Good afternoon, Wednesday. Quick and easy fast to all my fellow Jews. As I'm sitting here repenting, I can't help but look at fashion (you know how I roll). And I was wrapping my head around the insanely good clothes I saw on the runways in Milan, I came across Dries Van Noten's show (one of the first of Paris Fashion week) and stopped mid repent.
I have always been a fan of his "cerebral" approach to fashion (The NY Times said that. I am not nearly that cerebral myself). There's an intellectual approach to dress that comes through in all of his collections, and it's no secret he was part of one of the coolest fashion movements around, The Antwerp Six. If you are old enough to remember when "Smells Like Teen Spirit" rocked your world, then you very well may remember that amazing fashion moment when the Belgians took the stage. They started rocking things in the mid-late 80s, but their influence was most heavily felt by those grunge types who were craving a more somber pallette and edgier vibe. My other fav from that grouping was and is Ann Demeulemeester, whose clothes always felt to me like a Deborah Turbeville photograph- austere, seductive, quiet, and beautifully restrained. But back to our man Dries, and his collection in Paris this semaine.
I mentioned yesterday that good fashion has the ability to shift a mood, change the game, or make the mind wander to a place of pure fantasy. This collection, heavily grunge scented, had me at first plaid. The dream of the 90s is alive at Van Noten, and I for one, think it's fabulous. I love the pajama silhouettes, the plaid "flannel" shirts mixed with evening skirts, the robes and elegant wackiness of this collection.
As I peeped at each look, I found my mind going somewhere far, far away- to a cabin in the woods (a chic one of course), where i would head for the hills and pen my first novel or write my memoirs in stylish solitude. I could see myself hunched over a typewriter (yes a typewriter, this is my fantasy so being a Luddite is allowed), draped in a sheer silk Chinoiserie robe with a flannel underneath and quilted khakis. Or going into the small town to pick up supplies miles away from my cabin dressed in contrasting plaids and looking every bit the eccentric. Or wearing a blue flower covered caftan while pacing back and forth in the great wide open at midnight to try and figure out how to close a paragraph or solve a problem with plot. if Dries is a cerebral designer, then I am but a willing intellectual at his feet. And since I have a thing for writing in my pajamas, I'm all in.
As one descends into madness over the frustration and isolation of writing a book, why not look fabulous as one is slowly going insane? And eventually, when the last word would be typed and "THE END" would be silently mouthed from my quivering red lips, I'd come to a bit and dress myself in one of these beautiful flower printed skirts with a plaid vest and button down for a meeting with my editor and publisher back in the big city. These are looks for creative people- a little bit eccentric to say the least, but so. very. chic. I'm not sure you would look at a shirt from the Gap that way, but that was my point from yesterday- clothes at this level deserve a great story, New York Times bestseller list or not. I can almost see, ps, a Bruce Weber shoot with the very concept I just described, with Daria Werbowy or Arizona Muse as the petulant and a bit kooked up novelist.
Regardless of whether I'll be writing the great American novel swathed in designer clothes is not the point. I just wanted to show you where my mind goes when looking at great clothes. That's what they do for me, and apparently, that's what they did and do for great photographers, editors, buyers, and lovers of high fashion. If I'm ever going to lock myself in a cabin, I'm going to channel this collection to get inspired. It's one part "heart shaped box" and all other parts awesome. I feel smarter and more motivated to write than ever by looking at his clothes. Thanks, Mr. Van Noten. Good lookin' out.
And that's what's up this novel Wednesay in the 718. Looking forward to taking you somewhere else in the very near-future. XO