Due to the ghastly weather outside, I spent most of the day inside listening to the new Animal Collective album (amazing). I did have to venture out for some errands and meetings though, and to kill some time, I snuck into the F.I.T. library, which required taking a long circuitous route to avoid the snooping security guards. I really need to sign up for another class so I can get access to all the treasures and studios hidden inside that giant slab of Brutalist concrete without having to dash and duck behind corners like an amateur terrorist.
One of my favorite things to do in the library is to browse through their collection of past season designer lookbooks, which take up at least five long stacks, and which contain almost every collection you can imagine. Not only does it predate Style.com, it has plenty of lookbooks from designers who wouldn't ever be so privileged to be on that glossy website. It serves as an encyclopedia of looks for every top house, and you can see the evolution of Givenchy Couture from its days under Alexander McQueen and Julian Macdonald to it's current day incarnation under Ricardo Tisci. It also serves as a graveyard--er--memorial for all of the young designers who pumped out a couple of seasons before fizzling out and disappearing into the ether.
One such designer that popped out (literally---jumped right out of the stacks when I went for a Liz Collins lookbook) was Victor Bellaish, a designer from Milan who I had never heard of before. His Spring 03 lookbook was the only one of his that I could find, and a subsequent Google search gave up very little information, and a scattering of unappealing images. None of those images matched up to the ones I saw in the lookbook, which I excitedly attempted to capture on my crappy camera phone without attracting the attention of the librarians (sorry for the shit quality). What really caught my eye were his elaborate knots and ropes that draped like giant fringe off belts, harnesses, and tops. Looking at these pictures makes me want to take up macrame. It's such a shame that I don't know what Bellaish is up to these days, or any other information about him at all...If anyone else knows, keep me informed!
A close up of a knotted rope belt.
The rope belt from the front.
A view from behind. The shoes are really amazing too, although they're blurry here.
An entire top made from draping ropes and tying them together.-Tiffany
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