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mashed peas cooked by me, photograph and layout by Frau Ober
I'll take a little break and be travelling through South America - leaving ParisVienne alone to rest (you know, there are times in life).
Maybe 2010 will bring something new ...
... and a last little outfit collage as we're nearing the end of the noughties (yes, ladies and gentlemen!). Black on black, as "black is the new black", as one of my editors used to say (ha, ha!). Apart from the fetichizing leather cap (I don't even know where THAT is from... I swear!) and the Cheap Monday jacket straight from Stockholm, I'd like to bring your attention to the uniquely fantastic black patent-look wellingtons which I found during a shopping frenzy in the marvellous Tokyu Hands department store...
... and a quick look at the part of my bookshelf where I put away this totally breathtakingly find from a Parisian bouquinerie UNIVERS HOMOSEXUEL * IMPUISSANCE ET FRIGIDITÉ (what a catchy title! - I'm quite afraid I'll never bring myself to reading this one) as well as the half-empty case of Benjamin's Passagenwerk and Manzoni's Promessi sposi, alongside the only book in Romanian language I own (purchased as an attempt to find out about my capacity to actually READ a longer text la româneste) - and I wonder, will there be time for me to ever read these books? Hope is the last to die, you know...
... LVMH oblige - hello, Bernard, anyone, BERNARD??? ...
... hum... lest you wonder: Lea Eigard is some kind of beauty magician whose work and precious findings I came across when I recently did some beauty-related research on the internet (yes: beauty is an important topic, everybody out there), and she apparently came up with the EVER SO POPULAR Eigard method, which consists in some kind of facial gymnastics that represent
"the single most effective guide to surgery-free, ageless beauty ever".
Don't you find, too, that this sounds just too good to be true. And I'd absolutely and instantly DIE to see some of the Hollywood celebrities who allegedly visit Lea's beauty parlour perform this fantastically efficient kind of surgery-free eternal-youth-gymnastics. Say aaaaah, and say ooooooh...
... kind of sarcastic: as we're about to witness the failure of negotiations in Copenhagen and wildly sign up to international lists of supporters that try to collect digital signatures for petitions attempting to change the way things are ...
... the fashion world can sit back and relax, cos Vivienne Westwood just designed a beautiful t-shirt in collaboration with Anvil knitwear, made from recycled polyester or something (THUS: green...) - unfortunately, the pr people forgot to specify whether proceeds from the t-shirt sales will go to Rainforest Nation (the organization the collaboration wants to support), or whether the garments are just meant to be worn by militants during the climate summit...
admittedly, I DID always find this part of the station a bit disgusting,
but that didn't stop me from going there to take a final snapshot.
I was far from being the only one, btw., going to Südbahnhof these
past few weeks felt a little bit like what I'd imagine a photo safari to be like...
The premises were closed on Dec. 13 at midnight, and before the final destruction call, the URBAN DESTRUCTION festival will take place in this unique venue on Dec. 18, starting at 9 pm. Time to say goodbye...
... admittedly, it's neither Paris, nor Vienna, nor London - but it's STOCKHOLM - hej, you jul-lovers... Below Outlet store has a special Christmas season sale until Dec. 23, and the invitation is just too lovely - vad är det bra och trevligt...
... fantastic. As if the literary world were incapable of coming up with new propositions and impulses...
Indeed, these new impulses ARE rare, and it IS difficult to come up with something (almost) totally new, and I am NOT talking about pure literary experimentalism here (I was so into experimentalism when I was at university, and now I find it really rather dull, in a way, the constant effort to define oneself through form - only think of the formal constraints that the French nouveaux romanciers inflicted upon themselves...)
... so anyhow, Leanne Shapton's fabulous book Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry is really quite something. I came across it when I listened to the astoundingly unpretentious (at least in Austrian terms) radio show (which I really and truly adore) Open Book hosted by Mariella Frostrup on BBC's Radio 4.
What Leanne does, she basically puts together an auction catalogue with all the objects that were piled up and collected throughout a fictitious relationship, the one between Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, and inventorising and cataloguing them by adding little explanatory notes as you would find them in any auction catalogue. Surprisingly, these tiny fragments from two human lifes gradually, and little by little, turn into a bigger picture.
An absolutely interesting literary proposition, and a good read, too (maybe one you'll like to conduct in parallel with a "real" novel, but mind you, not far from being a "real" novel...)...
... a fabulously poignant video clip produced by Vienna's Green party and starring talented "actrices" Ewa and Cécile, two very charming and breathtakingly intelligent young ladies - in Austria, thanks to a new law that finally creates some kind of legal framework for gay and lesbian relationships, a homosexual couple will have to make their status official not where heterosexual couples do, but in another administrative division which also handles license plates and dog tags - what an "original" idea of our obviously very liberal government...
... namely Viennese fashion professor Bernhard Willhelm and his partner Jutta Kraus, will be on show in the Groninger Museum from December 13 through April 11, 2010. What a good opportunity to catch up and get a good overview of the work they've done together. Looking forward to some juicy images feat. Monsieur Sagat? Be there or be square - all you fashion students out there (maybe a good opportunity to organise a joint voyage d'étudiants?)...
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image courtesy of Studio Galgano
Walter Albini was born in 1941.
He studied fashion and costume design at the Instituto State di Bella e Moda before moving to France.
There he worked as an illustrator for various Italian magazines from 1959 to 1960. In 1960, he returned to Italy and joined Krizia where he stayed for three years.
He also did freelance designing for Callaghan.
Thereafter he produced several ready-to-wear collections for Basile. In 1965 he opened his own business for luxury sportswear.
Walter Albini was acclaimed as a formative and inspirational talent.
Working in association with avant-garde editors such as Anna Piaggi of Italian Vogue.
He was hailed as a master of casual, colourful ease. By 1971, he was presenting collections for 5 different houses each season.
Some of the houses he designed for were Callaghan and Misterfox. His career was cut short by an early death in 1983 in Milan.via: fashionmodeldirectory.com
... almost without words, actually - this truly beautiful "trouvaille" from the Communist party's flea market in Vienna some weeks ago. 't wasn't even me who found it, but I was allowed to sneak two snapshots...
... after so many ponderings and wonderings and wanderings, here comes just a plain little late autumn style photo, headless, bodyless, as always. The jeans are n'importe quoi, the sneakers are, well, I mean you can SEE what they are, I'd like to draw your attention to (a) the cigarette pack - an empty box of chocolate cigarettes, as it were, but they FABULOUSLY remind me of the cigarettes I used to smoke in Lisbon when I lived there, was it just plain "Português"?..., and then to (b) the four sizes too big YSL wool jacket which I bought and then (after the image was taken) had changed to fit met, which it now does, but not as tremendously well as I'd have liked - DIY, does it better...
... some days ago I read a rather alarming article about journalism, the (economic) pressure on journalists and the increasing importance of pr people and official spokesmen (whose information often replaces proper research conducted by journalists) - in Die Zeit -, and so I started wondering about a new kind of journalistic profile - which I'd classify as the "advertorial" type, gradually about to replace the purely "editorial" one.
Mind you, I know how the business works and that it's not all and always just about writing whatever comes to your mind (I'm talking about fashion and beauty, by the way - let's not even think about the pressure and potential uproar in the field of politics and the distribution of power structures), but I would still like to hope that we can create contents for the reader rather than (potential) advertising clients. That's what quality newspapers do, that's what good magazines do, that's what it should be about...
It is my firm belief that catering only to the demands and wishes of marketing people and transforming oneself (as a journalist) into some kind of hybrid creature quickly does away with one's own credibility and the importance of what you've got to say. Finding a middle way is probably the best solution (compromising is a must, I guess), but meanwhile I'll always prefer the editorial side of journalism...
... once you've been in (or let's say: even just near...) the fashion biz for a while, you realise that - apart from the superstars that keep floating high on their inaccessible clouds (CK, KL, DK, HL, whoever...), there seems to be a nice little rotation system affecting competitions, and university chairs, and design collaborations.
To make a long story short: Vienna uni's last professor (and, alas!, bankrupt designer) Veronique Branquinho joins Vienna uni's current designer Bernhard Willhelm in the racing stable of Spanish shoemakers Camper, as she has designed a capsule collection of men's shoes that will hit the stores next spring. Who's next (there is something I could tell you, but I won't right now, and I won't do it here...), we ask ourselves...
... given that I all too vividly remember the beautifully swinging Louis Vuitton runway show which I was lucky enough to witness this past October, and given that I incidentally found a charming orange foxtail (or racoon?) on one of my relaxing afternoon strolls to the nearby thrift store (so it's vintage fur, maybe that makes it a little better...?), and given that I got myself a Swedish children's rucksack, I tried out a combination of the first and the next and the latter, and voili voilà - cheap and chic, no? ...
... okay, so far for translatability and the impossibility to translate and wha'ever, but how else should I render "Ich Fergebe Dir" ("forgive" is "vergebe", so there is an intentional misspelling, which denotes the word as written by someone with, probably, a background of migration) in English? See? Anyhow, Bulgarian-born artist Michail Michailov has created a special, shall we call it a "roof painting" for a roof near St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna's first district.
Tricky detail: the roof painting can only be seen from the South Tower of the cathedral itself. If you want so see for your own, you can join a guided excursion (the artist will be present) which departs on the 4th floor of Das Weisse Haus this coming Saturday at 2.30 pm).
Btw, I first discovered Michailov's work in the context of an exhibition hosted by Essl Foundation - and liked it from the very beginning...
... I'm probably the last one to post it (but since we all know: blogging is not ALWAYS about being original omg! did I just say that, actually really...???, sometimes it may be about passing things on, kind of a téléphone arabe, what's it called, ah, Chinese whispers - no? showing that you're in the loop, too, and in the know, and in the now...), but I do still post it (and plan on going there, as a matter of fact).
My darling designers Claudia Rosa Lukas, Edith A'Gay, Hartmann Nordenholz, Elfenkleid and superated sell their sample collections this Friday and Saturday at Heiligenkreuzerhof in Vienna, 12.00 - 20.00 on Friday and 12.00 - 18.00 on Saturday. Join the party, yeah yeah...
... ever since I met her (by chance, I happened to be in Graz for an interview and popped into her very inviting shop) and then caught up with her to conduct a little interview for an article about childrenswear, I much appreciate the work and taste and cosy approach of Nina Schanitz, the designer behind the label BuaMädscha and the shop Blendend in Graz (Mariahilferstrasse 24).
Now, Nina let me know (and I think I won't be able to go to Graz for the pre-Christmas season, things are so busy these days) that she opened an Advent calendar in her shop window, where 24 works by 24 artists/creatives etc. will be shown.
Not to forget about Nina's own collection, and the possibility to enrol at a sewing course - and that, ladies and gents, is the one thing to do if you want to get in tune with these hard and verrry DIY times...
... thank you, Emma Bell, for your refreshing contribution to this year's MQ Vienna Fashion Week (and, more precisely, the far-from-perfect opening night) - and, surprisingly, for taking back home some Austrian inspirations that seem to have found their place quite naturally in the context of this very outrageous, colourful and daring aesthetics of yours...
all images © Wolfgang Steiner
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