Fashion for everyone

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. What you see is a miniature replica of my favorite look from the Spring 2010 Proenza Schouler collection, complete with perfectly dip-dyed hair. My lovely friend Andrew Yang has been working on his impressive collection of handmade dolls, The Kouklitas, for over a year. While in the past, most of his dolls are conceived with fantastical background stories rooted in Andrew's somewhat sadistic imagination (Siamese twins, overweight nymphomaniacs, cyclops, etcetera), and given an appropriately dramatic wardrobe to match, Andrew has taken his little ladies back to his own fashion-forward roots with this editorial he did for The Block Magazine. Andrew, who used to work as a designer for Dennis Basso, used his tailoring skills to create these perfect recreations of Spring's most outrageous looks for this new batch of "supermodel" dolls. I love the outfits he chose, especially the creepy Katie Eary number, and the pair of Comme des Garcons girls, complete with tufts of cotton-candy hair. All the dolls will eventually be on sale on his website (outfitted, his dolls average around $600), and if you feel like he missed one of your favorite spring looks, Andrew is always available to make custom dolls and outfits.

Christopher Kane x Topshop Croc dress, DIY Rodarte leggings, Rachel Comey boots, Triskaidekaphobia scribble necklace, restraint bracelet and ring

On Friday night, we went down to Allegra's gallery, LaViola Bank, to celebrate the release of Henrik Vibskov's new book with Andreas Emenius, The Fringe Projects. The book documents and serves as a catalog of the series of art installations, performances, and photographs that the pair have collaborated on over the past couple of years. Andreas is a good friend of Michael, one of the co-owners of the space, and the gallery temporarily put up several of the stunning photographs from the project on display. Allegra seemed a tad bit overwhelmed by the Danish fashion mob that descended, but after the chaos of Fashion Week, it seemed like a perfectly cozy and intimate gathering to me. I also used it as an opportunity to wear the Christopher Kane x Topshop dress that I ran to pick up as soon as it hit the floor.

Henrik Vibskov, on the right, and the crowd in the back yard of LaViola Bank

One of the self-portraits of Vibskov and Emenius from The Fringe Projects that was on display

Dom and Carlo, wearing CDG and Margiela respectively

Jimmy and his drinking companions for the evening

Lovely Lulu chilling on the East River

This past Thursday, we shot our Triskaidekaphobia Fall lookbook with our dear friend and favorite feisty blogger, Lulu Chang. Lulu has coyly been hinting at a move to New York for the past year, which is yet to happen. In the meantime, we have to settle for quick glimpses when she comes over for her business jaunts. This time, we really made Lulu work, putting her through an eight-hour shoot that had her climbing, perching, and tilting dangerously off of anything high up and unsafe that we could get her on top of. We even had the misfortune of all getting caught in a flash thunderstorm which drenched us to the bone, in addition to ruining half of our electronics. Thank you Lulu for being such a good sport, getting soaked, and taking a tumble or two! And an extra special thank you to our photographer Serichai Traipoom, our hair stylist, Dakota Heman, and our makeup artist, Terese Bennett. Please check out their websites!

Dakota getting Lulu ready for her princessy look

Seri shooting Lulu at the basketball court

Photographs by Niall O'Brien, courtesy of McQ

Plenty of designers are jumping on the Tumblr bandwagon, erecting pages dedicated to inspirational images, lookbook photos, and online campaigns. I myself recently tried to create one, only to find that both the Triskaidekaphobia and the Six Six Sick domains are already taken (WTF). One of the most high-profile labels to join the site of late is McQ, the Alexander McQueen contemporary line, which has built an entire website off of Tumblr, with the intent of having the content shared and re-blogged. Week by week they have gradually released images of pieces from the collection, shot by different photographers.

Their latest series, featuring the Spring collection, was shot by British photographer Niall O'Brien during a road-trip across America, using small towns and classic bits of Americana as the backdrop. Having grown up as a city-kid, spending my entire life in Manhattan, my idea of American suburbia is awash in a semi-dull yet alluringly-comforting glow, which was originally constructed through sixties television sitcoms and teen movies. Now my image of suburbia is equally shaped by the songs of Arcade Fire, and the books of Jonathan Franzen; the mix of romance, decay, and ennui. Only a few images have been released thus far, but I think O'Brien manages to capture both feelings in his work. While you might want to listen to Arcade Fire while perusing the site, I also suggest you take a look at The Ghosts video (below) by Eddie O'Keefe, which has no relation to the McQ site at all, but also runs in the same vein of American suburban nostalgia and complements the site quite well.

The GHOSTS from Eddie O'KEEFE on Vimeo.

-Tiffany

Merry Christmas! Sorry for our recent absence from the blog. Christina is home in Florida, and I have been visiting family in San Francisco for the past few days before heading to Hawaii for the New Year. Even though I cannot give each and every one of you a Christmas present, I thought I would share some new photographs shot by our incredibly talented friend Dom Smith, who also did our lookbook for us (thank you Dom, for being such a great, patient friend). Enjoy, and have a happy holidays!