#emptycages

L'ORIGINALICOPIÉ _

#IKEA response to #Balenciaga’s $2,145 rendition of their $0.90 bag is beyond an ad troll high-five. It underlines how fashion constipation is at its peak. Let’s be frank, not disrespectful: #DemnaGvasalia is not #AlessandroMichele. The former is uninspired by @itsjeremyscott. The latter is uninspired by @humbertotoo. @Balenciaga is not @Moschino. @Gucci is not @Kenzo. @Kering_official is not @LVMH. The same day - April 25 - the former publishes its outstanding Q1 financial results, the later announces its prise de contrôle of Christian #Dior Couture. Battles. Billions. Yet where #Kering was winning on renovating its senior executives AND designers fleet ( Bottega Venata, Saint Laurent ) ante-#HefiSlimane because of belief in unrivalled originality, Kering is today loosing post Hedi Slimane - #Vaccarello #Gvasalia and even #Michele himself - because of triviality. Loosing authenticity disguised in the pr blah blah blah of “deconstructing the heritage of the maison through archives nostalgiacademia” to be in the modern era of today might make billions today, 2018 or 2019 but will not lure the demand of engagement and transparency asked by the millennials even if the luxury groups are making money. It’s cheap patching long term and a crime in eroding decades of griffes building. In guiding, your audiences toward better taste decisions, designers would simultaneously revisit heritage, reinforce brand awareness and sought leadership. Deconstruction. Not. Destruction. Because deconstruction is not destruction. @Prada is paying a hefty price by sticking to that, today, in 2018 and 2019. But #MiucciaPrada like Hedi Slimane will never compromise: repurposing of media [fashion houses] not for consumption but for communication is, I believe, their underpinning of this social age. Respect. Dignité. Exemplarité. C'est ça la mode des designers affranchis. Un et insoumis au système. Chapeau. _

#JOHNNYHALLYDAY _

“Ces premiers froids que l’on réchauffe d’un sarment, – Et des platanes d’or le long gémissement, – Et l’alcôve au lit noir qui datait d’Henri IV, Où ton corps, au hasard de l’ombre dévêtu, S’illuminait parfois d’un rouge éclair de l’âtre, Quand tu m’aiguillonnais de ton genou pointu, Chevaucheuse d’amour si triste et si folâtre ; – Et cet abyme où l’on tombait : t’en souviens-tu ? ”

Paul-Jean Toulet, Chansons. Johnny Hallyday va être à #JeandOrmesson ce qu'#EdithPiaf a été à #JeanCocteau: un arbre à l'ombre trop grande. Adieu Johnny. RIP. Allumez le feu dans l’au-delà. _

OTTILIE D'OLD DANUBE _

#TillyLosch in a #Mainbocher evening and @Mauboussin_officiel jewels was the hottest in #London. The enigmatic dancer actress, dancer and artist always oozed dramatic glamand galore. Fred Astaire danced with Tilly in “Band Wagon” in New York later. Before that, she owed much to the great Max Reinhardt Austrian-born American theatre and film director, intendant, and theatrical producer. Max Reinhardt discovered her as a little dancing girl in the State Ballet School of Austria in Vienna. A born prodige was slowly breaking into stardom in the early 1920s with a peak as Princess Tea in Schlagobers (composed by Richard Strauss). By 1933, Tilly showcased Les Ballets by Edward James and Georges Balanchine with Kochno, Derain, Lenya, Jasinsky, Kylberg, and Abravanel. Since then she has supported the #Salzburg Dance and Music Festivals throughout her life as a performer and teacher of dance. From Orson Wells to Prince Serge Obolensky to Lotte Lenya to Marlene Dietrich to Cecil Beaton an admirer confidante), the very slavic high cheekbones lady with wonderful green eyes wide apart and a nose like a little cat’s collected lovers and lords (like Porchy #Carnarvon, her second husband for .. ten weeks) during her whole life. She rose to heights of Arts and British aristocracy with her dancing and darlings. Her sensual mouth, modern mondaine à la #Chanel and expressive hands made her an instant hit and high. Her predatory air and barely-concealed sexual appetite had rich paramours, tantalized photographers, and prodigious performers at her feet. I can’t help imagining what she was telling a 20 years older #GabrielleChanel in Monte Carlo about how casual chic as the feminine standard of style was the ultimate next prominence, ante Trente Glorieuses. “Always have a good little black dress, pearls and stay in the best hotel, even if you can have only the worst room”. You loved them or loathed them. Love was just a transaction. Fashion was just a transposition. Gold. Diggers. _