Plaidness

There's definitely a plaid revival happening. Even Buffalo plaids that usually struggle to find the right fashion moment are happily back to provide an eighties vibe but refreshed with the addition of bold striped knits and skinny jeans. Tartans are hardly ever not in style, but its nice to see some new ways of wearing them. I saw a young guy the other day with a Tartan tie, not unlike the ones pictured on the right, worn with a clashing checked shirt. On the left a greeting card from our store.

Tattoo Style

I have plans do to some tattoo influenced designs- so am doing some research on the subject. Here is a scan from the Taschen book 1000 Tattoos, a thick resource of old school tattoo photos. The ones pictures above are from the 1920's. Its interesting that tattoo as a form of graphic medium and style is gaining mainstream status, its popularity and pervasiveness in modern culture a subject that's been contemplated in NYTimes and studied at PSFK.

Native Legacy

Every fall season I inevitably work on a design group based on Native American imagery. For some reason the subject seems to lend itself to sense of the great American outdoors. Above are two images from the book Sacred Legacy which is a collection of photographs by Edward S. Curtis- probably the most well known early documentor of Native American people and their lives- his monochrome images continue to be powerful and inspirational to this day.

Right Field

These classic American Field Jackets- a staple of outdoors wear never stray too far from popularity but Woolrich Plaids are definitely a hot ticket for this fall especially if they track the the more tailored fits of the original. The patched detail and patches on the left are some of the design details currently being used to update fleece items.

Right: FIELD HUNTING JACKET
Left:HUNTING-JACKET

I'm So There

This New York Times Magazine article about Todd Haynes' upcoming movie I'm Not There is a fascinating look behind what looks like an intriguing movie. The premise -presenting the different phases of Dylan's career as alter egos is brilliant and the casting of Cate Blanchett as the ascending rock star Dylan is nothing short of genius. Can't Wait.

Carrie

Lets Start Fall with a classic horror flick- Carrie. Sissy Spacek's look seems like an inspiration for a lot of stylists right now.

Future Tense

Vintage cinematic visions of the future seem to be on the minds of certain designers for Fall 2007. Apocalyptic styling and sets referencing Mad Max featured at John Galliano and D Squared while space suits and the theme from A Space Odyssey opened the Dolce Gabbana show.

Hipster Mullahs

In a recent New York Times article about trend that focusses largely on the "startling apperance" of beards on young hipsters referencing in particular the musician Devendra Banhart the author Guy Trebay, after initially declaring that 'trends emerge, apparently from nowhere' goes on to suggest that this 'bearded hipster-mullah-hippie' look was probably borrowed from ' gay bears, a small minority of hyper-masculine men who affect potbellies, clodhoppers and lavish chin whiskers' or copped the look from "Peter Orlovsky, the poet lover for three decades of Allen Ginsberg".

Talk about a stab in the dark. Wouldn't an experimental folksy musician like Devendra be more inclined to channel musicians like Graham Nash or perhaps the members of the The Band ?