Fashion Friday: Farewell to an Excellent Designer

Hi!

At some point last week I decided to do a new "fashion Friday" segment on my blog. It seemed only natural as an indie designer working on my own grass roots label (caustic threads) that I would do a fashion segment on my blog. I am already reading fashion news daily, watching shows, and working on my own pieces, so I have a lot to share. My first post in the segment was going to be about some of my personal thoughts on fashion, style, and trends, along with something about New York fashion week which was kicked off by BCBG Max Azaria yesterday (2/11/10) But yesterday some unbelievable news broke! Iconic Fashion designer Alexander McQueen was found dead in his apartment at age 40. The believed cause of death is suicide, though no official statement about that has been made.


Alexander McQueen was known as "l'enfant Terrible" a french term for a child who embarrasses his parents by being very blunt towards adults. He was also known as "the Hooligan of English Fashion". These titles were earned after some controversial early collections while he was working at Givenchy (predecessor to John Galiano, another amazing designer who now designs for Dior and his own label) .

I can not say I like everything Alexander McQueen designs, and I especially did not care much for his last two collections , but I do always love seeing what he comes up with and there are occasions when something he has designed leaves me breathless.











In time I expect that he will be remembered alongside Coco Chanel, Ives St Laurent, and Christian Dior as truly a talented designer.


It may very literally be "yesterday's news" but I didn't want to go without paying homage to such an inspirational designer.

Have you seen these?

I have not gone to see a movie in quite a while, but there are two I am very interested in... so interested in that I can't really believe I have not seen them yet.

No great surprise, I really want to see Whip It.

No surprise, because Whip It is a roller derby movie. AWESOME. It was released when I was in Denver for Regionals. I also like Drew Barrymore so I am interested in checking out her directing debut.

...also no surprise, I want to see Coco Before Chanel.

I am pretty excited about this one. Admittedly, I have always preferred Dior (when it was Christian Dior) to Chanel (when it was Coco Chanel) but they were both amazing designers and I like them both, no matter HOW fundamentally different they were. Chanel did so much for women, from being a Fashion designer in what-amazingly-is STILL a men's industry to liberating women's bodies with her designs.

Have you seen either of these movies ?? What did you think?

Also, I wanted to talk etsy for just one second.

Have you ever ALMOST purchased something and then decided not to because you thought the shipping was ridiculous? That has happened to me while shopping for Christmas presents lately. I am still tweaking my shipping here and there, and as a new seller my charges were a bit too high. I still find listings sometimes that have high shipping, and I hope I didn't lose customers over the shipping charges. The funny thing is, if the item cost a dollar fifty more, and the shipping cost a dollar fifty less I would have purchased it. I don't know if that makes sense, but that is how it is. How do you feel about this? Also, this seller has a TON of sales... so I may be wrong. Maybe most people would rather pay the extra in shipping. What do you think? Just things I have started to think about when I list items.