chadwick tyler and the supreme models

it looks beautiful, but i can’t help but think it must have taken all of half an hour to get the group shot and another to get the solo ones.

love how some of the models look like prepubescent boys.

and if you think the titties here are bad, you haven’t seen img’s.

She was always maybeing.

Time seems to pass. The world happens, unrolling into moments, and you stop to glance at a spider pressed to its web. There is a quickness of light and a sense of things outlined precisely and streaks of running luster on the bay. You know more surely who you are on a strong bright day after a storm when the smallest leaf is stabbed with self-awareness. The wind makes a sound in the pines and the world comes into being, irreversibly, and the spider rides the wind-swayed web.

-”The Body Artist”, Don DeLillo

How To Look Good With Gigantic Mounds of Yarn on Your Head

I fell in love with these–what do you call them? Turbans? Hats? Towers?–at John Galliano Fall/Winter 2008.

 

But of course, my middle-class roots and holey pockets will prevent me from getting ahold of those any time soon, so it’s definitely a good thing I was site-surfing today and found . . .

DJ GIZMO.

A much cuter, cheekier, street-chic, funkilicious alternative to the Galliano hats (that are soooo ‘I’ve-got-a-Siamese-twin-and-she’s-in-my-turban’), yaaay.

The earmuffs slash headphones go for 5000-6000 Yen, which is about, hmm, US$50 I think, and totally affordable. I absolutely can’t wait for her next creation to go on sale and dearly hope she’s accepting overseas orders.

Top 10 Favourite Outerwear (Coats, Jackets, Pullovers) For Fall

Fall may be a few months away but it’s still fun to play dress-up in air-conditioned lecture halls, right? Here are my top ten* favourite threads to snuggle into from Fall 2008:

10. House of Holland

London’s favourite part-time wunderkid and full-time partymeister Henry Holland is bringing tartan and kilt back, in multi-colour. That trench and leggings would make great additions to any fashionista’s eclectic wardrobe.

9. Louise Goldin, who also showed at London, has created two of the most visually arresting fur-trimmed coats this season. She has a very distinguishable style even though it’s only her second runway show so far. Personally, I adore her futuristic collections and think she’s brilliant but that’s no fresh revelation since obviously the people at Topshop and shoe designer legend Pierre Hardy do, too.

8. Iceberg

Iceberg’s knitwear, for me, really stood out this season. They spun some very bold, striking pieces like the one on the left with the wonky zip, and got creative by winding giant knit coils around sweaters, accentuating the outfits with black latex gloves.

7. Bottega Veneta

A sleek and sexy black trench in lusciously soft leather.

6.Jil Sander‘s dramatic sculptural collars were a hit this season and are sure to feature in many an editorial in the months to come, during the long wait for the Spring 09 collections.

5. Haider Ackermann

Pushing up your sleeves during winter is as cool as hypothermia, but indeed this man makes it look sexy and andro-cool. Adorn with a snarl.

4. mercibeaucoup

Because there is nothing cooler than being able to pull off a mad print on a pullover that looks like your little sister’s PJs as well as schizophrenically layered tights by one of Japan’s hippest, quirkiest street labels of which the cute-as-a-button Eri Utsugi masterminds. Outerwear sure to make heads spin as you bounce past.

3. Sonia Rykiel

Is there anyone who doesn’t look forward to Sonia Rykiel’s show all season? For their 40th anniversary, there was much to celebrate: a handful of colourful, fun intarsia sweaters in warm tints of pink, orange and yellow to look fab and comfortable in; the return of stripy tights (hurrah they’re in again! Juno anyone?) and bowler hats sitting pretty atop loose unbrushed hair.

2. Yves Saint Laurent

Yes, they’re hardly warm and snuggly knits but the sheer wizardry of YSL just bowls me over. The coat on the left here has a fantastic shape; the shoulders swerving into sleeves, with only the bare lengths of arms visible as they stretch into pockets that don’t sag in the front. The right for the perfect little lick of blue at the collar and hem, and the gentle rippling of the dark fabric with a texture that looks like wet rock.

1. White knee-length coats by Alexander McQueen and Eley Kishimoto

A rich, luxurious coat, magnificently offset by a layer of beautiful red silk underneath, looks like it was designed for royalty.

I am enamoured with this girlish pearly-white coat at Eley Kishimoto’s show in London (they hold one in Paris, too). Immaculately tailored and paired with white stockings and gloves, it is stylish, yet whimsical and delicate.

*This is not a comprehensive list and I’m sure that, due to my failing memory and the infinite barrage of garments that was Fall/Winter 08, I have missed out on many many great pieces of outerwear.

Models I Love (Who Should Be Getting More Work) Part 2

Vika Kuropyatnikova, more conveniently known as Vika K, is a 20-year-old stunner from Ukraine who has booked a wonderful Fall 08 season, walking for top names like Lanvin, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Givenchy, Nina Ricci and opening for Richard Chai. She is currently signed with Women and Supreme.

At Nina Ricci FW 08. At first glance, I thought it was Kasia Struss.

Backstage:

With those clear, limpid eyes and gorgeous face it’s scandalous how she’s being overlooked in print work. I would dearly love to see her in a Vogue editorial; she has a classy, polished vibe I get from other great models like Natasha Poly and Raquel Zimmerman, somehow.

Miu Miu Fall 2008, Highlight #1 of Paris Fashion Week

This is not really a post about Miu Miu’s latest collection in, yet again, some dense, dark, silky, seductive, rippling fabrics that look like they were created specially for Miucca Prada by exotic Oompa Loompas; this is about the highlight of my Fashion Week, who comes in the shapely form of …

SASHA PIVOVAROVA!

(What happened to her toned-by-kungfu thigh muscles?)

Limi Feu on the street

A Limi Feu muffler:

Limi Feu jumpsuit. An outfit that would have worked, but obviously didn’t. For a number of reasons.

Limi Yamamoto appearing in the finale of her debut collection last season. It made me realize that she designs clothes for herself. And maybe her friends who are into GothLoli.

Limi Feu Fall 08

Three years ago, in an interview for TIME’s Asian Journeys feature, a then 30-year-old Limi Yamamoto said, while stubbing out a half-smoked cigarette, “I don’t have the dream to go to Paris. I’m not trying to get the same kind of name my father did.”

Unfortunately for her, Limi’s second showing in Paris Fashion Week yesterday was a smashing stand out even despite sharing timetables with flashier, established fashion houses the likes of John Galliano, Elie Saab and Hermès.

The collection is (and I’m trying to restrain myself here) a thrill for my inner Japanophile. Rendered in silky blacks, whites and everything in-between, the show was flawlessly paced, with playful, offbeat GothLoli-inspired dresses interspersed between beautifully-made coats and tastefully layered outfits that wouldn’t look out of place on a Parisian sidewalk. Her following would probably consist of the super trendy Japanese youth brigade (who would adore the cute oversized hats and lace-up boots, I’m sure) as well as international andro-chic fashionistas.

The very Lolita-inspired dress:

I love this outfit. Paired with a rounded top hat and loosely-laced knee-length boots, its brilliance is in its simplicity and chicness.

And my favourite piece of the day was this. It’s the closing piece; an adorable voluminous coat that brought to mind random anime characters in Ghibli movies and, hmmm, maybe Witch Hunter Robin?

The makeup and hair was also soft, nude and subtle–wonderfully fitting for the show. For her debut season I remember reading that Limi Feu had borrowed Dad Yohji Yamamoto’s makeup and hair stylists; I wonder if she did so again?

Models I Love (Who Clearly Need To Get More Work)

Topping my list (oh, how anti-climatic) is Ginta Lapina, who, to the best of my memory, has only walked for Eley Kishimoto, Issa and Rodnik this season. Hand-picked for fame by the MC2 Model Management Contest in 2006, this baby-faced blonde from Latvia, 18, hasn’t quite hit her stride yet. Since her win she has chalked up a disappointingly large amount of catalogue and commercial work, and not much high-fashion-wise. Still, I’ll keep my fingers crossed in the hopes that some major casting director will notice her soon–I see a bit of Sasha Pivovarova and Twiggy in her.

Highlights of Fall ’08 in New York, Part 1: Anna Sui

Proving that New York Fashion Week is still, in fact, relevant to fashion and not a half-assed effort by designers who haven’t quite hit the strides in their career paths are: Part-time designers and full-time dreamers Costello Tagliapietra; Vera Wang and her ‘magical-ness’; Alexander Wang, ThreeAsFour, Ruffian and of course, the eternally brilliant, irreverrant and kooky Anna Sui.

Reasons why I love Anna Sui Fall Winter 08:

She riffed on stained-glass prints, something Jean-Paul Gaultier did in his fantastic haute couture collection in Spring ’07, over leggings and a funkily-patterned bodysuit. . .

. . . Was inspired by Native-American tribal designs (yes, I even love the headpieces) . . .

. . . Randomly attacked our necks with large colourful flowerpieces and oh just paisley stockings in case we didn’t have a floral explosion elsewhere on our bodies . . .

. . . And got us obsessed with purple, lavender, violet and magenta, which were thankfully (and yet somewhat disappointingly) amiss from any other designer’s Fall Winter collection.

Anna Sui <3.