Young womens dressing at Stureplan in Stockholm

In newspapers in Sweden you can read about teenage girls going to the bar dressed in only string thongs and bra. They do it to get attention from the male. Some women are complaining about the attitude shown from the male visitors. If I went to a bar or nightclub and saw women or rather teenage girls in string thong and bra only I would ask myself what they were there for? Don’t those young girls have any self-respect? What they want is free alcohol/champagne from the rich or at least pretending to be rich guys. A ‘fashion expert’ in Sweden, Ebba von Sydow claims that the young girls has a competition on who dress in less clothes? I find it incredibly stupid!
If you read this article I would appreciate if you left a comment.

The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London 1947-1957 at the V&A Museum in London UK

The V&A Museum in London opened Saturday 22nd September the exhibition ‘The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London 1947-1957

Dior’s collection the  ‘New Look’ this Fall celebrates its 60th anniversary and that is the reason for the exhibition. It is important to note that it wasn’t Christian Dior that gave that name to the collection. The  name he gave the collection was ‘La Corolle’ because he thought that the skirt looked like a corolle the way it fell from the tiny waist. It was fashion journalist Carmel Winter that named the collection the ‘New Look’ simply because it was a new look.

A mistake is also that the number that has come to illustrate the collection is ‘Le Bare’. But it has come to illustrate the ‘New Look

Dior created the collection because he wanted a revival of the crinoline that was in fashion 1855 to 1863 with its peak in 1859. Dior admired C.F.Worth the father of haute couture and the couturier dressing the empresses of France, Austria and Russia. Some people have claimed he invented the crinoline. That is not true. That fashion came into fashion in 1856 (the steel hoops). By that time Worth was just a shop assistant. Enough about Worth.

Dior was lucky to meet cotton magnate Marcel Boussac. He could smell money in Dior’s ultra wide skirts. Dior borrowed 10 million francs from Boussac and promised to make wide skirts in fashion again.

Paris had lost its title as fashion capital of the world to New York. Paris was now very keen to regain the title.

Dior aimed clientele was established and elegant ladies in the world. He was surprised to see that also young women were attracted by his  collection. His own explanation for the success of the collection is that it was speaking about youth and future.

It took some time before London and England embraced the New Look.  The UK experienced a huge shortage of everything after the war. The newly elected Labour government had a lot of problems to face. Garments had to be marked with the ‘Utility mark’ before it reached the market. It meant that the garment had been through a strict price and quality control. Dior’s new skirt didn’t pass that test as it took far too much fabric. Of course women could travel to France and buy if they could afford it.

Another hurdle was that in the start women in the UK didn’t want to take orders from the fashion dictator in Paris. The ladies gave in slowly. First the made their own version of the wide skirt. Women were tired of the masculine style that had dominated their wardrobe since 1939.

Hoodies, friends or enemies?

I ask myself the question again after I have heard about the death of an 11 year old boy in Liverpool, UK. The guy  with the gun  was a hoodie. Not long ago  another young man in London was shot dead by a hoodie. Some hoodies seems to find it cool to be regarded as  a ‘gangsta’. To me it is only cowards that don’t dare to show their faces.  They don’t dare to stand up for what they are doing.  Of course not all hoodies are criminals.

Bring back the 1950s!

“Bring back the 1950’s” was the answer Richard & Judy got when they went out and asked the public about the 1950s. A decade when the female curves was stressed by the help of the fashion. Women wore girdles and petticoats. The survey was in connection with the interview with Nina with a special salon, see below. I myself adore the 1950s. I two weeks time I am going to Germany and Wettenberg and their festival Golden Oldies . The next huge 1950s event is Goodwood Revival.

What is your experience and impression of the 1950s fashion? Would you like to see a revival of the 1950s fashion?

FIFTIES SALON
Nina the Head Dresser runs a salon with a difference. Down a small side street in south London, Nina’s Hair Parlour specialises in the vintage look. The fab fifties are back with bouffant curls and bullet bras to boot. But how does a girl get a fifties look in noughties world?

We sent Sarah Cawood and her friend, Bakul Patki to find out some of Nina’s top tips and spend a day at her salon for the ultimate fifties flair.

To get to know where to get the look visit Nina’s Hair Parlour, For more information on how to get the fifties look visit:

http://www.issidora.com
http://www.blackout2.com

The 1954 Cadillac in our film was provided by:
http://www.dreamcars.co.uk

Royal Ascot

Sorry for the total silence here. I have been at Royal Ascot for five days. It is an amazing event to study fashion at. Royal Ascot is of course most famous because of the hats but it is very interesting to study how the race-goers are dressed. In the Royal Enclosure top hat and morning suite or tail is what you wear as a man. You are also welcome to dress in your National Costume. I don’t know but want to find out when Royal Ascot become a hat parade event?

Gianfranco Ferrè R.I.P.

June 17th 2007 fashion creator Gianfranco Ferrè sadly passed passed away. Wikipedia about Ferrè

Men in shorts in the city?

Is this suitable?

Some people label themselves as ‘fashion experts’ argue that men in shorts in the city is not correct dressing. What is your opinion? I can’t see anthing wrong in it as long as the shorts is about knee-length.

Do all models have to be size zero and age 17?

I went to a fashion show at ‘Norsk Form’ when I was in Oslo. It was a Performance by Danish designer Karoline Kjeldtoft called “86/77/96″. Ms Kjeldtoft interprets the little black dress and investigates contemporary ideals of beauty. The measures “86/77/96″ is the typical for ‘mature’ women. I was asked in the perspective of being a male about my opinion? I find these ladies far more attractive than skinny size zero-models. This was very stylish. The garments shown worked with the bodies instead of trying to change them.

More information on Karoline Kjeldtoft can be found here www.karolinekjeldtoft.com 

Photo: Bo Persson        bo_persson@ntlworld.com

Behind bars

I was listening to Juliet Ash from Royal College of Art a couple of weeks ago. She was talking about  ‘Dress Behind Bars’.  It was about female convicts dressing. They didn’t like the way they had to dress.  The clothes fitted badly. They didn’t like that Prison Officers dressed better. I find it ridiculous to hear convicts complain about their dressing. They have committed a criminal act and they are meant to suffer. Why should a convict have a better life and opportunity to dress better compared to someone poor? Female convicts complained that their clothes was not designed for women and the female body. So what! These females could have thought of that before they committed a crime.

Do Dress have an impact on how you are sentenced in court?

After having read the article below from The Guardian Unlimited it seems so

“The jury is out

What you wear to court is crucial to how you’re judged – as a spate of celebrities have discovered in recent months. So what are their outfits saying? Hadley Freeman passes sentence

Friday May 25, 2007
The Guardian

Winona Ryder, 2002
The girlish side-parting, the twee, childlike dress, eyes nigh on brimming with innocence: here is the court look that proposed, and duly confirmed, the idea that one could, just as Roxette promised us all, dress for success. Now, back in 2002, Winona Ryder was not exactly surfing the A list. Well, a decade of starring in such self-indulgent toss as Girl, Interrupted and Autumn in New York (it co-starred Richard Gere – do you need any more details?) does nothing for a girl’s cred. Oh, and then there were those pesky theft, burglary and vandalism charges. But, happily, she was able to give her old mucker Marc Jacobs a call, and he duly kitted her out in dresses with pussy bows and blouses with Peter Pan collars and ballet pumps. Sadly, this wasn’t quite enough and she had to put in some community service or whatever but, hey, who cares? At least she looked good, right? And that’s the lesson a lot of her followers seemed to learn.

Paris Hilton, 2007
The mental processes are as sharply visible as the multiple collars overlapping one another like a triple cheese-burger. Imagine the little cherub, doing her darndest to dress like a – whaddyacallem? – civilian. You know what she means – like, those boring people who get up and go to work and go to the supermarket totally think that “trust” means “belief” as opposed to, you know, “fund”. But the way she’s wearing a button-down shirt and a waistcoat and a jacket … well, really, its like seeing a baby foal attempt to take it’s first steps, isn’t it? Aiming for normality, but falling on its ass, frankly. Note, too, how she made sure that her jacket sleeves went only halfway down her arm so that she got proper credit for wearing full-length shirt sleeves as opposed to her usual top de choix, a ripped vest top. Oh, Paris! Je l’adore!

Nicole Richie, 2003

Despite the jokes that just quiver on the tongue (The Simple Life: The Porridge Years), Paris’s best friend/mortal enemy/best friend Nicole Richie’s current “troubles with the law” haven’t received quite as much coverage as Hilton’s and, really, I blame her wardrobe. Her clothing choice from her previous little legal skirmish, illustrates the problem. OK, the Hermès Birkin bag is a nice touch but, come on, Nicole, put in the effort! You’re up for driving under the influence. According to the rules, you’re now supposed to dress like a serious businesswoman or angelic child – ie, someone who would never touch alcohol – and a hot pink top just won’t do. Mind you, Nicole has a bit of a bad record when it comes to defending herself: when she was caught with an inconvenient balloon full of heroin in her car some years back, her defence that “it’s not on me, it’s just in the car” failed to cut it in the court and she went dahhhhn.

Tamara Mellon, 2007

Sweet heavens, just how scary is this woman? So scary that, when she appeared in court earlier this month to complain about her ex-husband hiring a private eye to spy on her, the newspapers, palpably wibbling with fear, all dutifully recorded every item she was wearing. One can almost imagine Tamara towering over them in the newsroom: “The skirt is Roland Mouret, got that? That’s M-O-U-R-E-T. And the belt, that’s very expensive, too, as it’s YSL. The bag might look like a pillow, but it’s from my own Jimmy Choo collection and cost two grand. Got that? Two grand.” I’m not sure if wearing £2,000 shoes is the best way to grab a judge’s sympathy, but perhaps she thought she would terrorise him into submission with her designer labels. Including the Prada cardigan. Will that do, Tamara?

Alana Black, 2007

This, ladies and gentlemen, is what a Get Out of Jail Free card looks like in human form. Consider Alana Black, daughter of beleaguered media tycoon Conrad. Did you know he had a daughter? Nope, me neither, but here she is, being wheeled out, in what her dad must hope is the nick of time. Barbara Amiel’s efforts in the court audience haven’t quite reflected so well on Conrad, as is often the way when an accused’s spouse is present. She might have muted her usual haute-couture tendencies into boring brown suits, but her fondness for shouting at journalists hasn’t really given her husband the required respectable image. So now Alana is pushed forth, and very well she’s doing, too: the pencil skirt and blouse are elegant, but not obnoxiously so, and the beaded necklace doesn’t rub her and her father’s wealth in the jurors’ faces in the same way as Amiel’s Hermès bags do. And that hair! “Come on,” it all but shrieks. “No man accused of fraud could possibly have fathered such angelic locks, surely.”

Naomi Campbell, 2007

“What do they expect me to do – walk in looking all drib and drab [sic]? I’ve never looked drib and drab in my life.” Thus speaketh Naomi Campbell in the diary she nobly kept during her recent community service and, really, it’s a piece of literature that surely merits the description “this generation’s Anne Frank” across the top (best line: “I never had problems with men, because if they bothered me, I’d tell them to fuck off”). The image of our Naomi leaving the New York sanitation department at the end of her community stint shows how justice and fashion and, well, just love in general can come together in one big, happy ending. And there’s something about the juxtaposition between a Dolce & Gabbana dress and the word “sanitation” on the truck behind her that just gets me. Right there.”

Why shouldn’t it when dressing has an impact everywhere else? You can by your dressing show if you obey the authority and society at large or if you oppose it. You can find a number of examples in every day life.

It is clear that Paris Hilton got the sentence she got due to the fact that she misbehaved. By her dressing in court she at least gave the impression of having obeyed the court and the judge. She had simply bettered herself.

If you are travelling with public transport without having bought a ticket, your chances to get fined is most likely much greater if you are dressed badly rather than ‘respectful’. If the latter the guard will see it as an ‘one off’. Even better if you can exlain it and you offer to pay your ticket.