Rare Designer Books On Sale at One Kings Lane

DAHLINGS -

There are so many books on fashion out there. Many of them are disposable "How To Wear Party Clothes" or "Dress For Nothing: Dumpster Diving Divas". However, there are chances to buy true one-of-a-kind classics. Case in point:

Top New York antiques dealer David Duncan is launching a sale of more than 250 exquisite books from his private collection on One Kings Lane (http://www.onekingslane.com/), the upscale online sales site, which will run from Saturday, June 4 to Tuesday, June 7. The sale will include many rare fashion titles -- all at discounted prices.

Among the titles being offered are:

"Christian Lacroix: Pêle-Mêle" By Christian Lacroix in collaboration with Patrick Mauriès, 1992. First edition: in French. Signed by Lacroix to the late Harper's Bazaar editor Liz Tilberis. Excellent condition. Hardcover and with dust jacket. Original price $300.00. Sale price $215.00.

"Valentino" By Trent' Anni Di Magia, 1990. First edition, in Italian. Signed by Valentino to the late Harper's Bazaar editor Liz Tilberis. Very good condition. Hardcover and with dust jacket. Original price $250.00. Sale price $175.00.

"The Sixties: A Decade in Vogue" By Nicholas Drake, 1988. Excellent condition. Original price $133.00. Sale price $95.00

"Azzedine Alaïa" published by Steidl. Limited Edition, 1998. Excellent condition. Hardcover and with dust jacket. With specially designed hard slip case. Original price $2,300.00, sale price $1,600.00.

"The Rudi Gernreich Book" By Peggy Moffitt and William Claxton, 1991. Second edition, published by TASCHEN, 1999. Hardcover and with dust jacket.
Original price $200.00, sale price $139.00
"Poiret" by Yvonne Deslandres with Dorothee Lalanne, 1986. Excellent condition. First edition, hardcover and with dust jacket.
Original price $580.00, sale price $435.00

And, darling readers, I do know you'll snap these up! I have my eye on 'Valentino'.

Ciao,
Elisa

Jean Paul Gaultier Haute Couture 2010

DAHLINGS -

Jean Paul Gaultier, of all people, won my heart during Haute Couture Week 2010 in Paris. He was heavily influenced by old Hollywood, which of course is one of my favorite influences (you all know how much J'ai tout simplement adorer vintage clothing!). I can almost forgive him Madonna. But not quite.

Je dois avouer I do not look well in turbans, but the turbans in this show were both amusing and slightly dangerous. One could accidentally sever a limb if one took a bow.

(photos courtesy of wireimage.net)


Most of the silhouettes were classic, womanly and sophisticated. Not amazingly original, but an enjoyable collection nonetheless. Perfect for the would-be Joan Crawfords out there--and I don't mean the drag queens, sorry.

Except this one, which looks like a cheap gold foil fabric worn upside down.

This one I would snap up in a second! Sans bizarre headcovering. A tad too Carmen Miranda for my taste, even without all of the fruit.

The lady on Mr. Gaultier's arm is none other than Dita Von Teese; note that her thighs rub together. If only more of the ladies on the runway looked like that.

All in all, a most satisfying collection, derivative but delicous.

Ciao,
Elisa & Bucky The Wonderdog

Chris March Has A New Book!

DAHLINGS -

My wonderful Chris March, my absolutely favorite Project Runway contestant ever (oh, dear, I sound twelve years old) has put together a coffee table book of outrageous photographs! It's called "I Heart Chris March," and it chronicles twenty-five years of his costume and fashion design. With, as Chris says in the accompanying interview, "Many, many embarassing pictures of me". Since I love a good drag queen, I don't find the pictures embarassing at all.

Some of the fun that is waiting between softcovers!

The utterly adorable Chris March (in leopard, of course)

AND the forward is written by my BFF from Fashion Week, Tim Gunn! This is a fantastic present for your friend who didn't get what they want for Christmas, bear fanciers, drag lovers, costume designers, in face just about everyone (even those closeted members of the Christian Right).

One of my favorite designs from Project Runway was the avant-garde challenge, co-designed by Chris and Christian Siriano:


Chris March has an absolutely fabulous career. His clients include Madonna, John Epperson, Joe Boxer and Tyra Banks, to name just a few. Here is a delightful interview he did for TV Guide:

http://www.tvguide.com/News/VIDEO-Runways-Chris-1013224.aspx

To buy a copy of I Heart Chris March, go to

http://www.chrismarchdesign.com/ilovechrismarch/

You won't find it in your local chain bookstore. While you are on the site, take a leisurely browse. Then order the book.

Ciao,

Elisa & Bucky the Wonderdog

Fashion Week Sneak Peek #2: Ports 1961

DAHLINGS -

Ports 1961, which creates simply marvelous fashion, sent a few sketches of their Spring 2010 Fashion Week presentation to your faithful correspondent this week. It has me simply craving to see them in person!

Ports Creative Director Tia Cibani has stated, that despite the economy: “Give
women beautiful clothes that represent value and quality and they will still find a way to buy them.” 'Tis true, 'tis true.

Cibani is moving from boutique and online marketing to the Bryant Park tents, bringing the customers along with her. Spring 2010 will explore the concept of "craft meets innovation".

See you under the tents!

Ciao,
Elisa & Bucky the Wonderdog

From Project Runway to ELEVEN MINUTES: Jay McCarroll's Bumpy Ride

DAHLINGS -

Rabid fans of “Project Runway” who have followed the show since its inception will certainly enjoy ELEVEN MINUTES, the story of how first season winner Jay McCarroll went on to design and show his first independent line at Fashion Week at Bryant Park two years later. For others, however, the appeal of this small exercise in cinema-verite (directed and produced by Michael Seiditch and Rob Tate) may seem puzzling.

For one thing, McCarroll, a rotund, baby-faced man with a goatee and an endless supply of flamboyant headgear, has charm but is not deeply compelling enough for us to want to follow him for the film’s 103-minute running time. In fact, the first third seems meandering and pointless. However, as one of my viewing companions put it, McCarroll has no subtext—whatever his subtext is, it comes right out of his mouth unedited. “I’m the fucking poster boy for angry insecurity!” he yells at one point in the film, and tells interviewers that his collection inspiration is “vaginal discharge.”

Unlike most conventional documentaries, ELEVEN MINUTES contains no flashbacks and almost no back story, other than the stated fact that after McCarroll won “Project Runway,” in his words, “the cord was cut.” The film stays completely in the present moment from start to finish, during the eight frantic months it takes Jay to design and prepare his fashion show.

Once the actual planning, etc. starts, the film gains momentum, as we watch Jay’s friends (all working for free), and see how truly enormous the creative process behind a show like this is. Unlike reality TV, with its scripted conflict and contrived setbacks, this is reality; where conflict arises from exhaustion, frayed nerves, and no money. The setbacks are genuine (will the shoes arrive in time for the show? Will the factory be able to make the dress he designed that has 140 individual pieces of fabric?). It also exposes the enormous cruelty within the fashion business on every level, from model selection (“she’s old!” Kelly Cutrone says of one candidate) to seat selection for the show. There are the “Front Rows” and behind them, the “Who Gives A Shits.”

McCarroll is caught between worrying about the mass production of his designs, and worrying about how that affects his design aesthetic. (One thing McCarroll must be applauded for: as he says, "No emaciated models! I want one with a boob!" ) The showing of his collection, called “Transport” after his obsession with hot air balloons, is the eleven minutes the film refers to.



The majority of documentaries about creative people are about genius, and extolling that genius (for instance, THE DEVIL AND DANIEL JOHNSTON, although nobody will ever convince me that Johnston is a talented musician). ELEVEN MINUTES, however, is not essentially about the ecology of creativity; it is essentially about the ecology of business. Jay McCarroll knows that his personality/notoriety is a more marketable commodity at this stage than his actual design talent. As he says at the beginning, “I have a short shelf life.” For this niche film, there is definitely an audience in the fashion world. But for the general public, this shelf life might have already passed.

Sincerely,
Elisa & Bucky the Wonderdog

Official website: http://www.elevenminutes-jaymccarroll.com/

Tim Gunn Speaks For Those Who Cannot Speak...

DAHLINGS -

As we all know, Tim Gunn is, before anything else, a good man. In the swamp that is fashion, he consistently shows himself to above many others and possess compassion, friendship, and loyalty. I have to thank Sarah Conley from StyleIt for bringing this to my attention. It is Tim Gunn speaking from the heart, and I URGE you to watch it. It will change the way you think.



I sell vintage fur, but at the moment even that feels a bit...sickening. I am going to hold Bucky quietly in my arms and contemplate man's savagery to those who are helpless before our greed and cruelty.

Ciao,
Elisa & Bucky the Wonderdog

Is It Fashion Week ALREADY? Oh, Dear Lord...

DAHLINGS -

Sorry to be late to the party, as the current phrase goes.

So far, on the first day of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, the theme on the runways seemed to be funny hats.

I confess, I arrived quite late on September 5th. Somehow, my zest for Fashion Week was a bit muted by the closing of my oceanfront mansion. I was sorry to miss Yigal Azrouel’s show, if only because the gossip was that the models were wearing simply hilariously huge bucket hats.
However, the Nicole Miller show at the Promenade was sheer delight, my loves, sheer delight. As you know, jádore classic lines, and her show was almost all sweeping classic lines. (The blue evening dress was simply breathtaking!) The only misstep, in your faithful correspondent’s opinion, were those asinine little hats perched on the model’s heads. They reminded me of the tiny hats monkeys used to wear when they were alongside organ grinders. Not, one is certain, the intended effect.

However, any designer who can make Coco Rocha look good has to be acknowledged as masterful!



I then shoved my way to the Tent where Gwen Stefani’s L.A.M.B. show was taking place. It was simply mobbed with celebrities and people who looked like celebrities (I really should read US more often, but my maid does all of the marketing).

There was Sean Combs, who did not look the least perturbed about having recently been left by the mother of his three children (after he fathered a fourth by a comparative stranger). Then there was the ever-tighter-faced Ivana Trump and her luscious youngster-for-hire. And Carrie Underwood, who provided the common touch by wearing a Wal-Mart soccer jersey. The designer/singer herself, Ms. Stefani, was clad in a hound’s-tooth mini dress, so short that you could see from either end, that not a hair was out of place.

As for the fashions. Oh, dear.

Other than more bizarre hats (these were enormous black things), and some pretty 40s-inspired hip swagged skirts, most of it was stunningly repetitive. If one had to sum it up, the words “rape-able schoolgirl” came to mind most often. (I would have written “promiscuous,” but the models looked too dazed to care. Those that could see past the hats, that is.)



Thank goodness Ms. Stefani has a thriving music career.

Ciao,

Elisa & Bucky the Wonderdog

Fake Designer Vintage, Sold With Ebay's Blessing!

DAHLINGS –

Now this is too much. Too, too much, even for moi as I sit here in my fabulous (featured in Architectural Digest) oceanfront mansion. This place ordinarily has a calming effect on my nerves. The Atlantic ocean crashing against the beach, the cries of the gulls, the wails of the cook when she reviews the list of foods my guests refuse to eat…tres relaxant.

However, as you well know, I sell on (ugh) Ebay. One strives to bring you fine, AUTHENTIC vintage. Genuine vintage clothing that was once worn by bona fide people. Clothing crafted by seamstresses, tiny factories, et al. with dressmaker details that have fallen by the wayside in today’s ready-to-wear world.

There is a separate category on Ebay, for Vintage Reproductions. In which sellers are welcome to make custom-fit dresses for those customers who cannot find halter-back Marilyn-style frocks in a size 24 or Southern Belle gowns in precisely the right shade of hot neon pink. It is highly profitable, and entirely appropriate. The category was created to prevent sellers from listing new items in the Vintage category.

HOWEVER, for some years, Ebay has been PLAGUED by sellers who, for want of a better word, LACK ETHICS OF ANY KIND. I am not talking about shill bidding, misrepresentation of garment condition, or anything of that nature. At least those sellers, squalid as they may be, sell VINTAGE.

Other sellers, on the other hand, are NOT. They are selling reproductions. Fakes. But not only do they have the GALL to list their items in the VINTAGE category, now they have taken to listing DESIGNER NAMES—DESIGNER NAMES, My God! —in their listings!

(I apologize for shouting…I caused one of my guests to glance up from his copy of W and my personal assistant ducked, thinking I was going to throw an object d’art at her in my rage. )

But this is simply unforgivable. This, mes enfants, is PASSING OFF COUNTERFEIT AS REAL. BY EBAY POWERSELLERS.


Even Bucky The Wonderdog is outraged by this!



This putrid practice takes shameless advantage of those innocent customers who want a ‘Shaheen’ or ‘Martini’ dress. The buyers think that by purchasing these FAKES that they are getting anything LIKE the actual, the rare, the PRICELESS garments that are Fashion In The True Sense. Dear readers, I have sold Martini gowns and Shaheen dresses. I know whereof I speak.

One of my first sales was of a beautiful 1950s Martini strapless evening gown. It was boned all the way around inside, with a shelf bust, lined with black satin, and covered outside with Chantilly lace trimmed with shining bugle beads, so subtly that you didn't know why the gown sparkled as it did until you examined it. The bottom flared out on all sides below the knees in an avalanche of black tulle.

Martini did not make unlined stretch Lycra jersey slip dresses in Ur Sz, as the title so elegantly states it.

IF these sellers were advertising Dior copies, or Vuitton copies AS SUCH, they would be heaved off Ebay so promptly, systems would crash all over America.

However, by targeting lesser-known but highly desirable designers (and the design elements that made them famous), these disgusting worms are crawling out from under the rock of regulation…they imagine.

Which is why moi, the Fashionista, is taking it upon her broad shoulders to EXPOSE these sellers immediately. Sellers of authentic vintage have reported these frauds to Ebay again and again, only to have it thrown back in their faces. Once again, on Ebay, money talks, even if it is in the language of obscenity.

THAT is how strongly yours truly feels about this.

But credit where credit is due. There are many other sellers working to stop this practice behind the scenes. Their anonymity must be protected. Auctions have been reported on the slimmest of evidence, reputations blackened, all because authentic vintage sellers wish to have only authentic vintage listed in the Vintage Clothing Category. Seems simple enough, does it not?

Please, if you are reading this, register your protests with Ebay, assuming you are registered with Ebay. Even if not, if you love fashion, you can email them. Do not buy from these sellers! (I will only say that they are not located in the USA or China, and all of their listings are of vintage reproduction dresses in Ur Sz. They do not deserve added publicity. )

Oh, dear, I'm quite over-exerted. I need a mojito, and to go look in my closet at the fabulous REAL vintage contained within.

Ciao,
Elisa and Bucky the Wonderdog

Dahlings, FIT Celebrates Pure Luxury through November 9

DAHLINGS:

The institution that graciously has presented my course, "Haute Cou-Poor," bringing Fashion In the True Sense to the peasantry, the Fashion Institute of Technology, is presently displaying a truly marvelous collection. It has been personally curated by the museum director, Dr. Valerie Steele (a lovely woman), with much help both nationally and internationally. The name of the display is “Luxury - A Close Encounter with Extravagance, Vanity, And Excess," at the museum at FIT.

As a woman who is extravagant but never vain and believes there is no such thing as excess (at least when I choose my own wardrobe), I was in heaven touring the exhibition. This is Fashion In The True Sense! 150 beautiful creations, from 1750 on! It will be running through November 9th, so buy a plane ticket to New York and treat yourself. (Forget about such common tourist attractions as the Intrepid.) Both private and public creations, these are worth treating yourself to. From Chanel, Poiret, and more modern designers such as Romeo Gigli.

To give you just a wee taste, here is a magnificent creation by Cristobal Balenciaga, from 1951, of black silk jersey, silk faille, sequined and jet beaded lace.



Do yourself a favor and get thee to FIT!

Ciao,
Elisa & Bucky The Wonderdog

Dead Fashion Models: A Modest Suggestion

DAHLINGS -

I was reading in the newspaper over the past weeks that those poor anorexic girls are dropping like flies down in Brazil. Brazil, mind, where they used to CELEBRATE the lushness of the female figure! How has society come to this? One of those hideous Olsen twins was quoted this morning as saying that it was her bad hair dye that made her look too thin. Yes, sweetie, and it was having two faces that made that calf look slightly odd. All in the eye of the beholder, don't you know.

Rather than encouraging girls to waste away and die, we should keep the dead ones, and use them. Why keep asking these poor children to starve themselves to death, when we have plenty of deceased models around?

I am fairly certain most of them come from deprived backgrounds, so the families would be happy to be saved funeral and burial costs.

Here is my plan, which is not only practical but could save dozens of young lives in the future:
1) Take one dead young female fashion model;
2) Freeze-dry her, the way people freeze-dry their dead pets, preferably in an attitude of disdain and one arm bent;
3) Lacquer the body, because it might smell under hot lights;
4) Make a runway with a sort of rolling thing, you know, like those sushi restaurants where you grab the little trays off of the rotating circle thing;

And voila!

An entire fashion show of unliving fashion models, just the way the designers want them. Gaunt, bereft of female flesh, and of course, expressionless. If the designer wants the illusion of living, he can paint the faces in gaudy colors and use a wind machine.

Or--

Fashion designers and the fashion industry in general could promote a healthy ideal of female beauty, one that celebrates fleshiness, the slight rounding of the female stomach, a plump elbow, perhaps even the unthinkable...breasts, hips, and thighs. Girls who look like young WOMEN, not starvation victims. Girls who feel GOOD about their bodies, no matter what the shape, no matter what the size, because wherever they look they can find a role model.

I admit, I do not see it happening in my lifetime. But it is something to dream about...

Ciao,
Elisa & Bucky the Wonderdog