Twins: A Leeettle Creepy

I stumbled onto this artist (Lessa Leva) while doing my daily design inspiration search (sitting in front of my Mac all day leads to a wee bit of boredom/procrastination).

I think if Cath and I ever wanted a Siamese portrait of ourselves, we would go with something like this. I agree that it's a little creepy, but I think Lessa Leva (and Mary Kate and Ashley) make celebrity a little more intriguing and less airbrushed. Go check out her shop. I think one of these needs to end up on my wall.

LL

Inspired By: Little Ashes

I'm not a fan of Salvador Dalí's surrealist paintings (however I do love his lobster phone) and I don't get what all the fuss is about over Robert Pattinson, but I would like to see him as Dalí in Little Ashes this summer.


Pattinson as Dalí, Javier Beltrán as García Lorca with Pattinson and Marina Gatell as Margarita.

The film follows the close relationship between Dalí and Spanish poet Federico García Lorca. The photo below right is what the two men actually looked like:

Lorca and Dalí. Dalí with his famous 'stache.

It seems odd that they cast a Brit to play Dalí (and Luis Buñel) - especially someone who doesn't look at all like the artist. But I won't be going to see the film for its accuracy. I'm just going for the costumes and set design. A good storyline and convincing acting would just be bonus.

What would you call that ribbon-like tie on Pattinson in the photo below? He looks like a non-Spanish matador. I'm also a big fan of the three-piece suit (don't even get me started on my love of vests), which seems to be prominently featured in the film.


The room in the photos below looks like something that would be featured in Domino magazine (R.I.P.). Check out the awesome wallpaper!


The trailer makes the film look like a Spanish version of Brideshead Revisited. Who's with me? Anyone else looking forward to seeing Little Ashes? Anyone know why it's called Little Ashes?

Photos coutsey of the official movie site and The Guardian.

CL

Earrings for Guitar-playing Art Historians

The art history student in me has to geek-out for just a minute:

It looks like El Greco painted the hands on these awesome guitar pic earrings!

I've always had a soft spot for the Greek painter, beloved and adopoted by the Spanish of the Baroque period, whose elongated style of portraying anatomy was, and still is, completely unique and eerily moving.

Obviously these earring hands aren't swiped from a painting by the master himself- the fingers look too rigid and the palette is all wrong (blah, blah, more pretentious art history ramblings...), but they are close enough for me!

What do you guys think? Creepy, or a fond reminder of these intense dudes below?



P.S. I got these earrings from Duck's Cosmic Kitchen in Decatur. They sell delicious doughnuts and delightful art earrings- my heaven in a nutshell.

Pajamas Are the New. . . Black?

Or at least they've been getting some more face time in the fashion world lately.

The pajama trend started with artist/director/interior designer/pajama-wearing extraordinaire Julian Schnabel. He enjoys wearing silk pjs out in public so much that it's become his "look." His current wife, Olatz Lopez Garmendia, makes them and (lucky for us!) we can purchase and wear them to red carpet events just like Schnabel.


Dolce and Gabbana solidified this trend with their 2009 Spring RTW line:


Althought Schnabel and Dolce & Gabbana's pajama outfits are an improvement over Hugh Heffner's iconic pjs and smoking jacket look, it's comforting to know that the trend of wearing a complete pajama set in public won't spread beyond the wardrobes of over egotistical men with too much money. (If you think Heffner's playboy mansion is over-the-top, check out Schnabel's Manhattan palazzo).

Images courtsey of Style.com

CL

Recession Fun!

It's not an oxymoron! I mean, what is more fun than origami hats?! We got this idea from Daily Candy's mention of the Origami Club. Granted you might get more of a thrill shopping on line at Urban or going for a swanky dinner somewhere, but if your funds are low, we highly recommend folding paper and letting your imagination go with it.




LL

Fashion with a side of Art History- yum!

This D&G ad from Spring 2005 has been tucked away in one of my hefty art history books next to the page with Raphael's Deposition. Who would've thought that the masters of the sultry dress would be inspired by one of the most highly regarded depictions of Christ during the high renaissance?

It seems predictable that D&G would dress the three Marys in hot-pants and Jesus would be languid (not dead) and buff, but what of the chimp?

As my art history professor would to say, "Discuss."

(and "they are all Italians" doesn't count as an explanation ;)

Oh! And Happy Weekend!


Ad (i.e. Deposition) by Dolce and Gabbana


Deposition (The Entombment) by Raphael

LL

Having a Bit of Fun

It is no secret that I love fashion magazines. I subscribe to Vogue, Lucky, Teen Vogue and Domino (I count that as a fashion mag). And I usually pick up Elle, Bazaar, Marie Claire, British Elle and British Vogue every couple of months. It's a sickness, really, and an addiction, but they're all so glossy and fantastical that I can't help myself.

That being said, there are times when I become a little tired of the anorexic models, stilted photo shoots, and overly airbrushed/photoshopped ads. I was feeling this way the other evening while flipping through the September issue of Vogue. So I decided to take a sharpie to some of the pages and have a bit of fun.



Banana Republic must be one of the most inappropriate names for an American clothing store. People who live in a real banana republic wouldn't even be able to afford the button on the sweater below. Was "Absurdistan" and "Kangaroo Court" already taken as store names?


I can't imagine those shoes have much traction on a wet boat.


I have so many questions about the photo shoot below. Did Vogue pay for all those bruised apples? Did some lackey intern have to re-stack them? Why apples? Couldn't they have picked something more resilient, like sponges?


At times I feel that Marc Jacobs has become just like every other successful designer.


Ah, Naomi. So elegant and yet...

CL

PS: Thank you for all the great camping tips!!

Ode to Mondrian, et al.

I don't know if you've noticed, lovely readers, but Cath has been shouldering the brunt of the blogging work for the last 2 weeks or so. I've finally recovered enough from a nasty bout of pneumonia so that I can sit up in front of my Mac for more than 5 minutes. Progress indeed!

Before I became an invalid (think trivial Jane Austen character with consumption, hacking lungs out on the settee), I bought this wonderful shift, jersey dress from one of those cheesy/trashy stores at a local discount mall.

I was thrilled that it was related to these things:


(Patridge Family bus and YSL's Mondrian dress c. 1965)

But the art history student in me is even more thrilled to look like a De Stijl painting rather than just a bus or a knock-off:



I don't mean to sound like a snot. I mean, the Partridge Family bus is delightfully retro and Yves Saint Laurent's dress is a masterpiece, but if it weren't for Piet Mondrian, where would they be?

Instead of just a $20 dress, I'm wearing this (in Piet's own words):

"I construct lines and color combinations on a flat surface, in order to express general beauty with the utmost awareness. Nature (or, that which I see) inspires me, puts me, as with any painter, in an emotional state so that an urge comes about to make something, but I want to come as close as possible to the truth and abstract everything from that, until I reach the foundation (still just an external foundation!) of things…

I believe it is possible that, through horizontal and vertical lines constructed with awareness, but not with calculation, led by high intuition, and brought to harmony and rhythm, these basic forms of beauty, supplemented if necessary by other direct lines or curves, can become a work of art, as strong as it is true."

For more information on Mondrian and the De Stijl movement click here.

LL

Good Things*

Really the title of this post should be something like "Things that make us happy when our weekend has been crappy." But that seems too wordy and I don't like rhymes.

The short of it is my car broke down at an incredibly inopportune moment Saturday evening resulting in a number of mishaps (held up a wedding, got caught in the pouring rain waiting for AAA and missed June Shin's party at Drew Lewis). So we AsianCajuns had a not-too-pleasant weekend. To cheer Lauren and me up, I decided to blog about a few things we've been enjoying recently:

The Celebrity Perfumery: The Handy Craft Guide to Smelling Like the Stars
For anyone who's ever wanted to capture the essence of Robert Downey Jr.'s recent Iron Man success or the magical aura of J.K. Rowling, this is the blog for you! One of my favorite entries/perfumes is the Juno/Ellen Page inspired Who Cares: de parfum (see image below). Ingredients include dusty record stores, Cheez Whiz, Pop Rocks and stale linens.




Favorite books that inspire a favorite movie
Lauren and I were never big fans of The Catcher in the Rye, but we love Salinger's novels about the Glass family - especially Franny and Zooey. So even without the fantastic sets and soundtrack, The Royal Tenenbaums would still be one of our all time favorite movies (I know I just made film buffs everywhere cringe).

New Shoes
Kind of self-explanatory, but here are the basics: Biviel black sandals found on the sales rack at Eviva in downtown Decatur.



It's Always Sunny on Hulu.com
We might not have a TV, but Lauren and I make up for it by watching and re-watching all 32 episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia online. It's not quite as sophisticated as Arrested Development, but it's equally as brilliant and hilarious.



Sujean Rim Illustrations
We've been big fans of Daily Candy for years, but never stopped to think about the person behind all of its clever illustrations until recently.


The House of Eliott
A BBC TV series that we became hooked on when it aired on PBS in the early 1990s. Lauren just discovered that our local library has most of the show on DVD and we've spent the past few weekends drooling over the 1920s costumes.


Images from www.bn.com, www.fxnetworks.com, www.allposters.com, www.sujeanrim.com, www.thecelebrityperfumery.com.

*Not necessarily Martha approved.

CL

Gallery Exhibition Opening Wear

Tuesday night was the opening of the Decatur Arts Festival Fine Arts Exhibition. I always love going to the opening every year because the show never disappoints (great, affordable, local works of art) and it provides the perfect excuse to get a little dressed up.

Our outfits in the photos below are what we deemed to be gallery-exhibition-opening appropriate. Some might find our style too dressy for a relatively laid-back event, but until we get invited to the annual Costume Institute Gala, we'll take advantage of every chance we get to dress up.

Lauren is wearing a J.Crew dress, H&M jewelry and Nine West heels (not shown).

I'm wearing a dress from H&M, Anne Klein watch and shoes by Vera Wang from Kohls.

You can purchase these shoes here.

CL

Gap Modern

It really should be Lauren blogging about this (she graduated with a major in Art History), but she's out of town and I think this is the best thing since sliced bread.

In conjunction with the Whitney Biennial, Gap is selling limited edition t-shirts designed by well-known and soon-to-be-well-known artists featured in the Whitney Museum's famous exhibition.

The list of artists:
My absolute favorite design is by Barbara Kruger. I've been a huge fan of Kruger since learning about her in my one and only modern art history class (I unfortunately majored in business and economics).

I love this shirt. I want to buy this shirt. There are two reasons why I haven't already punched in my credit card number at gap.com. First, it only comes in mens sizes, which means it might just look incredibly boxy and ridiculous on me. Secondly, the message of the shirt is anti-consumerism, so I'd feel like a big fat hypocrite if I bought it.

Any thoughts? Should I overcome my shame of being a hypocrite and not worry about the size? Or should I just buy a poster of Kruger's artwork and be done with it?
CL

Fox News

Here's my prediction: the fox will be the next It animal. It's been the bird, more specifically the owl, for the past few years. You can't go on esty.com or fredflare.com without finding a birl/owl necklace or stationary. Well, it's time for the birds to move over. During this year of the rat, the new It animal is the fox. Below is proof:

Image from www.wallpaperfromthe70s.com

1. Artwork by Matte Stephens.
2. Belle and Sebastian Fox t-shirt.
3. Fox sweater from Peter Jensen Fall 2008 RTW line.
4. Silver fox pin by Imogene and Dannie.

CL

Sweet Tee

For all you Gone With the Wind and Roy Liechtenstein fans out there, start saving up for the new, soon-to-be-released Esperanza t-shirt line. The image below is just a sneak peak of what's to come (check out more at Esperanza's blog).
I'm a huge fan of Esperanza Clothing Co. and have mentioned them before. They always create great Atlanta-inspired designs and it looks like this season is going to be their best ever.

CL

Slow and Steady

Clothing label Slow and Steady Wins the Race takes an avant-garde approach with their designs. Only one hundred copies are made of each item. The company's first collection of bags imitates some of the most popular handbags of our time. Instead of creating exact copies, Slow and Steady's bags are simplified and stripped down to the basics.

Dior's Saddle Bag:
The Balenciaga Motocycle Bag:


Chanel's quilted purse:

The Birkin Bag:

Gucci's bamboo-handled handbag:

The second collection of Slow and Steady bags takes it one step further by mixing the styles of the purses above. Below are just a few examples.


Overall, I like Slow and Steady's products. I think they're trying to show a lighter side of fashion. A new collection comes out bimonthly. Check out their website for the latest t-shirt, bag and footwear designs.

CL

Fake it!

Photo from Superlocal

Ever since these bags were shown at the Wake Up Andy Warhol exhibit in Seoul, I've been seeing them online everywhere. According to Poketo.com, the bag "visualizes and satirize the current era by combining the Louis Vuitton brand and graphic image of FAKE. Through this project, the artist critiques idolization of brand names and prevalence of knock-offs." I think Andy would be proud.




Buy your own Fake Bag at Poketo.

CL

Ain't it Dandy

Found this charm of a website in Domino Magazine. A British company that sells posters and t-shirts with Warhol-worthy graphics. They don't ship to the states yet, but I figure it's only a matter of time.

CL