Off-Kilter

Things have been pretty nutty around here. My schedule is off, my diet has been disastrous, my routine has gone to hell -- I'm just generally feeling skewed and off-kilter. I decided I might feel better about this if I could find some beautiful things that echoed my internal state -- a reminder that off-kilter isn't necessarily bad. And boy, did I. (As usual, click for links!)


Yumminess from Alberta Ferretti. You couldn't not be the most elegant woman in the room in this dress.


7 for all Mankind Asymmetrical Ruffled Top

Pretty! And what a great surprise under a jacket.




From myboyfriendAlexander McQueen. If this weren't black (I have MORE than enough LBDs, thankyouverymuch) I'd be seriously tempted by it.



Robert Rodriguez Twist-Front Silk Top
This color electrifies me -- so gorgeous.



I always love Missoni, and I love that you could wear this to the office or out to dinner (or both) and look fabulous & perfect either way.



It's been pretty cold & dreary here the last couple of days. I think a cute pink coat would cheer me right up.



Oh, Mr. Kors! You shouldn't have! Seriously -- this is like a punch in the stomach, it's so gorgeous.)



Galliano + sparkly + pink charmeuse = perfect party dress.

All right. I feel a little better about my off-kilter-tude now. See? Shopping makes everything better!

Marie et Paul et John et al

Believe it or not, I still have some stuff from my trip in November left to flog you with. I'm sure you're all well and thoroughly sick of hearing me coo about my travels, but there were a few more beautiful things I wanted to show you.

One of my last days in Paris, a bitterly cold, overcast Sunday, I finally made my way over to the Musée de l'Orangerie, which is at the western end of the Tuileries, looking out at the Place de la Concorde. The Orangerie is a museum of impressionist & post-impressionist work. It's not my favorite period in art, but I'd heard great things about the museum, and it seemed like a good place to spend a cold gray day.

Most of the art housed in the Orangerie is from the collection of Paul Guillaume. Who was Paul Guillaume? He was this guy:

painting by Modigliani, 1915

See, he just looks like he'd be fun to hang out with, if you ask me.

(One of the highlights of my trip was seeing a young Japanese hipster guy who was touristing through the museum with his young Japanese hipster girlfriend stick an unlit cigarette in his mouth and strike the same pose in front of this painting while his girl took a photo. I have to say, the resemblance was pretty striking.)
Guillaume was one of the foremost art dealers and collectors in Paris in the early part of the 20th century, a man of obviously exquisite taste who amassed an unbelievable collection of paintings by artists like Matisse, Cézanne, Utrillo, Picasso, Monet, Renoir and scads more. (There are a LOT of wonderful paintings inside this building, including some enormous rooms that house Monet's Waterlilies.) After perusing several galleries of masterpieces by some of the greatest lights of 20th-century art, I stumbled across the work of an artist named Marie Laurencin that I'd somehow never heard of before, and I was really taken by her paintings.

Les Biches, 1923

I just found these so soft and lovely. The stylized feminine features border on the twee, but I was so struck by the colors, which were somehow pastel and saturated at the same time, and the lines of the paintings, which have so much movement even when the subjects are in repose. I was allowed to take photos in the museum, but only without a flash, so please forgive the slightly out-of-focus quality -- there just wasn't enough light for my little point & shoot camera. Also, the painting are under glass, so there's a wee bit of reflection from the lights in the room, but give these photos a click to enlarge them and really get a good look. When I found myself in a whole roomful of them, surrounded on all sides by these flowing lines and gorgeous colors, I gave a contented little sigh and went to my Happy Art Place. And as I stood there staring at them, a few memories echoed ever-so-faintly in my brain...

Les Danseuses Espagnoles, 1921

It seemed to me I had seen these dresses and colors before...

Abaete

John Galliano

John Galliano for Christian Dior

Kinda cool, huh?

Femmes au chien, 1923

John Galliano

Here's a gorgeous portrait of Coco Chanel. I just adore this painting.

Portrait de Mademoiselle Chanel, 1923

Abaete

The similarities between the dresses are a little uncanny, you have to admit. I remembered this Abaete dress so well because I thought that blue was one of the prettiest colors that I'd seen in a long time.

Here's Paul Guillaume's wife, Domenica. It's thanks to her and her second husband, Jean Walter, that the collection survives intact. Merci, Domenica.

Portrait de Madame Paul Guillaume, 1924

John Galliano

Art, fashion, fashion, art... there's so often a connection. I can't know, of course, if John Galliano is familiar with Marie Laurencin's paintings (John, sweetie, if you're reading, drop me a line), but I like to imagine him, too, one gray afternoon in Paris, finding refuge in a beautiful museum and going to his Happy Art Place. And then bringing it to us, on the runway.

Photos: Style Spy, Style.com

The Grown-Up Fashionista's Lament

Cathy Horyn feels my pain. You should check out her New York Times article on the increasing difficulty of dressing like an adult in today's fashion climate. I'm a big fan of Ms. Horyn's, she's a terrific, insightful journalist and her blog is great, thoughful reading about fashion (although the comments section has turned into what appears to be a blog itself for some regular readers).

I'm still undecided about the cute little DVF dress I bought the other day. It's not about the dress, it's about how much I loathe or can live with my own chubby little knees. It's a close call, unlike these:

Giambattista Valli

I will not be wearing this. It's a lovely little thing, it looks like an upside-down flower, but I don't have the... (wait for it) stems.

Rag & Bone

In case you're nostalgic for your days of hopscotch & jacks. (Do little girls still play hopscotch & jacks? Or are they all too busy text-messaging their fellow 6 year-olds to plan trips to the mall to buy glittery fingernail polish?)

Alena Akhmadullina

This is strictly for giggles. Are you giggling? I sure did. Dr. Seuss couture!

Here's the right way to do it:


From Dior Resort 2008. This dress makes me want to cry a little, it's so perfect. And what is going on with those shoes??? Yowza!!

Which reminds me -- the Resort Collections are showing and I'm really going to be too busy to do any posting about them for the next few days and I'm feeling resentful about that. Here's a taste, from the hallucinogenic cocktail party that is John Galliano's imagination:




Oh, I soooooo want to hang out with him. He's just too much fun.


Photos: Style.com

The Master

Honestly, John Galliano makes me want to just lie down on the floor and cry. He's a genius.

All of these are from his Fall 2007 Collection, the brilliant ready-to-wear interpretation of the Couture collection I went all bonkers for a while back.







There are also some very drool-worthy shoes:







And a some handbags that have me surfing the net trying to find out how much I could get for one of my kidneys:






Go look at all of it. It's amazing.

Photos: Style.com

Practical, Shmactical

John Galliano is the Mad Genius of fashion and believe me, I mean that as a compliment. You have to be possessed by a bit of divine madness to put something like this on the runway:


But before you dismiss him as completely impractical and ridiculous, look at what that beautiful madness above from Haute Couture Fall 2006 had morphed into by the time Ready to Wear S/S 2007 came around:


That is a beautiful and wearable suit. Not madness at all.

Galliano's Haute Couture collections for Christian Dior are always some of my favorite fashion events of the year. They sum up everything I want couture to be - delirious visions of the far reaches of fashion possibility. Galliano does not flinch in the face of the impractical. He certainly doesn't compromise his vision, and for that I adore him.


Some people look at photos of clothes like these and say, "But where would I ever wear something like that? You know what the answer is? The answer is: "That's not really the point."


I marveled & swooned & ooh'd & ah'd over this collection, with its Cio-Cio-San meets the New Look riot of color and shape.


I can't stop imagining the sound these clothes must make -- that wonderful rustling noise that for most women from childhood onward has meant "special occasion." With every step, that tulle skirt would whisper, "Beautful! Beautiful!"

Is it shredded tulle? Angels' wings? Who can tell?

Probably some of these are going to show up on the red carpet at the Oscars, but they'll be dumbed-down for Hollywood and robbed of much of their magic, in my opinion.

But, you say. Beautiful those things may be, but I live in the real world. I have to go to work/the grocery store/teachers' meetings at my kids' schools. I understand. So I prowled around a little this weekend to find some things that just might bring a little bit of Galliano's madness within reach. (Click on the photos to enlarge them.)






I'm showing you these close-ups so you can marvel at the amazing detail and construction of this dress, but note that the overall effect of it is very kimono-like, with a wrapped top and defined waist, which is an extremely flattering shape to most of us.


Try it in something like this easy little silk dress I found at Envie here in Austin. It's by Single Dress, and goes for $238. There's a tie in the back so you can cinch up the waist or not as you need to. A really great spring into summer dress -- you could put a t-shirt or even a collared white blouse underneath it.


I'm transfixed by this dress, I'm dying to see it in real life.


How did they do that? Is it really origami? How many layers is that?



Here we have the idea of a great, simple shape in a supremely useful neutral. (I, of course, would wear red shoes with this dress. I hope you will, too.) Great A-line skirt (as you come to know me better, you will learn that I am a rabid fan of the A-line, because it looks good on absolutely everyone).


Here's a close-up of the ribbon work detailing at the bottom -- so pretty. I love tone-on-tone texture details. This little beauty was at Fetish. It's Byron Lars for Beauty Mark, is all cotton with a hint of spandex, and retails for $374.


I'm a sucker for embroidery. So I really fell for this:



Modeled by the lovely and sweet Lorna at Adelante, this is a really terrific spring weight cotton coat. Great seaming for a great shape, and the detailing is to die for.


It's Chan Luu, and sells for $304.

So, take heart. You may not yet have the sort of life wherein you can swan about in ball gowns on a daily basis (note that I said "yet"), but there are still lots of easy ways to be beautiful, and maybe even a tiny bit divinely mad.

Photos: Style.com and Style Spy