My Little Princess

Stop every insignificant thing you might be doing and go watch 'My Little Princess'

This is the first movie by French model and actress (and director too now) Eva Ionesco. It tells the true story of her eventful youth.

Back in the seventies, France was captured by the scandal of the (what they called) incestuos relationship of a photographer and her daughter. Eva's mother took photo's of her daughter in what might be seen as pornographic poses. Eventually she lost the costudy of her children. Eva then was raised by the parents of footwear designer Christian Louboutin. 

The story reminded me a lot of Thylane Léna-Rose Blondeau. Click here to read the article I did on her.

This isn't just a film that explores the mother-daughter relationship. Too many of that have been made already.

The movie makes you rethink what you thought was art. Boundaries between art and pornography or art and bullshit are hard to draw. How far should one go to for 'art'? One a higher level it made me realize how though it must be to live a life as a misunderstood artist. Having so many people not understand what you are doing, or even worse; criticizing your work without even taking the time to look at it properly must be nearly impossible to cope with.

Special credit should be given to Anamaria Vartolomei for her spectacular impersonation of Violetta, the daughter.

 

One last thing I'd like to point out it that the styling is done by the wonderesque Catherine Baba. With this movie she has proven herself to be on one of the highest levels of creativity one can achieve. My appreciation and respect for this lady and her work has only grown bigger.

Men In Heels

Recently I had this discussion with a friend on wheter or not a guy should wear heels. She said no, simple because ''Men don't wear heels.'' But that's not a valid argument..

Fashion Darling Jean Paul Paula

When you would have asked someone, only a hundred years ago, why women didn't wear pants he'd answer the same thing. ''Simply, because they don't.'' -for the record; women began wearing pants during World War II when they took over their husband's work- But look around now. EVERY women wears pants. So is it only a matter of time until heels for man will be socially accepted? I don't think it's that simple. There are two main reasons;

 Firstly; during the years following the war, the spirit of the nations was one of progression, evolution. Change was good, old was bad. People tried to make sure this wouldn't happen again, by changing the world that made this possible in the first place. It was an age of endless new inventions and exciting perspectives. Nowadays people appear to become more conservative. For example; Whereas in the nineties the majority of people approved of gay relationships, these days that's no longer true. The youth of the new millenium is turning more and more negative towards the open-minded ideas of the nineties, according to several researches. Young parents are planning to raise their children more strictly than they were raised themselves. And that's only logic, knowing that every generation on its own is a reaction against the one before. The open-mindness is reducing.

Secondly, there's the fact that our society thinks it still more acceptable for women to want to look like men, and not for men to look like women. Even though the right of women to vote was obtained in 1948 in Belgium, and equality between men and women was included in our constitution from the very beginning, we still seem to think it's degrading for a man to look like a woman. If my little boy wanted to wear dresses and heels, I would let him. (I'd just make sure they were Prada dresses and Louboutin heels). People think by raising their children conform society's gender-roles they make the lifes of their children easier. ''If they fit in, they won't experience much troubles''. But no. You just raise a blind generation. Let your children decide who they wan't to be, what they want to wear, who they want to become.

''Men just don't wear heels''

Honestly, very honestly, I don't get that.

High-heeled gent

Men In Heels. Your thoughts?

Living Fashion - Een Leven In Mode

If you have read my post on the previous exhibition at the MoMu Antwerp 'Dreaming The World Awake' you might remember I didn't quite like it ;-). Therefore, when I entered the exposition 'Living Fashion' last Saturday, my expectations weren't very high. But boy, was I wrong..

The pieces belong to the collection of Jacoba de Jonge, a Dutch fashion collector. They date from 1750 to 1950. There were thirteen categories, ranging from Homewear, over Pregnancy, to Shopping. The details, rich fabrics and colors made my oohs and aahs longer with every new piece I looked at. One would start dreaming of living back in that era.

Please don't mind the bad quality of the pictures; There seemed to be something wrong with my
Canon..

The midieval Louboutin

PS; If you're younger than 26, you only pay €1, so that's a bargain!

The Camo Trend

The first time I noticed this camo thing becoming quite big was last Christmas in London. Standing in front of the epicenter of hipster style aka Topman, regularly boys walked past me wearing camo print trousers or jackets. And there's a little tip in this; If you want to spot the trends, go to the sidewalk in front of Topman/Topshop London. So as I was standing there, I realized this might become something. And also that I needed to find me some vintage military pants and jackets. (which I did by now)

Last time the camo print was a big hit was in the second half of the 90's, and the early 00's when even big names like Louis Vuitton put camo print on their bags. Back then, we mostly saw the print on casual wear and unformal accessories like T's, bags, sneakers etc. But this time however, camo is to be found on all pieces formal, and not only for men. Think suits, trousers, ties, button-ups,... and of course jackets.

PS; Today I noticed ASOS.com has an entire new collection with camo printed pieces

Lee Oliveira

Lee Oliveira

Lee Oliveira

fabulousonabudget

fusionkelvar

High Snobiety

menandstyle

styledumonde

Topman Blog

Coppens is quitting

What was supposed to be a cosy Saturday took a dramatic turn when Belgian Designer Christophe Coppens broke the news on his blog that he is stopping all his activities as a designer and closing his company.

He is forced to make this decision by motives that are heard more and more in the industry. Due to the worldwide recession banks aren't eager to give loans anymore. Factories ask for pre-payments, wages i Belgium are not payable anymore and it's almost impossible to produce quality products in small quantities.

It has always been difficult, all through my 21 years career as a designer, and difficult is ok. But the past years have been unbearable, and inhuman. One becomes something you are not.

  Mr. Coppens also states he has difficulties finding the balance between art and wearable fashion. 

My ideas are today way bigger than the end result where they are suppossed to fit in. 

 

Thank you