Maybe it wasn't a bad thing that you weren't born Barbie.

What is wrong with the world?

We call ourselves civilized, modern, egalitarian... Western society thinks of itself as the coolest, most amazing thing to ever have happened to this planet. We are "it"... or are we? I constantly get confusing messages on the media: one moment we live in a feminist society, where women are supposed to have more power than ever and be more free than ever. The minute after, I get bombarded by images of Barbie-like women with inflatable breasts whose biggest accomplishment in life is to have married tacky footballers. Why does Madonna look younger than my teenage cousins? Why does Nicole Kidman look like something that belongs in Madame Tussaud's? Why do edgy models receive such ferocious criticism for being thin and having weird faces? It is not easy to be a young woman these days being surrounded by things like these. We are told we are lucky to live in a world where we are allowed to be whatever we want to be, but facts show us we'll be better off if we are not too clever and don't stand out too much.
The funny thing is we think we are so audacious and groundbreaking when it comes to femininity. But I've seen mainstream films from the 1920's in which lesbians are freely portrayed and films from the 1930's in which a lady had a simultaneous relationship with two men. Nowadays you can of course think of a man having a relationship with two women... James Bond. A woman doing the same would be a tramp. Some decades ago, a sixty-something Marlene Dietrich was not afraid to show her fantastic sixty-something legs, and decaying-looking Joan Crawford and Bette Davies still were the stars of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? Today all we have is a lot of plastic-looking forty-something girls. Being mature is not tasteful anymore. Showing to the world that you have lived is a slap in the face of plastic surgeons. Luckily, some personalities still resist: I'm thinking of Diane Keaton, the wonderful Meryl Streep and one of my favourite women ever... Anjelica Huston.

Ever since she was a young model in the 70's, Anjelica was not afraid of being different (take a look at these pictures... Don't you think Irina Lazareanu is desperately trying to be Miss Huston? I guess it's a good choice though). Her strange features and proportions only make her more special. But the most amazing thing about her is she seems to get more and more magnificent as years go by.
I wonder what incites some women to have such a panic of wrinkles, and why some women reaching their maturity spend fortunes and do all sorts of crazy things for the sake of looking like they were 20. I honestly think by doing that they are sacrificing personality, strenght, style and self-assurance... things that come to a woman only with time and which, in my opinion, are so much more important and charming. I know many girls will never agree with me, but for me it's enough to have a reference like Anjelica Huston.

Strike a Pose

I've spent my entire weekend shooting. Photo sessions can be quite tiring: they normally take a lot of hours, some of which you spend just waiting around, and you generally have to get up at a very early hour to go to the other side of the city. On the other hand, it is a very fun work to do; you always meet amazing people, you get to see the coolest clothes of the season (those which will never go on sale), you have a laugh with the team and... you get croissants and pains au chocolat for breakfast (which, I must confess, is one of my favourite things about shoots).
On saturday I shot with my favourite team: Sophie and Pierre. These pictures are a preview of our work. It's going to be amazing. We were lucky enough as to get Gareth Pugh clothes and some of the Mouton Collet headpieces that appear in Gaga's Alejandro.
Today I shot menswear with René and Eric from 160grams. Again, lovely team and really cool models (and croissants). So now I'm drained from all the work but oh so pleased!

Who are you...?

Some of you have been asking me where does my (relatively) new header come from... Well, here you have the original scene from William Klein's film Who are you Polly Maggoo? starring Dorothy McGowan. I have already spoken about the film on the blog. It analyzes the fashion system in the 60's in a bit of a "dada" style. It is rare, fun and stylish, and brings up subjects and controversies that, unbelievably, people still talk about nowadays. Watch it, and then tell me your opinions!

How to be a Tennessee Williams Heroine

I have been thinking: most of the modern-day feminine icons we admire and try to behave like (and none of us girls can deny having at least 12 and looking up to them as if they were the 12 apostles) are flawless examples of serene beauty, impeccable behaviour and exemplary self-control. You know what I mean: the charming Audrey Hepburn, the distant Greta Garbo, the mysterious Coco Chanel, the ice-cold Catherine Deneuve.
Now I like to think I'm not the only one who absolutely can not stay cool, calm, charming and sweet like them at all times. I also like to think I'm not the only one that feels closer to Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown than to Little Women.
I have no clue as to why women ideals are so perfect and above everything. Is it the evil hand of man, who wants us to be like that, or are we just obsessed with being superwomen? I won't go into all that; but I figured there are other role models we can look up to, women who are positively messed up, like any human being is, only more so! These are playwright Tennessee Williams's heroines. Mississippi-born Williams specialized in femininity, obsessions, odd behaviours and loss of control. The great thing about Williams's girls is they might experience different degrees of lunacy or despair, but they always stay fascinating and passionate. And are there any better qualities to a woman than those two?
Also, Williams depicts all kinds of women, so we have plenty of options when it comes to choose our favourite Southern heroine:

1: the frustrated lady (Liz Taylor here in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof). Poor Maggie the Cat is a beautiful Southern lady trying (unsuccessfully) to grab his alcoholic husband's attention. To those of you who haven't yet experienced this feeling ... I hope you never do. Like every single character in Williams's plays, Maggie alternates a strange sense of calm with hysterical "fits" every half an hour. But she is still pretty and very well dressed.

2: the hysterical and overtly sexual girl (Liz again. She did Southern accent like nobody). In Suddenly Last Summer we confront Catherine, whom everybody thinks totally mad (and I must say she doesn't do much to persuade others she's not). She screams, cries and makes no sense, but in the end she turns out to be completely sane. Paradoxically, it's that apparent madness, together with her unapologetic sexuality, what makes the charachter strangely irresistible.

3: The troublesome hottie (Sue Lyon was born to play this role). A silly blonde teenager almost drives a priest to madness in Night of the Iguana. She might not be one of the most important characters in the play, but the play would go nowhere without her. Her insanity is of a different kind: every adolescent's. Her unawareness of the pain she is causing is disagreeable and appealing at the same time.

Williams's works also cast a whole collection of ageing women, each one living her own (melo)drama in a particular way; none of them close to perfection, all of them simply amazing. After all who wants botoxed, lifted perfection; I prefer wrinkled, vulnerable fascination!

4: The ageing diva. Sweet Bird of Youth features what is now called a "cougar". A bit on the drunken side, Alexandra del Lago bears nonetheless the inevitable magic of a faded superstar.

5: the icon. Blanche Dubois is one of the most talked-about fictional characters ever. I could blog half a mile describing her but in a nutshell she appears to be the perfect Southern lady and deep inside of her she is more like the perfect Southern floozie. The duality drives her crazy (this time for real)... Her affected manners are unnerving yet weirdly attractive.

6: the (seemingly) venerable lady. Kate Hepburn masterfuly played Violet Venable in Suddenly Last Summer; a respectable rich widow, she deludes herself into believeing her son was the Southern gentleman version of Jesus Christ (instead of the filthy pig he really was). Obviously she is nuts (at this point you must have realized Tennessee's predilection for mental issues), but her apparent self-assurance and otherworldy talk make her striking.

And finally my favourite!

7: the anxious but optimistic solitary girl. Ava Gardner gave her best performance ever in John Huston's Night of the Iguana (after all, she had the advantage of having a natural accent). Maxine is a passionate, insecure, raw character who has nothing but troubles around her. But she still is Ava Gardner and she fights them troubles with the help of rum coco cocktails and two mexican men playing maracas who follow her wherever she goes. I think we all should solve our problems like that.

Do all these ladies seem a bit... unbalanced? It is understandable. On top of the many issues they have to deal with, the men they have to confront would make anyone nervous to say the least. Just take a look at the actors chosen to be their leading gentlemen:

Montgomery Clift or the doctor with the most appealing grey eyes in the world (Suddenly Last Summer).

Paul Newman or Mississippi's most attractive disabled drunk (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof).

Marlon Brando or a truly charming bastard (A Streetcar Named Desire).
Richard Burton or the hottest priest alive (Night of the Iguana).

As you can see, it's not easy being a Tennessee Williams heroine, but it's worth it, and I think it's good to have some realer-than-real feminine references in times of trouble. And by trouble I mean situations that start like this,

and end like this:

So, even if you are not Southern (or Mediterranean), go ahead and be proud of the imperfect sides of yourself. Not feminine enough? I don't think so; after all Tennessee Williams was the ultimate expert on femininity. Also, don't be afraid to holler, cry, twist and shout whenever life calls for a little drama.

Birthday Girl

Am I like Schroeder, that character in Snoopy comic books who plays the piano and goes on celebrating Beethoven's birthday even if those around him consider him a bit eccentric, to say the least? Two days ago it would have been Marilyn's birthday, and I have decided to celebrate it after all. You all know by now I consider her an icon of femininity, and any time is good to celebrate femininity.
Having inquired about her to some of my straight male friends in the past days, though, I've been surprised to find out most of them didn't think she was especially pretty or charming and were even a bit tired of the whole "Marilyn" thing. That left me thinking; maybe Marilyn was a sex icon back in the days, but could she have turned into a reference for women with time? It's paradoxical, don't you think? But what do straight men know, they also think playsuits are ugly. Some media still insist on presenting her as the silly, druggy lover of an American president who became an icon simply because she died young. But you don't believe everything the media tell you, right? (if you are Spanish you probably don't by now, anyway). But there is another reality: through merely a bit more than 10 years of work, miss Monroe gave memorable performances in some of the best films in history, dominated comedy and drama, established her own production company and created a whole character, caricatural yet full of subtle nuances, which is recognisable to the day. Dumb blonde? I don't think so.

Remembering The Face

I'm back in Paris today. Which means I have changed sun, swimming pools and gardens for rain, more rain and... yet more rain. Thinking of paradise lost, I found myself reminiscing about The Face magazine. As a teenager, and once I passed my inevitable Vogue America phase, I grew up with Dazed, I-D and The Face. The first two are the only magazines I buy every single month (apart from The World of Interiors, the edgy Condé Nast design and architecture magazine, to which I'm also totally addicted), and I would still be just as faithful to The Face if it hadn't stopped being published back in 2004. Everything has been said about the magazine: it was modern, it was edgy, it was pop, it was really innovative in its shape and its content. I would like to do something as unique as this... Until then I'll just study and decipher every single Face cover.

I just LOVE finding new places to wear diamonds!

I thought it would be nice to start the weekend in a silly, glamourous and optimistic way. I'll be having a relaxing couple of days in the countryside, how about you? Good plans?

Political Fashion?

10 am: my workday is starting. I'm surrounded by people wearing ridiculously fabulous outfits discussing where is Riccardo Tisci taking Givenchy's essence while a model wearing next to nothing is being photographed. The talk of the day? the latest cover of Vogue Italia, shot by Steven Meisel. When my friend Vanni calls me to say Mandi Lennard is shutting down her PR agency and Gareth Pugh is now represented by Karla Otto, everyone in the room nearly gets a heart attack. So many things going on, I need a croissant breakfast.
7 pm: I'm walking back home from work. Parisians around me seem angry (or at least not at all pleased) at everything. Everyone looks the same... jeans, leather jackets, vespa helmets... Beards for boys and messy, hippyish hair for girls. "Chez moi", I read the news of the day: the world is quickly coming to an end. It's all about evil politicians, bad economy, nature destruction, failure, guilt. In other words, the "real world".
I have been intrugued about this "fashion-reality" duality for some time now. Is fashion unreal? According to all my uni philosophy courses, fashion is a part of reality. There are many realities going on, and fashion is just one of them. Like politics or economy, fashion is a very structured system formed by many characters and with good and bad moments. That has led me to fantasize about how the world would be if "Fashion World" was to be mixed up with "Real World", creating some sort of "Fashion Reality".
Everything would be so very different in a way, but still kind of the same... for instance, history would still of course have taken place, with its higher and lower points and its critical moments. For instance, if you remember your history books, you will recall the European arms race which started on the 1890's and which ultimately lead to the Great War. Well, the fashions of the moment were just as critical as the tense politics:

It would indeed take a world-changing war to create new trends, way more practical and less hideous.
Amongst the most delicate diplomatic moments during the XXth century is the Cold War; a terrible moment which caused a lot of suffering and tension. It should never have happened. Just like those pointy bras which were incomprehensibly fashionable during the peak of the Cold War.

I mean seriously, please, is this some sort of domestic capitalistic interpretation of Soviet missiles? It's the only way I can see it.
A few years after this trend, and still during the cold war, there was another historic mistake: Vietnam. Luckily many people were against this but most of them made a big fashion mistake: dressing as hippies (read barely dressed at all and covered in Woodstock mud).

I'm all for hippy values, peace, love and psychedelia. But I'm slightly disappointed at the hippies's lack of imagination when it came to dressing.
But how would "Fashion Reality" be nowadays? Surprisingly, I think it wouldn't be so very different! We'd still have world leaders, and the world leader number 1 would still be...in America.

Obama is a most remarkable character, stylish, strong, decisive. Adored by many and distrusted by some, but all that doesn't matter; what's important is the fact that he is the one to make the planet's most important decisions. Just like Anna Wintour. In "Fashion Reality" she would dominate the world... Wait, doesn't she already?

And what about France? We don't have Obama, we have Monsieur Sarkozy. Different, to say the least. I confess I have mixed feelings about him.

Then again, in some sort of fictional fashion world, who would rule France? Carine Roitfeld? Maybe not. Maybe it would actually be...Olivier Zahm.

Er... What can I say about him? Way creepier, way greasier and (even if it seems impossible) way smaller than Sarkozy. I think, just for this once, I'll stick to reality and to old Nicolas.

And just for the record...Who would be the Pope? Lady Gaga?
But, in my opinion, the best way about a fashion-ruled world would be the fact that outfits like these would be socially acceptable:

That would make me very happy, as then I wouldn't have to stand the comments of people who keep it too real... "Um, honey, just what are you wearing? I know you work in fashion and all that... But this is the real world!"

E' solo moda!

During the last few weeks I have been working in some new projects which have confronted me to yet more new points of view about fashion. I've been collaborating with people who are so very different from the people I normally work with, yet they are part of the industry just like me. They just see fashion in a different way.

Working in the industry, living in France, and knowing how the French (a people I am really fond of, it goes without saying) love to establish completely structured philosophical systems on anything, from existence to politics to pains au chocolat, I often hear the most disparate speeches about what the essence of fashion is.

Also, being Spanish, and knowing how the Spanish never fail to make statements on everything (from politics to the male and female roles to the best way to make gazpacho) with the main purpose of starting controversy, I often hear the most passionate and contrary opinions on the pettiest details of the fashion industry. I love the Spanish feisty character too, it also goes without saying.

Generally speaking, working in an environment in which 80% of the people come from different countries, cultures and backgrounds, I hear, read and see too much information and interpretations every day. Not to mention what a controversial, popular and fascinating conversation subject fashion is. I get confused: fashion is art, fashion is mere money, fashion is exploitation, fashion is cool, fashion is for the elite, fashion is evil, fashion is silly, fashion is Victoria Beckham, fashion is despicable, fashion is everything, fashion is fabulous, fashion is scary, fashion is for idiots, fashion is the paradoxical expression of belonging to a group versus trying to make a difference as an anthropological theory proved by... Slow down!

Maybe I haven't thought that much about fashion, or maybe I'm slightly naïve. I like to think I just see it in a different way...

Fashion might be all of the above, but for me it means mainly creativity, intelligence, audacity and of course... fun! Just like Rock & Roll... It's only fashion!

A Hard Day's Night

Or should I say "a hard week's night"? I haven't forgot I have a blog, but I have had so much work during the last week I have hardly set foot at home...
Anyway, I miss blogging actually, so I've decided I'm gonna try and be more constant. And, after watching this video, I have also decided I have to start a diet so I can weigh 30 kilos like 60's models... They all look so divine, especially Peggy Moffitt (she's always been one of my favourite all-time models, I think she's far more exotic and personal than Twiggy).
I have this theory about the 60's: I think people who lived in the 60's had everything a person could wish for... the best rock and pop bands in history, the coolest art, the looniest fashions and beauty products (check out on 60's hairdryers). And with this video featuring Rudi Gernreich's clothes I have realized they even had their own 60's version of SHOWstudio. As I say, everything one could wish for.