Black Orchids

 

They're not really black, of course. Sometimes fashion has to do something exaggerated to make an impact, if not quite a statement.

The next time you stare in disbelief at one more Galliano-designed collection, remember that often times fashion is about possibility. Fashion has to exist outside the cultural restrictions/conventions of what is wearable. Or appropriate.

- AP

Comfort/Sportif

 

The Fort of Qait Bey is the backdrop, not the focus, for today. Here are residents (mainly students) and tourists (mostly retired). Here we have differences in age, nationality, and purpose for being at this location indicated through clothing.

In sum: obvious comfort on one hand, and "le sportif" on the other.

In particular: the sweater detail on the right. Too many geometric elements, perhaps, yet there is something very cool about it...something that can yield inspiration.

For those who obsess over haute couture, take heed: North Africa is YSL-land.

- AP

Like Marc Chagall

 

No commentaries on this mosaic or of Chagall's complete body of work - we're not in Art History class.

But one can't help but get a floating quality to Chagall. Dare we call it dreamy?

It's a kind of quality that happens in haute couture as well - a dress appears (always from the flou workshops) and the lightness, the flow...it's like a Chagall!

- AP

Red Gloss

 

In a sea of colors that were coordinated for consumers months (or even years) in advance, there are other colors that are perfect in themselves and do not need to be "in fashion" to remain in fashion.

Photographed near the Passage du Havre, one of those places in Paris that tourists have yet to discover.

- AP

Building Fancies

 

This building is classic example of a colonial past in a post-colonial reality. There are many ways to read this building. I offer no suggestions here, but will provide a couple of guiding questions:

1. Why this combination of ornamental styles?
2. Why is this building no longer used?
3. Why was this building built?

We no longer live in a world of obvious empires, but there was a time when the Great Powers re-made the Mediterranean into a world that only traces can be found here and there.

- AP

The Royal Ontario

 

Why spend another day in the Louvre or the British to find the same inspiration that has been keeping modern-day fashion afloat for decades? Thinking of India? Think again, for Western fashion - with a few notable exceptions - never seems to get exotic quite right.

A possible solution is the Royal Ontario Museum...where one might become inspired not only by what is there, but also by what isn't.

- AP

In a Doisneau Mood

 

Call it cliché, even trite. But Paris is romantic, inspires romance. Enjoy the photo of Notre Dame de Paris on a winter day at twilight. This cathedral, though stripped of its color by weather and human events (of course everyone realizes that cathedrals were painted in brilliant colors; such was the Medieval Age before the Black Death), continues to speak to the heart. That is nature of romance, isn't it?

Thus, this capital of fashion has the historical edge over Milan and New York; it is the heart of fashion.

- AP

Fashion and Time

 

To the casual eye, it's a photo of two boys seated on a statue - this happens fairly frequently on the grounds of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. However, take another look, and you'll see the differences in clothing over thousands of years in the same location. Ancient Egyptians wore kilts; modern Egyptians wear denim jeans.

Look again at busts in the background and see the stuffy attire that successful men of the 19th century once wore.

Thankfully, that complicated formality is largely gone from our everyday lives.

- AP

Sphinx: Utterances #207-#209

#207. Fashion is a by-product of the Art of Dress

#208. The discipline of Diane de Poitiers with the decadence of Henri III makes for an interesting collection.

#209. Favrile glass should inspire silk prints.

Une Bonne Fête Française

 

A festive dinner suit, in the spirit of the 1980s. Happy Bastille Day!

- AP

The Classical Body

 

We live in an age of specialization and fragmentation, so we tend to forget how total the ancient perspective used to be.

Total? The ancient perspective linked the body, architecture and the universe together. Which is probably why, despite the changing fashions of (and on) the body, we still must look to the classical models to find our first reference.

But the classical body isn't the only place. The Forbidden City, anyone?

Ephemeral Cool

 

Here is something one can't find in the manicured suburbia and city-states of the world: the jumble of adhesive posters in a succession of time and placement.

It's rather like a living collage, and music events (album releases, concerts) seem to be the most prevalent kind; New Yorkers know this to be true.

Fashion moments are much like these bits of poster-clash: they happen and are over. There is a continual, ephemeral cool produced. In other words, what surrounds us are cultural EKGs, recording the pulse, the movement...the direction. This is what fashion forecasters, trend analysts and designers all learn to read and interpret.

- AP

Paris - Los Angeles, 2010?

 

Already Autumn-Winter 2010 is coming together. I am not speaking of collections, but of a general inspiration. A mood, a feeling.

You may see simply two guys walking down the street in a slightly fuzzy picture. It also happens to be a launchpad:

- Winter in Paris: what is essential?
- Winter in L.A.: what is evocative?

And a conversation of colors and textures may form from this play of ideas. A series of stunning collections could develop. Perhaps it might be a really bad season (we hope not). Every designer must take that play of ideas and give either an informed collection, or one that may be a mishmash of branché-chébran chic.

And that may not be a bad thing.

- AP

Pink Power

 

With everything so green, green, green these days, it's only healthy to opt for other colors. Like pink.

Mrs. Vreeland was famous for calling pink the N.B.O.I. ("navy blue of India" for those exposed for the first time); very well. Pink is so dramatic that it forces an economy of line and decoration.

Remember that colors are powerful.
- AP

Not Here

 

What should be on the Corniche of Alexandria happened thousands of years ago. What is happening now is elsewhere, but not that far away.

Several Gulf nations (notably the UAE and Bahrain) are sites for developments built on artificial land. In the sea, like mini Singapores or Nazca lines (depending on the view on the ground or from above).

These developments intertwine economy and ecology: like offshore city-states, they must be profitable and sustainable to thrive. Otherwise, they may only be high-tech "boom" creations.

However, let's not spell their end so soon. As planned, they are fabulous.

No links; this is to be a discovery mission that will require a search engine.

- AP

Color Focus: Alex

 

No commentaries or pronouncements today. Enjoy the beautiful, delicate colors.

- AP

Private Paris

 

Doors like this in Paris fascinate me. Yes, the detail, the work involved...but why stop there? Take the craftsmanship for granted. These kind of doors are special because they are symbols of Private Paris.

Courtyards and gardens, which are fairly common in several areas of Paris, are hidden behind doors much like these. Which means that Paris is even bigger than one realizes! This is, by the way, a clue to the French approach to female fashion. Happy Haute Couture Week!

- AP