Monday, December 17, 2012

Grace Coddington for Vogue -- November and December 2012





     If it's not apparent enough (which is pretty much impossible since I've talked about her in about every other blog post) I adore Grace Coddington. I don't love her just as an editorial stylist and creative director of Vogue. I love her as a person, even though I've technically never met her (but plan to one day, when the first opportunity comes my way.) This love and adoration is completely validated in her memoir, Grace. Click this to buy it now. Do it! I finished the book within a couple of days because I simply couldn't put it down. From her modeling days to her relationship with the famous Editor in Chief of American VogueAnna Wintour and everything in between (from working with Norman Parkinson as a young model in Britain, her days at British Vogue as fashion editor, a lunch incident involving a crazed PETA activist and a frozen raccoon, her cat psychic, and all the personal heartbreaks and triumphs) I felt like within those pages, those illustrations (drawn by Grace herself) the photographs from her childhood, and the display of her selected work from the pages of British and American Vogue, I felt like I got to know her as a close friend just like her actual and long time friends, Karl Lagerfeld and Nicolas Ghesquiere. The release of the memoir prompted a media coverage on Grace who usually despises the spotlight and paparazzi -- from a style feature in the New York Times, to the cover and cover story of i-D Magazine's Wise Up Issue, and a Fresh-Air session with NPR -- Grace was finally at the center spotlight, where I personally think, she belongs. She even had a live Twitter chat through Vogue magazine's twitter account and at the end bluntly admitted that she quite enjoyed it despite the fact that computers and technology still frustrates her (she's 71 years old after all!) Read the book over the holiday season and I guarantee that you will love it and laugh out loud like I did (especially during the chapter when she talked about her cats and her cat psychic, Christine.) As for the rest, here's the tail end of her work in the pages of Vogue from the November and December 2012 issues. 

Love, KB

p.s. The November 2012 Issue of Vogue has a pretty lengthy excerpt of the memoir, so if you want a sneak peek, read it here







November 2012
Little Pink Houses
For you and me: quirky feminine pieces in the sweet hue of motherly love and conjugal romance. 
Photographed by Arthur Elgort








December 2012
Full Spectrum
Paint the town in a rainbow of artistic colors: stop-sign red, ocean blue, inky violet -- an intense palette to brighten and heighten the holiday season. 
Photographed by Craig McDean









Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Fashion in Films: The Classics -- From the Pages to the Big Screen




     The relationship between books and films has always been symbiotic. When done right in every aspect of the production -- from the screenplay, the casting, the costumes, and the set -- some of the greatest movies of all time usually arise from the stories that were derived from books (with the exception of original screenplays, of course.) With holiday films rolling in and the big summer blockbusters looming ahead, I'm more excited than ever by all of the trailers that are being released each day. And I'm not just excited because they're some of my favorite books that I've read when I was growing up and I love nothing more than watching those movies come to life in film, but mainly because of the clothes (obviously.) Period piece movies have always been awe inspiring because the costume design in such productions have a certain intricateness and grandeur to them. I mean, they kind of have to have grandeur because people didn't particularly lounge around in their jeans and t-shirts in those days. Aside from the fantastic dresses, stunning jewelry, and grand headpieces, I've also noticed a common theme in the plot of all of these movies: Love. I've always believed that the greatest stories of all time are the ones about love. Read these books and watch these movies to see for yourself (or in this case, watch the movie trailers for now) then let's discuss. 

Love, KB

p.s. I think casting Helena Bonham Carter as Miss Havisham in the Great Expectations is the most brilliant beyond brilliant idea. I've always had this image of Miss Havisham in my head when I read the book in middle school and her eccentricity is the perfect match for the role. 



Anna Karenina book written by Leo Tolstoy 
release date: November 10, 2012
director: Joe Wright
costume designer: Jacqueline Durran
Kiera Knightley as Anna Karenina
Jude Law as Karenin
Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Vronsky







Les Miserables book written by Victor Hugo
release date: December 25, 2012
director: Tom Hooper
costume designer: Paco Delgado
Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean
Anne Hathaway as Fantine
Russell Crowe as Javert
Amanda Seyfried as Cosette
Eddie Redmayne as Marius
Helena Bonham Carter as Madame Thenardier
Sacha Baron Cohen as Thenardier










Great Expectations book written by Charles Dickens
release date: Winter 2012/2013
director: Mike Newell
costume designer: Beatrix Aruna Pasztor
Jeremy Irvine as Pip
Ralph Fiennes as Magwitch
Helena Bonham Carter as Miss Havisham
Robbie Coltrane as Mr. Jaggers 
Holliday Grainger as Estella






The Great Gatsby book written by F. Scott Fitzgerald
release date: May 10, 2013
director: Baz Luhrmann
costume designer: Catherine Martin
Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby 
Carey Mulligan as Daisy Buchannan
Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway
Joel Edgerton as Tom Buchannan
Isla Fisher as Myrtle Wilson




The Wizard of Oz book written by L. Frank Baum
Oz: The Great and Powerful
release date: March 8, 2013
director: Sam Raimi
costume designer: Gary Jones
James Franco as Oz
Mila Kunis as Theodora
Rachel Weisz as Evanora
Michelle Williams as Glinda