ESPN 2013 WIMBLEDON: Andy Murray Match Point

I couldn't believe my eyes...Andy Murray was eating Novak Djokovic alive, as if the entire nation wasn't looking over his shoulder.

REPOST: News: Liya Kebede Designs for J.Crew; Miu Miu Won't Show in Milan Anytime Soon

Kate Upton is back on the Victoria's Secret catalog while Miu Miu may be a no-show in the Milan Fashion Week.  These and more in this update from Elle.

Image Source: J. Crew

Ethiopian model and philanthropist Liya Kebede showcased her clothing line, Lemlem, in J.Crew's June Style Guide catalog. She also designed a summer-ready tunic exclusively for the retailer. {J.Crew Press Release}

Despite Giorgio Armani's request for Italian brands to strictly present their collections during Milan Fashion Week, CEO of the Prada Group Patrizio Bertelli explained why Miu Miu will continue to show during Paris Fashion Week. {Business of Fashion}

Marni collaborated with Argentinian artist Romina Quirós on a collection of illustrated T-shirts, tote bags, and iPad cases for the Italian brand's Winter 2013 Denim collection, available this June. {Marni Press Release}

As the highly anticipated Sound of Change concert approaches, here's a list of the many international channels you can tune into on June 1 to watch the star-studded event. {WWD}

Kate Upton made her return to the Victoria's Secret catalog since posing for the lingerie brand in 2011. {New York Daily News}

Designer Erin Fetherston and Cobra Starship frontman Gabe Saporta got married on Sunday at a Bajan plantation. {People} Meanwhile, in Malibu, Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul married his longtime girlfriend and co-founder of the Kind Campaign, Lauren Parsekian. Congrats to the newlywed couples! {Vulture}

Google is looking to close the gender gap in technology by conducting initiatives aimed at hiring and training more female programmers. {CNN} 

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How much mercy for Paul Gauguin?

Image Source: fullinbloommusic.com

Paul Gauguin colored Tahiti perhaps not the way he saw it but the way he wanted it to be. This is the tragic flaw of his legacy. Society is usually forgiving toward artists, especially post-mortem. But Paul Gauguin’s later biography seems to push people to the limits of tolerance, and if not for the wise reminders of waters under bridges, we could have defrocked his mythic persona and chastised him in press conferences, just like what happened to Lance Armstrong.

Image Source: freemanart.ca

 

Roughly, here’s what he did: He sold Tahiti to us fans in installments of dishonest art. Some of us didn’t buy the titillating, half-nude themes, as the white man’s burden has long lapsed into a cynical appreciation of noble savages, and how sophisticated they eventually turned out to be. Gauguin’s paintings, in blocks of naturalistic colors and picnic airs, depicted a tropical paradise with a manifest sexual ease. His representations seduced his French compatriots back home and reduced Tahiti to a greedy flicker in occidental eyes. Taken at face value, these paintings are things of beauty, albeit fantasist.

Image Source: daily-norm.com

 

It doesn’t help that new details surfacing about the life of the artist serve new rounds of a public trial. He was most-documented as a wife-beater and a swindler who played his peers’ impressionability. His florid musings about French Polynesia in the most exotic terms were meant to manipulate curiosity toward his paintings and his own persona. In the grips of art exceeding intention, how far are we willing to overlook these deluded depictions which were plucked from the malice of an otherwise talented painter?
 

I ask because in the book of Roman Magnus morals, I have yet to find an artistic villain to oppose my artistic heroes. Candidates other than Paul Gauguin can tweet me here.

Lanvin's futuristic, yet wearable fashion

Image Source: thisheartsonfire.com

French label Lanvin takes us to the future of fashion with its ‘Mix Material Looks’ collection—a selection of creative pieces interweaving a range of fabric types and warped textures that make for a wearable utilitarian high-fashion.

Image Source: thefashionisto.com

When I first saw the French collection, I was reading a dystopian sci-fi novel while tucked in on the couch in my humble Roman Magnus Atelier, in Palatine, Il. Seeing the headline ‘futuristic fashion,’ I was quickly sent back into haberdasher mode and onto exploring the nitty-gritty of Lanvin’s collection, which spells anything but bizarre and odd.

Lanvin’s rendition of future fashion is one that you can wear in your day-to-day chores. The collection is hinged on the French house mission to provide creative pieces yet wearable clothing that carries the style and innovation emblematic of Lanvin’s signature elegance.

Building on the current influence of sportswear, designers Alber Elbaz and Lucas Ossendrijver reworked nylon to make it as transparent as possible and a pleasing component of a wearable outfit. They matched the resilience of the thermoplastic with the classic appeal of luxe snake skins, silk fabric, zippers, and other twisted textures to create a solid display of disparate artistry that’s runway quality but practical enough.

Suffice to say, the jackets, shirts, and parkas under the ‘Mix Material Looks’ catalogue immediately soared in the must see section in my very own Roman Magnus blueprint for gent fashion, and I could see my entire haberdashery churning out edgy aesthetics with strong futuristic and sportswear inspiration.

Image Source: fashionbeans.com

Indulge in the sartorial splendor on this Facebook page.

(Dis)abusing the beret

I have a beret emblazoned on its wide, flat side with “Roman Magnus,” one of those abominations of taste among well-meaning gift-givers that I forgive in good faith, like the clothing messiah I am. I’ve occasionally used it to prove the point that berets are good, clean fun any way they are worn, but they don’t actually invest anyone with artistry nor Communist inclinations.

Image Source: etsy.com

As an American, I have less use for berets than a Mexican sombrero. In my days as a traveling youth in Europe I purloined one off the streets of Paris. Someone had left it on the edge of the fountain at the Jardin des Tuileries. I flipped it over my head in jest, and my tour guide later remarked I looked like a real European then. Another myth, by the way. A beret does not a European make, even though for a time it had been worn by peasants, warrior classes, aristocracies, and artisans in many places in Europe, particularly France and Spain. I don’t remember speaking better French then.

Image Source: telegraph.co.uk

A beret these days is no more of a status marker than a fashion statement among men and women. David Beckham wears the slouchy, knit types and the acrylic fiber Parisians. Hugh Jackman and his theatre credentials tee off the look perfectly. Pedestrian New Yorkers are owning the look in equal measure. It stands for something and yet not --- it’s just old-hat, but it’s well-loved.

Image Source: yanidel.com

Berets are good for keeping from cold drafts, going incognito, and hiding bald spots. I make them as adjuncts to certain types of suits. A dapper friend of mine, Guillaume, palpated the look in horror and remarked that I was giving Europe back to the all-too-well-dressed elite. Mad hat assumption.

My berets hang out as genuine American citizens in my Roman Magnus Palatine, IL atelier. I see quite a number of people going around with them in San Francisco. To order from me, reach me through this Twitter page.

Watching Les Misérables: The 1832 rebellion is child's play, or blissful ignorance

Even fans of the cinema and theatre franchise mistakenly assume that Les Misérables is about the French revolution from 1789 to 1799. This is forgivable, given that the real subject matter, the June rebellion of 1832 in Paris, was also an attempt to overthrow a monarchy and its ideals and abuses.

Image Source: gotoricks.blogspot.com

The latter event was instigated by adherents of Republicanism in Paris, intellectuals which included Victor Hugo, a prominent ideologue. However, the easy confusion between the French Revolution --- the effects of which were more lasting and global --- and the June rebellion of 1832 typifies French social and political landscapes.

Image Source: thefunambulistdotnet.files.wordpress.com

 The French Revolution of 1789 led to the decapitation of absolute monarchy. The execution of King Louis XVI and some members of his royal court was unforeseen worldwide. The left-wing revolts that made this possible had both the support of countryside peasants and Republican aristocrats. The new order, established by the empowered bourgeoisie, did not take more than a quarter of a century to dismantle. Napoleon rose from his experience during the French revolution, expanded the French empire, was exiled and overthrown, and was eventually restored to power. So went on a sporadic chain of ineffectual monarchies until Paris had to revolt against them again in 1832.

Image Source: thisdaythen.blogspot.com

These basic historical tidbits were made known to me by a French exchange student in town to check out my tailoring shop, Roman Magnus Palatine IL, where the subject of conversation naturally fell to the thrill of the new Les Misérables adaptation. As expected of a Frenchman, he was underwhelmed by the Hollywood patina but approving of Tom Hooper. Meanwhile I had an intellectual image to protect and pretended I wasn’t just humming a tune and … oh might as well know my Les Mis.

My atelier, which I baptized Roman Magnus Palatine IL (too many personal references on that one, go figure), is my personal bric-a-brac. I go there to read, be a tailor, and most of all, rattle the stuff that figure in my blog.

Saving Luang Prabang

So I keep traveling with my anthropologist friend, who had to lock herself up in a cabin in Luang Prabang to finish her dissertation. Her thesis had nothing to do with the place nor with the Lao peoples but she could do well to tackle those. The whole place is looking to be led to an alarming state of degradation.

Image Source: enjoytravelvietnam.com

Westerners have been settling quite comfortably there. In part, that accounts for the modern mélange of traditional and Western architecture. As a UNESCO World Heritage site, it’s expected to welcome a deluge of tourists, all re-done in Orientalist fashion: native skirts with Western tank tops, messenger bags of Lao weave.

Image Source: autocarhire.com

The food, as usual, is superb, and in that regard, we were relieved to be rid of fusion. I was particularly pleased with the congee from Le Petit Nid; it was like a thick bouillon of sticky rice and chicken with trademark herbs. Variations on the papaya salad abound. This salad is normally a Vietnamese or Thai expectation, but the Lao like to toss it in thick fermented fish sauce and chili.

Image Source: news.destination-asia.com

I also encountered a few good French restaurants here and there. L’elephant is a bit more highbrow, welcoming expat crowds. Some continental-style cafes are situated within market compounds, easily conjured by sweeping couches and cushions in between shops. While my friend wrote like a demon, I gazed out from a coffee shop and waited for real elephants to trundle by. Something that occurs quite often, I was told.

I guess I am going back in less than a couple of years before they attempt to build a commercial complex there. Then we boycott it until they close it off to all tourists, like Tibet.

Hi, I’m Roman Magnus, a small-time tailor from San Francisco blogging with all the free time I have. Follow me on Facebook.