If Paolo Roversi was a Woman...

... and felt in love with Czeck photographer Jan Saudek, he would probably become the New York based photographer Aneta Bartos.

Think about nanny's old photo albums and you will get Aneta's thing.
Aneta's images keep the allure and blurred atmosphere of a 70's Cacharel add signed by Sarah Moon, the British model turned photographer that conquered the fashion world with her girlie view of the French label.

As Sarah, Aneta blurs her images and brings us back the glamour of Marlene Dietrich or Greta Garbo. A decadent Glamour.

Hers are pictures clearly made by a woman, and you happily realize that thanks to the strange and yet so beautiful faces of the models she chooses to work with. Hers are models far from being just mere manequins or a man's desires players. Instead they have their own personality and stories to tell. She's not even afraid to talk about women's feelings as she does for Australian magazine Noise's fashion editorial Maternal Instics... A photographer to keep our eyes on.

* all pictures at anetabartos.com

New York Fashion Week..

is making me craaaaazyyy!!!... Sending emails, making calls, adjusting the agenda... it takes more time than I owe... ! But i must say it's exciting as hell and i love it :)
New posts will arrive very soon...
PS: Dear Susie Bubble, how do you do it to post, work, attend shows, and know about everything??!! YOU ARE MY HERO

España y Olé

Natividad Abascal Romero de Toro, better known as Nati Abascal, is probably a complete stranger among those who wasn't born in Spaniard lands. She is though a very well known socialite in Spain, a common face in magazines such Hola! and the likes.

Despicte the fact that she is so popular, I never thought of her as someone to care about, although i always agreed that she has her own style and knows how to pull off great excentric outfits.

Now, you dear readers may wonder; Why are you so interested in her right now? Why are you using some space of your blog to talk about her? ... the reason is Elle -Spain-, that just awarded her "Spanish Style's Ambassador" and asked her some questions about her personal and working life. Just for curiosity i found myself reading it and finding out more about the "first top-model that Spain did export". Maybe she wasn't that bad after all.

I obviously didn't know anything about her as it was quite a sorprise to know some of the people that she worked with; Woody Allen (Bananas -1971), Valentino, the great Avedon or Eileen Ford, co-founder of today's one of the biggest model's agencies, Ford Models.
Above all it sorprised me to see how beautiful she was. A young Lola Flores meets Sofia Loren. A strong beauty that you don't see that often nowadays.

ELLE: Tell me, if you would be a dress, which one you would be?
NATI: Me? I would be a bikini.

Miami Beach

I'm just back from Miami, where all is about fluo colors, fake boobs, blonde women and men in white linen pants.
It can be quite irritating if you come from a fashionable city as NY but if you assume that Miami is what it is, it can be a lot of fun. WeLoveColors from Florida covered Bertoucci's fashion show, and that's basically the look of South Beach any day or night.

Ocean Drive beach is packed with body-builders type in almost-thongs and women in bikinis wore high in their waist. Defenitely 80's are back down there. Sonny Crockett and Rico Tubbs were never so alive.

D. mentioned, and it's true, that wealthy here is all about body not about clothing, so the wealthier you are the better body you have therefore, the more you show out of your clothing.

I didn't take any picture at all, and now I regret, but fortunately S. did and this is my favourite one... the story behind this pic is simple; we were just pretending to be part of Delano Hotel's crowd when this sexy man run passed us. It was delightful.

South Beach Stories

Gianni and Donatella's South Beach Stories book was published in 1993 when I was just 13 years old.
I remember seeing the book's review in Elle magazine and getting hooked for all those images of sun, luxury, palm trees and wonderful models.

I was too young to buy a book like that so i just collected every single review i saw published. I still keep those reviews with me nowadays.
Many times i have tried to buy the book but since Gianni's death in 1997 is almost imposible to find it. When i did, it cost no less than 171 $. And i know that's not soo expensive but still, something stops me from buying it.
So going to Miami has been always a dream that now is coming true... I'M GOING TO MIAMI!! It's not the first time though as I went last year to attend the What Moves You Miami event. But this time is the longest and more fashion related.

I'm leaving NYC next Sunday 14th and arriving into Miami around 4pm. I'm going with S. and G. and we are planning to shoot an editorial for Milkshake Chocolate.

We are still seeking locations to shoot and showrooms where get the clothing, ANY ADVICE MIAMI READERS?? Also I would like to know if there's any must-see fashion show, event or party to attend as i know many models are these days down there shooting catalogues and editorials. Any info will be fully apreciated!
South Beach Stories there we go.. >> !

Amelia Gregory in Milkshake Chocolate

Self-promotion is something I try to avoid as fire avoids water, not because i think is wrong but because I'm too shy and want to play humble...
But today I'm going to make a rule's exception with this posting because I think what I'm into tell will be interesting information for magazine junkies as me.

Amelia Gregory, founder and designer of lovely Amelia's Magazine, answered some questions for Milkshake Chocolate about what it took her to China for Amelia's last issue and what it takes to produce a magazine from zero... -one's liver and a leg almost.
The interview took several months to conclude due to her Eastern trip and then Christmas holidays. And we did it via email what made things even more difficult. But with a smile and some frustrating misunderstandings we finished what you can enjoy now. Thanks Amelia for your patience and Cheers!

Harper's Bazaar Español photo-shoot

Last December 13th 2006 I assisted fashion stylist Gisela del Castillo in a photo-shoot for Harper's Bazaar Español.
The photographer was Peter Koval and the model Erin Heatherton [Marilyn].
This girl is a real sweetheart. She flew from Las Vegas that same day where she worked for a catalogue having less than 4 hours of sleep in her brain and still having a smile for everyone... I wonder how i'd be in her shoes... not the nicest girl in the world really.
The publishing date for the shoot is March 2007. You see, more than two months in advance for shooting.
Unfortunately i was very sick that day and so Peter was, flu days in the City, so i couldn't enjoy the moment as much as i would like.
My mom was in town and she came with me to take a look... that was pretty funny.
Some pictures from the shoot.

More Ways To Make Your Old Clothing Useful

My last posting about Hector Serrano's Cloths Hanger Lamp and this one you're about to read have been possible thanks to a lecture I attended with friend C. a couple of days ago at the MAD -Museum of Arts & Design- in NY.
Ellen Lupton, graphic design teacher and curator of Contemporary Design for different museums in the city, introduced to the audience her very personal view of the topic she named "DIY, Be Your Own Brand, design Your Own Lifestyle".
The talk was offered in order to explain the current exhibit at the Museum, Simply Droog 10 + 3 years of Creating, Innovation and Discussion curated by Ellen herself.
For starters, Droog is a Dutch design collective whose main goal is the defense of low-cost industrial materials and DIY design for everyday items, read IKEA and you'll understand the point.
Soon after their set up career in 1993, a pool of designers from all over the world began to add their works and ideas to the collective. The collection droog has achieved through the years is a hymn to human being's imagination and sense of humor and some of those products now can be seen at the MAD.

But this posting is not to talk about droog or their amazing ideas, but rather to point out the common use of fashion concepts and materials for industrial designers to develope ideas and theoretical games. I guess that's because of the democracy in fashion; is there any person on earth with no fashion problems? is there any people out there without i- dont- know- what- to- wear morning days?.


Even the nude tribes in South America or Africa understand the meaning of dressing, even if dressing just means putting on marvellous necklaces made out of stones and feathers and little else.
It's a pleasant fact to me seeing fashion concepts being used for intellectual purposes. It's like winning our little battle of we- are- not- only- frivolity- but- rather- something- else... Yay!


* Bless: a bag that provides space for all bags you collect when shopping. Made out of leather and metal clips.
** Zivia: Table and Chair made out of rags and mattreses
*** ixilab: inflatable pants to sit when you're tired. Made out of PVC and condoms material.
**** Tejo Remy: Chair made out of rag clothing and steel strips

Cloths Hanger Lamp

Hector Serrano, one of the creativest minds in industrial design nowadays, designed the Cloths Hanger Lamp for droog Design collective in 2002.

This collective defends the DIY design versus the hi-fi that most designers lean to. They often use fabric materials and fashion design concepts for some of their pieces, like this simple lamp that Serrano created out of a plastic hanger and a light bulb. The dress of it is up to you; "By hanging the garment of your choice on the hanger you create a personalized lamp"...
If you're still thinking about what to do with that clothing you love but are tired to use and to see getting bored in your closet, there we are, there's not a better way to make it useful. Dress your home with your own clothing... pure Dada!

A Fashion History Story

Two Christmas ago my mom gave me the Linda Watson's book Twentieth-Century Fashion, a study of the last century Fashion through the eyes of Vogue.
I didn't pay much attention to it at the time, maybe because i was too busy with other books and thought of this one as 'too commercial'.
This year though, looking back with no anger, i gave it a chance.
To my surprise, this book is making me realize some good ideas and facts in the fashion history that i kind of know, but not really.
My first nice discovery was to see the first Vogue cover that featured a picture. It dates July 8th 1909, New York. Price, 10ç. The picture shows three women talking during the horse racing at Auteuil, France, as horse racings were the "red carpet" of the time, where women changed outfit even 6 times a day...
Before that very Arts & Crafts cover, magazines only featured a drawing on their very first page.

You're Beautiful the Way You Are

* Dangerous Beauty through April 21
Chelsea Art Museum, 556 West 22nd Street [NYC]

My Women of the Year. I

Agyness Dean - Agyness Deyn - Agnes Hollins ... this girl is a mistery.
Even her age is something to wonder: 15? [POP magazine - although this seemed to be a typo mistake] 20? [model card] 23? [guessing from interviews...]
This model from Manchester reminds me Edie Sedgwick and model Jenny Howarth quite a bit. Her look and her own style is very 80's for real. When she modeled for the famous Vogue Italia last November 2006, people at TFS, myself included, commented on how that cover looked like the old ones for good. And she's not the one that everyone could get the look right away, you will love her or hate her, there's not in between.
But for me, even though she's not one of my favourite models, she is one of my favourite women in the way she looks when she's with her own clothing and her own looks.
See her pictures and tell yourself... HAPPY 2007 !!!







Credits: * Face Hunter * Style.com * Vogue UK * Models.com * The Fashion Spot *

My Women of the Year. II

The second place in my own Women of the Year list is for French actress Lou Doillon, daugther of 60's icon Jane Birkin and French director Jaques Doillon.
She is what 100% French style means to me: Chic. Bohemian. Elegant.
For some reason is her half daugther, Charlotte Gainsbourg, the one that takes more attention among the press, probably due to her recent project with cult director Michel Gondry, The Science of Sleep. But for me Lou is who really kick ass.
I think she pulls off some really good outfits out of very simple clothing. I wish i have that talent every morning when i open my wardrobe and what i can see is the same plain T shirt over and over again!. Twist Bobble, twist!

My Women of the Year. III

Everyone has their own muses or inspirations. People we like to look at because they irradiate something we can't help ourselves but loving it.
There have been a good number of women this year that have blown me away with their style. I would love to feature them all in this blog but i would need another whole year to do so!
So i decided to pick up carefully the three that more surprised me in every single picture, the ones that made me believe in fashion and style again.
***
I would like to start with the youngest of all them. This little woman i discovered flipping through the pages of Lula in an interview named About A Girl... a person who didn't take my attention at first sight, i must say, but whose style has captivated me since i started to realize and apreciate every single detail in her outfits... a girl that swears she hasn't change her haircut since the moment she had her hair... ladies and gentlemen... i hope you love as i do the sweetest Tennessee Jane Bunny Thomas!
Named after her dad's, the Elvis Costello's drummer for years Pete Thomas love for country music, Tennessee is the barefooted drummer of all-girl- rock-band The Like.
You would hear her name in The Strokes 's song Whatever Happened? as, rumor has it, she and lead singer Julian Casablancas, dated for a while...

* some pictures have been croped in order to pop up her figure. For full versions of pics please visit The Cobra Snake or The Sartorialist

A Beatnik Carousel

Have you seen the French nouvelle vague cult movie Bande á Part? If you haven't i really suggest you to do it! Jean-Luc Godard did a masterpiece of a movie with this one.
This film has been an endless source of inspiration for editorials, films and music videos, like the Christina Rosenvinge's A Liar To Love that was out this year. The school-girl look has never been so cool!.

Now it comes Carousel, the new and amazing video that Ritz Fine Jewellery has done for its last collection of jewellery. A 6 minutes long video that is all about Paris, film noir,chic and elegance... A mix of Charade, James Bond, Moulin Rouge and... Bande á part!!
Carousel is one of the greatest videos i have seen this year. It can be just an ad but for me it is THE ad.
The main character, She O. She, the Princess of Saint Germain... is played by the lovely Chloë Sevigny.
I couldn't find out the director of the short-film though... Any suggestions?

Nan Kemper

Last weekend I visisted the exhibition Nan Kemper: American Chic at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
I must admit I didn't know who this woman was, i confess my ignorance, so i can't say my expectations were high or low, i was just going to see a fashion exhibition, which is enough for me.
My sorprise was to found out this woman was just a socialite with a lot of money to espend in cloths. That was it. I'm sorry if I hurt someone with this post but I'm quite dissapointed for this exhibit.

This woman was, as i said, just a rich woman with a very good taste and very good conections. She purchased great clothing and kept them to the end. She had a body to die for, which helped the cloths to look great on her.
As a rich woman she was able to "donate" her clothing to the Costume Institute hoping to see that clothing in the MET eventually... was that move for the sake of the designers or for her own sake?. I want to think she was a real fashion lover and was for the sake of the designers.

Visiting the show let me the impression of being in a show curated for her friends to remind her and how well dressed she was, not to pay hommage to the designers that designed that clothing.
I'm tired to listen about "elegant" women whose only effort is to have money enough to buy nice clothing.
It is far more interesting to see a person mixing clothing form everywhere, cheap, expensive, old and new and still having an amazing style. I can give names, Kate Moss, Agyness Dean, Lou Dillon... those are really interesting women whose taste blows me away anytime i see a picture of them.
I'm not attacking Nan, of course I'm not. I'm attacking the MET for featuring such a joke.
This kind of show should be for a private museum, not for the MET. Or maybe i'm wrong! Hopefully i am...

Happy Holidays!.. says the Bee

I'm all for it when paganism and religious celebrations mix in a happy meltdown. It's good to keep the religios meaning for those who feel it that way but not to impose such a thing to everyone and criticize the frivolous part. Frivolity is fun! If there's something i love of Christmas time is the lighting in the streets, the colors, the snow and the freedom of being on holidays.
I think people needs breaks in the year to just relax and celebrate, no matter the reason. And now that the cold weather is at its fullest, we need an extra streght to keep going. Christmas parties can be a great excuse to shake out those wintery-sad feelings and pull off imaginative dresses to enjoy. And the New Year will offer the best of the chances to reinvent ourselves and our wardrobe.
So Happy Holidays to all... and to all...good nights!

Resurrection

Resurrection is a rare fashion collectible's retailer specialized in Chanel with locations both in Los Angeles and NYC. Although the prices may not be affordable for everyone, dresses for $ 1,200 and up, taking a look to them is a real pleasure. I didn't have any impresion of no-welcome when they realized i wasn't going to purchase, so that's a plus in a bussines like this.
Through December 31st, Resurrection is celebrating its 2nd annual Chanel holiday fund sale. It's in display a rare selection of Chanel jewelry and bags that are real gems, exclusively for the NYC store in Soho.
For each $30 donation or more you will receive a 10% in all your purchases and the money will benefit the Chihuahua Rescue Found in Los Angeles...

Igor Alustiza

Madrid Fashion Week has became famous for the infamous banned against too-skinny models.
But Madrid fashion world offers more than what Pasarela Cibeles says, and let's explain that Cibeles doesn't show the best designs in town really but just the ones that can afford to show their collections there after paying some good money.
When Pasarela Gaudi in Barcelona shut down a couple of years ago, people started to wonder what was going to happen with all the fashion alternatives that fill Spain and couldn't fit in Cibeles. People wondered too where all the young designers that couldn't afford Cibeles would show.
Answering that wonder was born El Ego de Pasarela Cibeles (The Cibeles Catwalk Ego).
Ego has been working with the youngest and more creative Spanish fashion designers for two years now and the 2007 contest is open already.
Ego supports creativity rather than money as Cibeles does so the shows you enjoy there are far more interesting than the ones in his big brother. There are exceptions, sure, but the least.
Last night i was watching some of the shows from the last edition when, o-my-god, i saw the work of Igor Alustiza.
I know Igor and his work since 2001 as he was my classmate in college when i was studying Fashion Design in Madrid.
So it has been a great pleasure to see what he has acomplished through the years.
This is his show for Ego. Bravo Igor.

Prada in Advance

Our dearest Susie let us know about it weeks ago; Maynards Wine Gums colors for the new Prada Resort 2007 collection.

Even though, i didn't expect the color party i saw in the store window when i did!.

It's nice to see all that joy in display and I understand this is the time when wealthy people is taking their yachts to go cruising to the Caribbean and skip the tough winter in the city. But, hello?, let's enjoy the winter while is here or we won't have any joy when Spring will visit!