Katsuya Kamo:Hair Apparent

I am obsessed with hair...as a thing and as a medium to work with...and hats...or more accurately things worn on the head....but not even close to as much as Katsuya Kamo is...I became familiar with him after researching the Comme des Garcons offshoot line "Undercover"....{a personal fave}....and i discovered a world I could only imagine!!! His inventiveness has no bounds as hair and hat collide and become anomorphic head sculptures...nothing is ridiculous or un-used...dissasembeled teddy bears....Styrofoam balls...wigs upon wigs upon wigs.....feathers and flotsom and jetsum.....grabage floats like lightweight clouds and black shrouded hourse heads balance on derbeys.....and as mismatched and odd it is...it's just simply beautiful.....and sometimes it IS sheer glamour...like in his recent Chanel contributiouns where white flowers sprout magically from models heads.....

So enjoy the manipulitive hair-work of Mr Kamo!!!!!

XOXO

the Importance of Being Paulie......

I found these via the amazing ladies at Coilhouse [ http://www.coilhouse.net/ ] and I just HAD to share them!!! transcripts from the "Jersey Shore" acted out by two memebers of the current broadway production of "the Importance of Being Ernest"...ENJOY!!!!!

Head

Nancy Grossman has been making these arresting sculptures since the 60's...I've seen them all over many blogs and in magazines and books...but FINALLY i can get to see them in person!!! P.S. 1 in Queens {YES P.S.1 is in QUEENS} is showing some of the sculptures form her "Head" series.....With their nod to sadomasicism and implied refrences to Tom of Finalnd and Mappelthorpe...I'm sure I will enjoy them.....She often calles them "self portraits"...but not in a literal sense...more in the emotion or symbolism they can evoke...Im excited to see her work...also...I'm  just excited theres going to be something interesting at P.S. 1 for a change...just sayin!!!

XOXO

"There's no way back for me now....I am going to take you on journeys you've never dreamed were POSSIBLE!!!!" Alexander McQueen

I cried....

im not going to lie....It wasn't big hitching sobs...... but i creid...about half way through theres a hologram video of Kate Moss wearing the "Shipwreck" dress...one of my all time favourites...and the music...and the light...and the moment.....thats what did me in......it all just got to me......

Alexander McQueen to me has always been more than just fashion...he's been a mirror held up to myself...someone who had similar ideas and influences and aspirations...someone I could model myself after in a way....who had a similar path....a kindred spirit in many ways...or I hoped he was at least from all the information I gathered on him......I fell in love with his creations and his interpretation of fashion ever since i first saw his work.....His ideas of beauty are challenging and obtuse and i enjoy that...he had a lust for the Macabre and celebrated death much like the Victorians did.....He found romance in places where others merely find darkness.....but I guess that overtook him....and the fact that he isnt around anymore to inspire people is hard to take sometimes.....

However... his legacy lives on not only through the continuation of his house but through the legacy of amazing work he left behind......

I decided to take this day as a "mental health day"...and planned on going with many different friends but plans fell through as they do...so i went solo...which is fine because it was probably better...i've been having some AMAZING things happen to me...but have also been a bit overwhelmed by it all..So today was a day for ME to get inspired and enjoy a RARE day off during the week......

The rain was intense...but it hardly mattered and maybe even added to the day...Central Park always looks a bit more beautiful wet anyway.....and waiting outside for 20 minutes is fine when you have a stylish and functional umbrella like I have!!!!

As I entered the building and then soon after the exhibit...I was overwhelmed.....I stood for a second spellbound and gasped...a woman that i met outside waiting on line asked "Are you ok???"..."no...." is all I could muster....because what do you say when confronted with such beauty???? The rooms are divided not by collection but by theme "the Romantic Mind", "Romantic Gothic", "Romantic Nationalism", "Romantic Exoticism", "Romantic Primitivism", "Romantic Maturalism" and "the Cabinet of Curiosities"...each highlighting themes that ran their course through ALL of McQueens' collections in some way or another.....his brilliant draping and cutting skills...the stunning bead-work and embellishments...handmade laces...lush animal skins....fur and hair and leathers...hand moulded and hand painted...mud and flowers and bone....I couldnt breathe...I could barely move...I went through 4 times to take it all in......the guards started to give me knowing glances.....I was in heaven!!!!!

{i snuck a blurry photo...shhh}

All i can say is GO....go NOW...go MANY TIMES..and call me...because I guarantee you I will definately want to go again.....and again and again.....I wont give any more deatils...not just to keep some surprises...but because I dont think I have the words.....i left stunned...and walking around like a ghost....a ghost blowing in the wind and wet from the rain outside.....

So after the museum I took a walk to Bergdorff's...they had installed McQueen windows and i wanted to check them out...So I decided to stroll through the Park which i do WAY too rarely...i LOVE that section of the Park...it's so quiet and feels so isolated even though most of the time your merely a few feet from the street.....

The Bergdorff's windows were simple but stunning...they were intedned ,obviously, to highlight the pieces...which were a mix of classic McQueen and Sarah Burton's new collections...and they bleneded seemlesslytogther.....

left satisfied yet hungry...and more literally this time....So....to complete my Anglomaniacal day I headed downtown to eat an early lunch at "A Salt and Battery"....Some fish and chips were had.....

I then took my soggy self and headed home....To look over my treasures and to contemplate my day......and all the insanity going on in my life.....and allthough I DO feel very overwhelmed sometimes...I am so excited and proud of all the things happening to me.....and I'm thankful to all the people in my life that help me and inspire me...even the people I never knew.....

So...Thank you Lee....I wish you stuck around a bit longer......but I know how hard it can get sometimes....and  I hope your happy now wherever you are...I'm forever grateful to you for the legacy and the art you left behind....It means alot!!!!

XOXO

and as a little bonus a clip from my all time favourite McQueen collection "VOSS" from Spring/Summer 2001...enjoy!!!!

the "Unicorn"

So I have been contemplating the idea of beauty lately...and how its so hard to define even though society thinks it has it all figured out...and true I get duped sometimes...and succumb to advertising....and start questioning my views....but really it IS in the eye of the beholder....especially when it somes to people....We all have things we think are attractive...a crooked nose...dirty fingernails...a black eye...wait ...is that just me?!?!?!?  but seriously....Thats exactly what i mean ...we all have things we like...and much like anything those things grow and change as we do...or they don't.....See...not exactly easy to pin down is it?!?!?!?!

So whenever I think of boundries of beauty I think of Rossy De palma...I think i first saw her on a Gaultier runway show...but I became more aware of ther through my friend jose and the movies of Pedro Almoldovar!!!!! Someone {perhaps Gaultier} once called her a unicorn...shes this amazinly one of a kind creature that is just stunning...and not in a conventional way but i her very own unique way...because weather you think she's "attractive" or not...she makes you stop dead in your tracks!!!!!! Not just because of her looks...but the confidence and charm she eminates from her like rays of a sun!!!!

So I dedicate this post to Ms Rossi....for making me stop.....and really appreciate REAL beauty!!!!