Pin THIS Up!

I know, I know. I am so clever with my post titles. In any case, pin-up retro fashion is officially back! Flipping through this month's issue of Vogue introduced me to the most amazing editorial I have ever seen! Titled "Sweater Girl", Grace Coddington was the fashion editor for this spread and her taste is impeccable. The styling perfectly replicates every photograph from the fifties EVER. Not really but you'll see what I mean:

Model: Lara Stone

Photographers: Mert and Marcus

Slick BP

So I don't know if you've heard but there was this big oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico a few months ago... just kidding of course we ALL know about the BP oil rig explosion which sparked a massive hemorrhage of oil that is basically going to kill the seafood industry in southeast America. In the August issue of Italian Vogue, Steven Meisel shot a 24 page spread of Kristen McMenamy as a wounded animal covered in oil. I feel like she interprets the effected animals really well and that this editorial was such an unexpected yet effective way to illustrate the effects of the Deepwater Horizon explosion. My favorite images are below:

Sevilla Squared

During spring break this year I took a really quick trip (like 6 full days quick!) to Spain and Morocco to visit my friend Sarah who was studying abroad in Cadiz. The first and last days of my trip were spent wandering about Sevilla and more specifically at Plaza de España. While flipping through this month's Harper's Bazaar I turned a page and there was Jessica Stam posing at the very same Plaza de España I had been at a few months earlier!

Above (from left to right): Jessica Stam just looking natural and me striking a fantastic model pose!

Just had to share and say "I'VE BEEN THERE!"

Rear Window

A couple weeks ago I saw the Alfred Hitchcock movie Rear Window for the first time while madly sewing away on a couple different projects. Basically a man, James Stewart, breaks his leg on a photography assignment and is wheelchair bound for eight weeks and while staring out his rear window he believes the man across the way murdered his wife. In the meantime his girlfriend Lisa, played by Grace Kelly visits him and also becomes obsessed with the happenings in his apartment building.

The film was made during one of my favorite eras for fashion, the fifties. With Grace Kelly as the leading lady, it was the perfect time to showcase a little fashion throughout the movie. Besides having one of the most classic beauties of all time starring in this Alfred Hitchcock movie, the legendary Edith Head did the costumes and judging by Grace Kelly's wardrobe throughout the movie it was a match made in heaven. This is one more piece of inspiration for my forthcoming pin-up inspired line!

Clockwise from the top left: A version of the Rear Window poster, Kelly in the "Paris Dress" designed by Edith Head, Kelly, Hitchcock and Head in discussion, and three more Edith Head creations.

BTW my absence in the blogging world can be blamed on the fact that I a) graduate this quarter and b) just turned 21 last week Wednesday. Just FYI!

Gaga Kitty

When browsing through my daily websites I came across pictures of a Lady Gaga x Hello Kitty collaboration, two of my fashion favorites! The photos were taken for Hello Kitty's 35th birthday and are going to be used in a limited edition re-issue of Lady Gaga's first album The Fame (which will also include a lock of her hair and 3-D glasses to view other photos)! Throughout the shoot, Gaga keeps her eyes closed the entire time to show eye makeup on her lids that make her appear to have what I call "Sailor Moon eyes" or Manga-style eyes. Photographers Markus Klinko and Indrani were the masterminds behind the shoot below:

A Fall Preview Indeed

The Fall Preview 2010 issue of V magazine is proving to be an excellent issue indeed. While I haven't seen it in its entirety in print, I have seen many of the spreads in digital form via their website. This issue is one you may have heard a lot about because this is the issue in which five models (Adriana Lima, Isabeli Fontana, Natasha Poly, Lily Donaldson and Eniko Mihalik) each have their own cover with strategic parts of their body covered by a scratch-off V.

Above: The issue I bought with Isabeli Fontana on the cover looking crazy fierce!

I graduate this quarter and my obsession with pin-up girls is going to be the focus of my portfolio booth when I present my work at Benaroya Hall in September. The spread below named "A Woman in Full" is a big part of my inspiration for an extra line I'm designing which will focus on creating clothing for a modern and sophisticated pin-up girl.

The color palette, the hair and makeup, the poses of the models as well as the type of undergarments which make the silhouette is what makes these pin-up inspired pictures so representative of that era.

"I live for fur. I worship fur!"

Cruella De Vil is probably one of the most fashionable villains out there. Not only was her hair way ahead of that whole two-different-hair-color thing but she also wore big fur coats around all the time with her little cigarette holder completing her fierce look. As I was looking through photos of the Jean Paul Gaultier Fall 2010 Couture show, one picture stuck out to me in particular and SCREAMED Cruella De Vil. The drape of the fabric and the model's cigarette holder made me think of what Cruella might be running around in if I saw her somewhere now.

Above (from left to right): The "Cruella" look from the JPG Fall 2010 Couture show, the animated Cruella De Vil, and Glenn Close as Cruella De Vil in 101 Dalmatians.