JenRocksFashion Colorful Musings from the Practical Fashionista…

By now, you’ve certainly heard about SOPA and PIPA.  (And if you think it involves soaping up Kate Middleton’s hot sister…well, that’s alright.)  I admit that I’m only vaguely familiar with the controversial anti-piracy legislation.  It may or may not have anything to do with geo-blocking, but this post is my little riff on that theme so read on…

I regularly visit the websites listed in my blogroll on the right-hand rail of this page.  And through the addictive Flipboard iPad app, I discover great new blogs all the time.  One of them is Design Milk which keeps me up-to-date on the best in modern design.  They recently featured a Colorado-based artist named Pard Morrison.  He’s “a modern day geometric abstractionist” whose “large-scale work features blocks of color.”

Gallery installation by Pard Morrison

Freestanding sculpture by Pard Morrison

When I saw his work, I immediately thought of these revolving display stands at the National Building Museum.  They hold an eye-catching array of Wallpaper City Guides published by Phaidon.

Travel guides at the museum shop

Globe-trot as you spin the shelves

I’d say this is geo-blocking with color.

P.S. I wrote about color blocking last summer, and I’m happy that it’s a trend for this spring too.

Tommy Hilfiger Spring 2012 RTW

Photos via design-milk.com and style.com

You know how El Camino Real means “The Royal Road”?  And have you noticed the number of luxury/beauty brands that are taking the high road of collaborating with famous artists?  They do it to ramp up their prestige and coolness factor and, of course, to drive sales.  I think Marc Jacobs started it all back in 2003 when he invited Takashi Murakami to design handbags for Louis Vuitton, and the resulting collection sold like gangbusters worldwide.  (Incidentally, LV just announced that they have enlisted another Japanese artist, Yayoi Kusuma, for a special product line.)

Murakami for Louis Vuitton. White Speedy multicolor handbag. Spring 2003.

This past fall, MAC Cosmetics teamed up with Cindy Sherman* to create limited-edition make-up palettes.

Cindy Sherman for MAC Cosmetics. The collection was available for one month, ending October 27, 2011.

And artsy partnerships were all the rage at Art Basel Miami last month.  Christian Dior took the plunge in collaborating with Berlin-based Anselm Reyle–known for his “hard-edge striped canvases made in glossy auto paint and glitter; monumental assemblages of silver foil, pulsating LEDs, and flashy fluorescent drips“–to debut an exclusive line of Day-Glo-printed accessories at Dior’s pop-up shop.  In addition to handbags, shoes and nail polish, Reyle designed an eye shadow compact which was recently made available at Saks Fifth Avenue.

Anselm Reyle for Dior. Eye shadow palette. $110 at saks.com. Limit six per customer.

When I saw the camo swirl of pigments, I thought of this cool tree bark that I came across in Georgetown.

Textured tree bark. (I rotated the image 90 degrees.)

Colorful camouflage was also a trend at the Spring 2012 Ready-to-Wear Collections.

Tommy Hilfiger Spring 2012 RTW.

As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

*MoMA will show a retrospective of Cindy Sherman’s work next month.  The exhibition will run from February 26 through June 11, 2012.
MoMA | 11 West 53 Street | New York, NY  10019 | 212.708.9400 | moma.org

Photos via racked.com, saks.com and style.com

Final post in my “Inspired By Nature” series…

I found the rosy-hued palette of this pile of crisp, fallen leaves to be beautiful.  (And of course I loved the visual pop of color from the lone bright yellow leaf.)

They reminded me of those bags of rose petals that you can buy at the florist:

And the petals made me think of this feminine, ruffled top from the Chanel Spring 2012 Ready-to-Wear Collection:

It’s a perfectly sweet and romantic top to wear…on Valentine’s Day.

Note: Floral was obviously a big trend for Spring 2012.  See more looks by viewing this photo shoot starring Karlie Kloss in Vogue‘s December’s issue.

Runway photo from style.com

My “Inspired by Nature” series of observations continue…

I loved the look of this red-berried tree against the powder blue sky:

The colors and shapes seemed to be the inverse of this printed dress from the Cacharel Spring 2012 Ready-to-Wear Collection:

I like this frock–it’s pretty and wearable (and it wasn’t till much later that I realized I had written about its color palette before.)

Runway photo from style.com

P.S. The pattern on the dress also made me think of this Larry Poons painting called Northeast Grave at the Hirshhorn Museum.  It’s acrylic paint and graphite on canvas.

Here is another flora-meets-fashion observation inspired by my weekend photo safari.  This time, autumn foliage made me think of spring.  (Hmm, I wish we could just leapfrog over the imminent winter cold.)

These orange, green and dark pink leaves…

…reminded me of this bold outfit from Blumarine’s Spring 2012 Ready-to-Wear Collection:

I know, this look is definitely a bit garish, but it screams “tropical” which happily takes me back to Turks and Caicos.

Runway photo from style.com