Elina Kechicheva: a foolishly underrated fashion photographer

With the vast amount of fashion magazines readily available as digital editions these days we are literally being flooded with fashion images on a daily basis. The frustrating thing about this is that there only seems to be a handful of photographers (or photographer duos) whose work makes up for the majority of the published images. That surely is one of the reasons many fashion editorials nowadays come across as repetitive, unimaginative and forgettable. I enjoy the work of a lot of the big guns in fashion photography, but I still cannot help but wonder why some talented photographers rarely ever get booked for blue chip magazines? 

One of the photographers whose work has stood out to me a lot lately is Elina Kechicheva's. You won't find her work in any of the Vogues or Elles of this world. The publications she seems to somewhat regularly shoot for are the various editions of Marie Claire. Not really the number one source you would check for striking, unique, different fashion photography (although they also use Jacques Olivar a lot, another favorite fashion photographer of mine). 

source: elinakechicheva.com

The way Elina harmoniously fuses her vision with the fashion and the chosen locations and models in her stories is sublime. She works with light, reflections, water and colorful make-up in a unique way. Her editorials often seem very cinematic and I can only assume that she is very directional and fastidious when it comes to the posing and positioning of the models and the usage of props. I wish more was known about her and her way of working, but it's hard to find any information about her on the web (The biography on her website simply states, "Elina Kechicheva was born and raised in Bulgaria and has been working as a photographer for the last 14 years."). I think she's awesome and I consider myself a big fan. Check her website and also her thread on TheFashionSpot to see more of her impressive work. 

WANT WANT WANT

When it comes to buying clothes, I try to be rational in spite of my serious love for fashion and designers. But sometimes being rational is hard, really hard. Not to mention how hard it is to not be able to afford most things you want. But, usually I can deal with all that pretty damn well. This season, however, I'm struggling. The reason being this incredible Junya Watanabe MAN reversible jacket:

source: farfetch.com

Argh, isn't it beautiful? I tried it on earlier this year, not expecting that I would actually fall in love with it. I didn't want to take it off. But at around $1,500 it was not something I could spontaneously splurge on. So I decided I should wait for it to go on sale. The jacket, a collaboration with traditional German Outdoors manufacturer Seil Marschall (You may want to go to their website to convince yourself of their total charming German-ness), is the standout piece in the glorious Spring 2014 collection. Not too surprisingly, it's already sold out almost everywhere. Last weekend, I went back to the store where I first saw it (MAC in Hayes Valley) and they seem to have sold out of my size, as well. I am probably out of luck and will never own this jacket, but this is one genius and gorgeous fashion item that I will dream about for a while.  It is fashion. Swooooon.

VFiles: much awesomeness

So, I had heard about VFiles before. I had even studied their NYFW shows in detail on style.com. But what I did not realize until recently is just how freaking awesome this self-proclaimed "online cultural network" is. 

A few weeks ago, Nordstrom in SF had an in-store pop-up store that displayed quite a few items from the VFiles main collection and some of the brands promoted through them. It was fun but didn't pique my interest enough to do more research on what else VFiles has to offer. Today, however, I suddenly thought of some of their cult items, the "Team Tisci 74", "Team Margiela 57" etc. jerseys, designed by LPD New York. 

Much to my surprise, the VFiles webshop has so much more to offer than the trendy designer urban streetwear kind of stuff I had associated with this brand. The online shop is a goldmine for all quirky, fun, original and exciting brand-new and established designerwear.

My favorite pieces? 

This Wil Fry 'Expensive' sweater:

And the Jeremy Scott 'Earth Sucks' cropped mesh tank:

all images: shop.vfiles.com/

The vintage section on the website is absolutely worth checking out, too. This network really has the finger on the pulse and I can easily see myself becoming hooked. I can't wait to see which bright new talents they will add to their roster every season, because one thing is for sure: these people know what is cool. 

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

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:

source: jamieweihuang.com

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

source: One Management

 Jayden Robinson @ Trump

source: visionmodels.co.za

Karol Santos @ NEXT

source: nextmanagement.com

Robin van Halteren @ A Models Amsterdam

source: amodelsamsterdam

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.

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