Run for the Roses

Queen Elizabeth at the Derby, 2007

Photo credit: Huffington Post

The royal wedding in England is not the only occasion for dramatic formal headwear. On the first Saturday of May, Louisville, Kentucky will be a city where everybody's head turns for the Derby, and, for the fancy hats.

In the early days of the Derby, to find a lady without a hat on would have been considered a fashion faux pas. The Southern tradition of the hats with flamboyant embellishments including ribbons, feathers, and floral arrangements is not just a fashion statement. The traditional wide brim provides a relief from the sun in the hot days of Kentucky.

Make a mint julep by mixing fine Kentucky Bourbon with sugar, water and some fresh mint, served over crushed ice in a tall glass; wear a fancy, if not gaudy, headwear, you are officially the mad hatter of Run for the Roses. 

Royal wedding watching

 

Easter coloring -- the colorer becomes the coloree

Warlike instinct and ballerina

Photo credit: Bon Duke
Watch it here 
 

Phillip Glass did not have the image of Chloe’s ballerina-inspired silhouette when he wrote the score String Quartet No. 3 “Mishima”. He read Mishima (三島 由紀夫)’s books and biography and had photographs of the film set in front of him. At the feverish music’s crescendo, Mishima’s pen and sword join in the single path, a path of Seppuku pride.

The intensity and passion in Phillip Glass’s music transcends the film of a protagonist with warlike instincts, to the video of a ballerina with arabesque elegance, a ballerina in the feather like taupe chiffon.

A Chloe woman, portrayed by the strong and graceful moves of Janie Taylor, one of ballet's premier ballerina, can dream herself of being ageless and impeccably groomed. 

I will never love you more than DVD's night with my girlfriend

I will never love you more than the drummer of flaming lips

I will never love you more than Woody Allen movies

I will never love you more than the White album of the Beatles

I will never love you more than God only knows

……

Rarely could fashion videos, in three minutes, convey a story that makes any sense, although trying to, let alone an intriguing story. (Refer to Miu Miu’s “Powder Room” and likes). The Kate Spade video is a pleasant exception, with the help of SoKo’s voice—like tumbling raw sugar, coarse yet sweet. The French chantuse SoKo does not have an album yet, but her song is inspiring the young poet in this Kate Spade video, as he types: “This is the story of a charming girl, she laughs out loud, sings off key”.

After Stella McCartney, Kate Spade wants their girls to be recognized just like the protagonist in many of SoKo’s songs: “she is quick and curious and playful and strong”. The video is beautifully made by Polish director Kinga Burza with a charming British actress. But Kate Spade  girls are not quite like what’s depicted in the video. Not because they can’t order a cocktail in six different languages. Not because they can’t lay on the floor covered by piles of books. Kate Spade girls are just not that distinctively recognizable yet. After all, to be understated may not come that easily. 

 From Kate Spade Video

SoKo

 SoKo

The end of the plain plane

 

Who should be in charge of an ad campaign? The clients or the ad agency? That’s a question presented to interviewees in the documentary “Art & copy”. If the ad agencies were to please the clients in anyway they could and not push the boundaries, there may not have been “The end of the plain plane” or “If you’ve got it, flaunt it” Braniff campaign.

Braniff revamped the look of airline uniforms with Emilio Pucci’s bold colors — turquoise, parrot, green, and purple, go-go boots, and even space helmets. The stewardess job has since been more appealing. United Airlines, in 1967, recruited with the slogan “Marriage is fine! But shouldn’t you see the world first?” and with Jean Louis’s mini dresses and matching hats.

Long gone is the “golden-age” of flying. Christian Lacroix for Air france or Kate Spade for Delta were not much fanfare. The plane is back to be in plain and the stewardesses are now married. No more fun colors and prints for the long haul. Who is to blame? The companies that are too conservative, or the ad agencies that only work for the clients' needs?

 Pucci for Braniff

 Pucci for Braniff

 Pucci for Braniff

 Jean Louis for UA

  Jean Louis for UA

  Jean Louis for UA

Pictures of Jean Louis for UA from: Colette

Fellini, la Grande Parade

Federico Fellini and his wife Giulietta Masina

“I haven’t been to Via Veneto since La Dolce Vita” Valentino said so in “Valentino, the Last Emperor”, kicking off his couture show with Nino Rota’s music. It is in a café on the Via Veneto in 1960 where he met his lifelong partner. It is also on Via Veneto where Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” was born, although the street in the scene was created in a studio.

Composed primarily of photographs and drawings of Fellini, the exhibition “Fellini, la Grande Parade” at Musée du Jeu de Paume in Paris raised the veil on part of the mechanisms of Fellini’s creation.

Fellini went to Rome and made a living, first as a caricature artist then as a scriptwriter, both using pencils. Whichever medium Fellini used to express his fantasies and anxieties, the same world in his imagination seems to have been created—a world where all desires were explored. As he himself noted, “All art is autobiographical.” Through the movie characters, the exhibition again shows the dreams and obsessions of Federico Fellini.

Reference: Jeu de Paume

 Jeu de Paume, Paris

 Fellini drawing

 Fellini drawing

 La Dolce Vita

 La Dolce Vita