Photography – Danno~, Makeup  Rosanna Dollface, Hair – Trina Davenport, Wardrobe – Nelson Hawks, Models – Andrew, Amy & Briana – The Agency AZ / Kylan – Ford/RBA

1 comment permalink |  10:00 PM |  8.17.2009 | 

I truly enjoy the fashion lectures at The Phoenix Art museum. Last week’s lecture on “Art Nouveau in Parisian Fashion” was packed and the presentation of how the Nouveau era translated into fashion and art was thought provoking…

Though I enjoy fashion, art and history, I have really been inspired lately by Dennita Sewell and The Phoenix Art Museum’s combination of the three. To revere fashion as art and to appreciate both its roots in history and how it has been threaded throughout the ages, has spoken to me.

Accessories from the Phoenix Art Museum's Nouveau era collection

In many ways, clothing can be described as a wearable time-capsule, telling a specific account of how people lived their daily lives, important design styles and trends of the time and how worldly sensibilities were communicated in the clothes. True as we explored the Nouveau lecture last week. But think about this, many would argue that the current generation is too fast and too disposable, is this reflected in our closets? For me, this is generally true. I have hangers full of inexpensive, up-to-the-minute pieces that I wouldn’t think twice about tossing just because they’re “so last season.”  However, I am lucky enough to own some fabulous shoes and handbags that I consider “wearable art”. So much so, in fact, I rarely take them out of the house!

Yes, this devil wears Prada

As corny as it sounds, I started to appreciate fashion as art before the recent lectures at the art museum with the release of “The Devil Wears Prada.” The monologue delivered by Miranda (Meryl Streep) to the fashion bottom-dwelling Andy (Anne Hathaway) spoke to the then undiscovered fashion-as-art lover in me.  The part where she’s reaming Andy in her office for laughing at the belts, when Andy proclaims she is “still learning about all this stuff“. And Miranda goes on to embarrass Andy with the magnitude of the fashion & beauty industry. And then when Nigel (Stanley Tucci) gives Andy his monologue regarding how a seemingly simple, frivolous fashion magazine has actually published some of the greatest artists of our time. Both of these monologues started me thinking of how powerful the fashion & beauty industry is in the global economy, but also in the world of art. I cannot give you a name of a modern painter or sculpture artist, but I can ramble off the names of what fashion designers I would die to see at Paris or New York fashion week.

So, with this new found inspiration, I have been shopping and “investing” in fashion a little differently. Certainly, I will never stop shopping Target or Forever 21, but I am seeking out a more well-rounded collection of clothing, shoes, handbags and accessories – mixing the disposable and the collector’s items that many argue never go out of style. And choosing pieces more carefully, that better reflect me, my style, posterity and because of my appreciation of the design, construction, artistry, investment worth and so on.

My most recent purchase made with my deeper appreciation of fashion-as-art is this Michele handbag from Nordstrom.  It’s modern, trendy, the materials are amazing, it’s comfortable to wear, perfectly sized and who knows, in 50 years could be displayed in the Phoenix Art Museum’s design gallery!

Michele Ella Clutch $295 from Nordstrom

4 comments permalink |  10:55 PM |  8.13.2009 | 

Can’t get enough!! Follow us…@FashionPhoenix!

0 comments permalink |  7:06 PM |  8.11.2009 | 

Diane Aiello, Fashion & Beauty Editor of Arizona Foothills Magazine, just wrote a great article on my friend and jewelry designer, Beth Church. Click here for the article Beth Church – Rock & Roll Jewels.

Beth has an amazing, vintage / gothic edge to her one-of-a-kind pieces. Her collection includes couture, “Rock & Roll”, wedding, earrings, shoe clips and more. Her pieces have been worn by celebrities, like Paris Hilton as in the article, and featured in every publication possible here locally!

Check out her site at www.bethchurch.com for more!

0 comments permalink |  7:37 AM |  8.9.2009 |