Preview / Review

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The Fall 2011 womenswear shows are just around the corner (starting February 10 in NYC). In anticipation, here are a few looks from some of the pre-Fall collections that I really liked.

Chloé. That 70s thing.

The Row, Balenciaga, Burberry Prorsum, Preen, No. 21, BCBG Max Azria, and Pringle of Scotland after the jump.

Image of the Day

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Beautiful cover art for Some of Us are In This Together, the excellent new album by Triumph of Lethargy Skinned Alive to Death – out this week on Don't Stop Believin' Records. (Stream it here.) It's available on CD or gatefold 2LP, which comes with an insert with lyrics and drawings by Ashleigh Rauen, a print of a painting by Spencer Moody, and a 3" round embroidered patch.

Best Foot Forward

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I love either of these as classic, versatile sandals that could navigate all kinds of spring and summer gatherings. The Reed Krakoff pair reminds me of some that I liberated from my mom's closet when I was in college (sorry, Mom!).

Alexandre Birman Lona Terra canvas platform sandals,
$475 at net-a-porter.

Reed Krakoff leather multi-strap sandals,

$650 at net-a-porter.

Let's Get Small

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Here are some spreads from this amazing book Emily got me for Christmas, Irving Penn: Small Trades. I wrote a little previously about this series, for which Penn photographed working people in makeshift studios he set up in New York, Paris, and London.



The photos reinforce the beauty of everyday life – we all have our own life and work, whatever it is, all with our own small struggles and victories.


The juxtaposition of subjects is interesting to me, without ever being jarring. These are the things you consider when you put a book like this together.

Pentagram designed it, and the printing and binding are executed beautifully; every last detail is considered and you really feel that when you hold the book in your hands and look through it.

Small Trades is available from fine booksellers everywhere or you can order it directly from the Getty Museum. In the mean time, see images from the Getty's 2009 exhibition Irving Penn: Small Trades here.

Brothers Gotta Hug

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A new Women song?! This is potentially great news – maybe they don't hate each other after all.



From a split 7″ with Friendo, Fair Ohs + Cold Pumas available from Faux Discx.

(via Suspence x Gorilla vs. Bear)

Optometry

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Photographer Milton Rogovin, a former optometrist who documented the lives of poor and working class people in his hometown of Buffalo, as well as in Appalachia and elsewhere, has died of natural causes at the age of 101. See an audio slideshow narrated by Rogovin and read his obituary at the New York Times. “All my life I’ve focused on the poor,” he said in 2003. “The rich ones have their own photographers.”

There is a Light That Never Goes Out

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David Wojnarowicz: A Fire In My Belly (Film In Progress), 1986-87 (Super 8mm film, black and white & color, silent, running time 00:13:06)

There has been tons of press about this piece over the last few months because of the Smithsonian's weak-ass decision to remove it from the National Portrait Gallery exhibition Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture, under pressure from Bill Donohue (President of the Catholic League) and several Republican congressmen. A number of galleries and museums around the country have since held exhibitions of A Fire In My Belly; one of them is Seattle's always-excellent Greg Kucera Gallery, which is showing the video and other work by Wojnarowicz through February 13.

More info and images at gregkucera.com. (See also: PPOW Gallery NY, which represents Wojnarowicz' estate.)

Red + Black

. This is kind of a random post but this image was in an email newsletter from Barneys this morning, and I liked the way the bright red dress was shot on black – something about the lighting makes it looks like an illustration.

There's Still the River

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I posted this almost three years ago and wrote a little about it, but I'm posting it again because Emily gave me the brand new Criterion Collection DVD for Christmas and I finally had the chance to re-watch it:


Charles Laughton: The Night of the Hunter (excerpt), 1955.

This river scene in particular features maybe my favorite cinematography-plus-music of all time. I first saw The Night of the Hunter with one of my best friends, Jen Tadaki, at Film Forum in New York. Awhile after that, she and another friend of ours gave me the soundtrack on vinyl – Charles Laughton reading the story, with bits of audio from the movie interspersed – for my birthday. Laughton's film is as beautiful as it is frightening, and the record and DVD are prized possessions/experiences.

If you haven't seen The Night of the Hunter (or if you have), check it out on Netflix or get the new DVD from Criterion.

Image of the Day

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The Maguire Daisy, a tiny wildflower native to Utah,
was removed from the United States' endangered species
list yesterday. When it was initially listed as endangered
25 years ago, only 7 known plants were in existence.
The daisy is one of only 21 species in the United States
and its territories that have been removed from the
list due to recovery.*

*The others, and the dates of their delistings, are: the Brown pelican (Atlantic coast population 1985, rest of the range in 2009), Virginia northern flying squirrel (2008), Bald Eagle (2007), Eggert’s sunflower (2005), Tinian Monarch (2004), Columbian white-tailed deer (Douglas County Population, 2003), Hoover’s woolly-star (2003), Robbins’ cinquefoil (2002), Aleutian Canada goose (2001), American peregrine falcon (1999), eastern gray kangaroo (1995), western gray kangaroo (1995), red kangaroo (1995), Arctic peregrine falcon (1994), gray whale (eastern North Pacific (California) population, 1994), American alligator (1987), Palau ground dove (1985), Palau fantail flycatcher (1985), and the Palau owl (1985).

[photo via the U.S. Forest Service]

Recent Acquisitions

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Bargain book edition:

[ little-known fact, Emily is Czech ]

Actually, as I was uploading these I realized that I was poaching – Emily found all of them.


Anyway, there you have it, some more stuff we're hoarding.

Image of the Day

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Kyle Johnson was shooting in our studio this morning and told me about this Richard Avedon photo, which I don't think I've ever seen:

Richard Avedon: Martin Luther King, Jr. with his father and son, Atlanta, Georgia, March 22, 1963

Today's Fresh Air features a fascinating interview with Clarence B. Jones, who wrote what came to be known as King's "I Have A Dream" speech, delivered at the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington, in the same year the photo above was taken. Click here to listen.

The Beautiful Life

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This past weekend we watched I Am Love, starring Tilda Swinton. The film's subtle and slow-moving story, while enjoyable, is really secondary to its beauty. From the setting (which travels from a snow-covered villa in Milan to the blooming hills above Sanremo), to the music by John Adams; from the characters' wardrobes (courtesy of Fendi and Jil Sander's Raf Simons), down to the opening credits, it's easily the most aesthetically inspiring and transporting film I've seen since A Single Man. Highly recommended for a rainy afternoon.

Dark Drama

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Givenchy pre-Fall 2011. I love all the layers (living in Seattle necessitates lots of attention to this aspect of dressing), and some of the proportions (cropped pants with boots; high-waisted, above-the-knee skirts) look fresh.

See the whole collection at fashiongonerogue.com.

(Monday Morning Weather Report)

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[+]  Looking West – a thick cloud cover over Seattle, but the sun has risen over it and shines on the Olympic Mountains.