Inspired By A Human: Paul Léautaud

The other day I was reading an article on Into The Gloss where the interviewee mentioned something about Karl Lagerfeld, possibly one of the coolest, most inspiring and outrageously brilliant people to be walking this earth; they said that one year his Chanel collection was inspired by Paul Léautaud, the French writer. At first when I read this I was like, "Who dis chick guy?" but then I clicked the hyperlink and fell in love.

I've never studied French literature (unless you consider Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris "French literature"), but my mom did in college, so I'm sure she knows who this wonderful little man is. In Emily's interview with Ines de la Fressange, Ines said that one day Karl brought in some pictures and was like, "He's so chic," and voilà, a collection was born. That is the magic of Macy's Chanel.

I'm not one of those creepy girls who has old man fetishes, but I do think some of them are quite adorable, Léautaud being among them. He perfectly embodies the Parisian literary male look, which is exactly how I want to look most of the time. Sucks that he's dead, I totally could've borrowed a few things from his closet.

Sadly, this man is an oldie, so there were not many images to be found of him on the internet that were not two pixels by two pixels in area. I had to resize some of the following photographs so that's why they're a little fuzzy. It might also be because they're film from like the 1800's, but whatever.

Images via google.com.

Oh my God, please be my friend/husband/grandfather. But not all three at once. 

I call this one, "The Thinker." 

Léautaud was the original eHarmony cat lady.

Rocking the exaggerated collar before it was cool. 

Would ya look at that? He's actually writing something on a piece of parchment, or some other primitive material.

His happiness makes him huggable, his hat makes him a freaking gangster. 

You do not sass Paul Léautaud, for he will sass you right back.

Lo and behold, another feline friend! Chances are his ratio of feline friends to female friends is a bit abnormal.

If you're not in love with him, you're probably not human. (Disclaimer: you probably are human, I have no way of knowing otherwise.)

I apologize for the lack of depth in my posts lately, it's been one of the more stressful weeks I've had in a while. I was living out of a suitcase at other peoples' houses all week and I just got home yesterday, only to be greeted by two tests tomorrow and approximately zero drive to study for either of them. That's why I'm here, writing about dead French authors. Regardless, I hope to be back to some better posting soon, just bear with me. I've got oodles and noodles of things lined up for us. Caboodles and shnoodles, if you will.

Bon soir, mes chéris!

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CHICTOPIA SNEAK PEEK! Elizabeth + James Spring 2012 RTW

It’s officially springtime. That means it’s finally time for the highly anticipated spring 2012 collections to be worn and admired. It’s all quite silly; the fall collections just came out a few weeks ago and we’re just now starting to wear this season’s trends. The new clothes have hit stores, which means that it is the perfect time for a trunk show. An Elizabeth + James trunk show, to be exact. At a boutique in the Bowery. On a sunny Thursday afternoon.

I’d never been to a trunk show before, so I had absolutely zero idea what to expect. It turns out they basically just have the collection on display. Since I went on behalf of Chictopia, I was allowed to take photographs of the garments. Not gonna lie: it was a tad awkward being the only one in the whole store snapping pictures, but I probably won’t ever see those people again so it’s okay.

***

That's the first two paragraphs of my Chictopia article for this week. As one of the only New York editors I'm asked to go to any events that take place here in da citay, including trunk shows and private press previews of collections (pumped? I think yes). I'd really appreciate if you clicked THESE FREAKING HUGE WORDS to finish reading the rest of it if you are so inclined. Please and thank you and merry Christmas. 

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Can I Have Your Closet: Edith Hollander

Some of you may know Edith Hollander as Urban Edith; others as E.D.; some as Ed. I call her the latter two most often. Ed is my favorite name for her, as in Ed, Edd n Eddy, but chances are she won't let you refer to her as one of the skateboarding morons from a Cartoon Network show that was much more popular than it deserved to be. 

Edith is one of those people who just likes to have fun with clothing. Ever since I first met her in 6th grade, she was always the one experimenting with hair and makeup. You went to E.D.'s house to do an impromptu photoshoot that after a while just became a given. She has a real talent for makeup artistry; she's one of the few people I trust with my face (if that makes sense), as well as my hair. Especially when I had those god-awful bangs. Those were a hot mess, yet she always made them look pretty spiffy, if you recall. She also is a really talented artist and writer. Edith takes art and photography classes outside of school and writes in her free time, if "free time" still exists in her life. Doesn't exist in mine (and what am I doing right now?). We're also kind of twins. She used to have long blond hair, which she cut off and dyed brown. Maybe we're just the same person..? 

Curious to know more about our little friend Pedith (that's a nickname that I very rarely use but find highly amusing nonetheless)? Cue the interview. 

Odelia: Okay, first question. How would you describe your style?

Edith: Um...hm...I think most people would call it “hipster,” but that's not really correct, it's probably more of like a, mix of like a, spiritual Buddhist scavenger and a British pop star.

Odelia: Okay! That's very...specific.

Edith: [Laughs]

Odelia: Okay, who are your fashion icons and who do admire aesthetically?

Edith: Hm...I actually really don't have an answer to this. Well, there's this one person Odelia Kaly, really, really—

Odelia: Oh, she sounds like a cool chick.

Edith: [Laughs] I'm thinking Nicki Minaj and Ke$ha...

Odelia: Mmm. They just have a way with fashion that's just—ugh—so inspiring.

Edith: There are actually no celebrities, it's more like people on the street, you know, scouting Williamsburg...Vintage stuff.

Odelia: How about a certain era, or a place?

Edith: I would say a combo of 50's, 70's and 90's, so it's sort of grunge mixed with flare mixed with sweaters.

Odelia: Mmm...classy stuff. Where are your favorite places to shop?

Edith: Williamsburg, so that would be Beacon's Closet, Housing Works, Salvation Army, and I like getting socks at Forever 21.

Odelia: They have good socks?

Edith: They have good socks, yeah.

Odelia: Like, f...luffy socks, or like—

Edith: Fluffy socks, we've got some fluffy socks goin' on right here. [lifts up foot to reveal a fur slipper]

Odelia: Beautiful. Just gorgeous. If you could own one item right now that you don't have, what would it be?

Edith: [Pause] Hm...such a good question...probably...more sweaters. And...velvet things. Maybe a velvet sweater. Innovating here.

Odelia: I'll have to think about that one, maybe we can make that happen. Would you say that fashion is a big focus in your life?

Edith: Definitely. It's not something I would do professionally, but it's definitely how I sort of live my life by presenting myself, so...

Embroidered shorts? I think yes.

She too cool fo' dis. 

Oh hay! Photographers unite!

Triple threat right here: sparkly orange fingernails, cool necklace and shearling denim jacket. 

Don't worry. She didn't fall in to the Hudson River and die.

Check out that collar! It looks like it came right off a little sheep, in the least graphic way possible.

Ain't she a kool kat? I do declare!

Join us next week for Caroline Levy, the super cool actress-photographer-newbie blogger in my math class.

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It's Time To Face It

It's springtime, everyone! If we're being technical, which we are because I'm really anal-retentive about things like that, spring doesn't officially begin until March 20th this year. We've still got three days of this fabulous little winter we had here. But the weather says otherwise: it's time to face the fact that the season we've all been waiting for is finally here. It actually seems like it has already happened since I spent most of the winter writing about spring trends. Alright guys, been there, done that! Time for summer. Not kidding.

I'm warning you now, there's a lot of photos, so proceed if you like pictures. When I see a lot of images in one blogpost, I tend to just scroll through until there's words...but I'm probably just weird.

On commence! (I'm in a French mood right now.)

Photos via harpersbazaar.com and style.com.

Kitty eyes:
Achieve this look by using a dark eye shadow, pencil liner or liquid liner and tracing along your lashline with your lid closed. It takes oodles and noodles of practice to get the perfect little flip at the end, but sometimes it looks better when it's not perfect. The Richard Nicoll look is my favorite. I totally want to try that.

          

          Dolce & Gabbana

Richard Nicoll

          

          Jonathan Saunders

Matthew Williamson

Glitter fairy:
I don't suggest slapping glitter on your face like at Fendi or DSquared² unless you're going to a disco party. To remain looking like a normal person you can just sweep some gold eyeshadow over your eye lids like at Derek Lam. Easy peasy lemon squeezy stuff.

          

       Fendi

DSquared²

Derek Lam

 No makeup makeup:
Low maintenance looks are the best. This is not even low maintenance, it's more like zero to minimal effort. My favorite. Just make sure your skin is really clear and then put on a few swipes of mascara and/or some nude or beige eye shadow. There's some much better instructions in this here article from Bazaar.

          

          Damir Doma

Stella McCartney 

          

          Carolina Herrera 

Christopher Kane

Missoni 

Pops of color:
When done correctly, this can really be a stand alone accessory. If you go Miu Miu on us, that's all the makeup you're gonna need. I'm pretty sure you can just use a bright colored eyeshadow and make a really streamlined shape. Only use one color though, or else it sort of defeats the purpose.

          

          Creatures of the Wind

Richard Chai

Miu Miu

Cerise lips:
Red lips are so classic that there's not much to say about them. You can wear them with no other makeup, or just some mascara, or perhaps some nude eyeshadow, but I don't suggest much else. If you focus on too many parts of your face you run the risk of looking like a clown or a hooker.

          

          Dior

Jason Wu

          

          Rick Owens

Loewe 

Yves Saint Laurent

Insane lashes:
Pretty straight forward stuff here: lots and lots and lots of mascara. Curl your eyelashes beforehand and then put on a bunch of coats (not like, winter coats) to achieve the creepy-childhood-doll look. In a good way. Except for the Viktor & Rolf version. That's just straight up freaky.

            

         Ruffian

Dior

Viktor & Rolf

Smoky eyes:
You've got to be careful with this one. You can't end up looking like raccoon; that's just embarrassing. There is a graceful way to go about it, but I'm not quite sure of what that way is. I'm a little afraid of having this much makeup on my face all at once. I'm sure Michelle Phan has a tutorial on it.

          

          Gucci

Emanuel Ungaro

          

          Rodarte

United Bamboo

Strong brows:
If you've got intense eyebrows, that's just about all you need. They really make a statement. I know someone who has really perfect, super dark eyebrows that are just like, BAM. You can spot those puppies from a mile away. They're a little bit like the ones at Altuzarra. I know there are some tricks like filling them in with a brow pencil one shade darker than your actual eyebrows, or brushing them up funny à la Jil Sander. Go crazy, but not too crazy. You don't want to look like Oscar the Grouch.

          

          Burberry

Jil Sander

Altuzarra

Sun-kissed skin:

People always want to look tan, yet they complain when they get skin cancer. Enter bronzer. Apply it generously to your cheeks (Timo Weiland) or use it to contour your face (Tommy Hilfiger). 

          

          Tommy Hilfiger

Timo Weiland

          

          Rag & Bone

Ralph Lauren

Metallica: 

Silvery white eyeshadow is a nice compliment to all skin tones. It can look especially gorgeous when paired with pearls the way Karl Lagerfeld did it or to toughen up a pretty girl the way Olivier Theyskens did it. 

       

          Chanel

Theyskens' Theory

Phillip Lim

Now you've got a new look for every day of the week! If there were 10 days in a week. Which there should be.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend experimenting with these looks. I know that's exactly how you spend your free time. (What is this "free time" you speak of?)

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