Five Songs for a Rainy Day

Was very pleased to wake up to the sound of rain pounding on the windows this morning, which is a definite improvement over the incessant snow and ice this winter (of course, it has since turned to ice). Here are a few of my favorite rainy day kinda songs. 

Not all of them directly reference the rain, but they all capture a sense of those mellow days when you can cozy up inside with a cup of tea and avoid venturing out.

Each song is paired with some rain-based artwork that I felt captured their sounds, as well as matching runway fashions from the Fall 2011 collections which were shown in New York, paired mostly for color and texture. Enjoy!

One


 

"VCR" by XX
Rain, 1945 by Arthur Leipzig

Michael Kors

Two

"Riders on the Storm" by The Doors
Snow Storm: Steam-Boat Off a Harbour's Mouth by William Turner

ADAM

Three

 

"Kathy's Song" by Simon & Garfunkel
Woods in the Rain by Tanya Turton

Mulberry

Four

"Mad Rush" by Philip Glass
Coastal Rain I by Norman Wyatt Jr.

Donna Karan

Five

 
"A Foggy Day" by George Gershwin as performed by Billie Holiday

Houses of Parliament, Sunset by Claude Monet

Marchesa

[All fashion images from Style.com]




GET THE LOOK: COLOR FOR A RAINY DAY

It's so easy to fall into a dark grey and black color scheme on days like today, that I always make a point of dressing especially bright when the weather is dreary. It's become a sort of fun challenge that keeps me energized when the weather would bring me down otherwise! Today I ran around town in a bright red pencil skirt and felt fabulous, despite the knee-deep puddles (the gutters are blocked by snow still, so rain now means instant flooding!). Here are some fabulous items to help bring a little color to your rainy days!

 
 
Vintage Green Umbrella from The Op Shop $18
Vintage 1970s Sunny Yellow Trench Coat from Beehive and Bourbon $50
Vintage Air Wair Doc Martens in Cherry Red Leather from Ruby Chic Boutique $58
Vintage Royal Cartwheel Hat from The Paraders $36

High Fashion Meets Working Class Soul

Karen Walker was one of only a few designers at fashion week to credit music as her inspiration, pointing to the British Northern soul movement and in particular the Dexy's Midnight Runners' first LP from 1980, Searching for the Young Soul Rebels (the band would later gain fame for their hit "Come on Eileen").

Dexy's Midnight Runners

Northern soul was a music and dance movement that came out of the late 1960s mod scene in England. It sought to bring lively African-American music, particularly that of lesser-known Motown artists, to working class clubs. The movement peaked in the 1970s but saw a resurgence with a new generation in the 1980s.

Painting of Wigan Casino,

Northern soul hot spot in Lancashire

by David Barrow

The dancing associated with the music was remarkably athletic, featuring spins, kicks, and backdrops. As a result, the fashion associated with the scene gradually shifted from the clean-cut mod looks of the 1960s with button-down shirts, blazers, and brogues to looser fits in the '70s and '80s including high-waisted baggy trousers and sports vests.

  

Northern soul dancing from the 1970s

Karen Walker's collection in particular looks at the three primary aspects which defined Northern soul fashion, speaking to both the music's demographic and function.

• A working class aesthetic with elements like caps and peacoats straight from the docks
• Loose athletic pieces clearly meant for moving but certainly not meant for the gym
• "Sunday best" dresses with loose skirts to exaggerate the intense spinning on the dance floor 

  

At times, Walker's collection was more literal. For example, check out how she incorporates the trademark patches. These patches celebrated various clubs and events and dancers would plaster them across their clothes.

  

And while Walker's collection is more heavily influenced by the late '70s and early '80s period of Northern soul, she does make some very chic references to the 1960s Northern soul generation, with mod-inspired pieces that hint at the movement's more refined and tailored early look.

  

Overall, Walker's collection was inspired more generally by the scene surrounding Northern soul than by the music itself. I think though, if you look closely, you can see some similarities to the musical style. For example, I can't help but think of one of the more frenetic tracks from the Dexy's Midnight Runners album when I see this look. They both have this almost electric energy. The print is so small and busy that it almost looks like it's in constant motion, just as the track's rhythm is subdivided into such smal beats that the pulse seems almost too fast to keep up with!

"Seven Days Too Long"Dexy's Midnight Runners (1980)

So there you have it, a look at Karen Walker's Fall 2011 collection and the inspiration behind it. It's always a pleasure to take a look at a collection, whether or not you like the looks, which is inspired by the arts. I sometimes wonder how fashion can develop and realize something new when designers say their inspiration was something like layering or knitwear. Granted musicians and artists often tout their influences as being other areas of music and art, but at the end of the day it can be very refreshing as well as challenging to look outside one's own art and realize something new.


GET THE LOOK: 1970s NORTHERN SOULBased both on old photos and Karen Walker's collection, here are some pieces to get your own Northern soul inspired look. So put on some vintage soul records and get to dancing!
               
Black Merino Wool Beanie Hat by Winter Symphony $35Vintage Blue Wool Peacoat from Avant Anthologue $56Vintage Sheer White Open Knit Tank from Stiletto Girl $22Vintage Black High-Waisted Flare Pants from Le Petit Sufi $17Vintage Black Brogues from Oiseau Vintage $36Handmade Northern Soul Pendant by Madam CC $75

The "Razzle Dazzle" of Libertine's Fall 2011 RTW Collection

Libertine's Fall 2011 RTW collection was a real knockout, combining classic silhouettes with radical graphic prints inspired by WWI-era dazzle camouflage.

        

[Photos from Style.com]

This of course begged the question, what the heck is dazzle camouflage? And why has it taken so long to hit the fashion world? As Vogue puts it, it's like "Chanel on acid" (in a good way!) and to me that is fabulous.

During WWI, the success of German U-boats against British ships demanded more effective camouflage since it's basically impossible to blend in with the ocean and the sky simultaneously. British artist Norman Wilkinson decided that rather than blend in, a better tactic would be to paint the ships in a way that would break up their form. 

This would make it more difficult to determine the ship's speed and direction from a distance, and since U-boats had to fire torpedoes well ahead of the ship's trajectory in order to make contact, any uncertainty would put a real hitch in knowing when and where to fire the weapon.

  

  

The paintings on the ships were either black and white or vibrant and colorful, with bold lines going every which way to disguise the ship's movement (in that top right photo, for example, the painting's angle towards the right makes it seem the ship is headed in that same direction, but it is clearly the boat's stern). Photos from WWI unfortunately only come in black and white, and while many of the ships were done in this color scheme (which is used throughout the Libertine collection), others were spectacularly colorful, using yellows, oranges, blues, and purples (all of which appear in the Libertine collection as well) and you can get a sense of this from these plans:

 

There are a number of artistic renderings from the time period as well. Even cruise ships like the Mauritania were painted in this fashion, capturing the public's interest and giving us the popular phrase "razzle dazzle".

 

Dazzle Ship in Drydock (1919) by Edward Wadsworth

Painting of the Mauritania (1919) by Burnett Poole

Now what sort of repercussions did this type of camouflage have in the art world, considering that it was developed by an artist? Sadly, not many. The war meant that many artists were forced to enlist and by the war's end, the horrors of trench warfare and general disillusionment sent art spiraling off in a completely different direction. However, before the war's onset, this type of art style had been in the infant stages of taking off as a real movement.

Many see ties to cubism, in the way the camouflage attempts to break up the ship's form, but a closer relationship can be seen in the more aggressive style of vorticism, a purely British movement which lasted only a couple of years early in the 20th century.

    
The Mud Bath (1914) by David Mumberg
Slow Attack by Wyndham Lewis

Cover of vorticist art and literary magazine "Blast"

The movement was originally referred to as the Rebel Art Centre, but Ezra Pound soon coined the term "vorticism" for the drama and movement of the lines which spin out from a center of high energy. You can see how the lines spin out every which way, giving a sense of constant motion without a providing a sense of direction. It can be very disorienting, and was certainly an inspiration for Norman Wilkinson's dazzle camouflage concept.

Getting back to Libertine's collection, how then do the dazzle prints affect the overall design of the looks, aside from the fact that they are spectacularly vibrant and just incredibly cool? To me, the prints create a distinct sense of movement which plays off the very structured and tailored pieces. Your eye is drawn to unexpected places and it's hard to take in each look as a whole, like you might in Jason Wu's spectacular collection. 

 

Libertine Fall 2011 RTW                            Jason Wu Fall 2011 RTW

Both looks make bold statements, but Libertine's leaves you slightly unsettled. Your eyes want to move with the lines and you begin to focus on the pieces rather than the whole, at which point you realize that Johnson Hartig (Libertine's designer) has completely broken up the form of the overall look, just as the dazzle paint broke up the warships. It gives the classic silhouettes of the collection a completely new form, without altering their basic structure in any way.

Overall, it's a clever way to redesign timeless classics without actually redesigning them. We get something fabulously wearable and incredibly edgy, that's just a little tongue-in-cheek. And to me, those are the best qualities of any look!

GET THE LOOK: DAZZLE PAINT

Here's a collection of some particularly striking items that share aesthetic characteristics with dazzle camouflage and vorticism. Above all, it is about breaking up the form and creating a deceptive sense of movement. So here you are, hope you enjoy!

 

  

Little Drop of Poison upcycled silk dress by Gina Michele $88

Vintage Bold Striped Midi Dress from The Vintage Side Show $24
Color Blocked Maxi Dress by Ink and Blank $59

Wild Stripes Slouch Tote by Hmmm...by Melanie $45

Your New Friend Frock by I Heart Fink $165