hidden clues?

Everyone talks about the bad economy and tries not to spend money. Everyone?? Not in Manhattan baby! Here - at least for now - things seam as usual...

...a fancy night out in the meatpackin'...

My favorite store is even opening back up: Moschino on 14th street!


...maybe there is a clue in the window display: an alien child on the moon, looking up to the astronaut, for guidance? That's how I feel sometimes as of late: where the f**k am I??? And how did I get here? I am - yes, well dressed - but feel like an alien around here.

heels rising high

It's a natural development. From flats to high heels. Who'd ha' thought?? Come on! We designers and producers of wares need you to buy new things every season, (what did you think we live off??) so since we just about all have acquired just about every type of flat - from ballerina to tap dance loafer - on the planet, there is no more, or little money to be made with it, at least in the coming season, so we decided to instantly make the high heel attractive again... no, not the one you already have in your closet, the classic one you stored since past seasons, but a new and exiting one: incredibly high! We took it so far as to say: we all cannot even walk in them. Don't believe me?

Well, here you go: this is what the sidewalks, steps and corners of NYC looked during fashion week, courtesy of Bill Cunningham.

...very high heels...

...high spikes...

...laced booties...

...glamorous and high...

...sporty height...

...no one looks at the bag anymore!...

...no one looks at the bag anymore!...

...patten leather lace up's...

...and by the way, the hemline goes higher too, just about a foot above the knee or more...

...but, no one can walk in them longer than a few minutes and they got to be replaced by the flats...

...against my initial prognosis, there will be some money made with flats next season...

I think all this is really exiting as the comfortable look has gotten a bit too far in my opinion.

end of trends?

In NYC I hear a lot about the death of trends. Is it true? Are there no more styles to be pinned down which will be guaranteed to be worn by most?

Well, I think that by the way people have access to the Internet, which allows them to either offer their own ware (which adds to the variety and confusion of what will be next) or have the style world of the whole world at their fingertips, therefore forecasting a trend is definitely more challenging now. Not that it has ever been easy for a purchasing fashion professional to know what to buy that will sell next season, but these days this task has become a nightmare, as I am told by my colleagues in the industry!

So, yeah maybe in that sense we have reached the end of trends as we know it. But that is a good thing for the world. NOT for the forecasters and NOT for the buyers, but for us the creative and the educated consumers. We have tolerated long enough the degrading world wide marketing of our home grown street trends! We have been so bored by finding our looks on the ad pages of the glossy magazines, now sold for money we could not ever spend! Death to trends that's right, I love it! Let the people that never had personal style shiver, not knowing what exactly to wear right now, let them be out of the loop! Force them to be the style-less creatures that they really are! Hah! The end of the so called "stylish" mass look!

But this "stylish" mass look has not reached every corner of the world, stop gasping! I was surprised to witness that almost no American trend has reached the South of Sicily, where I spent my Summer vacation (despite the immense down slide of the US$ against the Euro). There, the most fashionable accessory for a girl is still the good old Vespa motorcycle and yes, the tight jeans have made it there... which don't make any sense as the temperatures are always way above 90 Fahrenheit and it's a mystery to me how they survive a day or even a night in skinnies.

girls on vespa motorcycles in modica, sicily.

...me acting as if italian...

But none of the 80's craze of the streets of NYC. Color? Yes, but only as a accent. Flats? Yes, but none of the American Apparel leggings. How refreshing!

soft ice machine at the mccafe in catania, sicily - not in use very often because everyone knows: italian ice cream is so much better!

I was also pleased to see that the McDonald's actually was a coffee shop (McCafe) at the entrance - a la Starbucks - heck yeah! I mean we are, after all, in Italy, the capital of the espresso and the cappuccino. Only after passing the cafe, you enter the burger hall, as we know it in the rest of the world, except that it was equipped with fake statues of Italian gods to diminish the harsh contrast of European history and American culture.

me at the mcdonalds in catania, Sicily, note the statues of gods to the left and right and above. (i did not eat there!)

mcdonalds logo in sicily.

I will tell you guys more about this very special place Sicily, but first let me tell you - tomorrow! - a bit about what I've seen on the streets of NYC, weather these are going to be worldwide trends for Spring Summer 2009? Careful! None of these styles may actually be worn next Spring or at least not in this context, but they are certainly worn on the NYC streets right now.

all photos courtesy of carl posey.

damien hirst got punk'd

Yes, we all don't want punk to be dead and we all wish a time as true to itself as this, will come back soon as we could use a fresh and free movement that has no boundaries, but here's the awful truth my dear readers, you can't fake the real thing, I mean it undermines the whole point of the punk movement NOT to be fake and NOT to be commercial.

So here is this tale I have been hearing about fake punk gear, supposedly from Sex + Seditionaries, the boutique founded by McLaren and Vivienne Westwood, circulating the art market.


I can't help but NOT feel sorry for the dumbish museums and galeries as well as Damien Hirst, who went ahead and bought that fake stuff up for about $200'000.- on the internet. As if someone actually owning the genuine items would get rid of them...?!

Someone greedy with an eye and knowledge of the real thing, created distressed punk clothes and put it on the market. An asshole yes, but the ones that bought it even more. This example is a sign of the time and really shows that punk IS dead, as at this rate it cannot come back even if it wanted. Thanks to dummsies like these...

So let me finish the story, Damien was planning to put the collection on display until Mclaren declared the bounty to be fakes. Thanks goodness, Malcom! Thanks for saving us a punk exhibition, which would have undoubteldly been hard to take in it's commercialism.

Damien you're a punk, but not a geniune one! You miss the point and you put shame on our generation (aren't you one of the most successful artists of our time?) as you wanted to sell us out by exhibiting clothes from a subversive movement a few decades ago that garnered such high prices! Shame on you!

Punk still exists in it's pure form, yes, sometimes it still lives in a personality here and there, but only in a few places, genuine relics? Mostly right at home of a punk, at his home in the cellar.


I for once took a picture of my original (and originally distressed by actually wearing it) The Damned shirt, and I won't sell it to you Damien.