Martin Grant - Designer Spotlight

I've been sitting on this post for a while now, waiting for the right words to come to me with a certain ease. But that in itself is representative of Martin Grant's clothes—they're supposed to take your breath away. Beauty is supposed to stop you in your tracks, so that you may admire and reflect on its very nature.

High dressmaking has always been about using the finest fabrics available, but more importantly, everything must be used judiciously. Excess fabric obscures a woman, the right amount illuminates her. Everything here feels like an organic extension of a woman's beauty and while it may be a quiet feat, it's also an exceptional one.

MA-1 Flight Jacket

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I wanted to pay a little tribute today to Lizzie Garrett Mettler, author of the blog formerly known as Tomboy Style and owner of the online store currently known as The Reed, with a tomboy style post of my own.

Last night I went on a little hunt for an M65 field jacket. Eventually, that led me to Alpha Industries, one of the original contractors for the U.S. Army who decided to start selling the same jackets for civvies. 

Then I came across their version of the MA-1 Flight Jacket, now sized for women. It looks fantastic and I just had to share it.

A little history: The MA-1 was first delivered to Air Force and Navy pilots at the start of the 1950's. They needed something that could wick away moisture as they scrambled to the cockpit and keep them warm at higher altitudes. It also has a reversible orange side to signal a rescue from a mission gone bad or a party gone lame.

Most importantly, they needed it to look cool. Because we can't have them fighting commie MiG-23s looking anything less than ace. Cue Kenny Loggins.


Halston Heritage - Fall 2016

I've been listening to a lot of new disco and funk this past month. So it makes total sense that when I saw Halston Heritage's latest collection I fell pretty hard for it. (Casting fellow Canadian Alana Zimmer just adds insult to injury.) After all, the eponymous label is a celebration of the late designer who made his mark in America's discotheques during the 1970s.

But we've come a long way from the days of Diana Ross and Studio 54. Gone are the high waisted jumpsuits with ruffled flares. Halston's current design director Marie Mazelas has distilled the glitz into something far more intelligent, potent, and dare I say lethal. 

Sass & Bide - Fall 2016

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SHOP: Sass & Bide

SHOP: Sass & Bide

It's hard to be oneself. Mostly because of the fact that to be oneself requires you to know yourself.

'Nosce te ipsum', as the Romans used to say. (Though to be fair they probably copied it from the Ancient Greeks. If you know your art history, you'd know they pulled that kind of copycat crap all the time!)

But the girl who wears Sass & Bide doesn't have that problem because she figured out who she is a long time ago. She's the smart one that knows her shit and handed in a perfect paper before the exam was even halfway through.

Yeah, she's a bit of a show-off, but hey, you gotta work what you got.

 

Lake Street Dive - Side Pony

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Writing about music is hard. Mostly because I want you to listen to the album rather than have you read about it. Or maybe I'm jaded for having read too many music reviews on NPR and Pitchfork by people who were clearly working to fill up the word count.

Anyway, Lake Street Dive is a quartet of friends who met at the New England Conservatory of Music. Fortunately, they don't take themselves too seriously as most jazz musicians do and know how to play for the sheer fun of it. One major reason to listen to Lake Street Dive is for the voice of their lead singer, Rachael Price. Rachael has some serious white girl gospel street cred, being a direct descendant from one of the leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. She knows how to lead the beat and the chorus, and I would put serious money on her over Adele in a diva match.

Their latest album, Side Pony, continues the party without any drama. Just a lot of soul, bass, and snare. I would've posted a video of the song 'Can't Stop', but I unfortunately couldn't find one. It's a hard funk disco dance track that would make Jamiroquai proud—definitely worth a buy.

Nadeah - One Way Lie

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SOURCE: iTunes

SOURCE: iTunes

You all know the hype machine right? That PR-media complex that urges us to look at this actress, read this book, watch this movie, or whatever. You get it. The problem with the hype machine is that it's horribly rigged. That means a lot of people get huge amounts of attention that is disproportionate to their talent, while some incredible people go unnoticed. 

Sometimes the machine nails it, like with Taylor Swift. Other times it's just completely oblivious, like with Nadeah. Nadeah has a bit of a crazy story. She's an Australian singer who was on the rise in the UK, but a botched visa knocked her down into Paris where she was picked up by this legendary punk bossa nova band, Nouvelle Vague. I saw them on tour a few years back and discovered she has it in spades. Then she released her first solo album four years ago. It was a cabaret pop album called Venus Gets Even, and for some reason I have yet to put words to, dug into my head.

Then she fell off the radar completely but last week I discovered she just finished her second album, While The Heart Beats. It's taken a slight turn towards the pop/rock spectrum, but there are some amazing surprises like 'One Way Lie', a song that dance floors and the repeat button were designed for.

Tod's - Spring 2016

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Despite rising unemployment, a deeply fragile banking system, and widespread corruption in all its branches of government, Milan Fashion Week aims to prove that if Italy can do one thing right these days, it's that it can always dress to the fucking nines.

I actually thought Tod's was a British label because it's, well, a British name. So I was super happy to see their latest collections and realize, nope, they're definitely Italian. They've taken the best elements of European fashion during the 70's — the colours, the fabrics, and the confidence — but with a spaghetti western theme and that rocking slim fit of the 2010's.

Maybe they have learned a thing or two from austerity after all.

Diane Birch - Stand Under My Love

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Getting through heartbreak and disappointment is just, you know, exhausting. It takes everything out of you and sometimes you don't want to talk about it because you just want to file everything away in the past so you can keep going. So you can move on to someone who will fully accept you.

I will say that it was the middle of Summer when everything unfolded. And the only thing that brought me peace was walking around late at night, under the stars, listening to Diane Birch sing Bluebell, a rejected track from her first album, Bible Belt.

Her voice has this magical quality, with fullness and clarity unlike anyone I've heard. You could say it came from her upbringing in the gospel, but I also believe it came from learning to make peace with her own losses in life.

Anyway, her latest album is also the first one to be released under her own name and I'm beyond happy to hype it. 'Nous' debuted last week on Bandcamp and is available on iTunes pre-order.

Timo Weiland - Designer Spotlight

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SHOP: Timo Weiland // SOURCE: Vogue 

SHOP: Timo Weiland // SOURCE: Vogue 

You may have noticed that runway fashion tends to push in a lot of extreme directions. But not everyone wants to be the punk rock Parisian princess, or look like an amorphous asexual art-deco blob, or be draped head to toe in feathers. In fact I'd say—and I know I'm getting out of line here with the other editors—that women want clothes they can actually wear and still look likeably human.