Laura Minquini – Somethings

Beauty & (the legendary, talented, stylish, etc,) Beasts.

Nico and the Velvet Underground by Warhol at the Cinemateque
“With Nico, statuesque and spacey, perched on a stool playing the tambourine and shakers and her Underground mates semi-circling behind her, this two-reeler captures an intimate extended jam session, which veers off into psychedelia.”

And here a photo of Nico in her fashion days as a model.

The perfume in front of her is none other than Lanvin.
Nico is like a gift that keeps on giving…

Not to be missed!!!

I like Fantastic Man because of the design, the content, and their paper stock; this is one of the few magazine that can make a case and point about the entrancing experience of the print medium.

Loved the last issue’s cover with Stefano Pilati.
Can’t say I am crazy about the new cover with Helmut Lang holding poultry. I guess i don’t get the inside joke, but is not too overt without being original? Gay man holding a “cock”…

You can look at their new issue on their website fantasticmanmagazine.com
I am most interested on the article and photos of Purple’s magazine Olivier Zham.

Two interesting fashion style icons make it to the S/S runway shows.

“Little” Edie Beale at Prada!

The Marchesa Luisa de Casati at Alexander McQueen!

“Little” Edie Beale of the cult documentary “Grey Gardens” “appears” at Prada with her short bottoms and head piece style being evoked throughout the S/S collection.
The Beales will soon be coming to the mainstream consciousness via a film version of the documentary staring Drew Barrymore.

The Marchesa de Casati who had a vast fortune to spend but no innate talent of her own-other than having a taste for the finer and more exclusive things in life- made herself the work of art. She commissioned every talented and important figure of the new century to paint her, photograph her, and dress her, of course. There were Giovanni Boldini, Man Ray, and Paul Poiret amongst others.

Toronto moment: An John Augustus painting of her is at the AGO permanent collection.

If you want to read about the infamous woman who inspired one of Galliano’s historic couture shows look for “Infinite Variety: The Life & Legend of the Marchesa Casati.”

Speaking of Poiret. I think a momentum could be building for a recognition moment. He was mentioned recently in the Suzy Menkes piece I posted here and there are rumors of an exhibition at the Costume Institute focusing on his work. Finally! I don’t think a lot of people know of his legacy. He was the first fashion designer to brand himself and even invented the notion of a fragrance representing a fashion house. What with the multibillion fashion fragrance business be without the man?

New comer Canadian model Alana Zimmer makes a stellar debut on her first runway season, clocking in over 40 shows with some of the most important fashion houses. Who? Prada, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, Alexander McQueen… Chanel. Model tracking website models.com named her one of the top ten faces. And if she had not received a summoning call from a certain fashion kaiser, Balenciaga might have been in the cards as well.
Here is a Polaroid from her first visit to her Canadian agent Elmer Olsen Models

And speaking of models:
I love Agyness Deyn and Cecilia Mendez-another runway season’s favorite-hair cuts and looks. If I could I would. If anyone can; do it. Cut your hair.

I have been without anything to say because I have been without the tool to say it. For the past 4 days my laptop (Apple prefers we do not call them that anymore)has been at the Apple store/servicing centre taking advantage of its last few days of free warranty coverage. Advice to all: Take your computer for a check up before your warranty expires. Mine actually had to have something replaced and it was of course covered under warranty.

Nick cave’s sequined man.

Body painted beauties who stood there for a very long time looking super cute.

Kent Monkman’s performance. Swooshing through the crowd as An Indian man who has been transformed into a white western woman.

Justus and Dean Horn having their own moment.

Designer Rashmi Varma and her also talented artist boyfriend Nep.

Lydia and CeCe from Courage My Love being Lydia K ladies.

Lydia’s being interviewed by Fashion Television.

Last night’s opening of Unholy Alliance Art art+fashion meet again at the Mocca was a good first effort from the museum.

Though next time I would put the explanation of the artist work/or the artist near the actual pieces on the walls instead of having them on a piece of paper at the entrance (I think many people missed it, and let’s be a bit more environmentally friendly. No?).

The pieces by Lydia K and Nick Cave were very nice; well crafted and meticulous.
Lydia herself was spirited as usual.

Kent Monkman installation of photographs and costumes made sense only after Jackie Shawn, (a well know Toronto make up artist who worked on Monkman’s makeup for his performance) explained with great and amazing detail the context of his work. Otherwise I don’t think people were realizing that the costumes displayed on one end of the gallery had been used for the series of photographs shot by Chris Chapman seen on the other end.

Victor & Rolf? Videos from runway shows of a long time ago.

But hey, well known Torontonians like renown chef Susur Lee, Shortbus’ Sook-Yin Lee made an appearance.

I blew the brown bunny

Suzy Menkes of the International Herald Tribune delivers in a recent article a scary but realistic prognosis: “The current state of the industry and a cultural state of mind makes it virtually impossible for any new designer to brand-build in the way that the 1980s seedlings flowered into mighty trees.”

to read more

Looks painfully cool and precise.