Style Watch: Icona Pop

This summer has been all about vibrant color, and futurist ultra modernism, which, this fall, will parlay into funky silhouettes that will transform us into more grandiose images of us as people. Viewing this video, "I Love It", from the Swedish duo, Icona Pop, reminded me of this impending shock value. First off, the contrast between the two pretty rebels, that of Caroline Hjelt’s orange hair and pale skin, and Aino Jawo’s short, bold upside-down-pudding-bowl due, make them appear ethereal and distinct. I was most inspired by the fringed garments they wore on the street that blew in the wind as they twerled, which in my fashion, made them look whimsical and helps them to transcend ordinary street walkers aestheticly. Their exagerated fringe is a design aspect I would most certainly want to see incorporated in looks this fall. They made me think of all the different ways one could experiment with their look and give me, and hopefully you as well, the encouragement to look as distinct as possible. They are expected to release an album this fall having made small waves across Europe these past few years. They even featured in Chiddy Bang’s song, “Mind Your Manners”, which I featured in my last Style Watch.

In light of the recent Costume Institute's new exhibition featuring the off-the-wall Schiaparelli brand that will be coming back into the mix of designers after 50 years, the fashion world seems to be very eager to push past conventionalism and practicality for more daring, and outrageous looks that express an escapist, almost cartoon-like sentimentality. Take examples from this month’s issue of Vogue: some of the looks that stand out most in my mind were the Prada silk and wool hexagon print jacket and pants with platform heels that remind me of a play on Mexican inspired clogs. Anna dello Russo, editor-at-large for Vogue Japan, was recently an example of how one would look in public as she sported this 70’s inspired look in Milan at the Spring 2013 menswear collections last month. Other looks that caught my adoration was a red and black bonded-leather coat by Givenchy, it’s bold features projecting reductive geometric minimalism, and the “fantasy corporate empire” look outfitted by Balenciaga with the hot pink and lillac sheer skirted dress contrasted against the model’s electric orange hair. I even like the to-big-for-you black and white checkered Comme des Garçons wool jacket with its matching to-big-for-you skirt and large red flower petals printed all over, complete with lace up clogs. As Vogue suggests (and IMF.blog encourages): Go to extremes! Play with your clothes, mix and match really big unique tops with small tight bottoms, and vice versa, then do a combo of both oversized pieces. Go out and find the most interesting and unique hat one can find and add flowers, or another small personal item that can make for an interesting conceptual story atop your head (i.e. perhaps go as far to add a small stuffed bird giving the illusion of a birds nest to a disheveled looking fedora with straw and extra fabric wrapped around it). Make people look, wonder, and show people how creative one can be with a few simple alterations in ones perception of "normal". My question though is: what exactly is normality anyway? Normal is a subjective adjective, so who's to say what's proper? Be bold and fearless in expressing what you feel is "normal" in this world.

Prada, Givenchy, Balenciaga, Comme des Garçons
US Vogue, July 2012

The Reopening of Elsa Schiaparelli's Doors

Silhouette of Elsa Schiaparelli

I’m sure that after hearing news of the 2012 MET Costume Institutes exhibition, “Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations”, many of us were stumped when we heard the word “Schiaparelli”. Considering she closed her salon doors in 1954 even though we may not have known who she was considering our modern era of popular designers (i.e. Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors, and Calvin Klien); her influence spawned many of the principals and developments of modern fashion.  The real exciting news about the fashion house is that they will be reopening this July, and at the same salon Schiap’s original salon was located in Paris, no less! Farida Khelfa has been named the new brand ambassador, but we will have to wait until October until they announce their Creative Director [source]. Below are some more photos from the exhibition, courtesy of Models.com, and once again, going back to my personal “Bible of Fashion”, “In My Fashion”, by Bettina Ballard, I wanted use Ms. Ballard’s words as evidence of Schiaparelli’s greatness and splendor, and what we should be expecting to see from this design house who will be picking up where it left off more than 50 year ago:

“The 1930’s was height of her fame…In later years, when times softened, the very things that had helped make her fame now played her false. She belonged to a definite space of time in which she filled a definite fashion need. She changed the outline of fashion from soft to hard, from vague to definite…If Schiaparelli’s strong fashion dictatorship did not survive the war it was because she belonged to indelibly to the calculated frivolity of prewar Paris.”

 “She branched out into the couture to glorify the hard elegance of the ugly woman.”

   “To be shocking was the snobbism of the moment, and she was the leader in this art…Paris was in a mood for shocks and Elsa Schiaparelli could present hers in well-cut forms and with an elegance that no one could deny.”

  “The only person who really counted in her life was her daughter, Gogo, and everything that either the mother of daughter did or said was news. Schiaparelli’s genius for publicity has been rivaled only by Christian Dior. Her outspokenness during her days of fame was all part of the Schiaparelli shock treatment.”

“She was clever in persuading such artists as Berard, Cocteau, Drian, and Vertes to do prints for her before designer prints had ever been thought of…She worked on mad new fabrics with Colcombet and Staron, prodding them on to daring experiments that frightened their conservative souls….She permitted Vertes to paint sophisticated, faintly suggestive advertisements for her perfume called “Shocking” which created a new, seductive approach to the sale of perfume.”

  “Certainly she used color with the boldness of Picasso, and the drama that she produced with black was even more outspoken than that with colors, particularly her use of gold embroidery with black."

“Schiaparelli’s clothes were always photogenic, and no artist ever did a bad sketch of a model (sample piece of clothing)—they had such sureness of line, such boldness…many of the smartest women wore her clothes to the smartest places where they were invariably targets for every camera…When she introduced the long dinner suit for evening wear, it became a uniform for concerts, theaters, and night clubs, overshadowing all softer, more feminine costumes, particularly when towering hats or feather headdresses were added.”

You can see how society celebrated the opening of this exhibition at the annual MET Gala here.