Sweater Vests

  Just some adorable scans from the Paul McCartney II book that my dad took out from the library (thank you, dad!). They have all those awesome summer yellows and blues I'm into now (along with the green on the carousel!) and my favorite sweater vest of all time. Paul's sweater vest-wearing days date back to Magical Mystery Tour. His sweater vests are simply awesome. He's just so `~groundbreaking~` (like, t0talliiii)(this sentence has been a mini-rant of my loathing for the word "groundbreaking"). No, but seriously, only old men wore sweater vests before Paul McCartney. He opened the realm for my English teachers, Cambridge professors, and just awesome people, okay?

  I took some homemade screenshots of Magical Mystery Tour just so you can be as delighted as I am in Paul's sweater vests even though the pictures are kind of pixle-y. Sweater vests aside, however, Magical Mystery Tour is one of the most aesthetically pleasing movies you can watch. Here is the link to the full movie. Magical Mystery Tour was made as a TV film in 1967 and was a total failure, but it's one of those movies that suck but are still so nice to look at! Magical Mystery Tour was made with that genuine 1967 psychedelia which is one of my favorite things in the universe!
  While we're on the subject of sweater vests, I was asking myself why I love fashion these past couple days (this query has relevance to sweater vests, I swear!). I mean, its not going to save the world or create world peace or do something about relocating all those annoying people at school. People won't think you're any more intelligent for liking fashion. Quite on the contrary, most people would do a mental eye roll and think, "Oh, she likes fashion."
  Okay, I listed the cons. This morning, however, I had what I might call a revelation about why I love fashion. My favorite fashion bloggers would talk about how fashion is self-empowering and all that Girl Power stuff....which is great and awesome and I would totally cite that reason as one of my reasons!
  But my reason isn't a famous fashion blogger's reason. My reason is that fashion is one of the few true unifying forces in the world today. Nobody talks about it, but fashion truly, truly unifies people. See, in any other industry, sweater vests can be laughable. Some conservative politician can get absolutely slaughtered by the part of media that detests his beliefs, and him wearing sweater vests is just another excuse for the slaughtering and can result in quite a couple memes (poor Rick Santorum...). Lady Gaga has earned herself a plethora of parodies on YouTube that usually include ensembles of edible items and household products that poke fun at her actual ensembles.
  Fashion, however, welcomes everything. The CFDA awarded Lady Gaga the Fashion Icon Award (look who's laughing now, YouTube!). If someone notoriously wears sweater vests to fashion shows, it will immediately become their "signature piece." Fashion is so acceptant of almost anything. Fashion critics are there to criticize some things that fashion is acceptant of, but there are way more cool things that fashion has accepted in its history than negative things: the little black dress, miniskirts, and, more recently, armadillo shoes!
  Nobody really thinks or talks about how unifying fashion is because most people look down upon fashion as absurd. The designers and journalists of fashion don't care about the people on the outside because they've been accepted by fashion.
  The people on the outside look into fashion and wonder how the hell people in the industry could be so absurd, but the people looking in aren't as happy as the people inside.

Jungle Book

  I am not normally one that cares for resort or pre-fall collections, but Proenza Schouler can be the exception today. I'm kind of love thunderstorms now that August has come, and the humid, moss green atmosphere that comes with it. Listen to Vivaldi's "Summer" and you'll know what I'm talking about. Summmer is not a tea party on Vivaldi's terms, so kudos to Vivaldi for being unique. Proenza Schouler is awesome because nothing is really a tea party to them, it's all a massive thunderstorm. It hits you and its awesome.
  I'm glad I have a blog to share my feelings for thunderstorms because in real life, if you say thunderstorms are comforting or something, everyone's like, "Are you emo?"but on the Internet you sound profound and you could be the next Tolstoy and you can get away with that oh-so-cliche phrase, "I'm not like the other girls" that can be found on literally every Tumblr you come across that's owned by a teenage girl. Teenage girls, in reality, are more alike than you think: most of them are obsessed with something. It doesn't matter if you're obsessed with Kurt Cobain or Justin Bieber, you are obsessed. It's not a bad thing, frankly, so what's wrong with being like the other girls? Why are you condemning your own sex? More importantly, why am I asking so many questions? 
  I think I'm reading too much.

Summer Haze Scrapbook

  Mid-summer feels like the end of summer, so I wanted to make a scrapbook-thing of what I'm dreaming about this summer. I'm really into red and white lace now, as in wearing it and seeing it. I also wanted to make this scrapbook-thing a groupie/70s rock mini-appreciation. Hence the Almost Famous screenshots (in warm colors, including red). I love movies (and I'm idealistic) so I had to pick a visually pleasing movie to portray my love for the rockstar lifestyle, which has to be Almost Famous. I have started to look past the overrated sunsets and have come to appreciate sunsets in their red-to-organge-to-pink loveliness. I guess all this dreaming about touring with a band comes from those long car rides to beaches this summer. Summer car rides are great because you're never going to school.

  I decided to be creatively productive again by making another paper doll, too, that fits into the whole summer of '75 on-the-road feel. 

  I know coats and heavy sweaters don't scream summer, but they fit into the on the road vibe. Don't pretend they're not fun to look at, too.

The Nancy Drew Files

  So at first glance of the Chanel Fall 2012, everyone was all, "FUTURISTIC! Eighties! Geometric shapes! Metallic!" but all I could think about is the awesome colors that was kind of a morph between the moss green of Nancy Drew's skirts and the red of Ringo Starr's raincoat during the rooftop concert of 1969. Chanel isn't the label that you look to for those nostalgic warm colors or colors in general. So seeing moss green, maroon, and mustard yellow was a visual delight! Not to mention the awesome deep purple sweaters draped over the shoulders in mystery-solving, awesome way! 

  See what I'm getting it? The dark colors also give off the vibe of pictures from 1968. The psychedelia is winding down so it doesn't have that technicolor effect of 1966 and such. It's the disintegrated, dark part that leads to the 70s. The colors from Chanel particularly remind me of the Let It Be sessions or Mad Day Out.

  I used to have something against the 70s because it didn't have the same pretty-color-psychedelia vibe of the 60s and the Beatles had broken up (weep). 

London Calling

  England is my greatest place on Earth because it has everything aesthetically that I aspire for. England has that really old Middle Ages royalty vibe from churches in Cambridge, but they have that whole psychedelic culture from places like Carnaby Street. What's awesome is having the rockstar-Mick-Jagger aesthetic paired with the preppy-royalty aesthetic. England has both.

  England manages to stay so colorful even though it rains most of the year.

Before I Was Born

  For some reason all the quality artists have some beef against my birthday. I was born in 1997, and for some strange reason, I can only really love movies from before 1990. I can only really adore musicians from before 1980. One of the reasons I like fashion is that I have the opportunity to wear (or at least dream about) clothes that remind me of my favorite things of the past but were made in the present. Fashion is a wonderful thing now. Its one of the only things I really love now.

  Two things on my mind today: Old Hollywood and Rodarte. One of the aspects that made me so hyped to see Rodarte featured in upcoming September issues is the cinematic, Old Hollywood feel in the shapes and textures. What's clever about it is that they use colors you don't normally associate to achieve the Old Hollywood Affect: a sad blue, a burnt orange, a rustic brown. One of the aspects that draws me towards Rodarte is the ability to pair the most unlikely colors. It happens to be an "Aha!" moment for me when I watch the show.

  So the suits are kind of Casablanca to me, in terms of shoulder structure, skirt length, and the curly hair of Ingrid Bergman. And, funny enough, Casablanca happens to be my favorite movie!

I could kiss him. But anyway, onto my other favorite movie, Bringing Up Baby. The curved shoulders and the frilly details of the dresses are a bit like the Rodarte ones. 

Hollywood sucks now.

Return of the Rockstar

  I have deduced that either: A) My classic rock obsession has gone too far OR B) Miuccia Prada and I think alike. I assume that B is probably impossible considering that I am a mere mortal (while Miuccia Prada is not).
  I have grown quite fond of both the Prada and the Miu Miu collections namely for their bright pant suits with those patterns that you thought only existed on your math teacher's fractal posters. At first I had the impression of math textbooks that were made way before you were ever born (I particularly found pleasure in seeing who owned it before me!):

  The prints have the quality of those colors from the Prada collection, the mustard yellows and burnt orange. At the same time, the constant patterns seem geometrical. A cool idea that Prada seems to be poking at is the idea of fusing traditional silhouettes (synched waists) with technical, mathematical prints that are futuristic. While looking at the past, Prada still looks to the future.
    My rockstar obsession, however, kicked in and I couldn't help but think of a band's psychedelic phase, especially The Beatles:

  The colors especially apply for Miu Miu, namely the dense red. Note their reference to the scarf/tie hybrid of Pink Floyd.
  So, think of it this way: Prada is the well-to-do chemistry teacher while Miu Miu is the little sister who ran away to become a groupie.

The Pocket Dress

             Hello, long time no blog! Summer leaves abundant time for leisure, so I decided to revamp the blog, maybe make it less girly and deep and angst-y? Trust me, it'll be better. I'm gonna write about whatever I want. Now, you're probably very scared at the prospect of me writing about whatever I want. I honestly don't care. Some say that fear can bring out the best in people.

             You are probably now thinking that I'm going to take on some controversial issue, and I would take on a duty of exposing deep thoughts. I'll maybe do that when I'm interested in it. For now, however, I take pleasure in talking about art that can correlate with my deep mind; I want to make thinking about things fun. I don't find it fun when you're on a blog and someone is all angst-y and trying to be cool by talking about walls and bridges and anarchy...let's leave that to Roger Waters.

             Now that reintroductions are done, let's celebrate with Raf Simons! Although I shed a couple tears at his departure from Jil Sander, the prospect of him as the new creative director at Christian Dior sounds quite inviting. I have whole-hearted appreciation of his ability to feed my obsession with vintage (my tumblr is visual proof), and I don't feel immensely guilty about my obsession with the past because he's what the fashion world calls an "innovator." Hm, innovator gets thrown around a lot, right?

            But for Raf it is utterly true! He's the only living designer I want to describe as an innovator since the term being thrown around is slightly sickening. But I mean, look at his pocket dresses (or blouses) and you will UNDERSTAND!

Fall 2012 Couture (Dior)

Fall 2012 RTW (Jil Sander) 

Spring 2012 RTW (Jil Sander)

          If I get married, say, 20 years from now, I'd probably want a Jil Sander archive. I realize now that  you might look totally indifferent on your own wedding day if you have your hands stuck in your pocket when you walk down the aisle, but stick on one of those Jackie O hats and put your hands in your pockets on the road to your honeymoon and you'll look quite comfy. See Jackie O hate here:

Spring 2012 RTW (Jil Sander)

          

          Listen, I just want a vintage wedding. Vintage weddings are absolutely the best. My brother says I'm very idealistic when I think about my favorite eras of history - my friend from speech team calls me a "history fangirl." Oh, well. Idealism is much more fun than realism. 

1953: Jacqueline & John Kennedy (Tumblr) 

Circa 1930: Poland (Flickr)

1967: Priscilla & Elvis Presley (Tumblr)