CFDA Awards

Womenswear Designer of the Year: Marc Jacobs

Is this real life? Did I time travel to 2005 in some kind of Ashes to Ashes situation? Someone pinch me.

I Am Over Karl and His Bardot Fetish

...after seeing these. Pretty lackluster for a Chanel campaign. I don't care for the styling for the setup, and I'm not feeling Georgia May Jagger. After Claudia, Lara, and various gap-toothed others, I really don't feel the need to see a new Bardot-lookalike thrust upon the fashion world. Also, Karl did the Bardot thing far better that other time:

Something I Noticed

While I was posting to the imdb boards for Criminal Intent (yes, I know! for shame! I like the lowbrow and take the low road from time to time), I got to thinking about how I have never liked any fctional Serena I've come across on tv (OTOH--Williams and Altschul, you girls are fine):

Exhibit 1:


Name: Serena Southerlyn

Portrayer: Elisabeth Rohm

Reason for Hateration: Being so stiff and horrible that she was officially christianed "The Rohmbot" by The Internet (originating from TWoP).

Real Not-So Rational Reason for Hateration: She was the first blond A.D.A. in a history of brunettes (Richard Brooks, Jill Hennessey, Carey Lowell, Angie Harmon).

Exhibit 2:



Name: Serena Celia Van Der Woodson

Portrayer: Blake Lively

Reason for Hateration: In a nutshell: she has a case of marble mouth, is an adultress, slept with her best friends boyfriend; is not very bright (she thought she killed someone....when she really just witnessed them accidentally overdose). Instead of making things happen, things happen for her -- a huge sin in fiction and literary terms.

Real Not-So Rational Reason For Hateration: She's not as awesome or as interesting as Blair.

Exhibit 3:




Name: Serena Stevens

Portrayer: Saffron Burrows

Reason for Hateration: Cold, stiff, and lifeless. Her main entrance began with this line: "I respect the heriarchy." Did I mention she's fun at parties?

Real Not-So Rational Reason (s) for Hateration: She and Nichols horned in on the Goren and Eames going away episode, angering many fans; she's not as awesome or as interesting as Eames, Wheeler.....or even Falachi.


In summeration, televisions Serenas are all a comely bunch, long limbed for the most part, but just missing that vital 'something' or 'it'. All in all, if you name your fictional character Serena, be forewarned.

"The thing whole thing about fashion is that everybody wants that one moment where they look fabulous, they feel fabulous, when they step out of that limousine, when they make that entrance, when they slap that man's face, where everything is perfect.... it's about going for that one 'fuck you' moment, and we are all relentlessly trying to get it."

-Veronica Webb in Catwalk (1996)



I finally watched Catwalk. After years of trying to find it, I found it on youtube. It's akin to watching a french new wave film as we follow golden girl and Prom Queen of the modeling world Christy Turlington from show to show, Paris to New York -- it's largely plotless, but engaging nonetheless. I felt like I was actually a 90's era model catwalking and bouncing from one job to the next. Turlington doesn't exactly make for a completely engaging subject -- she's largely congenial and passive, but she doesn't need to be 100% engaging because there's so much going on and so much to see.

It's worth it just to get a taste of the golden era of modeling. For instance, we get to watch as Christy negotiates and schemes with her agent (on a car phone) to get her in and out of a show as quickly as possible, skipping the crucial dress rehearsal. We see her maybe not- so- inadvertently stir up some minor shit with Veronica Webb and Kate Moss to pass the time whilst waiting for the Versace show to start up; we get mildly uncomfortable with her as a make-up artist voices his open hatred for the magazine he's working for. We face palm with her as a young Helena Christiansen keeps putting her foot in her mouth as she continually and unintentionally insults Sharon Stone. These juicy tidbits are enough to satisfy from scene to scene.

All in all, I give it ***1/2 out of *****

P.S. Carla Bruni and Kate Moss are absolutely adorable in this. We also curiously see very little of Linda Evangelista for some reason.

So I'm Back.....

^Shout it from the rooftops Sasha P!

About a month ago, my gmail was hacked by spammers, and I got so frustrated with google, gmail and the whole shebang that I just threw in the towel and deleted my account. Little did I know that when I deleted my account, every picture I ever upload to blogger was deleted too. Arrgh! Stupid me! If you scroll back further, you will notice that there will be sad, blank placeholders where photos used to be. I am currently attempting to re-upload everything I can, so it may take a while until things make sense again. When it all went down, I immediately registered a new google identity so I could keep up the blog. I made a couple of posts, but I soon got so overwhelmed with my missing pictures and my lack of time, that I just closed the whole blog down. :-(

So this month, I opening my blog to the public again, and like a beautiful phoenix rising from the ashes (except not really) I will try to pick up the pieces and restore this blog to its former glory. No one hardly reads it, it wasn't much, but it was something dammit! And I spent hours on it!

Plus I miss having a place to rant and share pictures. Facebook is good, but my mom, whole family, aunts, uncles, basically everyone but my granny is on it. I just feel the need to vent and rage about certain topics - models, the fashion industry, random life musings, tv shows, movies - without hearing "it's just a dress/movie/show etc." And also, I know barely anyone in my real life actually wants to hear about what a genius pairing Tom Ford/Gucci was back in the day. So yes....I am back, and I will be hitting it harder than ever. Hopefully.

I Miss Old U.S. Vogue....

Shalom Harlow, by Steven Meisel, U.S. Vogue, October 1994

Remember the days of Shalom and Amber? When Isaac Mizrahi was still relevant? I don't, but sometimes I wish I did. Why did U.S. Vogue have to turn to shit once I came of age?

P.S. If you're a fan of fashion of the 90's , you simply must click on that link. It's seriously one of the best documentaries about fashion ever made. Also, Linda Evangelista is so horribly bratty in it you either want to shake her or love her.

Be Forewarned: The Following Post Contains Snide Bitchery (Yes, another CI Post)

I finally watched a new episode of CI just to see what I am missing, and wow.....apparently I am missing a whole lot of half-baked plots, dark, plodding atmosphere, and overall mediocrity. I went into it with an open mind, I didn't want to be one of those angry CI fans that refuses to move on -- anger requires a lot of energy. I'd rather spend it on other more worthy pursuits.....like drooling over Alexander Skarsgard.

Anyway, God and Insects wasn't completely horrible, the plot was a little far-fetched and stretched thin (especially with the Iraq war angle), the cliche of sending Stevens posing as an escort and coming back to the applause of the squadroom was cringe-worthy in its cliche-ness, but overall, it wasn't anything especially bad or wonderful either. So I give "2010 and beyond CI" ** out of ***** stars.

One of the things I ruminated over while watching it, is how much I like Mary Elisabeth Mastriantonio and the gentle grace she delivers as the captain -- this just stood in stark contrast to the fact that I don't love Nichols and Stevens as a team. I feel they lack the chemistry of Goren and Eames, as well as Benson/Stabler, Briscoe/Logan. Hell, they are not even on par with Falachi/Logan as far as I'm concerned. I think it's more a yin/yang opposites issue, since Stevens and Nichols tend to be like-minded. It's like having nothing but salt/salt, and this show is in desperate need of some pepper to spice things up and makes things interesting.

Another thing that is bothering me: I was reading another blog last week, and we were all bemoaning the loss of Eames, when another poster butted in and suggested that maybe, just maybe USA didn't think the show was "pretty" enough -- suggesting that they swapped Erbe for Burrows for these very reasons. I have to disagree. For all of the age talk, Erbe at 43 is not that much older than Burrows at 38, and also.......am I the only one who yelled out "Damn Africa what happened?! upon seeing Saffron not long ago? She used to be SO beautiful, and I don't know if she actually had plastic surgery, but obviously something is going on, and I am not sure what it is, and I don't think I want to know.

Alas, all of this bitching and mean-girling still does not bring back my favorite pocket-sized detective....

^She looked so lovely and regal, I had to screencap it from my crappy megavideo stream of Loyalty II

So yeah, not into Burrows/Stevens. Which leads me to another rant: I'm not into Nichols either. Nichols just seems a little too old school (and not in a good way) for my tastes. Like they transplanted him from the 70's or something. I remember in one episode from last year, he kept referring to a victim as "that black kid". Now, I'm not exactly crying racism, but it just brought me back to that episode where Goren and Eames are talking to an overprivileged witness and had this little exchange:

Random Girl: He was you know... really black.

Goren: You mean like obsidian?

That my friends, is the difference between Goren and Nichols. Whereas Goren is weirdly cool, Nichols is just....odd and old school. Plus, I prefer the working class backgrounds of Goren and Eames (here I go again with my Goren/Eames love...and I said I wasn't biased anymore! Pfft!) Plus, even when he was fat, Vincent D'Onofrio still brought the quiver. Goldblum? Sure, the laughs and fun, but the quiver? Uh...no.

So that was my experience with the Goldblumized CI. I still think they messed up big time, and I feel that Burrows is all wrong for the show. If they were going to incorporate her, they should have had her as the posh, slightly sexy new A.D.A. instead of a cop. Stevens is still a coldfish at this point, maybe they'll flesh her out, maybe they won't. Maybe Saffron will get better. Maybe she won't. In the mean time, Nichols is still missing a proper counterpart, someone to make him bearable. But really, Burrows is just more wrong, piled on top of a TON of wrong.

Do You Think it's Exausting to be this Beautiful?: A Well Groomed Picspam of Olivia Palermo and Cheryl Cole

I wonder how much these two spend on false eyelashes and hair extensions in a year. Also, I would maim, kill, or take Carine Roitfelds name in vain for either of their wardrobes

These two beg the question: theoretically in our society, can anyone be beautiful (YMMV) and famously admired if they just wear the right clothes, apply the right make-up, and eat the right things?

Cindy!

I'm just speechless. She looks amazing. This is MUCH better than her other more recent shoots for U.S. Harpers, and Paris Vogue.
Speaking of U.S. Harpers,
Glenda Bailey,
If you are google alerting listening, I love you, but you need to get with the program already; this is stale as hale. You could be more, but I feel you are not living up to your potential. Don't listen to the haters, 'cause let's face it, they gonna hate, but I still think you are better than anything U.S. Vogue has to offer. Yes, after all these years, you still do it for me. But photographing Kate Moss through vasaline and gaussian blur and making her look blander than day old, unsweetened oatmeal is making it harder to support your cause. Also, why did you inflict those homely Twilight kids on us? I became increasingly concerned when gave Miley Cyrus a cover. Please come back to me, I know we can work this out.

Love,Whitters But enough of my bitching, check out the pretty, it's all so Herb Ritts-y and hot:



Janice Dickinson resemblance, no?