Murder on the Dance Floor

...but you better not steal the moves

Dj, gonna burn this goddamn house right now!

...

The moment I saw this hell of a supersonic shoe on my computer screen, Sophie Ellis Baxter's oh-so-upbeat song began ringing in my mind. (How synesthesic I am?)It's like it was made for the New Year's Eve, both so comfy and modern. It really does talk for itself. 

Anyway, for tonight, I'm wishing you all, a year full of happiness, health and love. 'Cuz love is all we need fellas. All the rest is trivial. (NYE Mortals 2:13)

And I do wish that you'd kill it on the dance floor tonight! Load yourself up for a joyous year by hitting and killing the dance floor. Put your most sparkling shoes on and go get it guys!

Kisses and hugs

Take it 'wide'!

For years, with an incomprehensible persistency, I've insisted on going for 'skinny' type when I head for a store to buy some new trousers or jeans. Even when my sand glass figure of Asian origin began to look like the bottom of a huge 8 (damn those hips do not ever never lie against a cheval glass), even so, I've happened to find myself with a pair of jeans, one size bigger of course, in my shopping bag. That's definitely because I'm was a complete fashion conservative back then(I may still have some traces but that's fine), even if I knew that it's NOT OK for my shape, I fell either for the design or the flashy color.  

This season is officially the one for me, for realizing, admitting and implementing that skinny trousers are not the only means of looking sexy. If you have a sand glass figure,high waisted wide leg trousers with heeled shoes feels and looks like heaven. I'm telling you, a girl should never make light of the effect she can create with such tricks, it's all like maths, or better be named 'visual' maths.

   

For the freezing winter, I grabbed myself a checked wool pair, which I pronounced 'a classic', from the moment I put them on in the changing room at Mango. They're warm, chic and cool. Three birds with one stone. Define your waist, cover your hips,'ciao' defection, 'hello' perfection. What's more, that 70's look is a whole another reason for me to fall in love with them.

If you are generous enough to invest a lot more bucks on such a classic item, the same ones with different color and material is on sale on Opening Ceremony. But they're 100% polyester and it costs a lot more than the ones in Mango. Don't let the label but the quality talk. 

That's all I keep saying all the time.

Muses:

Katharine Hepburn

Bianca Jagger

Muppet Show presented by Burberry (!)

Cuteness ü    

innately charismatic look  ü     

coolest dad and mum in the world  ü    

I know this list could go on and on and on but pleeease come on! That's a 10-years old boy we're talking about you guys, ten! Why on earth they let such little children be on commercials or ads?

And don't get me started with  that unbelievably creepy way both the numb models looking at 'nowhere' and Romeo the Beckham are posed. 

Poor Romeo is nothing less than a muppet wearing a fancy trenchcoat.

Hareem Eroticism

Jean Auguste Dominique's famous oil painting, Grande Odalisque, the one with that fair-skinned lady looking back over her shoulder, gazing directly at her 'untimely' viewer, which makes the viewer feel like a peeper who has just accidentally violated her privacy at an awkward moment. And to me that's the main reason why such paintings are sooo much seducing. 

That 'odalisque' word is originally derived from a Turkish word, 'odalık', which was used for the girl serving the wives or the daughters of the Sultan in the Ottoman Empire, that is she is not like the ones in the harem serving the Sultan sexually. 

OK, now, I'm gonna stop acting like a smart alec kind of art student. 

Given you the necessary information on what 'odalisque' is, the origin of inspiration for one of the latest editorials on TheOnes2Watch.com , I'll give you some privacy with the heavenly beautiful model turned odalisque Olga, wrapped up in smooth brocade fabrics, pearls and antique books used as pillow under the dim candlelight. Enjoy it.

xx

Is Fashion Art?

Words would fail to explain how much of a fan I am of the bullettmedia.com. Not only that a Turkish lady being the magazine's editor-in-chief but also its rich content and the perfectly constructed design of its web site, which doesn't behave like a tight-fisted snob allowing you to read only two sentences of each article. (Right here I should also give Dazed Digital's credit for that.)

The latest drop of knowledge from the Bullet Media, which has been keeping my and may be others' mind busy since forever, is Valerie Steele's talk on 'Is fashion art?'. Valerie Steele, in one sentence, is a well-known fashion historian and the curator and the director of the museum at the FIT in New York. Besides all, she's such an educator that I couldn't help being all ears for about an hour. She refers to many quotations by famous designers', artists' and also a famous economist's opinions on the subject during her speech, and comes to the conclusion that the answer to this very controversial question lies all under  'fashion being legitimated as art.'

I strongly suggest everyone to listen to this invaluable lecture worth speech, but for the others to whom this 45-minute span seems like hours here're my notes from it.

xx

-It’s about how we define art right now
-It’s the antithesis of this kind of authentic high cultural art.
- Deformed thief (Shakespeare)
-women's vanity, women’s body
-a mullock that devours modern people (Victorians)
-frivolity and vanity of fashion
-Werner Sombart: “Fashion is capitalism's favorite child.”
-Antithesis of purism and authenticity of art
-Artisans and artists
- artists like van dyke were used as inspiration for couture
-Some fashion is No more than copies of simple paintings by masters.

-fashion for fashion
-William Morris: “Fashion is a strange monster born of the vacancy of the lives of rich people.”
-Oscar Wilde: “So intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.”
-Paul Poiret was hired to be the potato fryer for the house.
-Poiret: "Ladies come to me for a gown, as they go to a distinguished painter to get their portrait put on canvas. I am an artist not a dress maker. "
-Chanel: “A dress is neither a tragedy nor a painting. It is a charming and feminine creation, not an everlasting work of art. Fashion should die and die quickly, in order that newcomers may survive. Neither Italians nor artists can make clothes. A little black dress is difficult.”
-Cocteau and Schiaparelli collaborations
-Working with Dali make Schiaparelli’s field supported and understood beyond the crude and boring reality of merely making a dress to sell.
-Also Chanel worked with artists but she did it separately from her own line of fashion
-Poiret and Schiaparelli saw fashion as a theatre performance, embodying art
-Vionnet: “Fashion is art, art is creative and men are the creators.”
-Balenciaga: “Couturier must be an architect for the cut, a sculptor for the form, painter for the colors and musician for the harmony and philosopher for the style.”
-Japanese fashion was a revolution, dramatically different from the western contemporary fashion.
-New emphasis on fashion as art and new relation between body and fashion.
-Art in terms of visual culture.
-Chalayan and McQueen
-Intersection of art and fashion
-Art is art, fashion is fashion. However Andy Warhol proved they can exist together.
-Warhol is a Key figure in fashion asking ‘what is art?’
-Anything could be art but that doesn’t mean everything
-A work of art is an object which exists only by virtue of the collective belief which knows and acknowledges it as art.
-A belief in the value of art
-30 years before, jazz and photography and cinema was accepted as not art forms but forms of popular culture
-The process of legitimation (classical music old paintings are accepted as ART)
-We believe that something is art or else it won’t be art.

- Producing its value as art
-Legitimation of fashion as art needs producing its value as art.
-Not all fashion is art.
-‘Fashion designers have to make clothes and sell them.’ says Frida and Elsa replies ‘to be honest may be nothing is art, who cares?’

Be still, my spirit!

Church's

Lately, I've happened to become obsessed with the still life thing in photography and styling. I wonder if it also happens to the others, that very moment at which you feel like your mind is gonna explode due to the overdose exposure to visual images for about non-stop 3-4 hours. Right at that moment I am dying for a clean and simple image with soothing colors on the background. It kinda relieves my mind and feels like fresh air to my brain. And I don't mean the scenery images, I mean the 'still life' images. There's something incredibly soothing about the still-life images that works for me. (Of course I exclude the ones like you can find in Vogue Italia's 'jewelry' section! They'd be whole another panic attack triggers at such moments!)

So as the situation is, I keep a 'In case of emergency' file in sight all the time on my desktop. And my latest sedative is by Church's official site. 

Speaking of Church's, damn yes, all I want for the 'to-be-luckiest-year-ever' is the iconic 'Constance' from the brand! (The star of the still-life above)