fashionologie

the only thing in fashion that's fat

>> Those September issues... 

Vogue has a whopping 727 pages of ads this time around, followed by W (477 pages), Elle (398 pages), and Bazaar (360 pages). 

the daily de rigueur

• Yippee!  NY Times' T Magazine is expanding and getting a website this fall
• Ahem... Nary a Conde Nast crony in sight on Vanity Fair's Annual International Best-Dressed List
• Attaboy!  Alaia, free and clear of The Prada Group
• Speaking of, this lady collects vintage Alaia: Kate Young, stylist extraordinaire

and now, my beauties: poppies...

>>  There's just something about poppies, and it's not because there's an opiate involved. 

Well, maybe a little - there is that smoky allure of an opium den attached.  But really, it's that vivid red that makes this poppy necklace so sensational.  Worn with the simplest of black dresses - that's all you need, with such imagery adorning your neck.

joyce carol oates and her fortuny gown

>> An excerpt from the article:

In its day the dress was extremely modern, even daring. Fortuny sought out new colors dreamed up by chemists and pioneered a way to pleat silk with tiny folds by treating it with metallic salts.

This is in the early twentieth century, but can you imagine - pleating silk with salts?  How quaintly archaic.  I'm just in awe.

But that's not the only thing that caught my attention - something about the accompanying picture of Ms. Oates is just so inspirational to me - the little straw hat, the wizened face, the bobbed brown hair, and the red shirt... there's just this unexplainable magnetism.

riveting is your dior...

>>  I've been scouring Ebay for pieces of this late seventies Dior ad campaign, shot by Chris von Wangenheim.  So far I've turned up some really great shots - there's Jerry Hall on the top right, and Gia Carangi on the bottom left.  I've really been digging the faded colors and the glamour of seventies photography, and the slogans on these ("Unabashed is Your Dior") are one-of-a-kind.

"me, i ponder lipstick"

>>  I've never been a beauty product girl, nor am I a big fan of reading books with large pink squares on the front cover.  So when Jean Godfrey-June's "Free Gift With Purchase: My Improbable Career in Magazines and Makeup" fell into my lap, I have to say: I was skeptical. 

But here it was, with positive NY Times quote on the cover ("witty, confectionary!"), a memoir by and about Lucky magazine's beauty editor.  It was time for a light read, so I figured, what the heck.

Jean is pretty up-front right from the start -- on the first page, she admits that she is  "not, never was, and never will be a beautiful woman."  Her candor snared me.  Coming from a woman in the beauty business, which well, thrives on vanity, a flat statement like that seemed very big of her.

Before I knew it, I was drifting along with her through her world of attending "acne breakfasts" and "cellulite lunches."  Yes, that's right, she is invited to lunches where she watches a woman, butt-forward, get sonogrammed on the stage in front of her, the purpose of which was to magnify the poor woman's cellulite blobules in case Jean hadn't noticed them before. 

Because Jean is so good at maintaining her down-to-earth sensibility, the book is very endearing.  She calls things as they are, giggling at the fact that the big annual beauty awards ceremony is called the Fifis, and readily admitting that since "fashion magazines are supported primarily by their beauty advertising, articles about beauty products are always raves and never probing, critical works."

And because she's been in the industry for so long, she has plenty of fun (and left-field) tidbits tossed in here and there.  Take: "There’s a designer famous in Euro circles for a rather disturbing predilection for excrement." Or: "I do not know Karl Lagerfeld (not even in my dreams), but I admire him greatly nonetheless because I hear (as in hearsay) he throws out his underwear every day.  You know?"

In the end, though, it is Jean's wit that keeps you coming back for more.  That and her brilliant way of recounting anecdotes:

A famous supermodel was once introducing her new skin care line.  We were sitting on white sofas, facing each other; the products were on a table between us.  There was a long, silent moment.  “The products look great,” I said.
    “This is weird,” she said in a panicked, vaguely threatening tone, waving her publicist over.
    “Um, I’m used to being interviewed?” she said, half to the publicist and half to me.  “Like they ask me the questions and I answer? I’m not used to, to… presenting.”

And thus, I present you "Free Gift With Purchase."  It may not be free, but it is a gift.

**image: gothamist

these make me giggle

>> And I'm not really sure why.  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Gemma is just chilling, doing her modeling thing, while Brad Kroenig is flying around in the background.  Silly.
See more of the Karl Lagerfeld (shot by guess who), here.

the daily de rigueur

• Before Prince Rainier, there was Oleg Cassini: a little refresher on Grace Kelly and O
  
• Speaking of Grace, Naomi Campbell may be following in her footsteps...
• Alexander Wang bags a handbag line, Manolos too!
• Lim for the win: CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund nominees revealed
• DD Ryan, former Bazaar fashion editor, close friend of Halston, has passed
• You can always go downtown... WWWD is giving away a YSL Downtown Tote

movin' on up

>> I heard murmurs of the concept back in February at fashion week, but it's nice to see idea turn into practice.  Starting August 1, Shopbop is launching a new higher-end "Designer Boutique" section of their website.  We're talking Sari Gueron, Peter Som, Chris Benz, Derek Lam...

I'm excited to see what pieces the buyers chose to launch the boutique.  Oh wait, you can see - a sneak preview anyway.

say it ain't so

>>  This morning, Page Six says that Teen Vogue may be next up to the Conde Nast chopping block...

Somehow, this smacks of nervousness more than truth to me.  I hope, anyway.