BEAUTY: Clothing--3.1 Phillip Lim

3.1 Phillip Lim showed a '14 Spring-Summer collection at Paris Fashion Week that looked to be a hybrid between "Logan's Run" and "Fantasy Island" (oh dear, did I just horribly date myself? who cares). Tight/ loose. Tough/gentle. Graphic stripes/ organic flowers. For the "Spring" part of the collection, a variety of intriguing treated leathers (metallicized, channeled, distressed, colored)  occupied space on the same jacket, coat, or pants. And for the "Summer" section, large modern tropical florals reminiscent of a Hawaiian shirt exploded across a simple black and white grid background.

And finally, someone has designed the closest to a classic T-strap sandal I have seen in quite a while. They come in black, clear (they remind me of my plastic/rubber "Jellies" I had in the 80s), metallic blue croc, and metallic silver leather. LOVE them!

http://www.31philliplim.com/

Currently listening to...

..."Chromakey Dreamcoat" by Boards of Canada, from their brilliant 2005 release "Campfire Headphase." It is a hot, hot day here in N. CA and this hazy, lazy, warped sound is perfect.

http://www.boardsofcanada.com/

VICTORY!

WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court dramatically advanced the struggle for gay rights Wednesday, ending the federal government's discrimination against same-sex spouses and authorizing the resumption of gay marriages in the nation's most populous state.

In a pair of 5-4 decisions announced on the final day of the court's annual term, the justices struck down the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which had denied federal benefits to gay couples married under state law, and let stand a district-court ruling that Proposition 8, a 2008 voter initiative that ended same-sex marriages in California, is unconstitutional.

In striking down the Defense of Marriage Act, Justice Anthony Kennedy said Congress had no business undermining a state's decision to extend "the recognition, dignity, and protection" of the marriage contract to same-sex couples.

By excluding such couples from the rights and responsibilities of marriage afforded by more than 1,000 provisions of federal law, "DOMA writes inequality into the entire United States Code," Justice Kennedy wrote.

That violates the right to liberty protected by the Fifth Amendment, Justice Kennedy wrote, joined by liberal Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

Four conservatives filed three separate dissents. Justice Antonin Scalia read his from the bench. He and others contended that the court had no jurisdiction to hear the case at all, because the Obama administration already had concluded the 1996 law was unconstitutional and thus there was no dispute for the court to resolve.

As for the merits of the law, Justice Scalia said it should stand. "Favoring man-woman marriage no more 'demeans' and 'humiliates' other sexual relationships than favoring our Constitution demeans and humiliates the governmental systems of other countries," he said.

In Los Angeles, California Attorney General Kamala Harris said the ruling on Proposition 8 means that "every county in the state of California must now recognize the right of same-sex couples to legally marry." She said marriages will resume in the state as soon as a federal appeals court lifts a stay on an earlier district-court ruling requiring the state to permit gay marriage.

--article by Brent Kendall, Geoffrey A. Fowler, and Tamara Audi
via The Wall Street Journal. Full article here.

BEAUTY: Clothing--Milano Moda Uomo Misc. June 2013

Milano Moda Uomo has concluded, and here is a brief wrap-up of odds and ends, things worth mentioning...

Jil Sander is ever the minimalist, designing in patternless neutrals, which is why her use of color and pattern in her Spring-Summer '14 collection made it look as if she had lost her mind! But the beautiful, slick bonded-leather coats and jackets seemed more in keeping with her style.

Bottega Veneta showed suits with edges and features outlined and limned in what appeared to be remnants of tailor's chalk. Lapels and buttons are drawn on where none exist. The effect actually made the suits crisp and sharp!

Diesel Black Gold: Great thick double buckle belt and jeans that look bleached or paint splashed but in actuality are woven with a faded floral pattern in silver...

Donatella Versace's use of neon colored sports tape at first seems rather comical, but I have to admit the overall look is pretty cool... the bands of riotous color appearing all over the clothing and models' bodies looked celebratory and bright. Like racing stripes for a body...

Ermenegildo Zegna showed a funky detail: long sleeve tees rolled up over the cuffs of coats and jackets. Kinda gives the slick tailored look some street cred...

On to Paris Fashion Week!

http://www.jilsander.com/
http://www.bottegaveneta.com/
http://www.dieselblackgold.com/
http://www.versace.com/
http://www.zegna.com/us/home.html

BEAUTY: Clothing--Vivienne Westwood

The Westwood collection is always the highlight of Milano Moda Uomo and for her Spring-Summer '14 show, Vivienne Westwood and husband Andreas Kronthaler blended political concerns and statements with the kind of imagination and cut that Westwood is known for.

In the past, Westwood has taken up the cause of Leonard Peltier, and is currently quite passionate about climate change, as we all should be. But for this collection, she focused her attention on United States soldier Bradley Manning, the WikiLeaks leaker. In solidarity, models sported Army berets. His image showed up on tees with the word "TRUTH" while other models simply wore images of Manning pinned to their outfits.

In the mix for this collection was inspiration from India in the form of paisleys and an enlarged madras plaid. Westwood wrote about India in a voluminous press release placed on each chair before the show in which she cited concerns for the poor in India and the exploitation they suffer. It seemed though that India was simply the springboard for other Asian and exotic influences such as a tee shirt with a woven Tibetan tiger rug (with jeweled eyes!), Chinese tassels in the form of jewelry, Turkish drop-crotch salvar pants, and North African geometric designs on suits, shirts, and pants. There was even a sort of Lawrence of Arabia vibe in some of the last looks. And thankfully, she managed to sneak in a reference to the kind of historic English clothing she is known for in the form of a Pirate vest.

I think it is possible that Westwood makes the best shoes on a runway today. Oh, be still my heart... a Westwood flip-flop? Yes please!
We also see some lace-ups with the iconic snake pattern (I have a pair of Westwood Pirate boots in the snake pattern and they are one of my prized possessions), and some great loafers, one with Dame Westwood's political graffiti.
And check out Kronthaler's traditional Punjabi shoe from India, with a pointed and curled toe.

See the entire show (and enjoy the great soundtrack with music by the dream-pop duo Savoir Adore)!

I am posting her entire press release:

"I wanted a soft, more feminine feel to the clothes, more ease to the fit. Andreas and the team took their inspiration from India. And of course the first great impression is the Indian Rajas with their heavy-lidded almond eyes and their perfumed beards, their turbans and covered in a wealth of jewels- no human creatures have ever been so wealthy. But we passed on because I don't have direct experience of India. I have only my romantic impressions and our inspiration comes from museums and photographs: Hindu gods and dancing and colour and flowers and spices and tigers and the jungle and the Gangees, temples and sari's worn by the most elegant women, beauty and grace - and the Indian children I have met in England are lively and intelligent- a huge population, the caste system. Nothing changed after the British left in 1950. The new rulers exploited the country and its people like the old colonials. We knew we had to have colour, but we began with whites - white that shines in the sun and white that looks dusty - cream and black with texture and pattern and mixed with indigo. Then checks and prints, then some colour and colour degrade. I think the overall colour effect belongs in the light of the sun. Does sunshine disguise poverty to the English outsider? A few motifs from Persia or Morocco crept in. There is a feeling of being in an oriental garden. In a recent essay, Noam Chomsky summed up what's happening in the world: the rich are racing as fast as they can to destroy the world, the poor are fighting to stop them. India is the most extreme example of this. The government is selling the country's mineral rights to corporations and consortiums. When the land is ruined, the people have nowhere to go. Maoist organization fights the evictions and when people have nowhere to go they are considered Maoists, many do join the Maoists in the forests: young people, victims of atrocity, girls and boys join them. The police steal everything they can, rape, burn; they are paid to kill. The government is increasing the police force. They are purposely creating war. Why? Because they want the people off the land. Why? Because most of the minerals the government is selling are still in the ground. The Boghghat Dam will submerge the entire area that we have been walking in for days. All that forest, that history, those stories. More than a hundred villages. Is that the plan then? To drown people like rats, so that the integrated steel plant in Lohandiguda and the bauxite mine and aluminium refinery in the Keshkal Ghats can have the river? Who will stop the Indravati (river) from being stolen? Someone must. 'Why is Bradley Manning featured in a collection about India?' (no turbans, but military berets) Well, I always highjack my collections to talk politics and Bradley is there because everything is connected. The depredation in India is caused by the global political financial war machine. Bradley stood in the path of this great juggernaut. He told the TRUTH by exposing war crimes and documents which revealed that the purpose of our wars is perpetual war for the purpose of total plunder."

http://www.viviennewestwood.co.uk/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Dolce and Gabbana

Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have been mining the rich imagery and heritage of Dolce's native Sicily for many seasons now. But for their Spring-Summer '14 collection shown at Milano Moda Uomo, they branched out from Sicily and reached across the Mediterranean... and time. A Greco-Roman partnership was emblazoned on shirts, shorts, pants, and suits while models wore fantastic Greco-Roman leather sandals and loose trousers of rough woven material conjuring images of peasant wear. The imagery though did not come from those original cultures but from 19th century European etchings and renderings of Greco-Roman ruins, coins, and even maps from antiquity. Greek temple ruins shared space with Roman cartouches while suits bore images of pastoral Mediterranean landscapes. It was all a nod to the important role Greece played in the development of the Roman Empire: Zeus became Jupiter.

But the pair have other things on their minds than the past. Just this month, the Italian government found Dolce and Gabbana guilty of a 2009 charge of failing to declare 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) of income to authorities. The court sentenced them both to one year and eight months in jail but they will surely appeal the case. I predict that the worst case scenario will see them under some sort of probation, and they will not see the inside of an actual prison. But who knows... they can talk to Wesley Snipes about it...

The soundtrack for the show was the soundtrack to "Cinema Paradiso" by fellow Italian Ennio Morricone.

http://www.dolcegabbana.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Moschino

I love it when a fashion house or designer who has never really impressed me comes up with something that draws my attention. Such is the case with this oblique Spring-Summer '14 collection by Moschino at Milano Moda Uomo.

Stream of consciousness impressions (it works best this way):
*Climate change
*Extreme weather patterns and destructive phenomena--LIGHTNING and STORMS
*Lovelock's Gaia Principle
*STRATA of elements/life: water, sky, earth, fire, lava, space, plants = INTERCONNECTED
*Water bottles, climbing rope to survive on a new, more hostile planet
*Pen holders = scientists who have been warning us of climate change for decades
*Exclusive Asian cast of models = Kyoto Protocol?

Fascinating.

http://www.moschino.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Etro

Kean Etro is known for collections that revel in the exotic, with past inspirations coming from Mongolian, Celtic, Indian, and Native American cultures. So it seemed a tiny bit of a letdown to see a Mexican theme for Etro's Spring-Summer '14 collection at Milano Moda Uomo (as a Californian, a Mexican theme does not seem that exotic to me). But the more I look at this collection, the  more it grows on me. What seems at first like a collection of clichés, turns into a pleasant homage to the vocabulary of traditional Mexican clothing. Silver conchos are used here as tie clips (giving the effect of a bolo tie without actually having to wear one), models carried tooled leather sombreros and guitar cases and bags calling to mind the musical tradition of Mariachi, and ammunition belts were slung over shoulders and worn low on hips evoking images of Emiliano Zapata and the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920. The tooled leather even made its way to a breathtaking jacket. Sexy tight pants and traditional details like soutache put the finishing touches on the sense of this collection. The typical Etro paisleys and luxe fabrics may have been absent, but this venture south of the border feels sultry, cavalier...

And extra kudos for the use of mature models. The silver gentlemen have much to offer...

http://www.etro.com/

BEAUTY: Clothing--Gucci

Frida Giannini at Gucci presented a surprising Spring-Summer '14 collection at Milano Moda Uomo. After some floral patterns in antique browns and camouflage greens (that textured heavy knit sweater is SO beautiful), which was surprising enough in itself, an explosion of multi-colored florals hit the runway. What followed was a master class in pattern-pairing. And despite the fact that looks were floral head to toe, the feeling was one of ultimate sophistication. Gorgeous...

http://www.gucci.com/us/home

BEAUTY: Sunglasses--Emporio Armani

Wild sunglasses from Emporio Armani at Milano Moda Uomo. Spring-Summer '14 sees styles that riff on goggles, 1950's Ray-Ban Wayfarers, welder's visors, and Victorian spectacles. But my favorites by far are the visors...

http://www.armani.com/us/emporioarmani

BEAUTY: Clothing--Missoni

After the tragic losses of Missoni Marketing Director Vittorio Missoni (son of the founder) and his wife in January, and the loss of the family patriarch Ottavio Missoni in May, it is a wonder that Angela Missoni can function at all. But she managed to present a beautiful--and sale-able--'14 Spring-Summer collection at Milano Moda Uomo. While Missoni may not be one of the wildly artistic, highly theatrical houses that I normally like, there has always been something very comforting about Missoni, as though if one were to slip on one of those gorgeous, soft knit sweaters, everything would be okay.

For this collection, we return to the the deserts of the southwest United States, much like last year's collection I wrote about here. It is a lovely fit for the newer, fresher direction Missoni embarked on in recent years. We see references to the Native cultures of the area in Navajo prints on shirts and amulet pouches worn around necks. The serene, dusty desert colors would fit right in at a weekend in Canyon de Chelly, and the great chukka boots would offer protection from rocks and sand.

http://www.missoni.com/