Lady Fancy.

Darlings, I am undone! October has arrived and with it begins an entire month of the (even more) strange and beautiful. The strange and the beautiful are my two favorite categories to curate for you and it is my extraordinary pleasure to bust out a new reoccurring column featuring virtual artists for you to feast your eyes on.

We begin with the singular J.A.W. Cooper, whose moniker is as stylish and mysterious as her work.

Cooper’s work is intoxicating. Her illustrations are elegant and seductive and more dangerous the longer you look at them. They’re what you would see if you breathed too deeply in a mysterious supernatural fog, if you followed trickster fairies into a natural history museum after hours, if you ate figs from the wrong tree in an enchanted forest in winter.

See?

I told you so.

There’s a wealth of work available for feasting your eyes on at Cooper’s instagram, including in-progress sketches and reference photos that give glimpses into the artistic process that I always find fascinating.

Don’t you? Of course you do. 

And the cats, her cats are superb! They are lithe and savage and beautiful. 

I have always longed to smell like something strange and wonderful. Haven’t you?

Many moons ago, I discovered Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab. I’ve been wearing their scents ever since my first intoxicating delivery arrived, back in the days when they were small enough that you had to wait weeks until they had enough orders to mix up a batch of each scent. They’ve grown considerably since then (oh frabjous day!) and deliveries are expedient, though the customer service and quality remain fabulously personal and of the highest order. I adore them and in return for my eternal love and a small fee, they make me smell delicious.

The beauty of BPAL’s perfume oils is that they don’t smell like perfume in that plastic approximation of flowers or spices way that so many pricey bottles do. Instead, they smell like the actual things that they’re meant to. Personally, I like to smell like dead roses, rotting plums, and old burnt paper. And BPAL has that covered.

('Self portrait at 27 (with dead roses)', by Vivien Masters)

Like any reasonable creature, I prefer to change my scents with the season and when the snow crunches underfoot, one of my favorite winter smells is Miskatonic University. It reeks of cream and honey and traps you in amber like a prehistoric insect, which is all I’ve ever really wanted in life. Like all good perfumes, it casts a spell over the wearer.

Once, I wore it out shopping and after a leaving the changing rooms of a store, I heard a bystander ponder out loud:

“Does anyone else smell…pancakes?”

I have never been more proud in my life, dear reader.

I am an unapologetic devotee of the doily. Be it the cut paper valentine maker of grade school hope and disappointment or the crochet fuss and clutter perched on the armchairs of old ladies, I defend its usefulness. Outmoded? Never. You simply haven’t been looking in the right places. 

Dear reader, I have been looking. And I have found Uncommon Handmade’s glorious wooden doilies. 

Are they not things of unparalleled beauty? I say emphatically that yes, yes, yes they are. 

And color! They come in glorious colors that shake off any grandmotherly qualities and beg for small beautiful things to be placed atop them. 

These are perhaps my most favorite deployment of doilies since their use in frivolous regency headgear.

Tokyo Milk Dark smells mysterious and strangely attractive, like all the hot goth girls you thought might be secretly cooler than you in high school. A heady, sweet aroma of clove cigarettes, bourbon, and promiscuity after all-ages concerts.

No, it's awesome, I promise.

It's no secret that LadyFancy loves all fashion, but the Chicago Renegade Craft Fair this weekend has stirred up our love for supporting small businesses and finding unique, handmade fashion that's anything but off-the-rack.

This week the spotlight is on indie Nashville design team Maryink's slouchy, stylish screened pullovers. We're particularly fond of the St Basil's print shown above, but check out their site for the full experience at Maryink.com.

Nina Ricci Spring RTW 2013

Miu Miu Spring 2013 RTW

L'Wren Scott Spring 2013 RTW

Junya Watanabe Spring 2013 RTW 

Balenciaga Spring 2013 RTW

Andrew Gn Spring 2013 RTW

Louis Vuitton Fall 2012 RTW

I warmed up to the heavy, awkward silhouettes as soon as I realized that Marc Jacobs conceived this collection by pondering what Downton Abbey would look like if Edward Gorey and Klimt designed it from the afterlife. 

Alexander McQueen Fall 2012 RTW

Yves Saint Laurent Fall 2012 RTW