Style Icons: Taylor Tomasi Hill+ Emmanuelle Alt

Wanted to share a couple of personal style icons: Taylor Tomasi Hill, Accessories Editor for Marie Claire and Emmanuelle Alt, Fashion Director for French Vogue...Both have an effortless, polished style. Something that I think I try to achieve in my personal style. Comfort, originality and a wardrobe with neutral basics and pops of bold accessories/statement pieces. Taylor and her red hair (the perfect shade) is up first...she has mastered the art of layering...textures, prints + mixing vintage pieces with the new.

Emmanuelle Alt embodies the effortless and chic Parisian style with minimal makeup and a disheveled coif...She favors mixing casual pieces with the uber high end. That chocolate wide collar fur lined coat is TO DIE for.

Apple Picking in New Paltz

Went on the annual TGC Apple Picking trip this weekend upstate... 300 New Yorkers descended upon Hurd's Family Farm for a day of frolicking amongst the apple orchard, pumpkin patch and corn maze. A good time was had by all.

Favela

In honor of some friends who are currently in Rio.... I wanted to introduce an art group called Favela Painting a group that creates "community-driven art interventions" in the poorest places in the Rio.  Their artwork becomes places of pride in the community, raising the morale and providing a sense of hope in the City of God.  Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn, also known as Haas & Hahn, have been working with the local youth in Rio to create their large-scale murals, since 2005. Their latest project entitled: Santa Marta, they bring such light and brightness to a dark place.

Black Swan

I'm a little late on commenting on the Rodarte + Arronofsky collaboration for 'Black Swan,' but I am nonetheless VERY excited. Rodarte has been a tour de force in the design world over the last several years, and rightly so.  Their unique perspective and boldness in presentation has catapulted them to success and opened many doors for collaboration. Since I started dancing at age 3, I have a very special place in my heart for ballet and all forms of dance...can't wait to see how Natalie Portman does with those plies and pirouettes and to see the lovely costuming of over 40 pieces by Rodarte.

Collaborations between fashion designers and dance companies is one with a rich history. Both Coco Chanel and Paul Poiret had significant relationships with the Ballet Russes and provided another channel where designers could express their aesthetic.

-Dancers for the Ballet Russes in costumes by Chanel, 1928-

Sarah Burton + Alexander McQueen

Sarah Burton debuted her first collection for Alexander McQueen this week and did and amazing job in staying true to McQueen's vision while infusing each garment with her own personal style, making for a seamless transition for her as head designer of the house.  The strength in tailoring, immaculate technical construction, innovative prints and attention to detail, were all present in the show. I'll let the images speak for themselves.

-images from elle.com-

Pierre Cardin + Gareth Pugh

Continuing on the theme of the 1960's, Pierre Cardin recently celebrated the 60th anniversary of his brand and at age 87, he is still going strong.  Some of the most significant contributions Cardin made to fashion were his forward thinking designs of the 1960s.  As mentioned in the previous post, the Space Race was an event heard all around the world. Cardin was working out of a Paris studio, but his fashions were seen splashed all over the pages of American fashion publications.  Although utilizing bright, bold colors for his futuristic designs, Cardin was a key player in solidifying the color white to be a signifier of the future. His designs in white are stark, with clean lines, minimal detailing... a kind of utopian ideal.  First, some of his more vibrant and spunky looks... followed by a starkly contrasted series of black and white images of his white collection of 1970.

-Pierre Cardin, 1967-

-Pierre Cardin, 1967-

-Nurse's Uniforms, 1970, with Pierre Cardin-

Cardin's seems foundational to the inspiration for Gareth Pugh's work. Pugh has defined himself as a futuristic designer, not only in form but in presentation as well.  Pugh favors video presentations to live runway shows and has produced some stunning work.  His recent Spring/Summer 2011 Collection, presented designs almost entirely in white...although this is nothing new for Pugh... he seems to take this idea to the extreme this time.  The idea of "futuristic," has evolved into something almost otherwordly, but it still recalls back to the ideals Cardin instilled during the 1960s.  In the same way that the clothes in Cardin's 1970 collection form a cocoon around the body, Pugh's garments also look as though they were built to protect the body from unknown futuristic elements.