IF YOU'RE IN LONDON THIS WEEK...

Just got this delivered to my mailbox so...take a peek:

Thursday 21st October 6pm - 8pm The World of Manolo Room Ground Floor

Cancel any plans you might have this Thursday and head down to Liberty for the unique chance to meet fashion’s most illustrious shoe designer, Manolo Blahnik. To celebrate the launch of his new book, 'Manolo’s New Shoes', Blahnik will be in store signing purchases. Don't miss this rare opportunity to see the man behind some of the most well renowned and iconic shoes ever produced. 'Manolo’s New Shoes', published by Thames & Hudson, collects together previously unpublished sketches and designs including those for Sofia Coppola’s celebrated Marie Antoinette biopic, with accompanying text from fashion’s best known names including Suzy Menkes and Grace Coddington. GET MANOLO'S NEW SHOES

THE NEXT GENERATION

DISCUSS.

SHOW THEM YOU CARE

I thought I'd be able to keep myself from posting other videos regarding Julie Andrews on the day of her birthday, but it's been impossible. I just watched the following bit from Mary Poppins three times straight, and though Feed The Birds is probably one of the saddest songs in the movie, it is also one of my favorites. The music is beautiful, as well as her voice and interpretation, but above all, the imagery and lyrics, are probably the most touching ingredients of this powerful combination. I guess they must have spoken to the young animal activist in me.

Early each day to the steps of Saint Paul's
The little old bird woman comes
In her own special way to the people she call,
"Come, buy my bags full of crumbs;
Come feed the little birds,
Show them you care
And you'll be glad if you do
Their young ones are hungry
Their nests are so bare
All it takes is tuppence from you
Feed the birds, tuppence a bag
Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag
Feed the birds," that's what she cries
While overhead, her birds fill the skies

All around the cathedral the saints and apostles
Look down as she sells her wares
Although you can't see it,
You know they are smiling
Each time someone shows that he cares

Though her words are simple and few
Listen, listen, she's calling to you
"Feed the birds, tuppence a bag
Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag"

Having lived in Eastern Europe as a child, I never felt the urge to travel to London (like I did for Paris), so my first time there was when I was 27, and I have to say I fell in love with the city.
Though stalking Madonna and a trip to her house in Marylebone were within my plans, they were not as important as going to Saint Paul's Here it goes.

A SPOONFUL OF JULIE

What would our world be without Julie Andrews? I really don't know. So many people's childhood memories are inevitably linked to her I can't possibly think of anyone who doesn't hold a special place for her in their heart. Unlike what was said about Singin' In The Rain's Lina Lamont, she CAN act, she CAN dance and she CAN sing, she is perhaps the embodiment of the word "talent".
I was thinking about the videos I should post regarding her but there's an endless list in Mary Poppins alone, and then there's The Sound of Music, Victor Victoria, etc. etc.
Though we associate her name mostly to films that belong to the comedy and musical genres, what's special about Julie Andrews is that she is also an actress with range. Just a couple of weeks ago I was over a couple of friends' house and we were about to watch her in Hitchcock's Torn Curtain, alongside Paul Newman, but something, I dont' recall what, got in the way and we ended up watching something else.
I'm having a sort of hectic week, but I had to take a minute or two to sit down and write about her today. Happy 75th Birthday!

TWENTY

Yes, it's been twenty years since Vogue came out as a single, though it was also included in the soundtrack for the movie Dick Tracy : I'm Breathless, and later that same year in the Immaculate Collection.

I became absolutely obsessed with this song and especially the video as soon as it came out. I was ten, but it just spoke to me, I've no idea what it was that captivated me, but in hindsight, the collection of Lempicka images and references to Horst and Mainbocher all put together and coming to life through a fabulous and intricate choreography were something that could just not go by unnoticed, even for my (yet) untrained eye.

Inspiration has become quite a frequent word lately, especially regarding current pop-stars' videos: How much is "inspired by" and how much of their work is just a blatant copy. I think Vogue is the perfect example of how to take references from different artists (the aforementioned ones), no matter how explicit they might be, to then mix them with something as current and not-so-mainstream as "voguing" was back in the day. I think it takes a lot of vision to be able to mix things that are so distant and that apparently have nothing in common (hedonism is the obvious common denominator) into something so new and unique, and what's even more difficult, into something of Madonna's own: it is virtually impossible to separate Madonna from voguing nowadays.
In 2004, I went to my first-ever Madonna concert. Vogue was the opening song, and she performed in a corset, not designed by Mainbocher, but by Monsieur Christian Lacroix himself.

However, I feel my favorite Vogue performances will always be the one at the 1990 MTV Music Awards and ESPECIALLY the one from The Girlie Show.

Here's the performance from the latter, and despite the cliché, here it goes : STRIKE A POSE!

BREAKING UP IS HARD TO DO

I was thinking about those VERY inspiring Robert Palmer videos with the beautiful girls, all uniformed in the same slick hair, red lipstick and skintight dresses. All so pretty. I had suggested the look for a styling project I have next week but my client didn't approve of it. Too bad.
A friend of mine on Facebook posted the videos a couple of days ago and I thought it was funny coincidence. Then this morning, I remembered the following video. Enjoy.

WHAT IF FEELS LIKE FOR A FAN

"Because she's a non-conformist"
BLESS the girl who I'm quoting, whomever she may be. It's a phrase my best friend and I always go back to and that makes us giggle at first to then eventually break up into MAD laughter when we realize how silly we can be when it comes to our love for the one and only Queen of Pop.
The phrase comes from a teenager outside a Madonna performance in the 80's, most probably at a Virgin Tour concert, when asked by a news reporter WHY she loves Madonna. I've been asked that question myself and I haven't been able to answer it without going into an endless list of reasons which actually don't manage to express what it feels like for a fan.
It will be Madonna's birthday in about two minutes , and I could begin posting thousands of quotes, videos, pictures, etc. in order to celebrate, but this time I will limit my posting to two pieces.
Number one: a picture of myself and my newly acquired Interview magazine (brought to me by a dear friend) where she looks absolutely fantastic.

Number two: a video of Madonna at MTV'S New Music Seminar in 1984.
I love this video. There's no dancing, no singing, none of her usual physical abilities are exposed, but what we manage to see is one of Madonna's greatest talents: her vision. PLEASE watch, at least until the 1:26 mark, and OBSERVE how this newcomer gives the established artists of the time a huge lesson. I recently watched it for the nth time and I could not help but cheer, jump and clap. It makes me smile.
It makes me proud to be a fan.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADONNA!

YOU BETTER KNOW WHAT YOU'RE FIGHTING FOR

LOVING this.
I guess this is one of the examples when less is DEFINITELY more.

AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER

It's half past midnight and although I have to be up early tomorrow and should be asleep by now, I can't avoid the fact that today is the fourth anniversary of the day Madonna grabbed my hand. Yes, four years ago I became one lucky fan. I travelled to Boston especially for this concert, I bought a ticket on ticketmaster and though I knew I had a pretty good seat, I had no idea I was to be located just by the end of the catwalk where the disco ball where Madonna would come out of would descend at the beginning of the show.
The minute the mirrored ball opened, right after she sang : Connect to the sky/Future lovers ride/There in mission style/Would you like to try, she turned to her left and stared at me, and I almost fainted. I had had a t-shirt made especially for the occasion, in black and white stripes and with the words "I CONFESS" emblazoned in fuchsia and purple sequins. I could hardly contain myself throughout the entire show, I had never been this close to her (I had been to the Reinvention Tour a couple of years before, but the stage design wasn't this fan friendly).
I was happy. Just too happy. I though my trip had been worth every bit, but little did I know that the best was yet to come. While singing La Isla Bonita, right when she went down the catwalk followed by her entourage of dancers, she knelt RIGHT in front of me towards the end of the song, and then it happened. A few seconds that have now become one of my most cherished memories ever. SHE grabbed my hand. MADONNA. The same person I'd been following since I was 5. The same person who danced on a Venetian gondola. The same person who walked up a staircase in a striped t-shirt and jeans while holding a leather jacket over her shoulder . The same girl whose voguing I tried to imitate at 10. The same woman who inspired my curiosity for Tamara de Lempicka (the subject of my first collection ever). Most importantly, the one whose voice had been the background music to much of my life. It was as if HER life had flashed before my eyes.
Though I held on, she let go, and I have to admit it was sort of a let-down. It was as if I expected her to recognize me or something. I know it sounds delusional, but I guess most fans feel we've had some sort of relationship with her for the past thirty years.
Though I thought everything I could possibly expect from this amazing experience had already happened, I was to be extremely and pleasantly surprised when I got back to Lima. Though I had taken my camera to the concert, I only took pictures of her and was too excited to even think about taking pictures of myself, so the last thing I expected was to find pictures where I show up jumping and dancing next to the stage, posted on flick.com by two guys to whom I'll be eternally grateful.
Here's my photographic homage on our 4th anniversary and the tiny clip I managed to film right before IT happened. Happy Anniversary darling.

THE HAND

THE TICKET

THE OUTFIT

THE SOUVENIR

THE MOMENT

MADONNA MOMENT

YOU'RE SO FINE, AND YOU'RE MINE

Last look at Chanel Couture Fall 2010- July 6, 2010

COLOR ME BADD

I'm kind of sick of people's so-called "re-interpretation" of pop art, especially in the local art scene. I mean, if I see another artist painting him/herself in the light of a pop star, a pin-up girl or painting comic icons and cartoons and calling them art by giving them a lousy twist, I'm seriously going to throw up (which given the few pounds I want to shed, might come in handy, ha!).
So when I came across the following video, I should have probably closed the window, but instead, I was caught up in it. Like I think I've mentioned before, beautiful or cool looking visuals rarely get away with being good enough unless they have an essence to them and a concept to back them up. In Marina and the Diamonds' new video for her song Oh No!, the lyrics, the song title and everything make a perfect match with the pop aesthetic given to it. Thank GOD for music videos. Had I heard the song on the radio I would have probably liked it but not paid much attention to it. This video actually enhances the power of the song by creating a living cartoon out of the lyrics, adding a much-to-my-delight comical drama (is that an oxymoron?). I KNOW I've mentioned thoughts on my life as a musical about a thousand times by now, and that's probably why I'm in love with the video. I felt it was a mix between Ally McBeal and Björk's It's Oh So Quiet in a Lichtenstein world.
I have to say I LOVE the choices in wardrobe, they are just perfect, both for her and the back-up dancers. I think they manage to give the video a more contemporary feel. I also love those Pantone-inspired outfits, which many might think were probably designed especially for this video, but they are actually part of Henry Holland's Fall collection.  I just love when fashion and music share the same spirit and come together in work of art like this.

I'll watch the video again while I begin to write a letter asking her if she'll consider a name-change, it just happens to be shared by a most unfortunate person.
Here it is,  enjoy:

HEAR HER ROAR

So, after a couple of days or weeks of not posting anything, here I am again. I've actually had longer pauses than this, but the fact that this blog and myself were featured in widely read magazine, here in Lima, has added a litte more pressure to keep the posts coming up more frequently.

In my usual search for new music, I've become obsessed with an new song by a new artist, but the problem is I've only heard about a minute (precisely 58 seconds) of it, but I am HOOKED on it. I've been searching for a full version all over the web and I could find nothing, learning the album won't be released until August didn't help my anxiety much, until finally, last night, I found a little something: the full version in a video on youtube where sound quality is terrible because the song serves as the musical backdrop for a tiny little girl's performance. She actually knows some of the lyrics and is really into the whole thing, she even manages to imitate some of the gestures Lolene (Ooops! Just realized I never mentioned the song I'm talking about : Lion Heart by British newcomer Lolene http://www.lolenemusic.com) does in one live performance I also found on youtube. Watching this girl and her improvised, all-over-the-place but definitely heartfelt choreography reminded me of myself at her age.


When I lived in the former Soviet Union and my parents had to throw official dinner parties, my sister and I would have to stay upstairs all night, unable to go down, just like prisoners. Well, "prisoners" might be a bit of a stretch, but let's just say that my father wasn't too fond of the few occasions when I sneaked into the main living room and my 8 year-old self began to chat with some diplomat's wife out of the blue. The second reason why I am definitely exaggerating is because I hold some of the sweetest memories from those moments of "confinement". I remember we'd watch lots of movies, especially ones with plenty of music and dancing involved, while munching on the same food the grown-ups were having thanks to our cook who'd keep sending up the plates (I guess this is the moment when I began to put on weight). Then we'd create our own little dancefloor by rolling up the carpets in order to provide for a slippery and gliding-friendly surface. Many Flashdance moments were recreated there, soon to be followed during winter on the ice-skating rink.
So JUST because she's managed to take me back to this moment, I think Sydney deserves to be posted on my blog. Here she is, enjoy, while I keep on singing and waiting for this single to come out:  This is the eeeeeeeend of the wooooooorld as we know iiiit...