bunnyshop shopping fashion blog

"A Black Issue" in Vogue Italia

There is a really interesting piece in today's Times about the upcoming Vogue Italia, which features a 100-page portfolio by Steven Meisel starring only black models—including Iman, Naomi Campbell, Jourdan Dunn, Liya Kebede, Alek Wek, Pat Cleveland, Karen Alexander, and the ever-ubiquitous Tyra:

Mr. Meisel has his own theories about why black models, save for the token few, have disappeared from runways. “Perhaps the designers, perhaps the magazine editors,” he said. “They are the powerful people. And the advertisers. I have asked my advertising clients so many times, ‘Can we use a black girl?’ They say no.” The concern is that consumers will resist the product, he said. “It all comes down to money.”

The small wing of the fashion world we've been exposed to reminded us of nothing as much as a seventh-grade gym class, with everyone nervously toeing some imaginary line and desperately doing anything possible to look cool—when of course the coolest thing to do would be to ignore that line; it's the lamest form of self-censorship ("I can't wear overalls because the mean girls won't like it" \ "We can't use black models because the advertisers won't like it.") Depressing that we're not light-years beyond this but good for Vogue Italia—we're totally buying this issue, even if it costs a significant portion of our monthly rent.

W Magazine Cover With Kate Moss Et Al

We're going to have to ask a guy but there is something weirdly harpy-ish and not alluring about this cover for us. Maybe it is Kate's bangs; we are so pro-bangs but not here. And Daria's cheekbones are scaring us.

Sienna Miller in Elle UK

We used to love magazine's subscriber-only covers, but now we think they're a big cop-out—they're always better, in our opinion, and the newsstand covers are always, like lowest-common denominator. Dare to dream, Elle! That your readers have taste as good as yours is.

Here's the alternate:

And by the way, we're biased but in our opinion neither of these are as good as the Nylon cover:

Angelina Jolie in Vanity Fair: Reader Mail

In today's Reader Mail:

Dear BS:

I just saw Angelina Jolie on the cover of the new Vanity Fair. I'm a bit meh on her in general, but look at her hair here! It's amazing! It's so va-va-va-voom! What I'm wondering is: Have you ever achieved something like this at home? And if so, will you tell me exactly what you did? I know I'm fishing here, but I want advice from real people, not from a stylist with a million years experience and loads of fancy tools. Is there a volumizing shampoo involved?

Thanks!
V.

Well, we can honestly say that we have not. We basically just learned to use a hair dryer. And this is much more complicated. We feel like the standard advice would be: blow your hair upside down (we have no idea if that works, but we were definitely told about it) and use lots of round brushes. But we're sure someone out there has better intel than we do?

All We Want to Know About the New Nylon Covers

Is which one sold better. This is just like when Blair's mom gave Serena her modeling contract.

We're going with Leighton. Who else has a vote?

Our Favorite Page in the Current Lula

We love this magazine despite its former flirtation with Kirsten Dunst—not least for its amazing type treatments. How beautiful is that, with the cut-through lettering there? Oooh, we love it.

Our Favorite Page in the New Lucky

Gucci dress! We waited attentively for someone—Forever 21, are you listening?—to provide our $12 version sometime between now and when the little elves come to deliver our basket of gold coins.

Lucky subscription, $9.97

 

Our Favorite Thing in the New Domino....

Is totally this wallpaper. We're a little wallpaper-crazy at the moment, and totally drawn to these super-bright, graphic designs. Oh! Can we not just have small apartments around the world, so that we may decorate them all? The wallpaper is Cavern Home, with proceeds going to an orphanage in Peru.

Domino subscription, $8.95

Monocle Issue 13

We swear the only things in the world that makes us want a job where we actually need work clothes are Monocle fashion shoots. That suit is Kilgour and that giant bag is Hugo Boss.

The Ultimate Magazine Subscription List: Reader Mail

In today's Reader Mail:

Dear BS:

I know you've discussed this before, but I'm looking for new ideas. Say you could have subscriptions to any 10 magazines. What would they be? I can only come up with four, which is my problem, anyway: InStyle, Nylon, Allure, Vogue. Please ask everyone else as well. Thanks!

Love,
M.

Oh! It's one of our favorite discussions. We have one magazine subscription—to New York, and only because it came free with something else. It's totally annoying because we travel too much to be responsible subscription holders, but we would if we could, and in this order:

Nylon (we love them so)
Domino (obsessed)
Monocle
Elle UK
Lucky
Amelia's Magazine (pictured above)
Pop
Italian and UK Vogues
and the New Yorker.

What else!

Bunnies in Pop

Pop did our absolute favorite bunny fashion spread ever last year. That bunny was alive. This bunny, from the current Pop, is not. Our feelings are mixed. Plus: We love that leather corsage from Giles. Con: This bunny is dead. Like we said, mixed.

Not our favorite issue ever—too much Stephanie Seymour!—but our love lives on.

Agyness Deyn in iD

We usually hate guest-edited issues—they always seem to be covered in the tearstains of the assistant editors who had to ghostwrite the entire thing—but we loooove the Aggy issue of iD . Because:

1: She writes a letter requesting an interview with the queen, and it is filled with the sort of sentiment we adore

2: She is 26, which we have decided is a reasonable age for a model, because she is so much more like a person and so much less like a clothes rack. We're not complaining about 14-year-olds—we're just saying it gets marginally easier to be yourself in a room full of mean people the older you get (we personally believe) and Aggy, in our opinion, is about nothing so much as being herself.

3: Because the feeling we get from her is not so much that she is beautiful but that she is super-duper alive, and that, we feel, is a quality worth sharing

4: And this photo, which should be taped to the wall of all the non-model, aforementioned 14-year-olds out there. Have we already mentioned our Gossip Girl epiphany from last week? That pretty much everything basically works out? We believe it. Even with braces.

Madonna on Madame Figaro

Can we just say: We haven't been that excited about Madonna since we were 12, and realized we could draw when we like basically traced her face from our True Blue piano songbook onto a piece of notebook paper. And we haven't bought an album by her since—we have no idea. We are pretty sure it was during the George Bush I administration. Anyway, because we are a sentient being, with sight and the power to hear and all that, we noticed that she has a new album out. And we have to say: She's like 50 and—we will just take her before Lindsay or Paris or Kim or any of them, even if she should probably be blamed for their existence.

This is Madge on the cover of Madame Figaro. Now, it's not like there wasn't some airbrushing going on here—they're airbrushing 14-year-0ld Estonian models. But we think she's hot. And we will also say we truly do aspire to her fitness in general and her ashtanga yoga regime in particular. You know, it's so annoying—we used to read about how ashtanga was like this cult thing or whatever, and Madonna was so crazy—this was before we started doing it. It's actually like yoga for dummies,even if it is quite tough, because you do the same exact poses in the same order every time, just adding on as you get stronger. It's not like we're some anti-media screamer, as we pay our rent (generally quite late) thanks to the media, but that is just such a load of bullshit, that ashtanga is a cult.

Er, bizarre yoga lecture over. You know what it is, in general? We're pretty sure she does whatever makes her happy. We're sure she has never gone to the mall in sweatpants and a t-shirt with breadcrumbs on it. (We note that we have breadcrumbs on our sweater right now. This is, like, directed inward.) We will take her over Paris-Lindsay-Kim-Kimberley-etc a million times over, even if she probably is responsible for them.

We're not sure how we feel about the new song, but we hope we look half as good when we're her age. We hope we look half as good now.

Bunnyshop Totally Adores: Alyson Fox

We're really trying to cut down on the self-promotion here, but we love this artist so much that we cannot help ourselves: Alyson Fox is one of our very favorite artists, and we just did a story for her that's in the new issue of Nylon (our very favorite magazine in the ever-expanding universe, btw.) If you see it online at the grocery store (or, you know, anywhere else), check it out! And also Alyson's work, for sale (among other places) at the Shiny Squirrel.

Above: Snowball by Alyson Fox, was $395, now $316

Rachel Bilson in Lucky (and GQ)

So there are like five bazillion things we want to buy in the new Lucky, and we don't really mind Rachel Bilson, but can we just say, that belt looks totally appendage-y? That's weird. We're not sure why they went with this image. But note: purple, spring color of 2008!

If we were Rachel Bilson, we'd be all, "Can everyone just please admire my GQ cover?"

So, So, So Disturbing (and Bizarrely Alluring, Sort Of)

This photo is so wrong, and yet so Paris Vogue, which is why we really prefer it even if we can only read about half the articles. The dress is Alexander McQueen, and the photographer is Terry Richardson.

We Should Totally Love This But

1: We love Pop. We love it, love it, love it. We could not love a fashion magazine more, unless it was maybe Amelia's.
2: And we love Beth Ditto. Anyone who doesn't love Beth Ditto is basically the grinch to end all grinchest. We remember watching an interview with her beside someone who hadn't been converted to her fanhood yet, and we watched him fall under her spell. It was lovely.

All that said, we find it difficult to be super psyched about these particular images. They are not as Beth as Beth is, if you know what we mean.

Bunnyshop Hearts: Amelia's Magazine

We love Pop, too, but Amelia's is totally one of our favorite magazines. We can't describe it. Just check it out. There's nothing better, we're thinking, than a magazine that is obviously the product of one, very creative mind (rather than a series of torturous meetings, where everyone feels totally braindead and depressed) and this is totally that.

We know: $20. But it's like buying a book. Amelia's Magazine issue #7, $20

Bunnyshop Super-Duper Hearts: Rob Ryan

We are a wee bit obsessed with the art of the paper cut, and Rob Ryan tops among all those who take the scissors to the paper. We have no idea why we're trying to talk like a leprechaun. Rob Ryan has done all these lovely things for fashion-y magazines, including this for Vogue Japan. It is not even our favorite, just one of a billion.

We mention him today because he has a new, very exciting website that we highly recommend, and also because he is now selling his work on Etsy. Hurrah, Etsy! But hurrah, in particular, Rob Ryan, for the ongoing excellence.

This is a screenprint rather than an even more exciting papercut, but beggars, choosers, etc. Rob Ryan screenprint, $300

RIP, Jane

Of course, our heart belongs to Nylon now, and we haven't read Jane regualrly for ages and ages, but we'd have love for any magazine that put Zooey Deschanel on the cover. In short: they tried. We believe it.

The Reverse of Christmas in July

Can we just say that whenever we see fashion magazines in July with "back to school!" coverlines we are all LA LA LA [sticking fingers in ears] WE CANNOT HEAR \ SEE YOU. Seriously! People! Let us enjoy our summer! Aargh.

We do sort of like the big, volume-y dress and the black tights. But still. July! People! We waited all year for this.

Reader Mail: The Full Mailbox

In today's Reader Mailbag:

Dear BS:

I know this is weird, but I just really want to know what magazines everyone subscribes to, to see if I am missing anything super good. I just got a subscription at Us Weekly, which is super embarrassing, but I also get Allure, Elle, and Vogue. What do you get? What does everybody else get?

Thanks!
N.

Well, we are a bit ashamed of this, but apparently we hate money so much that even though we buy certain ones every month, we prefer to pay twice as much at the newsstand. Really this is because we are too much of an itinerant to have a magazine subscription. Some people dream of babies. We dream of living in the same place long enough to get the New Yorker at 42% off.

Anyway, what we read: The NYer, NY, British Vogue, UK Elle, regular Elle, Domino, Elle Decoration, ID and Nylon. And a bunch more we'll read if something on the cover looks good. Domino is our favorite for ripping stuff out and being like, we are so painting our walls that color. And British Vogue for—like, they just occasionally do the coolest, weirdest stories, like this Lionel Shriver story on having a baby face in her mid-forties. (Ooh, we love Lionel Shriver.)

So: everybody else?

Bunnyshop Hearts: Domino

Our apartment is so often just a tiny bit sad—possibly because it misses us, since we are never there, or, you know, not at all, since it is essentially inanimate. Or maybe because it has no furniture, except for a drafting table we bought at a garage sale when we were 15 (and we almost puked at the idea of spending $25) and a farmhouse table (and also almost puked over.) Also, a bed, and now, that $12.99 IKEA table that everyone has. And it will stay that way, until we stop doing things like driving to Mongolia instead of living a normal life, in a normal apartment, with things like sofas. (Oh, dare to dream.) But that is why we love Domino so very, very much: because someday we will be able to buy things like lamps and wallpaper and magazine racks. Until then, we will continue to cut up our Dominos and store our clippings in a little blue binder, and dream about painting our walls the way some people dream about babies.

Anyway! We also totally love the website. Above, they discuss vases and things.

Eleanor Friedberger (and Her Cute Shoes and Jeans) in Nylon

Hurrah! We found the Eleanor Friedberger (of the Fiery Furnaces) from Nylon, our v favorite magazine, with the white shoes we love. (They're Calvin Klein.) We would totally wear this every day.

Here are the white shoes we have talked about like 3000 times and these are some Miss Sixtys (as she is wearing) that are close if not identical and under $70.

Plastic Fantastic

So this is pretty much the most terrifying website we have ever visited: "Run by enthusiasts for enthusiasts who love PVC, plastic and vinyl." That is probably the most times we have ever seen the word "enthusiasts" in one sentence. This reminds us of the day we were doing Internet searches for bears. Not all bears are the grizzly kind.

Anyway, we were interested in Plastique Unique because they were apparently the source for the Lily Cole editorial in our new British Vogue, and sometimes you really are curious about where you'd be able to find a plastic "all-in-one." (Which is, it seems, like a bigger, adult version of a onesie. Can we mention here that we once worked with this horrible, horrible woman, who was not a native nor even a competent speaker of English, which was of course totally fine except for the fact that she was ostensibly being paid to write in English? And how she re-edited this story we had already, thoroughly competently, edited, and changed every reference to a "onesie" to a "onesize"? And how we just prayed we would have the chance to piss in her coffee at some point? Er, not to sound completely insane.)

Anyway! Plastique Unique. We can't put any of the pictures from the site here, because they remind us too, too much of an episode of Taxicab Confessions, but: It is here, if you are in the mood for all sorts of plastic-y weirdness.

Above: Plastic "all-in-one," about $80

Sequins Forever

When we see this cover with Natalia Vodianova and Johnny Borrell from Razorlight, we don't think: So hot! Model and (quasi-)rock star! We think: Son, pull up your jeans. And we think: We should really find a sequin dress. A sequin dress that is maybe not the same one Natalia is wearing since hers is a $4000 Pucci. Fie on you, Pucci.

Lacking $4000 for our sequin dress, we look elsewhere. We love this one from Alice + Olivia, who apparently went nuts on the sequins this season. If we saw this on some girl walking around we cannot explain why but we would be quite annoyed. However, if we were wearing it, we would be quite pleased. Hypocrites, c'est nous. Alice + Olivia sequin dress, $396

Is this more horrible, or more amazing? We find ourselves drawn to it, moths to the flame and all that. Matthew Williamson sequined sweater, $825

We keep looking for sequin-y things that are priced in the tens, rather than hundreds, of dollars, and we are coming up empty. We have definitely seen cheaper, and actually a little less slightly ... exuberant versions of this bag, but this is the one we're stuck with today. Vanessa Bruno sequin-detail bag, $478

There are things about this dress we do not love. The color is not one of them. Er, we love the color, is what we're trying to say. Tracy Reese dress, was $515, now $251.09

And we have totally recommended this dress before, because we love it. We have no idea what the kids are wearing to the prom this year, but if we were 16, and we were going to something very fancy, we would totally wear this. Vera Wang tea-length dress, was $670, now $305.99

One Of These Is Not Like The Other

Who believes that Keira Knightley actually thinks this, from Elle: "When she (Beth Ditto) was performing she started taking all her clothes off. I stood there watching her strip, thinking, 'Oh my God, that woman is so sexy.' She has the most amazing body." If it didn't sound like total spin—following the death of a teenager, and her mother subsequently blaming it on Knightley, which is fucked in its own way, but whatever—we might be heartened by it, because certainly Beth Ditto is an ass-kicker. (And we have been singing "Standing in the Way of Control" since it was on all those Channel 4 ads for Skins last year.) But. KK looks like she is about 90 pounds in this picture. Emulate, girl. Don't just admire: emulate.

Here's what Beth Ditto says about the issue. Curiously, we believe every word she says:

It's treated like no one in the world is like this, and it's the most shameful thing, but really most of us are fat asses, you know. I just like food too much, and I don't want to change. I spent so much of childhood trying to change, and I just got sick of it. Then I went out Olympia and I met people who were part of a bigger movement -- no pun intended -- but a bigger movement, and it was really one of the most powerful things in my life. It is still a battle. Especially being in the music industry, it's so fucking hard. There are bands that I have known that have opened for Gossip that have turned into millionaires over night. And there's no other explanation, because they're not better bands than we are, and I don't mean that in an egotistical way, but in a fair, honest-to-god way. They are also willing to sell out and we're not. And one of the ways we're not willing to sell out is by acting straight, talking straight, being thin. I don't want to look like Britney Spears, I just don't want to. She's hideous.

If you haven't heard Standing in the Way of Control, we could not recommend it more highly.

We feel so much happier when we are talking about clothing, and not the celebrities who occasionally wear them. We love that shirt, and it is exactly the kind we would want to wear with our new high-waisted, non-Mischa Barton-y jeans. Can we say finally that Elle seems as unable as Vogue to spell her freaking name right? E-before-I, copy editors.

In French Vogue

So this is from French Vogue. It sort of reminded us of this, from Devil Wears Prada:

Now, it's certainly not like DWP is cutting-edge American fashion, but it reminded us of Stranger Than Fiction. "Totally shocking ending!" someone told us, but, in fact, it was the most ridiculous, non-surprising ending we could possibly imagine. (And yes, we are feeling quite Grinch-ish on this.) We were like: Cache, the French movie with Juliette Binoche: That had one of the most shocking things in it we've ever seen in a film. We watched it on a plane and did that whole embarrassing loud-gasp thing. StF: not shocking. Shocking like a cupcake, or a baby deer. And then back to the topic at hand: We just wish our American fashion movies were one-screw-loose closer to French Vogue. That is all.

And we still really want a top like that. (In this case: Marc Jacobs.)

Pretty Betty

When we first saw the America Ferrera W cover, we must admit, we were like: "Do we love her any less for doing that thing where the supposedly not-vampy girl, our pet heroine, is actually revealed to be super-vamp with excellent bone structure etc.?"

First, we will say this: We truly believe anyone can be a super vamp, with the right lighting and exercise program. And we will swear to that. We do, in fact, swear to that.

And secondly: No, we do not love her any less!

Going Diana

After reading the extremely long piece on the Met and its super-old sculptures (you know you're capable of some super-astute analysis when you're describing things as "extremely long" and "super-old"), what we were thinking about was the chief sculpture involved, the Hope Dionysus. We were actually thinking not so much about the sculpture as about the tunic it is described as wearing, and then we naturally started thinking about what sort of tunic we would wear if we were a Greek princess \ goddess. And then of course we started thinking about the sandals as well. We think we may wear this every single day, and perhaps a little tiara made of twigs and flowers.

We are not sure if this was the author's intent in any sense.

Rachel Pally Grecian tunic, $198, and Kors sandals, $160

When Magazines Go Long-Form

If Lucky and InStyle were our parents, and they decided to get a divorce, we'd be all, like, "No! Lucky! Don't leave us here with InStyle! Nooooo!" Etc. We have thought about it and we know why it is, and it is all the celebrity ass-licking. Holy God, we just do not need to see inside Kimberly Stewart's apartment, which she did absolutely nothing to earn except pop out of the right womb. Ugh. We know Lucky has a dash of celebrity, but it is only a dash, as opposed to InStyle's ... er, whole hog-ness. And we also know that we are comparing two magazines devoted to consumerism, more or less, so we're not exactly weighing the merits of various religions. Whatever.

In any case: As noted, we're biased, but we find the InStyle shopping guide a pale imitation—stress imitation—of the Lucky Shopping Manual, which we have studied more closely than any classical text and would maintain a valued position on our bookshelf if our best friend, who is named Laura and should be warned that we are going to break into her house and steal it back if she does not return it and promptly, hadn't stolen it first. InStyle: Bigger = not always entirely better.

InStyle Instatnt Style, $18.87

Lucky Shopping Manual, $18.90

Three well-spent cents, we're thinking.

We would also like to say that Nylon Pretty is the prettiest of all of them, embracing, as it does, of all sorts of prettiness, but we're biased, as they pay such a 1099-documented percentage of our annual salary.

Pretty: The Nylon Book of Beauty, $16.47

Problematic

Is it really a "tribute" if you're naked the whole time? Oh! And dead?

We are so moving to a village in France where they don't have the Internet.

We'd figure out some quasi-related something-to-buy but clearly any additional exploitation \ marketing is impossible.

Mixed Messages

From the new British Vogue. We're usually so into Nick Knight's stuff, but we really are just so over this Steve Madden-cam tiny bodies \\ big shoes thing. Seriously. If we were anorexic, we'd pin it to our fridge. And the irony is that this is in the same issue as "Vogue weighs in" on "the skinny debate"—i.e., all the models dying from eating disorders. And that piece works extremely hard to be having and eating the cake simultaneously: Most people have the models' best interests at heart, designers love models, models love modeling, Lily Cole's a size 8, whatever. We love British Vogue but this to us is a total disconnect.

The leggings, by the way, are special-order Zandra Rhodes.