ys(i)l(ove you)

oh my goodness! i can't even believe how long it's been since i've posted. life has been turned upside down and around and around and it's fitting that i make this announcement when i post the ysl fall collection (my sweet, dear stefano...how i love his insousciance), but...

i'm going to paris to study fashion!!!

i'm going for the month of june, and i'm so ecstatic and over the moon and all sorts of other things, that i really just can't even articulate it. so, my faithful, adoring readers - for those of who you who've let the jetset lives of which i've always dreamed, i beseech you to comment, email, tweet your very favorite parisian hotspots. my dear kate, as a "you're going!! thank GOD we're finally getting you on this damn trip!" gift, gave me a french journal in which she's already documented and listed the addresses for her favorite places in paris. i'm not going for a couple months, so we really want to add to that and have a lovely little travel book all compiled and ready to go for when i leave. i would love to have a "sassafras" section with reader suggestions, too, so please share!

now on to ysl: i love the playfulness that stefano brings to ysl, especially with that gold lady necklace he dripped over everything. i loved when he used it as the waist rosary (technical term?) on the nun's habit look the most. always chic, there's an edge to this collection - with the use of plastic, and the gloves, the structured shoulders, that modernizes the classic ysl look in a way that i really appreciate. we all know my bias, but when i look at current ysl - especially fall - i can feel the energy and thought that pilati puts into his designs, and into maintaining ysl's vision. i think this collection is so fun, and i like it way more than last year's fall collection. i reaaaally want those to-die-for green glasses. j'adore!

images: style.com

bruce weber for ysl

a short film from bruce weber for the fall 2010 ysl menswear show. it's an analysis of nudity, featuring the music of marvin gaye.

i call it "just the kind of eye candy i need to get me through a monday morning."

stefano, i will be your bride

now, i have a bit of a problem. my problem is that, when it comes to ysl, i found it indescribably difficult to be truly critical. i love ysl, i love stefano pilati, and i love the aire of a fashion house that is one of the industry's most iconic institutions. that being said, i am going to put in a little extra effort here and try to present opinions on the ysl spring 2010 line that go beyond, "i live and breathe for it, it can do no wrong." as i was looking through the collection, i'll be honest in that i was constantly wavering between "love it" and "ehhhh, it's okay." there is a lot of white, which is quite different, and the collection definitely improved, for me, as it went on. for stefano pilati's ysl, the beauty is often in the details. so what may look more subdued is actually experimenting with tailoring, cut and shape. out of the entire collection, i want to own one of the uber-voluminous, draped and belted creations in every color (shown on the runway in polka-dot, forest green, and black). ysl started the menswear for womenswear revolution, and stefano has carried that into his designs one thousand fold, infusing more and more of the unisex appeal with which he is so enthralled. the pieces i love, i really love, and those i don't, i appreciate endlessly for the workmanship, love, and thought that goes into them. no matter what, i'll always bow down to ysl, it would just feel too wrong not to.

all photos taken from wwd.com

take a look at my YSL review on secondcitystyle.com!

ysl manifesto

first of all, i'd like to thank my lovely roommate erin, who has done the previous two posts as a guest blogger. because she's not outing herself...i've gone and done it for her. she's brilliant, and i'm so thrilled that you've enjoyed her brilliantly inspired musings!

as you all know, i'm insanely, over-the-moon-obsessed with ysl. twice yearly ysl releases 500,000 copies of their manifesto, and this year they've added seoul to the list of fabulous cities they visit pre-fashion weeks every year: paris, new york, hong kong, tokyo and milan (oh whyyyyyy isn't chicago on that list? i mean, i know. but a girl can still dream). the first 2,000 passersby receive a tote with christy turlington's campaign photo on it (ahhhhhhhhhhhh, i diiieeeeeeeeeeeeeee! whhhyyyyyyy can't stefano pilati know how much i love him and his predecessor and everything about the fashion house itself and just SEND me a tote?!).


thank god for technology, though. because they've finally launched the manifesto online, and the entire collection will be available for download on the day of the launch (september 12th!).

please go to the website and look at their insane countdown...plus archives, and free screensavers and wallpaper (all of which has now been applied to my computer, worry not).





it's interesting that this cropped up this evening, because as erin and i were driving home, we got into a huge discussion about our favorite designers...both of all time, and of the moment. it was a lovely that conversation that lasted for the duration of our drive, and led to us making no productive conclusions, other than my love for ysl (which i'll have to defend forever, as inked left wrists cannot tell a lie), and that we're obsessed with pretty much everything in one way or another.

and yours, my love? which designer would you continue to thrust upon your blog's perfect and wonderful readership over and over, endlessly and forever?

muchos besos, amors! sorry for the lack of posts -- i full-time start grad school (and a new job!) this week and am trying to get back into the flow of being a student again. i'm beyond thrilled, but i really need to buckle down, clean off my desk, stop writing from the couch with glass of wine in hand (although erin constantly and lovingly reminds me that red wine was ernest hemingway's writing tool of choice) and start busting my ass. it will be!