Ballet Meets Russian Philosophy (Clover Canyon Fall 2013)

It would seem that excess and maximalism is a trend of sorts for Fall 2013. It was a huge part of the alice + olivia collection, and when I saw the Clover Canyon show two days later, there it was in all its bedazzled glory yet again. 

The show notes gave an ample picture of what the creative team at Clover Canyon was aiming for (and achieved). Their inspiration this season was Russia, calling on its "extreme luxury...extreme passion" and "radical, maximal aesthetics." You'll see in a minute how accurate all of this is. Some of the models were attired in pointe shoes--heavily bejeweled, of course--and went up on pointe every few minutes for the entire hour-long presentation. I would classify that as extreme passion. Exhibiting dedication wasn't exactly the point (no pun intended) of including the ballerina-models. Clover Canyon didn't just use Russia as an excuse to throw gems on everything they saw, they used it as a reference point for the collection by gathering inspiration from the "opulence of The Hermitage" and the Constructivism movement that began in Russia around the time of the Bolshevik Revolution and the end of World War I. Everything from the grace of the Russian ballerinas to the Siberian plains was used in this collection. 

What really struck me, though, were the questions posed at the end of the show notes. These were ideas that had not been brought up with the alice + olivia collection, but touched upon a different concept entirely: "Can there ever be too much beauty? Or too much love?"

I'd give you a whole long answer if I could, but I think that's one I'd have to mull over for quite some time. Discuss it amongst yourselves (comments section, anybody?). Let's reconvene in T minus 54 hours and share our findings. (Side note: I just understood the whole T minus thing; T is the variable, standing for 'time.' This is exciting.) 

[Photos (and the special surprise at the end) by me.]

I don't think there's anything more excessive than bedazzled pointe shoes. 

One thing's for sure: there can never be too much texture. 

The crazy thing is that this pattern that looks like a chandelier hanging from her body is actually just printed on the dress! Not a real chandelier! My mom was a little shocked by this news. 

The sweatshirt says "Clover Canyon" in Russian. 

And I'd wear those pants any day.

You'd think the (faux) fur would be the luxurious part of this ensemble. But the gold embroidering on the collar and the print of the jacket are competing with it in the best way possible.

The corner of ballerinas! 

Clover Canyon treats prints as neutrals.

She was so cute that I couldn't not include her here. 

This is probably the most awkward picture I have ever taken.

I guess I'm not the only one that likes dressing like a box.

Those are some good Friday night disco jammin' pants. And everybody needs a pair of decent Friday night disco jammin' pants. 

Short dresses with long sleeves are really, really elegant. I need to get me one o' those. 

The special surprise at the end of which I spoke! She was dancing so I took a million pictures and I later discovered that it looked like she was actually dancing in my photos --> GIF is made. 

It took me long enough to get all of my NYFW stuff covered (it ended over a month ago). Thankfully, meaning THANK THE FUQIN HOLY BEJEEZUS, I am on spring break now and I have about ten days of freedom. Five of these days include going to Harry Potter world. Basically all my dreams are coming true. I really am going back to Hogwarts. 

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A Convergence

Sometimes I have the irrepressible urge to dress like a gypsy princess. I also sometimes have the nagging desire to dress like a fancy business lay-dee. Sometimes, the two converge in a yellow wood  (I know it's actually "diverged" but it was too good to pass up) and I have no choice but to live by the wise words of Oscar Wilde and yield to my temptation. Below you shall see the result of such an undertaking. 

[Photos by Alina Peña.]

Top: gift from my aunt in France

Pants: unknown

Denim jacket: Gap (embroidered by me)

Scarf: pashmina from my grandma

Plaid jacket: Outerwear (I got it at the flea market at Vassar where I also got that pink tweed jacket, which funnily enough I wore with these pants)

Shoes: Christian Siriano for Payless

In the words of the photographer for this post: "boobies!"

I'm just glad that my little midriff there didn't get frostbite or nothin'. I'd say that's something to smile about. Also Alina may have been making a particularly ridiculous face. 

Peep the hand-knitted mittens, made by me, circa third grade. I had a knitting business from fourth through sixth grades. I'll give you the link so you can have a good long laugh. This is it. 

I wore this outfit to the Clover Canyon show on Wednesday, February 13, in case anyone was wondering.

Does Thursday remind anyone else of pretzels?

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On the Road (Clover Canyon Spring 2013)

I know it doesn't make much sense right now, what with Hurricane Sandy blocking off all mass transit in New York City so that I can't leave my borough, coupled with the fact that the next summer break is eons away, but think about spending hot, adventure-filled days in Southern California. Why, you ask? Because that's what the designers of Clover Canyon wanted us to do when they put out their Spring/Summer 2013 collection that I saw at New York Fashion Week back in September. The collection was called "On the Road," most likely intentionally sharing a name with Jack Kerouac's novel by the same title. If you haven't read the book, it chronicles the author's travels back and forth across the United States over the course of a few years--working on a railroad in California for a few months, hitchhiking to Denver, stopping in New York City for a few weeks, going back out West, over and over and over again. To be honest, it began to feel almost ridiculous how much he backtracked and revisited places, only because I am an extremely systematic person and like to go from point A to point B in a logical manner. But that wasn't the point of me mentioning On the Road. The entire book is about getting up and just leaving in search of a good time. That was basically Jack Kerouac's life (I've been reading a collection of personal letters between him and Allen Ginsberg, a correspondence spanning approximately fifteen years, so I'm getting all the intimate facts about his bumming around in Mexico and sleeping on other people's couches while writing). 

This past summer, the Rookie Mag team did a cross-country road trip, starting in New York and working their way west to California. It's just another example of a group of friends spending time together in a van, eating junk food and driving endlessly for miles and stopping at deserted burger joints off the side of some midwestern interstate that only their car and a few assorted pick-up trucks are traveling on. It's not just about going somewhere just to be on the move and not necessarily having a set destination. It's about freedom. The bright colors and scintillating prints in the Clover Canyon collection emulated the youthfulness and fun of a road trip. The brand's clothing is manually patterned, cut, and sewn on the premises. They refer to it as "old world craftsmanship," an aspect of their company that gives the collection's allusions to "candy-colored muscle cars," "wood-paneled motel rooms," "surf shacks," "disco balls and rodeos," and "cannabis leaves" a whole new meaning. [All of these quotations are taken from Clover Canyon's show notes.] Road trips, above all, are about fun. Even though I'm still just a kid, I know how tough it is as an adult to enjoy yourself the way teenagers do. They have responsibilities and obligations that jobless students do not. In Clover Canyon's collection, the juxtaposition between "boyish soft suiting" and fluid shapes and fabrics realizes the idea of adults trying to let loose and truly act like kids again. 

The show was presented in the form of a box presentation, meaning the models were standing around the room and posing for the photographers. Luckily, I was a photographer, and some of the girls got really into it. I mean, it is their job, but I felt really grateful that they were posing for lil' ol' me, so I smiled at all of them after I lowered my camera, and some returned the grin, but others were slightly taken aback by my act of courtesy. 

You'll see how cool some of these girls were in their super cool clothes. 

[Photos by me.]

Imagine going to work in that suit. 

Way out, dude! 

That was my impression of a surfer. 

That print is pretty intense. 

Am I seeing cars? Am I seeing Aztec buildings? What am I seeing??

The Road. 

This reminds me of a ceramic sculpture I recently made inspired by adobe architecture.

Fun fact of the day.  

Try and tell me it doesn't look like the models are going to be sucked into a black abyss. 

She was smizing up a storm. If you can smize with your body...?

Can you spot the illegal drugs in this photo? 

When you don't have a cool '50s Cadillac to drive around town...wear one on your torso! 

The hair and the print on the jacket are screaming Grease mixed with the "SB-129" episode of Spongebob.

The cutest person ever. 

Don't tell anyone, but she was my favorite. 

Look at them smize. They make it an art form. 

This model even made her feet look all fancy for me. Wasn't that nice? 

That jacket is made of sequins. 

Yeah. 

That just about wraps up New York Fashion Week! Well, actually, it wraps up New York Fashion Week. Straight up. And it only took me, like, two months!

If you guys were seriously affected by that bitch Sandy this weekend...you probably wouldn't be reading this blogpost right now, because you probably wouldn't have power. Luckily I wasn't, as in my apartment didn't lose power and my neighborhood suffered minimal damage, but I know so many people who weren't as fortunate. The subway will be shut down for the next four to five days, which means: a) no school, and b) no going anywhere at all. So it's good but also fairly sucky. Hang in there, guys!

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