People say print magazines are dying. But if they died right now, Elle and Vanity Fair would go out with a bang. When I received my May issue of Elle I was floured by the cover of Drew Barrymore splashing in the water like an angelic mermaid in Dolce & Gabbana. The editorial spread, shot by Alexi Hay and styled by Joe Zee, was just as impressive. I actually have the picture above pinned on my wall at work.
Then yesterday, as I’m catching up on all my bookmarked blogs, I find Emily Blunt posing in my absolute favorite dress from Dior’s Spring Haute Couture collection. Michael Roberts photographed the Marie Antoinette-esque shots for a Vanity Fair feature on couture. I don’t know which I like more, the stunning photographs or the inspiring quote below:
“Couture is a promise to the future from the past: There will be entrances and orchestras again, carriages and candelabra again, parties and seasons again. There will be glamour again. Throughout the history of civilization, doom, doldrums, depression, and disaster have descended to paint the town gray. But they will also recede, leaving little but a shudder. What is left, what abides, is beauty.” -A. A. Gill in Vanity Fair May 2009.
“People keep trying to divide designers into optimists and pessimists, but me—I’m a realist. I thought with my heart about what women need from fashion—dresses, suits, blouses, coats. Life isn’t just parties and lunches.” Lanvin designer Alber Elbaz on his Fall 2009 collection.
Is this what you think women “need” from fashion?
Photo Credit: Style.com
“It often seems that it’s easier to find and buy stylish clothes for Chihuahuas than for roughly half the country’s female population.” -Emili Vesilind in her LA Times article about plus-size women.
I absolutely love John Galliano’s response when the Christian Dior couturier was asked about the recession at Haute Couture Fashion Week in Paris. In part, it sums up what I want to provide in this blog: a creative outlet to help generate thought about fashion.
“There’s a credit crunch, not a creative crunch. Of course, everyone is being more careful with their discretionary purchases. I am. But it’s our job to make people dream, and to provide the value in quality, cut, and imagination.” -John Galliano
I may not be able to wear his collection, which was inspired by Flemish painters and Christian Dior’s “New Look” from the 1940s, but it certainly makes me think about fashion. In fact, I might just wear my Dutch blue dress to work tomorrow—sans layers of tulle and a feather hat, of course.
Photo credit: Style.com
