Friday, March 2, 2012

Fabulous Fifties


Wheel skirts, emphasized waist, bon ton and femininity. Spring style plays with the iconography of the American Dream.

Louis Vuitton SS 2012

Louis Vuitton SS 2012

Zara SS 2012

Topshop SS 2012



Jessica Alba

Carey Mulligan

Scarlett Johanson

Thursday, March 1, 2012

I Love T-Shirt

I'm a white tee addicted: even if I have a box full of them, I continue buying many and many of them, with different shapes, lengths, fabric. I think they are absolutely perfect with (almost) everything.



The T-shirt evolved from undergarments used in the 19th century, through cutting the one-piece "union suit" underwear into separate top and bottom garments, with the top long enough to tuck under the waistband of the bottoms. T-shirts, with and without buttons, were adopted by miners and stevedores during the late 19th century as a convenient covering for hot environments.
T-shirts, as a slip-on garment without buttons, originally became popular in the United States when they were issued by the U.S. Navy during or following the Spanish American War. These were a crew-necked, short-sleeved, white cotton undershirt to be worn under a uniform. It became common for sailors and Marines in work parties, the early submarines, and tropical climates to remove their uniform "jacket", wearing (and soiling) only the undershirt.

Named the T-shirt due to the shape of the garment's outline, it soon became popular as a bottom layer of clothing for workers in various industries, including agriculture. The T-shirt was easily fitted, easily cleaned, and inexpensive, and for this reason it became the shirt of choice for young boys. Boys' shirts were made in various colors and patterns. By the Great Depression, the T-shirt was often the default garment to be worn when doing farm or ranch chores, as well as other times when modesty called for a torso covering but conditions called for lightweight fabrics.

Following World War II, it became common to see veterans wearing their uniform trousers with their T-shirts as casual clothing, and they became even more popular in the 1950s after Marlon Brando wore one in A Streetcar Named Desire, finally achieving status as fashionable, stand-alone, outer-wear garments.


They can also be used to carry commercial advertising, souvenir messages and protest art messages. Beginning in the late 1960s, the T-shirt became a medium for wearable art. Psychedelic art poster designer Warren Dayton pioneered several political, protest, and pop-culture art T-shirts featuring images of Cesar Chavez, political cartoons, and other cultural icons in an article in the Los Angeles Times magazine in late 1969.


Today, many notable and memorable T-shirts produced in the 1970s have now become ensconced in pop culture. Examples include the bright yellow happy face T-shirts, The Rolling Stones tops with their "tongue and lips" logo, and Milton Glaser's iconic "I ♥ N Y” design.

Alessandra Ambrosio

Jessica Alba

Emma Watson

T-shirts were originally worn as undershirts. Now T-shirts are worn frequently as the only piece of clothing on the top half of the body, other than possibly a bra or an undershirt (vest). T-shirts have also become a medium for self-expression and advertising, with any imaginable combination of words, art, and even photographs on display.

Agyness Deyn

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Wednesday, May 11, 2011

90 years of Chanel No. 5

Chanel No. 5 is the first perfume launched by Coco Chanel and developed by Russian-French chemist Ernst Beaux, who mixed for the first time natural essences and synthetic (80 different ingredients, including artificial essence of jasmine). It is often considered the world's most famous perfume.



Traditionally fragrance worn by women had adhered to two basic categories. “Respectable” women favored the pure essence of a single garden flower. Sexually provocative perfumes heavy with animal musk or jasmine were associated with women of the demi-monde, prostitutes or courtesans.[2] Chanel felt the time was right for the debut of a scent that would epitomize the boyish, modern flapper that would speak to the liberated spirit of the 1920s.
Chanel’s initial marketing strategy was to generate a buzz around her new fragrance by hosting what was essentially a promotional event. She invited a group of elite friends to dine with her in an elegant restaurant in Grasse where she surprised and delighted her guests by spraying them with Chanel No. 5. The official launch place and date of Chanel No. 5 was in her rue Cambon boutique in the fifth month of the year, on the fifth day of the month: May 5, 1921. Chanel’s mystical obsession with the number five again proved to be her lucky charm. She infused the shop’s dressing rooms with the scent, and gifted a select few of her high society friends with bottles. The success of Chanel No. 5 was immediate and phenomenal.


In the 1950s the glamour of Chanel No. 5 was reignited by the celebrity of Marilyn Monroe. Monroe's unsolicited endorsement of the fragrance provided invaluable publicity. In a 1954 interview, when asked what she wore to bed, the movie star provocatively responded: “five drops of Chanel No. 5.”