Sunday, March 30, 2014

Why do we hate certain celebrities?

I don't know the answer. But I dislike the pictured ones -- Blake Lively, Rachel Zoe, Sarah Jessica Parker, Cara Delevingne -- A LOT. 


I certainly have zero desire to imitate Cara's annoying behavior or copy Blake Lively's bland style, so duh!, this is not a shot of my bookshelf. I took this photo at Kinokuniya Book Stores in Japantown SF, one of the most awesome places in the world for anyone who loves art/design/fashion books and magazines. I was amused to find my least favorite celebrities all sitting on the same shelf about style. It occurred to me that them being so overrated for their style is actually one of the main reasons I don't like them. 
Do well-dressed celebrities tend to be more likable? I definitely never find myself saying, "She has great style, but I can't stand her." Weird, huh. #FashionPerson

Monday, March 24, 2014

"Bouquet to Arts 2014" at the de Young Fine Arts Museum

I am usually only mildly interested in going to museums when there is no big photography or modern fashion exhibition to see. I tend to not get much from seeing paintings or pots up-close and can easily feel overwhelmed by the mass of art pieces in just one room at some museums. But when I found out about the "Bouquets to Art" show at the de Young Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, I was intrigued by the concept and was eager to see the show. Apparently it's a springtime tradition for the museum to have "gifted floral designers bring their imaginative interpretations to works in the de Young’s permanent collection", but this year was the first time I was here to see it and I am thrilled I got to experience this unique exhibition. 

The numerous floral arrangements were placed with their corresponding art pieces all over the museum and it was absolutely stunning to see how they so harmoniously became part of the individual shows. 

The most impressive work was definitely to be seen in the room dedicated to the "The Bay Bridge: A Work in Progress, 1933–1936" show. The photographs and sketches are interesting enough themselves, but the floral designers' interpretations of the artworks certainly added a very mesmerizing element to it. The geometry and architecture seen in the images did not get lost in the bouquets and in my opinion this was where the floral designers were most creative with their creations, taking into account the shapes and lines of the original image but coming up with incredibly unique arrangements that were enjoyable even when not viewed in context of the room's theme.





Another highlight was the "Shaping Abstraction" exhibition room, which seemed to have very literal floral adaptions of the artwork on display. What I liked about this room is that it could easily have been the painting having been inspired by the bouquet rather than the other way around. The paintings and the flowers were in sync and the whole room was simply gorgeous.


The whole exhibition was so enormous and the museum was so crowded, it was impossibly to study all areas of the museums closely. Nonetheless this was more than worth the visit and I am glad I got to see this beautiful show (which ended yesterday, btw).

The b/w bouquet pictured below, which matched the marvelous Jay DeFeo painting seen in the background, was probably my favorite piece in the entire show. 


all pictures taken by me

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Slumberhouse's Zahd. Or: what you don't want people around you to smell like.


The photo above may be misleading, but this post is not about dessert. If it was about dessert I would have much nicer things to say than what is about to follow. Because I love dessert. I especially love chocolate. I also love all kinds of berries. Yum. But as any sensible person probably knows, eating way too much of it can make you feel pretty damn miserable. Therefore my discovery from last weekend shouldn't actually surprise me all that much: desserts should not be worn as perfume. Because, do you really want someone close to you to smell of cranberries and cherries and chocolate all day? 

Slumberhouse is a small niche perfume house with an awesome website and some very interesting fragrances on sale (and also not on sale -- because limited/exclusive/indiehypedandsoldout/etc.). I enjoy Vikt, Sova and Jeke and consider those three of the most unique, fun and intriguing fragrances my man wears. I was therefore excited when he received a sample of Zahd, the latest Slumberhouse scent, which is already sold out everywhere. But my excitement didn't last long, and could probably have been prevented entirely by a prior check of what notes are in it: Cranberry, Champaca flower, Benzoin, Plum, Pink lotus, Fir, Cocoa, Tolu, Gromwell, Wine ether, Mysore sandalwood, Cherry, Incense, Oak. Gross? You bet. If the woody, floral, Benzoin stuff was a little more prominent, maybe this wouldn't be all that disgusting. But the cranberries, the cherry and the cocoa are so overpowering, I couldn't help but be reminded of those horrible Punica drinks that are popular in Germany, and cherry wine, and cheap cranberry chocolate bars. As the perfume develops, the incense becomes a little more noticeable. But instead of evening out some of the fragrance's unpleasant sweetness, it just makes it smell like a chocolate bar that was lying around in an esoteric shop for a little too long. 

As much as I generally respect passionate independent artists who create daring, different products that will not appeal to everyone but thrill an enthusiastic small cult following, I have little admiration for this particular fragrance. It is not for me. And hopefully people around me share my sentiments about this. Smelling this on my man all morning and evening was somewhat traumatic. So it is comforting to know that it is not widely available and I probably do not have to worry about anyone else around me giving this a try. I advise you not to do it.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Jamie Wei Huang: a new favorite

Discovering new designers is a weird thing. Sometimes you really have to make an effort to find them. Sometimes you have to look at several of their collections to find elements in them that you like and make you appreciate the person behind it. And sometimes you randomly come across them, look at 3 or 4 pictures and just know you will love everything they do. And this actually happened to me today when I saw an article about Jamie Wei Huang's Fall 2014 collection on The Kinsky, a website which came to my attention after being mentioned repeatedly on tFS in the last couple of days.
What this designer does is so right up my alley, I wanted to squeal with excitement when I clicked through the images on her website. The London-based designer (originally from Taiwan) showed her collection at London Fashion Week this season and you can find HQ pictures of the show here. But I personally prefer the lookbook images:







The most interesting aspect about this collection is certainly how the accessories become part of the designs. Belts and bags are appliquéd to the garments in a way that makes it seem natural that they are there. They are not idiotic design tricks, they look cool and make sense. The clothes are beautifully cut and the geometric aspect is something that never goes unnoticed with me anyway. I am glad this ultra-talented Central Saint Martins graduate is on my radar now and I definitely look forward to seeing more from her. 



Some new Models to watch

I am by no means an expert on models, and a majority of the models who catch my eyes usually don't make it. But so what, I am going to share a few girls that stood out to me when browsing the TheFashionSpot forums anyway: 


Daria Y @ Marilyn Paris


source: Rachel Rebibo


Florence Haines @ One Management NYC




 Jayden Robinson @ Trump




Karol Santos @ NEXT




Robin van Halteren @ A Models Amsterdam






Sunday, March 9, 2014

Paris Fashion Week Fall 2014 Round-up Pt. II

Irish designer Sharon Wauchob is by no means new on the scene. She graduated from Central Saint Martins in 1993 and worked for Louis Vuitton under Marc Jacobs in the late 90s. She launched her eponymous line in 1998 and has been delivering stunningly gorgeous collections ever since. Her style has often been compared to that of Belgian and Japanese designers. In her earlier collections, this seems more apparent. 

Two of my favorite earlier Wauchob collections, Spring 2006 and Fall 2006, bear rather strong resemblance to Ann Demeulemeester's work: 


(Spring 2006)

(Fall 2006)
source: firstview.com

Contrary to what the androgynous goth and warrior-like Ann Demeulemeester woman projects, Wauchob's woman is never afraid of being sexy, sultry and vulnerable. While in the early 2000s Tom Ford's immensely popular and often copied Gucci woman oozed similar qualities, Wauchob is now one of very few designers who holds onto that desirable image of a woman who wants to be elegant, alluring and sensual and not hide her femininity in any way. Maybe it is because she so stubbornly sets herself apart from the latest trends on runways that it feels like Wauchob is currently reaching new heights in her career. Since stepping down as creative director of ethical fashion label Edun in 2013, her collections seem to have become stronger than ever.

Her Fall 2014 collection, which she showed in Paris two weeks ago, was one of my absolute highlights of this Fashion Week month. 




source: style.com


Incredibly sexy and feminine in a nonchalant way which makes it hard for me to imagine anyone could possibly resist the Sharon Wauchob woman. A truly stunning collection.


Juniper Ridge Cabin Spray: 'Cascade Glacier'


source: juniperridge.com 

Everyone who shares a small-ish apartment with several cats will agree that room sprays are brutally essential to your life. Both of our cats are extremely proud of the strong odor their visits to the litter box produces and like to demonstrate it as soon as we enter the room. They have every reason to boast, it's rather impressive. Needless to say, it was not hard to justify getting each cat their own fancy Le Labo room spray (Cedre 11 for the lady, Santal 26 for the gentleman). But once our cats had their luxurious home fragrances, it seemed unfair we would continue using just a cheap, terribly chemical-smelling spray for our bathroom. Luckily, on a very recent trip to Urban Outfitters, we spotted Juniper Ridge's Cabin Sprays. 

The great thing about Juniper Ridge's products is that they are 100% real, plant-based fragrances. As fans of weird, 'non-pretty' fragrances we were delighted with how all of their sprays smelled. We decided to get Cascade Glacier. Its scent profile reads, "Evergreen forest, snowmelt, bright citrus, Christmas, the Timberline Trail on Oregon’s Mt. Hood, where Fir and Pine give way to ice-age glaciers". Like all the cabin sprays it was "distilled from plants, conifers, bark, moss, mushrooms, and other things found hiking in the Oregon backcountry". I have never been hiking in the Oregon backcountry, but the aroma seems familiar from the wet mossy grounds and resin-coated fir trees in the wintery forests in Switzerland, where I grew up. It's striking how all the natural ingredients stick out in this spray. So if you like any of the "things" used for its distillation, you are almost certainly going to love these home fragrances. 

Friday, March 7, 2014

Hipstamatic: an obsession

When I first heard about Hipstamatic, I falsely regarded it as just some hip expansion for Instagram, one of only very few social media platforms I never took any interest in. Luckily, people around me started using Hipstamatic and it soon become clear to me how great this App is. You can use it to take wonderful, interesting and shockingly professional-looking pictures and the lens-film-flash combinations you can play around with are almost endless. 

I have always loved photography and have admired fashion photographers as well as all the talented amateur photographers around me, while never quite being confident enough about my own skills to actually take pictures of things and people and places on a more regular basis. In my photography folder on my computer you would find separate folders for every occasion when I took pictures. They are exclusively concerts and vacations. Thanks to Hipstamatic I am now taking pictures of everyone and everything, all the time. I even opened a Flickr account, knowing that I am at least 7 years late with jumping on that bandwagon. 

Below you can see a selection of my HipstaPrints; the first two being tests from my first day of using the App, playing around with more basic settings, the last two being very recent experimentations with some of the downloadable equipment.

(Lens: Jane, Flash: Off, Film: Blanko BL4)

(Lens: Lowy, Flash: Off, Film: Ina's 1969)

(Lens: John S, Flash: Off, Film: Kodot Grizzled)

(Lens: Bettie XL, Flash: Off, Film: Claunch 72 Monochrome)

(Lens: Tinto 1884, Flash: Off, Film: D-Type Plate)


As you may or may not be able to see, the App allows you to dabble in all different kinds of photography styles, and developing your 'own' Hipstamatic signature style may not actually happen. It is too much fun to download all the available HipstaPaks and figuring out what you can do with them. I am definitely obsessed.

Paris Fashion Week Fall 2014 Round-up Pt. I

Paris arguably always delivers all the highlights of a Fashion Week season. This time around, Paris seemed to offer particularly strong collections. Admittedly, I am full of biased love for many of the designers presenting their collections in Paris every season. But I daresay I am open-minded enough to look at every collection with a critical eye. I almost always find things to love in a collection by a designer whose work I am not usually fond of. I almost always find things to dislike in a collection by a designer I adore. 

For Fall 2014 there were a couple of designers who wowed me with collections despite me showing little love for or simply never paying much attention to their previous work:

Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen 
While I always had massive respect for Sarah Burton for following in the footsteps of the brilliant Lee Alexander McQueen, I never quite managed to warm up to what she did as the creative director for the label. Her vision seems to be somewhat limited and she she seems to be stuck creating designs around the same few silhouettes every season. Regardless, this season I fell head over heels in love with her Fall 2014 outing. Dark, atmospheric, whimsically cute (those adorable tacky costume-y boots!) and awfully intriguing. Yes, her designs are always full of lush details. But what usually strikes me as an attempt to add pomp to otherwise mediocre designs seems to be a genuine completion of the whole idea behind the collection this time around. The interplay of materials, details, accessories and styling is nothing but gorgeous. The beautiful set design is an added bonus.




source: style.com


Yiqing Yin for Léonard
Léonard is one of those labels that one may vaguely remember seeing on the Paris Fashion Week calendars before without having a clear picture of what their clothes actually look like. I can assure you, if you haven't paid close attention to their collections yet, you didn't miss much. Their clothes were mostly garish, in loud colors, the designs rather simple and sexy. Comparable to Blumarine. But not looking at the latest collection, designed by the newly appointed Yiqing Yin, would be unforgivable. Why? Because the whole collection is just effin' cool! 




source: style.com

Guinevere van Seenus by Paolo Roversi for Vogue Italia

Guinevere van Seenus has been around since 1995. And no doubt, she has always been one of the most versatile, striking and interesting models in the industry. But it seems to me that the younger model stan folks have only more recently learned to appreciate her beauty and her outstanding skills as a model. Whatever Guinevere is part of becomes art. Showcased beautifully in the March 2014 issue of Vogue Italia and its Haute Couture supplement, photographed by the grand Paolo Roversi: