We're going INTERNATIONAL!

Hello-hello, dear readers!

In general, we don't believe in numerology... Of course, there are some magical sequences so beloved by Dan Brown, but in other respects figures are just figures.

But some coincidences throw into confusion even us - children of XXI century. A little bit of history: initially, we wanted to open our blog on April 1st (it conformed to the title and to the idea), but force majeure prevented us from publishing our first post the same day. So, the world learnt about our blog only on April 11th.

From the very beginning we were looking for creating a parallel English version. Firstly, because English is the international language nowadays. Secondly, because we wanted to show this blog to our English-speaking friends, and Russian letters drive into ecstasies every foreigner but when the first impression is over, the cursor stretches itself to the red cross in the upper right corner.

Without thinking we chose the date of the openning of the English version - November 1st. And only one week ago we saw a curious dependence which strengthened even more our confidence in necessity of translation of every post - November 1st = 1.11!

Ok, we know that we bored you with meaningless figures. That's why... please welcome this site:

www.thatisnotajoke-eng.blogspot.com
All posts will appear on Russian version at first and then (the same day or the next day) on English version. We make all the translation on our own, so they will be a little better than Google translate)))

Add our blog to your Favourites and tell your friends about us!

Thanks for your attention!

D & P

PS: if you have a twitter account follow us here: @thatsnotajoke

Slow fashion

People, who think that fashion is the same thing that consumerism, annoyed by the changing of tendencies. But what can we do? Fashion doesn't exist without changing. Fashonable and new are practically synonyms. And yes, tendencies are created artificially, everyone understands that. "So, is it right to produce more and more?" - the #1 question of fashion industry. However, very few people try to find an answer to it. The main reason is that a fashion house sells not only clothes: frankly speaking, we don't need 20 dresses. And polo-shirt is just a polo-shirt, even if it has a crocodile-logo. So, there is no need to pay more.

However, it might have sense to pay more in case of Lacoste crocodiles, because Lacoste still produces some clothes in France. As for Ralph Lauren, he produces his polo-shirts in Vietnam (and they cost even more than Lacoste's polos).

So, a fashion house sells a beautiful story rather than just clothes. At Zara they don't embroider small "z" on their polos, it's absurd: Zara sells just clothes. As for Lacoste, they can give you a polo and an image of success. Ralph Lauren didn't enlarge his logo for nothing)) At Ralph Lauren they understand that a polo made in Vietnam is not interesting at all. A polo with a logo of the main Americain fashion house - excellent!

But we have distracted. So, is it right to produce more and more? Does fast fashion have any sense? When serious dudes, like Stephane Plassier, come to the industry they answer "no" to the both questions.

Stephane Plassier is one of the few supporters of slow fashion. He decided to create a perfect wardrobe which wouldn't need to be renewed permanently. All Stephane's clothes are black, that's why they combine easily with each other. He adds 2-3 pieces each season. Moreover, some of the clothes can be draped in different ways and look differently.

You can see the collection here.

However, we think that the collection is a bit less interesting than the idea of giving seasons in fashion up. BTW, the idea is very fearless: Stephane knew that it would be difficult to convince boutiques and buyers who already have a habit of seasonal changing of collections.

But Plassier is sure: if you want to sell something - be different!

Instead of P.S. "black is beautiful"


D & P

Babies ;)

It can't annoy. It can't bore. There can't be too much of it. It doesn't provoke any negative emotion. What is it?

Everyone has already come up with a dozen of answers to this question... We doubt whether you thought about the subject of our post. But you will definitely agree with us! So what is it? Did you guess? Children's clothes! You don't agree?


And now?

Still nothing???

Are you ok? Take the temerature... feel the pulse... take blood pressure... very strange! :)
And what if...

Recently Burberry has published their new lookbook Autumn/Winter 2010 Burberry Childrenswear collection.
And also the video:

But if your heart doesn't melt with little pretty British chubby lads, don't be upset! There are Americain children! Photos from children's ad campaign were shown also at Gucci. But here thoughtful mother hasn't lost sight of kids not for a second.

Yes-yes! Jennifer Lopez and her twinsMax and Emme. The ad campaign is dedicated to the partnership of Gucci Group and UNICEF which assumes that Gucci will donate 1 mln $ to UNICEF's program "Schools for Africa".

We'll give you some time to look at these nice pictures!

D & P

From the archives: window of Louis Vuitton shop in Paris

The new decorations of Printemps (we wrote about it in our previous post) reminded us of shop-window of Louis Vuitton boutique on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris. Printemps - balloons - New York - Marc Jacobs - ... Marc? - Louis Vuitton!

April 2010
101 avenue des Champs Elysées Paris, 75008.

Probably, the most famous decoration of this boutique:

by Schumata
Now we will write new posts while you try to figure out what material these suitcases were made of and calculate the expenses of LVMH group.

See ou soon!

D & P

“Flower Matango"

A small post about some scandalous practices in Versaille has to appear in our blog))) So, just a few words and a few pictures (not our own, because D&P haven't succedeed yet in visiting this exhibition and yesterday Paris was blocked by RER strikes, we have plenty of excuses...)) Cheerful Japanese artist Takashi or Takeshi or Takasi Murakami who had once transformed strict Louis Vuitton bags and made them funny at LV creative director Marc Jacobs request. Takashi didn't stop on bags. He took up something very dear to French hearts - Versaille palace.
French people are furious, of course. But that's rather from force of habit, Murakami’s strange creations are just about the last thing you'd expect to see in the Hall of Mirrors, but they are still amazing.
Murakami brought to Versaille two oversized, tendril-sprouting globes covered with cartoonish grinning flowers in eye-popping pinks, greens and yellows (as I understood these flowers gave the name to the exhibition) and dozens of other monumental sculptures. There are sculptures of different sizes: some of them are really huge and they seem huge even in the spacious interiors of the Versaille Palace. The interesting thing that I realized is that Murakami sculptures were placed in the halls of the palace very precisely: the sculpture by Takashi was always
situated near the ancient sculpture or picture of the same size.
So in spite of the enormous difference between the charged Baroque style and that of Japanese comic books, or mangas we can feel that items of the both styles are a bit alike.
I have heard a lot about a storm of criticism from French people who denounced the idea of Takashi’s exhibition in the palace interiors. They also said that “Flower Matango” should be exhibited in the museum Pompidou or somewhere like this. But it seems to me that Versaille is a perfect place for “Flower Matango”, unexpected palace interiors make funny sculptures looking like a real art. Takashi remind us that his sculptures are not only amusing items but harmonious compositions.
And he is right: his flowers are the harmony of proportions and this harmony makes us think about the elegance of ancient chandeliers and so on.

To cut a long story short, French citizens rail for nothing. Murakami made them smile and that's cool (he who has stood in a queue at least once will understand).







D & P

I was going to Printemps to buy a blender and didn't plan to photo anything, but then I thought: what if cupcake-bar closes before I'll come back with a camera to Printemps)) that's why I caught everything on my good-old Nokia)) So, don't be mad at me because of the quality... the main thing is the content!
Ho-ho-ho! You haven't seen the mannequin with Sponge Bob ballons with inscriptions "I love Marc Jacobs" yet! And who doesn't love him???

Generally speaking, all this beauty is decorations "New York in Printemps" - the new thing of Printemps this fall.







Sincerely, D & P

Last show. MIU MIU.

Fashion MONTH touches to its end. That's a pity! We followed attentively the events in New York, London, Milan and Paris together. We wrote about 2 cities in detail. We'll write about two others later.

The only thing we can do right now is to see Paris Fashion Week suitably. Unfortunately, we haven't made up a list of 5/10/100 ways to do it... Instead we came up with the best way - to watch the last show of the season.
Spring/Summer 2011 - MIU MIU show
You can do it right here:


Coming soon!
- everything about Milan Fashion Week and Paris Fashion Week
- a final review of the season's collections
- the highlights of the meeting of Alexander Vassiliev and readers in "Bookvoed"
- from our bottomless archives: photo-exhibition "Fashion and the style of living" in Manege September 10th-October 2nd.
- something about fashion-dictionary by Christian Dior, and a review of "The Selby is in your place"

And lots of other interesting things!!!

D & P

VALENTINE GAUTHIER

Hi! Guess who I saw today! MMMMMM! Ok, you won't guess anyway, so...

VALENTINE GAUTHIER!



I'll tell you everything...)
I let you know beforehand: I'm not responsible for the information's accuracy, because if I start to google a irreproachable dossier of Valentine, it would be boring. Not that I want to tell you. And I want to tell you that she is so COOL!!!)

So: only eye-witness testimony!

Valentine Gauthier graduated from Atelier Chardon Savard. Before the Atelier she had received a degree in engineering ecology, that's why she makes "ethic and ecological" clothes. She has worked in Martin Margiela and in 2008 she created her own brand valentine gaultier.
Valentine arrived in these boots:

You can easily guess what animal these boots are made of. Valentine explained everything right away. The boots are made of cow skin. She uses hides of cows, goats and sheep. BTW, she eats beef, too. It's good that Stella McCartney doesn't know about that. But on the other hand, Valentine's brand is very concerned by the work conditions of its employees. Gauthier travels a lot, in search of fabrics which seem interesting to her, and if the needed stockinet is produced in Peru, than the clothes made of this stockinet will be produced in Peru, too, and the employees will be paid well. Gauthier explains (reminds to people who have forgotten) that women from poor countries are often forced to go off to another countries in search of a living. Valentine's orders allow them to stay at home and not leave their families.

So, by buing such cardigans you help South-Americain mothers and their South-Americain children. By the way, Valentine doesn't produce anything in China. First of all, a batch of 2000 pieces is not peculiar to this brand. Secondly (and maybe it will be better if we change the order of points...), Gauthier has worked in Beijing and Shanghai is sure that it is impossible to ensure normal conditions of work in China.

"I do everything by myself, even the cleaning" - it's about the quantity of assistants. There is only one person to help - a constructor of clothes, everything else she does by herself (including, photos and PR). The model is Valentine, too.

Gauthier made fun of shop assistants from Galeries Lafayette) If you take your works to Galeries Lafayette, attention!!! NO unfriendly Artiofdactyla on prints: it will terrify French SA! They admitted that. And refused to take a nice top with lama-print.

Flounces-wings (like on the image above) is a distinguishing feature of Valentine Gauthier's brand, you'll see them on jackets, dresses and everywhere! In most cases, wings can be unfastened (all for your comfort).

At parting here is a link to Valentine's site. It's funny, crows and everything...)

Valentine Gauthier

D & P

London-London-London! Fashion MONTH!

When: September 17-22
What: London Fashion Week

September 17th

The first important event of LFW was Sustainable Show, organized under the aegis of the British Fashion Council, philanthropic society START(we definitely recommend you to follow the link and to spend 1 minute 22 seconds of your lifetime to watch an incredible video of this charity!) which is a part of the Prince's Charities Foundation. The main goal of the show was to prove that the popularity of sustainable development and fair trade fashion is not accidental, that this movement has a great potential and eminent fans - All the King's Men, starting with Prince Charles (who, unfortunatelly, didn't show up on this event) and ending with London mayor - Boris Johnson.
Some very famous brands took part in the show, for example: Vivienne Westwood, Stella McCartney, People Tree and others.
And that's ok that at the moment fair trade fashion-houses don't show the best designing, perfect cut and ultra-modern looks but heeeeeeeeeeey! 10 years ago there was no fair trade fashion at all! And now such clothes are welcomed literally in a royal way!
The first two minutes of the video is about this show:

EcoSalon Exclusives: LFW S/S 2011 Eco-Fashion Highlights from EcoSalon on Vimeo.

PS: Welcome to the brand new Vogue.com! Yes, it's just on that new site impossible to find photos without annoying inscription "Magnify"!

September 18th
House of Holland - this time Agyness Deyn has stayed in the first raw, as for Henry, he presented a collection a bit less eccentric than the previous one.


September 19th
1. Mary Katrantzou - young designer presented her famous prints brought to the upper standard. Watch closely!
2. Antonio Berardi - a continuing experiment with volume and proportions.

3. Vivienne Westwood Red Label - staying true to herself, maybe a bit more modest this time.
4. Matthew Williamson - the designer invented a new (at least, for him) image of femininity and beauty - fewer prints, more elegance.


September 20th
1. David Koma - Georgian designer was inspired by grace of Mariinskiy theater's ballerinas. In confirmation - music from "Swan Lake" for the soundtrack and white, tutu-like, dresses in the beginning of the show.
2. Mark Fast - in his first independent show designer has tried to develop his main distinguishing feature - knitted details. And he has done it very successfully!

3. Erdem - a kingdom of lace
4. Christopher Kane - if you miss neon colours already...))

5. Paul Smith - they say that one day men and women will wear the same clothes. Paul Smith showed us such future.


September 21st
1. Marios Schwab - an interesting combination of fabrics

2. Burberry Prorsum - the evolution of trench continues.


September 22nd
Men's day

Milan is waiting!

D & P

Style.com XOXO

@Style.com by Lanvin

The most famous Internet-resource about fashion and style Style.com celebrates its 10th anniversary. 10 world-known designers decided to give presents to the site. The presents created by themselves (or invented by themselves) - T-shirts which play up in original way Roman numeral 10 - X.
T-shirts went on sale on September 10th (by Lanvin, Alexander Wang, Givenchy, Proenza Schouler, Balmain, Christopher Kane, Prada, Rick Owens, Calvin Klein, Rodarte), 400 pieces of each T-shirt. The whole collection can be seen right here.

D & P

Fashion MONTH! Part II

13/09
1. William Tempest - debutant of the week
2. Donna Karan New York - a very integral collection

3. Carolina Herrera - well thought-out collection (from the commercial point of view), crowned with amazing hats. An original idea of dresses-herbariums.

4. Marc Jacobs - there is everything in this collection: shining fabrics, bright colours, prints, hats, pants with high waist, mini-shorts, gold, seeming weightless sandals on platforms, semi-transparent maxi-skirts, thick midi-skirts etc. The one thing which is missing is... jeans. But we think it was left on purpose to Ralph Lauren! :)

14/09
1. Vera Wang - known for her snow-white wedding dresses Vera Wang prefers black on the ready-to-wear runaway, however, this year she couldn't resist adding some bright colours. Although, let's check out the black looks, shown by Irina Kulikova:

2. Herve Leger by Max Azria - a kingdom of geometry

3. Narciso Rodriguez - here one can easily observe two main tendencies: lots of white and minimalism

4. Marc by Marc Jacobs - insped by 70s Marc Jacobs has created a beautiful collection with vivid accesories. Pay attention to the hats-pots)))

15/09
1. Michael Kors - Michael Kors showed one more time why he's one of the permanent Project Runaway's judges, he's already a classic of Americain fashion.

2. Anna Sui - fresh and romantic collection from a designer who celebrates 20 years of her brand (and yes, the monopoly on jeans this season belongs to her).

3. Marchesa - chic-chic dresses.

16/09
1. Ralph Lauren - inspired by Wild West Ralph Lauren has created a beautiful collection. All fashion-critics predict a huge commercial success for it.

2. Calvin Klein - at first, it could seem that designer made clothes for chess-men... but actually no, in this collection there are some other colours))

3. Oscar de la Renta - dresses and ensembles of classic cut, a bit boring, however very beautiful and of the best quality. By having created this collection Oscar de la Renta proved once again that he is one of the elephants (excuse us, Oscar) holding American fashion.

Fasten your seat bealts! The next stop is London!

D & P