Fashion Triviality





Whenever I feel that fashion is giving me a bad reputation I like to go back to some of my favorite quotes and the extremely intelligent women who tell it like it is. From Zooey Deschanel reminding everyone she can wear a peterpan collar and still be a feminist to longer, more poignant essays that really resonate with me. This one by Greta Christina is full of gems. She states, "fashion is one of the very few forms of expression in which women have more freedom than men. And I don’t think it’s an accident that it’s typically seen as shallow, trivial, and vain. It is the height of irony that women are valued for our looks, encouraged to make ourselves beautiful and ornamental...and are then derided as shallow and vain for doing so. And it’s a subtle but definite form of sexism to take one of the few forms of expression where women have more freedom, and treat it as a form of expression that’s inherently superficial and trivial. Like it or not, fashion and style are primarily a women’s art form. And I think it gets treated as trivial because women get treated as trivial."



The rub of course is: people (men and women) aren't going to stop thinking fashion is frivolous anytime soon. People will still ask "wow you bought another dress" or "what's the point of knowing the names of all those models, talk about useless trivia." So, what can you say when people start knocking your personal interest/hobby? My personal response to people questioning the value of fashion as an interest and/or hobby is to discover said person's own hobby. How much money does he/she spend every year on tickets to games, or even just hours glued to the television cheering excitedly for their team? In the uselessness of sports enthusiasm I find a passion for personal style far less silly...How do you respond when someone rolls their eyes at your interests?



*picture: Kinga Rajzak backstage at Miu Miu


Footsteps In The Fog


What I love about summer is how the easiest looks end up seeming perfectly polished. On this day I just wanted to roll out of bed bright and early to photograph the fog before it dissipated. I grabbed my favorite black dress, a printed cardigan, flats and added some new jewelry to make everything feel more proper. Even the red lipstick is an illusion--put something really bright on your lips and you can skip most other makeup (especially if you'll be wearing sunglasses later in the day). I just love how it takes almost no thought or effort, but you can still look quite pulled-together. Also, I'm quite terrible at capturing close-ups or detail shots, but how sweet is this origami necklace Puloma gave me? It's a tiny Triceratops. Now if I could only find a nearly dinosaur park to photograph on a foggy morning...








Sunday Remix




Past outfits: one, two, three, four, and five.

This dress by Triptych is definitely my favorite clothing purchase of all time. I've had it for years now and still don't get tired of wearing it or finding mildly different ways to wear it. These last four styles are just how I've worn it this year and there are other variations from years past if I troll through my archive. It always cracks me up when people say I look adorable and I'm wearing this dress with a growling panther across the chest, spiked jewelry, and my cage sandals...adorable was not my intent.





May Sounds







Here's a mix attempting to make your day feel a bit more like a Wes Anderson movie...which can only mean good things, right? Hit play above or listen here.


1. Hong Kong Garden -- Siouxsie and the Banshees


2. Poupee de cere poupee de son -- France Gall


3. Me and Julio Down by the School Yard -- Paul Simon


4. Here Comes My Baby -- The Tremeloes


5. Bombay Talkie -- Shankar Jaikishan 


6. Colours -- Donovan


7. Strangers -- The Kinks


8. Sugar and Spice -- The Searchers


9. Le Temps De L'Amour -- Francoise Hardy


10. Let Her Dance -- The Bobby Fuller Four


11. Ceremony -- New Order


12. Les Champs-Elysees -- Joe Dassin


13. Play With Fire -- The Rolling Stones


14. Needle In The Hay -- Elliott Smith


15. These Days -- Nico


16. Sprawl II -- Arcade Fire


17. The Heroic Weather Conditions -- Alexandre Desplat 


18. Cuckoo -- Choir of Downside School


Polka Dot Parade




I was recently reading that polka dots are thought to bring good luck on New Years in the Phillipines--or more accurately that round objects are thought to symbolize prosperity and as an extension of that belief polka dots are a popular pattern to wear. It's interesting since I usually picture a pile of sequins as New Years attire and polka dots as more day wear. There are so many fascinating tidbits to be learned about patterns and their sources or usages--the way one color or pattern is traditionally used in one country and the way it can be viewed entirely differently somewhere else. Anyway, I'm not sure this dress would work for as grandiose a night as NYE, but the sheer fabric with tiny gold dots is quite festive.







Sands Of Time





File this under places I would give my eyeteeth to visit. These photographs by Alvaro Sanchez-Montanes enters abandoned houses in the Namib Desert to reveal a serene lost world being reclaimed by nature. Komanskuppe was formerly the site of a diamond mine and these dwellings were built by German colonists--hints of their style remain in the blue-tinged walls and printed tile and border details. When the mines stopped being prosperous all the inhabitants moved on to other homes and now only a ghost town remains. The homes have been transformed into surreal landscapes that look like something out of a dream.


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