Haute Couture 2012 / 2013

Last week was Paris Haute Couture week. It’s called Paris Haute Couture week but there is only one – it isn’t like ordinary fashion weeks, of which there are hundreds all over the world. Couture is hosted twice a  year and is the fun, frivolous and fantastical antithesis of the ready to wear or resort collections.

Couture is something else.  It is in a sense the vestiges of a time when if you wanted to dress well, you had a dress maker. You also would have a milliner, a glover and a shoemaker. Now a days you may have each of these but increasingly a brand will oversee your entire couture look from blush to belt buckles.

 Elie Saab A/W 2012/2013 Couture. A personal favourite. 

Images courtesy of Getty Images for Marie Claire Australia.

The beginning of couture as we know it today is attributed to Charles Frederick Worth (1826-1895) of the House of Worth, who from his atelier in Paris made impossible to wear, ruinously expensive gowns that were lusted after by European and American aristocracy for their beauty and individualism.

 Gowns from the House of Worth, circa 1887(left) and 1898 - 1900 (right).

The House of Worth disappeared from the fashion scene for decades until recently revived in 2011 for RTW and interestingly, lingerie.

Happy Saturday!

Five for Friday no. 26

Famous shirtless men through the ages. Because Magic Mike is coming out soon. You're welcome.

I love this. The Satorialist for the Edwardian era.

Five Words Tell A Story.

I spotted this quote, it appears on Wood Paneled Shoes and I had to feature it somewhere. 100% accurate.

And because there is a little bit of wedding-fever going around my lady friends at the moment: Vera Wang have opened their first bridal boutique in Australia.

 Photo courtesy of Vogue Australia

Play Me, I'm Yours

Play Me, I’m Yours is a beautiful art installation by British artist Luke Jerram. The concept is so simple but so effective. First commissioned in Birmingham in 2008, 15 pianos appeared across the city and over three weeks were played by an estimated 140,000 people.

Cities anywhere in the world can commission the work. Pianos are installed in public spaces – anywhere, bus stops, squares, bridges – and may be decorated by local artists. But the instruments aren’t ‘artworks’, they are there to be played. This is an ultimate example of participatory art. Everyone can play the piano, even if it is just Heart and Soul or Ode to Joy, the pianos are free and out there for you to use. Anyone can join in and play.

Or you could play Titanic in Barcelona.

At the moment, there are some 600 Play Me, I’m Yours pianos in public spaces world wide. In 2012, the pianos will be appearing in Los Angeles, London, Salt Lake City, Geneva, Paris, Toronto and Hangzhou.

I have a critical weakness for men who play the piano. So for me this installation is the perfect set up for an amazingly romantic moment. Two strangers, or a newly dating couple. You come across a piano, he sits down and starts to play … going to stop now before I get too embarrassing.

If you go to the website you can see a map of where the 600 or so pianos are right now. You can also watch footage of people playing in Paris or Geneva. The pianos have come to 2 Australian cities – Sydney and Adelaide. I somehow cannot imagine Campbell Newman supporting a bid for the project to visit Brisbane, so I’ll hope it comes to Melbourne soon. Or maybe I could make it to Paris.   

In Darlinghurst.

The website history game

This is going to sound weird but as you would all know, your browser saves your web history. And a scurrilous thing it is too. I don’t need to see just how often I look at trashy celebrity fashion websites.

That aside, I have recently developed a new habit utilising that dastardly search history. Into the address bar I type one letter – a random letter of the alphabet – and see what websites pop up from my history. So I choose ‘D’ and the first two options are a couple of tumblrs. I choose ‘C’ and it’s A Cup of Jo, a blog I look at all the time. ‘X’ of course brings up XKCD.

Comic courtesy of XKCD. If you don't read it you're missing out on very important pop culture.

It also varies on whether I’m at home or work. My home computer has so many more options; 'E' is for Entwined Happiness, 'R' is for Fuck Yeah, Parks and Recreation, and 'V' brings up a plethora of websites with the word 'Vintage' in the title; Posh Girl Vintage, Heartbreaker Fashion and then Vogue.

 From the Posh Girl Vintage homepage.

Sounds like a weird habit, doesn’t it? Bet you’re going to try it now though, just to see what your computer remembers about you.

Books from your childhood

Yesterday on Twitter the Sydney Writers Centre posed the question: What were 5 books you grew up with? What 5 books – or series – defined your childhood?

This is a topic of conversation that comes up with my friends quite regularly; books from our childhoods, television shows, movies we grew up with.  We’re all of the same generation, I barely have a close friend who wasn’t born with 18 months of myself. Interestingly though, there are certain books / shows / movies we ALL were exposed to but for the most part we had very different defining experiences. 

What is almost certain is that when one of us discovered that the other has not read a certain book or watched a certain movie, we will be shocked and appalled at their deprived childhood and rave about how they MUST see it, you’ll LOVE it, it’s ESSENTIAL to life itself to have read The Railway Children or seen E.T.. 

For my part, I know that my choice of favourite books was influenced very heavily by my parents. Bookworms themselves, I grew up in a house lined with bookshelves but lacking in films. When I watched a movie, it was one I got out of the video store not out of the family collection. Books, however, were everywhere.

So, my answer to the Sydney Writers Festival question ran as follows:

The silliest tax in the land

Day 2 of the Carbon Tax and already there are no words. Or maybe it's just that all the sensible ones have been used up.

Anyway, I'm not going to attempt intelligent political commentary. I just want an excuse to lead you to this video of Federal MP Craig Emerson's song and dance response to a question of Carbon Tax. And I mean that literally.