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“The Hunger Games” costumer Judianna Makovsky combines past, current looks for film

23 Mar

Today opens the much-anticipated (and hyped) film  “The Hunger Games,” a dystopian fantasy where poor young people are pitted against one another in a battle to the death.  But have you noticed what they’re wearing?  I certainly have noticed, and not necessarily the garb on the star-crossed young folk, played by Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson (who, in the story, are given their own stylists), but also the clothing and coiffures on actors Stanley Tucci, Wes Bentley, and Elizabeth Banks….

Poor horrible, horrible Effie. I'd rather fight for my life than have to wear this get-up. yeesh!

I’ve been fascinated by the horrific-looking Effie Trinket,  that Ga Ga-esque fuscha nightmare, replete with leg-o-mutton sleeves like I haven’t seen since the 1980′s.  What about Tucci’s blue samurai haircut, Bentley’s weird facial hair, and that the residents of District 12 look like they stepped out of a King Vidor film of the 1930′s.  Well, there’s no coincidence here.  Costume designer Judianna Makovsky (also the costume designer for the Harry Potter films), spoke about her work and influences to the Los Angeles Times and InStyle.com , with the latter of the two a little more (perhaps inappropriately) enthusiastic about translating the film’s looks to our world.

Makovsky, however, was most interested in keeping the looks consistent with descriptions in the book.  For Katniss Everdean’s “girl on fire dress” Makovsky says:  “I wanted the dress to be red, but not so covered in stones that it would look like something out of Dancing With the Stars…”  And, of course, the dress doesn’t actually burst into real flames–CGI helped in that department.

Many of the designers who influenced Makovsky’s “Capitol Couture” fashions include Alexander McQueen, Jean Paul Gaultier, Rodarte, and Elsa Schiaparelli, queen of surrealist fashion design in the 1930;s and 40′s.  So it’s no wonder that I’m seeing the 1980′s, since Gaultier and McQueen’s work was highly influential back then–and certain motifs and themes keep getting recycled into 21st century fashion.  The Capitol dwellers have been described as “opulent” and other word to connote their high-fashion status.  But with the colored-hair wigs (green, pink, etc) I can’t help but think of the sad-looking women with bizarrely colored wigs in Stanley Kubrick’s classic A Clockwork Orange–another dystopian society movie with kids as the main focus.

A purple-haired pub waitress in Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange."

Wardrobe for Katniss and other District 12 dwellers is most definitely influenced by workwear of the past.  Makovsky looked at photos from that time period, to get a better sense of everyday fashion. Since there are always more regular folk than fashionistas, the numbers of costumes for the extras (as well as the principals) came from a combination of vintage finds and costumes hand-made and fitted for the film.  With roughly 600 charater extras, there wound up being a total of 1800 costumes just for this group alone!

Makovsky says she hopes that many of the costumes will go on display somewhere after the movie.

Yet there’s another rather silly and superfluous side to all this great costuming.  Lion’s Gate, the Hunger Games film company, decided to go all out with their social media promotions for the film, including a tumblr titled Capitol Couture.  This has to be one of the worst sites I’ve ever seen: everything from the dull colors to the District Style Challenges screams promotion desperation.

Seriously, this is a dystopian film.  Lots of people get killed.  You want to dress like the idiots of the Capitol and the “citizens” who are marked for death?  Really?  That kind of promotion seems tacky and jaundiced, and almost seems to highlight an ironic mocking of fans and moviegoers.  Same can be said for a feature at InStyle.com, which talks about Katniss’ spring style.  Really???  That’s like the Lisabeth Salanader look for H&M.    All I can do is chalk this stuff up to the annals of “When Film Promotions Go Horribly Wrong.”    If film companies and p.r. departments are looking to capture some sort of fashion zeitgeist of these films, they really can’t.  The looks speak for themselves, and audiences will adopt those looks if they find them cool.  Companies cannot manufacture that kind of fashion passion.  It just happens.  Trying to manufacture it only makes them look like the people we’re supposed to be rooting against in films like The Hunger Games.  How Ironic.

 

Sunday’s Fashion Lesson with Bill Cunningham….

12 Mar

If you don’t know who Bill Cunningham is, you should….especially if you want to learn anything about how to cultivate a

poster for the documentary "Bill Cunningham New York"

discerning eye for fashion and style.  Not to mention the lovely little lessons on the history of 20th century fashion that Cunningham weaves into his weekly fashion videos that are featured on the front of the Sunday  New York Times website

Cunningham has been a  photojournalist for The New York Times since at least the 1970′s–prior to that he was a fashion journalist for Women’s Wear Daily and a Harvard drop-out.  He has been taking candid street photographs of fashionable people for close to 50 years now.  While some might consider his photos “artless” it’s not art that Cunningham is looking to create.  Rather, he documents the ways in which people of all sorts interpret the fashion of their day, as much as he chronicles the evolutions of fashion styles….

For instance, in yesterday’s short titled “Sun Spot”, Cunningham views Paris Fashion Week, the last week of  shows for the Fall-Winter 2012 fashions.  He notes how much yellow he sees on women attending the shows (working women, many still clad in always-in-fashion black) and in the flowers dotting the Parisian landscape.  Cunningham notes that fashion is all a jumble right now, but that women nowadays want fashion that not only fits their lifestyle, but also fashion that they choose and pay for themselves.  In this “modern age” we are not the “decorative women” of the post-WWII 1950s,  who were festooned to represent the affluence of their husbands and who, in their leisure could be nothing more than decorative objects (much to the consternation of a lot of women.)

“When someone else is paying, then you buy something frivolous,” Cunningham says, ” When you’re paying for it yourself, you think twice.”

And that, to me is what marks the difference between adolescent fashion and grown-up fashion.  For adolescents (and the chronological age is variable) there’s spending a whole lot of money for something that is trendy and may look downright awful.  Grown-ups, however, don’t have that particular level of disposable income that so many young people might have…..

So, the young people become the frivolous fashionistas, which, IMO, is what’s plaguing a lot of fashion right at this moment.  We don’t have enough fashion for grown-ups who work, who raise families, who aren’t lounging around sipping smoothies and exercising all day in order to keep their “girlish figures.”

I love, though, that Cunningham is so delightfully sanguine and believes that fashion will turn around and reflect what women need.   This is another part of why I love to watch his photos and listen to him every week: in a fashion world that seems to be constantly unforgiving of women and women’s lives, Cunningham situates fashion in historical context, and, right now, reminds us of the upheaval that may indeed shake out for the best.

In the meantime, I’m going to continue to watch Bill’s weekly videos and take his fashion and style recommendations…..

BTW, anybody seen my yellow scarf…… :-)

Bests and Worsts from the Oscars 2012 (and one horrific Grammy look)

1 Mar

Whew! It’s been awhile since I posted…and in that time we had two high-profile awards shows with some incredible–and incredibly awful–fashions.  I’ve got to say that the Oscars were the far more fabulous show, while the Grammys left me wondering “what the heck was that?”  Although I believe some of the soberness was owed to the death of Whitney Houston the night before the show, which may have caused some celebs to make last-minute wardrobe changes.  Therefore, I only have one outstandingly horrid Grammy choice–one that could have easily been averted with minor tweaks.

That being said, I will proceed with a few of my favorite Oscar looks (the rest you can find at Pinterest on my Oscars Best-Worst 2012  board.) Oh, one final thought:  I read a gazillion Best-Worst Dressed articles from both the U.S. and U.K. and there was no hands-down winner that *everyone* though was either the best or the worst.  Fashion is starting to take on the vibe of surrealist literature: either you get it, or you don’t, but who decides whether you’re getting it right or not getting it at all is a subjective judgement….

My first favorite has to be Viola Davis in this incredible, gorgeous green Vera Wang.  While some reviewers thought the pleats at the bottom were too much, IMO they’re perfect, bringing movement into what would have been a rather stiff ensemble (and giving it that “undersea” look that was popular at some of the 2010 fall social events in NYC.) More important to this look is Davis’ natural hair, which complements the look perfectly and sticks it to  the Anglo beauty standard.  In fact, the same reviewer who didn’t like the dress also didn’t like Davis’ hair, saying it was “inappropriate.”  Excuse me!?!  Women should not need to make themselves over to the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant Beauty Standard in order to be beautiful.  We are who we are, and beauty is beauty, even if it ain’t whitey-style.

Next came Octavia Spencer in Tadashi Soji.   It seems that many designers have no idea what to do with a woman who has curves.  Soji has no problem with a woman who has curves *and* isn’t in her late 20′s.  The dress highlights her waist and draws the eye both up to her face and down to the beautiful draping. The simple sleeve makes it elegant, not matronly (unlike Melissa McCarthey’s disaster, which looked better suited to a  middle-aged mother of the bride.)

The last of my faves that I’ll blog about (you can see the others on Pinterest) is this Alexander McQueen gorgeousness on Jessica Chastain.  I’m a sucker for embroidery, and I love the way the bodice embroidery resembles a golden butterfly hovering over a fields that traipse along the bottom of the gown.  Chastain’s soft hair and make-up are the perfect complement to a dress that is an absolute work of art….

And now for my top three worsts–and there were some bad ones….

It pains me to say this because I *love* Melissa McCarthey, and I know a good friend of hers designed this dress for her, but, my god, as someone else said, the designer should be taken out and beat with this dress.  Neither the color–mother of the bride mauve–nor the cut does a darned thing for Melissa.  She needed something that gave her lift, possibly with a short or cap sleeve, and not that fluttery butterfly stuff that’s there.  yuck!  The gathers/ruching/pleats or whatever they are on the bustline are just awful.  If this is the worst thing that happened to Melissa McCarthey this year, then she should pack this dress off to a charity and move on…

What can one say about Kristen Wiig, other than that she might want to consider firing her stylist.  Every time I’ve seen the woman at an awards show, she’s wearing gowns with colors that range from Old Nun’s Pantyhose Nude to Support Hose Beige.  WTF?  Wiig’s an attractive woman, so what’s with the beige?  A nice teal, perhaps.  But please! no more with the beige.

It’s tough picking the last of the worst, because there were a lot of worsts.  Could have been Leah Thompson’s silvery mother of the groom ensemble, to Angelina Jolie’s “legware” (oh, god, I could go on and on about that mess) but I just have to take a stab (literally) at Glenn Close in Zac Pozen.  Ok, we got too much going on here.  We got some fancy stuff going on with the corset-style bodice (anyone other than me getting tired of seeing that style, esp on women who might not ever need to wear a corset?)  to what looks like a painfully tight mermaid skirt.  Not just tight but a tad too long.  Oh, and where do I start with that jacket?  Really? A tuxedo style jacket?  Really??  I’d rather have seen that jacket with a pair of really cool trousers, a drapey low-cut cream or oyster colored shell underneath, and some cool shoes.  It’s just way too much for a fussy mermaid style dress.  yeesh!

Ok, so that clears up the Oscars.  And, as I said, I only have one ensemble from the Grammys to take a swipe at, and I’m only doing that because I really expected more from…..

FERGIE!  Just because it’s Jean Paul Gauthier doesn’t mean it can’t be a hot mess.  and this dress is a serious hot mess.   It’s not just that the word “orange” doesn’t rhyme with anything, but also that orange is a horrific color to match with anything.  Any color other than black would have made it look like a beach cover-up (and quite frankly, shortened up, it would make a super beach cover-up) but then again black under orange makes us think Trick or Treat.  And the only person who got tricked here is Fergie.  I love the woman–she’s a strong performer who truly loves what she’s doing, and it shows in her work.  But wow!  this is just one of the all time awfuls.  How could have it been improved?  A nude or medium pink slip, perhaps?  I’ m not sure even that could have helped it.

 

 

 

 

 

New York Fashion Week rolls on with full slate of video simulcasts, apps, and more

10 Feb

Sorry for being a bit remiss in posting about New York Fashion Week.  My intention was to actually go to NYC for a

Nicki Minaj and Anna Wintour size up a collection at Fashion Week

couple of days and do something like an outsider report (naturally, as I have no invites, so I would definitely be “outside.”)  Given the vicissitudes of my current lack of fortune, travel was well-nigh impossible.  So like a lot of y’all I’m watching from a distance (most frustratingly unfortunately.)

Lots of shows will be simulcast on iPad or on the good ole Internet.  Here’s the New York Times Schedule for the week, listing some of the bigger shows.

Style.com will be simulcasting Jason Wu’s show today at 1p.m  I’ll be very interested to see what Wu has for Fall 2012, esp. since his collection for Target of which I was rather under-whelmed.

Most of Target’s capsule collections are geared towards the very young and very thin.  :-\   Which leaves the rest of us with their usual blah basics.

Vogue also has its own coverage, as does Women’s Wear Daily.  I’m keeping a particular eye on the Ready to Wear collections, which are closest to what we might see in the stores for Fall.

There are also a bunch of apps for iPad and Android, tie ins with Facebook, etc., etc.  It’s pretty much media overload for anyone who isn’t attending Fashion Week.

But there’s nothing like actually being there, and actually getting a bit of swag from here and there, or taking advantage of other little things that might be offered to The Great Uninvited.

Oh, well, maybe I’ll be there for the next one….

(photo h-t Mercedes Benz Fashion Week)

Carine Roitfeld is my fashion soul sister! (well, kinda…..)

7 Feb

Well, ok…I haven’t worked at a fashion magazine ever, and I’ll probably never get closer to Karl Lagerfeld than I did when I almost tried on one of the dresses from his Macy’s capsule collection.  But when I read that Carine Roitfeld, former Editor-in-Chief of Vogue Paris,  is planning a new magazine, slated for launch in September and wants to be “the link between the runway and the real woman,”  well, I almost died…

One of the reasons I started High Fashion, Average Woman, is to experiment a bit with fashion journalism to see if a fairly average woman with good taste and personal style could actually write something that other women would find fun and somewhat helpful as they, too try to navigate the crazy world of the fashion and beauty industries.  Too often I hear from women friends of all ages  and geographic locations about how they don’t understand what’s going on in fashion; question why clothes don’t fit nor flatter their figures; and if there is any sense to even trying to look good when everything looks recycled from previous generations’ bad fashion closets.  Granted, I don’t keep up with this blog as much as I should, but my goal has been pretty lofty and I’m not making any money from this particular venture.  So I get to it when I can.

And I think , for the most part, that I’m meeting my goals here…

So, I’m really glad to see that Roitfeld is planning to use her knowledge and experience to perhaps help us navigate what the heck is going on in fashion and beauty.  In the meantime, I’ll keep up my end of the deal and continue to write here.  Who knows what might happen–you know what I mean? ;)

(h-t to Fashionista.com)

Rumor Has It: Kanye West goes to London, Learns Fashion Technique

28 Dec

Don’t know what it is, but there’s a soft spot in my heart for Kanye West.  Maybe it’s that he makes a fool out of himself and

photo courtesy of Racked.com

then acknowledges it.  Maybe it’s that he has a sensitive streak–relatively speaking.  Or maybe it’s that he goes out on a real limb and takes some major chances, as he did with his debut Spring Summer 2012 fashion collection, gets totally stomped into the ground, and decides to move to London (as rumor has it)….perhaps to learn something about how to make clothes….

I certainly hope that’s the case.  It would certainly put Kanye in a unique position among celebrities with fashion labels.  Most of them–the labels that is–are not designed by the celebrities themselves.  The fashion labels, as well as the fragrances, are usually attempts to extend the celebrity’s personal brand and thus earn them a bit more of a cushion against old age, another means of extending their celebrity, as well as a whole lot more money.

Which is why, for the most part, I consider with a jaundiced eye both fashion and fragrance that carries a celebrity name.  Most of it is bloody darned awful in color, design, and wow, don’t get me started on the scent!  The only celebrity-name designed item that I liked, and wore to death, were a pair of Lauren Conrad pencil jeans.  For some reason, they fit very nicely around the tush, with enough of a waist to avoid the dreaded muffin top.  Everything else, from just about everyone else, is a real yawn or meh…..

This is why I do indeed hope Kanye takes a sewing lesson or two, learns a bit about draping, and improves with his upcoming sophomore collection.  To see a celebrity actually learn to work with material, to learn to sew, and actually become a designer would be unique indeed.

How to Wear Black and White for the Holidays Without Looking Like a Waiter

21 Dec

The black and white combination is a staple in almost any season, and is perhaps the easiest last-minute combination for holiday dinners and parties (we still have a few to go this year.)  The white blouse and black pant or skirt

Model Shayla Monroque --one of Vogue's "Best Dressed" --sports simple yet elegant black & white

combination is also a common uniform combination in for waitstaff in many restaurants.  Especially if you combine it with a tie of any kind.  It’s a combination that’s both retro and modern, depending on your accessories.  So, how do you wear basic black and white, for day or night, without blending in with the waiters or looking like a refugee from the 20th century (unless it’s Halloween, that is)?  Here are a few tips to help

1.  What’s the trend at the moment?  This season there are lots of different trends from colorblocking to the “fetish femme.”   The trend you pick might say more about you than you realize, so choose carefully what you want to say with your choice.

2.  If you have some cash, add an inexpensive piece: a sparkly top, a piece of bold jewelry (or layer a bunch of co-ordinating jewelry), or a tiny hard-case evening bag that you can hold most of the evening. Even consider a sparkly skirt or shorts.  This time of year, these items are going on sale, so you may want to check out off-price retailers like Marshalls or TJ Max.  Also consider Cachet, Bebe or H&M.  The pieces don’t have to cost a lot to look like they did.

3.  Add color with your shoes!  Put the flesh-toned and black pumps to the back of the closet, and wear bright red, electric blue, emerald green or any beautiful bright color.  You can even re-purpose a pair from the summer if they are high enough and not a canvas or other summer material.  If you are wearing a summer shoe, make sure you have a great pedicure.

4. A colorful manicure and on-trend lipstick can distinguish you from the staff too.

Lagerfeld Inspires with 2012 pre-Fall Collection, LeWeb Interview

14 Dec

More often than not I’ll view the video or photos of a fashion show and think “meh” or “omg, that’s ugly.”  Believe me, it’s not that I don’t “get it.”  I’ve been “getting” the whole fashion thing since about 1980.  It’s just that most of it leaves me rather underwhelmed with its rehashed style and retro kink.  Then I peruse the Chanel 2012 pre-Fall collection,  and I find myself having a Wow Moment.  Tim Banks writing for Style.com describes it thusly:

The theme “Paris-Bombay” was a reminder that Europe’s fashion industry has increasingly turned to India to produce extravagantly handworked pieces as it has become prohibitively expensive to make them at home. [Karl] Lagerfeld’s fiendish plan was to flip the equation, so that everything that looked intricately Indian was actually made by Chanel’s ateliers in Paris. That was some kind of tour de force….

All that aside, Paris and Bombay blended beautifully in pearl-swagged tweeds, in a raw silk tunic over leggings (they were actually sinuously bootlike, so we should probably call them beggings or loots), in sheer paisleys, or side-draped asymmetry in ivory silk.

Wow,  indeed!

Now, I might not want to wear an entire ensemble from the collection.  That would be a tad too costume-y.  I could, though, easily add a piece here and there, and bring a little Parisian-Indian elegance to my wardrobe.  Here are some of the complete looks that I would then take a piece from, here and there, to the continuing fashion  Story of Me

And then, my friend Halley Tucker, who was at the LeWeb tech conference in Paris, blogged LeWeb founder Loic LeMeur’s interview with Karl Lagerfeld!  She captured the most insightful moments from the interview.  The stand-out of the interview was Lagerfeld discussing the way he indulges new technologies while never forgetting the importance of the tactile world (something a whole lot of geek-techy types want us to think is unimportant.)  The best, though, is Lagerfeld’s sentiments about social networking overload: “It’s not about being overly connected, it’s about being WELL connected.”

Indeed!

YSL gets green light over Louboutin to use red soles

11 Aug

sky high Louboutins

According to a report in the New York Times a court has refused to grant a preliminary injunction against the Yves St. Laurent company.  The preliminary injunction was requested by the Christian Louboutin company, which alleged copyright infringement for the use of red soles on shoes.  The decision clears the way not just for YSL to continue producing shoes with a similar red sole, but also appears to grant permission to other shoe manufacturers that might want to use red soles.

“Because in the fashion industry color serves ornamental and aesthetic functions vital to robust competition, the court finds that Louboutin is unlikely to be able to prove that its red outsole brand is entitled to trademark protection, even if it has gained enough protection in the market to have secondary meaning,” the court ruled.

While the court acknowledged Louboutin’s originality, for Louboutin to copyright a shade of red would be like  Monet copyrighting a shade of blue….

Or QVC wanting to copyright the letter “Q” ……

Or Fox News wanting to copyright the phrase “fair and balanced”….

Granted Louboutin’s red soles are original, and there is probably a proprietary process for their manufacture, let alone a uniqueness of  color shade.  This will always make Louboutin’s red soles unique.

Frankly,  I’d *love* to see other shades on the soles of shoes.  I’m particularly fond of pink (as they are using on some ShoeDazzle shoes, and I think [pink shows up on Paris Hilton’s shoe line) but from what I understand, with many lower-price shoes, the color is easily scuffed off.  Too bad.  Colored soles certainly make a statement.

 

Photo courtesy of Viva Fashion