The Unicorn's Cravat

2010-10-11T15:37:00.000-07:00

The Unicorn's Cravat is where it all began...

You'll see I haven't posted here in a while though, because now I have two other blogs:

Blackmarket Boo Pictures

www.blackmarketboo.com

and

Blackmarket Boo Style for The Collective Review

www.thecollectivereview.com/blackmarket-boo

Enjoy ♡

Dada-Surrrrrrrealists.

2010-04-23T00:47:00.000-07:00

MATCHINGGGGGGGGGGGGG

2010-04-17T12:08:00.000-07:00

Brooklyn Flea Cutie

2010-02-12T11:58:00.000-08:00

ps. Once again The Sartorialist chimes with me a little... How romantic!!

http://www.thesartorialist.com/photos/21110Plaid6th_6042Web.jpg

Alexander McQueen - No!

2010-02-11T16:04:00.000-08:00

I rarely refer to the world of high fashion.

There are only three or so designers that I follow with any sustained interest.

Alexander McQueen was one of them.

Why did he have to die now, at the height of his creative powers?

His were the kind of designs that shock you with an entirely new aesthetic.

A shock is valuable - it opens up the synapses!

What will Lady Gaga wear now?!

These scary lobster heels shocked the hell out of me, and I loved it.

I think that experimenting with new silhouettes is the foundation of fashion design.

Also: every girl has the right to self-uglify.

Conversely, Alexander McQueen also beautified the marginal.

He once dressed physically handicapped models for Dazed & Confused, making their disability part of the art rather than putting energy into concealment.

Exemplifying beauty in fragility, or exploitative, or any other way it's viewed - this kind of stuff needs to be done... It needs to be brought into the light of day to excite our response and further thought.

Please don't go, Alexander McQueen...

Trouble in Toyland!

2010-02-02T22:28:00.000-08:00

It's true I've been lazy.

I've been lounging en kimono, a champagne flute in my tiny porcelain hand.

There's just too much material for this languid princess to sort through.

Behold the glory! Dances of Vice parties, thou art the way.

Happy New Clothes!

2009-12-31T01:39:00.000-08:00

Bringing in 2010 in sunny Sydney. It's gonna be a good one kids!

Keep dressing creatively . . . for you and for me ♡

Creative Shoez

2009-11-28T18:33:00.000-08:00

Grant's gf pimped out his Vans. On the steps of the Met, NYC.

In London. Made me giggle. Props to pandas.

Great shoe-legwear combos.

Enjoying the high-end Gucci tribal fusion project . . .

Mod, By Tara Riesner

2009-11-13T12:36:00.000-08:00

Tara Riesner, a writer in New York.

Shall we step inside her home?...

We find that she has immersed herself in the aesthetic.

In fact that's the only way to go.

All her vintage dresses are pinned up inside because she's so tiny...

Adorable Boyz

2009-11-01T23:04:00.000-08:00

It just begs the question, why would you ever stray from wearing a suit?

Like... why would you do that?

The Unicorn's Cravat: Syndicated!

2009-09-30T22:00:00.002-07:00

Darling Followers & Honored Guests of The Unicorn's Cravat,

This blog has recently been syndicated by the London-based website t5m.com.

It's bigger and better!

Please go see for yourself...

The Blackmarket Boo fashion channel on t5m.com

http://www.t5m.com/blackmarket-boo

If you have been photographed by me, be sure to check both sites.

love BB

West Egg on the East Side Preview

2009-09-30T21:56:00.000-07:00

Here is a one-shot preview of the Gatsby party at the Met in New York...

One of the many hundreds I must now sort through. You're going to luff zem!

...And to all the dapper chaps and beauties I met tonight, do get in touch!

theunicornscravat@gmail.com

Brick Lane Bombshellz

2009-09-02T07:07:00.000-07:00

Brick Lane in Swinging London is said to be home of the much-maligned Shoreditch Twat...

What is my view?

Whatever, keep dressing. I luff it!

(crushing on this guy)

The moustache springs a lovely curl

The most stylish potato fry ever witnessed?

CRAVAT!!!!!

Indubitably the coolest person on Brick Lane.

Brick Lane Preview

2009-08-22T15:51:00.000-07:00

London, as always, has delivered the goods.

I'll add zem all when I get back to NYC this week!

Snaps for Caps

2009-08-18T02:00:00.000-07:00

Avec pom-pom? So good.

The bouncing effect while walking...Superb.

Signed by all his friends... Legend.

(New Delhi airport)

Natural Grace in Kashmir

2009-08-14T23:48:00.001-07:00

He reminded me of the remarkable ancient Fayum portraits, which I learned about at art school in Greece. Another student from the Aegean Center for Fine Arts has written more here:

http://aegeancenter.wordpress.com/2009/03/16/student-post-the-fayum-portraits/

I was always fascinated by the thought of how ancient people looked.

The answer of course is that they looked like us.

Kashmir is the old world.

I am glad I got there to see the Kashmiri aesthetic before it all changes.

Chic of the Indian Infant

2009-08-09T08:35:00.000-07:00

India, a culture of adornment, adorns its children to the extreme.

Babies wear anklets, toe-rings, amulets, kohl (a cooling eye-liner), and pouffy party dresses...Even if there is no party.

WHO NEEDS A PARTY!

The Festival of Brothers & Sisters

2009-08-09T04:48:00.000-07:00

Brothers are just swell, aren't they?

Mine got my Barbie and melted her face on the stovetop.

Good times.

In India, they have a festival to improve the plight of sisters: Raksha Bandhan.

During this festival, your bro has to say to you, "I vow to protect you! When you need help, just call on me!"

No less than four Indian gentlemen made this vow to me. I was standing in as their sister who was not present for the ritual. I had to tie a rakhi (holy thread) to the wrist of each gentleman, apply red pigment and rice to his forehead, and bless him.

The reason this festival makes it into Cravat territory?

Rakhis are AESTHETICALLY FABULOUS.

Kiddie ones are the best. Observe:

First layer of rakhis, featuring a coy Ganesh.

Ganesh is unceremoniously flattened by second layer.

This boy must have a lot of sisters.

Now this reminds me of stuff the Fruits crowd would wear.

What is Fruits?

A Japanese magazine documenting street style in the Harajuku district of Tokyo:

http://www.fruits-mg.com/xnew/e/index.html

The founder, Shoichi Aoki, observed that kids were incorporating elements of traditional dress into their massively whack, innovative, hyper-color outfits.

The rakhi carries a beautiful traditional meaning.

I therefore wish to incorporate the rakhi into my current look.

...With action figures. Or Barbie!!!!!

I Heart New Delhi

2009-08-02T10:24:00.000-07:00

I did not notice his loveheart til I had taken the photograph.

But now I love him ten zillion times more!

Someone special gave me a book of essays by David Mamet, the film director.

Within, the title Exuvial Magic: An Essay Concerning Fashion caught my eye.

(Seriously... exuvial?)

Mamet writes:

"The pursuit of fashion is the attempt of the middle class to co-opt tragedy."

WTF does this mean, David?

"In adopting the clothing of those in pitiful circumstances, the middle class seeks to have what it feels to be the nonequivocal experiences had by those it emulates."

...Examples?

"We dress in the denim of the farm worker, the khaki of the field soldier, the beaten leather jackets of the breadline. The white world tries to emulate the black world; the gay world emulates those elements of America it considers tragic - the clothing of the 1950s."

In progressing "from an emulation of the romantic to an emulation of the tragic," Mamet continues, the middle class "avows not only the aridity of its lifestyle, but the complete failure of its fantasies, and of its very ability to fantasize."

Do we buy this, kids?

Certainly dressing is evocation.

I myself wish most ardently each Winter that I could dress like a Mongolian falconer in furs and ride about on a black stallion.

I don't view that persona as pitiful or tragic; but I do envy its 'nonequivocal experience'.

Extreme experiences suggest initiation into hidden life knowledge.

Anyway.

I think that with his loveheart, this non-middle class boy is co-opting the romantic rather than the tragic.

Romeo & Jamel

2009-07-27T11:56:00.000-07:00

Meet Romeo. Nine years old.

Soon as I saw him, I knew he'd gotten into Back in the Days by Jamel Shabazz.

A seminal text!

I love Shabazz photographs.

New York style in the 80's.

I got a pair of vintage Japanese Tura aviators at Fabulous Fanny's downtown (best shop ever) to access this look. But my ma thought I was channelling Lois Lane... How could she not see what I was doing? So I've decided to tell everyone about Shabazz.

A modern shout-out to Shabazz.

Romeo even adopted my old tracktop despite the girl germs.

I salute him.

Talent & Talons on the Island of Paros

2009-06-30T07:13:00.000-07:00

So, here's the deal with fifteen-year-old Greek bikini babes today:

THOU SHALT MATCH THY NAILS WITH THY BIKINI.

This is Artemis, one of the nail crew.

She's a unicorn harnessing the power of the rainbow, and I salute her.

Forever!

What is the Venetian Aesthetic?

2009-06-30T05:50:00.000-07:00

Do traditional aesthetics influence modern style on the street?

I found myself thinking about this, searching for the Italian look among all the international decoys in the crowd.

What do you think?

I left Venice with an impression of a defined look. Travel and observation has changed the bigger picture for me this month. That is definitely true.

Cowboys in Venice?

2009-06-30T05:24:00.000-07:00

The whole world over we have Wayfarer sunglasses and Palestinian check scarves; now summer has made the Panama hat similarly ubiquitous.

It's a classy addition to the world uniform. It saved many a bad Venetian tourist outfit, and for that I am grateful.

Venice appears to be full of lone cowboys with salt-and-pepper hair.

Quite attractive.

Make-Believe

2009-06-29T22:42:00.000-07:00

When we dress to match our surroundings, we are playing make-believe.

I have never given up dress-ups and make-believe...Because anyone who gives that stuff up is just a massive loser.

I admire the way these two have tried to dress in a Venice-appropriate style:

The gent below is another case...

Even the tense professorial mouth is so brilliantly convincing!

He is a Character, a figment!

Then I saw this fellow:

Click on the shot, he's fabulous!

Wait...

Oh my god, he's totes looking into my soul...and yours

Meanwhile it's very clear what this next guy's Cravat is: that hat. What a Genius!

They all came out of a story, and now they're going back into it.

Please note: This is not ridicule of style. If you seek style ridicule, I recommend http://lookatthisfuckinghipster.tumblr.com/.

Hours of fun!

Rainbow Connection

2009-06-29T22:29:00.000-07:00

Here's a trend I noticed on Italian men: candy colored jeans with a striped shirt. The shirt was always striped; it seemed an unspoken rule. This look is so prevalent! I saw a lot of red jeans, a lot of orange, some different shades of green, turquoise, and one or two in yellow. I applaud these gentlemen for embracing the rainbow... in a supposedly non-sexual sense...

Venice: A Paradox

2009-06-15T11:40:00.000-07:00

Venice should be a misty wonderland of unicorns frolicking in silken cravats.

Instead we find a sea of tourists in fanny packs and bad shorts.

Upsetting.

But there is hope!

For here and there we find the Suited Italian Male.

Much more to come

Last Day in NYC - For Now!

2009-05-15T18:39:00.000-07:00

Matching = Bonding. True story.

Oh I'm just an international careerwoman casually displaying my perfect arcs and straights...

The glasses, the lips, the keys, the nose-ring, the skulls: true tough-sweet, la femme fatale!

I approve of a bit of sauce in the subway.

I Heart My Hood

2009-05-14T14:48:00.000-07:00

It's official: Louise is stalking me. She left this outside my apartment.

What does she want?

Anyhow, I'm appreciating the hood today because I'm about to abscond.

To Venice!

To Greece!

To Sydney!

This trip covers several climate zones... The styles should be interesting.

Matching = Bonding

2009-05-14T14:44:00.000-07:00

... At the atomic level.

This is important work for the universe, people.

Fresh-Faced After Rain

2009-05-10T20:51:00.000-07:00

Margarita (the Master) toughens up a Luella dress with her signature black leather jacket.

Spotted at Topshop

2009-05-10T20:10:00.000-07:00

The decadent red tongue of the kicks combined with the vertical blue stripe excited me.

Plus massive points for being hot, obviously.

Perfect cohesion.

With the shoes - applause.

And sneaker man has snuck into shot again!

Spring Smiles on Spring Street

2009-05-10T20:06:00.000-07:00

She chose the right nook to bring out her colors.

PS. I just bought that hat in black & feel massively empowered.

80's clip-on earrings - Shabanu daughter of the wind, I salute you.

New York's quintessential eyewear choice.

Flirty Details & Romance

2009-05-10T20:04:00.000-07:00

O how I luff her!

Midnight

2009-05-10T19:57:00.000-07:00

Very romantic.

Never underestimate the power of the clavicle!

I myself just bought a dress that flatters my clavicle, and I'm never going to neglect it again.

Columbia Cuties

2009-05-10T19:47:00.000-07:00

The smart cuffs and shoes finish what the smart jacket started.

Ps. girlfriend, that dude finds you totes intwiguing.

Who designed this? I do so like it when a dress has Personality.

Stars in Stripes

2009-05-10T19:43:00.000-07:00

Snaps for that coonskin cap.

And I almost bought those shoes on the left today at Steve Madden...

Trick or Trend?

2009-05-07T00:31:00.000-07:00

It was not my intention to have Richard Howard and Louise Brooks show up again, but look!

The Poet

. . . Poet is Muse?

The Actress

. . . Actress is Audience?

Yes, friends. Your suspicions are correct.

Some kind of profound, meta, passive-active progression thing is happening in New York, and possibly in other places too, such as Marrakech.

Wolf Pack

2009-05-07T00:03:00.000-07:00

Patrick Wolf attracted a creative crowd in Bleecker St tonight.

He has developed a cohesive and original aesthetic that obviously inspires his fans.

I salute him. For this Unicorn not only wears his Cravat - he shares his Cravat.

Beautiful Eyes

2009-05-04T14:03:00.000-07:00

The interaction of lines in Margarita's scarf and jacket made me sigh wistfully.

She has just drawn my attention to the creative ways Mexicans are rocking face-mask chic to fight the flu pandemic. I salute these people:

www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2009/may/01/mexico-swine-flu1?picture=346761430

Local Color

2009-04-26T22:42:00.000-07:00

This Unicorn has Cravat.

These people appear to have their finger on some kind of pulse.

The only way to shop, friends.

Everyone felt happier waiting on queue because she was there.

STOP PRESSES!

World's Best Tshirt.

It says Love Wild Joy Angel Love Natural Joy Beauty.

She checked out my outfit too, and I felt validated.

The Dachshund as Dogcessory

2009-04-26T22:36:00.000-07:00

Do it. Get one in a neutral color to make your outfit pop.

Retro is Now

2009-04-26T22:00:00.000-07:00

Head wound acquired in the line of duty.

Casual at the corner this Easter.

Not-So-Grey Gardens

2009-04-19T00:33:00.000-07:00

This is one of my alpha muses.

A flower of the Spring.

Unrelenting glamour, even in the Ladies' room...

Of course we watched Grey Gardens for the clothes.

An insight I took away from this film is: Repression of one's showpony inclinations is very dangerous.

I call it Creativity Sickness.

A beautiful & sophisticated Italian millionairess once told me, "Blackmarket, if you don't express what is in you, it will destroy you."

TRUTH!

Fun is the Prime Objective

2009-04-18T14:42:00.000-07:00

"What is done without joy is zero!"

Nadia Boulanger

Easter Parade, 5th Ave

2009-04-12T14:56:00.000-07:00

Many a darling person was in attendance.

I must acquire a better camera. My little heart was beating fast trying to capture all this beauty. More to come.

And might I recommend the monthly jazz-age party at Wit's End on the Bowery:

www.clubwitsend.com

Happy Easter!

Aesthetic Bonding

2009-03-31T21:32:00.000-07:00

I would argue that it's important to complement friends' ensembles with your own.

Yes; this aesthetic bonding is a noble pursuit. (I just learned that aesthetic bonding is a term in dentistry. It makes for better smiles, and is thus doubly relevant)

Three Unicorns Who Found Their Cravat

2009-03-29T16:20:00.000-07:00

...Can you guess what it is?

I am strongly tempted to adopt this Cravat myself.

2009-03-28T23:14:00.000-07:00

She made us sigh as she sashayed by.

And THIS one never stopped dancing.

Charlston!

2009-03-28T22:59:00.000-07:00

A budding archaeologist.

Petite Sigh

2009-03-25T16:32:00.000-07:00

What a beautiful face! She was turning heads all over campus.

There's her French film crew in the background. I'm totes into black bob and big glasses, tender little loop of bracelet and boots that mean business.

Literary Gentlemen

2009-03-24T13:03:00.001-07:00

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Richard Howard.

He co-ordinates his accessories in a new colour everyday: glasses, watchband, tie and pinkie-ring. (Sadly the matching socks were not captured)

As usual, Bill is a sure thing.

The E is for Elegant.

Be sure to take a closer look at his colours & textures.

The Glowing Ladies of Springtime

2009-03-20T23:54:00.000-07:00

In Frivolity, Profundity

2009-03-20T22:22:00.000-07:00

Welcome to The Unicorn's Cravat.

To begin, I pose a question:

Are we not all unicorns, searching for our cravat?

I want everyone in the world to Dress.

Dressing can be an expression of love.

2009-03-20T22:06:00.002-07:00

2009-03-20T22:06:00.001-07:00

2009-03-20T22:05:00.002-07:00