Friday’s Fabulous Finds (on Monday)

This week my fashion obsession is Harvey Faircloth and especially these delicious pants. But where, oh where can I buy them? I cannot find them anywhere online or in-store. Please Harvey Faircloth, work on making it possible to purchase these.

A desert palette is strewn across this Plenty by Tracy Reese dress. It makes me feel hopeful about the coming of spring. Spring cannot come too soon this year.

This book seems to keep following me around, and I am certainly intrigued. Into the Sunset: Photography’s Image of the American West speaks to my current desert fixation. Perhaps I’ll use my MoMA Design Store voucher for it since the Kandinsky book I was looking for isn’t available there. In fact the MoMA Design & Book store supposedly has no Kandinsky books whatsoever at the moment according to the salesperson I spoke to.

Over the weekend I visited the newish Pierre Hardy store on Jane St. I really liked the clean, simple design of the store. And I love the shoes. But I won’t be handing over $1000+ for a pair. My favorite pair were the blue sandals with the neon block heel. Pricewise I think that I’ll stick to the United Nude block heel thanks. The heel is still a kind of neon, though the rest is more neutral.

Four Seasons in one….

I hadn’t really looked at the poster for Another Year until yesterday. I realized that the poster too is a Four Seasons depiction. The tree in the centre of the poster is having a ‘four seasons in one poster’ moment.

Which brings me to my ‘four seasons in one line’ trees; the basis for my seasons flipbook.

Another Year

Another Year was the perfect capture. It captured many experiences of London life perfectly; visiting a GP through the NHS, post-work drinks down the pub, dinner parties with many a bottle of wine consumed, the noise and damp within construction sites, the pleasure of one’s own allotment, the adventures and misadventures of London transport, the hassle of owning a car (and setting up insurance). In short, it captured many of my own experiences of London life. The characters felt real, the spaces and places felt real. There was even a scene shot literally down the road (across the bridge) from the studio I once rented in Fulham.

Of course, it was so much more than just a capture, but I can’t help being fascinated by Mike Leigh’s un-Hollywood depiction of interiors. He shows us the insides of flats and houses that the character could realistically rent/own. In Happy-go-Lucky, Sally Hawkins’ character lived in exactly the type of flat a teacher could afford. And the same is true of the central character in Career Girls. There are many reasons Hollywood veers away from this kind of ‘realism’ when it comes to sets. One of them is that it is genuinely difficult to shoot in small space, to capture it. But this doesn’t deter Leigh. And this kind of capture encourages me, as the viewer, to engage more intimately with the characters, as though they really are people I know or have known. Equally, his capture of the character of London encourages us to engage more intimately with place. His sense of place and space are enthralling to my architectural lens. Another Year also captured perfectly the essence of London’s climate. It takes as its context the four seasons. Given my own deep interest in the seasons, it was a pleasure to see the four seasons away from a canvas, in the form of film. I am currently working on a flipbook of the four seasons. It will be a different type of capture. I look forward to finishing it, but even more than that I look forward to seeing what Mike Leigh casts his net over next.

Friday’s Fabulous Finds

Desert hues are big this spring. Rag and Bone have definitely tapped into the idea. And I for one am thrilled since my wardrobe is full of sandy, earthy tones and vivid reds and blues already.

rag and bone-inspiration

rag and bone-ss11 runway

And these delicious hues are popping up everywhere .I am hugely impressed by Sonia Rykiel this season. Unexpected colors are combined to produce a painterly effect. Think strong black lines and muted tones, ash rose and lemon yellow, coral and rust. I have watched the runway video several times.

My fascination with the desert goes deeper. My father’s family comes from Rajasthan (ie where the Thar desert is), I lived in Australia during my formative years, which has more than its fair share of desert, and a couple of years ago I took a road trip (as part of a study tour with Columbia GSAPP) through the Mojave. My most recent experience with the desert made me more aware of my long-standing relationship with it. The Mojave was overwhelming and beautiful. Over the course of about 16 hours, we saw snow, rain, blazing sun, wind and sand storms. And it was the inspiration for my film Jasmine and Tar as well as my Filmy House project (below).

Filmy House, Shaumyika Sharma

I have become obsessed with the Classic Tucker blouse. I have been searching for a blouse that is the right length. I am not the tunic-type. And for the past few years, blouses have been way too long (and somewhat shapeless). In fact, I have been going to Alteration Concept to get all my blouses shortened. The Classic Tucker is the right length. It is roomy, but drapes well and the fabrics are fabulous. And here is her take on the desert with her ‘Northern Desert Floral’ blouse

The Six Month Gap

“I do not understand everyone’s need to see everything online the day after a show,” he says. “I don’t think it ultimately serves the customer, which is the whole point of my business—not to serve journalists or the fashion system. To put something out that’s going to be in a store in six months, and to see it on a starlet, ranked in US magazine next week? My customer doesn’t want to wear the same thing she saw on a starlet!”

-Tom Ford