Analogue Chic

Just a quickie visual treat for you today: fabulous, fashion-y album art from the 70s.

I’m not a fan of either of these 2 ladies, musically, but damn that is some cool album art!

Yesterday I spent entirely too much time at a new thrift store in Waterbury, CT, the Red, White and Blue Thrift Store, where I found these lovelies.  Allegedly the proceeds benefit Vietnam Veterans, although no specific organization is named in their signage.

It is HUGE, the size of a supermarket, and omg the shoes! and the bags! were probably the best part.  Also the housewares and bric-a-brac.  They seem to do quite a good job of reselling only newish clothes, which is fine for people who shop thrift out of necessity, but disappointing for vintage fans.  But they do have a decent selection of jewelry.  The furniture section was also pretty disappointing. 

There were several cashiers at the front, a handful of employees returning merchandise on the floor, and a gentleman sweeping the floors.  It was very well organized, clean, and well stocked.

Prices are comparable to Goodwill, i.e. more expensive than Salvation Army, and definitely correlated to good vintage and high end brands.  Clothes are organized by type of garment, and then color.  There are daily sales on certain color tags, like Goodwill.

However, it is CASH ONLY.

Open 9-6 daily except Sunday (I think).  In the Colonial Plaza, Thomaston Avenue, Waterbury.  Red, White and Blue is located in the old Railroad Salvage Store, next to Compare grocery store.

I just got the best phishing scam email ever.  It’s not as melodramatic or Victorian sounding as some of the others I’ve seen, but it may be an indication that phishers are targeting their emails based on your personal website or something? I can’t imagine everyone in the world would be interested in being a beneficiary of Alexander McQueen’s will…

Dear Friend

My name is Barr perkins George personal attorney to Alexander McQueen – Designer Fashion Label who died on the 11th day of Feb. 2010.I have the documents of a large amount of funds which he handed over to me before he died made you a beneficiary to his WILL. He left the sum of Seven Million Great British Pounds (GBP £7,000.000.00) to you in the codicil and last testament to his WILL

Being a widely travelled man, he must have been in contact with you in the past or simply you were recommended to him by one of his numerous friends abroad who wished you good and his friend was a gay as well due to the fact that McQueen was a gay and claimed he realised his sexual orientation when he was six. He told his family when he was 18.

Lee Alexander McQueen, CBE (16 March 1969 ? 11 February 2010) was an English fashion designer known for his unconventional designs and shock tactics.[3] McQueen worked as the head designer at Givenchy for five years before founding the Alexander McQueen and McQ labels. McQueen’s dramatic designs, worn by celebrities including Rihanna, Björk and Lady Gaga, met with critical acclaim and earned him the British Designer of the Year award four times.

Late Alexander McQueen died on the 11th day of February, 2010 at the age of 40 years, According to him this money was supposed to be used in transporting and getting the new store that was about to be opened in los angeles stocked with his recent designers

You can read more about him from the sites below

(1)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_McQueen
Please if I reach you this time as I am hopeful, endeavour to get back to me as soon as possible to enable me conclude my job.

I hope to hear from you in no distant time.

Yours in Service,

P.George & Co. Solicitors

I’m not sure what his being "a gay" has to do with executing his will, but, there you go.  Not to mention, if this money was meant to be used in opening his new Los Angeles store(?), why should P. George be in such a hurry to give it to me?

You’ve got to wonder if these people think their powers of persuasion and English skills are just the shit, or if they get nervous about whether they will be caught out…  I remember hearing about someone who actually responded to one of the infamous "Nigerian" scammers, and really messed with him…

Or tofu, as you like?

You may be wondering, where are the juicy, fashiony posts of yore, posted faithfully at least once a week?

Well, they’re sitting in a sad pile of links in my Drafts section, or as random notes and images in my various notebooks, bookmarks, etc.

The fact is, I’m sitting at home, not quite ready to believe that the heatwave is in fact over, and in a state of low-level freak-out about school applications.

That’s right.  I’m applying to fashion design programs for Fall 2011.  God help me.

This means, I have to suddenly come up with a jaw-dropping portfolio of artwork in various media, including at least 50% from observation, at least a dozen fully-rendered fashion sketches, etc etc etc. 

Images: collage of random artists’ studios in chaos, via Google search.

I have not completed a finished, decent drawing since approximately the year 2000.  I haven’t taken an art class, other than a few figure drawing workshops earlier this summer, in the same amount of time.

The essays are pretty easy to bang out, the paper work is not really a big deal.  FAFSA was pretty easy, although it looks like hubby & I will be footing the entire bill on this one, unless I can get some grants, so more essays….

If you’d like to commiserate about being a far cry past 18 and applying to design school, drop me an email or leave a comment.

If you’d like to see my portfolio-in-progress and give me some tips, pointers, critique, it’s here, and please leave comments here (there is no comment function on the portfolio page).

Check out these fashion and textiles exhibits on the West Coast!

At the DeYoung Museum of Fine Arts

To Dye For

July 31, 2010 – January 9, 2011

Textiles and apparel featuring all types of resist-dyeing methods, from ancient to modern.

 

 

At the Museum of Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising

The Art of Television and Costume Design

July 27, 2010 – September 4, 2010

Emmy-award winning costumes and a Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland special exhibit.

Also check out The Annette Green Perfume Museum on the 2nd Floor

 

Via CANBlog

 

Also be sure to check out my other list of fashion exhibits in the US and Europe this summer, here! 

Have you visited any of these exhibits? Tell us what you thought and send in your photos!  Leave a comment below, or email me, Allie {at} AnalogueChic {dot} com.

 

… to the vaudeville show.

Awwwwww yeeeah, check out that Marcel wave, beeyotches!

FRINGE!

Apologies for less than ideal photos, hubby did his best – the lighting in our house is awful, and I can’t take responsibility for that couch…

What I’m wearing:

a vintage 60’s cocktail dress with a cutout back layered with fringe;

also wore some black leather Mary Jane pumps,

and a little metallic green clutch.

Rather than the typical "flapper-costume-in-a-bag" look, with white pearls and rhinestones, I went for a more bohemian/art collector-flapper style, with "ethnic" jewelry.

Thanks to Zelda Magazine for the hair tutorial.  I had my hair done like this for senior prom, so it was very nostalgic.

I was on assignment for The Mercurial at a 20s-themed show at the Heirloom.  You can read my article about New Burlesque performer Miss Cherry Delight right here.

A counter-example, if that wasn’t clear. Image via Art in Liverpool. Sorry.

Lots of interesting links in fashion news this week:

The Wall Street Journal tells us about a new cable channel with a Home Shopping Network premise, but featuring handmade housewares and indie designers, and informs us that there is a huge market out there waiting to be tapped.

At the same time, consumers are increasingly hungry for independent designs. In part, brand fatigue is to blame. Big fashion labels sell the same products the world over, diminishing their logos’ cachet. Their designers work on collections a year or more in advance of the clothes’ appearance in stores and rarely—if ever—meet the people who eventually buy them. Moreover, many consumers lost faith in luxury brands after watching prices soar during the boom, then plummet during the crash in the fall of 2008. The slashed sales prices raised questions about the true value of branded goods.

[...]  Now, even the huge brands are striving to establish authenticity—sometimes trying a bit too hard. British authorities recently banned Louis Vuitton ads that showed an artisan laboring on a bag, saying the ads suggested, falsely, that its bags are handmade.

The article gives a shoutout to CT’s own Trish Ginter, co-founder of the indie designer showcase Smashing Darling, and designer at Frock in Chester.

The Business of Fashion had more to add on Louis Vuitton:

A month earlier, Bernard Arnault, chairman and chief executive of LVMH [Louis Vuitton's parent company], told investors at the luxury group’s annual shareholders meeting in Paris of his plan to take a 49 percent stake in Edun, the sustainable clothing label founded by Bono and Ali Hewson. “LVMH shares the vision and ethical values of Edun, a pioneer in ethical apparel, and its founders,” he said later. “LVMH is committed to advancing both the social and environmental aspects of sustainable development, which plays an intrinsic role in the development of our brands.”

The BoF article also discussed the struggle to balance good design, profitability, and sustainability:

Stella McCartney became known as a chic designer label that’s convincingly green, not as a green designer label that is convincingly chic. Speaking to The Business of Fashion, McCartney was clear about her priorities: “Obviously, I don’t use any animals which has a huge impact on the planet. But my first job is to make desirable, luxurious, beautiful clothing for women to want to buy. Then I ask myself: can I do this in a more environmental way without sacrificing design? If I can, then there is no reason not to. I think that women buy my product because they like how it looks, feels, fits and being sustainable is an added extra bonus.”

This emphasis on desirability and design may come as no surprise from a graduate of London fashion college Central St. Martins. But interestingly Ali Hewson, who founded Edun primarily as a means to do good, sees it no differently. She told BoF: “In the fashion business desirability is sustainability! This point has taught us over the years that we must produce quality clothes. Fit must be right, design details correct.”

Julie Gilhart, influential fashion director at Barneys New York, and an early proponent of sustainable fashion, sums it up bluntly: “Consumers respond to good design. Design and desirability must come first.” When deciding whether to spend on fashion, the consumer looks, above all, for good design. Ecological or ethical considerations are still very much secondary.

You can see Julie Gilhart riff on design and sustainability in this video.

You can also read my thoughts on these subjects in two previous posts, here and here.

Racked is this snarky little website that blogs about all things fashion and retail – they have regional sites for LA and NY, and a general US site.  Racked NY has been doing a series of breakfast interviews with different folks in the fashion industry, called "The Breakfast Club".  I’ve found them so interesting and helpful, I’m going to be posting excerpts from past interviews, and try to keep up with future posts. Enjoy! 

First up, on May 6, they interviewed Misha Nonoo and Deborah Lyons of Nonoo Lyons, a NY based jacket-only label.

N: Where do you really find, and at a reasonable price, a great jacket that has design focus and is also quality?
L: And it’s on-trend without being trend-driven.
N: That’s kind of how it all kicked off.
L: And the idea that it defines your outfit, which is really, in the lifestyle that we live. Ninety percent of the year, our jackets define our outfit. It’s the first thing that people see, and it’s the last thing that we put on, that’s what we finish our look with.

Quote via Racked; image via Nonoo Lyons.

{apologies in advance for poor quality phone-photos – a.c.}

Yesterday, slapped myself out of a heat wave-induced stupor to head to Hartford for the afternoon.  Husband and I had tickets to Cirque du Soleil Ovo, and we stopped at the Wadsworth Atheneum before heading to the big tent off I-91.

In an ideal world, I would have the status where I could command a private viewing of any museum I chose to visit, with perhaps just a few other, quiet, appreciative patrons, if they could be found.  In real life, construction was being done to the Wadsworth, making it really difficult to focus in the Sol Lewitt exhibit. Oh, and best of all, a group of 11 year olds being shepherded around by 1 blessed docent (poor thing). 

The highlight of my visit was the 19th century costumes, Part I of a 3-part special exhibit the Wadsworth is putting on this year.

While the costume and textile galleries are unavailable during building renovations, the 1870s Goodwin Parlor of the Wadsworth Atheneum offers an excellent opportunity to explore these and other themes of Victorian fashion, including the parallels between interior decorating styles and costume design.

The costume and textile exhibits have been hidden away, for one reason or another, every single time I’ve visited the Wadsworth.  But they chose a great setting to display the half-dozen gowns from the 1870s– the prevailing Victorian penchant for embellishment is clear in the dresses and the furnishings.  This is one of my favorite periods of Western costume history, as fashion starts to get sexy again – love the bustle.

Costumes and textiles are notoriously difficult to display in a way that is remotely interesting.  I will regret to my dying day that I missed the Dangerous Liaisons exhibit at the Met, because that, to me, is the ideal.  I’m always interested to see what museums do with their mannequins from the neck, up.  Very often they are headless.  I like how the Wadsworth has replicated period hairstyles with white ribbon.

The exhibit is titled "The Upholstered Woman", after this Mark Twain quote:

When the visitors swept into the drawing-room they filled the place with a suffocating sweetness procured at the perfumer’s. Their costumes, as to architecture, were the latest fashions intensified; they were rainbow-hued; they were hung with jewels—chiefly diamonds. It would have been plain to any eye that it had cost something to upholster these women.
- Mark Twain, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1874)

You can see another take on this concept of fashion as social marker in an earlier post I wrote, here.

Also, check out my list of other fashion-related exhibits around the US and the world, here.

The Upholstered Woman: Women’s Fashions of the 1870s and 1880s

Part III: Women’s Fashions of 1885-1890
April 13 – September 4, 2011

The Wadsworth Atheneum

600 Main Street, Hartford, CT

Oh, Brave New World…

Edited by: Ashe Mischief of Dramatis Personae That has such bloggers in it! From a ballsy and confident "I Like Being Fat" at Return to Sender to Awakened Aesthetics post on greenwashing & buying American to Cake Not Coke’s expose on Venus Williams’ controversial courtside fashion, fashion bloggers are brave and bold. Just the way I like them.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m lately obsessed with the concept of multi-function, convertible clothing.  I think it’s a trend that will be a major boon to sustainability, allowing people to pare down the number of pieces in their wardrobe, while still being versatile enough to suit a number of different social and professional situations.

Check out this very thorough article about Chinese brand JNBY, which just opened a boutique in NYC.

Some may have a hard time ferreting out the standout pieces in what at first glance is a dim sum of shapeless, and soulless, gray, black, taupe and navy body casings suspended from fixtures that look like outsize swing sets. But on closer inspection, the loose-fitting clothes, in sizes 1 to 5 (3 is a medium), are audacious indeed, shifting shape, mood and proportion like an army of soft-skinned Transformers. Their mutability suggests a no-commitment approach to dressing that has parallels in contemporary home design; the clothes are the fashion equivalent of a cleverly constructed sectional that can be pushed, piled, tugged or folded into myriad shapes and configurations.

Image via StyleSpy