New Year's Eve 2010- Feathered Leggings!

And I don't mean "patterned," either.

Oh, yes.

Well, it all started when I found this magazine

and stumbled across this story,

 

shot by Glen Luchford (link goes to article on blog Touch Puppet, a beautiful fashion photography blog)

and styled by Panos Yiapanis. (link goes to article on blog Youth Novels, with some of the most spectacular images of Tilda Swinton, a personal hero of mine)

The rose petal leggings"designed by stylist's studio" stuck in my mind for months, and I thought "those would make any normal-shaped person look dumpy, but they seem so... intensely cool."

And then, shopping for textured fabric at my favorite remnant haunt, I saw this dark chocolate feathered fabric, one-way stretch, and the texture reminded me of the RPLs.  I thought "Leggings.  If they're awful, at least I can go next Halloween as a convincing satyr."

They weren't awful.  They were kinda awesome.  And while parts of me DID in fact look a bit bigger,

I found I didn't mind so much.

New Years Eve at the Down and Out, DTLA, was more fun than it rightfully should have been, I certainly started the year off right.  And what's more, I made a sensation with the leggings.  Most repeated comment of the night:

"What the..FEATHERS?  Can I touch them?????"

And since I can't possibly take myself seriously as a photographer, next to Luchford or anyone else, I'll just throw this one in.

Paradigm Shift- Dita, Style Monte Carlo

During one of my strange-new-magazine binges a few years ago, I came across Style Monte Carlo, and it has become a favorite of mine. 

(the cover that first caught my eye- Brazillian beauty Fernanda Tavares)

The photography is spectacular, and the photo styling is very consistently High Glamour.  But what most struck me about them are their innovative ways of looking at cultural phenomena.

One of my favorite stories ever was of Dita von Teese.  The burlesque queen with the alabaster skin is definitely an emblem of glamour, but it's always dark, ornate, barely-clad, nocturnal glamour.  So of course, why not shoot her in the bright, blinding coastal sunlight on a boat, backlit by blue sky?

The Dior gown alone is spectacular, but add in the color, and the utter modernity of the dress... this is not your average Dita!

And what is this, if not striking?

This shot is close and cropped, so that you can see her, but the original image was about 75% blue sky, 15 % clean cement ship and white rail, and 10 % oh-heavens-look-at-that-dress-I-want-it.  And Dita gleams incandescent in a whole new way, flawless pin-up with a tongue-in-cheek difference from her usual routune.  I'm sure she's coated in SPF 9000, but clearly, the sun loves her.

Photography by Amadeo M. Turello