In Memory of Elizabeth Howe, Salem, 1692

I've been having a bit of trouble lately with being able to write the words I'm meaning to say, as I've been working on my last paper of my first year of grad school and I've pretty much used up my word bank in the 100+ pages of (English) writing I've produced in the last eight months. So, I'm not sure I can connect these two things together, but I'll try. Around the time Alexander McQueen's A/W '07 collection went down the runway, I was finishing up what I thought would be the last I wrote on Sulpicia, supposedly the only female Roman poet who's work survived long enough to reach us. I quite vividly remember handing in my 60+ page manuscript to my advisor and, as I walked away from her office back down the long hallway, as I was on the verge of tears. I had lived and breathed Sulpicia for the last year, and wasn't sure what to do with myself when that was taken away from me. I also remember feeling quite depressed for the following summer, feeling like I had absolutely no direction, sure that I was permanently separated from a great love, namely university. Now, 6 years later, I feel like I've reversed time somehow and am walking backwards in that same hallway, about to take back my manuscript, return home and un-write it. Of course I'll have to stop rewinding the tape soon, as I now have another 100 pages on Sulpicia to write. At least. Anyway, these two looks from the McQueen collection came out at the time I've now re-arrived at, so their strange ancient history/sci-fi hybrid aesthetic fit both my time traveling experience and area of study.

Funny thing is though, the collection was actually inspired not by sci-fi, but by the women that were killed in the Salem witch trials, including some of McQueen's own distant relatives. This subject speaks to me on a different level, having just completed Damien Echols' book, Life After Death. Some of you were probably more aware of Damien's case than I was since I was too young/sheltered when it began, and too self-involved/in a daze when it came (somewhat) to a head. Due to my reliance on Henry Rollins' show to get me through some of the tough 'in a daze' nights, and then through the healthier 'translating a lot of Latin/Greek' nights, Damien's name at least entered my subconscious, and so I thought I knew what the documentary West of Memphis was going to be like when we saw it was playing at our local indie theatre. I didn't. I immediately bought Damien's book after watching the film and devoured it within a few sittings. Damien's book contains some of the most beautiful passages I've ever read, as well as some of the most heart-wrenching ones. I have not been able to get it out of my head in the last week since I finished it, though I truly don't ever want to.

Here's the runway video of the McQueen show, if you're interested. It has some NSFW material playing on the screen above the runway, so proceed with caution.

(Runway photos via Style.com)

March 5th

Today's date has held significance for me for the past 16 years. Because 16 years ago, when I was in Grade 9, a classmate of mine took his own life, presumably because he couldn't cope with the death of his mother. I had just transferred into the school that year, and we were actually only in one class together. But, even though we hadn't exchanged more than a couple of words, his death hit me really hard. I had lived a pretty isolated life up until then, so I had no idea whatsoever how to cope with the whole thing. It didn't help that my teacher pretty much made our class feel like we were to blame, and that the little sister of a now famous Canadian skipped down the hall that day in a way much too similar (in retrospect) to Bellatrix Lestrange after she killed Sirius Black. Anyway, after the five-ish years it took to realize it wasn't my fault and more than a decade on top of that, the day still makes me stop and take a breath. And, on this day, I always picture myself in the church, at the funeral, though what date that was, I can no longer remember. This March 5th though has an additional connotation, as it is the day we are getting the keys to our new place, which will, I expect, vastly improve our lives and likely be our home for as long as we live in this city. It seems almost fitting, then, that Sarah Burton's newest McQueen collection came out on this day, for it is steeped in history and echoes of the church, as well as (like all of Sarah Burton's McQueen collections) serving as a reminder that life moves on. And so it does.

(Photos via Style.com)

Coat of arms

I'm not sure how it happened, but I'm a jacket/coat* person. I used to have one winter coat, and a bunch of hoodies that I classified as either spring/fall/summer 'jackets'. Now, I have a literal pile of coats by the front door (oh, I'm looking forward to a proper entryway closet!), and I've been known to change my coat multiple times before I go out the door. Granted, all of them are fall/winter coats (which makes sense, since that's 80% of our year), but I pretty much have one or two for every 10 degree range between -40 up to +10. The queen of the coats in the -10 to 0 range is, of course, my Artisanal Coat from Patricia Ayres. I thought her right to the throne had the potential of being challenged when I got my very first women's McQueen piece (a black wool/cashmere coat), as I've rated it to the same temperature range. However, the perfume ghost of its former owner has meant that it has sat in my man's office unworn for two months now. Also, I think it being a McQueen affords it the status of 'Special Occasion (-10 to 0)', so in that way the two coats can both rule their respective and neighbouring kingdoms without one having to abdicate. However, if I got a hold of this A/W 13 piece by Marie Saint Pierre, I'm afraid civil war would ensue. It's perhaps the most perfect cold weather coat I've seen since that Gareth Pugh creation. Now, it's sacrilegious to even suggest that it could rule over the McQueen, but for both personal and pragmatic reasons, I'm not sure I could say it fits in the 'Everyday (-10 to 0)' category alongside the Artisanal Coat. Can one really have three categories for one temperature range? I'm afraid I would simply have to bend any rule that suggests otherwise, because that's really the only way I could keep the peace around here.

(Photo via Facebook)

*The words are interchangeable for me, really. If anyone can give me a good working definition to keep the two separate, I'm all ears.

Matchpoint

 

As I've already seen this in a couple different places (and in a couple different languages), chances are that some of you have already seen MATCHBOOK, a brilliant blog whose raison d'être is to show us which swimwear matches which book covers. A few of my favorite books have already been matched up (Infinite Jest and Eating Animals, as seen below), but, most importantly, my favorite swimsuit (by Chromat, of course) has been matched with a book that I should have already read. I'm fairly certain that a swimsuit has never before inspired me to read any particular book, and so, hat's off to you, MATCHBOOK!

  

Anyway, inspired by MATCHBOOK, and in memoriam to one of my favorite authors, Maeve Binchy, here's kOs' contribution to the matching game. I've picked four (more or less) matching Alexander McQueen looks, representing the number of times my copy of Evening Class has been read. Maeve, you will be missed.

(Runway photos via Style.com; from right to left: Alexander McQueen Spring 2009, Fall 2007, Spring 2008, and Spring 2010)

Isobel

While we're on the topic of my personal fashion icons, let me direct your attention to the indomitable Björk in McQueen. For those of you lucky enough to go to the Savage Beauty exhibit, this custom dress is of course a tweaked version of the S/S 2001 dress made out of lab slides that greeted you at the exhibit entrance, as seen above. I, in fact, was threatened to be thrown out of the exhibit (the second time I went) when I attempted to take a photo of it and it's counterpart. Me, a polite little Canadian. Gee whiz.

(Photo via Alexander McQueen Facebook, by Sølve Sundsbø)

Yiqing Yin

Over a year ago, May 7th to be exact, I started writing a post on Paris-based designer Yiqing Yin. But then I got scared away by the 'Prohibited to reproduce for any other website' message that accompanied the only photos I could find of this designer's work, and so I left the post as a sad little draft, sans photos. And, I have to admit, after a few days of wistfully wishing I could share those photos, I did eventually forget about Yiqing altogether. Then today another post on Yiqing appeared on ASVOF, covering her haute couture A/W 11 collection presentation in Paris. And, lo and behold, Yiqing now has a website, with photos. The world makes sense again. 

Anyway, I love all the pleating and gathering and draping that is seen in all of Yiqing's pieces, but this dress in particular jumps out at me. Some of my favorite pieces in the Alexander McQueen Met exhibit were these two black dresses (the runway versions are pictured below) that featured extensive pleating in the neckline/yoke area and the sleeves (both from one of my favorite McQueen collections, being A/W 2006). The thing that really impressed me up close though which you can't see in the runway photos (and here's where my lack of formal education in sewing and design shows through) was that the pleated parts weren't separately sewn pieces, but rather all that pleated up fabric was allowed to open up past the designated areas to create lovely voluminous skirts, puffed sleeves, and Victorian style cuffs (and ruffs). That's what this dress by Yiqing reminds me of, as she achieves a similar end through smocking. And, yes, I know that it seems I'm just posting stuff that reminds me of McQueen, but I'm okay with that. Particularly as I've been wishing all morning that I were spending this dreary day at the Met. Sigh.

(McQueen photos via Style.com)

"Buyer's market out there" - Templeton

One of the injustices I experienced as a child was being brought to that wonderland that is called Toys 'R' Us and being given $10 in Monopoly money to spend on anything I wanted, while the offspring of my babysitter got actual cash to spend. And since I feel bad about feeling like that was an injustice (and because I'm currently bored out of my skull), I decided to give myself an undisclosed amount of virtual cash to spend on whatever I'd like today. Tomorrow's task will be to pick which of the following three choices I will be most disappointed to never get.

1) Jacket by Tsolo Munkh, $2307. This one would be the least practical of the three, as it's made of polyester and has a very asymmetrical hemline, requiring a layer or two underneath. However, it does have three sets of cuffs, and it's the first commercially available piece I've seen from Tsolo.

2) Tailcoat by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, $3308. Having just watched The King's Speech, this one immediately made me take a second look. However, it is the most expensive of the three, and would be more of a spring jacket, which doesn't really work in an area of the world that has about 10 days of spring.

3) Full-length trench by Junya Watanabe, $1183. So I just said something about spring jackets not really working, but I've chosen this khaki 100% cotton trench coat rather than the black wool version, as this is from one of my most favorite collections ever. And with all that detailing (click on the photos to zoom in), that 50% off price sure seems like a good deal. Looks like I'll need to make up a new task for tomorrow.

(Photos and listings via the adult version of Toys 'R' Us, Farfetch.com)

But where is the ambiguity? Over there, in a box.

Since the last time I saw so much wet snow fall in such a short time like today was in New York, I was looking through my photos from my February trip and happened upon three videos that I took. The videos themselves are nothing special, but I rather enjoyed the abrupt pixelated end frame for each video, especially as I can see completely non-NY related things in these coloured boxes. The first one, for instance, reminds me of what my city's river valley looks like in late spring/early summer. Which brings me to a story about Monday, when I took a celebratory walk home from the dentist in honour of having no cavities. It was rather wonderful, as I decided to go through a golf course and the river valley paths rather than the main streets. And it seemed like a mid-spring day warmth- and bird-chirping-wise, but there was still snow everywhere. I arrived at the river just in time to see this massive chunk of ice that was about 1/3 the width of the whole river float downstream super fast, then split into two and neatly fit into some clear spots when it hit the traffic jam of ice around the bridge, nearly scaring to death a few ducks that were in the way. Then on my way across the river, I came upon a Canadian goose (seemingly) guarding a mother goose roosting in the concrete rafters of the bridge, looking down at an egg that had rolled off the ledge and broken onto the walkway. It was rather tragic, and I'm glad I didn't have a camera on me, but it was rather interesting to experience nature in a concrete urban setting. This was followed by experiencing the depressing presence of unintelligent humans in nature, as many of the trees I past on the way out of the river valley were tagged with the unreadable spray paint characteristic of hooliganism. But I digress. Oh river valley in the summer, how I miss you.

The second pixelated photo reminds me of the very colourful residential street in Edward Scissorhands. Well, truth be told, the beginning of Trailer Park Boys sprang to mind first, but then I glanced at one of the various Jack Skellingtons in the apartment, and so now Edward Scissorhands-like it remains.

And the last one, which looks so dark and yet is taken at the exact same location as (and only a couple minutes prior to) the first photo/video, reminds me of that cover of Candy, something to do with Edgar Allan Poe, or Alexander McQueen's F/W 03 collection.

And, while we're on that topic, I dearly want this jacket and this dress. Though I could do without that snow. I have about half a foot of fresh stuff outside my door.

(Alexander McQueen photos via Style.com)

Jeremy Laing

I managed to fit in some Internets time today, amid having some spectacular waffles, playing with my new toy (a secondhand Hoover that really sucks - vacuum jokes never get old), finally getting back on the bike after a month of sickness, injury, and bedbug treatment preparation, and making a delicious tofu meal (the same recipe as here, but with broccoli instead of brussel sprouts). Anyway, I was rewarded with the discovery of a Canadian designer whom I would've thought I would know about by now, but I spose there's no time like the present. Jeremy Laing and his designs appeal to me not just because he's Canadian, but because he's self taught and both apprenticed and freelanced for Alexander McQueen. I think this background is quite easily seen in Jeremy's collections, as there are both draped and more freeform pieces, as well as tailored pieces. His F/W 11 collection (above) is what I imagine Kat Stratford would've worn on the red carpet if her girl band had formed and become successful, or if she became that favorite English teacher who gracefully aged into retirement. And with the spell of the long drawn winter perhaps finally being broken, these pieces from Jeremy's S/S 11 collection (below; photos via Style.com) are what I would like to see being worn on the streets as I people watch from my computer chair. Just one more week until I actually have a couch...