SUMMER HOLIDAY

In a couple of days I will be leaving London for two weeks. Destination: South of France. I’m going to let the warm wave of the sun embrace me and probably won’t be delivering many fashion commentaries during that time. I will update with the occasional picture but will probably find it hard to think about fashion while I’m enjoying the beautiful scenery of Cassis. Bliss. Until I come back to London and serious blogging I will be using the Twitter formula: 140 words, short epistles live from the South of France! If you’re on Twitter and want to follow me, you can find me under julystars.
In the meantime, I thought I would introduce you to my much-loved selection of bloggers I check out every day. They’re firmly on the same wavelength as me and feature high up on the ladder of hugely productive and interesting fashion bloggers. Perhaps not as well-known as my favourite established bloggers, who already dominate the blogosphere (see list on the right-hand side of this page), they’re a good read, provide fascinating fashion details and haven’t succumbed to the worthless vanity which somehow envelops so many other fashion bloggers.
Internet blockbusters in the making!

Keep Feeling Fascination
Joanna’s blog is a real showstopper. Her taste, influences and aesthetics have emotional depth and are thrillingly exciting, always capturing the best of fashion in terms of images, brands, music, interiors and occasionally cinematography. Her blog is an enriching experience, especially if you’re interested in thoughtful and intelligent trend commentaries. There are clear traces of a bohemian legacy in her cultural world, which is her real strength. She lives in LA but cultivates an enduring passion for Buenos Aires.

Decade Diary
Decade Diary can only be viewed as fresh and enthusiastic. It’s an online mixed show of illustrations created by Bernadette and her favourite fashion images. Nowhere else can such diversity and richness be found. Elegant and ravishing fashion fantasies.

Turned Out
Maya has no trouble capturing the pace and rhythm of street style photography. Her portraits are interesting and brilliant versions of the boys and girls she stumbles upon in New York and LA. She has a beguiling magic touch and should be recognised for the quality of her work and her eye for the ravishing and cool (her singular talent stands out from all the other street style photographers who all fight for the same space and attention).

And if you speak French fluently, Garance Doré, Café Mode and Sale Gamine are three of the best voices coming from Paris and Brussels. They stand out from the crowd with their wholesome, sharp and distinctive comments on the world of fashion. I have a soft spot for Sale Gamine’s blog. Not only does it reflect on the fashion industry but it is also a self-portrait infused with funny moments and intense personal energy.

Picture No 1 courtesy of Keep Feeling Fascination
Picture No 2 courtesy of Decade Diary
Picture No 3 courtesy of Turned Out

RESORT 2010

It feels as remote as one of those hot English summers, but the 2010 resort collections are here. In truth, I didn’t see anything drastically new but there were several remarkably beautiful and quirky experimentations, displaying self-references and redefinitions of past elements. Phoebe Philo at Céline successfully presented modes of expression compatible with the brand’s style and prevailing mood over the past years, with various sensitive and subtle changes. I loved it. Stella is another favourite: energetic, wonderfully designed pieces with exquisitely crafted humour (the fact that Anouck Lepère, the hauntingly gorgeous model was presenting the clothes, made this resort collection a pleasure throughout). Phillip Lim’s presentation was composed in different shades of grey and was strong, despite remaining highly familiar. Stefano Pilati at Yves Saint Laurent showed a triumphant return to charming and classic tailoring, responding to contemporary demands by making a lot of fluid and relaxed garments. The harem style trousers worn with nude footless dancer’s leggings are a winning combination. The youthful shapes, muted colour palette and soft jackets created by Christopher Bailey for Burberry are a hit. Rag & Bone’s rise continues (justifiably in my view) with its inspiring street looks. Like Yves Saint Laurent, unquestionably tough little accents were well-received: the footless tights showing under shorter length trousers, drop crotch pants and flowing silhouettes. What is resolutely certain from what I’ve seen so far is that harem style trousers, turbans, rolled up trousers and loose sporty shapes are highlights, spectacularly right for now and here to stay!

All photos courtesy of Style

Here are some of my favourite looks

1st picture: Phillip Lim

2nd picture: Stella

3rd picture: YSL

4th picture: first two from left, Rag & Bone, then Burberry

5th picture: Céline

REBEL WITH A CAUSE

If I lived in New York, I would certainly visit Maryam Nassir Zadeh’s boutique on the Lower East Side and it would probably be a great favourite of mine. Her self-professed love for fashion, style, accessories, textiles and beautiful objects held me captive the first time I read her Refinery29 interview and her sharp and distinctive taste left me inclined to write about her. Not only is she extremely pretty, sensual and exotic but she also comes across as a thoughtful and intelligent player in the world of fashion who has created a small revolutionary platform. Her store is pure art and her incessant quest for the new “surprise me” seems to feed her desire to make waves and stand out from the crowd. She’s an innovator and doesn’t hesitate to experiment with new and stimulating concepts. Colette is a clearly highly exploited commercial lifestyle production whereas Maryam Nassir Zadeh has imagined a more complex, emotional space offering visually arresting pieces. Maryam’s charismatic figure shines through the diverse and beautiful clothes and jewellery for sale: Isabel Marant clothes, old Panama hats, Ohne Titel dresses, Peruvian blankets, vintage Alaïa belts, Rachel Comey shoes, Acne, objects from Argentina and various textiles. Nowhere else can such a distinct assortment and richness be found.

Maryam Nassir Zadeh, 123 Norfolk Street (at Rivington Street)

All pictures courtesy of Refinery29 and Maryam Nassir Zadeh

A Magazine

"A Magazine" is a collection of stories, images, fashion, art and photography assembled by a guest curator to give us a virtuosically attentive series of close readings into his or her own world. Embedded with self-references, the driving notion behind A is to provide the reader with enlightening material and discerning features useful to connect with the curator. The magazine offers an unexpected look at the influences behind important fashion personalities, reflecting on materials and subjects that make them vibrate. It’s seldom you get to see an authentic and in-depth dialogue with a designer. The first issue was curated by Martin Margiela, followed by Yohji Yamamoto, Haider Ackermann, Jun Takahashi, Martine Sitbon, Branquinho, Kris Van Assche and Riccardo Tisci. Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez of Proenza Schouler are the next guest curators. The 9th edition of “A Magazine” will be available on June 16th and is the first American issue. Some of my favourite fashion players are among the many contributors: Bruce Webber (interview by Proenza Schouler for this issue), Craig McDean, Katie Grand, Sølve Sundsbø, Sybille Walter, David Sherry, Camille Vivier and Fabien Baron. A wonderful combination of people and a brilliant way for Proenza Schouler to gracefully acknowledge their own stylistic debt.

The Chloé Sevigny cover was shot by Richard Burbridge.

All images courtesy of “A Magazine” via On Consulting
1 (left). Eye Sore Sun Tunneling With Throbbing Penumbras, 2009, Collaged C-Prints. By David Sherry
2. (down) One day at the Sprial Jetty, 2009. By Florian Maier-Aichen
3. (right) Missy in furs in Western Mass, March 28-29, 2009-05-28. By Roe Ethridge

WHO CAN STOP NEIL KRUG?

Regardless of the hype surrounding Neil Krug at the moment, I’m happy to continue discussing his work. Like most of you, I came across his photos on Flickr. Seeing them for the first time is the strangest feeling. I was immediately fascinated by the triumphantly combined narratives: fashion, styling, art, unbelievable plots and sensationalist twists all shot in a sixties/seventies style. His pictures are lavish and dramatically engaging readings of cinematic scenes, which manage to capture beautifully the essence of the stories, ranging from Western to New Age. His photos evoke perfectly his ideology. He seems to believe that the important basis of photography is the result of the tension created between the traditional forms of a work and the photographer's struggle with them, punctuating his imagery with cinematic references and colours typical of Polaroid photography.
Spectacle and stylistic unity are paramount.
His work truly deserve recognition.

I’ve recently developed a sort of callous indifference towards the torrent of style/fashion bloggers that are furtively infiltrating my daily blog routine. I’m over the so-called fashion bloggers who merely post pictures of themselves in various “cool” outfits and overexcited sentences consisting essentially of the words “rad”, “sick”, “like” and “awesome”. The prospect of looking at more blogs of this kind is about as appealing as going to Top Shop on a Saturday afternoon! It is clear to me that only a few girls are capable of perfectly mastering the art of outfit posts, always managing to express in full their passion and involvement, showing us incredibly convincing and individual adaptations of fashion as it is seen on the catwalks and magazines. Their commanding strength comes from their extraordinary fashion knowledge and their concoctions of inspiring clothes, photography, settings, unique style and beauty. Starting from today, I will try to overlook the legion of particularly unappealing style bloggers and continue to let Jane, Rumi and The Glamourai cast their magic spell over me.

All pictures courtesy of Neil Krug

A VISUAL DELIGHT

I don’t know when I last enjoyed looking at pictures more. I had an idea I would be surprised, but the reality of it is a thousand times lovelier. Many of us love looking through old family photo albums but for my mum it is a genuine celebration of life. Made over the past 34 years, her albums are a poignant symbol of the importance of family and show exceptionally rich displays of fashion since the early seventies. It also provides other evidence of interest (travels, places we’ve lived in, things we loved as children, animals we adored, friends, family in Spain, France and England). A visual delight. I recently spent an afternoon laughing merrily at embarrassing pictures of my sister and myself as kids wearing faintly ridiculous outfits, rediscovering moments of mischief and diabolical tricks we played on each other. So there I was, sitting on the floor with an appetite for a mini retrospective of my life, when I found a box containing an exceptional collection of photos of my mother. My mind at once leapt to fashion comparisons and references and I could not help but think of certain trends in particular. A blend of the new and nostalgia. When I was little I always paid attention to what she was wearing and I remember her closet, filled with Laura Ashley seventies dresses, Céline, DVF, Sonia Rykiel, Kenzo, Nina Ricci and her purple Courrèges mini tunic she wore on her wedding day. She always looked so beautiful, fresh looking and young whether wearing one of her soft, loose flowery dresses or her signature Burberry trench coat with jeans and her fabulous curly hair. The designs she wore then seem to have filtered into the current fashion mainstream, with similar proportions, silhouettes and prints. I also loved the precision of her makeup, always wearing red lipstick and her big bambi eyes emphasised with brown eyeliner. I like to think that she has set fashion standards for my sister and me. Her exquisite taste in jewellery has definitely marked and influenced me (but this is a subtitle and should be the subject of another post). She wore great things then and continues to do so today. An enchanting and modern muse to my sister and me.
I owe a debt of gratitude to her for having spent countless hours working tirelessly to neatly organize the one hundred or so albums she has at home and for having taken so many Polaroids and pictures throughout the years! Hours of fun for me and my family!

I better put the pictures back into their albums before she realizes I "borrowed" them...

A SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

I know absolutely nothing about Eric Saeter except that his hand made creations are beautiful and not afraid to engage with the darker aspects of the human psyche.
I came across his blog purely by chance last week and had to refrain myself from immediately sending him an email applauding his brilliance and the power of his craftsmanship. The designs, textures, linearity and symbolism of his pieces seem to willingly embrace individual architectural creativity, a formula which could have been acquired from looking at post-modern buildings and mathematics. A complementary interpretation to this last version is that he is using his skills and expertise to describe his own truths through his jewellery. I’m guessing that the powerful imagery and poetic resonance are direct references to the creation myths and Pagan legends. The elemental quality of some of the rings is reminiscent of modern druidic, New Age and Eastern concepts. Similarly the geometry and proportions of the pentagram pieces could indicate that Eric is interested in magic and the occult. His use of base materials is very efficient in expressing the difference between naturalism and industrial production. Compare his work to what you find in shops today and you will feel like he has arrived in the earth’s orbit from a utopian galaxy! A sci-fi fantasy.
His achievements to date rest principally on a body of work which includes rings and necklaces (they can be purchased from his Etsy store).

All pictures courtesy of Eric Saeter