajama leg. That's just sick. Also, there are about... a thousand billion people in an airport at any given moment. So looking sloppy, where does that get you, exactly?
I know that it's all about comfort, and that an airplane seat does nothing to make comfortable your favorite jeans, and you may not want to wrinkle your button-up shirt, and that the metal detectors make jewelry kind of annoying, blah. I also realize that many people view airplanes as a one-way ticket to death, so they probably aren't putting a lot of emphasis on their outfit.
But, please, make the world a shinier place! Even if you are going to die, they're going to recover your body, and don't you want to be remembered well? But before your death, everyone else has too LOOK at you! Probably ten people will service you before you even board the plane. Pay them a tiny ounce of respect and please don't flash your thong, poking up through a pair of faded, stretched-out, ripped and past-season Target drawstring Xhilaration polka-dotted poly-blend pants.
Yikes, I just barfed in my mouth.
Anyway, ladies, let's commence a revolution: cute, neat-looking, clean loungewear to wear in public in place of whatever else may have been on your mind. Being confident will make your trip more fun and more exciting, and will make your de-planing a moment of pride.
And a cardigan never hurt anybody!

Ballet Pink Nail Polish

I think that baby pink nail polish, that shade reminiscent of pointe shoes, is symbolic of a lot of things that women should be. Not in a stereotypical way, not like every woman should be doing ballet or figuratively floating around with graceful arm movements. But a woman should be polished and tasteful- pretty in the more intricate senses of the word. With the re-emergence of 90s fashion like some bat out of a plaid hell, these disturbing images of grungy young women are incessantly parading about in my head. I am reminded of my pet peeve (if you can still call it a pet after it has expanded to three times the size of my makeup collection), possibly an idea I hate more than that of being uncontrollably fat: the ill-kempt woman.

I don't know when certain women got it into their heads that they no longer needed to posess a sense of femininity, but could someone take a large stick to these women's viscera? Women through all (mentionable) centuries have been symbols of grace and refinement, so what exactly lead to the invention of fishnets? I grimace when I see a young woman who has seemingly let go of her sense of girliness. You lose a part of your feminine self when you dye your hair an ungodly chartreuse color and don a pair of carpenter jeans. You do nothing for the name of women when you put on a sweatshirt and track pants and go about your business as though no one else will view you all day (unless that truly is the case). Don't we want to inspire people? Don't we want people to be impressed by us, stunned and taken aback by us? That has been the (okay, a) role of women throughout history. Shouldn't a girl be proud of that?

So many college freshman take their new sense of independence too far (as in, they are independent all over your face). They rebel from "the establishment" because it is finally legal for them to do so in ways they never could. They choose to, then, use their bodies as canvases for their statements, and end up a mess of tattoos and dyed hair, zip-up hoodies with hand-sewn patches, puce cordury pants held up with drawstrings... It is a pile of college excreta. What happened to the feeling of freshly-shaved calves rubbing against each other under the clean sheets? Of moisturized hands running serum through your hair? What happened to the satisfying click of high heels and the soft feeling of a silk-lined skirt? Do these girls miss these things?

These rituals that define our femininity need to be upheld! This is what makes us women, and what is so alluring about us: the act of spraying perfume, the buffing of fingernails, hands clasping a pair of earrings at a jawline, the quick swoop in which we tie our hair into a bun before washing our faces. These things are part of what makes us girls, in every decade previously and hopefully in many decades to come. Perfume pulls people toward us and makes them want to stay. A woman's scent will stay with someone and make a very lasting impression. Soft, glowing skin is asking to be touched, and white teeth are more often exposed in a welcoming smile.

I hope that the sense of femininity does not dwindle as the world falls from natural beauty. I want women to inspire and create art and color in this world, to be walking paintings of detail and grace. A good start is a baby pink fingernail.


An addendum: Protest and speak out! Be sassy and strong and braver than the men. Bitch at people for treating you like scum, and do so with the idea of a large and possibly rabid bear in the back of your head. I am not advocating that women give up their voices, I am just saying... You'll run errands anyway, so why not look pretty doing so? And more people will notice your protest sign if it is being held up by a hand of red fingernails.

The Creative Juices, they are a-Flowin'

People will wear the ugliest things, if only they are stamped with a well-known brand name. They will pull out of their closet some tank top from the 80s simply because it is emblazoned with "GAP". It helps that these people live in Kentucky, so we don't have to think about them.
But rich people (who don't live in Kentucky) will choose to wear some out-there outfit, knowing that it cost a couple thousand dollars, just so that we are all aware exactly how rich they are. If something is expensive enough, it can be as ugly as a lap dog (actually, probably accompanied by a lap dog) and still be deemed wearable, only so that people passing by go, "oh, I saw that on McQueen's runway, but I didn't think people would actually wear it." But the wearing would then not have been in vain: the passerby knew that it was Alexander McQueen, and therefore knows that the wearer has lots and lots of disposable income.
Some people may actually wear some potentially hideous stuff in an acceptable way (see Carrie Bradshaw, circa '97). These people are bold, cutting-edge and daringly fabulous, and they look at all us J. Crew devotees and probably chuckle at our cowardice.
Four posts ago I referenced the Lego-ish Balenciaga heels of s/s '08. They're probably the ugliest things you could find outside of the uncensored pics of Britney's vagina, but their design is not about wearability (the shoes, not the vagina). It is about statement-making art, symbolism, publicity, discussion, or maybe it was a drunken bet. They can only be pulled of by high-fashion, and in its world, they are unabashedly Balenciaga. No one has a problem with couture dresses shaped and styled like sleeping bags (Viktor and Rolf, a couple years ago) or with huge sunglass headdresses with cartoon eyes pasted on them (Marc Jacobs, s/s '08).
True, blatant, non-arguable ugliness can only be appreciated in high, high fashion. To infringe upon the copyrights of Missoni, Prada, or DVF is expected, because the clothes don't stand out in a crowd (well, they do, but only to people with brains). But to completely copy a look by an avant-garde designer is risky.
I give you... The Balenciaga version:

And the Steve Madden version:

First of all, you're bound to get caught, and sued. Secondly, anyone who knows fashion will look at the maybe 10 people who will wear these Steve Maddens, and laugh in their face.
Probably fewer than 1000 people will actually wear a pair of those authentic Balenciaga heels, and half of them will be celebrities who were paid to do so. So who will buy these knock-offs by Steve Madden? They are not expensive. They will not be confused for the Balenciagas, especially after one wearing when they will start to fray. And they're made out of plastic.
It seems like with all the natural inspiration in this world, a company could design its own shoe?

I Wonder if Victoria's Secret's Stocks will Go Down?

Apparently bras are so passe at Urban Outfitters... And, oh yeah, boobs too.
I just don't see how these will sell, because NO one in America is that thin. And if they are, there is a good chance they lack the confidence (or immodesty?) to expose their chest with quite such... gusto.
There is just no way to wear a bra under these tops.


























I own that pink dress, so I'm going to have to figure something out...

Just Another Week in Fashion

Project Runway gets moved to Lifetime; its sponsor, Bluefly.com, is possibly going under; and Nina Garcia, one of two judges of the show, has been let go from Elle magazine.
?