I Love You All

Hello, Karl.

This is it. Let em all suck.

Good night, Karl.

Space Girls

Hello, Karl.

With all this spring-summer-campaigns fever it's getting pretty boring. I mean, yes, there's lots of fabulous, sparkling and even hysteric images we'll pray for next season. But... Isn't that natural? Who thought Chanel or YSL could make it bad? Noone, because you could not. Yes, this summer is obliged to be magic. But won't we die for that? Who knows.

I was dreaming of Lanvin dresses today. It was like "should I buy her all the Lanvin dresses, or Ungaro will be good too?". That's all because of the french Vogue's february cover. That dress reminds me of Dali. Avida Dollars. Avida Elbaz.

I started this letter with my pathetic love for the upcoming ads. Yes, it's true. I adore images for Balenciaga, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, C'n'C, Dior just to name few. They all are beautiful and so in-love-with-future. It seems like we're talking about moving to Mars with Carine Roitfeld as a new Liberty symbol. Wouldn't that be nice?

Anyway, it gets shiny, spacy and futuristic. How far can we go? Will we start adopting androids in cute Miu Miu shorts? Um... It's getting kind of fashion space-antiutopia.

So let's just celebrate beauty of these three. Agyness Deyn, Freja Beha Erichsen and (ta-dah!) Irina Lazareanu. Seems like they're willing to say something? Ot is it just about their new nail polish?

Have a wonderful time!

photos (c) style.com, dazeddigital.com

Shaded Fantasies

Hello, Karl.

Have you ever thought why do people in eyewear look so good? That’s definitely not because sunglasses suit them. No. That’s because you can’t see a part of their faces behind the sunglasses. So you will surely think that this part of face must be beautiful.
Yes, yes. We necessarily promise ourselves that something we can’t see and we don’t know is wonderful. We dream of our future, of what we and our world will look like, we dream of faces that surround us.
Today I looked through the photographs of young London photographer Mads Perch. I can’t say I was very delighted with his works, but they are fresh and, what is more important, are not pretentious at all.
But something else amazed me. It’s about how much we’re willing to see beauty when we can’t see anything at all. I mean, when we look at the photo with the face cut, we surely imagine it as something beautiful. I wonder, who will think that the girl from this image is ugly?
That happens with photography, it happens with sunglasses. We love mystery and fantasies. And something we can’t see leaves us space for dreams.
You know, the way face looks most beautiful is when you look from the back.

Good night.

photos (c) mads-perch.com

One Note About Fashion

Hello, Karl.

One of your very close femmes said: ‘Luxury is not the opposite of poverty, but the opposite of vulgarity’. What if she was right?
I hate animal prints. It’s still possible to bear with zebra and giraffe prints, but the leopard print is the most ridiculous thing ever happened to the fashion. It is hard-edged grossly and I can’t even approximately think of any excuse for those who creates such things.
You can talk about kitsch and epatage. You can consider leopard print to be a slap in the face of good taste and think of it as one of the kitsch’s attributes and some kind of chic. But I don’t believe it. It’s theoretically possible to take leopard leggings made by some B-class brand for a miracle just like Terry Richardson’s or Juergen Teller’s heritage for fashion photography. But leopard-dotted dresses and/or tops on Paris or Milan weeks’ catwalks – that’s impossible and unforgivable.
Even if I were the last person to say that animal prints on textile tissues are horrible, I would not still give up my mind. No, no and no!
I can’t wait the Couture week to begin. Hope so do you. I really loved your denim collection for Chanel. I bet that’s not the way Coco dreamed of Haute Couture. Bravo!

Have a wonderful time!

photos (c) style.com

Let's Make This Moment Last

Hello, Karl.

Allthough the world is getting insane because of the new Miu Miu ads campaign, I would like to write you about past and future. Hope you don't mind. Seems like we're spinning on the same wheel - 80s are coming back faster than we could imagine. Style.com predicts new cosmic oddyseys and Hussein Chalayan falls in love with robots. Sounds fantastic, but... It still looks like deja vu. Oh, that really doesn't matter.

Do you remember amazing works of Tierry Mugler? He was one of the main talked-about in the 80s. It's a pitty I was a kid at that time, but still. His ads campaigns shot by Helmut Newton are really great. Hope, he's doing well now.

Speaking about Mugler, I can't forget about this very special femme, Roisin Murphy. Mugler did some of her outfits. But personally I love her purple dress from 'The Time Is Now' video. It looks super feminine and doesn't really resemble Mugler's futuristic style. Still it's amazing. And the shoes. It reminds me of Burberry's last collection. Wicked thing.

Do you like Moloko? They were so fine and looked very glammy. You know, not that Dolce&Gabbana and Roberto Cavalli shiny-toned-gold-gold-and-diamonds glamour, but very eclectic and sophisticated glam. As Pedro Almodovar said 'dirty chic, trash and second hand'. All those scarfs, dresses and masculine pants. Roisin still does very nice and looks great. But that video is my favourite. Slow motion, blonde hair and that aristocratic purple of her dress. Just amazing.

Well, it seems like the 'future' conversation didn't work out. I hope, we'll talk about it very soon.

Have a wonderful time!

Wonderful Life

Hello, Karl.

What a weird thing: my new-year-and-christmas-days have lasted with caramel music by Gwen Stefani for two years already. I can't tell I'm her big fan, but it happened that both of her albums got into my changer right on Dec 31. That was in 2006, that repeated in 2007. Anyway, I do love her music. It's light and positive. Kind of candyfloss with natural dye.

Have you seen her last L.A.M.B. collection? I liked some of the outfits. It isn't Galliano, but she still does it well. If I were female, I would kill myself for these pants (just kidding). And those blonde wigs... They are very 80s-looking. I bet that may become one of top trends in the street fashion somewhere in Tokyo or Osaka. And don't forget about London club scene.

Wait a minute! Haven't you done it with your Karl Lagerfeld s/s collection? O la la. Anja Rubik and Snejana Onopka were gorgeous with that haircuts.

Have a wonderful time!

photos (c) style.com

Go Gold

Hello, Karl.

I was looking through Gareth Pugh's fall-winter collection yesterday. Guess what I found? Ain't it cool? It reminds me of Balenciaga lama fur coat. The one with dreadlocks, remember?
Returning to Gareth... Even though such kitsch clothes aren't practical at all, they are still rocking. 99% of people dress (and undress as well) because of their wish to be noticed. And, of course, that must be a cosmic-space-luck to get in The Sartorialist or Face Hunter.

Tell me, please. Do you watch The Sartorialist? Seems like everyone got insane about it.

Have a wonderful time!

photo (c) style.com

It happens

Hello, Karl.

I'll begin with the question: do you believe in coincidences? Seems like they surround me everywhere and sometimes it looks like someone's tips in an uknown game.

Today I've been looking through Jose Ortega y Gasset's book and I remembered Philippe Starck. If the first one used to say that art is elitist for its nature, then the second had happily put the art of design on mass-production wheels. Ta-dah! Art of good-living came closer to anonymous consumer. But that doesn't matter.

Why haven't been I surprised when few hours later I met a pleased Starck's physiognomy in the book of Helmut Newton's photographs? Among the naked women, mannequins and pubic hair Starck looked just like his objects.

What do you think about Newton? Isn't he outstanding? I doubt you can find any other photographer, whose works would contain so much of pure naked sex. And what about his shoes-heels-and-other-stuff fetishes? Freud would get insanely thrilled.

What do you think of when taking photos? I've seen some of your works... I wonder, how much do Lagerfeld photographs cost?

Good night!

photos by helmut newton. (c) temple.edu

Elegant I.

Hello, Karl.

Few days ago I was asked to create a plot for a photoshoot. Despite the fact, I can't make nice photographs (almost everyone thinks so), there's so much things in my head, so that wasn't hard at all. But that doesn't matter.

There is a number of people, whose faces make "a look of the century". That's an obvious fact for fashion world and you can easily put "season" for "century". I'm sure you know better than anyone else. So... In search for an inspiration I remembered Irina Lazareanu. You will probably smile now - how can one forget about your muse? You're right. She is rocking.

A year ago i wouldn't consider her beautiful. But couture world lives its own rules and time is needed to understand all of them. But time goes by and I'm trying to get used to all that things happen in your sindicate.
I'm sure it would be silly to discuss all the features of Irina's shapes. So I won't. Undoubtebly, you know her much better than me. But still I wonder what makes her so special? What do you think? What makes her stand out? I suppose that's about some kind of "beast (I mean natural) chic". It's in her eyes. You know, they are magic and dramatic. That makes her elegant. That makes her very Chanel-looking.
Recently I've seen Irina in Barney's New York catalogue. That was a great shoot. Haven't you seen it? It's a pitty, but I haven't seen any of yours latest catalogues.

Have a wonderful time!

pictures (c) style.com

Disclaimer

Hello, Karl.

It's always hard to start a letter, especially if noone expects it. All those formulas like "how are you?" and "I'm writting to you because..." and so on are obviously not our case. So let's pretend this game has its own rules.
My name's Venya and this letter (i hope one among lots) is an attempt to create a new story. Nothing important and superfluous. I think, you will get that soon.

I can foresee your natural question. What's that? You're surely right. This is a plagiarism. The "letters story" was begun by Emi's letters to Marc Jacobs. He hasn't answered yet. Will you? So... About the plagiarism. I don't want to detract from Emi's merit - she's a great person. But if she wanted to write to Jacobs, then my wish to talk to you is also kind of deserved whim. And the way you'll treat it... Let's just see.

So, inspite of insignificance of this letter, it's still nice to meet you.

Have a wonderful time!