Elevate Difference

Reviews tagged fashion

Isabella Blow: A Life in Fashion

Before Lady Gaga adorned her poker face with a diamond-encrusted lobster, there was the original eccentric fashionista Isabella Blow, the flamboyant muse to couture designers who, despite being the toast of London’s glitterati, would die at age forty-eight by her own hand. As a fashion director, she survived as one of Anna Wintour’s assistants to later become champion of the avant garde. From hot pink cobwebs to towering peacock feathers, there was nothing that Blow wouldn’t dare crown herself with.

Picture Me

There is a moment in Picture Me, a documentary about the fashion industry, where model Sara Ziff’s father recalls hearing his daughter’s look described as the girl next door. The camera closes up on Ziff in a two page Tommy Hilfiger ad. “I guess that depends where you live,” her father quips, flippantly alluding to the exclusive world of high fashion.

Couture and Consensus: Fashion and Politics in Postcolonial Argentina

While I was intrigued by Regina Root’s assertion that fashion played a large role in the development of national identity in postcolonial Argentina, I was more than intimidated to jump into a book with such an impressive thesis without much background knowledge of Argentinean history. Thankfully, Root packs an incredible amount of information into a slim volume.

Glamour: Women, History, Feminism

The word glamour has lost a lot of its allure and power these days, bandied about by fashion writers who use glamour interchangeably with polished, chic, elegant, and sophisticated.

The Trump Card: Playing to Win in Work and Life

I’ve always admired Ivanka Trump. As the Vice President of Real Estate and Acquisitions for the Trump Organization and owner of her own luxury jewelry line, I look to her as a role model. Her first foray into literature has been wildly successful, landing on the New York Times Bestseller List and garnering praise from the publishing community.

'Til Death

In 'Til Death, the third and final installment for bestselling series Secret Society, Miasha takes us on a whirlwind adventure of sex, drugs, fame, and money. 'Til Death picks up where its predecessor Never Enough left off, and now fans can follow Celess and Sienna (better know as Si-Si) as they travel the world trying to avoid police who have accused them of murder and the psychopathic murderer who wants Si-Si dead. This fast-paced story takes you to places such as Rome, Italy; Cape Town, South Africa; and Dubai as our two leading ladies live off of rich men while building up an extremely successful escort agency.

Aquila

For those familiar with women’s “lifestyle” magazines, the call to be “sexy” in some way or another is not new. We women need to have “sexy” everything: attitude, legs, skin, armpits, you name it. So pervasive is this message that I’m surprised that no one has spontaneously combusted from sexual arousal at the sight of a women’s magazine devotee.

Bad Shoes and the Women Who Love Them

With my feet encased in a pair of red Mary Jane pumps, I sat at my desk reading Bad Shoes and the Women Who Love Them. As a self-described “shoe girl” and vehement hypochondriac I nervously turned the pages, bracing for bad news.

Visibly Muslim: Fashion, Politics, Faith

In her new book, entitled Visibly Muslim: Fashion, Politics, Faith, Emma Tarlo captures the diversity in the way that Islam is practiced against the backdrop of multicultural Britain.

Rage

My partner, Jake Barningham, is an avant garde film and video maker. He’s constantly on the prowl for new ways to express himself visually. Most recently it has been creating videos with his cell phone camera. I really like the idea of using something so accessible and widely used like a cell phone to create art.

A Black Tie Affair

Sherrill Bodine is back with more characters from Chicago's fated world of fashion and money in her second book A Black Tie Affair.

Winter Dreidle Dress

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, a number of Western counter-cultural icons traveled to India in order to broaden their knowledge of art, music, literature, and philosophy by speaking with some the country's intellectual and religious figures.

Coco Before Chanel

Spoiler Alert Prior to seeing this movie, I associated Coco Chanel with couture fashion and high society women with size two figures, like Audrey Hepburn and Nancy Reagan. Coco Before Chanel introduces us to the woman Chanel was before revolutionizing women’s fashion and becoming a fashion icon to the rich, famous and not so famous.

Rebel Rebel: Anti-Style

I have always been interested in the fashion of subcultures. I've been stenciling my clothes, painting stuff on them, adding studs and strategic rips, sewing random things together and pillaging thrift stores since I was a freshman in high school—which is why designer Keanan Duffty's book Rebel Rebel: Anti-Style originally caught my eye.

Be Strong and Curvaceous

It is not easy to like Be Strong & Curvaceous, especially if you are not a Christian and die-hard fashionista. In this novel, believing in a Christian god is as usual as fancying the latest Chanel dress or a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes. Don’t let the title fool you either.

Viona Echo 15 Laptop Case

I live in New York City, where fashion and muggings reign. So what's a girl to do if she wants to keep her laptop safe and fit in with the fashion elite? Lexie Barnes knows. You wanna know why? Because she's from Chicago, a town with these same two afflictions. Her solution? Make products that look a little too cute to hold anything of value. That way would-be thieves are fooled into thinking that the flowery bag you're carrying holds only femme-y items, like lipstick and tissues, and won't bother you.

Venus Zine (Spring 2007)

Venus has come a long way from its inception more than a decade ago. In its current form, it bears little resemblance to the average zine. Instead, Venus is a refreshingly sophisticated publication — glossy enough to tempt more mainstream consumers into giving the pages a once-over, while still maintaining a feminist perspective. The latest issue is packed full of everything one might expect from a woman-centric publication, sans skeletal models and hetero-focused sex tips.

Sew Subversive: Down and Dirty DIY for the Fabulous Fashionista

The subversive notion of sewing (no pun intended) in this book initially caught my eye; I was drawn into the concept sewing is no longer considered to be something only our grannies do, but something that would enable anyone to shout out, “We’re are creative minds!” Sew Subversive is about sewing outside the box, tossing those patterns to the winds and creating your own statement. I shared this book with women both young and not so young; each one was energized by the book layout, ideas and the “coolness” of the ideas.

Mosaicii Makeup Bag

I don’t even own a lot of makeup, y’all, but when this make up bag came through my door, I knew I had to have it. Tanja Koch has an eye for fabrics and uses a diverse mix of vintage, mod, and retro patterns to create bags and wristlets that attract the hip and the fashion conscious. As if the interesting outer fabrics aren’t enough, the bag also has a beautiful, smooth, satin lining.

Scrappy: A Crafty Zine for Scrappy People, #1: Stitches

A couple of years ago, my grandmother gave me her sewing machine (circa 1940). Have I used it? Hardly. To hem a pair of pants a year or so ago. So I was thrilled when I was chosen to review Scrappy: A Craft Zine for Scrappy People, #1 Stitches. Perhaps it would be just the push I needed to unveil Grandma Betty’s machine and get to creating fabulous, designed-by-moi outfits! Scrappy is an adorable handmade zine that is perfect for the beginner seamstress (or the hibernating one) looking for a little inspirational shove.

Fresh Lipstick: Redressing Fashion and Feminism

Madonna was once “willfully out of step with the times.” When she started her career in the early ‘80s, her body was fleshy and voluptuous. In a word: natural. She was a “model of resistance,” wrote Susan Bordo in her landmark book, Unbearable Weight. But succumbing to mainstream pressure, she “normalized” her body shortly after marrying Sean Penn in 1987, becoming lean and muscular. Madonna was then in her mid-twenties. Now, at forty-eight years old, she can still easily stir insecurity in women her own age, not to mention women in their twenties.
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