1980s Post-Traumatic Stress Fashion Syndrome and a Sartorial Surprise

Today I visited Murakami at the Brooklyn Museum with some friends. I always mean to document some of the fashion don'ts I see and discuss here (in the posts under Fashion Citation), but most often I notice them either while walking down the street very quickly or in the subway, neither of which are conducive to picture taking. The lines to enter the blockbuster gave me plenty of time to document a fashionista couple - one rocking an homage to Murakami meets 1980s New Wave fashion. This guy's outfit  brought back my recurring Bad 1980s Fashion Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome. It was completed with a faux-hawk, white Ray-Ban type sunglasses and a red man-purse (in Puerto Rico known as a mariconera). 

He was a very cute boy as was his companion, a Dominican brother rocking a very 1930s British Colonial Army in India Summer Uniform type look but perhaps the shorts are a bit more Lyndsay Lohan than Lord Mountbatten. Topped by a summer weight Kangol-type hat, perhaps a nod to representing the barrio old man look? The piece de resistance to this second ensemble were the au courant gladiator sandals, presented in VOGUE as the sandal for the season. But for men, I think these went out with Julius Ceasar? Still he was a cutie too and both get props for trying to stand out above the herd of baggy jeans, chinos, blah t-shirts and other generic boy garb.  

Walter on "Viva Hollywood"

Below is an article about Walter Mercado's appearance in the upcoming Latino telenovela-themed reality tv show "Viva Hollywood" from Puerto Rico's number one tabloid, EL VOCERO. (the joke on the Island about this paper is that if you shake it, the blood will spill out, so gruesome and lurid is much of its news) It includes an interview with my favorite astrologer. Even I learned something new: Walter starred in 20 telenovelas back in the day. And he had his acting school "Walter Actors Studio." Nice. Wouldn't want to confuse it with the New York operation.

(I need to give a shout out to my correspondent from the Island who kindly shared this with me!)

Walter Mercado y la magia de la renovación

Por: Mariam M. Echevarría Báez
EL VOCERO

En la capacidad de renovación radica el secreto del éxito para Walter Mercado, quien a sus 76 años continúa abriendo caminos y estableciendo pautas.

"Si siguiera haciendo y diciendo lo mismo que hacía en los 70, ya sería historia hace tiempo", estableció el astrólogo puertorriqueño en entrevista telefónica con EL VOCERO, quien integra el elenco del programa "Viva Hollywood", que VH1 transmite los domingos.

"Lo importante es la renovación", continuó quien incursiona al género del "reality show" con esta propuesta, que cuenta con Carlos Ponce y María Conchita Alonso como animadores.

"Nunca había hecho un 'reality' y me gusta probarlo todo", dijo quien será "esa luz que guía a los jóvenes actores que están compitiendo por un papel en una telenovela".

Mercado quien en Puerto Rico, a principios de su carrera artística, realizó radio, doblaje, películas y hasta cerca de 20 novelas, aprovechó además su visión de histrión para aconsejar a los 12 participantes.

"En Puerto Rico tenía mi academia, Walter Actors Studio y cualquier gesto exagerado me parecía un pecado capital, aquí les pido con comicidad que cometan esos pecados; el de la pasión, la seducción exagerada. Pido lo que antes no aceptaba".

En "Viva Hollywood", dirigido a una comunidad bilingüe, se verá al astrólogo boricua aconsejando en inglés, idioma que no le es del todo ajeno a quien se "defiende" además en francés e italiano.

Mercado ha logrado trascender idiomas, fronteras y generaciones, llegando desde Egipto y Francia, hasta España y Argentina, sin olvidar Estados Unidos y Latinoamérica.

Como "no planifico nada", Walter no vislumbra, aunque tampoco descarta, realizar una participación histriónica en algún proyecto, como la que realizó hace algunos años en "Chasing Papi".

"No me gusta forzar nada", añadió al tiempo que reveló que en la constancia está la clave. "Nunca he dejado de estudiar. El actor que está frente a las cámaras nunca debe dejar de estudiar y yo siempre me he mantenido cogiendo seminarios", expresó quien ofrece sus consejos astrológicos a través de la cadena Univisión.

En otros temas, Mercado se expresó en torno a la situación que vive Puerto Rico. "Después de siete años de estancamiento y oscuridad, vendrá una luz que podrá iluminarnos y enderezar el barco que está a la deriva. Han sido siete años muy amargos, donde el que más o el que menos ha vivido su vía crucis y tengo fe que alguien nuevo, diferente, traerá algo distinto para Puerto Rico", dijo reservándose para sí el nombre de esa "luz".

TMZ Discovers Walter!

From TMZ - fabulous!

Do You Know Who This Person Is?
Posted Apr 17th 2008 10:16PM by TMZ Staff

It's not Barbara Walters, designer Carolina Herrera or some Park Avenue society matron, but Spanish language television's resident flamboyant astrologer -- Walter Mercado! That's right, es un hombre! What's your, er, sign?!

The 76-year-old Puerto Rican sensation -- who is loved by every Hispanic grandmother from New York to L.A. for his horoscopes & flawless makeup -- is currently appearing on VH1's camptastic telenovela reality show, "¡Viva Hollywood!" Oh my stars!

Bobby Trendy, meet your long lost, lip-glossed Latin abuelita!



And courtesy of VH1, here is a teaser video:


video.vh1.com

Frida, Diego's Just Not That Into You

The ultimate fashion accessory, in a clever visual pun, The Broken Column rhymes with the elongated profile of a man's tie.

The Frida Kahlo show currently at the Philadelphia Museum of Art is a must-see. We all seem to forget that she was actually a great artist. The show doesn't do much to undo the recent cult status "Frida" has attained. In fact, it hews to the line that her biographer (who, I have to say, did remarkable amounts of research that shed light on her life) Hayden Herrera has established as canonical, focus on the tragic and fascinating biography at the expense of her artistic, intellectual and political project. In fact, as I tell my students, her justly renowned biography should be titled "Frida, Diego's Just Not That Into You." Transformed into a LIFETIME television for women narrative, co-opted by every identity-based discourse prevalent in the USA, transformed into an absent icon for consumer fetishization, the paintings disappear from consideration. 

The show begins with several rooms featuring never-before-seen snapshots and photos of Frida, Diego and their friends or associates. In so doing, the lay-out sets up the dynamic of reading the work through her biography. Inconsistent text panels barely ID the photographers or sitters other than giving their names. Had they done so, the cultural and political significance of her millieu would have been evident. And the international and national networks in which she was a participant might have shed light on her work and intellectual pursuits. Instead, the focus is on her stunning appearance, performative self-presentation, and gruesome physical suffering. 

Of course, we know that Kahlo participated in self-display and drama. In many ways she drew on Catholic religious conventions to present herself as iconic. But to confuse artifice for reality or to lose sight of her life's work - her paintings, is clearly the problem that we face today. Added to this of course is the backlash led by powerful collectors and curators. 

Here we are able to see stellar works, some never-or-rarely seen. Many are from the collection of the late Dolores Olmedo, Rivera's last companion, who amassed over 20 pictures. To her chagrin, she lived long enough to see her hated rival attain international fame. Her pictures from the 1930s, such as My Dress Hangs There, demonstrate her awareness of modern currents in Europe, Mexico and the USA and her technical experimentation. 

In My Dress, a collaged fragment recalls Hannah Hoch's critiques of gender and racial roles and references to international contests. A rarely shown fresco fragment is graffitied with a legend referring to her own self-portrayal "ugly." Her constant references to the act of painting, to artifice, to almost photographic precision mixed with dream-like juxtapositions and inventions, anthropomorphic figures, disruptions of scale demonstrate this experimentation. Flowers and animals alongside searing portraits remind me of Christian Schad's riveting images of people cast out by society or those who purposely performed roles that fell outside the rules. In his portraits, flowers, in seeming as artificial as the people underscored the artifice at root in the act of representation and the performance of identity. I think Kahlo did something similar. But now we only think of the portraits as kind of window into her melodramatic life.

Two rooms present works not by Kahlo - ex-votos and pre-Columbian objects from the PMA collection. In the latter case, this display sheds light on objects Kahlo collected and that she depicted in her work, in the former case, Kahlo's appropriation and fundamental transformation of ex-voto picturial and devotional conventions are obscured. Instead, her works and the ex-votos are conflated, distorting their historical contexts of production. Given that there are not photomontages by Heartfield, prints by the Estridentistas, photos by Cartier-Bresson, Cubist pictures by Diego Rivera, Surrealist paintings by Lam, to cite just a few examples, the perspective on who her contemporaries were and what debates she might have been participating in artistically are omitted and a primitivist discourse furthered where Kahlo is looking backwards at traditions, and her works are seen as seamless translations of them.  

Now let's move on to the tchochkes. One is spit out onto the massive gift shop. I would say it's about 3/4 of the size of the show. A wall of catalogues is juxtaposed with large reproductions of some of her self-portraits rendered like those cheesy postcards that change images or appear to move when you view them from different angles. The wall of catalogues looks like an Andy Warhol portrait. A perfect combination as if they had met, surely Warhol would have found her the ideal sitter. 

There were the usual items reproducing works: postcards, t-shirts and the like, and also items that allow one to mimic her distinctive style of dress. (I got an embroidered Mexican blouse) Other more lovely objects included the gorgeous necklace above, taken from a detail of one of her paintings. Now, just because I examine the commodification does not mean that I am too PC not to partake and indeed enjoy it:  I got the mug bel0w. One bizarre item was a pre-packaged bag with the legend "make your own Kahlo shrine." The fact that such a thing is mass-produced (probably in China) could be the subject of a doctoral dissertation. Years ago (in the early to mid 1990s) there was a fabulous show in NY called "Pasion por Frida" - I think today one would have to a several volume catalogue of a sequel.

Obama and the Puerto Rican Primary - A telling t-shirt

Miguel Luciano, who is a great artist, shared with me a jpeg of a t-shirt he made to be sold down on PR recently. (I hope they didn't sell out!) The shirt really says it all. Everyone here is engrossed by the media-generated spectacle of talking heads parsing every single "issue" that arises (Bittergate anyone?) as a way to fill up hours and hours of news coverage while studiously avoiding discussion of ACTUAL issues related to class, race, gender, the war, the economy, health insurance, global warming, infant mortality, AIDS, and many many more....

It's thus deeply ironic to those in the know to see how Puerto Rico, the US's forgotten or perhaps most accurately: unknown colony, has become a bit of a running joke or recurring footnote in the mainstream media, as I have said here before. Of course the crux of this, as Miguel's fabulous t-shirt summarizes, is that those living on the Island may vote in the primary but NOT in the US Presidential Election. A farcical pantomime of democracy similar to the so-called "Resident Commissioner" post in Congress. (A Puerto Rican is elected by Island residents to go "represent" them in DC, but he or she has no vote!) This colonial dynamic has the added "benefit" of fostering the classic divide and conquer strategy as it allows those of us living on the so-called "Mainland" to vote in the presidential election, but not our brethren who live down on the Island. Likewise, those of us up here can't vote in the (non-binding) referendums called again and gain to settle our status vis a vis the USA (a Quixotic quest if there ever was one) nor may we vote for the Island's Governor, but rather for the Governor of whatever state we happen to live in. (even if he turns out to be a sex-addicted hypocrite later....)


For more info on Miguel Luciano:

http://www.prdream.com/galeria/luciano/lamano.html

Alleged Soon-To-Be Monegasque Consort Unleashes Fashion Enigma

I have been meaning to blog about this photo, shared by one of my lovely friends, whom we will call " Fellaysheeah" a week or two ago. For those of you who don't read HOLA! regularly (and I pity you for it) pictured here are the recently-retired South African Olympic swimming champ Charlene Wittstock and her beau, the eternal bachelor Prince Albert of Monaco. His Serene Highness recently turned 50 but has yet to get engaged. A bevy of female walkers have served as arm-candy over the years. But let's not go any further. What concerns me here is a matter of State. WTF is up with that DRESS???? Here are a few hypotheses:

1. for those of you who read this blog, go to my earlier entry "Panda Porn?" under Real News, perhaps she is trying to entice the allegedly queer "fauxristocrat" (my term) to schtupp her?

2. perhaps she is demonstrating her First Lady qualifications by giving a sartorial shout out to the emerging economic and political superpower that is China?

3. Prince Albert isn't subsidizing her fashion budget, so she turned in desperation to a Chinese wholesaler's polyester duvet cover provider to get cheap fabric for her ball gown?

Any other suggestions welcome!

marimekko at H&M!!!!

Yesterday's launch of the marimekko for H&M line was like Christmas in the Spring for me, I set the alarm early and headed to my nearest branch to try everything on. Marimekko is for me - along with Vera, Pucci and  Missoni one of the classics in textile designs of the second half of the 20th century, none of them ever go out of season or style. I was worried that making cheaper versions of the marimekko designs would translate to nasty materials, but over all, most of the garments were cotton. (the fabrication - as the designers call it- of a few was poly or poly blend) They had a nice range of colors for Spring/Summer, not pictured here were a few items in turquoise/greenish hues. The sizing was generous, especially since the clothes had a very retro 1950s/1960s series of cuts - wide flouncy high-waisted skirt (may have to go back to buy that one) in a red, white and black disc pattern, very Twiggy-esque a-line dresses, long tunic-y tops. The latter two were not good for my 1950 pin-up by way of generations of miscegenation body-type (34-25-36?). But other things were great for an hourglass figure. 

I got:

A black and white swirl print wide-brimmed floppy hat. (pictured in pink above)

The little orange and fuschia (also a very Puerto Rican or Spanish neutral color combo for summer, somebody should study the parallels between high WASP color choices and those of us who are CPs and Latins because take a look at Lily Pulitzer.....) sun dress (bottom photo, second from right to left)

The Betty Page style one-piece bathing suit (pictured above)

The round neck, button up, super A-line 3/4 sleeve dress  in a print matching the bathing suit. Now this one I was wondering about because it is awfully wide but I decided I could rock it as a matching cover up for the bathing suit - a schmatta if you will. 

Buying marimekko at H&M prices: fabulous. Having the opportunity to use the word "schmatta": PRICELESS. 

For more see - http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2008/03/jackie_kennedy_marimekko_print.html