Pagan Chic

Sarah Burton, the former assistant to Alexander McQueen, enjoyed a rapturous reception at Paris Fashion Week yesterday for her first collection as the new creative director of the Alexander McQueen label.

The British label's spring/summer 2011 collection struck a pagan [can I get a capital "P" please?] chord, with outfits recalling the 1970s film The Wicker Man. One dress combined a bodice made of ears of wheat with a skirt made of pheasant feathers. Another printed dress was adorned with a horse hair collar.

Burton's theme went even more prelapsarian [I do not think that word means what the author thinks it means] with a dress consisting of fake butterflies, which appeared to be taking off around the model's neckline. Another outfit saw golden plants sewn onto skin coloured material which appeared to grow on the model's body. The skirt of this dress was rounded at the hips a nod to McQueen and the model's hair was braided in the style of wicker.

Fashion editors were impressed by Burton's success in building a collection that was true to the spirit of McQueen, keeping the dramatic silhouettes for which he was famous, but introducing a more feminine, romantic mood.

I like it. But not everyone did.

And, speaking of the Wicker Man . . . .

Picrture and the article found here.

I May Have A Friend Or Two Who Loves Beautiful Shoes

Regular readers are well-aware of my periodic "Declutter!" declarations. (Speaking of which, here are some amazing and counter-intuitive suggestions. Hat tip: Christine Kane.) And since the beginning of 2010, I've been on an even more major "I'm not spending any money" campaign. The economy's crap and, sadly, the current administration shows zero understanding that it needs to actually stimulate the economy (hint: It's spelled W-P-A, not B-A-I-L-O-U-T-W-A-L-L-S-T-R-E-E-T). My current investment strategy is: horde cash and pay off the mortgage (which, at a bit above 4%, is way more than I can make anywhere else) in about triple time. And, a few years ago, I took a look at my shoe collection and realized that, other than a yearly new pair of walking shoes, and the occasional new flip flop (which is what I really live in, anyway, everywhere outside of work), I can probably live the rest of my life w/o buying any new shoes.

But I would pay good cash, tomorrow, on the barrel head, for these Tara hightops by Amanda Yoakum. Check out the soles!!!

Dear Ms. Yoakum, hie thee to Cafe Press or Zazzle or etsy.

Picture found here.

I Love That One

My gosh, I LOVE this blog! Lunaea has a bunch of other fun ones, too!

What inspiration!

Fashion Statements

The witch's hat that Margaret Hamilton wore in the Wizard of Oz is going on sale and expected to sell for six figures.

It IS a great hat. I've never found a really good explanation for why witches are thought to wear pointy hats, but I do have a witch's hat, a gift from my creative friend K, that I wear at least on Samhein.

Do you have a witch's hat? What's it look like? Where'd you get it and when do you wear it?

Picture found here.

Lady GaGa Does Witch for Vogue

Turns out, we're in fashion.

Yes, this is JUST how I look.

No, it's not.

Picture found here.

No One Could Have Anticipated . . . .

Turns out, there are no African Americans in Washington, D.C. Who knew?

And the WaPo wonders why it's become completely irrelevant?

Picture found here.

Elegance

Check out the million Watt smile in France.

Hat tip: Ms. Fahrenheit

Photo found here

My New Name For A Blog

Damn. I loved those gloves.

MMMMMMM

More witch clothes and dresses from the land of the Fey. Must be the season of the witch.

Wow

Wow. Just, wow.

With The Big Collar

I can haz this dress in poison green and lime green, please?

Blogs

I really like Moments of Grace.

Courreges

Guestblog: Jezebel

A little frivolity over your morning coffee:

Jezebel: "Celebrity, sex, fashion. Without the Airbrushing."

Make sure to check out the comments on each entry - they're the best part.

From A Dress A Day

Gorgeous

Poiret

Washington, D.C. is cursed with one of the worst, most inarticulate, least insightful fashion writers ever -- the excerable Robin Givhan. She can take something as magnificent as the exhibition "Poiret: King of Fashion," which opened Wednesday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute and write such tortured prose as: There were no prom dresses, glued-on sequins, or cocktail attire posing as black tie. That's right. There "were no . . . cocktail attire." Sweet Kali on a crepe. (Apparently, the WaPo no longer employs those quaint persons known as editors.)

Poiret, as Givhan vaguely mentions, complete revolutionized the way that women not only dressed, but moved, freeing them from whalebone corsets and stays. We're talking about the man who introduced the modern bra and stockings colored to look like flesh.

Givhan sees fit to use her column inches to describe the food and booze at the opening dinner (Thanks, Robin, we get it. You were invited. Isn't that special?) rather than to describe any of the outfits or to discuss Poiret's role in women's liberation.

What a disgrace.

And while I'm bitching, WTF is wrong with the Costume Institute. King of Fashion? That's the best you could do???

Oh! Shiny Things!

I want one of each of these, in each color.

Dress!

I would completely wear this. Honest. I would even have sewn it, back in the day. We've gotten so boring over the last 20 years or so.

The Wearing Of The Weird

A few weeks ago, in the ongoing blogversation about the need for more and better Pagan thealogy, someone, and I apologize for not remembering who it was (cougholdtimersdiseasecough), turned me on to Druid Priestess: An Intimate Journey Through the Pagan Year by Emma Restall Orr. I'm really enjoying it so far; Orr not only has substantive things to say, she's a good writer.

Recounting an interview that she did with a local radio station preparing for its annual "Gee there are Pagans" Halloween feature, she touches on a second topic that's been floating around Pagan Blogistan:

"But you don't help yourselves. What about these funny clothes?"

Again I'm laughing. "You mean the long white sheets with pointy hoods?"

"It does give a pretty weird impression, a dozen blokes -- OK, and ladies -- dressed up like the Klu Klux Klan!"

I am used enough to these guys now to know that, despite the rolling tape between us, the questions he is asking will be edited out of the conversation, replaced by anything that will fit more suuccinctly with my answer.

"OK, some do wear robes when attending ceremonies. It's an important tool for shifting into a different frame of mind, reminding us, affirming, that we are doing something special. But it's very seldom nowadays that they are pure white. Most wear natural cloth which is undyed and unbleached. Some wear tabards or overrobes which proclaim the grade or tradition that they are working in. These might be red or green or blue, even black, embroidered or simple. And some robes have hoods -- they're another aid for focusing."

"Like blinkers," he says and I laugh.

"Yes, for a specific occasion and purpose. But most critically," I tese him with my emphasis, "the hood keeps out the wind and rain." He smiles. I add, "It isn't there so that we can cover our faces."

"Yeah, OK," he sighs, resigned.