What's Your Persona

Last Friday I met up with fellow Toronto blogger Krist Papas, of the blog whatsyourpersona. Krist is a street fashion and portrait photographer who has also contributed to Toro and Toronto Life.

We had fun talking about photography (Karl Lagerfeld is a genius), fashion (does anyone wear anything besides H&M in this city?) and blogging (how influnetial is it?)

Check out some of his beautiful photos:





(Photos courtesy of Krist Papas)

Mode as muse and wannabe models

Today I went to the Eaton Centre to check out the Ford Supermodel of the World open call and to support my friend who was trying out. Unfortunately my camera died and I couldn't take photos so I will do my best to describe the scene.

We got there about 12:15 and there was already a pretty big lineup. There were girls of all sizes and heights. Some were typically pretty (what I call "mall pretty;") others had the model requirements (very tall, very thin;) some were too short but had pretty faces and were thin; and some had horrible style (one girl wore a bright pink shirt with holes along the arms and was so tight her belly fat was leaking out.)

Out of all of them (friend excluded) I only saw one girl who caught my eye; she wasn't typically pretty but she had an interesting face. I'll try to describe it from my memory. She had dark, full eyebrows, large wide-set brown eyes that were a bit too far away from her nose but it made her look elfin. She had a small, pouty mouth and a round-shaped face. She was very tall, I would say 6 feet and looked very young and shy. She captivated me and I'm really sad that I couldn't take any photos. I hope the Ford website puts up shots from the event.

Anyway, the line up grew pretty big and they had to start lining up girls outside the mall. There were lots of moms there. A Revlon hair guy went around to all the girls spraying their hair and pulling it back into a ponytail. When the girls got to the front they had their head shots taken and were asked a couple of questions about themselves.

I was standing beside a 16-year-old girl who seemed like she was at least 6 feet (although all of them were wearing super tall heels) and said that she already had an agent and had done some modeling. She told me a cute anecdote about her agent calling her while she was writing an exam and she had to refuse a modeling job because she obviously had to finish the test.

I talked to a few other girls there and asked them how much they knew about modeling and models. Most of them didn't know the names of contemporary models such as Daria Werbowy or Coco Rocha. They all think it's a glamorous job. A lot of them were trying out just for fun or because their friends or parents told them too. Some of them were interested in fashion but a lot of them weren't.

After my friend left, I headed over to the Indigo to find some good books and I came across The Model as Muse book that's part of the Met exhibition of the same name.
The Peter Lindbergh photograph of Kate Moss sold me.

The book and the Ford Supermodel open call got me thinking about what makes a good model.
Flipping through the photographs of the greats like Linda Evangelista, Veruschka, Jean Shrimpton, Lisa Fonssagrives, Naomi Campbell, Kate and others, I wondered how much of being a great model relies on the face, the body, the makeup artist, the hair stylist, the photographer and the numerous other people that help a girl become a model.

For me, it's about an interesting face; not necessarily beautiful, but a face that you can't help but notice and stare at. I think part of being a good model is knowing how to move your body in front of a camera and knowing your good angles. Being part actor and part chameleon is a model's job. I don't think you have to know a lot about fashion if you want to become a model, but it helps.
But really, I think it all comes down to that face. No makeup, no product in the hair, no fancy clothes on. If the face can inspire people then that's a good start for a girl to become a model.

Was there a potential muse in the line up I saw? I did see a lot of girls who came across as confident, who knew they were hot. But would they be able to inspire a designer, would they define an era, would they influence a photographer? I'm not so sure.

It's been a while

I decided to take a break from writing on this blog because a lot of things were going on in my life that were keeping me very busy and preventing me from being inspired to write about fashion.

But it's been a while and I think I'm ready to start again and I'm regaining my excitement about fashion which means I will be posting again (hopefully) regularly.

To tell the truth I think I became a bit disillusioned about fashion and what it meant to me. I wasn't as excited about it and I felt I had nothing new to comment about. That and I've become obsessed with comics lately and I can't stop reading them and reading about them so fashion has been put on the back burner.

But in recent news, my Valentino interview was published in the Winter issue of Naked Eye magazine so grab a copy and check it out.

I've been pouring over the photos of the F/W 09 collections and I have to say that I am so over the 80s revival. 80s fashion was bad enough for a whole decade so why is it coming back? We don't need any Dynasty clones walking around.

Thankfully Paris did it (mostly) right with minimal 80s throwbacks. Loved McQueen, Givenchy, Lagerfeld and Margiela.

I spent way too much money on magazines yesterday and now have the whole weekend to drool at the photos of Lara Stone in Paris Vogue and Emily Blunt in British Harper's Bazaar. I love the clothes from the S/S 09 collections. I want to frame every photo in Paris Vogue; they are so beautiful. Peter Lindbergh's portraits of Lara are haunting. Makes me want to buy two copies so I can rip out the photos of one and put them up on my walls, and keep another pristine issue.

I've been trying to cut back on spending since I'm saving up for an apartment but it's hard. Whenever I walk past a store I see something that I must get like a giant black cocktail ring or a pair of snakeskin heels. I have to keep saying to myself that I don't need that black jacket with the diagonal zipper and I don't really need another schoolboy blazer. But it's hard.

I'm going to leave you with the Lindbergh photos of Lara. They inspired me to start blogging about fashion again.

Romeo and Coco

I always look forward to the December issue of Vogue because they usually include a fairy tale editorial (ie. Alice in Wonderland) filled with beautiful costumes, a large cast that includes actors or designers, and a romantic setting. This year they went with Romeo and Juliet, starring model Coco Rocha as Juliet and dancer Roberto Bolle as Romeo. Photographed by Annie Leibovitz, the photos are very romantic with soft lighting, thick tapestries, draped flowers, haunting stone sets and gorgeous long gowns by Christian Lacroix, Nina Ricci, Alexander McQueen and Vera Wang. Actors John Lithgow and Estelle Parsons play Friar Laurence and the Nurse, respectivelly.

I love Coco's expressions; this woman should be an actress. You can see the angst, the longing, the passion and the pain on her face. She makes me want to fall in love with someone forbidden.



Prince: A glooming peace this morning with it brings,/The sun for sorrow will not show his head./Go hence to have more talk of these sad things;/Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished:/For never was there a story of more woe/Than this of Juliet and her Romeo. (Act V, Sc. 3)

(Photos: Vogue)

My new crush: Paul Empson

Paul Empson has captured my heart with his photographs.
I don't really care about what he looks like (or I couldn't find a photo of him on Google Images) or where he is from (why doesn't he have a Wikipedia page?) or whether he likes animals. All I care about is his eye for beautiful photographs.
Paul has shot many a model such as Tanya D; he has shot ads for Kookai and George Cross and has photographed the band Silverchair.
What I love about his photos is his use of colour- neon yellows, muted pinks, soft blues: They all create a mood. The models seem more alive and vivid; they really stand out and are hard to forget.
One of my favorite photos is of a model lying in a bed under a glow of yellow. She is half dressed, the bed sheets are messy and she is twisting a strand of hair through her fingers. It feels like you just caught her just after pleasuring a man (or herself.) Simply unforgettable.

(Photos: Paul Empson)