the laughing heart

your life is your life

don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is a light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvelous
the gods wait to delight
in you.

-- Charles Bukowski


for the love of Jean Paul Gaultier

To be perfectly honest, it wasn't until I visited The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts this summer to view The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk exhibit that I truly appreciated and understood the mastery that is JP Gaultier. It was always the Galliano and McQueen shows that stole my easily distracted attention, gripping onto it until anti-Semitism, depression and/or addiction leading to suicide, got in the way of eternal genius (RIP McQueen).


Having seen the Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty exhibit at the MET in NYC post viewing The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier at the MMFA in Montreal - I would say they were comparable in excellence. Both provided imaginative interactivity for the viewer to engage and become a part of the fashion/art (interchangeable) collection. Not only as a viewer was I able to experience and praise the dedication of craftmanship and pure genius behind each collection, but also identity with be enthralled by the passionate emotion behind the complexity of obstacles and struggle of beauty that goes hand-in-hand with being a prodigy (more so directed to the Savage Beauty exhibit, obviously... which I saw more recently = more fresh in my mind).


Please excuse the camera-phone images that don't nearly justify the beauty on the other side of the lens, but regardless, the exhibit was a sensation.

The mannequins had projected images of realistic human facial features and expressions, as they blinked, winked, starred, laughed and spoke, lip-syncing to voice recorders playing in the background - which I'd estimate for every ten clips of French, maybe one of English would play - my one and only grievance.

The infamous cone bra created for Madonna's 1990 Blonde Ambition Tour.

The following themes were the focus of the exhibition:

The Boudoir.

Skin deep.

Punk CanCan. 

Urban Jungle.

Metropolis.

“I think the way people dress today is a form of artistic expression. Saint Laurent, for instance, has made great art. Art lies in the way the whole outfit is put together. Take Jean Paul Gaultier. What he does is really art,” said Andy Warhol (Mondo Uomo, 1984).

x

There’s a secret magic past world that you only notice when you’re looking back at it

#nowplaying Rocky Votalato  - White Daisy Passing

Fashion Squad

Carolina Engman is such a stunner. J'adore this ensemble. 

 

Style Icon - Joanna Hillman

I lust over the style of Joanna Hillman, Senior Fashion Market Editor for Harper's Bazaar. She is Toronto-born, studied Art History at the University of Western Ontario (just like me!), and worked for three years at Teen Vogue as the Senior Fashion Market Director. She's both a fashion inspiration and incredible success story. Her signature red lips and Wayfarers are charming and timeless. If I could go closet-raiding - Joanna Hillman's closet would be top of the list.

Hey look, it's us (with Peroni) on She does the City. 

"Apparently the best place to meet a good looking woman with impeccable taste this week was at the Joe Fresh show. Here are a half-dozen that had us turning our heads in Heritage Court."

LG Fashion Weak, Spring 2011

As tradition holds, my most fashionable friend and I ventured to the Heritage Centre, Exhibition Place to catch Toronto's trendiest @ LG Fashion Week, Spring 2011 Collections last night. This year's cliched theme: The Style of Power - A clever switch from last season's The Power of Style... are we already running out of creative fuel in our 12th year?

Unlike last year we arrived fashionably early and caught Rachel Mara's Spring line, "Stolen." The Winnipeg native delivered a collection of flouncy silk and stripes. Wearable and boring. However, I was kept on my toes with the tunes, impressed with the choices: Hot Topic Le Tigre, Gold Guns Girls Metric and Mass Romantic The New Pornographers.

My whole love for fashion sparked with the sheer theatricality of John Galliano and his bizarro themes oozing outlandish creativity. I adore the shock factor, the artistic boundaries forever extended beyond anything you could have ever imagined and nothing more beautiful and more impossible to perceive or deem realistic, and yet it's a real life dream come true - impossible turns itself inside out and into the form of a Christian Dior runway show. Mara's collection was lovely sure, but it's no reason to fall in love at a fashion show, not for me at least. 

The main event of the evening was Mr. Joe Fresh, however, we opted to get caricatures sketched and our makeup did at the L'Oreal hair and makeup station, instead. Oh and a photograph with Ken.

After the show we made our way over to Parts & Labour for DIScONNECT: A MEDIUM EXPERIMENT.


It went something like this:


PLEASE NOTE: THIS EVENT IS INVITE ONLY HOT ON THE HEELS OF CURRENT TREND, FASHION VIDEOS ARE NOW MORE FLUID THAN EVER. PHOTOGRAPHERS REALIZE THEIR ROLE AS 'DIRECTOR' BUT INSTEAD OF A SCRIPT FOR ACTORS, IT IS A WHOLISTIC SCRIPT FOR GREATER ELEMENTS TO COME TOGETHER AND INTERPRET DESIGNS AND LINES IN UNIQUE WAYS THAT MAKE YOU, THE VIEWER, WANT TO EXPERIENCE LIFE ON A HIGHER PLANE. THIS IS OUR 'DISCONNECT'--OUR INABILITY TO ACHIEVE SOMETHING OUTSIDE OF WHAT IT PRESENTED. CLOTHING, TEXTURE, DESIGN, LINES, LACK THEREOF--WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN? DOES IT MEAN ANYTHING AT ALL? FASHION, SO LONG CONSIDERED FRIVOLOUS, EXCESSIVE, MEANINGLESS...SO WE CHALLENGE OUR PHOTOGRAPHERS, THE EYES OF TORONTO FASHION, TO STEP OUTSIDE OF THEIR MEDIUM OF RECOGNITION AND INTO FILM AND CREATE MOVING IMAGES THAT CONVEY THE THEME OF 'DISCONNECT' WHILE INFUSING THE FASHION ELEMENTS THAT DRIVE THE INDUSTRY. AND WE INVITE YOU, THE VIEWER, TO STEP OUTSIDE OF THE FAMILIAR AND EXPERIENCE 5 SHORT FASHION FILMS, INTERPRETING THIS THEME BY: MIGUEL JACOBMAXIME BOCKENRENATA KAVEH MOO KING & CARLY BANGS WITH PERFORMACE BY TRUST @ PARTS & LABOUR || 1566 QUEEN STREET W || TORONTO ON || WED OCTOBER 20 2010 ||  S | TART: 10:00 PM SC | REENING: 10:30 PM TRUST | PER | FORMS: 11:00 PM EN | D: 12:00 AM  IN | FO P&L


Since I ranted on my lust for Mr. Galliano - here's a glimpse of the first runway show I fell in love with via this masterful genius.