Kinky or Cool: Over the Knee Boots

Once in every five years “over the knee boots” make a comeback. And every time I’m tempted to give it a try and buy them, but always have some excuses not to. The very small, sane part of my brain says: “You will look like a cheap tart, you can’t wear them to work (some of my clients are extremely conservative christian white males), and they will only last one season. But then I saw these pictures of the Dutch Royal Family: Princess Maxima is wearing them! Shocking! I mean, if she can wear them, so can I! So maybe I’m going to listen to the little devil in my head this time and wave my creditcard… 

 

 Royal Highness Princess Maxima wearing brown and grey suede over the knee boots. (And leopard……I suddenly feel very frumpy).

 Brigitte Bardot’s wearing hers with a leather and sequin mini dress.

Marc Jacobs, Fall 2009. 

Daisy Lowe showing her boots and her underwear. 

The Royal Highness of Cool: Debbie Harry.

Gucci, Fall 2009. 

Lindsay Lohan on the September 2009 cover of Elle UK.

Isabel Marant, Fall 2009.

Actress Barbara Parkins (Valley of the Dolls) from head to toe in leather.

I never thought I would like Roberto Cavalli, but I love the dress and the boots – from the Fall 2009 collection.

 Raquel Zimmermann as Debbie Harry with trademark boots in French Vogue, September 2009. 

And ofcourse: Kate. Shot by Mario Sorrenti for Vogue China, December 2008.

Lola by Marc Jacobs

After his succesfull scent “Daisy”, Marc Jacobs has added a sultrier, sexier, vampy sister to his perfume Daisy, called “Lola”.

Lola is a musky fruity-floral. The perfume opens on notes of pink peppercorn, pear d’Anjou and ruby red grapefruit; it unfolds a heart of fuchsia peony, rose and geranium; the drydown lingers on with vanilla, tonka bean and creamy musk.

 Lola will be released in August 2009 in the US and worldwide in September 2009. The model for the ad campaign is Karlie Kloss.

About princesses and witches

Last month my sister in law gave birth to two beautiful healthy twin baby girls. The proud dad of the girls (my brother) told me he expected me to be the coolest aunt ever, so now I have to find out what cool aunts do. I’ve already made arrangements with my brother about future shopping trips and taking them to concerts. But that’s all in the future, first of all an aunt needs to tell (bedtime) stories.  But when I was looking for a book with fairytales, I found out that most fairytales include helpless princesses who needs to be rescued by a prince on a white horse. Or the helpless princess scrubs the floors because an evil stepmom tells them so. Well, those princesses don’t seem like healthy role models for little girls to me. So I’ve decided to write my own sort of feministic fairytale book. It will contain princesses and witches and dragons, but this time the princess will be too smart to accept an apple from an strange old lady and she will fight the dragon herself……When I was looking for inspiration I found these beautiful pictures:  

  

Appropriate footwear for princesses.

Gwen as Alice (in Wonderland) and as the Queen of Hearts in the video for “What you’re waiting for”.

Snowwhite

Hansel and Gretel drawing.

John Galliano, Karl Lagerfeld and Marc Jacobs in an Alice in Wonderland themed fashion shoot, US Vogue december 2003. 

Pretty witch.

Little Red Ridinghood drawing. The wolf looks like a cute dog to me.

Same theme, better dogs, great location.

Snowwhite in the glass coffin. Seems more like an aquarium to me 😉

 Snowwhite and the seven dwarfs.

  Another snowwhite drawing.

Princess dress (strangely most dresses for princesses are white or blue, but never pink!)

 My favorite fairytale is The Little Mermaid…….such a tragic story!

And a fashionable Snowwhite.

Stephen Sprouse dressing a certain neighbour

Sadly five years ago the American fashion designer and multi-artist Stephen Sprouse died. He introduced bright fluorescent clothing, sixties-inspired outfits and introduced the graffiti print . Fans of his work are Iggy Pop, Duran Duran, Marc Jacobs and many more, but I like him the most for the clothes he made for the hottest female on earth, the überbrilliant miss Debbie Harry.

Stephen and Debbie, 1987

Sprouse started at the age of 18 working for Halston. Halston was then America’s most fashionable fashion designer. By day, Sprouse dressed celebrities like Barbra Streisand; by night, he haunted downtown clubs like CBGB. In 1975 he moved into a flop apartment in the Bowery, where he shared a bathroom with struggling singer Debbie Harry. Debbie and Chris Stein had recently formed Blondie. Sprouse styled her. He sewed her clothes with classic 1960s silhouettes — swingy shifts and bias-cut draped dresses. He slashed T-shirts, created mini jumpers and  neon headbands.

Debbie in a yellow Sprouse playsuit (worn with yellow tights)

The asymmetrical one-strap dress she worked in the video for “Heart of Glass” was a Sprouse original, designed from a photo he took of static lines on his TV.  Kate Moss copied the dress for her fall 2007 Topshop collection.

 The original Heart of Glass dress, at a Sprouse exhibition

With a loan from his family, Sprouse started his own clothing company. He staged his first show in 1984. He put his models in 1960s styles, women in mini-skirts, men in mod suits, but what wowed the fashion world were his fabrics. Sprouse scrawled graffiti in his distinctive hand, then had it copied into prints. Only Vivienne Westwood had done this before. Sprouse had dyed his fabrics in DayGlo colours. No designer had ever done that.

Sprouse graffiti print used on a Louis Vuitton bag

The same print was used on Debbie’s 1986 solo album Rockbird. Stephen designed the cover.

Long time fan Marc Jacobs organised a Stephen Sprouse tribute, hosted by Louis Vuitton at the Bowery Ballroom in New York on January 8, 2009. Debbie performed in a purple striped Sprouse outfit from 1982.

Debbie in 1982.

 

 And wearing the same catsuit in 2009 (!!!)

 Looking cool in a neon green Sprouse dress with rose tattoo print with matching Vuitton bag, 2009.

 

 No, this isn’t Debbie, but Marc Jacobs with Sprouse all over him. (I know this is a Debbie and Stephen post but I use every opportunity to post pictures of hot naked guys ;-)). 

 

A book on the career of Stephen Sprouse, “The Stephen Sprouse Book”, by Roger Padilha and Mauricio Padilha, was released by Rizzolli on January 13, 2009.

For more info check http://www.welovesprouse.com