Suzanne Rae Spring 2012

All images courtesy of WireImage

The world is a messed up, scary place right now, so it's no wonder that Suzanne Rae looked towards simpler times for inspiration for her Spring 2012 collection. Her clothes are always infused with a nostalgic feel, and even though the cuts are usually modern and minimalist, the garments have the dusty and ethereal look of something that was dug up in an attic or an antique fair.  This season Suzanne specifically referenced 19th century Japan, showing plenty of kimono dresses and jackets, as well as collaborating with photographer Renato D'Agostin, and using photographs from his Tokyo Untitled series.  The collection channeled the zen-like simplicity of the time, while infusing it with a sense of optimism for a better tomorrow.

-Tiffany

A Singular Obsession

All photos by LD Tuttle

LD Tuttle has always been on the top of my list of favorite shoe designers.  Tiffany Tuttle's shoes are  innovative and interesting, cool and conceptual, and never overtly sexy. In fact, with names like The Creature and The Tourniquet, they're pretty much the opposite of FMPs.  They're more like fetish objects for shoe obsessed women to covet, collect, and maybe lovingly stroke in the middle of the night.  My husband might puzzle over my LD Tuttle wedges with a mohawk of horsehair protruding from the top (he once tried to use them to shine his own shoes to my outrage), but they are the most prized pair of heels in my entire wardrobe.  I'm already lusting over the lace-up boots above, and plotting on how I will get my hands on them.  If you take a look at the lookbook video below, I think you will become similarly fixated.

-Tiffany

All lookbook photos by Xi Sinsong

For their Spring 2012 presentation, INAISCE eschewed models, and chose to display their collection on mechanical surrogates, hanging in a sparse gallery setting.  Freed from the body, the clothes were meant to be seen for their full utilitarian potential, and the garments were ethereal and airy, yet simple and practical.  I admit, it was a lot easier to photograph the clothes without pesky models fidgeting about in them while looking bored and not knowing how to pose.  Nonetheless, for such drapey and thoughtfully cut garments, it is often easier to see them on the body, and the lookbook photos provided a beautiful supplement to the show.  The photographs referenced the Ancient Sino influences behind the collection, while simultaneously enlivening somber color palette with imagery that takes clothes beyond the gothic connotations that the viewer might initially perceive.

-Tiffany

Red or Dead

Red and black is a notoriously harsh color combination, and the intensity of the two colors was used to full effect in Katie Gallagher's Spring 2012 collection Red Red Blood.  This season Katie was inspired by blood--not the splashes of blood from horror movies or nightmares, but instead the sanguine vitality of coursing blood moving through the human body.  Rather than thinking of blood in a macabre way, Katie sees it as our lifeforce, which is perhaps why red has always been such an appealing color to wear.  With her clothes, Katie takes that vivid, living color, which usually remains hidden underneath or skin, and brings it to the surface.

-Tiffany

i-D & Alberto Guardiani - Shoe Design Competition

I know that my readers are a creative bunch (I'm talking to you Brandon), so I thought I would share this Shoe Design Competition from i-D and Alberto Guardiani. i-D will be accepting submissions for an open competition for designs from now until November 11th. The ten most innovative designs will be presented to an intimidatingly impressive panel of judges, including Anna Dello Russo, Sarah from Colette and Andrew Keith, president of Lane Crawford. The judges will invite three designers to present their designs at 10 Corso Como during Milan Fashion Week in February.  The winner will receive £5,000 and see their design produced as part of the Alberto Guardiani collection.  All the details for entering can be found here. Good luck, and Brandon, if you win, I expect a pair of free shoes!

-Tiffany

Never Mind the Bollocks

Daniel Palillo lookbook. Click on the image to enlarge.

Our Finnish friend Daniel Palillo did a short stint in the states this past Spring, which included DJing my party at Anchor bar, hanging around New York, and generally getting inspired for his latest collection. The new collection is largely based on Daniel's teenage years, dropping references to his music idols, as well as to his day to day activities: Saturday night soccer matches, Sunday morning cartoons.  While some icons are immediately recognizable, like Marge Simpson's blue beehive, and Bugs Bunny's winning smile, they are all given Palillo's demented twist.  Marge's yellow face is a skull, and Bugs's ears are so long that they extend beyond the boundaries of the tee-shirt on which they're emblazoned.  The childish influence translates perfectly for Daniel's second Children's collection, which basically consists of miniature versions of the adult clothes.  While the adult clothes pack a twisted punch, the kid's collection is pure humor.  I am very far away from having children, but looking at those photos makes me want to kidnap all my nieces and nephews and dress them up as ennui-stricken little monsters and acid-house loving tiny dancers.

-Tiffany

My Nail Polish is Poppin

Gel nails and 3-D Nail Art courtesy of Spa Martier 

In the middle fashion week, the kids at Fashion Indie set up a Blogger Breakroom full of plenty of fun stuff, including a full on beauty salon with eyebrow waxing, massages, and manicures provided by Spa Martier.  There were a lot of manicure stations installed around fashion week this season, but how many of them were offering Japanese nail art and gels?  Novelty manicures have had a recent spike in popularity, and while airbrushed acrylic dragon talons have always been popular amongst a certain beauty-school dropout set, they've only recently evolved into something more widely acceptable.  Not to say that they've broken from their tacky roots, but rather than being ghetto fabulous, the designs are more fun, silly, and smile inducing.  You probably won't be winning any "chic points" for having 3D donuts popping off every fingernail (see example below), but having a ridiculous manicure will bring untold amounts of personal joy, as well as the cooing attention of some very strange strangers.

I went for a multicolored reverse-french manicure using gels, with a few 3D flowers and rhinestones.  I have been hearing about gels for the last few months, and was thrilled to finally try them. They've held out miraculously well, and after a week and a half, have shown no signs of wear or chipping. They're supposed to last three to six weeks, and I expect to have some nice long nails when I remove them. Best yet, the incredible nail technicians were ridiculously fast, detail-oriented, and dedicated.  If it didn't cost around $100, I would probably get it done every week. I'll just have to wait for a special occasion to go back to Spa Martier. I'm planning on getting some donuts, cupcakes, and pizza slices next.

Some of the different designs you can choose from. Check out the donuts in the bottom left corner.
 

The hundreds of gel colors available to choose from.

-Tiffany

Abstract Expressionism

While designers often look to artists for inspiration, sometimes lifting from them directly, the results can be mixed. Marc Jacobs was immensely successful with his collaboration with artist Richard Prince, but more commonly you'll see an Andy Warhol soup can cheaply plastered somewhere it was never meant to be.  Demi Park is one of the few designers who has managed to take on the genre of Abstract Expressionism in an in-depth, conceptual manner, and the Spring 2012 Parkchoonmoo show was perhaps the most poetic collection that I saw during NYFW.  Playing with colors that reminded her of her Korean heritage, Park layered various dyed and stained pieces of fabric on top of each other, in an effect that she describes as "painting with fabric."  While the garments are traditionally colorblocked in the sense that bold colors are graphically combined, the layering and movement of the fabrics adds another dimension to the clothing.  While it's difficult to see in still images, the garments' dynamically shifting shapes and colors become living abstract paintings.  Absolutely breathtaking, and truly expressionistic.

-Tiffany