military fashion in paris

although fashion was the thrust of my studies in europe, any well-positioned fashion connoisseur knows that fashion takes it inspiration from every facet of culture, and that in any and every event, the more you experience and engage, the more you references you have to draw from.

so, you can imagine my delight in finding these incredible, balmain-esque military uniforms at the musee de l'armee in les invalides, which is an army museum that was originally built as a hospital for wounded soliders. i remember that that day i was having a blah morning, had gotten lost at one point, and then couldn't find a place to get a cappuccino for the life of me. i had no idea i'd be finding inspiration at such an unexpected locale.

meadowlark

right now i'm on the hung for uniquely constructed rings that are large, and not super feminine. and then i found this gem from meadowlark on garbage dress:

a blogger collaboration between garbage dress, kingdom of style, DI$COUNT, and gnarlitude, this is their design for meadowlark jewelry. although i prefer gold to silver, i love the idea of a protruding claw ring - there's certainly no question of it being a statement piece.

there's only 50 available, so you have to move quickly!

Masters of black

another incredible exhibit i experienced in antwerp was the "black, masters of black in fashion and costume" exhibit at the mode musuem.

its concept was to illustrate different historical phases of the color black, combining historical clothing, fashion and paintings - all of which were included in the curation of the exhibit. featuring garments by: givenchy, adriaen hannerman, viktor and rolf, bernhard willhelm, anthony can dyck, gareth pugh, olivier theyskens, alexander mcqueen, ann demeulemeester, yves saint laurent, raf simons, yohji yamamoto, and chanel, it was an incredible collection of some of the most masterfully created and displayed garments i've ever seen.

these pictures don't even kind of do the exhibit justice. it was enormous, and broken down into 22 different categories: black, a colour?, black dye, noble black, black and white, fashionable black, men in black, black in the children's wardrobe, comme des garcons, junya watanabe, mourning or fashion (pt. 1), gareth pugh, film noir, raf simons, mourning or fashion (pt. 2), christophe coppens, romance & rebellion, ann demeulemeester, modernity: the little black dress, masters of light, masters of light: embroidery, masters of light: feathers & plumes, masters of light: texture, masters of light: lace, and masters of light: 3-d.

SUCH a wonderful treat. i purchased the exhibition book and will treasure it forever and ever.

enjoy the photos!

black exhibit:

tell what/where it was, and the way they broke down the categories into the different historical phases of the color black.

whew!

it's been quite a long while since i've been on here! while i was in europe i had all these plans of blogging every wonderful adventure, but once i was immersed in what i was doing, it really just felt more appropriate to be experiencing it for myself. coming home was an overwhelming experience of trying to jump back into work right away, and getting together with all of my wonderful friends, and it left me little time to go through all of the incredible books and magazines i picked up along my travels, or to even be able to reflect on all that i saw.

in my two weeks of being back, i've kind of stayed away from my usual social media haunts. no twitter, no blogging, etc. i felt like i needed to cleanse myself and how i experience things, and it taught me a lot about what i value and how much i want work to be a part of my life.

but...i also remembered why i started this blog in the first place. not to be the next big fashion blogger, but to force myself to discover and reflect on something everyday that inspires me. and while i've felt cleansed, in some regards, i've also felt completely uninspired, in others.

i got an artkrush email yesterday that linked to an article about viktor and rolf's miniature exhibit at studio job gallery in antwerp which i was incredibly fortunate to have seen. it made me think about all the pictures i have and what a great outlet sassafras has been for me, creatively.

i'll stop waxing poetic about everything and post the damn pictures - except a blogging resurgence and a some retrospective blogging about europe.