Say it with flowers

The Guardian's fashion editor does floral print.

Re-design

Well, how do Folks like the Bridesmaid's new dress? And can anyone explain why some of the YouTube screen stills don't show up, or disappear after a second or two (though they can be played)?

Be-ribbonning the Parasol

The making of a fantasy book cover, in less than two minutes. Looks like a book (and series) readers of this blog might enjoy.

Imprisoned in bubbles

1963 is often hailed as the year that US designers first provided serious competition for the Paris ateliers of Chanel, Lagerfeld and the other established names, and it has to be said that some of creations featured in this photoset from Harper’s magazine may have contributed to the decline of the old guard:

So maybe that is why fashion photographer Melvin Sokolsky elected to seal his models into large Perspex bubbles and float them over the streets of Paris, perhaps hoping that some of them would be carried away by the wind and lost forever. Note also his attempt to incinerate a particularly garish little hoop-necked polkadot number with the aid of an itinerant fire-eater, an endeavour that sadly proved unsuccessful…

Lie down with snakes, stand up with… uh… snake mites

The final collection of the late Alexander McQueen features these wonderful scaled ankle boots, so serpentine that it is hard to tell where the couture ends, and the model and the snakes begin:

Also of note in the collection are shoes so baroque that any steampunk heroine would retire weak-kneed to her cogwheel-emblazoned chaise longue at the very sight of them, and what is surely the most surly group of models ever assembled in one place. Even in the photo I can actually feel  the waves of emotion radiating from them, ranging from derisive contempt all the way to contemptuous derision, and one can only assume that they were specially selected for their ability to frown and pout.

Holy handbags, Batman!

At Funky Downtown, this season’s must-have arm-candy.

The Batbag is truly a classic…

But then, so is the pound of minced beef, the armadillo, the bolt-on chicken feet, the donut (complete with handcuffs, for reasons best known to the designer), and the wedge of cheese… Oh, I just can’t choose!

Perhaps pride of place should go to what appear to be hollowed-out cane toads, though, each one with a look of considerable annoyance frozen forever on its wrinkled little face. It is hard to imagine couture that demands a preserved toad as an accessory, but evidently the taxidermist was prepared to answer a question that nobody else had dared to ask – what it must be to have such vision!