Navajo loco

Over here in Spain, there's a giant horseriding trend. It's marginally inherent in the dress - Spain has as much a history of cowboys as we do - and there's a large quantity of stores dedicated to traditional polo (the sport, not the brand) wear and many more who've taken those to the masses. They don't tout Spanish leather for nothing - stores and street markets run with tassled suede bags, saddle-clasp belts, and hundreds of woven bracelets. I've secured a gorgeous chesnut backpack and a red, white, and blue wallet, both relatively cheap and really well made. Zara, which is based in Spain, really took the heritage theme and ran with it this season, showing horse-printed blouses, tall buckled boots, jodhpurs (which I bought in creamy tan with a dark brown accent), and elbow-patched blazer in every pattern, material, and color. If all the super soft tan leather wasn't a danger enough, they've just updated their stores for winter with tons of Navajo-inspired knits and outerwear. I'm struggling not to spend the last of my money. Mango, also Spanish by birth, did it to a lesser degree (fewer trendy pieces, but better-made ones) and has me pining for shearling and this baby soft suede button down that I want to cry over.
I'm hoping to nab a fur vest before I leave, and possibly some shearling-lined heeled booties; tearfully, these prices JACK up in the States.

wool and faux fur vest: Zara. shearling and leather jacket, suede shirt: Mango ring: etsy.com

Revival - Lanvin for H&M

I'm trying to get this going again... it's not easy from here. the life of an abroad college student is just so trying...


I'll jump right in with Lanvin for H&M, which debuts today in stores and whose riotous runway took place a few days ago. Chandeliers, Anna Della Russo and a poodle (obsession), and little Alber looking as adorable as created a champagne ambiance - bubbly, sparkly, lighthearted. Everything we've come to expect from the ruler of cocktail-hour-dress compacted into a diffusion line. Personally, I might just avoid H&M altogether until everything is sold since I can't afford to spend the money on it but absolutely will be powerless to resist given an opportunity.
Here, some of the best shots of the show.

there was some seriously amazing makeup combinations. Some coordinated beautifully with the accessories, while others, especially the wide array of vivid lip colors, stood out solo.

note the great coordination of the teal lips, nails, and bracelets.

this only adds to my utter obsession with ADR. Of course appearing with some form of head wear, the poodle just adds to her signature eccentricity

Although Rolling Stone magazine is mostly mainstream and lame now, and not politically explosive like it used to be, every once in awhile it throws out a little fuck-the-man gem. Case in point:

Alexander Wang is definitely having a moment. I completely fell for his football/rugby inspired SS10 collection, as did basically everyone else. He's gone back to his urban sex roots for AW10, showcased in his first-ever collection video. The short film, which debuted on Style.com a few days ago, was shot by Craig McDean and stars Abbey Lee Kershaw as a coital-hurricane-tossed muse, roiling around in a slouchy, partially see-through little black number (that is totally serving its purpose because I want to be Abbey Lee Kershaw). The message comes loud and clear: Wang = the best. And maybe we all won't look quite as good as this video would have us believe, but we sure as hell will feel as cool.

arcade fire will rule the world

I'm sorry, I know this has been on hiatus but it's difficult to keep up in summer when the beach is calling my name far louder than the Internet does.That said... if there is one thing that can spark a revival, it's the new Arcade Fire album, the Suburbs. A friend secured the leak for me a few days before it's August 3rd debut and ever since it's been on repeat in my car, my iPod, my house... I can't get enough. Apparently, neither can the rest of the world; it hit #1 on the Billboard charts this week. Normally this might cause some uneasiness - nothing ruins a really great band quite like mainstream approval. However, if there's one band that can maintain their voice and style through popularity, it is definitely Arcade Fire.The Suburbs had considerable build-up for several reasons: one, the obvious excitement a new Arcade Fire album brings; their previous endeavors, Funeral especially, remain some of the greatest indie albums of our time. This leads to the second reason for pre-release hype: many questioned how a band that became successful for epic songs of mixed composition and unusual form could continue to be different when this would be third album in the same vein; that is, if their unusual production was what made them unique and this album was done in the same style, would it lose some of that uniqueness and become stale? But then, if they changed things up in an effort to be 'edgy', or rather, continue to be relevant, would they still be Arcade Fire? The mind, it baffles!

The circular logic was dizzying and, in the end, pointless. The Suburbs foray into lost childhood is poetic and poignant but never sappy or cliche. It twinges nostalgia with gentle, unobtrusive chords that progress into those stylistic Arcade Fire song-endings where the cymbals crash and the harmony swells and there is one final lyric and you feel it; it's that house you grew up in, uninhabited and holding nothing but memories of youthful optimism, now dampened by adult reality. Win Butler likes the word 'kids' (if there is any criticism of this album, it's the overuse of that word. and the word 'suburbs'.), and while Funeral was the youth's trumpet of setting forth into the world, The Suburbs is the wake-up call to their hibernating consciousness. The kids are all grown up, and they've figured out that things really aren't what they thought they'd be; shown with lyrics like "I feel I've been living in/ a city with no children in it/ a garden left for ruin by a billionaire inside of a private prison" from City With No Children or "strange how the half light/ can make a place new/ you can't recognize me/ and I can't recognize you" on Half Light I.
This leaves a depressing image, and if they had mirrored the music to match then the album would be almost unbearably sad. Yet it isn't; those swelling chord progressions and tapering, single-note outro/intros keep an optimistic energy flowing. Again, the wake-up call; all is not lost. There is realization of reality's emptiness on Modern Man and Rococo, a track that targets the naivete of intellectually condescending hipsters, and a thread of escapism from said empty life snakes it's way through the album via car imagery and the repeated line "in the suburbs I, I learned to drive/ and you told me we'd never survive/ grab your mothers keys we're leaving", which first appears in the opening song The Suburbs and then follows later in Suburban War. It's hopeful, and the generally uplifting beat keeps that alive.
Thus, despite the (supposed) potential for stagnation, the Arcade Fire delivered another epic album definitely worthy of the #1 standing. I would love to lavish more praise on it, but it is far better to just listen and understand. For streaming: www.myspace.com/arcadefireofficial

bringing it all back

Holy hell. The new Louis Vuitton ad is .... for once, leaving me speechless (well, not really). KAREN! Natalia! Christy! Perhaps three of my all-time favorite models, in one Steven Meisel ad. I'm drooling. There are opera gloves and square cut necklines and a backless floral and Karen's hair GOD I'm in love with this so many times over. Admittedly, there have been few things in the past 4-5 seasons that I've really found myself falling in love with. Dolce & Gabbana's and Alex Wang's AW 09 and SS 10. Lagerfeld using Doutzen and non-stick figure girls. Other than that.... natch. There hasn't been any heart. It's been, "How fast can we make something different and edgy and sell lots of it?", and then we end up with a year flash fads. Studs, rips, neon. Without the timelessness that true great fashion exudes.
Then I see this.
And then I smile again.
Bravo, girls and boy. Returning to what it's all about.

I will shamelessly admit I stole these photos, but whatever, they were too perfect to pass up

Happy America Day!
here are pictures of gourmet hotdogs to celebrate

Now go slam a Budweiser and wear some denim