He Said She Said

"The two most beautiful words in the English language are 'cheque enclosed'." - Dorothy Parker

Fall 2010: Marc Jacobs

After such a series of duds, this one, at last, succeeds. Still, it's not the work of genius (56 exits, wah lau!)that a well-known fashion critic will have us believe. All I need to add is that this collection furthers Mr Jacobs's themes of "awkward beauty" and "fit is nothing", themes which he began with his watershed grunge collection for Perry Ellis... Oh ages ago. This collection are seemingly inspired by/ designed for blogger Tavi (can't you just see her in every look?) and since Tavi already dresses like this thrifting, you really need to question why anyone would make 'new' clothes to fit ill. Well, what is the function of clothes, what fashion?
Just to be contrary, I've picked out these genius looks garunteed to make any girl look like a blinking clod. Don't you just love it?

Chop Suey By Bruce Weber

I'd longed to see this 2001 film and finally, visiting PH at his new Waterloo Street flat, did. The only thing you need to know is: The book is better. In truth, there's something authentic in there somewhere (there must be - the long ramble certainly reeks of ernestly striving after something), but in the making it's been banalized out of existence. Unfortunately, the movie feels like you'd asked your favourite old queen what they really, really like and getting a three-hour answer. You sort of regret asking, and just want to say 'speed it up aunty!'. It's a scrapbook style sinking into Weber-World, and you could be looking at a very long Ralph Lauren commercial for all you know. As Weber's record of his obsession with Peter Johnson, a high-school athlete Weber commemorated in torrential detail and made a big model of in all his commercial work, it seems somehow embarrassingly shallow, reducing the young man to basically his youth. There's no sex even though that is the most obvious theme in Weber's ouvre, and reduces his work to a carnival of surfaces. This gives the film an embalmed effect. Every natural instinct seemed frantically perfumed over, making every vignette hollow and fake.
I'm glad we watched it nibbling on pineapple tarts and gossiping and laughing. I would have fallen asleep otherwise. And I am a Bruce Weber and scrapbooking fan!

Gaspard Ulliel for Chanel

Gaspard Ulliel,25, will be the face of a completely new Chanel fragrance which to be launched this July. The fragrance will debut with a Martin Scorsese commercial featuring the incredibly cute French actor. Mr Scorsese joins a roster of Chanel ad directors that includes filmmakers Baz Luhrmann and Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
Portions of the spot were filmed on location last month in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The name of the Jacques Polge-created fragrance has yet to be confirmed, it's to be a completely new juice and new line.

Weekend Reading List

Did the weekend fly by without me noticing? In honour of Valentine's Day, sadly eclipsed by CNY, I shall dedicate this weekend to reading to Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love, published in 1945, and still in print today. It's this or Shakspeare's famous sonnets. Yes, I love you too. XPainting of Nancy Mitford by Mogens Tvede.

Bronzino

Okay, I want you all to look at this Bronzino (Portrait of a Young Man) because it is a total antithesis of all things CNY/ Valentine's Day, and we deserve a break. I love the hands (that finger in the book just kills me) and the wonky eyes.

And That's All!

"Anna Wintour wants designers to schedule their shows during these three days. It has bad consequences for many, many people involved in the shows, from stylists to models to hairdressers. It's absolutely crazy. She's welcome in Milan but if she only comes for a fleeting visit, perhaps it would be better if she stayed at home."
- Mario Boselli, President of the Italian Fashion Chamber

For the Chinese New Year overhaul, I was at the salon for a record four hours, from 2.30pm till slightly over 6.30pm. Ben has been doing my hair for over a decade, and pure genius (I can't say enough good things about Ben who is talented, stylish and kind any encounter with him improves one); But that makes him the busiest man standing on any given day, not to mention during festive periods. The boys and girls at the salon are all super sweet and sooo nice, but still. One does feel quite marooned at the chair and somewhat like a zoo animal as sundry people come and peer at you (all this is kindly meant, to be sure) and you need to be all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed even whilst your hair is all up in cling film or you're wearing a cushion-like silver plastic cap. It's defeating.
This is what I overheard at the salon:
M: "Am I alone in thinking that a lot of editors and magazine journalists here take their so-called image more seriously than their jobs? Seriously... I wanted to yank the arm off one at an event - she was so carrying on like she was Meryl in The Devil Wears Prada. Such a twit!"
J: "There are seriously TOO MANY Anna Wintours in Singapore. I don't know why the world thinks Anna Wintour is so special... They only need to come to Singapore to realise they are a dime a dozen in SPH.
M: "Her highness and her Andre Leon Talley doppelganger... I wanted to slap her!"
J: "They should just invite all the Anna Wintours here, then Milan won't have to shorten their fashion week ler!"
F: "This new editor might be a very stylish woman in person, you have to admit that she is stylish, but it does not show in her work. Just look at the magazine."
C: "I was in Milan when I heard that Alexander McQueen died and my first thought was... why couldn't it be Marc Jacobs?"
J: "Did you know that Mrs Jacobs is now designing a line of swimwear?"
As a treat, I also heard a TOP photographer say that things are going swimmingly now because working with the editors now is like being in a "think tank" where they all share ideas.
Now, that, my dears, is quite an idea.

Alexander McQueen (16 March 1969 – 11 February 2010)

"I found his work very interesting and never banal. There was always some attraction to death, his designs were sometimes dehumanized. Who knows, perhaps after flirting with death too often, death attracts you." - Karl Lagerfeld
On Thursday, Alexander McQueen, 40, was found hanged at his luxurious £640,000 ground-floor flat in Mayfair, Central London.
His body was discovered soon after 10am. The designer had been grieving over the death of his mother, Joyce, who died on February 2. He had been due to attend her funeral today.
He had been under pressure to complete his fall 2010 women’s collection for next month’s launch in Paris. His other line, McQ, was due to be shown at New York Fashion Week yesterday but was cancelled.
The designer was also known to be upset that a recent relationship had ended. A man who claimed to be his boyfriend went inside the flat yesterday afternoon and left looking distraught before the body was brought out at 4.30pm. In 2000, McQueen had a civil partnership with the film-maker George Forsyth, but had ended the relationship in 2008 and had started another with a porn star known as Mr Stag.
McQueen, who had an estimated £20 million fortune in 2006, was renowned for his fragile temperament and explosive rage.

He Said She Said

"I don't even know what my natural color is. Natural? What is natural? What is that? I do not believe in totally natural for women. For me, natural has something to do with vegetables." - Donatella Versace

Sarah Mower Vs Tavi

Don't you just love a fashion catfight?Sarah Mower, The Telegraph:
"At the Dior show, trying to fight my way backstage to get a quote from John Galliano, I nearly fell over a tiny, grey-haired woman who, from the back, I took to be a septuagenarian Japanese fashion fanatic, as she was dressed head-to-toe in Comme des Garçons. When she was ushered into the inner sanctum before me, and turned around, I saw, with a sick lurch, that it was actually Tavi Gevinson, the 14-year-old fashion blogger from Chicago. She was being shadowed by her father, an English teacher, and has recently dyed her hair the trendiest colour.
As a mother of a 14-year-old, my first thought was,“Hang on, isn’t it term-time in America, too?”. Had I not been so busy trying to attract Galliano’s attention, I would have asked Mr Gevinson why he thought it was right to take his daughter out of school to go to haute couture shows, where she would be treated like a celebrity by paparazzi?"Tavi, The Style Rookie:
"My parents and I are the ones who know my school's absences policy, how my teachers feel about my missing school, and what my grades look like -- not anyone else. I know everyone's intentions are warm-hearted because they're just so concerned for my health and future because they're so caring like that, but it is irrelevant to arguments being made about my blog or blogging in general, and a cheap way to distract people from the actual problem they're focusing on. If we really want to bring it up, can we talk about models that travel without guardians?
Ms Mower:
"Checking her blog to see what she’d thought of her couture experience this week, I see she says she can’t write about it because she’s tied up to an exclusive with Pop. It seems fashion’s favourite wunderkind has been sucked into the system in record time, the charm of her indie-voice silenced, having been appropriated and paid for by the traditional print media."
Tavi:
"People continue to have diarrhea of the pen, however, writing out all the possible ways they can somehow make me look like a bad guy. For accepting a gift. For sitting front row (no one mentions the shows where I've had less-than-stellar seats?) For giving a positive review of a show I genuinely liked. For saving some content for a magazine that funded my trip, nevermind that I still have 450 pictures for this blog, and did anyone bother to find that out? Of course not."
Ms Mower:
"It’s all happening too fast for Tavi, and I wonder if her father knows how to protect her from it. I hope she’s got her nose to the grindstone, catching up with missed lessons this week, but it’s hard to imagine a kid being able to come back down to reality after that..."
Tavi:
"I still keep myself separate from this character wearing sunglasses indoors. This isn't to say I am totally self-assured, but I know what I don't like, and I know to take everything with a grain of salt. Let's be realistic here -- I don't look at rail-thin women sucking on cigarettes outside shows with admiration. It seems that with all this "Backlash!" many people have lost sight of what MY blog is actually about: fun, dammit! I thought my let's-go-all-out-and-enjoy-ourselves outfits were of any indication here, but apparently a giant pink hairbow just means I don't want editors behind me to see because bloggers hate editors and vice versa, apparently, apparently, apparently...I'm going to New York on Saturday. I will be wearing some more hats. If you happen to be sitting behind me and you'd like to be able to see, just ask."

He Said She Said

"Be slow to fall into friendship; But when thou art in, continue firm and constant." - Socrates

Before

... And this is why we have stylists, photographers hair and makeup. Linda Evangelista (mid 1980s) before Peter Lindbergh, Steven Meisel, etc. Oh, and the clothes? That's why we have designer labels!

Magazine Sales

Newsstand sales were down nearly across the board for fashion and lifestyle titles in the last half of 2009, including Vogue, with a 15.1 percent drop in single-copy sales and Allure with a 17.2 percent decline. Faring better was Elle, sales of which only dropped 0.2 percent. The economy is mainly to blame for the declines. Some titles gained, like Harper's Bazaar, with a 0.3 percent increase, and Vanity Fair, with an impressive 5 percent increase, buoyed by strong sales of the August issue with Heath Ledger on the cover. The titles that fared the best in the women's fashion category are health-oriented magazines, including Health, with an 11.1 increase in newsstand sales.
(WWD)

The Jane Austen Diet

I must be going on a diet (with the Chinese New Year feasts ahead) as I've been a shocking omnivore of late, eating any- and everything and unrepentantly remembering how, once upon a time, I would at various stretches not eat yolks, prawns, red meat, fishballs, luncheon meat. A decade went by without drinking sugary bottled drinks; Years went by without my eating cake. Now, sadly, I eat everthing like the Veronese boy (above, Boy Eating, Veronese). Durian, mango, claypot rice, birds nest, beef burger, carbonara pasta, lobster, tempura prawns, early pineapple tarts - all this within the last week.
Emma's Mr Woodhouse would not approve. Mr Woodhouse prefers plain cooking for invalids (or anyone, actually):
“Mrs. Bates, let me propose your venturing on one of these eggs. An egg boiled very soft is not unwholesome. Serle understands boiling an egg better than any body. I would not recommend an egg boiled by any body else — but you need not be afraid — they are very small, you see — one of our small eggs will not hurt you…"
Prescribed diet from Mrs Rundell's 1816 book, A New System of Domestic Cookery formed upon Principals of Economy:
1. Water Gruel
Put a large spoonful of oatmeal by degrees into a pint of water, and when smooth boil it. (You see, this is quite easy to make, but perhaps not very tasty.)
2. Eggs (click and see below)

Weekend Reading List

I keep returning to this five-volume novel The Story of the Stone/ The Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin (it's beautifully translated by David Hawkes) and can recommend this book as a good read, a gripping page turner to be completely lost in over the Chinese New Year holidays. It's particularly appropriate as a handbook to all things Chinese (everything from feminine archetypes to food, horticulture to homosexuality is spanned), as it is a Proustian tapestry of life during the Qing dynasty (1644 to 1911).If you want to understand what being Chinese is all about (there are several chapter that dwells on the Jia family's Chinese New Year celebrations), you must read this 18th-century novel, chockfull of nuanced descriptions of greatly refined culture, and a celebration of Chinese beauty. The 'story' actually describes the tragic decline of a great feudal family (which is very moving, and I hate reading towards the end as the misery is visceral), but it is more about the nostalgia for vanished splendor. The author, Cao Xueqin, born into one of the great families of the Qing dynasty that had fallen into collapse, wrote autobiographically: He wrote this classic while living in poverty and trying to reconcile himself to the loss of the world. It may seem forbidding, but it's unflagging humour (sometimes campy) and wit will sustain you through your read, and its incandescent beauty will sustain ou through life.

"It was a tall thin youth of 18 or 19 who had spoken, with a thin handsome face and an air of great refinement. Although his face was familiar, Baoyu could not for the moment remember his name or which part of the clan he belonged to..."

Comme Des Garcons Black

Comme Des Garcons Black has a new address: 581 Orchard Road
02-39/40 Hilton International, Singapore
Tel: 63041362

LINDA

It was around this time when Linda Evangelista became just Linda... She was created by Peter Lindbergh, very much an Elle girl...

Kate Hudson Is That You?

This is a new low for all concerned. How desperate can a cover get? (Just look at the coverlines!)
It's useful at this point to see what the magazine was, as envisioned by the late editor Liz Tilberus, when she revamped it in September 1992. This was her first cover, shot by Patrick Demarchelier.

Alberto Giacometti

One of Alberto Giacometti’s best-known bronzes, Walking Man I, has broken the world record price for a work of art at auction, selling to an unidentified telephone bidder for USD92.5 million (USD104.3 million with fees), at Sotheby’s in London. Sotheby’s had expected the sculpture to bring USD19.2 million to USD28.8 million.
The previous record was USD104.1 million, paid for a 1905 Picasso, Boy With a Pipe at Sotheby’s in New York in 2004.
This impressive six foot-tall sculpture was conceived in 1960 and cast in 1961. As perhaps the most recognizable of all Giacometti sculptures, Walking Man I is a trophy piece. The sculpture was cast in an edition of six and four artist proofs, most of which are in museums or private collections. Walking Man I was being sold by Dresdner Bank in Germany, which acquired it in 1980.
(Source: NYT)

He Said She Said

"Only solitary men know the full joys of friendship. Others have their family; but to a solitary and an exile his friends are everything."
- Willa Cather