NOTES ON TONE: March 2010

Check out Hep's Shoes!!

From "Holiday" dir. George Cukor with Doris Nolan, Cary Grant, and some great black cage heels.

One more word about Acne Paper

Their about section:

I truly love Cathy Horyn. I don't always agree with her, but I do love her style and how she can write about fashion intelligently and humorously. Today her blog talks about how thin and boring magazines have gotten, and a pretty good forum of comments has followed suit. The Times does have excellent fashion coverage and while it's not a magazine, per se, it mostly satisfies the need for the good/great fashion magazine experience that died along with Liz Tilberis. Cathy's entry was too brief and could have said a lot more about the dumbing down and ad-ing up of magazines, but the comments are quite good - especially the guy that calls out the smaller, artsier books for being overpriced and seriously pretentious. I don't think there really is a fashion magazine that I love any longer. Not Self Service, definitely not Lula...I can't even think of anything else! Wait!! Acne Paper- that's the ticket!!! The Best!!
Created around one central idea twice a year, the editors of Acne Paper take the time to get things just right. It's definitely worth the wait and each issue is like opening up a gift. Each time you revisit one of these Acne Paper's - copies which I've had for years and still tear out and read and love - I find something new to be excited about. And isn't being excited about something just one of the best feelings?

The Mystery

I rarely read magazines any more, or look at them. When I do I'm usually disappointed - especially if I paid for them. There is nothing new to magazines so I say to hell with them if they can't stay relevant. These vintage (ok, kate moss not so vintage, but still an intriguing cover) covers are works of art in and of themselves which I think make them far more valuable than any Vogue cover I can remember in the past five years (except maybe that Nicole Kidman one by Irving Penn, but that was 2004). Can we please have fewer headlines and more thoughtful magazine covers? Why the hell not? I'm thinking a lot about when I first started caring about fashion and magazines, about my long lost stash of Harper's Bazaar from the 1990s (Liz Tilberis/Fabien Baron era), and the very first W Magazine I got in the mail - November 1992 with the circus spread (where can I find this?? Despair!)

Let's bring more creativity to the art of the magazine cover and fewer celebrities! No celebrities! How about no models too? What about art and other things that are visual and beautiful that can make fashion exciting again, give it dimensions beyond the market place, the label, and the bloody boring size issue!! Let's liberate the fashion magazine from it's overstuffed seriousness and bring some humor, light, art, and inspiration back to the magazine. Please!

There are things that women will always want - to feel beautiful, to be successful, strong, and independent. But guess what? No one who is in any way self-respecting and over the age of 18 reads magazines for advice, in all seriousness. Sure, how to put eyeshadow on or what to wear with that new trouser shape, fine. But what will sell the magazines is not headline after headline being shoved down our throats but simple, beautiful, confident covers that exude what we ourselves want to exude: intelligence and beauty. I do not feel either of these things when I read Vogue, of late. Or any magazine for that matter. I do feel that way and get inspired when I look at Garance Dore's blog, or sometimes The Sartorialist, or Tommy Ton's fun pictures. Why can't print hold onto even a thread of that excitement? It's not because they come out once a month versus blogs that can be updated every five minutes, no no no. Magazines should be something to cherish and hold on to - like these vintage Vogues and my old Ws and 90s Bazaars. It's not about fashion, it's about style. And magazines are not about style any more. They must find a way to marry the bottom line with what is at the heart of women who share this love of art and fashion. And that is something timeless.

Don't you just want to read these issues and see what they are all about? I certainly do. Do I want to read about Giselle's latest baby and her celery diet? Heeeeeeeeeeelllll no. (Celeries! They're just like us!)

meentee fresh

My current nail polish color obsession: minty green. This Chanel one is a little pale but still gorgeous. I like the phospherescent pop of the green. I may have to invest in some Chanel.

Duuuude

Oh Joy just posted this and I must follow suit, only if to express excitement at the Clyfford Still stamp. Excitement!

List of Stamp Artwork

The Golden Wall (1961) — Hans Hofmann (1880–1966)
Romanesque Façade (1949) — Adolph Gottlieb (1903–1974)
Orange and Yellow (1956) — Mark Rothko (1903–1970)
The Liver Is the Cock’s Comb (1944) — Arshile Gorky (1904–1948)
1948–C (1948) — Clyfford Still (1904–1980)
Asheville (1948) — Willem de Kooning (1904–1997)
Achilles (1952) — Barnett Newman (1905–1970)
Convergence (1952) — Jackson Pollock (1912–1956)
Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 34 (1953–1954) — Robert Motherwell (1915–1991)
La Grande Vallée 0 (1983) — Joan Mitchell (1925–1992)

Buy your abstract expressionist stamps here!

The Only French Isabelle I Care about

Isabelle Huppert is the Meryl Streep of France. A beautiful and elegant chameleon.

Still, Bowie

We passed upon the stair, we spoke of was and when
Although I wasn't there, he said I was his friend
Which came as some surprise I spoke into his eyes
I thought you died alone, a long long time ago

I laughed and shook his hand, and made my way back home
I searched for form and land, for years and years I roamed

I gazed a gazely stare at all the millions here
We must have died alone, a long long time ago

Who knows? not me
We never lost control
You're face to face
With the Man who Sold the World

spree ng.

Gabriella Kiss jewelry (she's Hungarian so it's pronounce Kish).

Simple and elegant and natural and pretty and perfect. Imperfectly perfect black and brown and rusty diamonds, labradorite, peridot, green garnet, sapphire. Discovered at Ted Muehling on Howard Street. She was his apprentice after earning her BFA at Pratt in sculpture and now is solo up in the Hudson Valley. Stones are mostly bezel set but not too deeply so light still comes through.

A girl can always dream.

Images from Quadrum Gallery

pete and repeat

Just want to look more closely at this image which I've already posted...I like orange socks and these shoes and this whole situation. that's all. cecily brown tomorrow.

The Monster Mash

New twitter mash up of Ruth Reichl aka my hero and Anthony Bourdain aka sexy tall culinary adventurer.

Says things like "Haven't done a "reverse French press" since I hooked up with Jacques Pepin in '79. So sensual. I would tear him a new portafilter."

Meet Ruth

Bourdain.

Oh the horror.

Uday the photographer

Uday Kak taking images of Tessa for maryamnassirzadeh.com.

Uday is Maryam's fiance and co-owner of Maryam Nassir Zadeh.

aka my favorite store.

Good day for photo taking out doors!

Morning at Maryam's

Always fun to have a pop into maryam nassir zadeh.

My favorite place to get a nice necklace and get inspired to organize

Crystal necklaces like I wore to Wonderland Ave. Elementary.

Marion Vidal treasure trove.

Rock, garden.

Tessa and Lily looking lovely in the springy sun.

Uday was taking pics for the site - new Bernard Wilhelm looks pretty on Tessa.

Pretty hand dyed scarf.

Waiting for my dyes to come in the mail from Dharma Trading. Need to get some pretty soft gauzy things to make my own pretty scarfs.

the dries theory

dries last season was for me the best thing, style wise, color wise, sunnies...the list goes on.

It was simple and classic

barely any black, not a lot of ethnic things like he is known for

lady like and modest

and now....the tides are changing.

Prada. Marc Jacobs...they have nice things but do they actually effect change?

People just follow and say what other people say.

Marc Jacobs is the best? I don't think so. How is Marc Jacobs relevant??

Can anyone explain this to me???

Dries is the moon.

miro

also from butdoesitfloat

A Detacher for Spring

dirty pink

wallpaper leggings

dirty pink (I have a thing...)

la mona

Just went to A Detacher and went a bit nuts trying things on...

love her collection this season- just my colors!! She said it's her "eastern european" collection-

Roumania etc. The blue floral she uses is my favorite blue floral so far. That dress is amazing on, esp. with a dark brown leather belt.

I am in love with the pale pink and am strongly considering the silk skirt. It's very lingerie-y which makes me hesitate but I love the color and if I can figure out a way to improvise my own Dries-ish oversized orange sweatshirt, then I have an outfit for spring that I'd wear daily.

I also like the pale pink lipstick the girls have on. I'm always inspired by her makeup choices - the army green nailpolish from a few seasons ago led me to some good colors over at Rescue beauty, for instance.

Now to find a good pink for me and figure out how to conjure up the perfect orange sweater/sweatshirt...and a good fabric to recover my couch in. I'm thinking of you, poppy red/orange!!