Poor Tragic Fashion boy!

I came across this picture and it brought back a whole era – the era in my life when blogging and fashion were exciting and full of adventure. I was genuinely fascinated by characters like Sea of Shoes and Tragic Fashion Boy.

Now, life has lost its luster, and my priorities have certainly changed. But it makes me sad to see these photos of Charles Guislain, who is now around 20, and still the object of male lust on various websites. God only knows what he has experienced in the last few years.

I see he is working as a photographer. I hope he’s happy with his choices. I hope he’s decided to eat more.

Oddly enough, today someone reminded me about Daphne Guinness, another character I once found interesting. In a new interview, she revealed that she dresses “intuitively.”

I don’t care about her any more but I still love words. What does she mean by dressing intuitively? Is it possible to dress oneself counter-intuitively?

Let me know what you think.

This picture of a very young Angelina Jolie fills my heart with joy.  Keep looking at it until you feel the joy, too.

Here, the young Daphne Guinness looks forward to adopting the role of Eccentric Style Icon.

See? Life is good.

Here is Rihanna at the Met Costume Gala.   Forget about her dress and look instead at the stray feathers shed all over the red- carpeted stairs by artist/socialite/muse/adultress Daphne Guinness.

Here’s the Daphster:

Earlier, she got dressed in the window of Barneys New York, in a dramatic performance one can only describe as Nuts.

And here is one of my favorite Daphne moments:

Can anyone explain the subtext of this photo?

Did Daphne Guinness call Victoria Beckham an Ugly Pig or not, that is the question.   And what a welcome distraction! I needed to cleanse my brain’s palate, between world crises, and the Daphne-Posh imbroglio is the perfect sorbet.

When you read Daphne’s denial of the stuff she swears she didn’t say, you know she’s furious. And you know she’s lying to save face, after recklessly shooting her mouth off to a reporter, who she then calls “Brutus!” According to her tweets, Daphne feels betrayed: She trusted the reporter not to make her look like a bitch.

I think Daphne is over-reacting. Who among us has not called Victoria Beckham an ugly pig at one time or another, or at  least  Pigface?   I’m sure Vickie is used to this kind of thing. I personally love her but I know I’ve made fun of her, too.

Maybe Daphne shouldn’t have complained that Victoria has a financial backer, pointing out to the reporter Brutus that   she pays for her own fashion creations with her own money. Since  Daphne  paid $15 million for her New York apartment, I think she should keep quiet about money but that’s just me.

Daphne, I know you’re reading this. Don’t be mad. I’m on your side. Sort of. I don’t like when you talk about killing yourself. I used to use that expression all the time too, but I’ve reconsidered. Or putting it another way, I wouldn’t use the expression so wantonly. I know you’re fragile and all that, but your’e a grown-ass women, as they say on the Real Housewives of Atlanta.   Start acting like one!

Now, who thinks that Brutus MADE UP Daphne’s comments in the Sunday Times? I’d like to hear from you.

Who thinks Daphne said those things, but Brutus should have known it was off the record?

How many Ugly Pigs are there in this story, including me?

Finally, who plans to follow Daphne on Twitter?

Libyan leader Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi knows how to rock several different looks without missing a trick. As far as I’m concerned, we can take our style cues from him instead of Daphne Guinness, .

From left to right:

1. The trendy Military look, rocked to perfection!
2. The classic Saturday Night Fever disco look, with a slight Michael Jackson thing going on.
3. The It-Look of the season, with distressed shearling leather jacket and a fabulous fur Trapper hat.
4. The opulent monotone look for evening, in deep blue taffeta.

For more stylish Dictator fashion, go to foreignpolicy.com*, where I also learned that the President of Nigeria is named Goodluck Jonathan! It doesn’t get much better than that, am I right?

*Thanks, JK!

My friend Romeo persuaded me to attend a cat show on Sunday, and it far exceeded my expectations in every way. The cats were disgusting, and the cat fanciers were totally weird.

If you’re anything like me, and I know you are, you like to explore subcultures. It’s fun being a cultural tourist as long as you don’t get too close to the natives.

I don’t have a camera but I used my cellphone to capture the intriguing hairdos of the cat enthusiasts.

This girl sat next to me as the guy in the top photo assessed some gigantic oversized cats, including two that belonged to her and resembled young grizzly bears.

This shelf-configuration was better in person. Her friend is clearly jealous.

This hairdo was so intricate and the two-tone thing was really eye-catching. This is a true cat lady. I like to think that she bought some of the cat-themed jewelry that dangled from every other merchandise booth.

Ta da! I saved the best for last. What the fuck! I was blown away by this lady. She was like a show within a show. Look at that hair! I got as close as I could, but I couldn’t tell for sure what was going on in that hairnet. She might have actually had a cat in there, or even Daphne Guinness!   Let’s look at her one more time:

Nancy Cunard was an heiress who rejected her family’s values and spent much of her life fighting racism and fascism.

“She became a muse to some of the 20th century’s most distinguished writers and artists, including Wyndham Lewis, Aldous Huxley, Tristan Tzara, Ezra Pound, Henry Crowder, and Louis Aragon, who were among her lovers, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Constantin Brancusi, Langston Hughes, Man Ray, and William Carlos Williams.”

She edited and published “Negro” (1934), an almost 900-page anthology of black history and culture and a call to “condemn racial discrimination and appreciate the . . . accomplishments of a long-suffering people.” In August 1936, she moved to Spain to cover the civil war there. Exasperated by the international community’s failure to intervene, she used her reporting to denounce Franco’s brutality and demand help for his victims.

In the end, Nancy Cunard declined into severe mental illness, exacerbated by heavy drinking. But she was the real thing, by all accounts.

She is the anti-Daphne Guinness, although Daphne may somehow conceive herself to be a renegade on a level with Cunard.   And look how Cunard rocks the biker jacket and turban, effortlessly cool without having to stumble around on 10 inch heels!

I’m sure you’re all well aware of Nancy Cunard. Nobody ever tells me anything! Better late than never.

Today, I came across the term “achingly cool” three times. The first time, it was applied to these striped shoes. I don’t think I’ve ever heard it before, but like “effortlessly chic” I think it’s a description that label’s the user an idiot.

Why “achingly?” It never hurts me when something is cool. Is it supposed to connote yearning? Do you yearn so much to own these shoes that it causes an ache?

What about “traumatizingly cool?” Or “gut-wrenchingly cool?” I don’t like these fucking adverbs! Make them go away! I was looking for a photo of the grotesquely stylish  Daphne Guinness wearing her spiked Gareth Pugh outfit when I found it at Grazia. Sure enough, she was described as achingly cool.

This photo makes me want to kill someone. It is everything I hate about hipster fashion and the cult of celebrity.   This woman could wrap herself in toilet paper and everyone would fall over screaming in envy. Ten years ago she was just a normal billionaire’s wife.   She is the Lady Gaga of socialites.

There must be someone else in the public eye who is more insanely rad than Daphne! Whose style do you admire, and what term would best describe it?

I wish my own Mom was buying Marant instead of Prada and Dolce so I could raid her closet like I’m sure this woman’s daughter would do. – Gnarlitude

A pair of leather suspenders have been on my dream wishlist for a long time now…but they aren’t exactly easy to come by. – Sea of Shoes

The inclusion of Alaia surprised me, for example, but the book knew where I was going. – Tavi

Anyway, it will be a long time before we see another McQueen. Actually, that’s not true. Look at Gareth Pugh. – Daphne Guinness