Dreamy Ads Make Dreamy Editorials

Sometimes I find Prada advertisements disconcerting in a good way.  They never look like other ads and immediately transport you to some otherworldly fashion dimension.  

 But what I love even more is 

when Prada is used in editorials.

Remember this rose-print dress that was everywhere in the 90s?  And do you remember this neo-Mod story from Vogue with Kirsty Hume and her husband Donovan Leitch?  Amazing.

I love it when Miuccia Prada does old-lady floral prints and makes them really young looking.  And I loved this story with Natalie Portman from W.

The monkey print from Spring 2011 was so Frida Kahlo and something I dreamed of owning.  Don't worry, I would have toned it down and left the floral wreath at home.

Natalia Vodianova and Sam Riley played Quadrophenia in Vogue's September 2011 issue.  It made me want to bundle up (well just not wear a bathing suit) and go to an English sea side town.  

Charlotte Gainsbourg in Prada for French Vogue.  I'm glad they got her out of Balenciaga for one second enough to shoot this photo.

 Then there was this Print that I am obsessed with to this day.  This photo was so simple and beautiful -- just the outfit of my dreams on a lovely, happy girl.  Thank you Vogue from 1996.

Goodbye Dream Muse

When Loulou de la Falaise passed away yesterday at 63 the world lost one of the last fashion muses.

Sure there are girls who designers call 'muses' now but I feel like they only last a few seasons at most with a designer (Charlotte and Nicolas might be comparable but we will only know in another 20 years). Loulou collaborated with Yves Saint Laurent for 30 thirty years and was said to have inspired

Le Tuxedo.

Even though Yves and Loulou haven't been at YSL for years, she still manages to inspire (like in the fall 2010 ads).

Like a good muse she started out as a well-connected "It" girl with a life full of heart-ache and sadness. She was kicked out of numerous boarding schools and was briefly married at 18 to an Irish nobleman and according to her, "I was a divorcee at 21. I thought it was the most glamourous thing in the world."

(This photo kills me! So chic - so hot - so much leg! Paloma Picasso, Marisa Berenson and Loulou.)

She was aristocratic by birth from both her Irish mother's and French father's lineage but was known as a bright, bohemian spirit. And my goodness she could rock a turban.

Blacks Hats are the Dreamiest

My equivalent of a little black dress -- something you wear to feel OK about the world -- is the black hat. There were some dreamy hats shown during the Spring/ Summer 2012 shows in Europe.

At Balenciaga:

My sister was perusing Style.com and sent me a photo of this hat poking fun at it -- not knowing I had already bookmarked it for my Wish List.

A.F. Vandevorst had some gorgeous tall creations

that you should not wear to the theater.

Oh I wish they had used a white backdrop for those of us who did not go to the show and struggle with looking at a photo of black on black.

Armani wins for the most universally classic hat.

This is one I know my sister and my mother would wear, and if my grandmother were still with us she would wear it to church.

The most exciting hat was from Moschino.

I have a matador hat (a gift from the sister who will make fun of me when I try to recreate Balenciaga) and I cannot wait to break it out this Spring when I can wear flimsy dresses and bare legs.

The question is, do I really need one more black hat?

I have so many.

But you know, they, like the inspiration

behind them, are so different.

The sailor cap:

(I wore this when I took a baby to a bar.)

The flower hat:

(Which seemed appropriate for taking my nephew to the food court.)

The nod to the early 1900's:

The wide-brimmed felt hat:

The tiny beret:

(Mine is a children's hat from the 1930's,

ergo a hat pin is very necessary, as my head is huge.)

The classic animal ears hat:

A très masculin hat:

There's the straw summer hat:

(Which I wore to see the immensely entertaining comedian Pete Holmes.)

The sun- shielder to keep you properly pale:

I try not to play favorites, but the bowler hat

is clearly my preferred choice.

When I saw Cabaret in high school it led to an obsession with Joel Grey, that haircut and bowler hats. Unfortunately at such an awkward time of my life I should have skipped my attempt at the hair cut and just bought the hat.

Years later I put Ashley 1st in one when I styled

her for a show at Sullivan Hall.

She looked so 'Masculin, Féminin' sexy in it I went out and bought one the next day.

We have been inseparable ever since.

So back to my question, do I really need one more black hat (and these are barely half of them)? Obviously, the answer is always, 'yes.' And I promise if I ever get my hands on the Balenciaga, I will not wear it in the presence of my sister.