Was obsessed with this Etsy shop, me & oli, awhile back. Apparently, still am. Favorite from a new collection called puns & fables.
Showing posts with label fashion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fashion. Show all posts
Monday, March 8
me & oli
Was obsessed with this Etsy shop, me & oli, awhile back. Apparently, still am. Favorite from a new collection called puns & fables.
Thursday, February 11
Tuesday, February 2
Monday, January 25
Monday, September 28
Last Friday
With Ally (the NY stowaway) in Williamsburg...
Anorak from Built By Wendy on sale from their spring line. Due to a footwear malfunction (thanks to my $1 thrift store shoes), I also bought Minnetonka moccasins which are absolutely not overrated; they make your feet as happy as papooses.
Lunch at Saltie, which is a new favorite. Everything was divine; I'm going back this week to try more things.
(Photos of Saltie's food are by Kathy, who also has a cool food blog. In the meantime, I'm trying to be better with by own visual documentation.)
Lunch at Saltie, which is a new favorite. Everything was divine; I'm going back this week to try more things.
(Photos of Saltie's food are by Kathy, who also has a cool food blog. In the meantime, I'm trying to be better with by own visual documentation.)
Monday, March 9
Wednesday, March 4
Stills of Zooey Deschanel in Catch a Tuesday, a short film directed by Autumn de Wilde for Oliver People's 2009 campaign. Kinda Breakfast at Tiffany's meets The Royal Tennenbaums. (this post inspired by Ally)
Thursday, February 19
Thursday, November 13
Lace-up ankle boot from A.P.C.. If you don't want to pay $480 (and who does, honestly?) Zappos carries a the same thing for $69 by a brand called Fitzwell.
Thursday, February 21
I would wear this
oooh, Finnish textiles; consistently noteworthy. The designer of the print above, Maija Louekari (best known for her designs for Marimekko) is only 26!
man, I really miss living in Scandinavia sometimes.
[via Oh Joy!]
Saturday, November 10
Cashmere Love
Cashmere is my newest addiction. I'm a little late to the game. I have been aware that it is regarded as essential, but I never really felt the urgency of shelling out $100+ for a sweater. Now I'm a believer for one sole reason: temperature control. It's amazing in making you feel warm yet not overheated. Brilliant for the extreme interior/exterior temperature changes during the fall and winter in a place like New York.
UNIQLO's cashmere sweaters are currently 20% off, which make them attainable for just under $70. Not the highest quality you can get but great for cashmere novices. Plus they've got any color you can dream of.
UNIQLO's cashmere sweaters are currently 20% off, which make them attainable for just under $70. Not the highest quality you can get but great for cashmere novices. Plus they've got any color you can dream of.
Tuesday, October 9
On 1940's Shanghai fashion through Lust, Caution
I had been so wound up to see Ang Lee's Lust, Caution ever since we met the movie's Foley Editor at a bar downtown over the summer who described the film as "the soft porn version of Casablanca."
I did get to see an advanced screening a couple weeks ago at Columbia, and since then I have not been able to stop thinking about the east-meets-west fashion of Shanghainese high society during the Japanese occupation of China and 2nd World War. The garb was at its peak in reflecting the two polarizing political situations of the time that was transforming China - remnants of the last Chinese dynasty which fell three decades years earlier while the country was just a few years shy of the Communist takeover. In between this time, Shanghai was susceptible and open to many Western influences which allowed the city to compete with chic metropolises such as Paris and New York.
The costuming in Lust, Caution lent itself to a mixture of traditional Mandarin gowns (qipao) and Casablanca-esque trench coats and business suits. Women's looks were always accompanied with impeccably applied makeup, gem-incrusted jewelry and perfectly coiffed hair. In my opinion, it's one the most romantic time periods in fashion because it evokes the heartbreaking realities of the bourgeois Chinese during the war. Men and women rarely showed emotion, bit their tongues when making sacrifices, knew their roles and were always "put together," but on the sidelines, clandestinely experimented and discovered their sexual identity and power (or whatever it was that was being repressed) in the throes of the utter political turmoil of war.
That is usually the context of films depicting this time period anyway, and watching these epic stories unfold on the screen is the main reason my heart gushes over the costuming. I do not feel the same by just looking at photos. My love for the fashion of this era is derived directly from the dramatic narratives and sagas, and also the fact that my grandparents were students in China (as the protagonists were in Lust, Caution) during the Japanese occupation. Teased with crumbling photographs and oral histories lost in translation from Mandarin to English, I am always thirsty for the romanticized version of my grandparent's young adult lives through the eye of not only a historian or documentarian but of an artist and storyteller.
I didn't notice this while watching the film, but if you watch the trailer, the color concept is a cool palette running consistently throughout the movie. And traditional qipao, while quite often tailored in vibrant fabrics, were at most a faded sage or dark blue in the film, communicating an ominous fear prevalent for even the rich and powerful during this time. Warm notes of bright fuschias and deep reds hinting at the intense but short-lived passion between the main characters revealed itself in fleeting splashes here and there of small decorative details: flowers, textiles, wall colors, accessories, lipstick and nail polish.
How amazing it would've been to work on the costume design or art direction of this film!
I did get to see an advanced screening a couple weeks ago at Columbia, and since then I have not been able to stop thinking about the east-meets-west fashion of Shanghainese high society during the Japanese occupation of China and 2nd World War. The garb was at its peak in reflecting the two polarizing political situations of the time that was transforming China - remnants of the last Chinese dynasty which fell three decades years earlier while the country was just a few years shy of the Communist takeover. In between this time, Shanghai was susceptible and open to many Western influences which allowed the city to compete with chic metropolises such as Paris and New York.
The costuming in Lust, Caution lent itself to a mixture of traditional Mandarin gowns (qipao) and Casablanca-esque trench coats and business suits. Women's looks were always accompanied with impeccably applied makeup, gem-incrusted jewelry and perfectly coiffed hair. In my opinion, it's one the most romantic time periods in fashion because it evokes the heartbreaking realities of the bourgeois Chinese during the war. Men and women rarely showed emotion, bit their tongues when making sacrifices, knew their roles and were always "put together," but on the sidelines, clandestinely experimented and discovered their sexual identity and power (or whatever it was that was being repressed) in the throes of the utter political turmoil of war.
That is usually the context of films depicting this time period anyway, and watching these epic stories unfold on the screen is the main reason my heart gushes over the costuming. I do not feel the same by just looking at photos. My love for the fashion of this era is derived directly from the dramatic narratives and sagas, and also the fact that my grandparents were students in China (as the protagonists were in Lust, Caution) during the Japanese occupation. Teased with crumbling photographs and oral histories lost in translation from Mandarin to English, I am always thirsty for the romanticized version of my grandparent's young adult lives through the eye of not only a historian or documentarian but of an artist and storyteller.
I didn't notice this while watching the film, but if you watch the trailer, the color concept is a cool palette running consistently throughout the movie. And traditional qipao, while quite often tailored in vibrant fabrics, were at most a faded sage or dark blue in the film, communicating an ominous fear prevalent for even the rich and powerful during this time. Warm notes of bright fuschias and deep reds hinting at the intense but short-lived passion between the main characters revealed itself in fleeting splashes here and there of small decorative details: flowers, textiles, wall colors, accessories, lipstick and nail polish.
How amazing it would've been to work on the costume design or art direction of this film!
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