sashdashfash

Just when I was beginning to doubt that Fashion could come up...

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 07:59:39 -0500

Just when I was beginning to doubt that Fashion could come up with anything new and inspiring, I see this parka, from Liberty of London, swathed in what looks exactly like marble. Don’t tell me that tartans, stripes, gingham, etc. are “in.” Those things have always been stylish (when used correctly/creatively). But please, tell me more about the potential to make prints inspired by nature….

full disclosure: I’ve been calling for prints imitating rock, feathers, crystal this whole year. So I’m a bit biased.

p.s: The pleated pants and military hat aren’t bad either.

to the list of things that USED to be glamorous and...

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 08:14:20 -0500

to the list of things that USED to be glamorous and stylish…

[airplane travel, train travel, clothes-shopping, going for a drive, getting dressed for class, hosting a party, having a house built, etc]

we can add getting a hair cut. Once…it was natural soap, brass, porcelain, ivory-handled razors, and badger hair bristles, a delicate scissor-trim and an expert shave. Now…its the smell of chemicals, the songs of hit radio, and a rough machine purring around your ears.

I realize that part of the reason these things have lost their glamour is that modern capitalism has broadened the social group that can access to them. I’m not saying that these activities should have stayed “upper class only”…I guess I’m saying that it should have been the “style” of the wealthy, and not merely their “spending,” that was opened to the middle and working classes.

The first part of a very long post. I recently attended an...

Tue, 07 Dec 2010 10:09:00 -0500

The first part of a very long post.

I recently attended an exhibit dedicated to the fashion of the 1960s. Good times. Elegant. Rebellious. Jackie O. Twiggy. Bardot. The Beatles. Hippies. And much more.

The history of mini-skirts deserved special mention at the exhibit. A mini-skirt is a perfect example of how changes outside the world of haute couture can revolutionize fashion. The invention of a birth control pill (no direct bearing on fashion) and tights replacing stockings (utilitarian rather that haute couture-related) were the two major events that are held responsible for the sixties skirt hemline.

Observe:

Birth control pill = change in attitudes to sex life =not shameful to be physically attractive =chance to show more skin.
Tights = no need to wear the full ensemble of stockings and a garter belt = another excuse to show more skin.

Fashion is sensitive to changes hapepning outside its realm. The miniskirt was just as much a symbol and a reflection of the epoch, as were, for example, the tuxedos and boyish haircuts of femmes émancipées. And the examples are numerous.

Yes. Although I’m theoretically critical of it, I’m...

Tue, 30 Nov 2010 08:26:29 -0500

Yes. Although I’m theoretically critical of it, I’m probably psycho-childishly in love with the Christmas season. There’s something potentially QUITE stylish about it—kitsch, colorful, jeweled, dark, rich. I want vintage aluminum ornaments, dark red lighting, and purple jeweled wreaths!

But even still, it’s strange that we evaluate the time of year in America by looking at the holiday decorations. Seasons in this country are: “Christmas” “Valentines Day” “Halloween” etc. Nature, Temperature, Sunlight have nothing to do with it. Maybe we could re-incorporate the natural world back into our seasons of style?

Good question SASH. Probably they have developed such...

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 10:37:00 -0500

Good question SASH. Probably they have developed such capacity.

But wouldn’t we feel like something is missing if the stores wouldn’t turn all “christmas-y”? Somewhere between Christmas and the New Year’s Eve I feel like screaming “PLEASE. DO NOT PLAY “All I Want for Christmas is You” (“Jingle Bell Rock”/”Last Christmas”/any Perry Como) AGAIN!!!”.

Yet some how most of us end up humming these tunes all through the holidays. And it feels ok. All this is now part of the holiday charm (and fashion?)

Brevity is the soul of wit. So let’s be brief. Q:...

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 10:13:53 -0500

Brevity is the soul of wit.

So let’s be brief.

Q: What’s both practical and stylish this winter?

A: Sheepskin Bomber jackets.

FIN

Image: Burberry Campaign Ad, Fall-Winter 2010-11

When I walk into a Starbucks in America, everything is...

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 07:52:43 -0500

When I walk into a Starbucks in America, everything is Christmas. How can each store transform itself so quickly and so completely into a fantasysantaland?

It seems that most of the store is actually replaceable—constructed out of interchangeable signs, cardboard boxes, stacked products, hanging mobiles. These things change to welcome Summer, Halloween, Christmas, and Valentines Day. Stripped away entirely, the store would be nothing more than a few empty, pale-wood, shelves and some burgundy walls.

Is this the nature of contemporary corporations? Did corporations become so much like human beings that they developed the capacity to play with style, clothing, dress-up, moods, looks, make-up, make-overs, etc.?

Captain Planet was a hero in the 90s. Not anymore. It turns out...

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 14:42:01 -0500

Captain Planet was a hero in the 90s. Not anymore. It turns out that BECAUSE eco-friendliness is now a life that you can purchase (at Starbucks, Target, Toyota, Stop and Shop, etc.) and a style that you can wear (in American Apparel, Toms Shoes, etc.) it no longer can be really taken seriously as something HEROIC, DIFFICULT, and SIGNIFICANT. The truth is, some good things in the world are really hard. Taking care of the environment is one of them. Fashion isn’t really so hard, and that’s why it’s fabulous. It’s a luxury, it’s a pleasure, it’s a style. It seems we need to keep an eye on what becomes “fashion” or we’ll lose all our superheros and seriousness.

The familiar ideal of the “powerful bitch” is a...

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 10:54:10 -0500

The familiar ideal of the “powerful bitch” is a fiction, the intentional conflation of our dual myths of gender: the beautiful, objectified WOMAN and the rational, powerful MAN. Gay men, already occupying some position in-between these two myths, have historically utilized the “powerful bitch” ideal as a tool of expression. This form of expression is known as drag. The only way to mediate the obvious binary-sexism of drag (its reinforcement of a conservative and essentialist conception of male and female difference) is to accept it as myth-making and myth-manipulation (to dispense with any claims of its “realness” or “imitation”). As such, drag is something that we can all do, and in so doing, we can have a bit of fun with our myths about power, intelligence, beauty, sex.

Turn yourself into a drag queen at www.dragulator.com. It’s a riot.

I can half-understand the appeal of “marking”...

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 07:12:41 -0500

I can half-understand the appeal of “marking” oneself with a beloved label (of, for example, a college name, sports team, or geographical place)…but I just can’t understand bulky sweats. Athletic gear is definitely a “look” but although it can be ironic/cute/practical, it’s not suitable for the street, for class, for fashion.

[frustration with the influx of carelessly-dressed students at a certain once-glamorous institution in Poughkeepsie]

That’s right, DASH. Red lipstick, when done properly, is a...

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 10:45:16 -0400

That’s right, DASH. Red lipstick, when done properly, is a flawless (albeit kitschy and dramatic) accessory.

Once again, MJ shows us boys how to do it in this 2009 NARS advertisement. Something about the childrens-book-style tattoos, the nails, the lips, and the (just as kitschily) masculine beard strikes me as perfect.

It happened. It’s HERE. Somewhat intimidating but so...

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 06:31:00 -0400

It happened. It’s HERE. Somewhat intimidating but so beautiful. Utter perfection from its laconic black case to its scarlet content. For two years it’s been on my birthday wish list and yet I’ve been crossing it out at the very last moment. Was I not ready for it?

Dear judges, DASH is guilty as charged. I finally got it. The Red Lipstick. An all-time favourite - from Scarlett O’Hara to Scarlett Johansson. From Paloma Picasso to Dita Von Teese. And even from Marlilyn Monroe to Marilyn Manson (kiddin!)) As classic as the LBD. But much trickier than the proverbial dress. Really takes it out of you to get it right.

So here are some tips: 1) Red lips already make a very strong statement. Hence,the golden rule: fire-engine red = minimal eye make-up unless its Halloween.

2) Red lipstick calls for flawless skin. Red brings out all imperfections. So this should be taken care on the first place.

3) Red stands out so much that it should be applied carefully and evenly i.e. special attention to lip contour.

Still want to go for it? Great, because 4) Experiment!

I personally am in love with my ROUGE [insert obvious brand name]. Although applying it takes about twice as much time as getting the whole smoky-eyes business right, it is really worth a shot.

Sugar! We knew it tasted delicious, but it turns out it’s...

Sat, 30 Oct 2010 17:38:44 -0400

Sugar!

We knew it tasted delicious, but it turns out it’s also one of the most beautiful, geometric, chaotic thing in the world. Looks like jewelry.

The history of suiting provides more evidence of contemporary...

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 07:32:46 -0400

The history of suiting provides more evidence of contemporary culture’s increasing normativity and Capitalism.

Yikes! That’s quite a statement. But when I look at this early 20th century suit advertisement, I notice a few things: (1) Most of the jackets give men a curvy silhouette, a slender swoop into the high, natural waist; (2) The vests look like knight’s armor; (3) The pants give a balanced, curvaceous line to the legs.

Observations (1) and (3) suggest that suiting was meant to accentuate the balance, roundness, and detailed beauty of the human body, which is naturally larger in the chest and thighs. Recent suit-styles have scraped the curvy silhouette that mirror’s mens’ bodies in favor of boxy and poorly-tailored frames that make us look like bricks (i.e., very different from “women”).

Observation (2) reminds me that the three-piece suit really is an extension of medieval dressing practice [hence, also, the knickers]. As such, it has hierarchy and class built into it. Starched and stiff designs that accentuate the figure—like shouldery jackets and pleated pants, armor, and hoop skirts, and bouffants—are clothes befitting non-working, performative, aristocrats (or soldiers on horses [arguably, also performative aristocrats]). That they have translated into contemporary business dress, but without the tailoring and drama (and with cheap materials, ubiquity, uniformity, and bagginess), suggests that the modern world sits on the divide between aristocratic posturing and serf functionality, incapable of owning up to either.

The practical division of clothing into indoor-wear and...

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 06:48:22 -0400

The practical division of clothing into indoor-wear and outdoor-wear (painfully necessary in a place like Moscow or Poughkeepsie), is a crime to fashion. Is there some way we can reconceptualize the fashion-act of removing/donning clothing, so that it can be more convenient/dramatic/beautiful? Are the places where the lines between inner and outer can be artfully blurred?

The verdict is in! SASH offers his take on this season’s...

Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:56:26 -0400

The verdict is in! SASH offers his take on this season’s most appealing “trends.” Bear in mind, though, that “trends” come and go. They are the products of big-F Fashion, the capitalist industry. I only use them as inspiration for finding little-f fashion, the drama of self-clothing.

-Boxy, drop-waisted shapes.

-Color blocking in pastels and jewels.

-Surprising/kitschy textiles used in huge swaths.

-Bulky, drapey, grey outerwear.

-Knits.

-Underwear as clothing.

-Socks.

-Classic styling.

Speaking of turning real people into costumes… Halloween...

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 10:23:51 -0400

Speaking of turning real people into costumes…

Halloween is just around the corner, and the grocery stores/Rite Aids/malls of America have become treasure troves of costuming options. But what’s a Halloween Costume all about? I’ve always hated princess costumes, franchise costumes (dressing like Spiderman or Disney’s Pocahontas), professional costumes (dressing like a Fireman or a Doctor). I’ve always thought that Halloween should be about exploring new options (imagining strange creatures, or demons, or gods), not embodying familiar cliches. When I was a kid, I wanted to dress like a witch, a raging red bull-man, a lizard-man, an autumn spirit (I dreamed of creating a costume out of leaves that never actually happened). Since then, I’ve become a bit more anthropocentric and normal (rocker, playboy bunny, sex slave).

As I understand it, though, Halloween (which comes from All Saint’s Day and the Gaelic “Samhain” festival), isn’t itself quite as queer as I have always wanted it to be. The purpose of dressing in costumes of demons isn’t (as i wished) to explore the delightful possibility that such things are real, it’s a ritual that attempts to de-reify demons, or at least placate them and ward off their real emergence. It’s a ritual to keep things normal, not a festival of wierding.

The moral of this story? Don’t dress up as a princess or a spiderman. Dress as something that frightens you. And I would like to think that maybe, in trying to distance yourself from the possibility of ever really seeing this fright, you’ll realize that it isn’t so scary after all. Or maybe you’ll realize that the scariest things are also the most wonderful and surprising…

Inspiration: Grunge. Subcultures vs. Mainstream.Identifying...

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 08:43:00 -0400

Inspiration: Grunge. Subcultures vs. Mainstream.
Identifying yourself against something (the establishment, traditional values and lifestyle etc.) is a basic feature of any subculture. In other words, they are defined by the element of protest. That is why pop music will always be just music/muzak while punk rock, heavy metal, grunge and similar are subcultures.

But subcultures can only exist in present tense. Once they are history, they cease to be subcultures. They are being born, they develop and once they are popularized (e.g. garage bands come out and get recording deals), they start enriching mainstream culture and gradually become part of it. The feeling of uniqueness, the feeling of being different and, most importantly, the element of protest slowly disappear.
Can’t say if this is good or bad. Can’t say if everything new and different inevitably becomes mainstream at some point.
But as fashion tells us, Kurt Cobain is still a source of inspiration for hairdressers, make-up artists and designers themselves.

Image: Kurt Cobain (left). A model at Alexander Wang autumn/winter 2010-11 show (right)

"Fashion: Dress-Up:: An Opera Aria: Humming [I’m thinking in GRE mode!]"

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 07:33:02 -0400

“

Fashion: Dress-Up::
An Opera Aria: Humming

[I’m thinking in GRE mode!]

”

On having a certain “look”: Sometimes I think we...

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 08:31:47 -0400

On having a certain “look”:

Sometimes I think we should be styled like comic characters—with clothes and hair so distinctive that they could be replicated in a line drawing or a costume. Other times I think such heavy-handed branding belongs to fantasy and capitalism, not real humans.