Mr.StrictlyIntimate
the Life, the Love and the Sex of Vienna.Archive for Alexander McQueen
One Step Closer to Reflecting Myself [Part IV]
Autumn is slowly coming and gently asking us to enter our hearts and closets and homes. Though being gentle in announcing oneself it rather intrudes us in a way we actually don’t want it to for we crave summer, sun and heat. But still, autumn is coming and so I think, ‘Embrace change. Embrace the chance to get yourself all dressed up in a new wardrobe, a new mood, a new interpretation of who you are. AND, embrace the wake up call to finally get your apartment done and ready for a colder season to follow, winter.’
Elle Decoration UK – October 2012 Cover
So after three phases and a short break I finally arrived in number IV: One Step Closer to Reflecting Myself
Phase I: On the Hunt (for the Perfect Apartment) [Part I]
Phase II: Designing a Happy Home [Part II]
Phase III: Bit by Bit [Part III]
To me, a home is where the heart is! Ergo: where my heart is there am I. Further ergo: Where I am there should be the real me; my own reflection; my own interpretation of who I am and who I want to be. Not just to myself but to anybody who comes into my private walls as a guest. Therefore, my personal space should be an addition to what I represent. When I enter the room I should feel as if it underlines my personality rather than projecting something that isn’t there, or presenting myself in a light that doesn’t fit the part. It would feel like someone trying to fit into an Alexander McQueen Couture gown though one knows one is completely Atelier Versace; meaning less feathers more sparkle. (Don’t get me wrong here: Alexander McQueen IS a part of my religious belief. Trust me, I worship him and now Sarah Burton for what they’ve created!)
Alexander McQueen Spring/Summer 2013
Alexander McQueen Spring/Summer 2013 Detail
Decorating and furnishing come together to be a process – a long lasting one. Not just a rush of emotions and motions that overwhelm your senses to tell you to simply get it done as soon as you can to get it over with. NO, if you want your apartment to reflect your innermost, your character, your ambitions, your motivations, your style, your fashion, your love and your passion for life; it takes some time to evolve.
That is what I did – I gave myself time to evolve within my new environment. For three months I have my own place now and it feels more like a home to me than anything has ever done. Every single day it comes closer to where I can say my heart is… but it isn’t perfect yet. To be honest, I don’t think it can ever be but at least it can be close to what I want it to be – a place where I can relax once I have entered the double doors; a place I can call home; a place where I can be myself without compromising, without having to apologize, without the necessity of defending flaws. Here I am perfect, if I want to be. If I feel like it.
Autumn calls for action – it calls for inspiration! And so I took my best friend ELLE Decoration out for some last walks in the sun trying to get inspired by what is around me; colors, shapes, shades, street signs, maps, people. I felt like a child in a candy store being surrounded by all those fabulous colors, spirits and voices. With a little help of VOGUE and GQ I always feel perfectly safe when it comes to my fashion choices but with my apartment I still feel like I do not have the grip on what is my style yet. At least not completely. BUT, every time I open ELLE Decoration I feel like I have IT, the one thing that makes me visualize fabrics and shapes, color schemes and patterns in a way I have never imagined before. Fashion isn’t just who or what you wear; it is how you live, how you furnish and how you decorate too!
So, for my bedroom I always felt white, completely – a white bed, a white big open closet, a white standing mirror and a white dresser. I always added color with just my clothes, the bedding and my big purple Prada box. But now I feel like those white walls finally need something new – I feel shapes, well, more like pattern. A mathematical pattern of triangles on two walls in an L-shaped constellation to surround my bed and my door while on the opposite wall only the closet with my beautiful clothes sets the tone. This, to me, sounds like a perfect equilibrium of fast moving, ever changing fashion versus unwinding, calming body and mind.
For the bedroom my eyes is on this triangle patterned wallpaper in Charcoal Grey/Off White called ‘Goldsmith’ by Custhom, £170 per 4m roll, Green and Fay:
ELLE Decoration UK Pattern Book S/S 2012
(picture: ELLE Decoration iPad APP)
For the bedroom as well as my living room I still have to find the perfect fabrics to decorate the windows but I am sure that these ideas will come up in no matter of time since I find myself to be in a very creative mood and a very inspired place right now. So, stay tuned for more and get yourself a little bit inspired by the last summer days until autumn conquers our hearts, wardrobes and homes.
XOXO
P.S.: Inspirational Song of the Day
JEM – Amazing
(as featured on the Motion Picture ‘Sex and the City: the Movie)
FO Show. F-abulously O-utclassed.
So, here’s the truth: I arrived with low expectations (because I was very disappointed of the annual fashion show of the University for artistic and industrial design Linz in cooperation with the Fashion Institute of Vienna last year) and the will to take pot luck. And I did. Honestly, I wasn’t just surprised by the high set standard of the first and second year of students who started the show… but let me get to make my point by starting at the beginning.
My Outfit.
Okay, no. Not the right place, not the right time. This post will not be about me for a change but about the students of the University for artistic and industrial design Linz in cooperation with the Fashion Institute of Vienna.
Date: June 5th, 2012
Time: 8.30 pm
Location: Wiener Tramwaymuseum; A-1030 Vienna; Erdbergstraße 109 – Entrance Ludwig Koesslerplatz
A beautiful building. Old brick. An ancient character. As I enter the hall and take my front row seat I feel a little bit tense. Not knowing what will come but being aware of the fact that these days are crucial. The cooperation between the University of Linz and the fashion institute of Vienna has been, well let’s say broken. That’s why momentary and former students created ‘Hetzendorf brennt’ a campaign to unite all their powers to save the cooperation as well as the possibility of studying fashion design in the halls of Hetzendorf Castle. Crucial. In Austria there is not ONE opportunity to get a bachelor’s degree in fashion design that combines artistic as well as marketing skills. There is no course on any of our Universities available that unites the technical fashion education (sewing, shoe making, millinery and knitting) with knowledge of the historical backgrounds on the development of fashion, design and the arts as well as a fundamental education in Marketing, Public Relations and Languages. On top of that the training of the skills of art – drawing; drafting; using computer programs like Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign; getting to know a variety of art techniques finding the one that suits you and your character the most. Can you tell me why one would shut down such an opportunity for young creatives who long for a fundamental education in fashion?
So – the show started with moderations and introductions. And then it came – BAMM! The first and the second year of the bachelor’s course made quite an entrance. They set a very high standard and left a very clear message: ‘This is us. Come take a look! This is what we can do.’
I see a lot of inspirations apart from Designers like Coco Chanel, Alexander McQueen, Fendi and Badgley Mischka but also other images like calm seas; gold ducats; woods and freedom. After The first and second bachelor year three foreign students of the Bunka Fashion College Japan were invited to present their fabulous collections. Collections that were rich of asian influences as well as open for ethnicities and shapes and texture mixes and rich in colors!
There was a pause and I could see the people shifting in their seats. I knew, they were related to those students who would celebrate their last show that night for they would then concentrate on their bachelor theses and put all their efforts into their final presentation to get their bachelor degrees. That night truly was all about them and their hard work:
Alice Jieun Kim – Back to Basics
Alice Frey – That, which is worn
Claudia Stanek – Tracing
Daria Vdovitchenko – Makro
Elvira Greblic – giving a matter its structure
Inga Nemirovskaia – Sojourner
Isabel Helf – construction site
Katharina Perzl – Tomoko
Katharina Triltsch – De/Formation
Kathi Zanon – Camera scura
Katrin Wallner – Nebula
Laura Haberkorn – Blue Star
Natalie Ofenböck – Skizzen
Leonie-Rachel Soyel – yolculuktan izler
Louise Witt-Dörring – workwearstyles.
Lubov Liebendoerfer – From Russia with love
Maximilian Rittler – Roger
Pia Bauernberger – Stack of clothes
Simone-Kathrin Sassmann – Steady F//M
Sophie Skach – Phileas Fogg, the old vagabond.
Teresa Toth – The Room Collection
Cudos! to the students of the last year – not just for wonderful collections but also for managing all that AND finishing the year. I know how hard that is but you know what guys? Take a look into the mirror because you almost made it. Yeah, you almost made it and the world is ready for you to conquer her!
XOXO
P.S.: All photos courtesy of Teresa Hammerl of Colazione a Roma || Colazione a Venezia.
Another Post on the Show by a dear colleague: Dani Magdup from royalpinkgoth- alternative fashion in vienna.
Down the Memory Lane.
For some people memory is a feature that comes with life. A very handy thing. Like an app for human beings such as the eating app, or the drinking app, or the sleeping app. Automatically pre-installed. For others memory is something that needs to be scientifically researched, investigated in order to develop medicine further towards healing diseases such as Alzheimer, dementia and hyperthymesia. And then, there are those people who consider memory to be something very vague. Fleeting. Something, they can never be fully aware of or make use of without network failure.
Personally, I consider myself to be one of those lucky people whose memory is intact. Though I have to admit that I sometimes wish for a possibility to filter the good ones from those one actually wouldn’t mind getting rid of. But, on the other hand I wonder where I would be without all those “bad” memories that apparently made me stronger and wiser and more self-conscious. More aware of who I really was. Am.
Where would Sarah Burton be without her memory of Alexander McQueen influencing the fashion industry in a way no one will ever forget, taking his heritage and transforming it into something that has her own signature but never loses the spirit that represented McQueen himself? Where would her second album have taken Adele without that painful memory of lost love to help her writing the Songs for 21, an album that broke all the records because it was so honest, real and emotionally accessible for people all over the world?
With Adele’s words in mind I remember one thing – without memory and emotional ambivalences marking our lives and our ways, we are nothing. We couldn’t grow. We couldn’t develop our characters further. We couldn’t become strong personalities that aim for dreams. And aim for love. Not just love but for loving and being loved.
So memory is the one thing that drives us. That helps us drive ourselves. Above all the bad ones are the biggest motivations so somehow it is true what people say ‘in all the bad has to be something good in the end.’ Well, yes, that is true. But only if you are strong enough to fight all those dark shadows and helping yourself to let bad, painful memories be turned into a source you can draw from. It is all up to you – just like life is. There is no big plan if you do not make one yourself!
XOXO
Mr.StrictlyIntimate
Labels or Love: Reasons to Choose Fashion over Guys
my new Alexander McQueen T-Shirt
Every time I get the chance to do a little bit of shopping and every time I buy myself a little chic something I come to compare fashion to love and of course at the same time to men and since I find myself completely happy with my new Alexander McQueen T-Shirt (thanks to Mia for the perfect mix of inspiration and advice!) so I thought it might a great idea to write down some thoughts while doing this comparison…
1) …and Prada dresses (or in my case a purse or shoes or a suit) never broke my heart before:
It is so true what Fergie sings in the Song ‘Labels or Love‘, no pair of Burberry Jeans, no Prada Suit and no Kenzo T-Shirt has ever done any harm to my heart before, some men on the other hand have. So when it comes to deciding whether to risk some tears and aches and heartbreakes by letting a guy into your life or to buy some clothes and risk that you might eat a little bit less in order to purchase the new Dolce and Gabbana James Dean T-shirt I believe being able to stand up and say proudly and freely: ‘Pass that T-Shirt, here is my card and please could you lock that guy over there away, he is looking at me like he wants to go out with me, telling me he likes me to break me afterwards. Ah, and I think I might need that iPhone case over there too.’ Any questions?
2) Those three little words
Well, we all wish every guy would say these three little, special, beautiful words to us. Those words, that give away his self-control, his will and his power of everything he owned so far in order to show us how much we really mean to him, how much tea appreciates us and above all how much he trusts in everything we say and do: ‘DRESS ME, PLEASE!’
That are actually the only words I would love to hear a guy say knowing that all I have is the ability to approve everything he possibly could do or well, be – because effortlessly chic and stylish men are the hot ones (and the hard-to-find-hard-to-get ones too). Those, that know they do not need to know how to dress because they have me for that – if that isn’t a great proof of trust?! And, since guys never do a thing like that because they are so happy with they way they look (yeah, right, as if someone could be happy wearing sandals and socks together) I happen to stay solo concentrating on improving and developing my own style a little further to sophistication.
if you let me do the work you could look as Burberry as these guys
3) a braided Bottega Veneta knot pochette may not be the most convenient purse but it is so pretty!
We all know, guys like things as convenient and useful as possible but boys and girls like me and you love things that are pretty and that make us happy. A bright and shiny thing like this Bottega Veneta pochette may not carry everything our daily bags do but when it comes to downsizing in order of adding something to your outfit that makes it brilliant and fierce we are the best and all of a sudden seem to get along with one phone, some money, our Yves Saint Laurent touche éclat concealer and some Yves Saint Laurent mascara. It somehow seems to be so damn easy, doesn’t it?!
Bottega Veneta Knot Pochette
4) Guys may give you sex but opening your closet can give you more orgasms than guy could
I have to agree: Sex is awesome – if a guy does it the right way or at least tries to do you the right way. With guys it is always about ‘doing or being done by’ but with fashion it is all about opening the closet, picking what you feel like and adding some details in order to feel confident, sexy, sassy, fierce and effortlessly cool. There is no playing pretend until he conquers your heart to conquer your everything else – there is just you and that fabulous pair of trench colored Burberry jeans or that classic vintage Louis Vuitton bag or that remarkably fitting Armani tie.
Beautiful navy Armani tie
You see – there are many reasons to prefer a piece of fashion over any guy you meet but still there are several things a T-Shirt can’t give you: butterflies in your stomach, a soft kiss on the neck when you wake up besides him and he surprisingly does not turn out to be the biggest ass hole of all leaving after coming, a little piece of fashion as a small gift of affection or just a nice rendezvous (except for me of course because I usually tend to meet the guys that want to fuck me right away without having the decency to ask me out before trying to fuck me – I usually say no to those guys, of course).
So, whatever you decide to love more – whether it is fashion or simply a man that appears to be honest – just never forget to be true to yourself. You may have style, you may be able to feel, you may even be able to give it all up for something or someone but in the end it always turns out that no piece of expensive fashion and no guy that doesn’t deserve to have you by his side can replace one thing: Dignity.
Dignity for yourself. For who you are. For what you wear. For what you do.
XOXO
Mr.StrictlyIntimate
P.S. Song of the Day: Lady GaGa – Fashion!
Modepalast 2011 or pretty, pretty… PLEASE?!
Rumor has it that Vienna is a fashionable place – well, that rumor obviously isn’t true…
The last weekend was all about an event called Modepalast in Vienna’s famous MAK – Museum of the Applied Arts, which takes place every year and is supposed to be a bit of a fashionable event… well, supposed but actually not at all. When K and I dressed up in some kind of evening gala couture to attend the big opening of the Modepalast – K in a perfectly Alexander McQueen styled dress (and she looked as bit of a stunning model as freshly taken off the stage at an actual AMQ fashion show) and me in a silk Petar Petrov jacket combined to my most expensive bow tie and the most beautiful black vintage bag I own… and as we arrived surprise surprise almost everyone looked as odd as a fucking KIK ad campaign with Verona Poth.
People in Flip Flops chewing gum with their mouths wide open just like a definitely un-lady-like woman who stood right beside my dear K and freaked the hell out of her with her missing attitude and above all with her missing manners! Shut your mouth and lock yourself up at home antisocial woman with little self-respect!
As we stood there, after I kissed everyone I actually knew (above all my blogger colleagues who looked really beautiful, bold and stunning – at least some know how to apply real style!) we started to see a show that simply must have been some kind of bad joke! I felt like being in Donauzentrum waiting for heavy weight, old models to arrive, shaking their asses on – what is supposed to be a runway – doing funny facial expressions and the weirdest runway walks one could ever have sporting fashion no one in his or her right mind would even touch…
After five minutes of that show, which is easily called to be a complete catastrophe we – K and I – decided to walk around a little bit to examine some of the exhibitor’s collections and well… there wasn’t much to see that either didn’t hurt the eye or that wasn’t there already (mostly even better manufactured). But still a few Designer did catch my interest and my critical attention:
Number 1: WANDELBAR
Beautiful fashion on a natural basis – someone is loving mother earth here – but not in a dirty, we are too good to dress up hippie way, but in a fashion unites the world and even though you love your environment you still can look freaking smoking hot in whatever you wear kind of manner – dear Julia Scharl…I love you for that attitude!
Number 2: Two T’s
The Two T’s do not just stand for the names of both designers Vered Tenner and Liesa Takagi, but also for the countries they unite besides Vienna – Tokyo and Tel Aviv. As for me I can definitely say that T and T also send for Trend and Trend-setting. Their fabulous collar collection gives accessories a new touch from going away to simply being something to add to an outfit, but being something completing your look and making you appear more sophisticated, more fashionable and above all more floating with the Zeitgeist.
Number 3: Katharina Schmid
Let us face it – jewelry still is something every beautiful woman needs to appear even more beautiful and to stand apart from all the other rich, dumb and blonde women spending their daddies’ and old husbands’ money but what about those that can’t afford buying a Tiffany&Co rock the size of a car every single day? Well those who can’t do that mostly do have the better style because they learn how to get along with what they have and are proud of it – for being more proud and more beautiful and more special Katharina Schmid developed beautiful jewelry like her collection ‘Forget me knot‘ that isn’t just a wonderful connection to the beautiful and romantic flower Forget-Me-Not but also a symbol of love.
Well – these three pretty nice and above all pretty talented designers stood more than just apart from the crowd of pretty average and pretty boring. Well done ladies.
And for the brighter future of Vienna’s style and fashion elite let me tell you one thing – I want some more pretty, pretty…PLEASE!!!
XOXO
Mr.StrictlyIntimate
