theasceticlibertine

Leather Love

You should know by now that I'm addicted to leather (I'm mostly a vegetarian so the irony is not lost on me).  I must have been a biker in a past life or something.  Ever since I saw the Burberry trench to end all Burberry trenches, along with what Phoebe Philo did for Celine last spring, I have been wanting to incorporate more leather into my wardrobe.  Mind you, I cannot actually afford most of this, so it's just a dream for now.  But I am currently obsessed with...

This short, leather A-line dress.  I loooove it:

And, continuing in the same Philophile vein, this leather jacket:

Rag & Bone did a total copycat knockoff that isn't half bad:

Everything is stratospherically out of my price range, *except* this light, spring Zara coat that I bought off Ebay because it's sold out everywhere:

Totally affordable, and can I tell you that I get compliments whenever I wear it and people stare at me like they want to rip it off me and wear it themselves?  That's the best kind of sartorial jealousy.  :)  I'm hoping that fall brings at least a couple more "inspired" looks because I really, really love the leather sleeve thing.  

I've been wanting a moto jacket for ages as well, but it's hard for me to find jackets that fit, so I've just waited and waited and waited.  I keep hoping I'll find an absolutely perfect one for a couple hundred bucks but no such luck yet.  I have small shoulders and a regular-length neck (i.e. not swan-like), so I can look like a football player if I'm not too careful.  Jacket shoulders are constantly too big for me.  Coats and jackets are the only things I'm still a size 4 in (oh, those size 4 days!  how I miss them!).  So the moto jacket will wait, but I am definitely in covet mode, especially after seeing Kelly aka The Glamourai in this lovely piece:

Can you believe it's Coach?  Coach is stepping up their game, I think, but even so charging $600+ for that jacket is crazypants.

Pics from Jak & Jil, Rag & Bone and The Glamourai.

Married, Not Dead

That's my favorite Jimmy Stewart quote, btw.  He said of Grace Kelly when they were acting in a film together:  "Everything about Grace is appealing.  I'm married but I'm not dead!"  Why he is my hero:  although Kelly had a history of romancing married men, Stewart did not succumb to her charms.  Swoon.  He was the coolest.

Anyway, my random Jimmy Stewart blather is not so random--as you know, I am on a self-imposed shoe moratorium, but as he said, "I'm not dead," soooo shoe admiring will continue, as long as there is breath in my lungs and blood in my veins, people.  To wit:

Is it wrong that I kind of love this shoe?

I'm sure you'll say it is because that platform is a cartoon and totally ridiculous but I'm kind of into it anyway.  (I'm short!  Platforms are essential!)  It's so disco-70's but perfectly wearable in all-black.  The only thing I don't love is the brass buckle.  I am such a hardware snob.  I really hate gold and bronze buckles on things.  I'm a chrome/pewter girl all the way.  Here are two more views of the shoe.  The soles are absolutely adorable.

The leather looks amazingly soft, too.  And I really like the attention to detail, with the leather continuing under the shoe.  Nice work, GeeWaWa.  Pics from Lori's Shoes.  I don't shill for them, but I totally would if they asked, because they are so great!  Their buyer has really awesome taste.

The Late, Great Yves

Last night I watched Yves St. Laurent:  His Life and Times.  Well worth the hour.  Although there were a few too many talking heads, and not enough fashion for my taste (could there ever be?), it was still a great little documentary, and it taught me so much about St. Laurent that I hadn't known before.  

Can you imagine being 19 years old and being so impressive in your talent that someone gets you in touch with your idol, arguably the most respected couturier of the day, and poof! you get a job and continue his legacy when he dies?  I mean, that is bananas.  That is an amazing combination of talent and luck.  

And can we discuss how absolutely adorable Yves was?  Just super handsome, with a sly, shy sense of humor, and underneath it all a very quiet confidence that he was one of the best.  I also really love that he exalted above all designers Cristobal Balenciaga and Coco Chanel, who are two of my favorites as well.  He said their designs changed the world.  The same could be said of him, introducing Le Smoking to an audience still used to women only wearing dresses and skirts.  He said he saw the confidence and comfort with which men wore their clothes, and he wanted to give that same confidence to women.  So he designed men's style clothes specifically for a woman's body, to give her that kind of independence.  It was revolutionary.  I have a huge, huge crush right now.  :)  So yes, please send my way any non-dead, non-gay menfolk you may know that look like this guy:

 

 

Start at about 55 seconds in.  Isn't he *adorable*?  He reminds me a bit of Crispin Glover as George McFly, except without the pervy peeping Tom vibes.  

R.I.P. Yves.  He was such a tortured soul, he really was.  He had such passion for his work, and was such a perfectionist, that designing really took everything out of him.  We were made the richer for it; I just wish it hadn't been so difficult for him.

So check out the doc if you've a mind.  Very interesting, and of course the clothes are *amazing* to see.

Filmspiration

Do you ever watch a film and get really inspired, sartorially?  It happens to me all the time.  I'm a big movie buff, and obviously way into fashion, so the two do converge quite a bit.  The movies don't have to be that great, either.  Sometimes an actress is terrible (Jessica Biel, Easy Virtue) but I just love her wardrobe.  So the film that inspired me this weekend was not quite so high-falutin', but I  love me some James Spader, so Dream Lover it was!  My god, it was the early  90's, like, for real.  Poor Spader was drowned in his way-too-big suits (those shoulders do not look good on short men), but Mädchen Amick's clothes were lovely (for the most part.  The early 90's was just a hangover from the 80's.)  Also, she is impossibly gorgeous in the movie.  Like, crazy beautiful.  She wears pearls a lot, and I loved the opera-length necklace she was constantly coiling in her fingers.  Then there's the scene where she's wearing this gorgeous Japanese kimono (really lovely, in black with red lining).  She wears a lot of monochromatic sets, so in one scene she's wearing off white dress pants with a matching turtleneck and pearls, and looks impossibly classy.  Then in another, it's dark navy silk jersey separates, breezy and flowy and timeless.  And in the final scene she wears this long, dark teal dress, also with pearls.  Every time she came onscreen (save the first two scenes, where she had a red dress not to my liking, and then the equivalent of a denim tuxedo), I was like, I want to be wearing that right now.  Even the wedding dress isn't horrifically dated (though the same cannot be said of her hairstyle).  Here are some stills so you get the idea:

Everything just looks very clean and sophisticated, and I'm into it.  Clean lines and monochromatic dressing hold such a huge appeal for me right now.  

If I were you, I'd watch Dream Lover just for the clothes so you can see what I'm talking about.  Aside from that, Spader is solid, Amick is pretty good, and it's a nice little noir Hitchcock-ripoff (homage?).  :)

Freeeeeeedom!!!

Well kids, for me, freedom sort of begins today.  Turned in a successful final project and all that I have left are a few small assignments that will cause zero stress.  In the fall we get back into it, but for now, I can do other things, like write about fashion, which I've been itching to do, because one of my procrastinating techniques is to look at other fashion blogs and/or fashion photographer blogs, and I really like what spring is looking like.  (Fashion-wise, to be clear.  Weather-wise, spring is acting gloomy and I'm not into it.  Also, could we get some warmth?  Thanks.)

There are lots of brights, more so than any spring in recent history.  Everything I'm seeing is nearly neon in its brightness, and I'm just loving it so much.  There's a lot of orange, a lot of bright green, a lot of loose, easy layering.

Where I'm from, colors are huge.  We are not a dreary grey people.  Despite this, my NYC wardrobe is largely black, white and grey.  But this spring, I'm really feeling being colorful.  I was walking by Zara the other day and I saw this kimono cardigan in the window:

Their April lookbook is exactly how I want to dress this spring.  Lots of breezy silks and bright colors.  I realize that a lot of it is inspired by Céline and Fendi, but I can usually afford Zara, and can't really touch the other two.  

I do have to mention, though, that the Fendi color block bag was love at first sight for me:

I'm a sucker for green, though.  I was thumbing through JCrew's catalogue last month, and saw their Roulette clutch, which came in a great, bold green, but sold out instantly.  Oh well.  BR has this on offer:

But it's almost too bright?  And I *hate* that strap.  But it's an option, especially if you have BR coupons.  (They're so great about coupons, I have to say.)

Well, that's my fashion blather for today.  Enjoy the weekend!

Small Update (pre-moratorium)

Remember when I blogged about Rag and Bone's Victoria wedge, in that lovely rose-nude color?  And they were too expensive, and too high anyway, and I didn't know if I'd ever find something like it, and boo hoo 1st world problems me?  

Well, of course, my resourceful shoe-stalking yielded results, and a couple of months back I bought these sandals from Dolce Vita, all in anticipation of the warm weather ahead:

 

I actually preferred the color of the Pali instead:

Since it's a little more pink, a little more like the original Victoria, but have heard that the lower-priced Pali is a leather upper lined in vinyl (aka fake leather aka man-made materials) and hurt quite a bit and cut your feet, whereas the more expensive Pela is all leather and feels amazingly soft.  I haven't tried the Pali, but my Pelas are lovely, and very comfortable, and I was able to wear them constantly when I took a visit home last month, where it was tropical and warm.  And of course I didn't pay full price, people.  I try not to buy if I can't get some kind of discount.  It has to be true shoe love for me to pay retail.

Anyway, while I was telling a friend about my latest shoe obsessions, I came across these kick-ass sandals by Tsubo:

They are just getting cooler and cooler, the people at Tsubo.  You know I have a soft spot for their shoes because they fit my feet perfectly and are super comfy, and let me have height without pain.  I do not need another pair of black sandals, but if I did, and if I hadn't cut myself off, I'd be jonesing for these, big time.  They're pretty sexy, and a more wearable take on the Prada mohawk shoe:

Ok, that's me for today.  

ttyl

the AL

 

Two Toned Obsession

So I don't know if it was the Fendi Silvana color block handbag that started this, or my shoe heartbreak over the B Store boots, which were a lovely black and tan mix, but I am obsessed--OBSESSED--with two-tone shoes these days.  Problem is, of course, nobody's making anything like it right now.  I think last year it had a moment, and that moment is now gone, and nothing is available.  The only proof that it existed are these photographic remnants (nothing available to actually, you know, buy):

And of course, my B Store beauties:

The two-tone thing seems to be mostly prevalent in men's shoes.  Wolverine is offering this lovely wingtip boot that I also can't find anywhere:

The one place I'm kind of lucking out is on Etsy, where there are a bunch of vintage two tone roper boots on hand, like these:

Jeffrey Campbell offers up the Showpony:

But to me they just seem like a cheap imitation (even though they're way more expensive than the vintage boots).

Le sigh.  It felt nice to write about it, since I can't have any of them.  Yup, I am on a shoe moratorium.  I simply can't afford my old shoe habit, and I really do have plenty--ridiculously so--of shoes.

In other news, my semester will be mostly wrapped up by next week, so you'll be hearing more from me soon...

xo

The AL

Bigotry Has No Place in Fashion

So by now we've all heard that John Galliano, Dior genius, is a rampant racist and anti-Semite.  I have Jewish friends who just shrug at my outrage, because to them, it's not a surprise.  Why am I always surprised?  I guess I  just hope that we are better than this, and when we are not, it's damn depressing.

As a white-looking but not white person, trust me that I have heard my fair share of slightly and not-so-slightly racist comments.  But they usually come from people that I can go, yeah, of course you're a racist jerk, and just move on.  When it's someone cosmopolitan, traveled, artistic, I guess my own prejudices kick in and I think, how?  How can you possibly be this ignorant?  No one is immune from being a bigot, even someone from a minority group himself.  Galliano is an openly gay man.  Surely he has had his own share of being discriminated against, despite being in such a gay-friendly industry.

It's just disgusting, and there's no place for it in this world, but especially not in fashion, where people are celebrated for their differences, as we should be.  I find it hard to separate the art from the artist.  Some people can, but I can't.  To me, Polanski is a rapist and that's that, no matter how many good movies he made.  And Galliano is now blacklisted until further notice.  I'm not saying people can't make mistakes, and get counseling and come back from it, but it's rare.  You have to want to change your mentality, and at that age, that's a very difficult thing.  So horrible. 

This is worth talking about, though.  Because to hide it, and act like it didn't happen, and treat it like it's an anomaly, well, that lulls us into a false sense of security.  This mentality is out there, and we're seeing it come out more and more.  So we need to be thinking about it, and trying hard to make sure that we aren't contributing to something so hateful.

I feel incredibly superficial discussing fashion after all that, but even though I can take Natalie Portman in only small doses, her decision to forgo Dior for Rodarte was a smart one.  She was one of the few who dared to wear a non-red, non-metallic dress. 

My faves were Mila Kunis, Anne Hathaway's red dress, and of course, Cate Blanchett.  Say what you will about whether or not *you* would wear it, she looked luminous in that Givenchy.  And I love that she always, always takes risks and wears something unique.  Nothing wears Cate; she is always in charge.  Can I also say that I loved that when she smiled, you saw the wrinkles around her eyes?  It's so great that she isn't Botox-ing herself to death like everyone else in Hollywood.

I also liked Gwyneth Paltrow's shiny Calvin Klein dress, even though I thought she had seen better days.  Too tan, and looking rather tired.  Hailee Steinfeld's dress was lovely, and age-appropriate.  And I liked Halle Berry's blush gown.  Annette Bening looked great, and so did Helen Mirren.  Those ladies know what works.  But it was Mandy Moore's dress that I really fell for.  Just amazing:

 
 
 
 
 
 

All pics blatantly stolen from here.

Trench Lust

We all know I'm a huge Burberry Prorsum fan, and this trench is exactly why.  Am lusting after it like no tomorrow, although it's a bit short.  Topshop used to have something similiar, longer and actually sort of affordable, but of course it's sold out.  Alas!  I snoozed on this one, and totally lost.  I'll be keeping an eye out big-time for anything remotely like it.  

In other news, yes I know I'm as late as the White Rabbit about Fashion Week, but you'll just have to be patient.  I have about 5 assignments due this week, and my brain is melting, which is why I decided to blog about a leather-sleeved trench instead of doing more research.  Necessity is not the mother of invention.  The mother of invention is procrastination. 

Heartbreak

Can I share with you the definition of heartbreak?  (Or perhaps just fashion heartbreak?)  Shoe heartbreak is the worst heartbreak.  And it occurs when you've ordered a pair online, and are delighted/thrilled that they are making their way to you, because they are the most perfect boots ever, and on top of that they are 70% off, which makes them kind of affordable since they are pricey, pricey boots, and then you get an email that tells you the order has been canceled, because actually they're out of stock.  GAH.  And the boots are B Store boots, and B Store is based out of London, which means very few places carry them here, and those that did (since they are last season's boots) are either sold out or still selling them for almost $400.  GAH again.  Here they are, just so you can weep along with me:

 
Aren't they awesome?  I love the black with the lighter leather, and the nice, high heel that is mitigated by the substantial platform.  Short girls like me live for this kind of shoe, which will give us height but be stable (thanks to that big, chunky heel) and look kickass all at once.  I had outfits I was going to wear with these boots.  They were *planned*.  And now, nothing.  Heartbreak, I'm telling you.  1st world problems heartbreak.