Introducing Hayden Dunham

One of my nearest and dearest friends, Hayden Dunham, presented her first collection at the Williamsburg Fashion Show on Saturday night at Glasslands Gallery.
Featured amongst other designers, some with a more plain and traditional aesthetic, really allowed Dunham's work to stand out. Referencing Margiela and Rick Owens, Dunham's use of the avant garde within her designs seemed courageous for such a young and novice designer. Sometimes fashion, especially designer fashion or ready to wear, is too literal, too plain and too traditional, lacking whimsy and fantasy. Dunham's work pulls from the imagination, and stays within the realm of the fantastical. Fashion is a form of art and design and when it references it's roots, that's when fashion really works, in my opinion. Clothing should be functional but it can also reference form.
With this being Dunham's first completed collection, I am quite intrigued to see what feature seasons hold for her.

Street Style, Soho

Spotted in Soho.

Relax Your Mind, You Know the Feeling is Mighty Fine

My two favorite outfits I wore during Fashion Week


vintage coat, hat from my mama, marni dress, rag and bone sample sale boots (I'm about six feet tall in these)


super old burberry coat, zero maria cornejo dress, vintage fox fur, rag and bone boots

Fashion Week Street Style

Some interesting people from a rather interesting A/W2011 Fashion Week.


Spotted on Bleeker st, a very sharply dressed Mr. Danlly Domingo, in a Rodarte x Opening Ceremony sweater and happy socks.

Nomia Autumn/Winter 2011 Presentation

From the Standard Hotel.













Nomia's style is a mix of super structured clothing, science fiction and ladies who lunch elegance. Structured, sexy dresses in silk alongside steel gray jumpsuits, with pops of emerald inbetwixt khaki and black. It was an amazing collection. My favorite in the collection was the long sleeved silk emerald dress with a chiffon layer peaking out underneath the dress's hem. Nomia's clothing is sexy without being overtly sexy, and it feels grown up without being too adult, it's something I could wear or a 45 year old art director could wear.

Elise Overland on Ice Skates, and oh yeah, Johnny Weir

Saturday was the Elise Overland Presentation at the Standard Hotel ice skating rink. It was, by far, the most creative and breathtaking presentation. Models stood in front of an ice sculpture on the rink, while figure skaters that were decked out in Elise Overland wares skated around them. It was so cold, I momentarily lost the feeling in my fingertips, why I thought not to bring gloves to an outside presentation centered around a large chunk of ice is beyond me. But the very beautiful ice skaters and the really loud techno music distracted me from the cold.
This presentation was one of the few of this season that allowed for passerbyers to interact and see the collection. A lot of tourists that were walking along stopped to take photos. I got to the rink a bit early, and wedged myself right up against the edge of the rink in an attempt to try to photograph.






and Johnny Weir

Fashion Week: Whit Presentation

Fashion Week started yesterday. Accompanying Ashley Hanosh, the proprietress of the clothing boutique Honey in the Rough, we trekked up to Chelsea for the Whit presentation. I prefer presentations, which is essentially like an art gallery opening but with clothes and there's no booze, over a runway show, because it gives you a chance to talk, to see the clothes up close, to even ask the models questions, and it is much much easier to photograph. The atmosphere is a lot more causal and fun, and if you have a question about the collection, the PR team and designer are right on hand to answer.

Whit is one of my favorite brands, it's super quirky and sometimes preppy. Their Fall 2011 collection was inspired by a photograph of one of the designer's friends as a child. Everything felt vintage inspired, but updated and fun, like a grown up being nostalgic for the childhood game of dressing up in your parents clothing. One of the dresses patterns is actually vintage wallpaper that they reprinted for the dress. The collection felt really cohesive and almost everything shown was oh my, I want that inducing. Everything was styled really well, in a very wearable and organic way, so that each model embodied the "Whit" girl. Notice the cool plexiglass jewelry? The designer is adding jewelry to her Whit collection.






My two favorite things:






I loved how this dress was styled and I love the cut of it, but it's really the print that I'm the most into. Horses? I want it.
This coat as well, look at the cut and the detailing of it. It's winter so the only thing on my mind right now are cold weather related things, and this coat is a knock out piece.

Rodarte x Opening Ceremony

I've had this theory, for a while actually, that Rodarte and Rachel Comey are related, maybe identical twins or cousins that look like siblings. I've hypothesized that if the price points of Rodarte were lowered to that of Rachel Comey, Rodarte would look p-r-e-t-t-y similar to Rachel Comey. The Rodarte x Opening Ceremony collaboration proved my hypothesis as correct. Another bonus, an even bigger positive than the fact that the collaboration looked like nerdy, pretty, intellectual clothing for the girl that loves mary janes, taxidermy, dusty pink florals and cupcakes, is that the Rodarte collaboration clothing is of a much higher quality than the Chloe Sevigny collection.

Other than the quality, which is comparable to that of Rachel Comey and Mayle; the designs are also very pretty and wearable. However, the Rachel Comey comparisons come not only from the fabrics, but the color choices and the shapes and draping of the garments. I'm reference the garments below mainly. While Rachel Comey does not own the use to solely use blush, dusty pinks, and floral prints, one cannot deny that the Rodarte Collaboration is, if not inspired by Rachel Comey, it is of the same vein of style, albeit with a more hipster edge. At the store today, there were some definite Rodarte pieces though, such as full fringed vests (a shout out to their knitwear) and thick white battenburg lace see-thru blazer and pants (very Prada A/W 2008).





I am kind of obsessed with this whole collection. I really think that it's brilliant, and there are a ton of pieces I would hypothetically buy, own and love, if only my bank account would allow for it. My favorite piece is this one circle skirt made of a printed chiffon that mimics snakeskin. Aside from the leather works (shorts and pants) and the handknitted vests, this skirt was one of the most expensive in the collection, priced at around 500 dollars, and the fabric is from the Rodarte main line. The only criticism I have about the collaboration has nothing to do with the collaboration at all, and it's really about the idea of Rodarte. If they can make interesting and well made clothing for cheaper which obviously still fits in with their aesthetic, then why make $14,000 dresses that few people can afford? If one can make cool shoes, skirts, and dresses all priced fairly reasonable for a small contemporary brand that aims to sell at Opening Ceremony, then why not do it?
To then debate with myself, I'll represent the other side of this argument- which is that Rodarte makes beautiful, art like clothing that is not intended to be manufactured for a great number of people. Idealistically, they make clothing for the sake of making clothing, it is not for everyone and they make beautiful things because they desire to.
However, in an ideal world, it would be great if they could marry these two ideas- the desire to create with the manufacturing of clothing that is somewhat more affordable than the ready to wear but almost haute couture prices fashion world they are currently inhabiting in. Or even better, make two lines- continue with the collaboration and continue to make the original Rodarte line (please, please, please?)

On a side note, they had some amazing tights and leggings. I bought a pair of the tattoo tights. Because, honestly after Rodarte S/S 2010, I really debated about drawing fake tattoos all over my body via sharpie to mimic the runway show. The tights make undertaking my endeavor quite a bit easier.


Two final photos from the Opening Ceremony website that I really enjoyed. Opening Ceremony made a GIF of a bunch of still images and some of the jpegs had this seizure inducing color on them. ENJOY




first image from RackedNY, all the rest are from Opening Ceremony