Karen Walker 2011

New Zealand designer, Karen Walker 2011. Especially Loving the matching school boy short and jacket.

Nous Sommes, Paris

Nous Sommes

Marriage Is a Constitutional Right

Sayonara Prop 8 - For good, we hope. Judge Vaughn Walker, has single handedly, changed America and made the world a happier place to be for millions of people. Not a bad feat, no?

Fantastic article, below, in the NY Times. 

I am really impressed lately with honest open minded opinion being published recently in the NTY. Being a large mainstream publication, I'm glad that power is being put to good use; to challenge ideas rather than simply presenting, to a market, what they want to hear.

August 4, 2010

Marriage Is a Constitutional Right

Until Wednesday, the thousands of same-sex couples who have married did so because a state judge or Legislature allowed them to. The nation’s most fundamental guarantees of freedom, set out in the Constitution, were not part of the equation. That has changed with the historic decision by a federal judge in California, Vaughn Walker, that said his state’s ban on same-sex marriage violated the 14th Amendment’s rights to equal protection and due process of law.

The decision, though an instant landmark in American legal history, is more than that. It also is a stirring and eloquently reasoned denunciation of all forms of irrational discrimination, the latest link in a chain of pathbreaking decisions that permitted interracial marriages and decriminalized gay sex between consenting adults.

As the case heads toward appeals at the circuit level and probably the Supreme Court, Judge Walker’s opinion will provide a firm legal foundation that will be difficult for appellate judges to assail.

The case was brought by two gay couples who said California’s Proposition 8, which passed in 2008 with 52 percent of the vote, discriminated against them by prohibiting same-sex marriage and relegating them to domestic partnerships. The judge easily dismissed the idea that discrimination is permissible if a majority of voters approve it; the referendum’s outcome was “irrelevant,” he said, quoting a 1943 case, because “fundamental rights may not be submitted to a vote.”

He then dismantled, brick by crumbling brick, the weak case made by supporters of Proposition 8 and laid out the facts presented in testimony. The two witnesses called by the supporters (the state having bowed out of the case) had no credibility, he said, and presented no evidence that same-sex marriage harmed society or the institution of marriage.

Same-sex couples are identical to opposite-sex couples in their ability to form successful marital unions and raise children, he said. Though procreation is not a necessary goal of marriage, children of same-sex couples will benefit from the stability provided by marriage, as will the state and society. Domestic partnerships confer a second-class status. The discrimination inherent in that second-class status is harmful to gay men and lesbians. These findings of fact will be highly significant as the case winds its way through years of appeals.

One of Judge Walker’s strongest points was that traditional notions of marriage can no longer be used to justify discrimination, just as gender roles in opposite-sex marriage have changed dramatically over the decades. All marriages are now unions of equals, he wrote, and there is no reason to restrict that equality to straight couples. The exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage “exists as an artifact of a time when the genders were seen as having distinct roles in society and in marriage,” he wrote. “That time has passed.”

To justify the proposition’s inherent discrimination on the basis of sex and sexual orientation, he wrote, there would have to be a compelling state interest in banning same-sex marriage. But no rational basis for discrimination was presented at the two-and-a-half-week trial in January, he said. The real reason for Proposition 8, he wrote, is a moral view “that there is something wrong with same-sex couples,” and that is not a permissible reason for legislation.

“Moral disapproval alone,” he wrote, in words that could someday help change history, “is an improper basis on which to deny rights to gay men and women.”

The ideological odd couple who led the case — Ted Olson and David Boies, who fought against each other in the Supreme Court battle over the 2000 election — were criticized by some supporters of same-sex marriage for moving too quickly to the federal courts. Certainly, there is no guarantee that the current Supreme Court would uphold Judge Walker’s ruling. But there are times when legal opinions help lead public opinions.

Just as they did for racial equality in previous decades, the moment has arrived for the federal courts to bestow full equality to millions of gay men and lesbians.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/05/opinion/05thu1.html?_r=1&src=tp

The Breton (and the like)

French favourite, the Breton shirt. That long-sleeved stripe cotton garment - traditionally, the stripes begin around the breastbone and it has a boat neck. You know the one, you probably have 4 or 5 — justifiably, as all are different (to the keen eye, at least). 

The Breton stripe shirt originated in Brittany— a French province that occupies the peninsula between the English Channel and Bay of Biscay—which may explain its nautical affiliation. The shirt bears a blaring resemblance to the Brittany flag. 

Jane Birkin



Sacarlett Johanson 



Bob Dylan



Pablo Picasso



James Dean



Jean Seberg



Jean Moreau



Coco Chanel



Audrey Hepburn




Marianne Faithful



John Lennon



Edie Sedgwick



Françoise Hardy 



Anthony Quinn and Anna Karina



Debbie Harry



Brigitte Bardot



And, I don't know who this is, but she is amazing and a necessary inclusion. 

Nous Sommes, Paris

Fresh Nous Sommes piece, singer, model, actress, influence of 80s cross dressing movement - Grace Jones - wearing her iconic flat top hairstyle. rock on.

Vogue Paris, August 2010

Freja Beha Erichsen, shot by David Sims

Robyn - Dancing On My Own

Tom Ford Fall 2010 Eyewear

Freja Beha Erichsen and Nicholas Hoult.

FBE, great as always. NH, as Tom Fords muse, has certainly come a long way from Skins. If you haven't seen it, A Single Man is a movie by TF starring NH, it is both beautiful in imagery and plot.

The Twilight Saga: Robert Pattinson rockin' maroon Gucci suit at Eclipse Premiere

Gucci Fall 2010 Menswear Maroon Silk Cotton Heritage Suit

Photo from Fashionindie.com

Photo from coolspotters.com

Twin Sister - "All Around and Away We Go"

One of my fav' releases from last month, May:

video clip by yvynyl

ALL Twin Sister music is wonderfully released free for download by the artists, here. Share the love.

Nous Sommes, Paris

You thought the pieces from new Parisian label 'Nous Sommes' couldn't look any better? Well they do, around the neck of fashion god, Karl Lagerfeld. KLs formal blessing of the brand was captured below; rockin' the NS pendant made in his own likeness:

I mean, in the name of Chanel, the son and Vodka, KL just gets better and better with age.

Additional photos available at the Nous Sommes blog, here.

KL fantasies aside, I am still hanging out for a bit of Gaga between my fingers!

http://www.paulinedarley.com/

A Michael Jackson pendant also to be released.

Fittingly, the pieces come in black, white (and gold,) yeah yeah yeah.

Not available for purchase as yet, but coming soon!

Crystal Castles - "Celestica"

Directed by Ethan Kath, R. Hawkins

Memory Tapes

OK, I have been ranting about Memory tapes [Weird Tapes and Memory Cassette] to anyone that will listen for a while now. I'm excited about them because are one of the greatest acts I have herd in a LONG time. Very original stuff.


Check out this live video below. It takes a while to kick in, but after the perfect build it will have your head spinning at about 1min50.



You can download a million great remixes at the memory tapes blog here.


And MORE IMPORTANTLY the original track "bicycles" here. Or, watch it below:

Memory Tapes - "Bicycle" from Jamie Harley on Vimeo.

x

peace.

Acne Resort 2011

I dig this collection. Grounded in classicism, with an experimental edge.

Graz Optical Eyewear

Graz has released some hot images of upcoming Optical styles to be released later this year 2010! I have a feeling they will be selling out fast


[Graz - by Graz Mulcahy who has worked on eyewear ranges for the likes of Chronicles of Never, Ksubi, Ellery and AM.


Check out the current range at the Graz online store! http://www.grazmulcahy.com/


Graz OPtical Eye-wear

Graz ‘Wafer’ Glasses

Graz ‘Adam’ Glasses




Graz ‘Dorothy’ Glasses




SIDE NOTE:
Despite the fact that I hate that clear lensed glasses has become a 'big trend' and I think a few people out there need to recognise it might work a little against them then for them, it's great people are appreciating glasses and I'm really thankful for this trend for ONE REASON: It has resulted in the emergence of some really awesome optical glasses out there (as above!) for people who actually need glasses TO SEE! If you are a wearer of Optical glasses you will understand that finding a cool set of glasses has not always been easy!


None the less, nobody, nobody, can pull this look off by wearing frames without any lenses - excuse me, WTF is that about? I'm confused, 'why did you poke the lenses out of your sunglasses? I think I would even prefer makeshift GLAD wrap lenses.

Helen Mirren for NY magazine

Praise to Helen Mirren for the bold, natural and powerfully honest photos published in the New York Magazine - Madam Helen “I’m still the good girl who wants to be a bad girl…”

I, for one, think HM looks like a stone cold fox, regardless of age.

Helen Mirren's new film, Love Ranch, is equally as bold. Based on the true story of the infamous Mustang Ranch, the first legalised brothel in Nevada. Helen and Joe Pesci star as its husband-and-wife team owners. Helen's character falls in love with a younger man who comes to the ranch and he later becomes her lover. It looks nothing short of explosive. To be released 30 June 2010.

Love Ranch Trailer:

Rock on, Helen.

RAFW 2010: Romance Was Born Spring Summer 2010/2011

My absolute favourite designers, Romance Was Born, held up an all out rockin' show at Rosemount Australian Fashion Week. I love the Kate Rohde print !!  The lilac boots are amazing and have the casual cool but sophisticated look down ♥♥.



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 














 

Above images from littleblackbook.typepad.com