Poetry Please: My Jeans

My Jeans

They’re unique in the way they’re cut.
Their colour’s special too -
Paler fabric, darker seam,
From greeny-grey to blue.

Whether worn with ballet pumps or boots,
They look good every time.
But the thing that I like best of all
About them is: they’re mine.

(June 2002)

Mercedes-Benz on the runway

Thoughts welcome on the LFW advertising offering from Mercedes-Benz:

I’ve been meaning to post this ad for a while but, if I’m honest I haven’t quite figured out if I think it is freshingly and strikingly simple, or just plain dull.

On first sight, it struck me as a very straightforward concept, that perfectly conveyed the brand partnership between the luxury car dealer and Fashion Week. The runway as a road, M-B as the only vehicle suitable to transport you down it – or, as a metaphor for life’s runway. Thus the glamorous audience feasting on the fashions falling off the runways of London Fashion Week are perfectly poised to see M-B as the only car to be seen dead in this season (or, hopefully a little longer, considering the investment).

I tore it from Stylist and it has sat on my desk ever since. And during that time, I’ve actually grown to be disappointed with it. The simplicity that had first so impressed me – the thought of how easy it would have been to construct and shoot – suddenly struck me as lacking the luxe I expect from an M-B ad. The lighting was so garish, the chairs so basic, the whole set so uninspired.

That infamous YSL quote of fashion fading and style remaining eternal is an interesting one to ponder in this creative context. I would punt that M-B would far rather associate themselves with style than fashion, but ordinarily their sponsorship of Fashion Weeks around the world does this well. But the ad creative above positions the Fashion Week runway at its most stark, most functional and lacking the lustre and style that we so hope to see from the M-B brand.

That said, maybe I’m reading far too much into it. Ads weren’t designed to be analysed, they were designed for instant impact; to convey a message in the time it takes for the eye to process a concept to the brain, and the brain to draw upon all its reserves of previous experience to interpret a message. My instinct liked it, my inner-annalyst did not.

I’d love to hear what you think.

We heart Taylor Momsen!

So who saw the UK’s GG last week? God bless my Sky+ for catching it when I sacrificed GG night for more sociable activities, with which I have only just caught up. Well. OMFG.

That hair, that dress and – of course – that kiss. Little J all grown up – who saw any of that coming?

Well actually, I did – but only by a day. During my gloriously perfect Sunday afternoon of proper coffee, cricket and burrowing under a plethora of weekend papers down in Surrey, I was indulging in the usual jewel in the crown of my Sunday paper intake (the Sunday Times’ Style magazine) when the subject of young Taylor was raised by that enviable barometer of all things hip and cool, Jessica Brinton.

She was of course referring to the latest ‘do’ to be demanded by young fashionistas in salons across NYC – ‘the Jenny’ – as sported by Momsen in the latest episode to air in the UK. Bashful, down-trodden courtier of Queen B Waldorf has emerged from her cocoon into a fully fledged glam rock chic butterfly, charming the pants of Nate Archibald as she flies.

What is most astonishing is that Taylor is merely 15 years of age. With her doll-like  features and painfully thin frame providing her with limitless model potential, her producers, publicists, stylists et al (including Fred Vanderbunt, creator of aforementioned crop) have developed the artsy rockstar’s-daughter-edge just enough to put her on the glam side of grunge.

Judging by her ever-growing portfolio of endorsements crammed around GG filming schedules, my bet is, she may go on to have the biggest – or at least most diverse – career of all the GG starlet darlings. Signed by IMG Models at 14, couture modelling for Page Six, nike sportswear campaigns… Hell, she even has a record coming out since The Reckless (the band she fronts) were signed by Interscope Records earlier this year.

And while we’re on the GG train (because Lord knows I don’t blog about it enough), everyone go out and buy Rolling Stone this month. Why? Just check this out and then stop yourself from racing to the newsagents tomorrow. H-O-T.

Photograph by Terry Richardson © Rolling Stone 2009

Oh, and there’s a video too.

XOXO