Fall In Love With Marion Cotillard

You may have noticed Marion Cotillard when she starred in the head-spinning Jeux d'enfants with the winsome Guillaume Canet or in Tim Burton's wonderfully magical Big Fish, but she's definitely coming into her own right now with her recent sweep of awards season for her gritty, wrenching role as Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose. Taking America by storm is no easy feat, but her acceptance of the Best Actress Oscar is certainly going to help things along. Oh, and she's also quite stunning.

Seattle Tidbits

What you learn when you're away from the city:

- 4004 One Lincoln Tower in Bellevue is an exceptional apartment. One caveat: the rent at the luxe penthouse is a frightening $14,000 a month. Ouch.

- Crazy chaotic children are terrorizing Bremerton.

- A 1998 ferry is up for auction on eBay. Starting price? $4.5 million.

- First the SLUT, now the ASS. Oh, Mayor Nickels!

- This is what you miss when you're not in Seattle. I love seattlest.com. Read it!

Jil Sander - Four Stellar Coats + One Stunning Gown

Raf Simons' F/W 2008 collection for Jil Sander featured numerous examples of the new minimalism perfected. Especially of note were the four strikingly clean and modern coats with stand-up collars that were more modern than and desirable than those old minimalist bores of the past, thanks to new explorations of textile texture and tone, along with masterful work with virtually invisible tailoring seams. The gowns were all exceptional cases of drawing a beautiful silhouette line with fabric, creating a much stronger impact than those floaty, over-decorated gowns that tend to dominate Milan (see Dolce & Gabbana and Roberto Cavalli among others).

Brazilian Goodness

Made in Brazil has the best shots of Miro Moreira around. I like how I don't have to know Portuguese to read the site. Skankariffic!

Chrisette Michele...Just Because

Chrisette Michele's "be ok" is a catchy song, if I do say so myself. The lyrics are, well, forgettable, but her voice is really something.

Zac Posen Sac Hobo

This is one gorgeous bag. The color, French blue, is absolutely spot-on, the shape is simple and attractive, and the size is perfectly reasonable. Signature subtle Zac Posen hardware completes the look. Get it for $1295 from Nordstrom. Perfect for almost any girl.

Well Said

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

Moving to Canada

Where the dollar is stronger and the men are hotter. Ryan Taylor is exquisite.

Fall 2008 Men's Reviews - Lanvin

Lanvin's current menswear designer, Lucas Ossendrijver, has come up with a fall collection that is sure to please both current Lanvin fans and those who have yet to discover the classic/cool line that stores like Barneys New York and MAC in San Francisco have been buying up. The look was charmingly carefree and clearly young-skewing, but it was also certainly appropriate for work. Ossendrijver offered a much better take on the recaptured youth concept that Thom Browne has often butchered. Foulards en soie made a keen appearance in place of ties, especially in the slick steel grey that feels so modern right now. Rich chocolate velvet didn't seem outdated, but felt pleasingly unexpected as a piped, double-breasted blazer. The blazer was surprisingly fresh paired with loosely-tailored navy trousers, an over-sized, winter-white blossom at the lapel, and a bow-tie worn with a crooked insouciance. Glossy shoes (a Lanvin signature) featured much thicker soles than in years past, a trend that more conceptual designers like Raf Simons to Miuccia Prada have also embraced. Even the most traditional of gentlemen will pine for the sleek jackets and coats, cut in a flattering silhouette, a perfect cross between boyishly boxy and European trim. My favorites from the collection are here, and the whole show can be found here.

YSL Fall 2008

Stefano Pilati's latest collection for Yves Saint Laurent featured two kinds of supreme chic. The first mode had the late 60s, early 70s silhouette, with loose, slightly flared trousers serving as the perfect base for more timeless coats and jackets, all in relatively muted tones. The second mode was strikingly more modern, featuring rich shades of pure green and true blue, along with gently beautiful maya blue and velvety aubergine. Mixed with black trenches or cropped trousers, the effect was deliriously of-the-moment. More of my favorites from the show here, and the whole collection here. It's by far my favorite collection of the season thus far.

A.P.C. Spring 2008

A.P.C. designer Jean Touitou makes some crazy desirable clothing, which is amazing considering how they're basically simple basics, made well in the right palette and flattering cuts. Everybody has been raving about the $140, completely unadorned, raw denim in their New Standard jeans. The prices are on the high end for non-designer basics, in the realm of Theory, but with better quality and more French ingenuity. Pictured here, the striped sailor shirt is $70 and the polo is $80, while the cardigan runs $250, the suit jacket $450, and the double-breasted trench is $465. A.P.C. shoes, while gorgeous and well-crafted, are easily in the $400 to $500 range, far too high for their comparative worth. A lovely collection for the new young, urban professional, but a little out of my price range. Available at Blackbird in Ballard and online here.

Ryan Taylor

I've talked about Ryan Taylor before, but here are two more recent pictures, the first from Arena Homme Plus, the second from Details. They're from his model portfolio, which I guess is meant to show his range, from vaguely primitive and unkempt to vaguely suave and Bond-like. In any case, he's always hot. From here.

Ali Stephens for Chloe

Craig McDean shot Ali Stephens for the Spring/Summer 2008 Chloe ad campaign. The results are pretty freaking magnificent. Ali is American, 16 (16!), and got her huge breakout moment in the Prada show from last September. Any girl who gets booked for a Prada show is pretty much guaranteed a full booking schedule the next season. Anyways, more of the Chloe ads here and here.

More Flight of the Conchords!

Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros

Mutha Uckers

Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Lessattractive Clement, of the awesome superduo Flight of the Conchords, tackle the absurdism of rap and big-city racism in this pair of songs from their eponymous show. They don't always rap, I just happen to like it more when they do.

That Didn't Last Very Long...

Read The Vintner's Luck. Gaspard Ulliel stars in the movie adaptation next year, alongside Vera Farmiga, Keisha Castle-Hughes, and Jérémie Renier. It should pretty much be amazing. Source

A Change of Pace

And no, not Lee Pace. Here's something less slutty, the song from Once. Watch it!

Zac Efron + Details

Details: Zac Efron
Because High School Musical rocked your world. That is, only until High School Musical 2 came along.

The ABCs of Burberry - Starring Eddie Redmayne and Alex Pettyfer

Alex Pettyfer in the middle

Eddie Redmayne on the left

Eddie Redmayne on the right.

Amazing British Chaps. Those are the ABCs that Burberry has incorporated into their new Spring/Summer 2008 ad campaign, with hot Brit actors Alex Pettyfer and Eddie Redmayne starring alongside everyone from Lily Donaldson and Agyness Deyn to Sting's daughter and Courtney Love's guitarist. All shot by the fantastic Mario Testino. Below is the behind-the-scenes video. I put the rest of the photos in an album here. (Note: Look at Eddie's lips. He could eat a banana sideways. Oh. My. God.)

Loeffler Randall for Target - Cheap and Moderately Chic

Loeffler Randall, the New York shoe and accessories line designed by Jessie Randall since 2004, has picked up a lot of editorial coverage lately, and buyers across the country have taken note. Ms. Randall's shoe collection can now be found everywhere from tiny shoe boutiques, like Lamb's Ear in Fremont, to extreme luxury landmarks, like Bergdorf Goodman in New York. The company recently expanded to include a clothing collection, now carried at Nordstrom, Les Amis, and Tulip in Seattle. With all the buzz, it was only natural that a collaboration with target was next.

Already in stores, the collection consists of two styles of flats, two styles of handbags, and three styles of clutches, all offered in a variety of fabrics or faux leathers. The shoes are all $29.99, while the clutches are all under $25 and the handbags under $50. For those prices, are they any good? A recent trip to my local Target revealed that the shoes were surprisingly chic for the money. The metallic rose cinched flats looked and felt on par with several shoes that cost twice as much. The rosette ballet flats avoided kitsch by using less conventional colors. All in all, these are all perfectly serviceable pieces of footwear for a very agreeable $30.

The bags, on the other, feel exactly as they should for their price. While their woven design is attractive enough, clearly a riff on Bottega Veneta's increasingly popular Intrecciato weaving, the material used is what one would expect at these under $50 price points. The satchel and large tote have handsome proportions, but the brown patent looks, feels, and, worst of all sounds cheap. The vinyl squeal elicited by the patent is painful to hear. The faux leather versions of these bags are much less offensive, but they still lack the feel of genuine leather. For the money, fabrics almost always looks better than faux leathers at the bottom end of the price spectrum. Instead, these bags come off as trying too hard to be something they're not, too hampered down by price constraints that result in excessively cheap materials. something that previous Target designer collections have also suffered from, most notably those from Rafe Totengco and Devi Kroell.

Stuck In The Gutter

If you haven't noticed, my mind has basically been in the gutter lately. Oh well! More of this in various states of...well, you know...right here.