the most perfect

Feast your eyes on these, my favorite looks from my so-far favorite collection this year of all time: Chloé, Spring 2014. What can I say--I'm Flabbergasted!  

It's got that slouchy nomadic look I love, and in the billowiest, most alluring fabrics. The crêpe georgette, the geometric lace--so sophisticated! The shoes are just right, and I love the colors: muted and earthy, with just enough blue and white to make it magical. I'd wear these clothes while scanning a desert horizon at sunset, or navigating the narrow streets of some ancient tropical city, or just about anywhere warm enough to wear them... I guess that's why they call it ready-to-wear!

images via style.com

color story

I wish I had something slightly more juicy to report to you, dear readers, than the fact that I happen to have a favorite color these days. Oh well! Lately, we've been making some real strides towards getting our apartment all set-up cozy-like, for the winter. And all of the sudden, the color pink seems to be everywhere. Like, not all over everything, but you can see it here and there, everywhere you turn. I'm even drinking pink wine right now, you guys! It's dry and greek and goes great with a pizza pie, just so you know. All year long, I've had this thing about pink, where I just can't seem to avoid it. It has a funny knack for setting the kind of mood I like around the house. The kind of pink I'm talking about isn't girlish or garish; its creamy and dreamy and rosy and cozy, like seashells and clay and strawberry milkshakes. It all started (again) a few weeks back, as I found myself daydreaming about Claude Monet's house at Giverny. Remember?

Pink brick--what could be better? I would live in that house for the rest of my days. I wanted to see if Monet had ever painted the house itself, because how beautiful would that be? As far as I can tell, he didn't--he wasn't too concerned with architecture, after all. But while searching I did stumble across this painting by Kenneth Eugene Peters

which I find very captivating, namely largely due to the colors he's used. It calls to mind, firstly, Solange Knowles outside that erstwhile pink park slope brownstone for the "Locked in Closets" mini-video she did with Refinery29 back in May:

and also and more obviously, the work of Wayne Theibaud, clearly (I assume) a major influence of Peters', whose confectionary paintings in particular feature just my kind of sugary, sea-shell pinks:

So tasty! These, in turn, are exactly the same pinks you see "Pink Lady," this editorial starring Cara Delevingne, featured in the September issue of British Vogue

Which calls to mind this other recent Lab Magazine editorial, Nykhor in Bloom, for obvious reasons

See? So edgy, so moody. I know that its tempting to designate pink a certain limited realm of application. But the more you think about it the more you like it, in my experience. Pink is truly intriguing! Especially when you think of it as light red. Long-time readers and people generally in the know will recall that, prior to the 20th century, pink, a lighter version of red, the color of blood and war and power, was for baby boys, while blue, the color of the virgin mary, was for girls. And why those two colors, I often wonder? It could've been pink and green or blue and yellow, anything. It's one of those arbitrary dichotomies, like chocolate and vanilla: efforts in marketing have lead us to consider them "opposites" when, if you think about it, there's really no justification for it. Can't everyone just eat and wear whatever color they like without being forced to choose sides? Why do I have to have a favorite color, at all?

images via here, here, here, here and here

rhapsody in white

Let's not resign ourselves to autumn just yet. Instead let's look forward to summer months. Again, you just have to choose your inspiration, and imagine you're there. When I was little, I had this book, Linnea in Monet's Garden. It's about a young girl called Linnea and her friend Mr. Bloom, who takes her on a magical journey to visit Monet's Gardens at Giverny. Growing up, Monet was my absolute favorite artist--I was obsessed--and I used to fantasize about this story at length, down to the last detail: entering tiny pink brick house with its clos normand, seeing the Japanese bridge; lunching on goat cheese and crusty bread on the bank of a river; traveling by train through rolling french countryside... I even loved Linnea's outfit: white pinafore over black sleeves, chinese slippers, and a wide-brimmed sunhat. I ask you: what better way to temper the severity of stark black-and-white than a flat, golden straw hat? Such the perfect outfit for a curious and sophisticated young girl--and so french! If I were given the chance to live the tale now,  I know exactly what I would wear: joie, spring 2014, of course.

Apparently designer Serge Azria's main influence here was a recent trip to Ponza, off the Amalfi coast, where "all the houses where white and all the doors were blue" hence the little touches of azure in this otherwise entirely white collection. How magical! I always think white and blue make for the purest and most transcendent combination of all the colors, so mysterious and divine. Ponza isn't exactly northern France, of course, but in my estimation, these clothes are universal. 

illustration by Lena Anderson via here; Joie images via style.com

AUTUMNAUTICAL

I used to think maybe it was plaid, or fair isle, because of the pattern; but in terms of comfort and ubiquity, I've decided that the winter equivalent to a classic breton top is an oatmealy and perfectly ovine fisherman's jumper. When worn correctly, each impart an old-world, at-home-on-the-beach look, but an arran sweater is so much more celtic and familiar. Around September, I remember that I actually own these articles, and being looking for excuses to wear them; paired with flat leather sandals and some ratty denim cutoffs, it's my favorite outfit of all time, the perfect mix of cozy and beachy, only to be worn this time of year. But the coast is the best place to be any season. Cool-weather nautical is, for me, the perfect, perfectly angst-y vibe to channel through late autumn and directly in to winter. You just have to imagine you're there. Think craggy cliffs breaking frothy waves of ice; wild winds buffeting tufts of heather on cliff tops; dark men dressed in wool, looking stern  under dark skies. 

You know, just like this:

I would live my entire life within this editorial. It's like, Wuthering Heights meets the Secret of Roan Inish. It's exactly what I want. Perhaps with the lead male re-cast, though Adam Driver does have  a certain charm... And speaking of charming, what about that magical, purely bluest gown? (Alberta Ferretti, satin-velvet, $3,000, just so you know.) But it's all perfect, really. Daria Werbowy wearing that golden nose ring, by the sea, is making me feel so wistful for a certain magical time in my past, it hurts.

Days gone by!

Adam Driver and Daria Werbowy by Annie Lebovitz for Vogue; sweater pic via fromparis2london

i've said it before (and i'll say it again)

Isn't it a bummer when things don't work out the way you planned? Things that captivate you from afar aren't always so rosy in person--it's the story of my entire, fickle life, and of the past few weeks. But why waste time on things that don't make you happy? It's just like I always say: you have to Follow Your Heart. I'm a gemini for heaven's sake... what, am I going to dedicate my entire life to doing just one thing, forever? There's no time like the present to re-asses your priorities and try to make your life more like you want it to be--and if you can figure out exactly what that means, so much the better. 

Anyway, that's what I'm working on these days. But, of course, I'm having a hard time! Isn't late summer funny? The anticipation of cooler weather not-yet-realized makes it hard for me to focus on much of anything... and the heat! My god, the heat! Indian Summer they call it, I believe. So in-between-y. Let's get a move on, already!

nailing it: RachelComey2014

Well, its fashion week again, you guys. Isn't it always? Anyway I've been casually browsing, just these last few days, mainly for research. What I've learned, in my quest to put my finger on exactly why a given 'look' does or does not appeal to me, is that I require a bit of scuff. It seems to be a general rule that if something is looking too polished or new, I don't like it at all. Summer time, of course, exacerbates this, so that these days I mostly like to look like  a house-painter: bleached out, frayed, and speckley. It's why I wear so much denim, and why I'm really in to several looks from Rachel Comey's spring ready-to-wear line (especially that one with the coat, cutoffs, and feathers--and are those duck jeans?!)

And all that navy! How perfect!

images via style.com