Prada v Zara: Highstreet copy alert!

Hi guys,
Spot the trend?! As soon as I saw this display in Zara I immediately thought of Prada S/S11. So I took a snap, logged on to Style.com, and it looks like I was right! This is one serious highstreet homage!

Left is Zara, Bond Street. Right is Prada, SS11.

I'm never really offended by a good high street copy: I loved the S/S11 Prada collection and have had stripes on the brain for this season. Of course, I can't afford Prada, but I can afford Zara. If I could, believe me i'd be buying the real thing! But I think the point i'm making is that when the highstreet copies designers trends, it isn't losing the designer any revenue from poor folks like me! It's just making them lust after your brand all the more, and when the money comes in, they'll know where to turn!

As you're reading this, i'm in Norwich visiting our vicar. We're meeting all the other couples that are getting married this summer, discussing our musical options with the organist, and having the vicar approve our readings. As I write this, I have no idea which readings we'll choose: but i'm sure a three hour car drive talking about in nonstop will help us make our minds up. Lucky old Mike!

Love, Tor xx

Milan-o-rama: Tracksuit Strippers at Prada

Hello blogosphere,

The thing about Prada is I love Prada. Without fail it appeals to my artsy-fartsy sensibilities and love of fancy hats. I've been with Miuccia all the way: from robots to turbans to feathers to knee socks, Wigmore laps it up. All the while however, I've held the following to be true:

1) It usually takes me about three days to digest and fully 'get' a Prada collection. 2) The Spring/Summer Prada is always less awesome than Autumn/Winter Prada by a factor of least 2 and up to 11.

Even with these truths in mind, I gotta say that this is the most disappointed I've ever been with a Prada collection. Bit paratrooper-stripper for my taste. You know how in Arrested Development Gob had those pull-away 'Hot Cop' pants? Yeah. These gals could be naked n gyratin' in 0.5 seconds.

How can anyone imagine that this looks good? Bra-less pigeon ribcage and we're supposed to swoon? This ain't jolie-laide it's laide-laide-laide. If the model doesn't look good than what hope the rest of us? According to fashionologie, the models were teetering and wiping out on the shoes. Ordinarily, laughing at models tripping over is the finest sport in fashion, but the clothes make them look so weak, so fragile, I'm feeling nothing but nothing less than protective and no shiny golden dress finale in going to change that.

Yulia Kharlapanova on her way down.

Ordinarily I'd be all over this but I'm in fashion despondance.

What with this and Burberry being a super-snooze, I'm getting a little concerned about Milan.

Shoulda followed my advice and done wombats, Miuccia...though I'm still holding a glimmer for Miu Miu. Hopefully the marsupials will out.

*sigh*
Becky.

Tiny Wings of Fury

Hello friends,

As I look over my vast (vast!) body of work on this blog, I notice a preponderance of sexy cartoon ladies and Prada each occupying their own pithy internet post. Now, watch, marvel and exclaim as I don my official Robert Altman cowboy hat o' disparate narrative lines and make a post that ties sexy cartoon ladies and Prada together in a veritable burst of fashion-osity.

That was maybe the worst paragraph even written but it's true. Today class, we are learning about James Jean, the illustrator who features so prominently in Prada's S/S 08 collection.

When I first saw the Prada collection, as usual, I didn't quite get it. I'm a First Glance Prada Moron. And, as usual, once the ideas slowly percolated through my brain, I began to love it. You see, I love the hard edged urban warrior thing that usually underscores the Prada aesthetic and this whole curvilinear fairy thing threw me for something of a loop.

But if you look closely at the fairies that adorn these outfit you'll see they're hardly winsome wish granters and milk teeth gatherers. They're barely female, kind of like beautiful foetuses their poses speaking of anguish or violent sexuality.

And here I was thinking Miuccia had gone soft on us. It's like the girls wearing the apocalyptic fuzzy felt outfits of last season stripped off, threw their clothes in a flaming trash can, inhaled the fumes and this is what they saw.

Credit: AP

There's an excellent article in this quarter's POP magazine that visits Mrs Prada and her fabulous slippy slide in Milan. However, when it sidebars into talking about the illustrations, there is no mention of James Jean, only Michael Rock and 'the collective' 2x4. Curiouser and curiouser. It was only a chance click on a tiny story at the New York Times website (check out their style section redesign - it's fabulous) that revealed his identity. Jean's website is well worth a look - he's an Eisner winner comicbook artist as a gosh-darn regular Fine Artist too. You can buy his work from (exchange rate willing) £25 for a print to £2,500 for an original piece. If I had the scratch my friends.....I shall have to sate myself with his beautiful website. Here's a sneak preview:

Crayon Eater Drawing (already sold, damnit)

12.5 x 17 in.
Blue Pencil, Graphite, Pastel on Rives BFK
Description: Mixed Media drawing created for "Crayon Eater."


Recess 4 Gym ($52)
12"H x 16.5"W
Ultrachrome Print on Cotton Rag paper
Description: Signed and Embossed

Secret
12 x 13 in.
Ultrachrome Print on Cotton Rag paper
Description: Signed and Embossed.

Find more gorgeous images, things to buy and James jean's blog at: Process Recess.

The lesson? Ambisextrous curivlinear = good. Miuccia Prada = never wrong.

Your internet pal,
Becky.

Weeny-tiny New Year Vogue

Hello friends,

Eva Green came through my letter-box this morning. It was a cheering thing, her all decked in new season Prada and whatnot. Trouble is, she was looking a bit slim for my liking though of course I don't blame her. Movie stars are beyond reproach in all matters - the US court system has proved this time and again. Nah, it ain't Eva Green's fault her issue is so slender - this wussy New Years edition of Vogue comes in at 201 pages and a featherweight 500g/1lb 40z.

This is disastrous news in a world where a successful fashion magazine needs enough advert-stuffed heft to make it uncomfortable to read in the bath and robust enough to kill an average rodent at close-range. As is always the case, Conde Nast shot its editorial wad on the Christmas issue (Sienna Miller - super sparkly) and all that's left for new years is the leftovers from the "Glamourous One-Name Models and their Glamourous Lives" photoseries (Dec was Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Lily Cole and Sasha Pivovarova and for Jan we get Agyness Deyn, Lily Donaldson and Lily Cole *again*). No real articles of note - "Can you Buy Sleep?" *that's* your cover line, Vogue? Well, yeah. Apparently I can buy sleep for £3.70 at all good newsagents and a bog standard year's round-up.

Still, at least we get some Gallic pouting. Look at that lovely sulky gothy French face. Eva Green is one of my favourite event dressers. She is invariably styled like a haute couture crazy cat lady and I love her tenderly for that.

-- at the BAFTAs in Dior with awesome witch hair.

Still, this cover is a little disappointment. I super dig the Prada floral action but the pose is so Hollywood generic and she looks, frankly, a little uncomfortable. I think this shot from her photoshot is easily the one in which she looks most at ease and it's also a genuine departure from the glam-goth thing that magazine stylists usually do for her.

She's got a naughty 50s farm girl thing going on that everyone can enjoy. That is, until I get the cease and desist order from the publishers. Like pixellated scans could even come close to a magazine copy. I'm not ashamed to admit that I get a little Proustian rush when my copy galumphs on the doormat, whether it's a vintage issue or not. Today, my copy smells of faded Flowerbomb, expensive paper and spilt tea. Surely surely surely February will reward our ongoing special relationship.

Also, can I have this?

Louise Gray, my snotty tissues and small change would never be so stylishly held but for a garment such as this. Plus, pink - am I right?

I'm right.

Your pal,
Becky.