Photo: Mariacarlaboscono.hpg.ig.com.br

John Updike probably didn’t read that many fashion magazines. I can’t really picture him as a Glamour sort of guy, you know? But I think he would have liked — even loved? — this editorial from the March 2005 issue of Flair. After all, “Ritratti di Nuovo Stile (Portraits of New Style)” takes cues from none other than one of Updike’s favorite artists and frequent essay subject, Edward Hopper.

In a tacit tribute to the 20th-century painter, photographer Javier Vallhonrat explored the frequent Hopper theme of urban isolation, dressing model Mariacarla Boscono in retro-inspired ensembles to play the part of the young, middle-class woman who has just entered America’s new interwar urban scene.

It’s hard to believe this shoot is as recent as 2005, but steeped in Hopper’s style of plainness and intimacy, even that ’80s peplum power suit and those Storm Trooper wedges are convincing. As for who this woman is, and why we’re focused on her, we’ll never know. In true Hopper style, the spread leaves us full of questions, so that we’re forever (as Updike aptly said) “eavesdropping on that wonderful Hopper silence.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Image Above: convergentus.se/fashion/editorial/

For some of us, the rite of passage known as high school was, or will be, a strange variation of Freaks and Geeks, complete with awkward gym locker room interactions and hilarious school assemblies. Without question, everyone’s high school ordeal was, or will be, a unique challenge in which you recognize who you were, as an adolescent, and who you want to be, as an adult. I love this particular editorial, shot by the genius Steven Meisel, because it takes place in the most quintessential high school setting I have ever seen.

Keep reading to learn more about why this editorial is one of my all-time favorites of the 1990s… Read the rest of this entry »

Secret: I don’t think fashion magazines are all that.

That isn’t to say I don’t love them — I do, dearly. But in a magazine cage match, those glamorous glossies have nothing on a National Geographic. This month was no exception.

Instead of coaxing the same bland questions out of already-overexposed Hollywood starlets, this issue of National Geographic tackled a question far more ambitious:  “How much life can you find in one cubic foot?”

The answer is the spectacular, 20-page spread “One Cubic Foot,” a miniature biodiversity survey of various ecosystems, from a French Polynesian coral reef to a clump of dirt in Central Park. Using a 12-inch metal cube, photographer David Liittschwager marked out a space in each setting, and snapped anything that lived or wandered through that one-foot space. Over the span of several months, Liittschwager and his team documented over a thousand organisms, revealing a stunning wealth of creatures in every imaginable shape, color, and size.

And somehow, all those images of  spindly-legged insects and pucker-mouthed fish got me thinking about fashion…

Read the rest of this entry »

I vividly recall my first carpet bag. Bright and bulky, this particular carpet bag could hold up to four textbooks, several notebooks, one bag lunch, a small cosmetic bag, and a lightweight jacket, if necessary. The mere sight of my bag’s sprawling dark maroon, hunter green, and persimmon orange paisley pattern would frequently incite disdain, curiosity, and only rarely appreciation in the hearts of my pubescent peers.

“What are you, like, a bag lady?”
“Hey, Annie, did your grandma get that for you?”
“Cool purse!” (Sarcastic.)

Shortly after I started sporting my textured satchel, I developed an affinity for questionable plaid blazers (worn over my favorite Saves The Day concert tee – again, questionable), orthopedic sneakers (always in excess at my neighborhood thrift store), and “granny” glasses (the bigger, the better). With each day came more and more mocking remarks from my generic classmates, which fueled my desire to dress differently from them even more.

But why am I launching into a sappy capsulization of my seriously average high school experience?  Find out after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Annie, a tiny Kim Kardashian, and Jenn

Shhh! Don’t tell our old English teachers, but sometimes we fashion writers can’t imagine anything better than a magazine with little text and lots of pictures. Annie and I are especially guilty of this, which we attribute to our sitting so tantalizingly close to the ModCloth office bookshelves. Those shelves are filled with glossies of every size and subject, from National Geographic to Glamour, and act as some of our favorite sources for fashion inspiration.

Sure, Annie and I may not be ones to scale mountains or buy thousand-dollar designer purses, but we see those photos — fashion editorials especially — as inspiration, not aspiration. We love how each turn of the page draws us into new ways of viewing the world around us and the clothes in it, and how our minds whirl with outfit possibilities after seeing an amazing editorial. So after years of hoarding editorial images on our desks and computer desktops, Annie and I want to share all our favorite magazine images with you on this blog.

So look out for our new biweekly column, Page Turners, starting tomorrow! (Annie will be taking on grandma-chic!)