Opening Ceremony. Rodarte. 'Nuff said.

Tapestry prints. Intarsia. Beige. Hawaiian Florals. Rodarte x Opening Ceremony. Mulleavy quirkiness. A 50s Western mashup, sorta, kinda. Basically I like it. A lot. At least enough to post it. Which is saying a lot around this tumbleweed blog, eh? See so much more here.

...Also, the lookbook reminds me of a popsicle melting in the sun, and on grey grey days, that's a nice thought.

Holy bleeding breton

(jakandjill)

I'm a simple girl with simple loves. The classic breton top is one them. But it's nice to have a twist on a classic every now and again, yes? A marinière shirt whose perfection has been skewed by blue stripes that bleed into the pristine whiteness? Lovely.

A quickie

Exam #2 tomorrow, so this isn't going to be very eloquent. Rather a hurried note to say: Opening Ceremony, your fall collection is wonderful, but your coats are particularly spectacular... somuchso that I am almost okay with coveting a fall collection in the middle of spring (which kind of feels like fall in this weather-schizophrenic country anyway).

See more wonderful clothes, including nubby sweaters, maxi skirts and velvet velvet velvet here.

Print Perfect

(All via Steven Alan)

Steven Alan has a remarkable ability to make the most covetable spring dresses. They are the right shape, cut and most importantly in the most pitch-perfect prints. These are the dresses that define effortless. They exist to be worn on a perfect sunny day (which this lovely city has been having a fair few of recently), to frolic barefoot through the park or to wander through one of London's food markets, carrying home a sac of fresh ingredients to end the day on the balcony with a big glass of lemonade and a barbecue. Yep, the perfect spring day in a perfect printed spring dress. Mr. Alan, you make me dream the impossible dream. Now if you could only lower your prices a tad, the impossible would be much more possible...

Topshop Unique

It's official - the first show of the season that has left me scheming on ways to make it all mine. Topshop Unique tends to be a little too much for me generally, but this collection, which screams of the wilderness and eccentric rusticity (with a lil' bit of military) is just right. I've mentioned my strange affectation for 'The Country' before, and with all the thick knits over diaphanous dresses, woodland creature prints and furry outerwear...sigh.

It's actually all the coats that have got me counting pennies. All that fur (a bit Opening Ceremony x Where the Wild Things Are collab, no?) and shearling (I'm still pining over my mother's real one) are now permanently inked in my mind. I cannot wait until September to consume unabashedly...

Well, clearly I can and will wait, and hopefully my consumption will be mild and reasonable but a girl can hyperbolize can't she?

A snippet of nyfw: rag & bone

(click to enlarge, if you wish)

I haven't really been paying much attention to New York Fashion Week, mostly because I've attempted to ban myself from superfluous browsing of the internet while writing a hefty slew of papers. This morning, I was feeling a bit ill, and so spent a good part of the morning in bed, checking out New York Magazine and Style.com's coverage to see what's what.

While I enjoyed the ones I usually enjoy (Marc Jacobs, Peter Jensen, Karen Walker, Rachel Comey to name a few), I was particularly taken with rag & bone. They aren't a brand I am really familiar with nor generally interested in, but I was quite intrigued with their show. I'm not sure if it is the clothing themselves or rather the styling that won me over. I liked all the grays, olives, and fairisle knits, but what I really adored was all that layering. The only reason I don't mind winter is that I get to layer clothes upon clothes, which automatically gives me warm feelings of comfort and generally happy fuzziness.

The show was styled by Vanessa Reid, who also styled the Missoni aw09 show and an editorial I'd earmarked in the fall 2009 issue of POP - both were favorites last year precisely because of their layering wonderfulness. I only wish I could be as proficient at piling it on.

Book Worm

Ok, so this post originally started as me wanting to point out Camille Bidault-Waddington's brilliantly put together outfit. It was gonna be a quickie simply stating that I am smitten with her dress, especially the longer length, long sleeves and generally demure cut. And her hat makes me smile. But then I noticed what she was holding...seemingly Melville's Moby Dick, but...





...Apparently, Camille and other fashionable Paris folk were at a 'book launch' for Olympia Le-Tan's new collection of box clutches. They are hand knit copies of original classics. It kind of reminds me of the magazine clutches of the 70s (they looked like rolled up magazines to thwart purse-snatchers). I have one that I used to tote around obsessively but kind of stopped when I stopped using clutches. I think I'd give up the glory of a purse strap for one of these puppies though.

This may sound stupid, but personally, I love to read and not only that I love to read books. Kindle and other such technology kind of freaks me out...I want the tactile, olfactory and visual delight that accompanies reading a book, especially a secondhand one that is kind of yellow and musty. It frightens me to think that books may one day be relics ("when I was a kid, there was a thing called a book, no screen in sight") and so her collection makes me happy in its celebration of the book.

(Camille Bidault-Waddington photo via style.com, all others via purple diary)

Notes on New York

(Rachel Comey SS10)
(Clockwise from top left: Karen Walker, DvF, Chris Benz, Julian Louie)
(Clockwise from top left: Rodarte, Erin Wasson x RVCA, Proenza Schouler, Ralph Lauren)

I've had so many random thoughts about New York Fashion week floating about my head for the past week, but never worked up the effort to get them out on paper/screen. I blame it on having to wake up at 5:45 everyday for five days and then having to go to work on Saturday as well. Makes me a deadbeat.

Anyway, here are my scribbles on what I loved from the past week...

• The colours, the layering, belted dresses and of course, the shoes by Rachel Comey. Oh, and her backpacks...my shoulders are still in dire need of one.
• Rodarte's burned, post-apocalyptic tribal woman -- while the aesthetic did not veer greatly from what they've done in the past, my god, they still are such artists with fabric and design.
• All the little details at Diane Von Furstenburg: clash of prints, belts and leaves in the hair.
  
• The boots at Erin Wasson v RVCA - don't know if they are actually part of the collection, but they were certainly the thing I coveted.
• The peach palette at Julian Louie.
• The twee, dainty dresses juxtaposed with the 3-piece suits at Ralph Lauren.
  
• Proenza Schouler's amazing tie-dyed dresses derived from scuba gear.
  
• The psychedelic/nautical mix that was Karen Walker's show.
• The fun, flirty rainbow at Chris Benz.

Overall, I was just happy to see less of the bad-ass and more fun injected into fashion week. There were more things that I want to try and translate into my own wardrobe for spring. Though I feel weird thinking about spring when fall has barely begun. Very confusing.

(All photos from style.com; click to enlarge)

Julia Frakes: a little note

Dear Julia,

This is just to say... I am oh-so very jealous of your Pendleton for Opening Ceremony coat, but it's okay because you styled it to perfection, and that makes me happy (which subsequently cancels out the jealousy. Maybe? At least a little bit).

Love, dw.(via stylesightings)

Missoni FW09

While Missoni is never really a brand that comes to mind when I think of my favorite designers, the Fall Collection makes me weep with happiness and love. It made me weep when I saw it in February, it made me weep when I saw it in the August French Vogue, and now it makes me weep even more in the new campaign shots by Ryan McGinley. The palette, textures, layers, knits - seriously, weep.



(all images from the fashion spot)

Charles Anastase

(a mélange of his ss09 and aw09 collections ... click to enlarge)

Charles Anastase is definitely one of my favorite designers at the moment. I think it is because his particular brand is a perfect mix between the whimsical and the feminine and something darker and grungier. I adore his use of layering and the balance between romanticism and edge, so that everything is sweet without being saccharine. He appeals to my own competing tendencies in dressing, where I am drawn to the dainty and sweet and yet prefer (and often end up looking) a little bit scruffy and never too pristine.

PIG magazine recently visited him at his Shoreditch studio and interviewed him (which you can read on their site, either in Italian or with Google Translate). All I can say is (a) I can't wait to see what he dreams up next and (b) I want his sweater.



(photos via pigmag.com)

print preoccupation

And now to onto something that I definitely know I like...


There seems to be a preponderance of southwestern prints about lately and ever since seeing the Opening Ceremony-Pendelton collaboration look book, I cannot get them off the brain. And then when I saw the vintage fabrics Ellen Van Dusen used for her line, I knew I would have to do something about it.


And so I have been officially inspired to go on the hunt for native american fabric/prints, so that I can have my very own little collaboration with my dear mumsy - the best seamstress I know. Once I get my hands on the print that currently only exists in my mind, I hope to gently coerce her into making me a skirt or maybe a jacket of some sort (but that's a bit ambitious). You're all witnesses, the plan has been laid down...

Vain & Vapid

Here are a few images from the Vain and Vapid summer lookbook, created by designer (and blogger) Julie Chesler. Hers is one of my favorite shops on etsy, and if I could afford it, I would scoop up everything she makes.





Her shop has weekly updates throughout the summer... I know I'll be keeping a keen eye out.