Pink Rock Candy-Fashion

To be completely honest, the extent of my news watching is having it on in the background while chatting with my parents— most of the time the volume is so low we can’t even hear it. It bores me to no end, and after about 30 minutes you’ve heard all the news stories, and they’re just talking about the same stuff over again. I do, however, quite obviously, read many, many other blogs, and luckily they watch the news or at least know someone who does. While scoping out the blog Model Liberation, I stumble upon a clip from the Today Show talking about the epic all black Italian Vogue.

I know this topic is sort of beaten to death, especially in the blogging world. We’ve been talking about the pros and cons for months, and yesterday Fashionista even posted scans of the entire issue on their site— though I haven’t seen them because the load time is so slow and the files are so large it keeps freezing my browser, joy!

Back to the issue at hand, The Today Show brought Veronica Webb, Jerri DeVard, and Neal Hamil on the show to discuss the issue (I’m thinking that’s a double entendre in this case). Among the many fantastic points brought up in this interview, they landed on the discussion of the ads in the magazine being predominately white. It would have been insane for the magazine to ask all the designers to re-shoot their campaigns with black models, so I never really thought about the ad factor. Now that I think about it, I sort of find the conflicting nature of the ads and the content funny. However, I’m not sure what would be an acceptable median for advertising diversity. That’s the problem with focusing on race instead of clothes, there will never be an end to this situation.

My favorite ideas from the interview:

• People have to vote with their dollars!
• Veronica compared having more black models on the runway to a trend like miniskirts. (Its so true though!)
• Get more diversity in the photography, designing, hairstyling, magazine, etc. fields
• WE HAVE TO BE CONDITIONED TO SEE BEAUTY! (this is the truest statement I’ve heard in a while.)

What do you guys think about this interview? Did you like it or are the just beating a dead horse?

There are things about the fashion industry that still make me scratch my head. Why can’t short girls become super models when half the time people like Mary-Kate and Ashley look just as good in designer clothes as most models— there is a little process I like call hemming. Also, why are most women’s wear models barely women? Everyone wants fresh-faced models, but if I were a casting director I’d want experience. As gorgeous as young models like Lily C, Daria, and Stam are, they can’t touch models with experience like Kate and Iman.

I was scrolling through Fashionista yesterday and I ran into this editorial of Iman from the Spring/Summer 2008 issue of VS. magazine. At first I though they were shots from the Italian Vogue, but I was disappointed— I can’t wait to see them! I wasn’t disappoint, however, with the editorial itself. I have always thought Iman was gorgeous, but she looks extra-fabulous in this spread.  What really struck me, though, was the poses.

I realized I rarely ever see our new group of “top models” really posing, unless you count jumping a thousand times a pose. Every pose Iman hit was slightly contorted and awkward making each picture a gorgeous piece of art. I really wish the art of posing would come back— Benny Ninja, stop screwing around with those top model wannabes on ANTM and start working with the girls who are actually getting face time in magazines and ad campaigns, PLEASE!

I’ve also decided I really need, as in will die without, the entire look on the left. One day, I’m sure I’ll look back and think. What the hell was I thinking when it comes to my new found tribal phase, but for now I’m in lust!

See the entire editorial after the jump! (more…)

What happens when W magazine rounds up some of our favorite new-ish designers , like Alexander Wang, Gareth Pugh, Jeremy Laing, Jason Wu, and the Mulleavy sisters of Rodarte, just to name a few, and take them to a swank hotel in Miami filled with gorgeous models, like Sasha P. Kate, Daria, and Lara Stone, while Bruce Weber clicks away on his camera? You get a 36 page spread called “Summer Camp,” full of fun, gorgeous clothes, and half-naked/naked models.

Though I know what I’m getting into each time I see an editorial with Kate Moss— I’m bound to see at least one of her nipples— I now think I’m going to have to be weary of editorials with Lara Stone too. She has the most gorgeous curves I’ve ever seen, but there isn’t more than a handful of pictures with her in them where she’s fully clothed. I’m going to have to hide this issue of W because I’m sure it will somehow make it into the dangerous hands of one of my little brothers, GROSS!

Head to the W magazine website to see all the pictures and read little articles on each of our favorite new designers. W magazine’s July “Young Designers” issue, of which this editorial is a part, will be on newsstands June 24th.

p.s. Alex Wang, if you stumble across my fair blog, I adore you, and congrats on not going fangirl when you met Kate!

When you think Agent Provocateur, you may think sexy and/or burlesque, but leave it to US ELLE to turn Agent Provocateur stockings into something completely out of my realm of imagination. I’m not a lover of stockings in the first place and only bought into the black tights trend after I realized it was much too cold to wear dresses in the winter and it was imperative that I covered my legs or risk frost bite from ankle to thigh. This however, is not a black tights issue, this isn’t a tights issue at all actually. I’m completely in awe at how even the sexiest stockings can make a gorgeous model look like a haggard, aging, French prostitute from the early 1900s.

There, I said it!

I have nothing against US ELLE, photoshoot stylist, Christopher Niquet, or model, Valentine Fillol-Cordier— in fact, I have been telling everyone about Miss Fillol-Cordier’s description her style in the most recent issue of Nylon. Her style resembles, “Coco Chanel if she were Kurt Cobain’s grandma.” Just that thought made me laugh out loud and decide I’d like to dress like Coco Chanel if she were Jimi Hendrix’s grandma and Jim Morrison’s girlfriend, now picture that— but, I digress, the slouchy red and pink stockings Valentine wears in the ‘Strawberry Fields’ fashion editorial, are really quite unattractive.

I can deal with everyone and their mother wearing opaque black tights, I can deal with boldly printed tights, and I can even deal with ripped pantyhose, thank you Alexander Wang, but stretched out looking saggy nylons are a bit to much.

Maybe its just me though. What do you guys think of the over-sized thigh highs look? See the more pictures after the jump! (more…)

After being a little sore about i-D’s June issue, which is tarnished by Mariah Carey, I’m officially back to loving magazines, and oddly, this isn’t because of any European Magazines. My magazine elation is actually caused by two US magazines. The first is the May/June 2008 issue of V magazine, with Gwyneth Paltrow on the cover and the second is the June issue of US Vogue with Sarah Jessica Parker on the cover, but most of my glee due to V considering I’m going to get my SJP fix in a bout 2 weeks.

I know this goes against my feelings on having celebrities on the cover of magazines, because we all know they made the cover because of their individual movies that have/are coming out in May. Though neither of their movies need major publicity considering the cinematic grandeur, these two ladies were willing to take one for the team and get style in gorgeous clothes and photographed by famous photographers. What a hard life, but I digress.

Aside from having Gwyneth on the cover of V the editorials with the real models are fantastic, they might even be fan-fucking-tastic, but I’m not quite sure yet. The first editorial to catch my eye is the “In Your Dreams” editorial with Lily D., Stam, and Doutzen, though only Lily and Jessica are in the pictures below. Even though they used pieces from the fall/winter 2008 collections of Alexander McQueen and Dolce & Gabbana, I can forgive them because it was juxtaposed with picturesque beach scenes and ethereal embraces. I knew I loved those McQueen dresses, but seeing them in a magazine makes me 800 times more giddy than seeing them in runway pictures.

Click to Enlarge!

My other favorite part of the May/June issue is the “Powerhouse” editorial featuring the big leagues from IMG, Ford, and Supreme. The IMG girls bared it all, and looked seductive doing it, except for Daria and Irina K. who look a bit scared in the fetal position and Freja who just looks bored. The Ford models had funky geometric designs painted on their faces, making me even more excited that there’s a carnival in town. Maybe I’ll take the magazine and tell the face painter, who better be there, I want the same design as Chanel Iman. Finally, there’s the edgy Supreme models who all wore rad matching white cowboy boots, and looked like they were to some summer concert that’s a mix between Coachella and OzzFest.

Thank you V magazine for making my month! Follow the jump for the editorial (BEWARE OF NUDITY!). (more…)