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Eat French Bread - February 2008

happy leap day everybody

February 29th 2008 03:04
photograph by loretta lux

Make the most of this free extra day. Thanks to the 29th of February the calendar stays in synch - without it your birthday would end up falling on a day that wasn’t your birthday...

It’s also the only day of the year that women are permitted to make marriage proposals, apparently. It is said that in a 1288 law passed by Queen Margaret of Scotland (then age five and living in Norway), fines were levied if a woman’s leap day proposal was refused by the man. These ranged from a kiss to £1 to a silk gown, in order to soften the blow for the rejected woman.

Hmm.

And now for today’s quote...

“I felt as though I owned the whole world. And little wonder, because at no time are we ever in such complete possession of our journey, down to its last nook and cranny, as when we are busy wih preparations for it. After that, there remains only the journey itself, which is nothing but the process through which we lose our ownership of it. This is what makes travel so utterly fruitless”

(from Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima)





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THE END IS IN SIGHT

February 23rd 2008 01:11



quote of the day:

“That silence is more profound after noise still wants the confirmation of science. But that loneliness is more apparent directly after one has been made love to, many women would take their oath.”

(Virginia Woolf)


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modest christian apparel

February 22nd 2008 06:45
foxy ladies!












just last year when i was only seven
and now i'm almost eight as you can see
you came home at a quarter past eleven
fell down underneath our christmas tree
mumma smiled and looked outside the window
she told me son, you better go upstairs
then you laughed and hollered merry christmas
i turned around and saw my mumma's tears
please daddy, don't get drunk this christmas
i don't wanna see my mumma cry

(John Denver)




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radical fashion at dog

February 22nd 2008 05:21

Gas masks. Ex-American Army clothes. Life jackets. Tutus. Helmets. Victorian corsetry and bonnets. Dominatrix gear. All this and more can be found at Dog in Tokyo's Harajuku, and they encourage wearing it all together.

Harajuku remains the favourite playground for cool kids in Tokyo. Everyone there is about seeing and being seen and this culture of voyeurism transforms all into their fantasy identities.

The most eccentric and brave fashion of all comes out of an easily-overlooked doorway between two shops, which leads down a narrow stairwell to a tiny, smoky and dim cave of treasure. This unsigned shop is the height of fantasy where anything is possible and escape from the mundane is guaranteed.

Dog is full of new and used sculptural avant-garde creations and people travel from all around to see not only the clothes but the motley crew of staff, who are mostly graduates or students from Tokyo’s legendary fashion school, Vatan Design Institute.

Skirts are made out of vintage parachutes, shoes are customised with paint or affixing crystals and little toys, and candle wax is used to sculpt skulls and skeletal structures into cotton shirts and dresses.

Other experimental specialties include sneakers made into sandals with pieces cut out, and boarboro (‘messed up’) knitwear, involving skillful unraveling and re-arranging of old sweaters.

Besides customised and re-made second-hand and antique clothes, they also sell used fashion from the staff’s favourite avant-garde designers, such as Martin Margiela, Bernhard Willhelm, Ann Demeulemeester, Vivienne Westwood and Dries Van Noten.

The styles at Dog epitomise Harajuku’s signature DIY sensibility and combining of high with low, old with new, east with west. Clothes are their own objets d’art, a way to explore new possibilities and embody optimism and escape in an intensely conformist culture.

On the mezzanine level are beautiful antique shoes in immaculate condition – but watch out for the pipes coming out of the too-low ceiling. Some nights the basement space is turned into a nightclub or live music venue, with Kai Satake, the owner, occasionally performing with his band. The sounds are cutting-edge, raw, loud, and occasionally offensive, just like the clothes.

Dog
Trinity Bldg
2-23-3 Jingumae
Shibuya-ku
03-3746-8110




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