I wrote this post day before and today, upon logging onto twitter after the whole day, expecting to be englufed by sadness over not being able to attend NYFW, I found it to be awash with news of British designer extraordinaire, Alexander McQueen dead.I am heartbroken to announce that he is no more. The man who wore Disney sweatshirts with kilts, blurred the fine line between art and fashion more than anyone had ever before, created greats, for example the Armadillo shoe, never gave up on couture, even in the age of it's demise and was Isabella Blow's protegee is gone. He will never be back. McQueen was a man of inspiration. A true visionary. He was my hero. And now, he's gone. I'm wearing black tomorrow. I suggest you do the same. R.I.P Alexander McQueen. The best do die too young. You will be dearly, dearly missed. - Arushi
You will be missed. I don't even know what to say. - Naina
In a world where every man and his dog are a designer, Alexander McQueen was the real deal. His talent was supersonic. - Philip Treacy
Lee was a fashion genius. I do not say that lightly and it is a total shock that I'm referring to him in past tense. He was a real friend. I will miss him as a mate, a peer and as a true British talent, full of life and energy in everything he did. He was one of our best designers and this is a huge loss for the fashion world. What a man! Such sad, sad news. The world has lost a star.- Stella McCartney
His talent had no boundaries. - Naomi Campbell
He was an aristocrat in the true sense of the word. He had natural grace, natural patrician instincts. He was the kindest, shyest, funniest person. And when the chips were down, he was there. He wasn't a flake. You could count on him. I will miss him. - Daphne Guinness
I will miss him, and I will certainly miss the beauty he created and his vision and his world. You really just ask yourself "why?" but you realize that the answer to that question is unnecessary anyway. It doesn't change anything. Death is always horrible. - Marc Jacobs
Some of my favorite shows ever have been by Lee. The last time I saw him was at the end of his men's wear show a couple of weeks ago, I ran backstage to congratulate him but he had already left the building for skiing, what a shame I'll never see him again. - Katie Grand
He was a uniquely British kind of phenomenon, a working class lad who bootstrapped it. He has enormous innate creative passion that ultimately gave him an incredibly broad frame of reference, from art to obscure movies to history, this spongelike passion and amazing imagination that in end transformed his design. Comparing him to Galliano and Vivienne Westwood, he was a provacteur, almost like a highwire act, an exercise in daring creativity. He raised the bar so high on what was even possible with clothing.- Simon Doonan
His seminal show sent a shiver up the back of my spine and that doesn't happen very often. You just got a shiver and a tingle. He was a visionary.- Prof. Louise Wilson, Creative Director MA Fashion at Central St. Martins, London
(via wwd.com)
------------------------------------------------------- (PS- this post sounds so happy and cheery compared to what happened a day after. Life sucks. Pieballs, as Naina rightly said).
Sorry for the semi-delirious title. I totally get how too may caps can get on your last nerve. I really don't know what to post about. Mostly, I'm just mucho upset that I can't be at NYFW. I was so excited when I received 3-4 invites! And then I realized that I'd have exams going on at the time and there was no way I can miss them. Because if I do, I will have to go through 10th grade all over again, and the humiliation aside, I really cannot take another year of bio, chem, physics and math.
(I am tempted to cut my head off but I will not, because I am awesome and do not do such things)
Wearing: Gold metallic ASOS paper thin shirt
Brown Bare Denim shoulder pad suede jacket
Lena Erziak Paolo bag
Brown Nine West oxford heels (Naina's)
I got my Nylon issue in the mail, 3 fucking months after subscription (ARE YOU LISTENING, Marvin Scott Jarrett?). Sad. Even sadder? The Vampire Diaries stars are on the cover. I've kind of decalred a way of sorts on vampires of all pop cultural shapes and sizes after that hydra of fairytailism, Edward Cullen showed up and left me disgusted and made me lose my semblance of faith in teenage girls across the world.
BUTBUTBUT, there WAS a really, really sick editorial "Paris Je t'aime", which also happens to be one of my favorite movies which involved a ton of high low mixing of miu miu, corpus christi, wolford, h&m, Ungaro, Chanel, Vans Girls and Falke, basically reminding me why I love Nylon and also catapulting Santa Bevacqua to the top 5 of my favorite stylists' list (be honored, Mr. B, it's a very coveted list, it is).
There was also a shitload of Proenza Schouler which just made me ask my parents if I could extract a few thousand dollars from my college fund to buy a skirt. They told me to go fly a kite, Juno Mommy style.
ALSO, HELLO? WHY has nobody told me about those freakin kickass tophee wrapper Maison Martin Margiela clutches? They come in hot pink and mint. Do you not know of my weakness for tophee wrapper clutches?!!
Okay, I'm a little hyper.
So, as most of you have come to know, I'm highly pedantic (or wannabe pedantic) about anything concerning fashion; the market, the history, current affairs, design, all that. But music has always been a part of my life. I haven't talked a lot about it on this blog because I wanted it to be more style centric, as that's something I can't talk to most of my friends about without evoking yawns and "you're so stupid"s.
I was super excited (No, really. Like friggin pee in your favorite pants excited) when I heard about Marisa Meltzer's book: Girl Power: the Nineties Revolution in Music. And you know what? Writing about music is not the easiest thing and most people end up sounding like skeezes and totally just tick me off BUT Marisa M managed to write a pretty damn badass book. I haven't finished reading it but so far, I can barely put it down.
I'm moving around with it like I did Harry Potter and the Book Thief and Virgin Suicides. This is serious.
The book focuses on women in the history of rock, but concentrates largely on the nineties. It was semi shocking to see the difference in the way women were perceived then and the widening gap between the time and now. It delves into and tells us extensively about the legendary Grrllll movement. It's got a lot about bands like Bikini Kill and all sorts of women singers, from Courtney Love to the Spice Girls. The most remarkable aspect of the book is that it writes from social AND musical outlooks. It's amazing. It dove headfirst into nineties music and came up with this bible for anyone who wants to know more about feminism in pop culture!
Even though, now, there have been a lot of famous girl singers like Beyonce, Gaga, Britney et all, Marisa still thinks we have a long way to go:
"Women have to rely on their looks just as much as their talent". True, dat (<Britney would not have been as popular as she was had it not been for the way she looked, would she?
Anyway, I'm not going to spoil it for you. I highly recommend that you go out and buy it. COME ON. You know you want. Amazon looks inviting, doesn't it?
So onto other important things, like, say Halston. America's Yves Saint Laurent, and a personal icon,
as I've said before here. Now, Marios Schwab is amazing and everything but I was more than excited and majorly psyched about the heritage collection, overseen by creative direction *drum roll* *WAIT FOR IT*: Sarah Jessica Parker.
I guess you can say I'm a teeny bit obsessed with her. The collection has just debuted on
Shopbop and I am DYINNNGG. I swear, if I wear anything on there, I WILL morph into Lauren Hutton/Liza Minnelli/Liz Taylor/Jackie O and be fabulous and amazing and a vision and transform into a raving beauty with monumental intellect. Okay, I exaggerate. But I've always been really obsessed with Halston and to not be disappointed is quite a high.
I need them pillbox hats and halter dresses and ooh, ultrasuede. LOTS and LOTS of Ultrasuede. You can check out the collection
here.
XO
Arushi*
