2010; Fashion for the Future

2010 sound a little futuristic, doesn't it? This spread, Numéro #109 - Abbey Lee Kershaw by Miguel Reveriego is pretty groundbreaking if you ask me.

Steven Meisel for Vogue Italia

This incredible editorial by Steven Meisel for Vogue Italia has all the ingredients that make me swoon. Contrasting textures of soft flesh and grainy sand, organic beauty, sculpted highlights and low lights expressed through the dichotomy of elegant humans and simple earth. It makes me miss days when I would lay in the sand and imagine myself sinking into the world and the ocean, feeling warm and peaceful. I think I am getting a little homesick. Images found here.

Witch- A Book of Bananas Forks Spoons Heartbreak by Andrea Marshall

I went to school to study Art History, and I really tried my best to understand and like contemporary artists. However, there are just so few that I find interesting enough to pay attention to. It's not that I can't appreciate what people are doing, and often admire it- I just have a classical eye I suppose. The mystique of religious iconography, ritual, witchcraft and the subversive rogues that painted it all never fails to excite me.

I often find that my only solace from the modern era is in high fashion editorials that draw upon these themes and transfigure them into otherworldy realms. I also tend to gravitate towards highly introspective, raw and honest self portraits. The elusive and infamous Cindy Sherman has been a long standing favorite of mine, especially her self portraits as the Madonna.

I think Cindy may have met her match in Andrea Marshall. In her about me, she writes:

"My work consists mainly of self-portraits that explore the Self in relation to traditional archetypal concepts of the nature of womanhood. I attempt to visually render this juxtaposition through a symbiotic dialogue between history and contemporary culture. Through a range of media, including both painting and photography, I examine internal psychological conflict through Personas reflecting the idealistic and tragic nature of the prototypical female.
Through self-portraiture, syncretized with symbolic female Personae, I strive to connect, rather than isolate, the female experience and contribute to evolving, yet eternal, female imagery. "

I was particularly impressed with the images out of her book, Witch A Book of Bananas Forks Spoons Heartbreak. Aside from being an intense visual delight, these images really really struck a chord with my inner art historian; this woman is just pure genius.

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Gingham and Glasses

I have many visions of what summer should look like, but the look below from Lula is my favorite. The 50's styling and giant glasses really do it for me. Sorry for not posting for a while, I was busy playing with my camera and buying Photoshop (I feel like such an adult now that I actually bought it and not pirated it!)

I was saving all of these glorious things for a good outfit post, and I think it turned out just how I wanted it to! I think the most surprising thing is that everything except the shoes came from major chain stores.

Here is the Lula spread that I fell in love with:






And here is what I came up with:

Hat and Glasses: Forever 21
Top: H&M
Skirt: Target
T-straps: Vintage

Eva Mendez

Who knew that Eva Mendez is probably the most attractive female on the planet? I mean, I noticed her before but it wasn't until I recently saw her in Lula that my adoration of Eva was forever cemented. In fact, I barely noticed her until I saw the editorial below from Italian Vogue a while back. Everything about it is so perfect; the orange lipstick, the lingerie, the beehive and the muted color palette. My favorite ones are definitely NSFW but you can find the rest here.






I never would have pegged her for a Lula girl, but she proved me very wrong with her lilac dress and infinite varieties of cute facial expressions.




The Vogue Italia spread sent me on a wild goose chase for that orange lipstick, and last week I finally found one that is pretty darn close! I will follow up with a post as soon as it's not raining anymore.

The only place I want to live...

Is inside these images by Bruno Dayan's "In the Mist" series, found on Kanye's Blog:

Dear Fashion, I am bound to you.

Dear Fashion,



I found myself unable to tear my eyes away from the editorial above from French Vogue above today, and it made me think.

We live in a world that despite modernization combined with the dissemination of knowledge and globalization, largely still treats women as property and second-class citizens. Human trafficking and domestic violence are still alive and well in our own country and all over the world.

It is no big secret that advertising in your world is geared primarily towards women. So why is it that the you persist in advertising your products through imagery, subtle or overt, saturated with undertones of bondage, domination, submission and hypersexualization? Are you just hell-bent on subjugating the entire sex?

No, you are just hell-bent on selling, and you would not repeat yourself if it didn’t work. So why does it work, and why I am strangely ok with and attracted to advertisements with underlying themes like the one above?

I feel that when themes of bondage and submission manifest themselves in the form of a glossy and deliberate image in a fashion editorial, they are subversive and transformative in ways we might not consider at first glance. Ultimately, the model takes away power from the gazer because she leaves them in an untenable state of longing or cathexis. A hypersexualized, well-lit fantasy world in which a beautiful woman can be dominated is created and yet it is not. It is artifice, it is deception, and it is perfectly acceptable because as a sane admirer, we ultimately understand that these images have been simulated and that nobody was actually harmed or forced to take these pictures.

I think that images like these let us get lost in our deep-seated, guilty attractions to violence and vanity, and I think that’s why we love them so much. These visually stimulating fantasy worlds allow us to vicariously explore unacceptable desire without actually becoming sadomasochists, and we are so gratified by the transformative experience it provides that it makes us buy unnecessary shoes and handbags.


So cheers to you, fashion for understanding our needs and exploiting them solely for the purpose of getting at my purse. It works so well, and I love you all the better for it.


Yours Always,

Giana