Time to Move.

So seeing that this "flagged" situation is not going to an end, i decided I'm leaving blogger and moving to Wordpress.

But the moving is going a little slower than I thought.

Hopefully everyone that is being flagged will move out of Blogger to another host and Blogger will realized it can not flag a blog without first checking its content.

If everyone moves away, Blogger will have to improve its lame policy. Although it will be maybe too late, who knows.

In any case, i'm moving.
I will let you know my new link as soon as everything will run good and ok.

THANKS SO SO MUCH EVERYONE WHO'S SUPPORTING ME.
IT IS MUCH APPRECIATE IT.

xoxo
:)

image: from The Library of Congress

What The Heck is THIS ??

It seems some of my readers think that the content of my blog is somehow suspicious...
I wonder who are those people and which content they consider "suspicious"...
Now everytime you try to conect to my blog you will see this annoying warning:

It states that some readers have contacted Google to warn them that my blog ain't no good...

New Shoes Thanks To...

I was always a little suspicious when companies would offer me free samples of their products to write about for my readers, or invitations for events that 'could be interesting for my readers'.

Of course it's tempting but I was afraid that accepting or attending these events my blog would become a subliminal fashion ad blog.

I'm quite against those bloggers that write about the 'amazing' qualities of such and such product when the product just sucks; it's like those celebrities that agree to put their faces in ads of products that, ehem, are SO BAD. Credibility to the drain.

Last summer I received another offer but this time i thought it twice before saying no... I realized that we bloggers are always free to say the truth, whether is good or bad for the companies; they never force us to write 'positive' about their products, they just offer us the possibility of trying and talk about the experience. That's all. And I was ready to talk bad about mine...

For this reason and for the first time in my blogging life I agreed to get a free product in exchange of a post. I really wanted to see how the business work.
And let me tell you, I had a big surprise.

The company that contacted me was Solestruck and they did so through a lady called Danielle.
Danielle offered me a pair of shoes from their web, at no cost for me. I could choose any of the models on view, whatever size and color.

When she contacted me i was packing and getting ready for my European sojourn of 9 months so time was really tight to get anything and my mind was everywhere but where it should be.
I remember watching at the shoes they had on the web and although the type of product they carry is not really my style, I found these lovely Jeffrey Campbell mary-janes (above) and ordered them forgetting that i was leaving for Paris in less than a week.

When I apologized Danielle for my slip (she had sent the package already) she told me not to worry at all as as soon as she read the email she contacted the courier to change the date of arriving; and i got my new pair of shoes right on time for Paris fashion week :)

So what can i tell you? No bad word on this company from my keyboard.
Lovely shoes, and Danielle such a nice person.

Ode to the slow blogger

For the last couple of months I've been reading several apologies from bloggers who didn't have the time to write a post everyday... It is a very common thing, i have noticed, but I would like with this post to send a message to all my fellow bloggers that feel the stress and the pressure to publish once daily and if they don't, they think they're failing in some way... not at all!

My point is, although there are very gifted people that have the capability, energy and wit to write very insightful posts on a daily basis, such people as Susanna Lau from Style Bubble or Diane Pernet from A Shaded View on Fashion, this is not the norm. It is an extra-ordinary thing that can't make you feel bad, stressed or inferior if your pace needs to be slower.

Leisurely rhythm gives you perspective to think an idea over and to develop your own creativity.

It's important to digest a thought instead of just giving it away half digested. Big thinkers take time to process and develop and idea, and even the fashion blogger Queen par excelance, Cathy Horyn, doesn't give away a daily post... she takes her own time to write and to think what she wants to say, so don't feel bad.

Fast food is unhealthy for a reason...

I personally like, and love for this matter, fashion bloggers that take their time to live before talking about it in their blogs. I like bloggers who experience and "cook" an idea or an opinion before bringing it to their blog. I like bloggers whose real life goes before their virtual one because the latter can lead you to copy-and-paste other people's ideas; you need time to live your own feelings and experiences before hand.

This is the reason why i find amusing and inspiring to wait for new posts on blogs like Suzanna Mars' Style Sauvage, Mike Huynh's Cultures in Between or Search & Destroy because I know that while i wait, they're living and thinking of great things to tell me a bit later...

Good magazines, the good ones I mean, like self service, purple, the purple journal or fantastic man, are quaterly or biannual; only crap magazines are weekly, and some monthly. It might be a reason for that. Information needs to be processed before being exposed.

So next time you've been absent from your blog for days or even weeks, don't apologize; we know you're living.

Glorious Scars

There is a whole beauty market to get rid of scars and acne marks; lotions, Vitamin E capsules, cortisone injections, surgery, spa treatments... I once lived with a girl that was so obsessed with her scars that she could payed hundred of dollars per month just to get rid of them.

Surgery for scars that were produced in terrible accidents disfiguring one's face is one thing to support, of course. But I would like to question this nowadays' panic on imperfect beauty. Why is that?

Aren't scars beautiful? the most magnificent prove that we are alive?
They tell untold stories, and there's nothing sexier than a man with a striking scar...


Joaquin Phoenix's lip scar:




Harrison Ford's chin scar:





David Gandy's eyebrow scar:





Sean Avery's lip scar:




Le Corbusier's leg scar:
image courtesy of search & destroy




Mary J Blige's eye scar:




Kristen McMenamy's belly scar:

Please Drink Tap Water or Avoid Plastic Bottles As Much As You Can

One of the first things you can encounter at the tents of New York fashion week since 2003 are free bottles of Fiji water.

Once inside the building there you find big blue plastic containers with the tiny bottles ready to be picked up, and you couldn't be happier than sipping the liquid Kate Moss swears by...

All those who know me know that I'm addicted to bottled waters, specially Evian. My addiction is such that my hubby gave me 5 bottles of 1.5 liters of Evian water for my birthday... so there you have.

I love the taste of water and I like to taste the waters around the world. I have a very sensitive water-taste and can differentiate between one drink and another with just a sip...

... now let me tell you; please don't follow my steps and read what follows. It's serious stuff. And all my "coolness" for drinking hot bottled waters just go directly to the drain...

Extract from an article by Dr David Suzuki, scientist, broadcaster, author, and chair of the David Suzuki Foundation, Companion to the Order of Canada and a recipient of UNESCO's Kalinga Prize for science, the United Nations Environment Program medal, and Global 500, he's also Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and holds 22 honorary degrees from universities around the world, and Dr Faisal Moola, Director of Science at the David Suzuki Foundation.

The water that comes out of most city taps in Canada is pretty clean.
Yet many people prefer to spend money on bottled water, believing that it is somehow safer.

Now we’re learning that the stuff in plastic water bottles may be more harmful than anything in our tap water.

'Bisphenol A' is just one chemical that’s been in the news recently – and in many plastic bottles. This compound mimics estrogens (human female hormones) and has been linked to breast and ovarian cancers and childhood developmental problems. It is found in clear, hard polycarbonate plastic commonly used in household and commercial water coolers and some reusable bottles, and it’s just one potentially harmful substance associated with plastic containers.

The presence of chemicals isn’t the only reason we should try to wean ourselves from the bottle, though. For one thing, bottled water is expensive, costing more than a comparable amount of gasoline. Unlike most nations on Earth, Canada has vast quantities of fresh water. Have we so polluted our water that we feel compelled to pay a lot for it? And from beginning to end (and for plastics, that end is a long time away), plastic bottles contribute to environmental problems. To start, the manufacturing process is a factor in global warming and depletion of energy resources.
It takes close to 17 million barrels of oil to produce the 30 billion water bottles that U.S. citizens go through every year. Or, as the National Geographic website illustrates it: "Imagine a water bottle filled a quarter of the way up with oil. That’s about how much oil was needed to produce the bottle."


It also takes more water to produce a bottle than the bottle itself will hold. Canadians consume more than two billion litres of bottled water a year, and globally, we consume about 50 billion US gallons a year. Unfortunately, most of those bottles – more than 85 per cent, in fact – get tossed into the trash rather than the recycling bin.

The pollution from plastics affects our air, land, and water. Many plastic bottles end up in landfills or get incinerated, and burning plastic releases toxic chemicals into the air. Plastic that stays on land or that is buried can take hundreds of years to break down, and even then, it doesn’t completely biodegrade. One of the most disturbing things is what happens to plastic that ends up in the oceans – which is about 10 per cent of all plastic produced, according to Greenpeace.

About 550 miles off the coast of California, a massive, expanding island of plastic debris 100 feet deep and bigger than the province of Quebec, swirls in what is known as the North Pacific Gyre. In a recent column for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s website, writer Heather Mallick described it as "a hideous chyme [semi-fluid mass] stretching and pulsing in the sea like an underwater gob of spiky phlegm."

Plastic doesn’t biodegrade; rather, it photodegrades, which means that, under sunlight, it just keeps breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces. The tiniest bits of plastic, called nurdles, enter the food chain when they are eaten by marine animals and birds. Nurdles also soak up toxins, adding to the poisons consumed by animals and every creature up the food chain. More than a million birds and marine animals die every year from eating plastic waste or from becoming entangled in plastics. If the environmental damage caused by plastic bottles or the existence of potentially toxic chemicals in the bottles isn't enough to make you avoid them, how about some reasons that hit closer to home? First there’s the fact that many bottlers get their water from municipal supplies.

Coca Cola filters and bottles water from municipal sources in Calgary, Alberta and Brampton, Ontario for its Dasani brand. Pepsi's Aquafina comes mostly from Vancouver, British Columbia and Mississauga, Ontario. That's right: they're taking your tap water and selling it back to you at a markup that can be as high as 3,000 times the price you pay for it through your taxes.

There's also a danger that governments may use the growing reliance on bottled water as an excuse to avoid their responsibility to ensure we have access to safe drinking water. The federal government must address any existing concerns about drinking-water quality with enforceable standards designed to protect human health. If you're worried about chlorine in your drinking water, put it in a pitcher and let it stand overnight to allow the chlorine to evaporate – or consider buying a carbon activated filter for your tap. To carry water with you, fill up your stainless steel or glass bottle from the tap, and enjoy. Water is a precious resource that belongs to all of us. Let’s not take it for granted. And let’s not put it in plastic.

Reprinted from “Science Matters” a column by Dr. David Suzuki, PhD and Dr. Faisal Moola.

Via

Adam and Eve Love Chair Reminds Me Coco Chanel

Maybe is my fashion obsessed mind that sees fashion everywhere by the Adam and Eve Love Chair by product designer Wirawan Hasbi Suryanto, presented at this year’s Furniture Design Awards (FDA) exhibit in Singapore, brings Lagerfeld right to the center of my mind. :)

source

Press Power to the Drain

I started milkshake chocolate because i was dead tired and frustrated of meeting really good artists and designers whose art was getting lost into anonymity for the fact that they weren't born rich or didn't have the PR gift given to them.

I am very aware and sensitive to the "lack of press support" in young and upcoming designers because after all I live with them.
For this reason I get mad and really upset when someone who has the power of being listened for the press just throw that power to the drain offering really unthoughtful stuff and things that anyone can find anywhere very easily.
Malan Breton's fashion show during fashion week was such a "packed with press" catwalk, "emptied with thought" show. My experience told here.
images by Alex Wright.


-------------------------------
Cuando fundé milkshake chocolate lo hice porque queria ante todo apoyar a todos aquellos jóvenes diseñadores y artistas que por unas razones u otras acababa conociendo y cuyo trabajo era digno de ver y de lo más interesante pero que iba directo al anonimato por falta de apoyo por parte de la prensa ya que o no habian nacido ricos y con los contactos necesarios, o les "fallaba" la parte de las relaciones públicas, que al final en este mundo lo es quasi todo.
El hecho de haber esudiado diseño me ha dado la oportunidad de estar muy cerca de artistas y diseñadores jóvenes que emiezan y que ven cómo falla a parte de apoyo. Al fin y al cabo yo soy una de ellos tambien. Por esta razón me cabreo cuando veo que alguien con poder mediático tira dicho poder por la alcantarilla, ofreciendo cosas que no inspiran nada y que pueds encontrar en cualquier lugar. No ofreciendo nada original.
Esta fue la sensación que tuve cuando atendí el show de Malan Breton durante la pasada semana de la moda... más criticas (en inglés) aquí.
Gracias Alex Wright for las imágenes.

The Importance of Doing Exercise

For the past few weeks my life has been a whirl of things going on. I haven't had time to even eat some days, let alone to do some exercise...

Rick Owens: "Pole Dance Project" courtesy of Un Nouveau Ideal

When I went to Mandate of Heaven last week to pull some clothing for my photo shoot, Carissa, the designer, wasn't there and so her boyfriend helped me with the samples. When I asked him where she was (it was almost 9.30pm and I knew her fashion show was happening the very next day) he said: "she went to work out"...

I got really impressed and inspired and it kept me thinking about how smart is for someone really busy to stop everything to dedicate some time to exercise.


There has been many "changes" in the fashion world, or to be more precise, in some fashion designers, thanks to exercise: Marc Jacobs anyone? and also John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Rick Owens, Donna Karan...

There are other designers whose "sports" has been less marketered and we all know a little less about it like BLESS girls Desiree and Ines' Aikido, something they both started on a hot summer in Berlin and continued doing ever since. Or Yohji Yamamoto's Karate, a practice that the designer has been doing for years and if you didn't know it, he's the Chairman at the Karatenomichi World Federation.


Yohji Yamamoto (left)


" Stretching! I believe in that totally. I stretch in the tub, I stretch when I'm standing up, I stretch talking on the telephone... whenever you're doing anything, if you can do something else-- stretch! "

Diana Vreeland.

DV. page 188

Exercise really keeps you young and full of energy, is a real bust, better than chocolate!
I wonder why is so hard to remember in crazy moments of stress...

Diana Vreeland

------------

Lo de que "todo viene de una vez" que me lo digan a mi que he tenido las dos semanas más liadas de toda mi vida.
He tenido momentos estresantes en mi vida pero no tantos dias de seguido y he llegado a tener algunos en los que me he ido a la cama sin a haber comido en todo el día, y menos de poder hacer ningun ejercicio.... no se lo deseo a nadie!
El desfile de Mandate of Heaven fue la semana pasada y un dia antes me pase por el showroom para recoger alguna ropa para el photo shoot que he estado preparando para Celeste.
Cuando llegue, casi las 9.30 de la noche, ella no estaba asi que fue su novio quien me ayudo con todo. Me sorprendio que Carissa no estuviera asi que le pregunte a Ariel que era de ella: "se ha ido al gimnasio"... me dejó de piedra!
Imaginate el dia antes de selectividad, del examen del carnet de conducir, de una oposicion... y en lugar de quedarte en casita incando el codo sojes y te vas al gimnasio... y eso es exactamente lo que deberiamos hacer!
En el mundo de la moda muchos han sido los diseñadores que han sufrido drásticos y maravillosos cambios gracias al ejercicio como son Marc Jacobs, John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Rick Owens, Donna Karan...
Hay otros cuyas actividades fisicas han sido menos vanagloriadas por la prensa y sabemos menos de ellas, como el Aikido que practican Ines y Desiree de la marca BLESS, o el Karate de Yohji Yamamoto, que por cierto es dire del Karatenomichi World Federation.

" Estiramientos! Creo en ellos absolutamente. Me estiro en la bañera, cuando estoy de pie, cuando estoy hablando por teléfono... si no estas haciendo nada y puedes hacer algo- Estírate! "

Diana Vreeland.

DV. página 188

Si lo dice la Vreeland habra que hacer caso.... que el ejercicio te sube la adrenalina más que el chocolate!

Fashion, Religion and Law

Juashaunna Kelly, a senior at the District of Columbia’s Theodore Roosevelt High School, has been disqualified from a meet because officials said the custom-made outfit she wears to conform to her Muslim faith violated competition rules. (source)

Juashaunna has worn the same custom-made outfit for over three seasons but it's been only now that the referees decided that the outfit "violates the rules of the National Federation of State High School Associations" which stays that uniforms are required to be a single-solid color and unadorned...

One of the "options" that was giving to the athlete was to "take the hood off", then to wear a plain white T-shirt on over it...

But what's this need for saying others what to wear, what to say or what to think? Isn't this girl trying to live a normal life just wearing an outfit a little different than their peers in order to be able to be true to her religion? Who does really care? Do her peers, who are the ones who should care if that'd be the case, even care? I don't think so.

I think that the fact that Western people live in "democracies" make us think that we are free of speech, thought and fashion; if you want to wear a shoe in your head and no cloths to cover your legs, go ahead, no one will stop you, no one will take you directly to court! ...

We can dress crazy, trendy and cool as long as we don't wear something that shows your "convictions", like a veil. Because trendiness implies frivolity which harms no one "but yourself", but a veil implies character, and that my dear, that means that you think, and thinking can be very dangerous ...

-----

Juashaunna Kelly, una atleta musulmana del instituto Theodore Roosevelt, situado en Washington, ha sido descalificada de una competición por llevar ropa deportiva conforme a su fe, pero que "violaba las reglas de la carrera", han informado hoy medios locales. (fuente)

Juashaunna ha llevado este atuendo por tres temporadas pero parece ser que es solo ahora cuando la cosa tiene su importacia, ya que no ha sido hasta ahora que los árbitros han decidido que dicho atuendo viola las normas de la Federación Nacional de las Asociacones de Institutos de América entre las cuales se cita que "los uniformes han de ser de un solo color y sin adornos...".

Y yo me pregunto, de dónde sacamos esta necesidad de estar continuamente diciendo a los demas lo que deven llevar, lo que deben decir o lo que deben pensar? A quién le importa realmente que esta chica lleve o no lleve velo? Les importa a sus compañeros que son, si es que a alguien le tiene que importar, que ella vista de manera algo diferente? No creo que a ellos les importe lo más minimo, al fin y al cabo esta chica lo que quiere hacer es ser libre de poder correr y a la vez poder ser fiel a su religión, para lo que ella misma se ideó un atuendo, ella misma alló la solución que ahora se le esta denegando...

A veces creemos que por vivir en paises occidentales somos libres de pensamiento y de hacer lo que nos de la gana, pero ay, en cuanto nos salimos un poco de las normas establecidas, en cuanto damos a entender a traves de nuestro atuendo que "pensamos", que nuestras convicciones son otras que las "comunes", entonces las cosas se empiezan a poner feas...

Don't Come Knocking *

* thanks Wim Wenders for the tittle of this post

I met Shana Tabor (from NY vintage store In God We Trust) last Thanksgiving in a party we both attended.

At one point she started to tell me about some issue she had with Banana Republic. It seems that they knocked off a wool hat that Shana herself knitted for her store, and the copy was so perfect that now she was loosing money (how can she compete with Banana Republic's prices) and credibility (how can she prove that she designed the piece before? even if she does, how can anyone will buy the same piece in her store being the most expensive?).

is there any difference?

Weeks later my friend Zosen, a street-art artist from Barcelona, contacted me to tell me the knock off he was suffering from some random T-shirt company in Buenos Aires; it was copying not only Zosen's designs but also his own name!... (if you've been following my blog since the beginning you might remember Zosen from Amonstro Chocante).


The saddest part is that i've been a knocker myself when i worked for a big fashion company as a designer, so i know how the business work... to be hired by this companies you need to pass arduous interviews where they look and re-look your portfolio and they will only pick the best from the bests... to later ask you to trash all your creativity in order to copy someone else's ideas.
I guess they could save all this time and stress; you don't need to be a genius to knock off someone else's designs, do you?


Let me translate what Zosen sent me...

" ACID GUERRILLA copy-paste

I know it's no news that fashion designers copy one another, but it's unbelievable that the "new" ones, the "creative" and young are copying their peers as well... Viva the imagination!

Weeks ago some friends of mine went to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to attend the Independent Art Festival Buen Dia.

They saw my designs printed in some T-shirts, the design was a poster I did for a solo show I had in Barcelona in June last year (2006).

My friends asked one of the guys wearing the T-shirt where he bought it, maybe in Barcelona?. The guy said, no, in Buenos Aires, then they asked if he knew Zosen; he had no idea...

My friends contacted me to tell me that there were T-shirts in this Art Fair in Buenos Aires announcing my solo show in Barcelona... with my name, the gallery's name and even the gallery address!. They copied DIRECTLY the design, changing only the dates and the website, writing theirs instead of the gallery's.

The knockers name is, take note, LOVERS&FUCKERS... really original!... After this i decided to take a look to their website to realize that they copied not only me but also designs from records from Sonic Youth, Sex Pistols, etc. I sent them an e-mail and the owner answered me; "he didn't know anything" about it, it was all the "designer's fault, he even said that such design wasn't even the idea he had of the look for his label... he asked me to please don't talk bad about them, he didn't want bad publicity for his label. But I wanted to share what it happened.

We ended up making a third-world deal and at least I got to get free t-shirts with the name of my solo show print on them.

COOL HUNTERS OF THE WORLD: UNITE!! "


----------


// El día de Acción de Gracias conocí a Shana Tabor dueña de la tienda de ropa vintage In God We Trust. Estuvimos hablando de mil cosas y entre ellas surgio en la conversacion el tema de las copias en el mundo de la moda, algo de lo que tanto diseñadores como tiendas estan muy al tanto hoy día.
Parece ser que Banana Republic habia calcado tal cual uno de los gorros que ella misma hace para vender en la tienda y que desde entonces habia estado teniendo muchisimos problemas para venderlos porque no podia competir con los precios de Banana Republic asi como con la "dignidad" de estar vendiendo algo que una gran compañia estaba vendiendo tambien; como pruebas que fuiste tu el primero que lo diseñó?

Semanas despues mi amigo Zosen, desde Barcelona me contactó para contarme lo que le habia pasado con una compañia de camisetas de Buenos Aires que habian fulminado tal cual el diseño de uno de los carteles anunciadores de una exhibicion que habia tenido hacia un año. Abajo os pongo el email que me mandó.

Lo peor de todo es que yo se de que va este tema porque yo misma he copiado. He sido diseñadora en una gran empresa por dos años y pocas empresas hay hoy dia que permitan a sus diseñadores crear en lugar de fulminar. Lo cual es gracioso porque para entrar en esas empresas uno tiene que pasar entrevistas maratonianas en las que se mira con lupa tu portfolio... para que luego toda tu creatividad te la tiren a la basura porque lo que quieren de ti es que copies, y ya está.


" GUERRILLA ACIDA copy-paste

Que en el mundo del textil se copie no es nada nuevo, pero lo que es ya el colmo es que tod@s es@s nuevos “diseñadores” copien también a sus congéneres. La imaginación al poder!

Hace unas semanas unos amigos asistieron a un festival al aire libre en Buenos Aires (Argentina) el Festival Buen Día. Allí descubrieron uno de mis diseños sobre t-shirts estampadas; el diseño en concreto era el poster de una expo que tuve en Barcelona en Junio del año pasado. A uno de los chicos que llevaban la camiseta le preguntaron: ¿dónde compraste la t-shirt en Barcelona? No, en Buenos Aires, ¿conoces a Zosen? No, quién es ese?. Así todo raro me lo hacen saber, que hay camisetas anunciando mi expo, con el nombre de la galería,el mío propio y hasta la calle de la galería!!

Habían copiado íntegramente el diseño, sólo cambiaron dónde aparecía las fechas de la expo y las websites por el nombre de la “marca”. Los artífices de la copia se llaman (atentos a la originalidad del nombre) LOVERS&FUCKERS, a qué no suena típico? Eh qué no?

Decido echar un vistazo a su web y descubro que no sólo me habían copiado a mí sino también tenían impresas t-shirts con diseños de discos de los Sonic Youth, Sex Pistols, etc.

Les escribí un email y el dueño me dijo que él no sabía nada que era culpa del “diseñador”,bla,bla y que LA COPIA no era su idea de diseño para la marca; menos mal porque sex pistols y sonic youth no son conocidos como para saber que el “diseñador” lo ha copiado de las portadas de sus discos!

Me dijo que no quería mala fama y que no hablara mal de ellos, por eso aquí les cuento mi experiencia. Llegamos a un acuerdo tercermundista y tengo algunas camisetas con el nombre de mi expo: GUERRILLA ACIDA!

Lo mejor las modelos luciéndolas que parecen que están con mucho calor del verano..

¡¡COOL HUNTERS DEL MUNDO UNÍOS!! "

A Flower Child

Marilyn Monroe played in movies for the first time in 1947 with tittles such Dangerous Years, Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!, Green Grass of Wyoming and Ladies of the Chorus.
But it wouldn't be until 1950 that her name would start to be known thanks to Joseph Leo Mankiewicz's All About Eve.

For the following 10 years Marilyn would become a star thanks to movies such Niagara, The Seven Year Itch or Some Like It Hot, until her terrible death in 1962 when she was just 36 years old and working in the "most notorious unfinished film in Hollywood history" Something Got To Give.

She lived and become the symbol we all know today during the 50's, and hers is the typical figure of a 50's sex-symbol, or the three B's; Bosom, Belly and Bottom.

We seem to know her body to the inch, thanks to dresses that would become part of our fashion history collective memory: has anyone forgotten the sheer gold lame dress that Billy Travilla designed for her to go and claim her award for Hollywood's "Fastest Rising Star" of 1952? Anyone?

Marilyn has always been a 50's symbol, obviously we never had the chance to know her otherwise. But, what if she lived through the 60's? How would the new fashions affect the star?

New Yorker photographer Bert Stern took pictures of Marilyn Monroe in 1962 for Vogue magazine, just six weeks before her death. These pictures show a very different woman, more relaxed, free and somewhat vulnerable, adjectives that would describe a woman in the 60's decade more than in the 50's where all women were supposed to be perfectly groomed, energetic and happy.
Edith Head, who was never able to dress Monroe but was a good friend of the actress, wrote a beautiful comment on her in her autobiography:


" Every designer who worked with her cinched her and harnessed her. Marilyn was a free spirit who should have been dressed in such a way that she would be able to forget about her clothes. When a woman is sexy, she knows it and she doesn't need clothes that constantly remind her. Marilyn should have been a star in the late 1960's -- she should have been devastating as a sensual flower child. I hated the hippie look, but Marilyn would have love it. "

Edith Head's Hollywood
page 106

// Aunque Marilyn Monroe apareció en la gran pantalla por primera vez en 1947 en un total de cuatro peoliculas: Dangerous Years, Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!, Green Grass of Wyoming y Ladies of the Chorus, no sería hasta 1950 y gracias a su papel en la pelicula de Joseph Leo Mankiewicz, All About Eve, que se convertiria en la gran sensación del momento.
Durante los siguientes 10 años Marilyn se convirtiría de la noche a la mañana en una gran estrella, gracias a peliculas como Niagara, La Tentación Vive Arriba o Con Faldas y A Lo Loco, hasta su fatal muerte en 1962 con tan solo 36 años de edad, mientras rodaba la que pasará a la historia como la pelicula no acabada más famosa de Hollywood; Something Got To Give.
Marilyn se consagró como sex-symbol durante la decada de los años 50, de ahí que su cuerpo pasase a ser el epítome de esa década: una mujer con pecho, tripa y culo (las tres B's en inglés= bosom+belly+bottom).
Su cuerpo es probablemente uno de los cuerpos más emblemáticos de Hollywood, gracias a los miticos vestidos que la actriz vestiria a lo largo de su carrera, cómo olvidar el vestido dorado que Billy Travilla diseñó para ella para la recogida de su premio a "La carrera cinemátográfica más precoz"?
De cualquier forma la muerte de Marilyn nunca nos permitió saber qué hubiese sido de ella durante los 60's, qué hubiese vestido la actriz en una época en la que libertad corporal significó tanto.
En 1962, justo seis semanas antes de la muerte de la actriz, el fotografo Newyorkino Bert Stern fotografió a la actriz para Vogue. Marilyn poso desnuda para el fotografo y el resultado fueron una fotos mas intimas de lo que el publico en general estaba acostumbrado, Marilyn aparece como una mujer totalmente libre, fuera de prejuicios, sensual y frágil al mismo tiempo, más en la línea de lo que sería la actitud de la mujer en los 60' que en los 50'.
Edith Head, gran amiga de la actriz que por desgracia nunca tuvo la oportunidad de vestirla, escribió en su autobiografia algo al respecto:

" Todo diseñador que trabajó con ella se empeñó en ceñir su cuerpo y atarlo. Pero Marilyn tenia un espiritu libre y tuvo que haber sido vestida de tal manera que hubiese podido olvidar la ropa que llevaba. Una mujer sexy lo sabe y no necesita de la ropa para ser recordada continuamente. Marilyn debió haber sido una estrella durante los ultimos años 60.-- hubiese sido arrebatadora como una sensual "hija de las flores" (hippie). Personalmente odio el look hippie pero Marilyn lo hubiese adorado"

Edith Head's Hollywood

pagina 106

On "per click" ads... are they really "per click"?

When shopzilla contacted me months ago to place an ad in my blog it was a very happy day for me; I needed money at the time for milkshake chocolate's expenses and it also gave me the chance I was craving for, getting paid for my time and ideas.

They were very honest with me from the beginning and we discussed different wages until we got the deal.

Months later they offered me to place ads "per click"; I would get paid regarding the "clicks" those ad-links would get from my readers.
I thought it a good idea and placed those ads for a couple of months... until I realized I was advertising those companies (others than shopzilla) without getting paid. Then I decided to remove them.

Since then I am still trying to figure out why these "per click" ads are so popular (google is a favourite) among bloggers who want or need to earn some money. Many of these bloggers are quite followed thus their traffic permits these ads to do "their job".

Those ads have the name of the company big and bold and so it gets stuck in our heads somehow. Therefore, companies are advertising in the blog without paying a penny. Aren't those companies playing with the bloggers' "hope" that someone will click?.

I wonder how many people click those ads.
They (the ads) are rather dull and uninteresting, we are reading a blog and don't want to be bothered. The months I have them up not even one person did a single click.

This is my opinion and the reason why I removed those "per click" ads. They're not for me, thanks.
>>> More on blog-sploitation* by the great Liberty London Girl.


//El día que shopzilla me contactó para poner anuncios en mi blog fue un gran dia para mí porque por una parte necesitaba dinero para pagar algunos gastos de milkshake chocolate y por otro por fín veia hacerse realidad mi sueño de ser pagada por mi tiempo e ideas.
Desde el primer momento he de decir que fueron muy legales conmigo, negociamos durante algun tiempo hasta que me ofrecieron algo que nos convnia a los dos y cerré el trato.
Despues de aquello me volvieron a contactar para publicar anuncios "per click", esto es, recibiria dinero dependiendo de cuantos click esos link recibieran por parte de mis lectores.
Pronto me di cuenta de que estaba haciendo publicidad sin cobrar un duro porque al fín y al cabo el nombre de la empresa estaba bien claro escrito con lo cual mis lectores se quedaban con la copla sin necesidad de clickar. Entonces decidí eliminarlos.
Desde entonces todavia no me explico cómo estos anuncios "per click" son todavia tan famosos. Esta es claro mi opinión y seguro que hay gente a quien le funciona. A mí no me funcionó y mi experiencia me dijo que la publicidad estaba ahí y yo sin cobrar nada. No gracias.
Liberty London Girl publicó un post sobre publicidad y otros problemillas de bloggers, si sabes inglés no dudes en leerlo, vale la pena la información que tiene.

Where Are My Pictures?

Sorry for this temporary (I hope) disability of my pictures... what's up with photobucket?? i even signed up for a pro account! Hello??!!
I think I will need to follow The Paris Apartment's advice and archive my blog in the form of a book because I'm afraid that one day flickr, the already mentioned photobucket and all the hosts I use go out of business with my images in their files...

Men Are Aware of a Woman's Clothing Too

Many things are delighting me while reading Edith Head's autobiography The Dress Doctor, but any more than the vision of a man, Jerry Lewis, on women's clothing... very insightful and interesting ladies.

" If you are playing a scene with a girl who is supposed to be sweet, simple and sympathetic, and she looks like a witch in clothes too tight, too low and too siren -no matter how good an actress is, you feel a psychological barrier. You can't think of her as a grown-up Girl Scout. If this is true in comedy, how much more true in serious drama, and how much more true in real life. What a woman wears creates, subconsciously, your idea of what she is. In every scene I'm aware, as an actor, of the impact the actress is making on me and at the same time I'm aware, as a producer, of what the audience is going to think"

The Dress Doctor (1959) page 151

Women Need Advice and Other Women. Do We?

The great Hollywood costume designer Edith Head once wrote: "One hundred years ago, every woman wore a hoopskirt, she had no choice; seventy-five years ago, every woman wore a bustle. Today, a woman can look any way she wishes -if she knows how, if there is someone to help her" (The Dress Doctor -1959- page 21).

When I read such a statement I got very surprised and immediately thought, "I'm sure that was the way 50 years ago, now not anymore... no ones needs advise, we all are independent and wear what we please"... Was I right?

Being a magazine whore and trying to collect as many magazines as possible, from any period of time, made me noticed that no matter the year in the cover, all magazines have something in common; they tell women what to wear.
What-to-wear in regard of the situation we are about to face (a job interview, a blind date) or the person we are about to meet (mom, dad, a boyfriend), what-to-wear when we are happy or sad, at home or at the office...

It seems we really need help... Really?

For many centuries women's roles were severely limited by society's concepts of male supremacy and female inferiority. [...]
Fashions of the times [XIX century] didn't help either. Voluminous, billowing skirts hampered movement, and corsets caused dizzy spells and fainting.
A woman's priority in young adulthood was to find a husband, and after doing so, raise a family and run a well-kept household. [...]
The male-dominated social order dictated that women be meek and obedient "domestic creatures," for the most part confined to housewifery and raising of children, deferential to men, and financially dependent on the husband. These very definite ideas about a woman's part in the overall scheme of things were responsible for the restricted part women played in their world. "...[A]n exclusively nineteenth century phenomenon among women... developed as a result of the concept of the 'woman's sphere,' whereby the woman's role in life was strictly limited to home and family. [...] ". (Muhlenfeld) " >> source

Although the text was written with reference to women in the XIX century I found those matters timeless...

For centuries women haven't been able to study, to work, to do any sports, to be part of any political or cultural event. They were imprisoned in their own home and with time in their hands, rich ladies decided to use it to embellish themselves and to find new methods to improve their natural beauty; they invented in the solitude of their homes new fashions, new hair-dos, new beauty products and techniques... And to do so they used other women (sisters, mothers, friends) in this ritualistic grooming—that potent, mutual currency of female friendship.

It would be a facile argument to say they did so to impress their husbands, "masters" of their house and world. But we all know very well how much we like to dress for other women, the ones who will understand if what we're wearing is faux or not, if the bag we're carrying is Chanel, Prada or Lanvin.
If we would dress for men only we would be naked or with just a mere brassiere. Instead our fashions are very elaborate and the highest the fashion the more knowledge you need to know what's going on.. and really, how many men have the knowledge?

It would be wrong too to accuse them of being frivolous for acting in such a way. Now we can work, do sports, be part of political and cultural events and we do not have spare time in our hands but still, we use the little we have to embellish ourselves and... write blogs about it.
Although I don't post about my outfits or my beauty secrets and i don't follow what others do, I might be a rareté, what kind of woman am I?, because they get the most comments, they get the most love&hate, they are like blog-celebrities and I have to admit that when I started to post some pictures of myself my stats began to rise up like froth.
We women definitely like to see each other getting dressed and looking nice and neat.

It is then something on our DNA I guess and it will take years or maybe never, to erase that love for sharing fashion and beauty between each other, for telling each other what to wear, and what's best, for accepting so.

Oh, and I can not forget to mention the dressing-up syndrome that we all suffer since we are little girls (Lula magazine wouldn't exist if we wouldn't suffer from it); we love to dress up together, to put make up on our best girl friend... so i wonder if this is the real love we all share. :)

naomi campbell + kate moss / edith head + gloria swanson

Blogs That make Me Think

The fact that bloggers are creating their own awards is something quite sweet because it means the respect we profess to each other and the value we give to our peers for their time in keeping us informed.
The first award that fashion bloggers started was Rockin' Girl Blogger whose "inventor" I still don't know but whose impact in our busy lives was such that it run like gunpowder through the fashion bloggosphere: smiles, happiness and lots of compliments to each other.
Dear Mahret at F&Art awarded me in August and soon thereafter Stella et Moi did as well. I couldn't be more surprised and happy because "to win" is one of those verbs that don't abound in my vocabulary.

Now it's the Thinking Blogger Award, whose "starter"' this time I know (please follow the link), a reward for those blogs that make us think, which is, mind you, the best award one can gets.
For this reason I'm so grateful to Moni at Miss at La Playa for thinking of me (and please visit her awesome project The Fashion Box) and for giving me this lovely surprise.
Now is my turn to give back the happiness, and so I hope to do ... The winners of my award are:

* Mode et Utopie. This graduate student and newcomer in the fashion bloggosphere has become my fav in just less than three days. She makes me think and sends me news from the side of fashion that i love so much

* Wendy Brandes Jewelry. Wendy makes me think through laugh and there's not better way to do so. Shes funny in the smartest way. Wendy, please don't lose EVER your sense of humor.

* Style Bubble. Should I even say why? I wonder if she hasn't got this award yet but in any case, she is the one and only and without her inspiration my fashion life wouldn't be as intense as it is nowadays. She is the best fashion writer I know and her blog is a true inspiration and pleasure everyday.

* Independent Fashion Bloggers. But basically this award goes to its creator, my dearest Jennine, who started this amazing project with all her generosity, hoping to make us more aware of our little world. This project has made me think about fashion blog issues more than anything else.

* Disney Roller Girl. Her witting is fantastic and the way she expresses fashion facts is very inspiring. She, as Susie does as well, keeps me linked to London and its whereabouts in the most interesting way.

As always, and unfortunately, I have less awards to give than needed as there's other bloggers that feed my mind in a daily basis like F&Art, Parallel Entity or Voluminous and Billowing. So I hope someone invents a new award soon to continue giving and paying my honors.

As A Matter Of Fact

First of all, please don't get me wrong; I am the biggest Stella McCartney for Adidas' designs fan and I would buy them all if a) they were more affordable and b) they weren't as synthetic as they are, not that I don't use synthetics, I'm ashamed to admit it but I do, it's just that these are too much, and I can't picture my body exercising under such circumstances: no air for my body, sweat, sweat, sweat. No thanks.

A couple of days ago I was having a discussion with a very good friend of mine who is as fan as Stella's Adidas as I am with the exception that she doesn't care about synthetics or money matters. She mentioned how cool is Stella and her 100% cruelty free designs and her use of innovative alternatives and I was amazed at the hearing of such a statement. I don't get it.

I respect Stella for what's she's doing, for being one of the first current fashion designer to support cruelty free fashion (Following the death of her mother in April 1998, Stella stepped up her fight against the maltreatment of animals, a cause Linda had always held dear) and alternative fabrics, she even turned down an offer to work for Gucci as such position required her to work with leather.
She teams up with PeTa and is all for Vegan fashion but, are we being serious?.

* Vegans do not use or consume animal products of any kind. The most popular reasons for becoming a vegan are ethical commitment or moral convictions, concerning animal rights, the environment, or human health [...].

As I mentioned before, Stella's designs for Adidas are basically all made out of synthetic materials such NYLON, Polyester and Lycra, hidden under names such ClimaLite® or ClimaProof® and those products are not very eco-friendly really. They are not good for the environment, ain't not good for human health either... Isn't protecting animals from a cruelty treatment in opposite direction than supporting and using chemicals that affect all animals' (humans included) environment?.

• Nylon and Polyester are made from petrochemicals, whose production creates nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that's 310 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
  
  
• Lycra or Spandex is made from several chemicals that are known sensitizers. TDI (Toluene Diisocyanate) and MDI (Methylene Diphenyl Diisocyanate) are used as precursors of the polyurethane used to make spandex.
  TDI is a toxic chemical which is proven to be carcinogenic. It is also a skin irritant and can cause severe dermatitis. MDI is toxic and known to be an allergic sensitizer.

Now you tell me if this eco-friendly fashion designer is such or not.

Free Press in Fashion Shows is Good For All

We live in a moment in which fashion press is being into the fray quite a lot. Starting with us fashion bloggers and our right or not right to attend shows, our ability to talk about them or even to criticize what we like or don't in the fashion industry.
The war with the press and the dress shows seems like a new subject, but as everything in this world, nothing is new under the sun.
A couple of days ago I finished the amazing autobiography of one of the greatest designers of the XX century, Elsa Schiaparelly, tittled Shocking Life. After World War II the Syndicat de la Couture in Paris drawn up a series of regulations for the fashion industry in order to gain more money for the designers and more security for their creations. Unfortunately some of those changes involved the lack of freedom in fashion press .. As Elsa herself pointed it out:

" [...] The Press -the ever-democratic press, which is the one that really counts - is no longer allowed to take photographs during a show. When at last photographs can be taken they cannot be published for nearly a month. Imagine how stale the news has become by then. Movies and television cameras are also banned at dress shows, thus not merely robbing us of the spontaneous publicity we used to enjoy, but leaving the stage clear for any financial or preconceived scheme that some unscrupulous set of people might devise "

Shocking Life, The Autobiography of Elsa Schiaparelli
V&A edition. pages 167-169

This book was published in 1954 and the battle of wether or not free press in dress shows was already alive.

It has been very interesting for me to know the opinion of one of the most intelligent person in the fashion world of all times, and knowing that she was all down for free press in fashion shows.

Antlered Girls

For some reason antlers are a constant theme both in Fashion and Art/Design. Even a quite known girl in the New York social art world named her blog as The Secret Life of Antlered Girls.

Placing antlers in people gives the subject certain modernity that i didn't understand why yet, although i am the first one to recognize such.

This year Banana Republic Christmas ad is a girl with, ehem, antlers. I'm sure when publicists were thinking about an idea for the new campaign they did about Santa's reindeers but never before an antler tiara has meant "cool" as it does now; I can't imagine a label as Banana Republic placing this accessory in a pretty girl for a Christmas ad before.

Even though this topic is already a little over it seems it's still creating some attraction in people.

Viktor & Rolf RTW Fall/Winter 2004-05 collection.

Antler Chandelier by New York based designer Jason Miller

French artist Dorothee Sorbier drawing








Alexander McQueen Fall 2006