more on aitor throup:

on brandish
on style
on dazed digital
on style skillng
on royal college of art
on fashion indie
on itsweb

everything is reminiscent of a dark fairytale out of the pages of Roald Dahl or Tim Burton.

i have never seen better.

aitor throup reminded me of two things i read quoted in Kinzer's All the Shah's Men

first, tenth-century Persian poet Ferdowsi in the Shahnameh (4x as long as the Iliad) recounting Arab conquerors looting Ctesiphon in 638:

Curse this world, curse this fate
That uncivilized Arabs have come to force me to be Muslim....

O Iran! Where are all those kings, who adorned you
With justice, equity and munificence, who decorated
You with pomp and splendor, gone?
From that date when the barbarian, saveage, coarse
Bedouin Arabs sold your king's daughter in the street
And cattle market, you have not seen a bright day, and
Have lain hidden in darkness

second, thirteenth-century mystic Jelaluddin Rumi rejecting orthodoxy:

I hold to no religion or creed,
am neither Eastern nor Western,
Muslim or infidel,
Zoroastrian, Christian, Jew or Gentile.
I come from neither land nor sea,
am not related to those above or below,
was not born nearby or far away,
do not live either in Paradise or on this Earth,
claim descent not from Adam and Eve or the Angels above.
I transcend body and soul.
My home is beyond place and name.
It is with the beloved, in space and beyond space.
I embrace all and am part of all.

Kinzer, Stephen. All The Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle Eastern Terror. (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2003) pp. 21, 26.

a name to look out for: aitor throup

the abundance claims the collection is inspired by the story of a Hindu boy being killed by a group of football hooligans in a racist attack. not something you see everyday.

also good in grey, once again commes des garcons.

g-star raw: a love for you, and your man too.

the best part about boston was g-star raw on newbury st. plaid shirts and the ever good-looking, tatooed scruffy boys straight out of richmond.

in my mind, black has always been back. what's not to love about sexy, urban denim. could today's youth take a sophisticated hint from the sartorialist and get over american apparel?

(ps. if the color isnt black, brown, gray or blue, i don't like it.)

a great fashion writer to read on the subject: harriet mays powell

Why I love Edna Mode, a mix of bitchy Karl Lagerfeld, Edith Head, and Rei Kawakubo.

If you don't already love Rei Kawakubo, you will.

Read this article from the Met on Japanese influence in fashion.

Rei Kawakubo, founder of Commes des Garcons ("like some boys"), currently my favorite designer, uprooted fashion with her asian influence, and inspired make-up greats like Linda Mason.

(ps. thought about makeup as a career? she can help.)

(check out this woman who is obsessed with Edith Head)

quick news

an article on the skinny
an article on fashion trash
apparently they now have concealer for men (Clinique M Cover)
and the Olsen twins have busted out of Walmart and into Bergdorf Goodman, sad how few will do that.