Smart Buy: 90's Seductive Sheer Blouse

While it may be in mode and hail from our favorite decade of fashion, the 90's, our latest Smart Buy, this minimal sheer black blouse, is about as classic as Dior's New Look. Over a lace bustier its about as screen siren as you can get, while under say a v-neck sweater, it becomes a fantastic way to show off your decolletage. A beach cover-up, a summer staple, a statement making ultra-versatile wardrobe enhancer, a year-round layering essential, how smart of a buy is that for only $86?


90's Minimal Sheer Black Blouse-$86

Chloe Pre-Fall 2010.

I dunno kids....I've loved Hannah MacGibbons' work for Chloe from the get go. I've also been hunting around for the pre-fall without any luck. Now I found it - a whopping 4 look collection - on a site that rarely lets me down, and that I love even more so for its relatively primitive interface- The Fashion Spot. (Incidentally, it's poached from WWD which I refuse to pay $130 a year for.) Well, I can't say as much for HM's quartet of early Seventies, Carnaby Street style looks. Maybe it's buried deep in the interwebs because it is pretty, well, just ok. Maybe there are only four looks because she decided to give up on the theme and look to another source of inspiration. All that said, I'll with-hold judgement. As I said, who's to say it has any bearing whatsoever on what we'll be seeing a month from now give or take. What do you think?

Accessory of the Week: 80's Leather Bucket Bag

The bucket bag has always been a quintessential shape for one of us at Vnyc and this classic 80's era black beauty with its contrasting snake panel, serves as our latest Accessory of the Week. Here, its slouchy appeal, always known to denote an easy louche coolness, is heightened to full effect through the use of subtle southwestern inspired hardware and a row of mixed rhinestone studs with a shoulder strap that's long enough to help the piece double as a cross-body bag, a highly desirable feature on its own.


80's Black Cross-Body Southwestern Bucket Bag-$124

Flower Girl: Betsey Johnson's Punk Label

Leggings that resemble ultra-femme Laura Ashley floral prints? Only Betsey Johnson could come up with such a notion that combines the romance of florals with the versatility of the ubiquitous legging.

80's Betsey Johnson Floral Leggings-$126

Inspiration: Prada's S/S 2010 Fantasy Lookbook

This month Prada released it's first menswear video as well as this whimsical "fantasy" lookbook of manipulated, collaged images that's far more inventive then your usual straight forward lookbook. We love that Prada continues to make every facet of it's being strikingly beautiful and thouroughly conceived.

Visit Prada.com for more

YSL: Ain't Nothin' Like Stefano Pilatti

Stefao Pilatti & Bruce Weber made this beautiful video for the Yves Saint Laurent Fall/Winter 2010-11 menswear collection. Enjoy!

V Love Newby Model Lindsey Wixson

Lindsey Wixson For:Miu Miu Spring/Summer 2010

Photography: Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott

coacdinc.com

L.A. native, Marilyn model Lindsey Wixson first caught our attention this past fall as Prada's s/s 2010 show-opener. First there were her lips which, when lacquered up in cinnabar red, took "bee-stung" to a whole new level. Then there were her Madame Alexander doll, woman-child looks that epitomized Miuccia's latest and decidedly more youthful take on femininity. Aside from opening Prada and closing the Miu Miu show where the hair and makeup perfectly played to her features, she walked virtually undetected in NYC for minor labels like United Bamboo, Brian Reyes and Philosophy/Alberta Ferretti.

prada ss 2010

miu miu ss 2010

Word has it that she is Meisel's new fave and will be featured in a Vogue Italia spread in March. And if the past is any indicator (think Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell etc.) we'll be seeing a whole lot more in print and soon, on the fall 2010 runways. Her softer yet slightly alien looks might well signal a new sort of beauty for the new decade. Step aside Karlie, Stam (snore...)and all of you Eastern Bloc clones!Judging from her recent work in W she's well on her way to the big-time.
W January 2010 Photography:Craig McDean Stylist:Alex White

Models: Kate Kosushkina, Madisyn Ritland, Siri Tollerød, Lyndsey Scott, Frida Gustavsson, Elsa Sylvan, Kamila Filipcikova, Rosa Zakauskaite, Hanne Gaby Odiele, Sara Blomqvist, Sharon Kavjian, Katie Fogarty, Jacquelyn Jablonski, Rose Cordero, Lindsey Wixson, Anabela Belikova, Anastasija Kondratjeva, Shu Pei

i-D November 2009 Photography: Daniel Jackson Styling: Alistair McKimm

Maison Pierre Cardin Celebrates 60 Years

This month Assouline celebrates the sixtieth anniversary of Masion Cardin with the publication of a commemorative retrospective on the work of its founder, fashion designer Pierre Cardin. After an early stint with Elase Schiaparelli, Cardin joined Dior in 1946 and opened his own couture house in 1950. A pioneer from the start, he is known for his architectural fashion with a futurist sensibility. Cardin also had an avant-garde understanding of fashion’s relationship to new audiences, presenting his collections to large crowds(literally thousands). He was the first to demonstrate that fashion can be both a creative process and a business—and that one man can excel as both a businessman and an artist. Besides his genius with business(he was also the first to make millions with thousands of licenses), Cardin's super-mod, startlingly futuristic designs are not only highly collectible today, but are also completely relevant and wearable. An extraordinarily innovative and iconoclastic designer, Cardin's designs proved that the avant can not only make highly desirable products, but also make a pretty penny doing so.

“Geometric motifs, asymmetry, oversized buttons and collars, hooped dresses, vinyl inserts—Cardin is an original in every sense of the word.”-Jean-Pascal Hesse, author


Vnyc's 60's Pierre Cardin Mod Contrast Dress-$1,088

Christie's Ups The Vintage Collectors Ante

Yesterday legendary auction house Christie's announced that it will now be offering a virtual online appraisal service for all vintage goods from another legendary house, Gucci. It's a unique idea where users can submit photos of their Gucci objects for appraisal(online primarily), and it makes sense since like any form of collectible art, Gucci has helped shape the world in it's own way in terms of luxury and quality craftsmanship. A team of Christie's and Gucci's own appraisers will inspect your goods where you can then auction them off or submit them to Gucci's archives, or hold on to them. It also has us, vintage collectors ourselves, excited about what's in store for the world of vintage this decade since vintage came so far the previous one. Such a good idea in fact, Chanel & YSL should hop on board too.

At the same time, we wonder if this will inflate prices drastically, after all, many forget that collectible designer vintage was quite expensive when it originally came out. Take a 70's Bill Blass or Geoffrey Beene dress, did you know that those retailed for $750+ back in the day? While that's a See by Chloe number today, $750 then is equivalent to $2,400 today, or your average Chanel day dress.

Vnyc's 80's Gucci Canvas Logo Purse-$158

Visit Christie's.com here

Most Wanted: Chloe's Faded Blues

VagaBondnyc sells vintage, it sells contemporary and as you may already know, we keep a keen eye on the runways to inspire our buys as we like to dress high and low, vintage with the au currant, etc.-you get it by now. That brings us to this riff on classic preppy denim from Chloe S/S 2010 that's on the top of one of our must-have lists. It's been a long while to contemplate denim beyond dark skinnies, yet this offering from Chloe, like anything from the house, looks so cool, easy and relaxed.

Odd thing is that it's a dead ringer for an outfit a friend's older sister used to rock back in '91. She'd pair her faded, deconstructed denim "tuxedo" with her mom's old YSL and Hermes bags only to be scolded by her and even made fun of by myself. Little did we know, and so goes the saying: "everything comes around bringing us back again, here is where we start and where we end."


Top $675 & Jeans $685 Chloe S/S 2010, visit Chloe.com for more details

Golden Globes Best Dressed: Diane Kruger

Ooh Lacroix:

Our favorite look at this year's 67th Golden Globes was hands down Diane Kruger's bold pink Christian Lacroix Haute Couture number. Once again, the actress always gets it right and having Joshua Jackson on your arm ain't that bad either.

Smart Buy: 80's Mondi Contrast Cloak

Thanks to Chloe's sensational Fall/Winter 2009 collection we've been on a mad hunt for classic voluminous capes & cloaks that give the wearer a strong, well-studied look. And this week's Smart Buy from 80's era Mondi happens to channel that collections calm coolness with it's crisp contrasting leather piping and elegant fabrication. It boasts cascading sides and a hood with long panels that you can wear as a wrap scarf or tie into a dainty bow.


80's Mondi Contrast Wool Mix Cloak-$288

Accessory of the Week: 90's Miyake Sunglasses

Our latest Accessory of the Week comes in three different variations from 90's era Issey Miyake. Candy colored and angularly shaped, these are three great options to add a bit of pop to any look, and while they are boldly hued, their classic shape makes them utterly timeless.

90's Issey Miyake Candy Hued Sunglasses-$164

Waiting for Number (T)en

Elusive Japanese menswear label Number (N)ine has been one of our favorite brands for several seasons and we are sad to see it close.

Investigative Report #1 : You Copy-Cat, You!

Yohji Yamamoto 1998
Marc Jacobs 2008

We all have web-sites we skim over to reward ourselves for whatever it is we do for a living. I imagine business-men eating lunch at their desks scrolling through ESPN for scores or stats or Perez Hilton or playing some nerdy video game with their college pal in another state. For business gals I imagine it's J Crew or Zappo's or a blog they're anonymously penning about how much they hate their job. For those of us whose living is made on the internet there are no definitive lunch breaks or down-times between meetings wherein to virtually blow-off steam. I am of course one of the latter. The problem for me is that I adore fashion and everything about it and since what I do is what I love, the lunch break thing doesn't apply. The work/play boundary is a blur.

Every morning when I turn on my computer I am up against it and its hard. What constitutes a "working browse" - an information gathering, trend tracking, temperature gauging and prediction-making move - versus a "break browse". I rarely move beyond the fashion realm no matter where I am and whether or not I am "off", not working etc. Maybe I check out a cute dog thing on YouTube but pretty soon I'm back at it searching for an episode of House of Style. Suffice to say that I've become really good at supplementing information gathered on working browses with content I happen upon while taking a breather.

The byline for Vagabondnyc has always been that whatever we're seeing on the runway right now to some extent or other is bound up in the past. Some of our favorite designers - Helmut Lang, Martin Margiela - made clothes where the references where there but on mute. So when I was hunting for my favorite ads of the oughties I started to see similarities between the ads themselves in themes across designers and across decades. Certain poses, settings, etc. In order to justify my lengthy forays into the campaign archives of favored designers, I've decided to make something of the knowledge I gather. Every once and awhile I will post an Investigative Report, my mission, broadly, will be to find, compare and contrast aesthetics old and new. To be frank, I'll be hunting around for act's of that sincerest form of flattery which little kids call copying.

Item 1: Yohji's 1998 ad with-once major now doing Dooney and Bourke and Dana Buchman ads-Maggie Rizer, AND Marc's version with-always MAYJAH to herself- Victoria Posh Spice Beckham.

Our Favorite Ads of the Oughties Part 2

Part 2
NH's

balenciaga fw 2000 photographed by inez+vinoodh

marc jacobs ss 2005 collaboration, cindy sherman+juergen teller

chloe fw 2006 photographed by inez+vinoodh

yves saint laurent ss 2006 photographed by juergen teller

givenchy ss 2006 photographed by inez+vinoodh

Our Favorite Ads of the Oughties Part 1

Part 1
Andrea's

helmut lang fw 2003 photographed by inez+vinoodh

miu miu fw 2002 photographed by mert alas+marcus piggott

sonia rykiel ss 2008 photographed by serge leblon

lanvin fw 2008 photographed by steven meisel

narciso rodriguez circa 2000 photographed by inez+vinoodh

ysl fw 2008 photographed by inez+vinoodh

rochas ss 2006 photographer unknown

jil sander fw 2008 photographed by willy vanderperre

Yikes! Gone but NEVER forgotten.

I've been mourning the loss of Martin Margiela for a long time and have been trying to articulate what's so wrong about the stuff that's been coming out of the place that bears his name. The revolutionary thing about Margiela was that he treated the conditions involved in creating the illusion of fashion as fashion. He put the stitches and seams and handiwork on the outside and made dresses out of lining lined with dress fabric. It's plausible to say his non-labels were designed to bring attention to the clothes versus the personality of their creator. And tho that label has very much come to stand for Margiela, he managed to keep evolving beyond expectations and showing up convention. That was what was so awesome about each new show. Even if I didn't adore everything (which I often did) at least I could count on having my brain being stimulated. And while fast-fashion chains churned out raw-edges and exposed zippers he managed to come up with more mundane taken-for-granted stuff for us to reconsider fashion convention with.

Maybe there are no more conventions to play with and critique anymore or maybe the conventions/ conditions which made the critique possible no longer exist. Maybe everything (including "rebellion") is a convention and rebellion or reaction or reconsideration or otherness or whatever isn't possible. Looking at what's coming out of MMM lately it would seem as much. Margiela approached each collection as part of an ongoing conversation. He worked particular themes/motifs through multiple seasons so that as a viewer it felt like an ongoing conversation or story framed and sustained by the clarity of its initial proposition. The last few shows were such dreary affairs, I think, because there wasn't that sense of inquiry or inquisitiveness. There didn't seem to be an idea or a story or that feeling of being engaged as an audience. The only thing I can compare it too is like turning on the radio to the Martin Margiela program and, at best, getting the top 10 hits over and over or just getting static.

So, will it ever be possible to carry on in the tradition of MM? Is anyone going to be able to do what he did? Is deconstruction fashion done? Maybe so. Meantime, collect all of the true Martin Margiela you can get your hands on. Remember the mark he made and how talented and important his work is in the history of fashion. And, if you are truly interested in rebellion and fashioning rebellion or whatever, follow the lead of the girl below who literally and eternally branded Margiela's label on her skin. Yikes.