From Malevich to Marc Jacobs

I've been obsesed with this Marc by Marc Jacobs frock for months. I love the tiny squares, varying in shade of grey and solid and striped patterns. It looks like mini glass panes but all that it reflects is your excellent taste. I also love the dainty collar and how it upturns gently on each side.

It reminds me of the geometric art of Kazimir Malevich. Both Marc and Malevich use small geometric pieces to create something larger: a sparkling dress or pioneering art.

++
SB

Guernica: from Picasso to Rushdie and Rifat Ozbek

Salman Rushdie's tale "At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers" places the fantastical red slippers at the center of a raucous auction. The characters, from witches to political refugees, are all desperate to return to some time, some body or some place. They drip with desire for this tool and are armed with Uzi's and couture jackets.

One woman wears Picasso's Guernica on her back. The bombing of the Spanish town displayed on her body.


I came across this dress by Rifat Ozbek and was instantly reminded of the scene in Rushdie's novel. The Guernica'esque figures are etched onto her cool grey metallic shift.

I can see her slowly stepping around an auction house, only deigning to crinkle her dress to peer into the glass box with the ruby slippers.
++
SB

Dior: Reinterpreting Art for Fashion

My lovely roommates CW and SM have one of Hokusai's prints of Mount Fuji on our living room wall. The Great Wave at Kanagawa is terrifyingly stunning. Sharp white tendrils creep off the end of wave with calculated precision and Mount Fuji sits calmly in the distance.

I came upon this piece perusing through the Dior Couture Spring '07 collection and I love how Galliano reinterpreted Hokusai's work. The proportions are sinusoidal. They vary from the wide, bell sleeves and full hoop skirt, to the narrow, banded waist and slim legs poking out of the gown. The crinkled bow around the model's neck looks like an elegant wave but the graphic print creeps up the gown adding turbulence to the white stillness.
I love it when the lines between Art and Fashion blur. It's beautiful to think that you could wrap your most immediate form of expression, your body, in something inspiring to the many who meander through The Met.

++
SB

Balenciaga: The Scarf to Covet

Keira Knightley's article in Vogue romanticizes Africa from a colonizers point of view. There are photos of her in couture soaring above African "tribes people" and herding a group of cows in Marc Jacobs with "natives." I'm just going ignore the article (she kept an LV journal filled with musings reminiscent of a dimwit European settler) and focus on her look because frankly, I have minimal patience for such trite reading.

She is wearing head to toe Balenciaga. The side striped pants were all over the fall07 runway and are perfectly slouchy and fitted around her waist. She wears them with a bright blue button down and I love the thick white cuffs. The best piece is the fringed scarf. I'm obsessed with this accessory. It's the perfect topping with its light patterns and dangling coin detail.


On the runway, variations on this scarf were thrown together with intense gladiator heels and patterned dresses.
This variation was preppy (the fitted blue blazor screams Eton schoolboy) but tough. The scarf was pulled up close to the model's face as if she were a bandit, about to pull it over her face and perform the most daring (and glamorous) heist of the decade.
This scarf reminds me of the Palestinian Keffiyah. This symbol of liberation for Palestine has also become a controversial fashion statement. Freja Beha rocked one backstage at a Rag & Bone show.
So if a Balenciaga scarf isn't within your reach, check out Desert Store for $10 keffiyahs and wear it like Kiera or Freja, carelessly thrown around your neck.
++
SB