the imprisonment of being a girl, how it made your mind dreamy
The Virgin Suicides/Yohji Yamamoto Spring 2010.
The Virgin Suicides/Yohji Yamamoto Spring 2010.
How to kick butt:
1. Buy either Rodarte’s, Jil Sander’s, or Alexander McQueen’s shoes for Spring.
2. When your lunch money gets stolen or your neighbor tells you to turn down your music, make a permanent dent in the punk’s head.



All photos from style.com.
Ah, bad puns! Anyway, one of my favorite shows of New York last season was undoubtedly Y-3, Yohji Yamamoto’s line for Adidas. His namesake label has lots of draped, loose clothing, and the clothes for Y-3 usually carry the same free-spirited feel. This season was no exception – fun, colorful, everything I guess you would expect from Yohji Yamamoto when he’s making sportswear. It’s very interesting to see a conceptual designer’s idea of more wearable practicality, and to see one make their inspiration more literal – this time, soccer, which included goal net mesh dresses (a bright pink one was my favorite piece from the collection, along with white leather strappy wedges-I am team Nineties Minimalism, all the way) and a soccer net even dropped down from the ceiling for the finale…
All around, lots of fun! I am awful at sports but maybe I will consider joining a school team if it means an excuse to buy one of these dresses (which I’m sure are totally necessary for volleyball, right?):
Yeah, let’s be honest: New York is probably the most wearable out of the four big Fashion Week cities, and sometimes it feels like you’re seeing the same stuff over and over again. That’s why I love Boy by Band of Outsiders, though: each season Scott Sternberg delivers pieces that are versatile and easy to wear but still have character. His aesthetic is consistent but each collection has a different overall mood.
This season it was beach bum.
The presentation was set up like a beach with old recliners and suitcases placed here and there. Mix that with the shades of gray and beige- and of course Boy’s staple, navy-in forms of parkas and perfectly slouchy pants, and you have yourself a cloudy day on the beach. And aren’t those kinds the most refreshing? I like a gloomier take on beach inspiration for Spring/Summer, and the gray moodiness made it all a bit more cool and relaxed.

I loved the use of that stretchy fisherman’s suspenders fabric (also seen in the first picture of this post.)


Perfectly laid back coats. The fur is a nice touch to this gray anorak.
Yep, I’ll go there this summer.



Definitely a favorite color combination of mine and of the season’s.
Missoni, Jean Paul Gaultier, Marc Jacobs
I don’t know why but these looks from Spring 2010 remind me a lot of the The Virgin Suicides (book not movie.) The first two are kind of creepy and innocent and the last is sort of sad and rusty and feels like a reminder of an ideal unfulfilled. Love this book, love these looks…



Christopher Kane, Fendi, Yohji Yamamoto, all via style.com


I just love this color combination and raw, natural-feeling textures mixed with quiet glitz.
Ryan McGinley’s moonmilk, jewels at Lanvin Spring 2010, leaping lizards at Alexander McQueen Spring 2010, Converge’s Axe to Fall cover art, Ruth Gordon in Rosemary’s Baby, stills from Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are.
During a season where everyone else seems to be focused on a lighter shade of Spring, Kate and Laura Mulleavy have gone rather dark. The imaginations of these two sisters are always widespread, and were this season, as well — the inspiration was condors, vultures, and girls that burn in the desert and become vultures. A very dramatic collection, the clothes were shades of primarily black and red, and there was of course the mixture of different textures and fabrics that has become a huge part of the quickly developed Rodarte aesthetic. And along with the fog, the lights, the Nicholas Kirkwood shoes of steel, arm tattoos inspired by LA gang girls, and strings of blood-like string trailing from the body, there were also these more homely fabrics: plaids, cheesecloths, and what looks like a soft burlap. A bit like the sisters themselves. While their imaginations and inspirations take them everywhere, both girls remain very down-to-earth. A dramatic collection for Spring, but much more natural feeling than a number of other shows. And the moment the first model glided down the runway in a dress made out of burnt fabrics with a streak of lime running through her chest, even the show goers that fake-coughed at the fog and tried to act unimpressed by the setting were instantly drawn in and wide eyed.
I was tired and stressed and uncomfortably warm. The unpleasant heat and anxiety that stirred our standing group at Thakoon still hung over our heads and Chris Benz was so crowded and the models so awkwardly placed that we could barely see the clothes. Maria Cornejo from that morning was great but felt like ages ago. I wanted to go to the hotel and nap before the big big big show- Marc Jacobs. Not gonna happen, though.
The best therapy? Afternoon light coming in through a giant wall-window, beautifully helping to display clean cut blazers, crisp button downs that looked as if they’d just come off a backyard clothesline, shorts and trousers in the perfect shade of mint, Bob Dylan hair and an air of nostalgia that came with a yellow rust-like print and light denim jackets. Patrick Ervell Spring 2010 was simply fresh. Not groundbreaking, and by no means a cerebral collection. But the mood was strong and the clothes came with memories of summers past that aren’t even my own-rolling down a grassy hill, for example. Relaxing indeed.
Last season, Marc Jacobs was a solid flashback to the 80’s and not much else. His recent Spring 2010 collection, however, can’t be retraced to just one idea. References came from everywhere this time, and quickly brought the plain white box of the Armory in New York City, where Jacobs held the show, to life.
So, what were all these references? I myself thought it was very geisha-circus-mermaid-pajamas-ballet class, obviously very girly and, of course, a bit granny. Marc Jacobs really is the king of making the kooky old lady look “work” for younger women, and the pieces from this collection will look great on anyone from a lady in her 20’s to her 70’s. In fact, I think the collection could even look decent on somebody in her 13’s! Hint, hint. HINT. (Also, I would love to see BryanBoy and Jean Paul Paula rocking these pieces as well.)

The styling is so SO inspiring.


The collection wasn’t very flashy, especially not after the shiny 80’s redoux of last season, where the inspiration was very literally interpreted. This time things were a little bit more “off,” much to my own glee and squealing as the editors sitting by me look unimpressed. This obviously means the collection wasn’t as glamorous as that 80’s one, or other designers that showed in New York, but who is really dying to be glamorous now when I think it’s safe to say the reign of Last Night’s Party and bandage dresses fit for Winona’s weekly DSYC is over? Jacobs even told style.com he’s tired of seeing young girls in black and studs (which I have to second.) As Donatella Versace recently said, glamor nowadays is all about contradictions. At Marc Jacobs, the silhouettes were awkward yet graceful. Most of the individual pieces were pretty pretty and prim and proper, but the styling made it all a bit disheveled. Sounds like a way more secretive and awesome kind of vavavavoom to me.
So, while Jacobs’s fanny packs and flats might not compliment an outfit full of studded leather as well as shiny leather handbags and 5 inch heels, they are far more impressive when you can pull them off. And I know I would much rather be the awkward fanny-pack-with-flats, ruffle overkill, loads-o-layers show goer than…anything else, really.