Fashion for everyone

I was first familiarized with the work of Liselotte Watkins when I received a W29 Showroom tote bag emblazoned with one of her drawings last season. Susanne, who owns W29, always has an eye for fresh talent, and tapped the Swedish illustrator to create a whimsical piece that subtly incorporated the W29 logo into a black and white line drawing.

Watkins is actually best known for the illustrations she did for Miu Miu's iconic Spring 2008 harlequin collection (still my favorite to date). Miuccia Prada spotted her work in a book, and ten days before the runway show, commissioned the designer to make prints for several of her dresses.

I was therefore pleasantly surprised to find that Watkins recently designed a new Bloglovin icon (see our sidebar), in addition to having an incredible blog of her own. Filled with her moody illustrations of sultry ladies posing, pouting, and smoking plenty of cigarettes, it's easy to get lost in the world that she creates. My favorites are her posts featuring works in progress, and watching them come to life.






The new W29 Showroom bag designed by Watkins

Last night I met up with an old friend who's in from out of town to catch up. We ended up having a heart to heart about the ups and downs of love, and the alternating agonies and ecstasies that one cycles through in an average relationship. Even the best and the healthiest relationships have their rainy days, and I'm old enough to understand that no human is infallible. I think one the greatest, and truest records of all time is the Magnetic Field's album, 69 Love Songs, which outlines the sad, the saccharine, and the just plain silly moments in any love story. My much adored husband led me to one of the best internet finds I've come across in months, 69 Love Songs, Illustrated, a collection of drawings and comics by different artists that all refer back to the classic album. As teens, we both listened to this album from different parts of the world, and still listen to it quite frequently today.

I am a closet romantic at heart, and want to believe that all my friends will have long, lasting relationships, and that the heartbreaks will be few and far between. I can play tough, but I do have a soft spot for all the trappings of modern romance, and Stacey Bendet's latest Alice and Olivia collection is full of pretty things out of your sweetest candy-colored dreams. These are the perfect outfits for a cheerleader of love, through the thick and thin spots. I know that I left the conversation with my friend only half-jokingly offering to be her dating coach (dating in New York is a particularly harrowing experience). These outfits might be just the thing to wear on the sidelines. Here are some of my favorite looks from the lookbook, and some of my favorite comics from the 69 Loves Songs, Illustrated website.



"I Think I Need a New Heart" illustrated by Mark Gamble



"Sweet Lovin' Man" illustrated by Kristyna Baczynski


"Yeah! Oh Yeah!" illustrated by Scott Jason Smith



EDIT: How could I have forgotten to include my favorite song off of 69 Love Songs? Listen to Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side, with even more video fan art!

All illustrations by Cate Parr

As much as I love looking at fashion illustrations in magazines and online, I would probably think twice about framing one and hanging it on my wall. The main reason is because I've already had multiple friends enter my apartment and say, "How does your husband feel about your apartment being so girly?" Lets just say he's not entirely pleased with the situation, but he's definitely tired of fighting about it. For my part, I've tried to curb my consumption of overtly femme objects, which would have otherwise overtaken my walls if I still lived alone. While I couldn't resist the United Bamboo Cat Calendar (which is pretty bad since I know Jimmy hates cats), I did have to deprive myself of Fifi Lapin wearing Margiela. Nonetheless, I'm seriously considering purchasing one of these gorgeous prints from Silver Ridge Studios, a recent Etsy find that features the ethereal watercolors of Los Angels based artist Cate Parr. The Meditation series (above) is my favorite, possessing both lustrous beauty, and a more contemplative quality than most fashion illustrations. Perfect for my wall, don't you think?

There's always gossip whispered through fashion circles regarding so-and-so designer who doesn't really know how to sew, or so-and-so designer who doesn't really know how to draw. I've found that most of my designer friends tend to know how to do both pretty decently, if perhaps being stronger in one area than the other (although I've found that most cut-and-sew knitwear designers really don't know how to knit). In fact, often I'm amazed by how multi-talented many designers are. A while back, I wrote about Ann Sofie-Madsen, who recently emailed me saying that she had updated her website with some of her gorgeous illustrations. While many of the drawings relate back to fashion, they're also an artistic outpourings of a wild, twisted, and overactive imagination. My favorites are her latest drawings from her "Blue Ink" series, which I think would translate extraordinarily well into some decadently demented fine jewelry. Here is just a small sampling of her work, I highly suggest you go to her inspiring website and view it all!

All photos by Ryan MacFarland

Ursidae, which means The Family of Bears, is very much a family project. When my friend Maj Anya DeBear's father Robert was diagnosed with cancer, he set his daughters with the task of making use of a series of Tessellation drawings that he had created in 1975. Tessellations, which were made famous by artist M.C. Escher, consist of infinite fields of interlocking forms or figures. The work had never been seen by anyone outside of his immediate family before, and Maj Anya and her siblings decided to figure out a way to share the mesmerizing drawings with the public.

Maj Anya, who is an incredibly talented artist in her own right, turned the drawings into textile designs, imbued with vivid colors.  Her first project was a dramatic custom made dress that she collaborated on with her friend Carlo Alcantara for the musician Oh Land, featuring cascading interlocking birds.  Following the success of the project, and the cathartic experience of having her father witness the dynamic dress on stage before his passing, she also decided to create a line of sweeping scarves from the fabric. The choice was based on the heirloom nature of scarves, which are passed down from generation to generation, much like her father's drawings were passed down to her and her siblings.  The story is incredibly moving, and the work is very compelling on its own. I can't think of a more beautiful way to commemorate a moment of loss.

After an abysmal and virtually non-existent New York Spring, we're finally getting a whiff of summer heat. What better way to celebrate the change of seasons than with Margarita Saplala? While these are Fall lookbook images, Margarita's collections always feature plenty of airy, flowing silk dresses and separates, perfect for sticky days where you wish you didn't have to be wearing anything at all. And let's be real, with the way things are going, summer will probably extend way into Fall anyway. The simple, comfortable cuts all highlight the original prints, and the clothes are uncomplicated enough to wear every day, yet eye catching enough that you don't feel like a total slob doing so---a perfect formula for easy summer style. Unsurprisingly, Margarita is constantly inspired by her homeland of the Philippines, where beating the heat is a day-to-day sartorial challenge.