vanitas

top: Vanitas, Aelbert Jansz van der Schoor
bottom: unknown

Vanitas: genre of painting popular in the 16th and 17th centuries; served as a memento mori to viewers. Reflection on the transience of life and the inevitability of decay was meant to be evoked through the obvious use of skulls but also in the inclusion of symbols like the hourglass, burning candle, fruit and flowers, meat, and other ephemeral items.

On a fashion note, I think the bottom painting could be turned into a lovely print to be used in lieu of spring florals.

source: Rijksmuseum, myspace

winter whites

Being that I generally wear black all year round, I feel the need to stand out in some way when the winter rolls around and everyone else dons their darks. Every time I see a photograph of someone in copious amounts of white in the winter, I can't help but be mesmerized by the chicness. Especially if that person has white-blonde hair and they become a monochromatic vision. Actually, that might explain why I wear black so much (seeing that I am far from blonde).

Anyway: some fantasy winter whites for you


wangster one-shoulder dress, vivienne westwood anglomania sweater, jasmine di milo white dress, pleasure principle white scarf top, lanvin alpaca cardigan, delfina delettrez skull ring (this looks so much like a día de los muertos calavera de azucár), wool & the gang oversize scarf, wangster slit/cage shouldered top

i don't feel good today

clockwise: Fendi military dress, Lanvin necklace, Delfina Delettrez hand ring, Lydia Courteille skull ring, Lanvin necklace, Kirkwood shoe

bling bang

Dazed & Confused, December 2008

source: dazed digital

in memoriam

Let us remember Thorn NYC, the erstwhile jewelry line by Andrea Genti and India d'Arthenay, which is no longer. For so long I was obsessed with a particular necklace of theirs, of which I cannot for the life of me locate a picture. Their website went down, and for months I was confronted with this sad image:



But, it was an image that held the promise of a return - and an array of jewelry more glorious than ever before! Alas, even this has been taken down and their domain name has expired. I mourned this quietly. But today, upon attempting to consolidate a list of animal skull necklaces, I was confronted with the sad image of their Victorian mouse skull necklace.

These photographs here are the only ones I've been able to find. There are a few more out there, I'm sure, but other than a tiny picture on Daily Candy, this is just about it. There is no particular reason that I find Thorn's cast jewelry of seed pods, shells, beetles, bones and other detritus more appealing than all the others, but I do. Thorn, you have my undying loyalty. Sorta. Your type of jewelry is not difficult to find, and yet I have refrained from turning to another jeweler for my naturalia needs.

Thorn, you will be missed. I hope that this eulogy is premature (and I apologize for the fairly inelequent sendoff) and that you return to us someday.

show your bones

I was going to start my roundup of skulls but I got distracted by Delfina Delettrez's work. She's getting quite well-known and I've seen her work many times before, so I might as well post some images. Unfortunately her website is inaccessible - at least to me - so information about and photos of her work is somewhat more difficult to put together. But, Dazed Digital has an interview with Delletrez from last year when her Delerium collection debuted and T Magazine's blog has a short profile on her shop in Rome.

Yeah, I know it's crooked. It pisses me off, too.

From an editorial in Vogue UK's March 2009 issue entitled Black & White. There's a video from the Black & White shoot that doesn't give Delettrez's name but shows some nice shots of the ring/bracelet in action. Of course everyone and their great aunt Helen has posted pictures of the skeleton hand (which is way cooler than Beyonce's robot hand, which I actually only know about because I was Googling ideas for a robot costume, honest). If you have about 17,000 Euros to drop, you can buy it over at LuisaViaRoma, or if you'd like to pay 2,000 more it's also available at Colette. Cross my heart and hope to get fat if I'm lying, if I had the 20+k I would buy this in a heartbeat. And then I would wear the most boring outfits ever for the rest of my life, because I would never have to think about it again. It's the ultimate accessory - it upstages everything else so that you can wear a sack and you're still interesting.

Delettrez wearing a gold, sapphire-encrusted version of the skeleton hand, about €35,000

Style.com has a snippet from back in the day when her collection debuted. Get ready to be depressed kids, she's only 21 or 22 (not totally sure as the article is oldish). She's a Fendi. Her pieces are already in the permanent collection of the Decorative Arts Museum in Paris. The least she could do for the rest of us is to be ugly or fat. I'd be happy to pass you a tub of ice cream or some cyanide if you want to have a pity party with me. Everyone's invited!

The piece on the left is a bracelet (available also in "light" silver and gold) and to the right is a brooch. Not as cool as the skeleton hand bracelet/ring/amazingness.

Some pieces from her collection, available at Colette. She does a lot of enamel (?) pieces of animals which don't interest me. But here are the obligatory skull items! The ring reminds me of a calavera de azucar and I find myself feeling a strange longing for churros. Delettrez claims to get a lot of her inspiration from the Churches (some of which feature ossuaries) in Rome.

Eye necklace from Número, April 2008, modeled by Karlie Kloss

We've been talking about the Evil Eye a lot in one of my classes this semester. The Evil Eye is the product of envy and can be sent either inadvertently or deliberately. However, there are a few means one can employ to defend oneself against it: you can spit on the object of envy (a new baby, your own chest), use a penis to scare it away (yes, really), make various amulets (Evil Eye charms are still given to Greek children at the time of their baptisms).

More Delettrez eye jewelry, bracelet and ring

While we're on the subject of the Evil Eye, here are a couple of photos of the Mark Walsh and Leslie Chin eye pieces for Rodarte, also from Colette:

Brooch, earrings, and bracelet

There are other pieces available - arrowheads and copper pieces, but again, not particularly keen on them. The terrarium-like pieces aren't available on Colette, strangely.

If'n y'all was wantin' more evil eyes, Trend de la Creme has put together a list of evil eye jewelry.

sources: the fashion spot, style.com, colette, the fashion spot, luisaviaroma, colette