A Miss for Missoni

While I've never professed serious love for Missoni, I can't deny there are some house staples I would love to own. I've many a time oogled over a beautifully patterned knit sweater that, true to its brand, couldn't be anything but the alluring, comfortable, and opulent M. I can remember the first Missoni dress I fell for was in a shop in one of the high-end retailers in St. Martin, I believe. It was a wrap dress, of their signature pattern, a kind of pastel yellow, gold, and orange, with delightful zagging slices of eggshell blue. I fought myself over the instinct to buy that dress pretty ferociously, as it definitely wasn't per-se my accustomed "style" but, four years later, I still find myself thinking about it...

But the Missoni for Target line simply does not equate for me. Besides the general design of the clothes (which remind me greatly of some of my most favored seventh-grade staples, see photos below) I think there lies an issue with the general expansiveness of the line, and also the entire fashion concept. I think the line should have more closely adhered to what Missoni is known for, and as a unique, unmistakable brand, for me that would have been a very limited pool of upscale garments and accessories: the places where their philosophy and style translates best. That I can buy Missoni style bathroom rugs, bycicles, salad bowls and i-pad covers leaves me feeling-dare I say it?- A little exploited. And a little oversaturated. Not to say there weren't any successes in the Missoni for Target line. I liked the classic knit dress, the velour shorts and a few other pieces like this girls sweater vest, or the velour shorts picture below... I even liked their "rose" motif, represented here in a bra...

The other problem I had was mainly conceptual. Missoni is a brand known for their distinctive pattern and their materials. The Missoni pattern itself is iconic, not because of its novelty alone, but because, in this authors opinion, Missoni has managed to take a standard geometrical pattern and elevate it into opulence through their luxurious materials, impressive attention to knitting and weave, and carefully chosen color palettes. If you asked me if I liked small geometric patterns on a dress I would strongly reply in the negative, and yet hand me a Missoni sweater and the playfulness of the colors, the softness of the materials, and the whimsical Bohemia of the pattern, somehow draws one in and combines to create something exceptional. When you take away the added touches that are necessarily stripped from the Missoni for Target line in order to meet a certain price point, not only is the image of the brand devalued, but you are left with only the barest bones of that iconic lines design philosophy-- that is, a lot of bright zig-zag lines. In my opinion it reminds me of the entrance to Marc Jacobs stores, a roomful of knick-knacks and kiddied-down paraphernalia, key-chains, grocery bags, ect.. targeted at a younger set, who have not yet developed the sensibilities to separate brand name from value. And this is what I find distasteful. For me, I respect a line that searches for an opportunity to further investigate its most artistic visions via couture, which is a dying breed due to its rarely equatable financial returns, rather than a line that dumbs down its concept in order to reach a wider commercial body. It comes down to the idea of whether fashion is an art or industry? I like to argue the former but in this case, its all but clear, financial gain is the main motivation.

This is not, by the way, to say that I disapprove of all the newer attempts to fuse high fashion with a lower price point. Simply to say that it's a slippery slope when we let the brand carry the value rather than the design. Two instances that come to mind, in my opinion, of extremely well-executed collaborations are Stella McCartney's Collaboration with H&M and Proenza Shoulers' earlier collaboration with Target... even if Target later seemed to borrow a little too much from Proenza with their copycat PS1 Bag.

Here are some of my personal NO's: the puffer jacket (why? that's all, why?), the middle shirt i'm pretty sure i've already seem hundreds of times at every outlet superstore available, and the sweater is straight out of my 7th grade wardrobe.

To decide for yourself go to Missoni Target.
For info on the PS1 controversy see NYT on the PS1 Bag.
For either the Proenza Shouler for target line or Stella McCartney for H&M line just get googling.

Last Beatles Photo Shoot

John is Looking Straight-Up Jesus in this Photo.

Modern Day Definition of Literature

I took the liberty of putting forth a few examples of what I consider, walking the modern-day line between art, literature, media and advertising. The truth is, as we progress as a society the meanings of all of these have fused. An advertisements success in targeting the educated literate class may rely on its ability to mimic established literary ideas, and thereby be accepted as more reliable. This is evident even in such minor things as the formatting of letters on commercials or billboards—if it is advertising something that is supposed to be serious, reliable, or have integrity, such as a law firm or an insurance company, you can bet they are using classic fonts—Times New Roman, Arial, Old Courier. This isn’t accidental. We ascribe certain moral values to these types of fonts, we are reminded of sturdy, classic novels, just like we subtlety ascribe values to writing styles. In this way, the question of ‘what is literature?’ is being compounded. Literature is everywhere something disguised as something else.

For example, today I was reminded of something I think of often when I shop online at Anthropologie (hold on a second, don’t let me lose you on the way to this point, it’s valid, I swear.) Every time I look at an item its accompanied by a very catchy, enticingly well-worded description of the apparel that borders on poetry. There is no doubt that Anthropologie hires advertisers, or quite likely creative writers, to compose these vignettes for each article they put out. Besides wondering “how the hell does someone get that job?” I also found myself wondering: “could this be considered modern-day literature?”

            Here are some amusing examples:

“With the help of a little magic, it seems, Leifsdottir has swirled a thousand colors into their chiffon-paneled silk charmeuse dress.”

“Slick, wine-hued patent pours over the platform, chunky heel and stylized origami bow of these embossed suede peep-toes, creating a heady contrast of textures.”

“These season-spanning slip-ons combine the sun-yellow hue of summer with the tassels and kilty fringe of autumn-evoking loafers.”

“Layered and lined with layers of lines, this silver-flecked dress is an achromatic success.”

You might think that this is clearly an instance of advertising, definitely NOT literature, but it more than plays with very much established literary tools. There is alliteration and imagery, even rhyme, characterization, and a conscientiousness of language. What if each of these descriptions was teased out into a short characterization? Each object featured as a small story, to further enhance the perception of ‘uniqueness’ and evoke desired associations?

What about blogs? They are becoming a definite source of employment for creative writing graduates. These days companies, stores, schools, and individuals are all looking to get in on the social mass media frenzy. Here is a blog of one of my friends who writes amusing daily anecdotes tinged with societal commentary, humor, and occasionally the profound poem. (She would probably kill me if she knew I was posting this, but its public domain : - ) Sofie's Blog

What about the transcript of Obama’s presidential inauguration speech, which was no doubt, VERY carefully crafted and composed? Inaugural Address

And lastly, (in this authors opinion perhaps the farthest stretch for the application of the title Literature) what about the Twilight book series? Have you ever tried to read one of those things? Tell me the Anthropologie clothing descriptions are not better written than those. I mean where are the guidelines for this stuff, or is it just all one indecipherable mess of media, advertising, commercialism, and writing? Dare we refer to these things as ‘literature?’

Anthropologie

Lately, I must be honest, I've found Anthropologie to be a bit disappointing. The past few seasons I feel like I've seen a lot less innovation, a lot of tired and reused cuts and patterns, and some overly-familiar trends that just felt like tweaks on last season. But today I checked them out expressly for a class assignment (who knows if it was really my subconscious trying to procrastinate) on what constitutes literature, thinking I would do a small examination of their clothing descriptions. And behold I found two, not one but, two pairs of shoes a devoutly had to have: a beautiful pair of notched, deep brown leather boots, and some luscious velvet draped heels. Both will be a boon this season. I leave them to you for deliberation:

'La Rochelle' Boots

(shout out to Gracie T.)

'Pinch-Pleat Heels'

(what a perfect color for this fall season)

 I also found a fair pair of woven boots on sale that I think deserve an honorable mention:
'Woven Saddle Boots'

Well, I can only afford one, help me out. For better viewing, check out Anthropologie shoes.

Something Old, Something New

A new blog. As a creative writing major it only makes sense that I have one. And as a fashion enthusiast I can't help but want to make one in the lieu of thesartorialist, lookbook, or fashiontoast. If you haven't explored these sites, I highly recommend them. However, I don't want to just limit my blog to fashion, which, as much as I love, I feel excludes so many intertwining and related social arts. So I will tell you now, I am a full time literature junkie, with a pension for melancholy, a part-time artist who likes to stay in the loop, a music fan (though limited in my own musical capabilities), and, yes, a style lover, who believes that fashion is every bit the artistic media as classic literature. My hope is that this site will be as intellectually stimulating as it is visually inspiring and fashionably informative.

LOVE,  Leda