The 80s Will Never Die

... or cease to be amazing.

Check this really killer vintage e-shop Nasty Gal. There are some seriously sweet cyborg sunglasses, killer must-have hooded rain emergency ponchos, and, obvs, the dress above.

Hurry though, the stuff tends to sell out VERY FAST. Because, sorry, you aren't the only one who is cool enough to go vintage shopping. :(

In Vogue?

Fashion magazines are pretty much evil. Fabulously evil (or something).

Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of editrix Anna Wintour's reign at fashion mag Vogue, and apparently she's done a whole great deal of good for the image of the publication, according to obsequious Robin Givhan, who penned in-case-you-weren't-aware-Vogue-is-really-great for the Washington Post.

Givhan spends the majority of the piece talking about how Vogue has become a cultural icon in its pure fantasy glamor and the fetishization of skinny bitches, celebrity obsession and luxury goods.

[Vogue] taps into that core desire to be gorgeous and declares it righteous and worthy and, most important, smart. [It] validates the modern careerist's fantasy, that she can run the world and look fabulous doing it.

Is that really all we ask from a fashion magazine? That it validate a consumerist cultural stereotype of the power female who not only wants to make a lot of money but spend it too? I mean, is this really celebrating, or even covering in a journalistic sense, the art of fashion? Sure it gives more attention to the few mega brands (CHANEL! PRADA!), maybe even fewer "up and coming" names who are already mostly well-known (Givhan reports that Vogue helped "two promising young designers" by paying for trainers and nutritionists so they could lose weight -- my money is on the Mulleavy sisters of Rodarte who DON'T NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT and have pretty much made it in the industry) but does that provide a cultural service? Or a consumerist one?

I don't know if we could really call Vogue, or Ms. Wintour for that matter, a cultural icon. I think it's more of a capitalist icon. Congrats to you Anna on 20 years of shelling out shit to the uber-rich! Here's to 20 more.

- C

WARNING: NO FASHION HERE

I have an unrelated question I'd like to pose to the Internet:

Why do you think South Koreans can form enormous protests that cause the government to shiver in their booties, but we here in the US can't?

Don't you think we have better reason to? I mean, I don't eat American beef either, and it's totally worthy of mass protesting, but COME ON. We need to get our shit together. What do you think?

- C

Braided twists aren't just for vending machines anymore.

Your new best-friend summer shoe:







Forever 21, $7.50. No, really. Let that pedicure see the sunshine!

Say what?

I take a considerable degree of pride in hating American Apparel for generally being poorly marketed, overpriced hipster bullshit. I also could not be more obsessed with this mélange jersey tulip skirt:









Considering purchasing multiple colors. Be concerned.

Gertrude Stein & Fashion

[Random Fashion-spiration] Sometimes, when I'm browsing the Internet for inspiration for a photoshoot or a new pair of shorts or something else fashion-related, I always stumble across something that isn't.

Like, for example, tonight. I came upon a poem, Gertrude Stein's "If I Told Him: A Completed Portrait of Picasso":

Shutters shut and open so do queens. Shutters shut and shutters and so shutters shut and shutters and so and so shutters and so shutters shut and so shutters shut and shutters and so. And so shutters shut and so and also. And also and so and so and also.
Exact resemblance. To exact resemblance the exact resemblance as exact as a resemblance, exactly as resembling, exactly resembling, exactly in resemblance exactly a resemblance, exactly and resemblance. For this is so.
Because. [full text]

It's a beautiful and haunting rhythmic ode, but, you know, not at all about fashion. Then I found this dance piece (via a friend's Facebook profile) by Lightfoot León Nederlands Dans Theater, set to a striking recording of Stein herself reading the poem.



Doesn't it all remind you of this piece from Haider Ackermann's Fall 2008 collection? Dark, romantic and mysterious, yet soft and pale.


Inspiration. Thank you, Internet.

STITCH Photographer Tommy Rousse

Sometimes STITCH has parties. They are lots of fun. Sometimes Tommy Rousse will come and take photos, like the one above. Next time we have a party, you should come!

Enjoy!

Cheers to you, Yves

Yves Saint Laurent, Fashion Icon, Dies at 71.

You'll live forever in our minds & memories.