Blogging Peripheral Project Runway:The Malan Show E2

I love, love, love this man more than I can say.

He is so refined and patient and kind and exquisite and almost like a beautiful flower under a glass bell in the middle of a war zone. He has the poetic lyricism and grace of Charlie Chaplin.

He reminds me of that song by Sting that I choreographed back in the day called " Englishman in New York". As a matter of fact THAT should be the theme song for the show.

I almost cried because the the St. Saens, because that is just ...perfect

Here is the clip:

New Polyvores...And Studio 54

Those are literaly the clothes and accesories I have in my closet

And that would be a pretty accurate representation of what people wore in the heyday of 54, before Rubell went to the big house and then went on to open the other NYC institution that was The Palladium...
Here is an article from the NY Times about Rubell and when he died. Mike Myers did KICK ASS job playing him in "54"...

July 25, 1990
About New York;
Nights of Glitz, A Velvet Rope And Memories
By DOUGLAS MARTIN
LEAD: Today is the first anniversary of the death of 45-year-old Steve Rubell, that loquacious scamp who made his mark by being in the right place at the right time in a town where that is often all that matters.

Today is the first anniversary of the death of 45-year-old Steve Rubell, that loquacious scamp who made his mark by being in the right place at the right time in a town where that is often all that matters.

Nobody has felt the loss more than Ian Schrager, Mr. Rubell's best friend and business partner. ''The only time I didn't see Steve was when I was sleeping,'' Mr. Schrager said of 25 years of his 44-year-old life. ''Steve and I were the greatest love story since Cleopatra.''

The two Brooklyn natives founded Studio 54, that cocaine-dusted epicenter of Manhattan glitz. They went to jail in 1980 for 13 months when their innovative accounting - ''cash-in, cash-out and skim'' in Mr. Rubell's memorable phrase - was discovered. They emerged unable to secure a checking account, much less a credit card, and proceeded to climb to the heights of the hotel business - opening the trendy Morgan and new Royalton hotels.

Now, Mr. Schrager is finishing one of their final collaborations, the Paramount hotel at 235 West 46th Street, scheduled to open in three weeks. ''I feel a little naked,'' he said.

But not so naked that he isn't using all manner of ploys to focus attention on the Paramount - including mailing 25,000 toothbrushes to travel agents. It occurred to Mr. Schrager that a newspaper columnist might listen to his recollections of the man who barred the King of Cyprus from Studio 54 ''because he looked like somebody from Queens.''

He said so many people have died along with Mr. Rubell - Andy Warhol, Halston, Roy Cohn are on the list - that a genre is now extinct. ''There's zero night life in New York now,'' the surviving pasha of disco mourned. ''We're trying to jump-start it at this hotel.''

The interview was conducted in a Paramount room furnished in a quirky, surrealistic manner. (A Cyclops eye in the television cabinet emits light, giving the eerie illusion that the TV watches you.) This agile entrepreneur veered between the personal and the promotional. He spoke of a private ceremony planned for the next day, last Friday, at a Long Island cemetery to unveil Mr. Rubell's simple black-granite tombstone with the inscription ''the quintessential New Yorker.'' His family had recoiled at Mr. Schrager's idea that a squirt of public-relations pizazz - something resembling the funeral with Bianca, Calvin, etc. - might hit the spot.

''I would have liked to have had a little bit of show, like I think Steve would have wanted,'' Mr. Schrager said. This is a switch, at least in the public eye. Mr. Schrager was Mr. Inside, the backstage idea maven who never once danced at Studio 54. Mr. Rubell, by contrast, stood behind a velvet rope and separated couples, even mothers and daughters, as he tried to concoct the spiciest human stew.

''I quite frankly was embarrassed by some of that selection process,'' acknowledged Mr. Schrager. ''It smelled like elitism.''

But Mr. Schrager grasped the magic of Mr. Rubell's practiced sociability soon after they met as students at Syracuse University. Mr. Rubell had maneuvered into the coveted role of student-seating czar at the football-crazy school. In the same vein, Mr. Schrager hailed him as ''mayor of the jail'' when they were later in an Alabama penitentiary together.

But Mr. Schrager has been a one-man show for a year, though he still says ''Steve and me.'' It has been his lot to convince partners, bankers, customers and now the middle-class clientele he seeks at the sprawling Paramount that he is a winner all by himself.

The full verdict isn't in, though hotel profits last year rose and his partners have agreed to raise their stakes, he says. Tourism here is dropping. ''I thrive on the challenge,'' he said.

But he admits that it isn't as much fun. Mr. Schrager remembered the exhilaration with which the two would attack a project. ''We were like Spanky and Alfalfa.''

There was an incredible closeness. ''We were like husband and wife,'' he said.

Now there is that last conversation with his dying buddy bouncing around his mind. ''I don't need a pep talk,'' Mr. Rubell said wearily. Mr. Schrager watched an electronic monitor as vital signs ebbed to nothing.

Though hepatitis was the official cause, there have been suggestions that Mr. Rubell died of AIDS complications. Mr. Schrager says he has thought about that. He is convinced his best friend would have told him.

The last year, Mr. Schrager says, has been a maze. One thing that has helped him through it are colorful, though sometimes bittersweet memories. He laughs heartily when recalling how Steve Rubell had answered an important Federal prosecutor (important to them, in particular) asking if he was the kind of person who would be let past the velvet rope.

''Not a chance,'' Mr. Rubell said.


I wanted to called this one "Valentine's Day Massacre", because of the little bullet necklace and gun earrings and "Love kills slowly" belt. The message is that a lot of hearts get broken and dead on Valentine's day. Hope goes up, hope goes down, feelings get hurt, people get jaded and get a sense of humour...

This set shows clothes and accesories made by famous alumn of my dream school Central St. Martins in London. Represented on it are Stella McCartney, Giles Deacon, Henry Holland, Phoebe Philo( for Chloe), Alexander McQueen, Paul Smith, Luella Bartley, Gareth Pugh, Zac Posen, John Galliano and Sophia Kokosalaki. See why I belong there?

This one is about the life, work and influence of one of my favourite designers, Stephen Sprouse. Sprouse was Blondie's roomate in New York back in the day. He apprenticed with Halston. He could never get his own label of the ground despite more talent and skills and connections than anyone like ever. He hung out at the previously mentionned Palladium, and that is where he hooked up with Andy Warhol and his posse. He was really close to Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Harring who both were victims of the early (*Reagan*) days of the AIDS epidemic in NYC. My heart broke when I saw their names on the AIDS quilt.
Sprouse then went on to do capsule lines for Barney's and Bergdorf's and around 9/11,for Target.
He also went on to do a MEGA famous collaboration with Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton were the super-waitlisted graffiti bags sold like pancakes.
I think that Marc Jacobs is the current designer that shows the most Sprouse influence. I see glimpses of Stephen Sprouse in Marc Jacob's work very often, particularly in the Marc by Marc Jacobs line.

This one is about the medical profession and field and how most women in medicine and science look like frumpy spinsters or like s&M porn movie governesses/executives (before they discard their clothes. Seldom ever are they that attractive. for some reason science seems to attract people with low self-esteem) at best or like filthy hippies or snorting nerds at worst.
I have to actually "uglify" myself when around other women in science or medicine, so they don't turn on me like the hyenas on baby Simba.
But this goes to show that you can be a doc or scientist and hip, hot, plus size, cool and don't have to take yourself too seriously. Shit, you are constantly dealing with death and disease, for fuck's sake...

This one is a tribute to the work and influence of another of my favourite designers, Dame Vivienne Westwood. It shows stuff from her Sex Pistols period, her love for tartan and everything Scottish, her impeccable tailoring and draping virtuosity, and her influence on other designers such as Philip Treacy, Thomas Wylde and Alexander McQueen.
I hope you love these. Each and every outfit can be worn brilliantly by women of any size and a lot of them are actually plus-size items.
Fashionably yours,
Milla aka Dr. Fashion

Blogging Project Runway: News and Tickety-Tack and Femenine Hygiene

News from the Project Runway front:

There will be no new show until February 6th.

At that time there will be a show involving the Divas of the WWE... Yes, you guys you heard me well. They are having an episode focusing on skanky wrestling hoes.

I think that this is an all time bottom for Project Runway and next they are going to go to Fantasy Foxx (on Mansfield Hwy, Ft. Worth, TX) or House of Babes on I-35 South by where Kelly Clarkson's parents live, to find their next set of fashionistas for a challenge.

Geezus....

The only piece of advice I have for them is to not go into the dressing rooms without a can of Febreeze or they are going to toss their cookies. Unless they enjoy decomposing seafood....Purell after measuring them would not hurt either.

Here is a preview....

Which means that the final show is not going to show until AFTER NY Fashion Week is over with and there will either be a double elimination or a decoy collection or both.

On other fronts it looks like Victorya with a Y as in byatch is showing at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week separately from the Project Runway designers.

I will keep blogging and will report any emerging developments...

Love,

Milla

Blogging PR Blogs: Come on Vogue!

I read all of the fashion and Project Runway blogs in the blogosphere: Project Rungay, Manolo The Shoe Blogger's, Jay McCarroll's, The Sartorialist... on and on.

I know, my obsession borders on the pathological, but all people who have a dream are that way.

Jay's (which is kind of eccentric but worth waiting for) mentionned the other day the documentary "Paris is Burning" in reference to the way Christian Siriano (aka Chicken) acts sometimes. That whole "Fierce, Big Deal, Shashay-Shantee" way of acting is a whole culture and tradition on its own. A tradition started as a scream of rebellion and self-assertion by black gay men in NYC. And it grew and transpired into the mainstream with people like RuPaul

and Madonna.

A tradition in which I have been steeped since the 80's.

I think that because I think and feel and process things like a gay man, gay men flock to me and love me and feel secure with me, because they know that with me they are going to find understanding and unconditionnal love. After all, me being born with the right hormonal combo and breasts and female reproductive organs to make me a girl was due only to a toss of the coin and my mother's wishful thinking. Otherwise I would BE a Mexican-German Chris March. There is no doubt about that. I think I am the only woman in the world who has gotten into a cat fight/reading with a drag queen about who looked more "real". I have breasts and a vagina and have given birth and have my period. I am real for fuck sake. But that is how surreal and how steeped in gay culture I am. Geezus, I think that 75% of time, if a man was attracted to me, he was either gay male-minded ( there are gay male-minded straight males and females like me) or came out as 100% gay in the next year.

And being that I already experienced tremendous rejection and ostracism because I was a girl and not blue-eyed and chubby and weird, me coming out a gay man would have made my life in upper-middle class Mexico City unbearable. I seriously don't think I would have made it to 21. So I think God granted my mother's future prayer and made me a girl because he means for me to do something extraordinary in this world. I needed to live past my teen years. And I did barely.

I fled Mexico in 1987 for college in Fort Worth, Texas of all places.

And there I found my people. I was a Dance major. Seriously. A 170 pound ballet major. And I was AWESOME at that. They gave me hell and buried me in eating disorders and emotionally abused me until I broke.

But the gay boys just gravitated to me as if they were bees and I was the most beautiful rose ever. And I started going to gay bars and balls and drag shows and parties and I started Vogueing and I was in Heaven because for the first time in my life I felt like I was accepted and celebrated as I am. I became a minor gay icon on my own right. A mini-Madonna, or Cher or Lady Miss Kier or something.

I lived a small, Texas version of that life. In Dallas and Fort Worth.

Since then some of my friends from back then have died. An unusual amount at an unusually young age. Suicide, murder, od's, sexual assaults... things most people in the "square world" think are are far removed from their universe. Plenty of HIV positive diagnoses in my corner of the woods. The ones of us who have made it to the ripe old age of 40 are doing ok, barring the usual curve balls that life has thrown our way. But even with all that, we still had it good. I mean, we were the cusp of artsy bohemia and rebellion ( for freaking North Texas..lol), but we were college-educated kids that came from middle class families. Ours was the tragic and infamous house of Alpha Gamma (which meant Artistic Geniuses) of which I was the founder and Mother. Our way of mocking the obnoxious Greek system that dominated social life in Universities in North Texas.

I was watching the "Paris is Burning" movie last night and I wonder what has happened to the people in it since. There were kids in there living "La Vida Fabulous" who were freaking 13! Puerto Rican and Black kids mostly. Poor kids mostly. Kids with no parents or who were better off without the parents they had. That is why they formed their own gay "houses/families" like St. Laurent and Ninja and Xtravaganza and Labeija.

I wonder what happened and what became of all those people. I mean, some of those kids stole and turned tricks on a regular basis to eat.

I mean it is HARD in this world when you are different or a minority in one way. But when it layers and layers and layers.... I mean I am Mexican and fat and woman and gay-minded and life has been a constant struggle and battle and roller-coaster.

I can only imagine what it is like to be gay and black and struggling with poverty since childhood.

Why is it that in this world we allow intolerance and prejudice and oppression to continue to go on? Why is it that life is made into some sort of epic odysee for those of us who happen to not fit the white-straight-square-middle class mold?

Why is the crime of social conformity and oppression still being perpetrated on so many?

Almost 20 years and things have changed some. But not much.

More Polyvores...This thing is ADDICTIVE!

New Polyvores....

Blogging Project Catwalk: It's Raining Men, Halleluiah!

I got my hands on another installment of Project Catwalk, the UK version of Project Runway.

This is the third episode and there are alot of similarities with the last week's episode of Project Runway.

In US Project Runway, the designers had to use an American apparel staple, the Levi's jean and jean jacket and give it a new spin. They had to use branding elements of these garments, and produce something suitable for semi-mass production, since Risky's New Jersey mall/Valley Girl hoochie dress sold out in a matter of minutes. There is no accounting for taste, and it's a proof of the power of marketing. And the thing only ran up to a size 10. So, that is also evidence of an eating disorders epidemic . I am sure they just made a few 100's of each size though. And also that skinniness and money wasting are related because they charged 168 bucks for a dress that you can get at any thrift store. Thus my hypothesis that there might be a correlation between extreme thinness and lack of common sense. Poor girls, they are not getting enough glucose and proteins for their brains to function properly. That does not apply to my naturally petite and modelesque friends though. They are brill.

In the UK version, they had to give a new spin to the classic Mackintosh coat.The challenge was WAY fairer in the UK version. They were told from the onset that it was going to be used for mass market. They were told that it had to fit within the vision of the brand. Not some bullshit vague direction about "iconic" garments.

I love trench coats but any jacket or coat is a BITCH to make because fit is crucial, they require quite advanced pattern making and sewing skills and proper tailoring is key.

And those my friends, are my Achilles heels. I have been sewing for about a year and I am on my 4th garment. My 3rd was a tailored couture jacket. That is like going from a 3rd grade science project to being asked to produce a new treatment for Alzheimer's disease, fully tested and boxed and ready to sell.

Or like going from playing "Chopsticks" on the piano to playing Chopin or Rachmaninoff. With nothing in the middle.

But NOTHING scares me. I am a kamikaze mofo. I have always been that way.

I can design until the cows come home, but my hands and technical understanding have to catch up to my taste level and vision and theoretical knowledge. Frustrating and not easy considering I have a learning disability called dyscalculia that makes the principles of pattern-making hard to understand and master. But I am getting there. My sewing skills? Those are just going to take patience and practice to improve. I am getting better all the time.

But the thing is that the lady who got eliminated, a completely wacky and over-confident and non-introspective chick named Debbie Debonaire, basically the Wendy Pepper of that incarnation of the show, has my EXACT same problem.

She is a good designer and she has a fun aesthetic and all of those things. But she cannot pattern make to save her life and she has "construction issues". Poor Ben De Lissi was doing the same thing my Mardell ( my friend and design partner) and my teacher Roxie have to do for me. Fix my messes. And explain basic things to me. Really, fill in huge gaps but what can I do? I am learning as fast as I can. They are both really strong construction people. But when it comes to design and vision I be the mamma. I can actually come up with stuff that has not been seen before. And that is innately beautiful and cool and on the pulse of what is hot.

That is why I have not tried out for the show. Because I know that if I got on the show on my design strength, I would be auffed within two weeks because of my deficits as a seamstress/tailor. I am basically a novice stitcher. If they allowed teams or duos in, we would SO be there.

But the highlight of the show, ladies and gentlemen who like packages, is at the end :-)
Fashion has its rewards...

But without further due, here is the show...:

Blogging Project Runway: Blue Jean, I Just Met a Girl Named ...

Todays episode really started out and finished by putting me through a total Labyrinth of emotions. Firstly, it really pissed me off because my super duper favourite model this season, the most awesome and cool and brave Marie, my ballerina- punk- goddess -from -Texas kindred spirit, got auffed. BOLLOCKS!!!! I HATE that!

So, Cream-filled Berliner tells the designers that they are going on a field trip and Sir Tim ( my future husband/Svengali) takes the designers to some warehouse on a pier across the Brooklyn bridge. There they meet some lady that I've never heard of before and please let me introduce you to a new song Jay McCarroll wrote that will save me from explaining, and that shall be referred to from now on forward as "song , all toghether now...":

product
placement
product product product product
placement

product
placement
product product product product
placement
yeah!

(repeat chorus 7 million times until your brain bleeds)

So, the lady is the VP of something or another at Levi's and what they have in the nasty, filthy ass warehouse are gajillions of Levi's 501 jeans, jean jackets and some plain cotton yardage ( basically muslin) and that is what they have to make an iconic look out of.

Sounds good in principle. I actually love denim. But working from existing garments and on top of it having to BRAND everything with the notions provided by the ( *advertiser*) nice Levi's lady... Ewww...( Note : Project Runway, I love you. Lots. But you having W W advertising on your website and canoodling with the WL milkshake people* , the reason for "What's the Skinny" challenge, is really grossing me out, you can fool some peeps some of the time but not someone who works in advertising).

Many unexpected things happened on the runway this week. Ch, Ch, Ch , Ch.. Changes... But without further due let the Fashion speak for itself...

Darling Sissybear

I actually really liked this look and disagreed with the judges putting it in the bottom three. The construction is actually interesting and palatable. I would personally have tried to be innovative and used a longer hemline. I am growing tired of short dresses, but otherwise this is a cool little dress.

Risky (ARRRRGGHHHHH)

I CANNOT bloody believe this dress won! Barring that it fit well, there was nothing new or iconic in that dress. I have seen strippers in Texas wear that dress around the floor at an asspit ( stripper vernacular for titty bar). It was NOTHING to write home about. This dress screamed bottom three. Risky must be doing some (one) thing to stay on this long, to win this challenge and to have the judges creamy over this thing.

TAG Riff Raff Rami who just proved to me that Palestinian queens do indeed swoosh when they walk... He can shake that sweet boothey fo'sho.

Ok, so the construction is incredibly interesting and like his Orange Crushness himself once said "This is quite soigne". It is. It is tailored and sophisticated and refined. Innovative? Nope. Yet again another short dress/skirt thing. But I really liked the use of zippers in the pipping (hello Jeffrey Sebellia, how's it going? Miss ya babe!), the neckline and how he played with proportion. And his model, Golly, geezus, that girl is just mezmerizing. If anyone is going to be a breakout star this season, it should be this girl and someone should offer her a cover.

Victorya with a Y

Come on girl... You can do better than this. Like I said before, I could have done this. Seriously. And on top of it the execution is sloppy. Well-deserved elimination for Queen Bitch. Absolute Beginner, no doubt.

Sweet P

This is actually beautiful and well-executed. Sweet P keeps redeeming herself and getting better every week. The graphic effect she achieved with the different washes of denim is remarkable. Very impressionist and cool. I am SO glad she listened to Sir Tim and edited her design. I actually loved this. As I said, Sweet P works well Under Pressure.

Magenta/ Jillian

Basically, the same coat as last week, except... not as good. And held up toghether with glue! And I kind of hate the "epaulettes/stripes" logos thingies. They feel gratuitous. And for the love of God girl, we ALL get hurt and bleed like stabbed pigs when sewing under time constraints. Stop being such a baby about it. This look definitely did not give me "The Hunger" of the one last week. Just another "futuristic" Space Oddity.

Chicken ( Polly Pocket/ Princess Puffysleeves/ Ferosh-ious )

This to me was yet again the winning look. Chicken keeps bringing on innovative ideas and absolutely mind-blowing tailoring and construction skills. This boy has VISION. Those jeans, people will be on waiting lists for from here to Tokyo to Amsterdam to Warsaw. The jacket is new and fresh and sexy and sharp. Chicken yet again managed to blow the competition away.Chicken, you are my hero forever and ever...

So for now, I have to chase the Moonage Dream. This Rebel Rebel is going to bed... Until next week...Let's Dance!

*I edited the entry, blog title and about me section because it was triggering WL adsense adds. THE LAST thing I want is WL companies advertising on my page...

Blogging Project Runway: My Darling Malan Breton

I met Malan Breton through myspace and we have developped a friendship and correspondence.

I can honestly say he is one of the most talented, exquisite, generous, creative and sensitive souls on this planet.

I love and respect and admire this man greatly and I consider myself blessed to have him among my close friends.

I am SO HAPPY for all his recent success and I look forward to seeing more of him and his work in the upcoming months.

This is a video he did about his recent work since he was on Project Runway and his preparations for his new store in NYC and NY Olympus Fashion Week.

Please listen to his story. There is much in it to be learnt.

I adore you Malan. Merde on Fashion Week!

My Polyvores

Blogging Project Runway: Fashion History 101 Primer

It is the second time I am watching or reading something that a Project Runway or Project Runway Canada contestant says or writes and I recoil in horror.

A few weeks back I wrote about a plus-size/skinny chick bathing suit challenge they had on Project Runway Canada. The eliminated designer, Kendra, had to make two bathing suits inspired by the fashions of Marie Antoinette's time.

She was going on about how she was doing this or that with EDWARDIAN fashion....

Ok... NEWSFLASH....

These are clothes from Marie Antoinette's time

Actually, this is her....

This is all from the end of the 18th Century, approximately 1770 through the French Revolution (1789).

This, on the other hand, IS Edwardian fashion which happened AFTER another popular period in fashion history, the VICTORIAN period. Edwardian is called that, because it was is the period 1901 to 1910, the reign of King Edward VII, who succeeded Queen Victoria on the throne of England.

Edwardian Fashion looked like this:

Or any of Kate Winstlet's costumes from "Titanic"

That is Edwardian.....

Now, Flapper is the..... 20's that's right.... and that is what it looks like:

In the 30's we had.....

and Schiaparelli and Vionnet.

We all know about the impact of Hollywood, Adrian, Edith Head and WWII had in the fashion of the 1940's which changed radically at the end of the war because of..... Yes, that is right children, Christian Dior's "New Look"

Which was followed by the fashions of the 50's, which we all know as "Grease" costumes...

The 60's started out with really cool stuff like coat and shift ensembles that Jackie Kennedy wore but then came mod and then Mary Quant and Biba and Zandra Rhodes and Ozzy Clark and Flower children and it all was downhill from there.

The 70's were cheesy and God awful and unremarkable except for the tail end of it and the Disco Era because of designers like Halston and Yves St. Laurent, Gucci and Giorgio St. Angelo.

Then came the 80's.... The 80's had good, bad, ugly and sublime. Probably the best era in fashion history since the ... yes, children since the 30's and 40's. Taste... you are LEARNING....

In the 80's there were ripped out sweatshirts with leather mini skirts and leg warmers. There were acid wash jeans. There were designer jeans like Calvin Klein and Jodache. There was neon. There were Power suits and shoulder pads.

And there was Montana and Mugler and Alaia. And Miyake and Comme and Yamamoto and De Castelbajac and Sprouse. I told you there was good and sublime...

And there was ..... yes, Alison Kelly, that's right, Vivienne Westwood. Vivienne Westwood started designing clothes in 1971 when she opened her first store, "Let it Rock" and then "Sex" in 1974 NOT in the 60's. BUT Vivienne Westwood had her FIRST fashion show in London in, yes children, 1981 and it was called, yes, that's right, the PIRATE collection, that was worn among many, by Bowie and Adam and the Ants. And me. I am one of the biggest Westwood collectors in the West Coast.

In the 90's there was the whole Marc Jacobs grunge scandal thingamajig and the rise and fall of Gucci with Tom Ford and Chanel under the Karl.

And then we are at now, the noughties.

I hope that helps.

Because it IRKS me to no avail when fashion designers say things that make my hairs stand up on their ends because they have NO CLUE about history or the history of their art.

Fashion history is one of my favourite things. Everyone else considers it the BORING subject in fashion design school. Being that I am a geek, I love it.

So next time, pay equal attention to the books. It might save you from looking like a fool on TV or a blog,