A Ranting Redhead: NYFW

Firstly let me begin by wishing everyone and I mean EVERYONE, boys, girls, transgender, the I just don't know's, and the in-between's a very very happy and beautiful Valentines Day. You don't need someone in your life to be in a relationship; a relationship with yourself is a life long romance. Now to finish up my coverage of NYFW.......It has now been a few days since my glorious weekend spent running around the outside of the Lincoln Center documenting all of the well dressed and not so well dressed attendees of New York Fashion Week and I felt like this experience deserved a good ranting. This originally aired on Jacked Fashion for my Ranting Redhead series but I really wanted to share it here as well.

Left image by Blonde Bundle; Right image by J. Thomas Productions

It has always kind of urked me hearing about how people will just hang out in front of the fashion shows so they can get photographed by the street style photographers but now that I am here I found myself doing the exact same thing. I mean hell it’s a really smart business move. I go and get to photograph interesting looking people, make a TON of contacts and pass out my business card to people that may have otherwise never met me (or not met me for a very long time), and yes I did get photographed by quite a few people too because fuck, of course I’m going to get all dolled up to go to fashion week. Sadly I didn’t go to any of the shows but I work in an industry where 95% of your resume is what you wear or better yet how you present yourself and I tried to use this opportunity to prove to some people that do go to the shows that I am worthy of being invited to shows next season. Fingers crossed.

Moving on to my thoughts of what other people were wearing…….I met some amazing creatures that were dressed in ways that had never even crossed my mind. Polka dots with red bell bottoms and converse sneakers; maxi camo printed coats and SpongeBob Squarepants tote bags; metal leg cuffs layered on top of leather harem pants; I could go on but will let the photos speak for themselves. Never the less what I found myself thinking about the whole time though was whether these people always dress this way or if they did it especially for NYFW? 

For me I like to think that I always dress in unexpected ways just like Alaska of Jacked Fashion does (one of the many reasons why we bonded so much).  It is the best way we can express ourselves without words. However as I was hanging around the Lincoln Center and watching this fashion spectacle occur I had the unpleasant feeling that a lot of these people were just scamming me. That this isn’t who they actually are, they are just putting on a show for us and that really pissed me off. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for a good show but for those of us that this is our life and passion and are putting our whole heart and soul into it without any monetary support it is so distraughting to feel like someone is just trying on your life for the perks of getting their photo featured in a magazine or on a website/blog.   

Obviously all of this is coming from a very subjective stand-point as no one actually admitted to me that they don’t always dress in these wildly fantastic ways, it is just a musing that I needed to express. I could easily be completely wrong and it would do nothing but please me to be wrong about this as all of the people that I saw gathered at the corner of 63^rd and Broadway made my soul flutter and my heart race in ways that I’ve only experienced vicariously through the inter-web. Either way NYFW was a circus that I had a blast attending and despite all of the negative ranting’s people have been voicing these past few years on the fiasco it has become for a young girl coming from a place and a world where these things never existed it was like walking into a dream.

So cheers to the circus and hats off to its performers. May you never lose your colorful spirits and if you are scamming all of us I hope that you find the courage to dress like a fashion freak in your day-to-day life like those of us that find our quintessence in this very troubled and complex medium.

Yours truly,

A Ranting Redhead

Why The Hell Not?

Living in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida (aka the South) I often experienced that moment when you walk out the door in something that in the confides of your bedroom you're completely comfortable but once outside realize just how "different" it is due to the handfuls of people looking at you like there MUST be something wrongly wired with-in you. When it comes to getting dressed I have always lived the philosophy of why the hell not? Why not wear a bird on your head or a pair of leather driving gloves in the summer or 5" stilettos to school if you want to? Because of other people? Who gives a flying fuck about other people when at the end of it all all you're going to remember is how you felt, not how they felt. New Yorker's seem to completely understand this based on the fact that I have worn many outfits that in Miami would have been looked at as weird or "artsy" and result in an array of looks, glares, gawks and stares but in New York no one even flinches. It is completely normal here to dress like a circus freak or peacock or hell I'm sure I could even walk around dressed in a full on ballerina tutu made out of metal and pointe shoes and no one would even care. In fact it's encouraged and I LOVE it.

Recently I bought a 100% blush pink silk maxi dress for $10 at local thrift store Beacons Closet and I've been dying to wear it out casually. I did don it to a Grammy's watching party the other week but didn't feel like it got the full adornment experience it truly deserves. So staying true to my sartorial life philosophy of why the hell not I decided to throw my hands in the air and wear it this past weekend to the Lincoln Center for NYFW. The results were just as I had expected: not a flinch and it felt incredible. I know that there are people who read this blog that don't have the opportunity to live in New York and not be judged for dressing exactly how they feel but I hope that this story inspires you to take on a WTHN philosophy and wear that one piece I know is sitting in your closet and you always did love but never had the courage to actually throw on and walk out of the house in. That said I also decided to wear my good friend's traditional garments from Tanzania which she had gifted to me many months ago and I have discussed my appropriation of it here. I find it to be an absolutely gorgeous piece of art that should be shared with the world and apparently so did Humans of New York as my photo along with fashion blogger Au De was featured yesterday!!! 

Photo by Humans of New York

Like I said before at the end of the day all that really matters is how you feel and if you can feel like a queen (or king for my guys out there) just by dressing in something that makes you happy then fuck the people who don't understand that as they will judge you no matter what you do. If something makes you smile than you should never be ashamed or embarrassed to flaunt it. 
Why the hell not?

Lillian Bassman

In the era of Alexey Brodovitch's art direction at Harper's Bazaar during the 1930's and 40's came about great artists like Richard Avedon, Jean Cocteau, Man Ray and one of who I was completely unaware of until finding an interview with her from 2012 right before her death in the most recent issue of Hunger Magazine, Lillian Bassman.

Born in 1917 into a family of freethinking intellectuals Lillian was raised to be an independent and unconventional woman (obviously the best kind there is). She initially was a student of Brodovitch's in his Design Laboratory class but was quickly given an internship at Harper's Bazaar in 1941 and a permanent position four years later. Beginning as a creative director she soon found herself in the darkroom more than anywhere else experimenting with unusual techniques such as using tissues to bring certain areas of a photo into focus or applying bleach to change tones and achieve dreamy effects. 

She stayed with Harper's Bazaar until the 1960's when she felt she could no loner connect with the new wave of models and magazine styles. In the 1990's her negatives were rediscovered after being stored in trashbags in Bassman's home and she re-edited the photos creating a reinterpretation and vision aside from what the camera originally saw. 

Her graphic high-contrast style is what really caught my eyes, mind and soul transforming what could have been a static photo of a model into a piece of visual poetry, mystery and glamour. All of her photograph's are characterized with elegance and grace. What I think I find most attractive about Lillian's work is that I can't tell if what I'm looking at is a photograph or a painting. I love a challenge. Her husband Paul Himmell also has a collection of riveting work that I will have to discuss on another day but for now may you take a moment out of your day to appreciate the sylph-like images by the late and great Lillian Bassman.